The recent Sonic games 06 - to date

My own perspective on some of the most recent Sonic games.

Sonic 2006. I got it in November 06, (originally, the reason why I got the X360) and my God, it was awful. Basically the game is glitched and has very long loading times (not even PS1/SAT games had those loading times). The story, don't get me started...

Sonic and the secret rings. Just unplayable. I understand Sega was experimenting with the motion controllers but they should have included a regular controller option.

Sonic and the Black Knight. Another Wii sword game. A meh kinda game. If you wanna end up with a sore arm, go ahead.

Sonic Unleashed. I got the X360 version. I like you can pick the japanese language with subtitles. It's like having two games in one. The hedgehog stages are nicely executed, the werehog stages make you think, the button mashing can be relaxing. Give it a shot, although not on the priority list.

Sonic Colors. This is a highly underrated game (maybe because of its name and because it was a Wii exclusive). It is a shame they didn't make it for the HD consoles. Great gameplay, well inspired stages, great atmosphere overall,  multiple control choices.

Sonic Generations. Just get it.

Sonic Lost World. It's ok. Feels a bit awkward to control but you get used to it. Regarding perspective and cameras, somehow it is what Sonic X-Treme may have been. Not bad, considering the anemic selection on the Wii U this is one to get for the system.

Saturn Memories

Back then, in this part of the planet the Saturn pretty much went unnoticed (it was PSX and N64). It wasn't until the late 90's when I read about it (and got interested in the machine) and it wasn't until sometime in the early 00's when I got to experience some its games thanks to emulation.

Time went by and about 5 years ago I picked up a real Saturn and truly appreciated the system. Just like with the PCE, on the JP side of things, there are plenty of great games, but in my opinion the machine's specialty are Fighting and Shooters.

Some of my favorite games include Vampire Savior, Sega Rally, Daytona, Saturn Bomberman, Guardian Heroes, Sonic 3D (yes, seriously), Sonic R (yes, also that one), Thunder Force V, Radiant, Dracula X, etc

Continuing with the unthinkable

Recently I got a few more games for my recently acquired PS3. I got them form Play Asia.

I've been playing a lot of Initial D lately. It may not be the most acurate or visual appealing racing game ever but I certainly like it, it's been fun.

Pachi para 16 is a pachinko game. I admit I haven't even unwrapped it. I'll get to it soon.

Last night I just fired up "The Last of Us". So far it is one of the best games I ever played, not only on the PS3 but on any console. (If you don't already own one) I highly recommend getting a PS3 to play this an other exclusives.

I thought it was one of those highly overrated. You know, when a product gets high praise form the critics, the so called journalists and gets multiple prices I tend to be a bit exceptical (just a little bit). However, regular users comments and the low price convinced me of giving it a shot.

It's been a while since I had this feeling of, "I can't wait to get home to keep playing".

Regarding the PS4 sales

These days a lot more people buy stuff just because they can. Even with the recent recessions consumerism seems to be at its highest.

What happened with Wii on the past gen is understandable. It was the toy to have. The trend was over and these toys ended up collecting dust, without consuming content.

PS4 is a promising platform, but it's not the time to go get one. No at it's current price point, nor with its current (exclusive) catalog.

As per the other functions, these can be done with other devices, including the (almighty) PC.

Just recently I got me a PS3. With the exclusives released so far there is fun to be had for a while.

Heck, the PS2 has a lot (and I mean a lot) of gems waiting to be discovered.

I did the unthinkable

Yesterday I did the unthinkable. I got a PS3 game. Don't take me wrong, I have nothing against the Playstation brand, I have a PS2 and I love playing PS1 and PS2 games.

Back in 06 I decided to go with the X360 because of the great experience I had with the original Xbox and also because of availability. Down the road I didn't decide on a PS3 mainly because most games were available on both platforms.

Well, reason I decided to get this particular PS3 game (2014 World Cup) was because I couldn't find it for X360.

Also, at this point in time (2014) there are a number of PS3 exclusives I'm interested in playing:

- Gran Turismo 5

- Gran Turismo 6

- Initial D

- Los juegos de Saint Seiya
- Playstation Battle Royale (o como se llame el clon del Smash Bros)

- Metal Gear Solid 4 (igual convendria conseguir la legacy collection)

- Ridge Racer 7

- Little big planet

- Twisted metal

- Motostorm

To name a few. Through history PS3 consoles don't seem to fail as much as the X360, so I'm not sure what model to get. PS2 backwards compatiblity is not an issue since I have a PS2. I guess as long as it is close to a 100 bucks it'll be fine.

My Sonic memories

I got into Sonic thanks to a buddy of mine who invited me to his house to "play Sega". He got Montana sports talk football and we were playing for hours. Later that evening I saw a box with a "cat" (I thought that was a cat at the time). I asked my buddy and he said, "oh yeah, that's Sonic the Hedgehog, wanna play?" I said "sure, why not".

Since that day, my life was changed and history was rewritten. Instead of saving for a SNES for Christmas, I got the Genesis and Sonic. All the awesomeness and for a lower price.

Retro gaming PC project

It's been quite a while since I wrote anything here (nah, really?). 

The retro gaming PC is a project I've been working for sometime since last year when I recovered an old PC I assembled back in 02. The current system specs are:

- Mobo: ECS K7SEM

- CPU: (integrated) AMD Duron 1300 (about 1 ghz)

- Ram: 512 MB PC133 (Kingston and Markvision)

- Sound Card: SB Audigy Digital Studio (LA Edition) 

- Capture Card: Avermedia AverTV

- 2 x 40 GB IDE HDD (Seagate and Maxtor)

- Gravis gamepad pro

- Windows 98 SE

I've tried the following games with satisfactory results (I mean, why they wouldn't work?):

- Fifa 98 (sometimes sounds bad, I don't know why)

- 4x4 Evo

- Monster Truck Madness 1 and 2

- Midtown Madness 1 and 2

- Need for Sped 2 SE

- Chesmaster 8000

- Roadrash

- Sonic 3D (I have to run it from a physical CD to get music)

- Sonic CD (still have to switch to 256 colors, also a physical CD is required for music))

Some of this games work on Windows 7, however, since I no longer run it at home (all migrated to Ubuntu) this PC is the way to go.

After finding some software discs and hardware I expanded the scope of this system beyond gaming. Some productivity (and not so much) stuff I added:

- Canon LPT1 scanner and software (works lke day one)

- Office 97 (ust the way I remeber it)

- Cool edit Pro (awesome audio editor)

- MS Plus (collection of themes and games)

- IMGBurn (the latest version works!)

- Daemon tools (older version which works on Win98)

The only thing that this PC is no good at is the internet. Most sites won't load correctly with the version of Firefox I installed, forget about IE6.