Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec Without Buying Any Cars

The Setup

In 2001, Playstation Magazine began hyping Polyphony Digital's highly anticipated Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec. At an impressionable 14 years old, having only experienced a few racing games such as Top Gear 3000 on the SNES and Wave Race and Star Wars Episode I: Racer on the N64, I was enthralled by this new, next-generation leap in gaming.

I spent my birthday money (that was a thing back then) on a copy of the game and the Versus Books strategy guide on release day in July 2000. My father was mildly impressed by the graphics, but mocked me for "driving with my thumbs instead of a real steering wheel in a real car" and otherwise took no interest in the game. Note to present and future fathers out there: try to take some interest in what your child is doing. This could have been an amazing bonding experience, but alas.

This game taught me a lot about cars, maintenance, car parts, economics, physics, and it even taught me how to drive. I was never and will never be a race car driver, but the lessons learned in this, The Real Driving Simulator, have always been clearly applicable to common, everyday road driving to me.

I played this game a lot, but to my surprise while looking through my backlog earlier this year, I realized that I had never finished it. Beating Gran Turismo 3, as defined by speedrun.com, involves completing all the Beginner and Amateur league races.

So in 2023, I set out to accomplish just that. With one catch. I was not going to purchase any cars during the playthrough.

Spoiler: it turns out that it's impossible to beat GT3 without buying any cars, but you can beat it purchasing only one car.

The Planning

Since we can't buy any cars, and the game doesn't start you with one, we have to win one. The very first step is to enter the License Center and win your B License with gold trophies on every test. This might be the most challenging part of the game for a newcomer, but it will teach you how to race and is truly the only way to actually begin a no-buy run of the game. This step earns you your very first car, a Mazda MX-5 Miata LS.

Beyond the first license car, we're going to have to win a bunch of cars for all the various restricted races in the game. We'll need something with FF, FR, MR, 4WD, turbo, naturally aspirated, a car from the 80s, and several particular makes or models for certain races. Looking through prize car lists online, I determined that I could probably win one of every car needed to complete the game... little did I know at the time, one crucial piece of my information was incorrect.

1. Use the license-won Miata and complete as many races as it can, focusing on the Beginner NA and FR challenges to win a Honda CR-X and Nissan Silvia 1800 respectively.
2. Use the CR-X on the Beginner FF challenge to win a Toyota Vitz.
3. Use the Silvia until we can't compete further, the ultimate goal here being the Amateur 80s Sports Car Cup to win a Nismo Skyline.
4. Use the Nismo to complete the Amateur 4WD races and win a Lancer Evolution.
5. Use the Evo to complete the Beginner and Amateur Evolution Meeting races to win an Evo Rally Car.
6. Use the new rally car to win a Ford Focus Rally Car (our first American car) and Xsara rally car (a great FF vehicle).
7. Use the Focus to win a few races, including the American-only ones.
8. Use the Xsara to dominate the remaining FF races and win a Spoon Civic Type R.
9. Use the Civic Type R to win the Type R races and an NSX.
   
10. Use the NSX to win the MR races.
    
11. Use the Vitz to complete the Vitz races and win a Toyota Altezza LM Race Car.
12. Use the Altezza to complete the Altezza-only races, Amateur German Touring Car Race (win a VW Beetle), and Amateur American Championship (win an Audi Quattro).
13. Use the Beetle and Quattro to win their respective restricted races.
14. Complete the Passage to Colosseo 2 hr Endurance to win a Mercedes CLK Touring Car.
    
15. Polish off the remaining series races in Beginner and Amateur.
    

The Humble Miata Beginnings

I hopped in the free Miata and completed the Beginner League Sunday Cup and Clubman Cups. These races are pretty easy and serve to warm up the player to the game.

After earning some cash here, I chose to upgrade the Miata with a racing chip and NA Tune-up 1 before taking on the Beginner League FR Challenge, Spider/Roadster Cup, and NA Race of NA Sports. That final NA race had a really challenging MR-S S Edition car so I upgraded to a sport muffler and NA Tune-up 2. Fortunately, the FR Challenge scored us a nice Nissan Silvia 1800, which is our next "main" car.

Earning a Vitz and Spending Some Time With Silvia

At this point I decided to hop in the Honda CR-X we won at the Beginner NA Challenge and take on the Beginner FF Challenge. It's not too difficult and I won a pink Toyota Vitz that comes into play much later...

Afterward, I swapped to the Silvia and started working toward the next major milestone in this run: the Nismo Skyline. I raced through the Beginner 80’s Sports Car Cup, then upgraded to Stage 2 turbo, exhaust, racing chip, and sport tires. In retrospect the sport tires were a waste and I should have just saved up for medium racing tires.

Next, I completed race 1 of the Race of Turbo Sports with the Silvia. I struggled with race 2 of the Race of Turbo Sports so I hopped in the RX-7 we won in the Beginner 80’s Sports Car Cup (it has a higher stock top speed than the Silvia) to complete this one. Back in the Silvia, race 3 of the Race of Turbo Sports is where I got stuck (the 3000GT was just way too fast) so I upgraded to hard racing tires and got all the transmission and suspension upgrades.

At one point I needed a break from the Silvia struggle, so I hoped in the Mira we won earlier, added a Stage 2 turbo and racing chip, and completed the Lightweight Cup Challenge.

Back in the Silvia, I had to obtain my A License in order to complete the Amateur 80’s Sports Car Cup. It was tough but doable with the Silvia running a Stage 3 turbo. Now we have a Nismo R32!

Becoming Drift King

With the Nismo, I went back to Beginner League and completed the 4WD Challenge to win a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. With the Evo, I completed the Beginner and Amateur Evolution Meeting races to win a Lancer Evo Rally Car.

After a quick detour to obtain my Rally License, it was time to take the Evo Rally Car off-road. The rally racing and drifting in this game are remarkably fun. I completed the Smokey Mountain Rally (with a Stage 2 turbo, the only thing you can upgrade) to win a Ford Focus Rally Car, which allowed me to take on the Beginner and Amateur Stars and Stripes races. The Focus Rally Car is actually really awesome and fully good enough to clean up many Turbo, 4WD, or Beginner (and some Amateur) series races if you want to!

At this point I used the Focus Rally Car to decimate the Amateur Japanese Championship, most the Amateur Race of Turbo Sports, recognizing that I might need a higher top speed vehicle for Test Course. Still in the Focus Rally Car, I tackled the Special Stage Route 5 Wet II to win an Impreza Rally Car Prototype, which I immediately used to polish off the Amateur League Boxer Spirit races.

While I was rallying, I snagged the Xsara, a solid FF car from Special Stage Route 5 Wet.

FF and MR

I found the Xsara to be one of the best FF cars in the game, so I used it to complete the Beginner and Amateur FF Challenges as well as the Professional FF Challenge in order to win the Spoon Civic Type R.

The Civic can be used in the Beginner and Amateur Type R Meetings; I had to carefully replay the final race here to ensure that I won the NSX at the end, which I used to knock out the Beginner and Amateur MR Challenges as well as the Amateur Race for NA Sports.

Where's That Confounded Altezza?

During planning I noticed the need for a Toyota Altezza for the Beginner and Amateur Altezza Championships. There's only one way to win a prize car eligible for those races and that's from the Professional Vitz Race. But first we should get used to the Vitz by knocking out the Beginner Vitz Races. Both of these are series races with five tracks each.

I hopped in the pink Vitz we won earlier from the Beginner FF Challenge in our nifty Honda CR-X and installed every possible modification: full suspension, brakes, exhaust, port polish, racing chip, the biggest turbo available, racing intercooler, full racing transmission, the best clutch, flywheel, driveshaft, weight reduction, and, critically important, hard racing tires.

The Beginner series is quite easy but it was also time well spent learning the Vitz. The Professional series is a different beast: five races with ten laps each. The AI is simply faster than us here; I was barely holding on when I gleefully realized that my opponents would pit in for new tires at least once per race. This is quite literally the only way I was able to win the last two races in the series. My strategy was to not pit at all, thanks to my hard racing tires, so I would eventually emerge victorious (albeit barely on the Special Stage Route 11 Reverse course).

I saved before the final race in the series and re-ran it until winning the Altezza LM Race Car (which fortunately happened on my second try).

Now THIS is (Pod) Racing

The Altezza LM Race Car is not only useful for smashing through the Beginner and Amateur Altezza Champtionships; it's overall a remarkable race car. I also used the Altezza to polish off the Amateur FR and Turbo races and the FR races (which are surprisingly challenging; the AI was only 3-4 seconds behind me).

Still in the Altezza, I tackled the Amateur American Championship next, making sure to save and retry the last race as needed; we need to win the Audi Quattro.

Next I decided I may as well keep going and win the Amateur European Championship. The Altezza does the job flawlessly.

The Amateur German Touring Car Race came next. Once again I made sure to save and retry the last race because I needed to win the Beetle Cup Car.

Next I took a quick detour by upgrading the new Quattro and taking on the Beginner and Amateur Tourist Trophy races.

We also recently win a Beetle Cup Car, so it was a perfect opportunity to knock out the Beginner Beetle Cup races.

Next I hopped back in the Nismo from earlier, upgraded it some more, and entered the Amateur Race of Red Emblem, a Nissan-specific event that posed little challenge to to trusty Nismo.

At this point only two more cars were needed to complete the game: a Mercedes for the Legend of Silver Arrow races, and a fast race car for the remaining series races in Beginner and Amateur.

Getting a Mercedes

In the planning phase, I determined through a few different prize car lists that it was possible to win a Mercedes CLK Touring Car from the Passage to Colosseo 2 hr Endurance race. Unfortunately, my information was incorrect.

Prior to starting this two hour race, I researched it a little further in order to determine what my opponents might be driving and what kind of tires I might want to choose. To my surprise, I started finding posts about the prize cars for this race, and that the CLK Touring Car wasn't one of them!

It turns out we cannot win a Mercedes anywhere; we have to buy one to complete the Legend of Silver Arrow races! So this suddenly became a one-buy run rather than a no-buy run.

I caved and purchased a CLK55 from the dealership, upgraded its engine and tires, and stormed through both sets of Legend of Silver Arrow races.

The Final Stretch

I mentioned earlier that we might need a fast race car to complete the remaining long series races in Beginner and Amateur. However, it turns out the Altezza LM Race Car fits the bill rather well.

Racing through the Beginner GT World Championship was a breeze in the Altezza (or any other race car, for that matter). Winning this championship yields the first ending video and credits!

Onward to the Amateur series races. The Amateur GT World Championship came next. This one is more difficult due to opponents driving proper race cars, but they tend to pit once per race so using medium tires enabled me to hold out and win several seconds ahead of the pack.

Amateur Gran Turismo All Stars came next. This is also 10-race series and I found it significantly more challenging than the Amateur GT World Championship. At this point the game started to feel like a bit of a grind. Tire wear, fast opponent race cars (looking at you, Viper GTS-R Team Oreca), and unpredictable opponent pitting behavior started to task my patience and focus.

Next I took on the Japanese GT Car Championship. None of my opponents ever pitted during this 10-race series, so installing hard racing tires provided a path to victory.

Finally, it was time for the ultimate showdown: the Amateur Dream Car Championship! Opponents are fast but they tend to pit at the beginning of the final lap, so I found myself struggling to keep up, then suddenly winning 20 seconds ahead of the pack.

Review

This game is a rare 5/5 for me. It represents a dramatic generational leap in graphics, sound, and overall player experience that we just don't see anymore. The racing physics and gameplay loop are fun and addicting. The campaign mode is also a gold standard: it's not linear, the player has plenty of options, and there is encouragement (and requirement) to use different makes, models, and types of cars to proceed through the game. It doesn't solely focus on super cars and hyper cars as soon as possible. The rally mode is perhaps the finest rally racing of any game, ever. GT3 is just great all around.

This "no-buy" challenge turned out to be a failure, but I don't feel too bad about having to buy one car since the game forced my hand. Playing the game this way proved to be a fun puzzle trying to figure out how to obtain all the particular makes and models needed to progress through the various races.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Demo: It's Really Hard!

I just spent 58 minutes constantly whaling on the Lagombi monster in the "easy" mission of the Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate demo on Wii U. It finally died during my third attempt.

At first it seems an impossible feat. Lagombi can dish out tons of damage, but that is not the biggest threat here. The demo gives 20 minutes to complete the mission: defeat Lagombi. You're liable to need every minute of it.

Choose the sword and shield, or some other fast gear. The larger, more powerful weapons are so slow you probably won't make it in time. Grab the electricity trap from the blue chest on your way north out of camp. Run (hold the R button with weapons sheathed) until you reach Lagombi (follow your mini-map to locate him).

As soon as you find Lagombi, plant your electricity trap and approach the monster. He will aggress and you can begin battle. Attack his head whenever possible, but his rear is a huge target and it's better than nothing. Attack ruthlessly, but dodge whenever he telegraphs an attack. If you can, line him up so he gets stuck in your electricity trap momentarily.

Pay attention to the subtle details and you may notice Lagombi wearing down: he will begin to salivate, move slower, and limp as he moves. Eventually Lagombi will start to collapse for a few seconds after his attacks. After a while of this Lagombi will probably try to run away for some food. Sheath your weapon and run after him. He's way faster than you, but he will stop at the next area, allowing you to catch up easily. Keep chasing and attacking.

I found Lagombi died suddenly, looking little worse for the wear. He must have found some food somewhere because his stamina had returned, but suddenly and anticlimactically he fell for good and I got mission complete!

Farming Lives in Super Mario 3D World

Super Mario 3D World is a fantastic game, but later levels - especially flying or moving levels with multiple players - can be rather punishing. At some point you may find yourself needing to go back to an earlier world and farm some extra lives because your gaming partner(s) keep dying and losing all your lives.

The absolute best place to do this is underground in World 1-2. All you need is to be a "big" character (just take a mushroom power-up) and go down the first pipe in the level. Butt-stomp the first breakable block you find in the floor and you'll find a green koopa wandering about between some other blocks. Hop on it and steal its shell. Go over to the right side of the room and you'll find a tiny tunnel that leads out to the next room. Stand just inside the tunnel, then throw the shell at the wall so it will bounce back and forth rapidly in the narrow tunnel. Make sure to jump as you throw it. It's pretty easy to time so your character lands on the shell.

This will kick of a chain reaction of you landing on the shell which sends it careening into the wall and back, where you'll land on it again and it flies off into the wall again. At this point you can put the controller down and watch as you rack up 1-UPs essentially for free! You can grab over 100 lives in less than a minute using this technique, and it doesn't even really feel like cheating. It's just making strategic use of the gameplay mechanics.

Hit up this video for a visual sample of this trick in action:

Anniversary of SimCity

The original SimCity game was released in October 1989*, making this its 25th anniversary. Birthdays and anniversaries are always good times to reflect on the subject at hand.

My introduction to SimCity was on my Super Nintendo Entertainment System in or around 1993. At the ripe age of six years old, I had learned to read well enough that I no longer struggled with stairs in Dragon Warrior, but most of the terminology used in SimCity was brand new to me. The concepts of Industrial, Commercial (try getting a six year old to pronounce that with no coaching), and Residential zones - not to mention the special buildings like power plants, seaports, and stadiums - opened my young eyes to the real world via this city simulation. Not only was it (and still is) fun, but SimCity has always been a highly educational experience. Consider the systemic growth of the player's mind as he discovers more of the simulation's rules and how they interact to form highly dynamic emergent systems. This game design concept is way beyond most entertainment titles of the time.

To this day I credit SimCity and its creator, Will Wright, for helping develop so much of my early understanding of the world around me.

*Alas, SimCity for Mac was actually released in February 1989 so this post is several months late. But the ubiquitous IBM/PC version was released in October of the same year, at least.

P. S. For those interested, the SNES version is possibly the best of the original SimCity. It boasts the strongest (redesigned) graphics and most memorable music (I can still hear it in my mind - so peaceful!) of the original SimCity ports. I believe there is a Wii Virtual Console version of the title available, if it hasn't been taken down (I hate it when download-only software is pulled from the store).

How to Get a Cheap Wii U System

The least expensive way to get some Wii U gear is to go pre-owned. The 8GB consoles are about $200 now. The larger 32GB consoles are about $275. The extra $75 is most certainly not worth it. If you're considering a used 32GB console, just buy a used 8GB system and pick up a good USB external hard drive to expand the console's storage. You can easily get a 1TB hard drive for about $60; this is far larger than 32GB and more space than you'll probably ever use on Wii U. I picked up an 8GB console and an extra controller for $190 after tax and haggling with the shop owner. Make sure to take the system out of the box and inspect it though. You don't want a cracked, scratched GamePad or yellowed plastic (yuck).

Note that both 8GB and 32GB consoles are so small you won't be able to download many full-size AAA games (zero on the smaller console, probably 3-4 on the 32GB machine) without picking up some external storage. If you buy retail discs only (no downloads except smaller indie titles) you probably won't need more storage than the bare 8GB console anyway.

If you're looking for a new console, the Premium 32GB set (currently $300) that comes with Nintendo Land is not my first choice, though the game is fun and the black console is really nice. The Basic 8GB set ($250) is an okay choice when paired with an external hard drive, but if you're buying new, you may as well buy a bundle:

• Wait for an undoubtedly-upcoming Super Smash Brothers bundle. I'm sure it will be a good deal.
• The Mario Kart bundle is the best deal Nintendo has had on Wii U so far: $330 nets you a 32GB Wii U plus a second controller and a copy of Mario Kart 8 and Nintendo Land. Unfortunately these sold out right away back in June and it doesn't look like Nintendo is shipping any more of them.
• The Zelda bundle has risen to $350 and comes with a 32GB console (the GamePad has custom Zelda-themed designs on it) and Wind Waker HD, but this set doesn't seem like the best value unless you're a huge Zelda fan.
• Older bundles with extra Mario or Luigi games are all round $300 and probably less desirable.

Once again, these bundles come with the 32GB console which can likely only hold 3-4 full-size AAA downloads so you might need an external hard drive eventually. I'm in the same boat with my 8GB console, though I plan to buy full-size AAA games on disc. If my available 2.7GB storage ever fills up with indie and virtual console games (unlikely, as my NES and SNES still work fine) I will look to spend less than $40 on an external hard drive, probably in the 120GB - 300GB range.

One Year In: Xbox One or Playstation 4?

It's been about a year since the Xbox One and Playstation 4 came out; so which one did I get? Neither one, so far. Which one am I eyeballing? Neither one in particular. Both consoles have failed to produce critical mass of titles which interest me. The Last of Us Remastered looks awesome, but I'm not spending $450 to play a slightly prettier version of a game I've already played (and thoroughly enjoyed). The Xbox One has Forza Horizon 2 which looks pretty cool, but I'm not that social so it probably wouldn't be fun unless my few friends joined in. Otherwise, nothing out now looks that interesting.

Looking into the future, From Software's Bloodborne seems really promising. It's a PS4 exclusive that I'll be keeping an eye on. The Xbox One doesn't have any exclusives at all I'm looking forward to at this time. In terms of console exclusives, the next-gen market is largely stagnant.

Multiplatform titles are starting to come out, albeit slowly and the previous-gen versions are still available so there's no compelling reason to upgrade. The fatal flaw of Xbox One/PS4 is they are simply not powerful enough. Neither one can reliably output 1080p (without an upscaler) at 60 frames per second. The graphical jump from 360 to One and PS3 to PS4 isn't all that earth-shattering; the least they could have given us is full HD at a reasonable framerate. But this generation's consoles are too weak for even that, let alone other improvements. Here's hoping developers can innovate on gameplay, at least.

Since most next-generation games appear to be multiplatform so far, I'll be sticking with the PC until further notice. PC and Wii U seems to be the gaming combo of choice at this point in 2014.

Bayonetta 2 Demo

Bayonetta by Platinum Games, in the likely event you haven't played it, is one of the strongest character action games to date, particularly in terms of gameplay. The combat is silky smooth and discourages mindless button mashing in rather ingenious ways. The dodging mechanic, however, is the key that ranks Bayonetta among the best. It is entirely possible to play this entire game without taking any damage, based purely on player skill. Over time you develop as a Bayonetta player and develop a skill set that only makes the game better and better. The dramatic change from new to experienced in Bayonetta is a thing of beauty. It really speaks to the caliber of gameplay Platinum developed here. If you like the way that sounds, check out Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, also by Platinum Games.

As officially announced at E3, Nintendo ultimately stepped up to fund development of Bayonetta 2 for their Wii U console. This week we have been treated to a free download of the Bayonetta 2 demo on the Wii U. This is probably the Wii U title I'm most excited about, so I downloaded the demo immediately upon setting up my recently-acquired Wii U.

The demo runs through about 10 minutes of gameplay, including a very dynamic moving stage and two boss battles. The art, style, music, and overall feel of the gameplay are so far unchanged from the original Bayonetta game. The level design is bold, dynamic, and bosses are massive in scale (as are Bayonetta's finisher moves). The brief demo did not touch on any items, weapons, or other equipment whatsoever, which is a bit of a disappointment. At this point it seems Platinum did not mess with their formula, but it's too soon to say for certain. Hopefully in the full version we will see Platinum take some risks and innovate in a few areas while keeping the overall feel of the original title's crisp gameplay intact.

Bayonetta 2 will be available for purchase October 24, 2014. The digital download of 2 is available for $49.99 while the retail disc version ships with both Bayonetta 1 and 2 for $59.99.

Secrets of the Wii U

The Wii U has a number of unsung features I only recently discovered:

• Its Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, and YouTube players are really, really good. You can view content on your TV or the Wii U GamePad. Really handy when someone else is using the TV (you can plug headphones into the GamePad too, by the way).
• The TVii feature is also really interesting. You can search and view content on your TV network (cable, satellite, whatever), Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon backed by data from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. You can also do interesting social network activities relating to the show you're watching on the GamePad while the show runs on your TV. It's a surprisingly immersive TV guide experience.
• USB storage expansion. The internal storage on the Wii U is tiny (8GB or 32GB) and laughably easy to fill with just a few games. In the 8GB console's case, you don't even have the option of downloading a game over 2.7GB since the system software itself eats up 5GB right off the bat. This issue is easily solved by attaching a cheap USB external hard drive available from Best Buy, Amazon, or Newegg.
• You can play most games right on the GamePad without using your TV. This is great when someone else is using the TV or just wants some peace and quiet. You can parallel play to your heart's content.
• The graphics are actually really good. Every game I've played, even the super-fast Mario Kart 8 outputs 1080p at a solid 60 frames per second, making it both beautiful and extremely playable even when the screen is clogged with action. Nintendo may not be pushing out games with more realistic graphics like other studios, but they make up for it with high-fidelity design and bold color. What first stands out about Mario Kart 8 are the colors: deep blues, striking reds, and vibrant greens that other games, even titles lauded for their impressive graphics (e.g. Destiny), just don't have.

Wii U Critical Mass

Nintendo released the Wii U in North America on November 18, 2012. Up until mid-2014, sales were about as lively as the Duke Nukem Forever multiplayer community.

But then Nintendo released Mario Kart 8 and, one month later, handily won E3 even with a phoned-in virtual performance. Nintendo announced enough upcoming Wii U titles that, in addition to their already-released library, opened the gates for the Wii U. Suddenly Wii U reached critical mass (finally) in terms of available software worth playing. Wii U took New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, The Wonderful 101, and their recent Mario Kart 8 victory and announced the addition of Super Smash Brothers, Bayonetta 2, Splatoon, Yoshi's Wooly World, Hyrule Warriors, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.

Finally, the Wii U has enough established and upcoming titles to warrant buying in. Enough so that after E3, the Mario Kart 8 Wii U bundles immediately sold out online and in stores. For three months in my area it was nearly impossible to find a Wii U, and I was even looking at pre-owned inventory! Hardware prices haven't been dropping much, either.

Where is that invisible "worth it" line drawn? About five or six titles. Once a console has enough software that you can spend more on games than the actual hardware, it's worth buying. Say 5 games x $50 = $250 makes the basic 8GB set worth purchasing.

Sure, Wii U still lacks in "hardcore" games (though it does have Call of Duty: Ghosts!). However, I recently rediscovered Nintendo's fun factor. Having grown so jaded and bored with most games lately (such as the aforementioned Call of Duty: Ghosts), I recently plunked down $200 for a used 8GB Wii U, a spare controller, and Super Mario 3D World. I find myself having a surprisingly good time. Nintendo is still innovating gameplay here while the shooter franchises of the world continue to stagnate. I want to keep exploring this crazy, silly world Nintendo created. I've been smiling! I hardly ever smile. Further adding to the fun, the game attracted my wife's interest so we finally have something she's interested in playing together. There's another hidden win in Nintendo's pocket: so many of their games are co-op you can play with friends.

Speech Therapy

Having recently finished Fallout: New Vegas it is now time to vent my frustrations. Typically I play this sort of game as a sneaky sniper-thief and try to talk my way out of rough situations (or apply my other wits: science, medicine, and lockpicking). New Vegas offers ample opportunities to talk, hack, repair, or lockpick your way through situations - but it seems to me the requirements are far higher than they ever were in Fallout 3.

I never passed a single speech check in the game. It seems they were all between 60-100 and speech has never been that useful as a skill so I did not invest in it. That turned out to be a mistake, as the game would have been much less fetch quest-heavy and grind-y with high speech given my character build (small guns, light armor).

I also never passed any science checks, which is abominable for me. Again, the requirements were always too high! I sometimes managed to use my mediocre repair skill, but really it's not that useful as a skill even to fix damaged gear. It's easier to just find a repair merchant and pay him. Caps are ridiculously easy to come by, even with low/no charisma and barter.

Worse, I was rarely able to attempt any of the lockpicking opportunities in the game. The locks worth picking to advance the story and make certain missions easier all seem to be Hard or Very Hard, meaning you need 75 or 100 in that skill.

This is a lot to invest in skills that don't make your character stronger or tougher. Sure, you can get the skills that high but your character will be really unbalanced. I've found that in Fallout it's really, really easy to let your character's level outpace her survivability. I beat the game at level 15 with a maxed out guns skill; normal human enemies were simple one-shot kills but armored enemies and deathclaws (even young ones) would simply murder me.

This is an issue I think Skyrim addresses really well: I never once found myself feeling outmatched as I progressed through the game, even though I went into it without a real game plan. I wasn't min/maxing or even planning my character; just upgrading what felt fun to play with allowed me to progress through the game without being overpowered by a basic insect enemy. Hopefully Fallout 4 will have learned from Skyrim's fantastic balance because otherwise I really do enjoy the post-apocalyptic scavenging and exploration.

Weekly Report - 12/13/2013

I finally fired up my desktop PC this week to play Hard Reset, a shooter I’ve had in the shrink wrap for almost a year now. It offers crisp graphics and audio, plus insanely fast-paced gameplay.

The presentation is nice. It’s a great game to look at and listen to, but that doesn’t make or break a title. The gameplay is fun but shallow. It’s even less compelling than Doom, a title which Hard Reset boldly claims to emulate. You don’t run around a maze-like Mars base searching for keys. Instead you run around an awesome, dystopic, cyberpunk city shooting robots. It’s unfortunately linear and decidedly un-maze-like. There are no puzzles to solve, here. Just go from obvious switch to obvious switch opening doors and periodically fighting clumps of enemies.

That said, the shooting is fun and your character’s equipment is customizable. You can upgrade shields, health, and weapons in a variety of ways. There’s no way to upgrade everything in a single playthrough, so you are forced to make some choices that make a major impact on how you play the game. Are you a straight-up gunner or do you prefer to utilize the (admittedly dangerous) explosive-filled environment? Will you focus on lobbing explosive grenades, or tactically disrupting enemy movements to force them into your traps? This is how it’s done, folks - look here for a decent example of emergent gameplay! It’s not overly deep, but at least it’s something.

Unfortunately, the story is noise in the background of an insultingly short game. It ends abruptly after about three and a half hours of gameplay. Again, I sigh.

Speaking of Doom, this week marks the game's 20th birthday. Holy crap. And you can play it in a web browser, now.

Weekly Report - 12/6/2013

So I finished The Last of Us (follow-up post forthcoming) and invested in a copy of Eternal Sonata to sate my JRPG hunger.

To start, the graphics demonstrate a beautiful, hand-crafted, cel-shading technique. Cel-shading has never been used this well in games.

The audio is solid, featuring acceptable voice actors and well-performed music originally composed by Chopin (who happens to be a main character in the game). My only complaint is the field music (as opposed to the cutscene music) is quiet, dull, and doesn’t remotely match the on-screen action. No, I have another complaint. The voices of many of the main characters, half of which are whiny children, are absolutely obnoxious. The adult characters are fine. I turned the audio volume down to where I could only hear battle sound effects and used subtitles through most of the game.

The gameplay, while much more active than most RPGs, is ultimately quite uncompelling. There is effectively no character customization. Weapons and equipment replacements are found all over the game world and in shops at various intervals. There really isn’t any give-and-take with the gear, though. It’s always just a straightforward “oh, this new suit is better than the last one” situation. Money, as usual, is obscenely easy to acquire. I sold a single photo I took during the first boss fight in the game which resulted in my wallet overflowing with cash throughout the entire game. Why do developers do this? It renders currency utterly pointless. Gear might as well be handed out free of charge. Even consumable items, which you could spend some dough on, are largely pointless to use.

The only time money matters in this game is during the massive, unimaginative, boring optional dungeon near the end. You have to gather 99,999,999 gold to buy one seventh of a soul, all of which you can combine to resurrect a character who died at the beginning of the game. She comes back at the same level she died (like 25 or so) when the rest of your party is upwards of level 80. This all happens after the final dungeon but immediately before the final boss. So you get a cool but uselessly weak character who is not worth leveling up, even though she’s awesome at high levels, because the remaining 3-minute final boss battle is both idiotic and laughably easy.

The story is the worst part. So one of your main characters is the real-world famous composer Chopin. He’s unconscious in the real world, but appears to be living in a dream world where he meets the rest of the cast of characters. He assures everyone that they are just in his dream, and they react in a totally outrageous way. They don’t care. They don’t call him crazy, nor do they believe him. They just ignore him.

In the absurd ending, Chopin dies - as is supposed to happen according to real history. But then another main character commits suicide for absolutely no reason, is immediately reborn as a four-year-old child at home with her mother, and suddenly teleports back to where she died and magically becomes a living, breathing, teenager again. Sigh.

Created by Gamers Like You

It's vital that we consider community when comparing this generation of consoles. Are players permitted to record, stream, and otherwise share their gameplay? The culture built around Let's Plays and video walkthroughs on YouTube is absolutely vital in moving software.

Consider Dark Souls. Thanks to its strong cult following on YouTube and other online communities, Dark Souls developer From Software caved in and ported a special PC version just because gamers asked for it. I suspect the lion's share of Dark Souls sales were in large part thanks to YouTube. I, for one, would never have heard of the title if it had not been for the overwhelming amount of compelling Dark Souls content online. I bought the game twice: first a used copy for my Xbox 360, then a new copy from Steam with the DLC included. It's one of my favorite games of the generation, largely due to how much player-created content you can find in the community.

Community-created content, be it video walkthroughs or independent game development, is an incredibly powerful. YouTube and Twitch are going to become a major force in this generation of consoles. Additionally, consider independent game developers. Minecraft is one such obvious, phenomenal success.

The console that best fosters community support and allows for community-driven content will emerge victorious.

The Next Generation

There are plenty of articles out there with insider information comparing Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One, but ever since Microsoft pulled a total reversal on its DRM policies this summer, I've been wanting to make a brief comparison of my own. I'm going to try looking into the business side of the console wars, keeping in mind some tenants that make a console a success in both business and with its fans.

First let's take a look at the market for last-generation consoles. According to VGChartz in Q2 of 2013, 77,313,472 PS3s had been sold during the console's lifetime. In the same quarter, the figure for Xbox 360 consoles sold is 77,311,669. It took nearly six years but it appears the PS3 finally did overtake the Xbox 360 - just in time for the next generation to come along and bury this battle in the past.

It's worth noting the Wii is still over 22 million units ahead of even the PS3, but Nintendo is really in a rather shaky position.Wii sales dropped off a cliff (let's not even discuss the Wii U) a few years ago after a rabid selling spree during its youth. Does that strike you as a hardware prolem? I think it's an indicator of failing to deliver a steady stream of quality software, which is ultimately what continues to sell consoles (and more of said software).

This is important. Let's face it: the PS3 had a slow start. Killzone doesn't quite hold up to Gears of War. It wasn't until, probably, the Uncharted series that PS3 really began to catch up to the 360. It's not going to come down to who has flashier hardware this generation. It's going to be a software battle. Who has a better user interface? Who has better games? Who offers better independent development and fosters a stronger community?

Weekly Report - 11/15/2013

Once I finally got The Last of Us working, I found it to be a truly enjoyable experience. The graphics are striking: animation is incredibly life-like and natural, textures are massively detailed and clear, and lighting effects are spot-on. The audio completes the presentation package. Every sound in the game is important to the player, from faint ambiance-building music to footsteps, this game is a superior example of how to employ audio with surround-sound technology.

The characters are not only realistic-looking and realistic-sounding, but they act like real people. These aren't your standard WWII shooter cardboard cutout soldiers. Joel's tragic backstory has real depth, and the mystery of Ellie's mission is compelling. It doesn't stop there. Side characters such as Bill of Bill's Town, offer a wider view of the emotional fallout present in this post-apocalyptic world.

It's a fun game, too. While the story and characters are compelling, the game is truly at its best when the player is forced to struggle. Scrounging for randomly-spawned weapons (Joel rarely has more than a dozen bullets in his inventory at any given time), supplies, and other gear is where the player spends the most time. On the harder difficulties the game really begins to shine: equipment is extremely scarce, and Joel has few options to defend himself. Every piece of gear must be used as efficiently as possible in order to survive. I'm reminded of how much fun I had on expert difficulty in Left 4 Dead 2 - some of my favorite video game memories.

The fact that deaths are nigh meaningless (Joel is merely returned to the last checkpoint) is a blemish on this system. In order to keep the player immersed and tense, death should have some serious consequence. This is partly why Dark Souls and EVE have been so successful at building rabidly dedicated fans: what you do has real meaning, and if you die, you pay for it.

Phoning Home

Upon acquiring a copy of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us this weekend, I promptly realized two things: it's impressively well-presented and almost totally unplayable.

Say what? First, the game takes about 10 minutes to load the main menu (no exaggeration). Aggravating, but not ruinous. Finally, I got three minutes into the prologue before encountering the first game-breaking bug. As soon as I guided Joel out of the wrecked car and through a chain link gate, the game's geometry stopped loading and Joel was stuck falling interminably into oblivion. Great! I rebooted my PS3 and tried again. Same result. I tried a third time. Same result. Okay, let's clean the disc. Scratchless and spotless. Try again. The floor actually loaded this time and I made it through a door with a horde of infected just behind me.

It is at this point I believe a cutscene tried to play, but it's hard to say for sure. Three or four infected humans were right behind Joel, but now they are cardboard-cutout caricatures with no volume and no animation. They are literally two-dimensional sprites shuffling around on the screen, frozen in some state of half-animation. Most of the sound engine cuts out and all I hear are soft footsteps chasing Joel. The screen goes black for nearly five whole minutes, then suddenly the game returns to life. The aforementioned door appears to have lead to the other side of an exterior wall rather than into any kind of building. The game crashes after taking a few steps on the other side of the door. The pause menu says "Autosave still in progress." It never seems to finish, so I don't get any checkpoints and have to start the prologue over every time.

Fortunately I'm not the first person to experience any of these issues:

• Audio drops out
• Geometry fails to load
• Textures fail to resolve (surfaces appear "muddy")
• Absurd load times
• Cannot save game
• Animations fail to load, leaving two-dimensional sprites floating on the screen
• Cannot quit game without crashing the PS3, forcing me to physically unplug the power cable

Unfortunately no one on the Internets offers any resolution to these issues. Naughty Dog claimed to have fixed the "Autosave" bug a few weeks after the game was released - sometime in June or so - which was caused by "an issue with their servers", but people seem to have outright stopped talking about the game altogether as of mid-July. Wait - why is my game saving to Naughty Dog's servers? Does that mean I cannot play offline? What happens when Naughty Dog decides to stop running said servers? Apparently they are somehow vital to the game. What happens if I try to play offline?

This is the path of logic I took in troubleshooting the game. After three hours of troubleshooting, it dawned on me to unplug the ethernet cable to my PS3, knocking it off the Internet. Outrageously, The Last of Us works flawlessly offline. Clearly, when an Internet connection is present, it attempts to phone home to Naughty Dog for reasons unknown (presumably saving to their cloud or some nonsense). For whatever reason, this wasn't working and it caused my PS3 to thrash horribly: it was so overwhelmed it couldn't even run the game's geometry, textures, animation, or sound.

It's difficult to express my frustration with this situation, so I'll just leave it at this. For shame, Naughty Dog. I won't be buying another of your titles. Ever.

Weekly Report - 11/08/2013

Yeah, yeah, I missed four months. It's ridiculous. Actually, I haven't really been spending much time playing games. Ridiculous, and sad.

Cold weather is rapidly approaching again, though, so it's time to dig back in! I started gaming again a few weeks ago. I never finished Dead Island: Riptide when I bought it earlier this year, so I started where I left off, about two chapters into the main story.

Riptide is hardly different from its predecessor, except it seems enemies and items respawn every time the player turns around. It's much more difficult to play solo than the original title, but that's how I decided to roll through it. It's not that the co-op isn't fun - it most certainly is the best way to experience the game - I've just been feeling rather antisocial lately and wanted to experience the game on my own. Regardless, the game is absolutely best enjoyed with friends.

Maybe I'm just thin-skinned but the game sort of frightens me. Perhaps it's the up-close, personal, intimate nature of the gameplay. Encounters are far too invasive for my comfort. I'm used to shooting threats down before the enemy gets close enough to claw me with its diseased fingernails.

Is Riptide any good? It's fun, but the story is trite, predictable, and cheap. The "base defense" sections were my favorite: you set up defenses such as electric fences, mines, and the like and fire up some noise generator (e.g. an outrageously loud water pump) which attracts a large horde of infected. Fend them off, and you can move on to the next line of story missions that lead to the next base defense mission. You get the gist.

What's next? I'm pretty well out of titles. I finally found the DLC content in Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition, so I'm playing through that but at a pretty slow pace. I'd like to pick up a few more current-gen titles before diving into the next-generation consoles (more on the PS4/XBone to come). The Last of Us, Batman: Arkham Origins, XCOM: Enemy Unknown and GTA5 are all on my list.

Some Favorite HD Collections, Remakes, and Re-releases

The other day I started thinking about some of my favorite HD collections, remakes, and re-releases. Although it's sad that it seems we've totally run out of original ideas these days, there's something to be said for nostalgia.

• Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition
  Halo is a legendary franchise: it arguably made the Xbox platform a success single-handedly and continues to command millions in sales annually. Every new title released prompts rabid gamers to camp out in front of Best Buy stores nationwide, anxiously awaiting the store opening. People take vacation days from work for this.
  
  Anniversary Edition is literally the original Halo game with modern-day graphics. It's beautiful when compared with contemporary titles and outright breathtaking compared to the original Xbox version. The gameplay is absolutely unchanged, the graphics can be switched between new and original at the press of a button during gameplay, and the game features a host of fun achievements. Except the Library ones.
• Final Fantasy Chronicles and Chrono Trigger DS
  Anyone who knows me understands that Chrono Trigger is the single greatest game of all time. This is absolute and utterly inarguable to me.
  
  Chronicles is a late-era Playstation release containing not only an excellent port of Final Fantasy IV, but, more to the point, a verbatim port of Chrono Trigger. The only changes made by Square Enix for this release (and that of the DS) are a collection of amazing anime cutscenes in addition to existing in-game visuals during important events (e.g. Frog splitting the mountain in two). The artwork, sound, and direction are simply sublime. The only drawback of the Chronicles release is its slowness: the menus are dog-slow, taking several seconds to simply view a character's stats. Get the DS copy instead, unless you're a serious FFIV fan.
• Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
  There isn't much to say here but the MGS games are all excellent games. HD Collection retains the originals' gameplay with clearer textures and smoother animations. Metal Gear Solid 2 in particular is an absolute masterpiece; the collection is worth picking up for this game alone. If you haven't played an MGS title before, start here.
• Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
  This HD remake of SNES classing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time is worth every bit of its $15 price tag. Note this is a remake, not just a facelift. The gameplay is largely the same, though modernized controls change the feel of things. The new graphics and sound are delectable, but some of the old quotable sound bites are sadly missing (Shredder's "ho ho ho" comes to mind). It's also significantly shorter than the original game; the Technodrome level was removed for whatever reason. Still, it's a great title to pick up; it hearkens back to the old days of TMNT.
• Megaman Collection and Megaman X Collection
  No remakes or facelifts here: these collections are straight re-releases of Megaman and X all in one place. Seeing as how it's difficult to find these Megaman originals and prohibitively expensive to purchase the entire X series on SNES, these collections are about as good as it gets for Megaman fans.

A Painful Exercise

Last week I promised to write a little about Darkfall: Unholy Wars. I purchased the game with 30 days of game time for $40 last week (the recurring subscription goes for $15 monthly). DUW is the launch title for Steam’s new subscription service. From what I can tell, the service works great. It was simple and easy to immediately cancel my DUW subscription after I spent 30 minutes playing the game.

What attracted me to DUW? I read a number of MMO blogs, most of which are EVE-focused. But a one of them has been writing about DUW lately. It’s a massive, open, sandbox game with full-loot PVP and few, very limited safe areas in a fantasy (sword and shield) setting. I’m into that sort of thing, so I decided to check it out.

My list of complains begins presently.

• No sound is played when your weapon strikes an opponent. A simple sound effect alone makes all the difference in the world in terms of player feedback. Simply put, I don’t know when I hit something in this game without looking for the stupid floating damage numbers. It’s absolutely appalling. The audio is terrible overall, but this issue alone is just unforgivable.
• WoW has better graphics in every single category. Not kidding.
• Movement is freaking slow and the world is immense. Mounts don’t help much.
• No in-game voice chat. Everyone uses Mumble or whatever.
• Targeting is crap and the field of view is so messed up you never really know when you’re close enough to a target to hit them. Exception: bows work pretty well, and are fun to use mounted.
• There’s no good way to find a guild. EVE has a corporation search function with adverts and such, but this game has nada.
• The basic monsters in the starting safe area are ridiculously overpowered. They have insane health and can kill you in a few hits. Watch out.
• All items are player-crafted - that’s not my complaint; in fact it’s a compliment - but materials are an absolute bore to gather. If you want iron ore, for example, you have to hunt out an ore vein, click on it, and sit there staring at the ore vein (you can’t even look around) while your character pounds away with the pickaxe. Somehow, Minecraft makes this fun. Why can’t other games manage that?
• There doesn’t seem to be a comprehensive player market for items and materials. Stuff is sold view ad hoc conversations in chat (a la the original Guild Wars). In an MMO these days that just doesn’t do it for me.

Like I mentioned, I cancelled the automatically recurring subscription after about 30 minutes of gameplay. I feel cheated out of $40. This game has a great concept and some cool ideas, but it’s nowhere near ready. Oh how I wish they offered a free trial - but that which should attract customers, in this case, would quickly ward them away.

The Tide Comes In

As I slowly progress through my solo run of Dead Island: Riptide, a number of worthy topics pop into my head. This game is nearly identical, yet subtly different from its predecessor.

This is an extremely dangerous building. Don't go in alone!

The engine appears identical. Controls are still a bit stuttery. The audio is still pretty good. It looks to me like the animations haven’t changed at all, but otherwise the graphics seem improved. I chalk it up to improved textures. Foliage, in particular, looks fantastic. The overdone bloom effect from the original DI has been drastically scaled back, so it no longer feels like you’re staring into a light bulb while playing the game.

Gameplay-wise, character advancement and weapon customization have not changed one iota. I’ve noticed one thing over the past few hours in the game, though: zombies seem to have a much longer reach than they used to, or perhaps my kicks are shorter than they used to be. I keep finding myself taking tons of damage from weak swipes that I honestly don’t think should have hit me. Perhaps the field of view (FOV) changed on me but the zombies on my screen are, apparently, closer than they appear. And another thing: those weak swipes are capping me for upwards of 30% health. I can’t absorb more than three hits without hitting the dirt. That’s not cool when you’re playing solo.

Speaking of difficulty, enemies and items appear to respawn really fast. It seems every time I turn around, I can harvest the same huts for loot and materials over and over again. At the same time, enemies have respawned (unless you’re in a safe area). I can’t walk 100 feet down the beach and back without fighting the same overwhelmingly large (I’m playing solo) groups of zombies at least twice.

Which brings me to another point. There are a ton of zombies in this game. They apparently move in herds now, coming in tightly-knit family groups of three or so. Each family group is located ridiculously close to another family group. Woe be to the solo player who accidentally aggresses multiple groups simultaneously.

Not that I don’t enjoy the difficulty. I like hard games, but I still feel like Riptide, just like its predecessor, is a game best played with a few friends. Solo, it’s way harder than DI. Opportunities for being surrounded are numerous, and it’s just plain scarier that way. Why doesn’t Riptide scale the number of enemies with the current player count? Or perhaps provide AI teammates when humans aren’t in-game?

I played the original DI with a group of three and we facerolled the game in an almost comical fashion, with the notable exception of this one room in the middle of the city in Act 2 where raging, ludicrously fast, infinitely-spawning Infected continuously flood in to wreck you. I can only imagine how easy the game would have been with all four players. Riptide is different, though. I think it will challenge my group of three enough to make us pressure the reclusive fourth member of our gaming group into joining us.