Video Game: Skies of Arcadia

Developer: OverWorks
Platform: Dreamcast
Released: 2000
Played from: 2001-2004, occasionally since


Skies was the second RPG I ever finished, and maintains a special place in my heart to this day. On its surface, it seems like a relatively unremarkable turn-based RPG with too damn many random encounters, but the game has many visual and storytelling moments that simply leave a lasting impression.

Background and Story
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Arcadia is a world comprised of nothing but floating islands suspended in an endless sky. Six moons are present in the sky, each of which shape the landscape below it by periodically loosing a large meteor to plummet to the world below, which the inhabitants of Arcadia call "Moonstones" and use to power their airships and homes. Each moon corresponds to an element that dominates the nation situated below it. Red corresponds to fire, and the nation of Nasr is a vast desert. Yellow corresponds to lightning, and the nation of Valua is a charred, industrial wasteland. Green corresponds to nature, and the nation of Ixa'Taka is a dense rainforest. Blue corresponds to water and wind, and the kingdom of Yafutoma is a nation of adept sailors and beautiful waterscapes. Purple corresponds to ice, and is an unexplored, uninhabited icy wasteland. Silver corresponds to life, death, and power, and the kingdom of Soltis was banished to the Deep Sky and left only Shrine Island behind with its mechanical guardians as a testament of its greatness.

(Here be spoilers, so skip this if you want to experience the story first hand)



Thousands of years ago, great civilizations flourished under all six moons. They eventually gathered enough technology to create six refined Moon Crystals, which would serve as reservoirs of infinite energy for their nations. However, they became envious of one another, and used the crystals to create giant robotic war machines, called Gigas. As a war was beginning to break out across the entire globe, all six moons began to rain down moonstones of such size and frequency that the whole world was destroyed.

In the present, the world has just entered the age of exploration, with Valua emerging from a war with Nasr as the dominant world power. This world has strong parallels with our own world circa 1500-1900. In a nutshell, Valua is Spain at the height of its power (about 1550), Nasr is the Ottoman empire of northern Africa right after its peak influence (late 1400s), Ixa'Taka is the combined Aztec and Inca empires right before their total collapse and enslavement (1520-1550), and Yafutoma is Japan right before opening its borders to the Western world (1850s). In opposition to the forces of Valua are two pirate factions: Black Pirates who are ruthless plunderers of merchant vessels, and Blue Rogues, who are chivalrous and attack only Valuan warships in a fair fight.

You are Vyse, a 17-year old Blue Rogue accompanied by his childhood friend Aika. In a raid on a Valuan ship, you find an unconscious 16-year old girl and bring her back to your family's headquarters. After winning her trust, she reveals herself to be Fina, but you leave soon after with Aika to recover a fallen moonstone on the nearby Shrine Island. On your return, you discover that your base has been sacked by the Valuan navy, and Fina, your father, and nearly everyone else has been taken back to Valua to be executed. Right after setting off to save them, your ship is destroyed by the arcwhale Rhaknam and you are narrowly rescued by Drachma, the one-armed old man who has been tirelessly hunting the whale (a clear nod to Moby Dick). After some initial struggles, Drachma helps you into the Valuan capital under the guise of merchant fishers, and you stage a daring rescue with the help of Valua's scorned lower class citizens. Back at Pirate Isle, Fina reveals that she is one of the last two mortal Silivites, who escaped the destruction of the ancient world in a space station. She tells you the world's history, and that her old friend Ramirez was sent to prevent the world from re-discovering the secret of the moon crystals, but fell to the temptation of power and allied with the Valuan general Galcian to recover them in Valua's name.

Fina joins your party, and you travel the world in search of the moon crystals. Every land you visit has a sub-plot, and the character's history folds out in a remarkably well-told way. After discovering the moon crystal in almost every instance, you are tricked, betrayed, or forced to surrender it to one of the generals of Valua, who unleash the often-uncontrollable Gigas which you must defeat.
After a chance encounter with Rhaknam, Drachma pursues it with reckless abandon to avenge his dead son, but forces Vyse, Aika, and Fina off his ship after it is critically damaged, preferring to die rather than miss his chance at revenge. The group is temporarily split, where Vyse is rescued from an uninhabited island by smooth-talking ladies' man and fellow Blue Rogue, Guilder. Aika and Fina are rescued by a female pirate who has been chasing Guilder, seeking to win him over and marry him. The party reuinites after discovering that they had both been seeking the same legendary pirate treasure, which turned out to be only a single coin.

After breaking back into the Valuan capital to steal a ship, they encounter the Valuan prince Enrique, who is disgusted with his mother's leadership decisions and the corruption stemming from Galcian's leadership of the armada. He offers them his personal ship the Delphinius in exchange for being able to sail with them. After battling through the Armada to escape, Guilder makes a hasty getaway after being discovered by his admirer. The crew resumes their quest, with Vyse becoming captain of the ship and establishing a base at his uninhabited island and building a crew during the course of his travels.

The crew eventually discovers that Rhaknam is the Purple Gigas, and Drachma has come to the painful realization that the whale was nothing more than a victim of an ancient war. The whale saved his life by taking him to its ancient home, and he spent several months trying to nurse him back to health, to no avail. Eventually, Enrique decides to head back to Valua to attempt to reason with his mother, but when the crew returns to their base, they discover it has been burned to the ground by Ramirez, who beats the party in battle and siezes all of the crystals from them. After recovering Fina's ship, the crew heads to the Silivite space station, where they learn that the Silivites built the most powerful Gigas of all, which they used to destroy the world in ancient times, and had planned to do it again to prevent Valua's rise to power. Ramirez arrives and kills one of the elder Silivites, taking a piece of the Silver Crystal from his body. He and Galcian use all six crystals to raise Soltis from the deep sky, and betray Valua, calling the Rains of Destruction until the whole nation is destroyed. Vyse forms an alliance with all the pirates he met previously (friendly and hostile) to take on Galcian's armada, and the Silivite elders sacrifice themselves to weaken Soltis and the silver Gigas. Galcian is killed by a suicide attack from one of his generals sympathetic to Vyse's cause, and the party forces their way into Soltis to face Ramirez, driven mad by Galcian's death. He sacrifices himself to fully resurrect the Silver Gigas, but is eventually defeated. The game ends as the characters begin to rebuild the world.


 
Gameplay
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Skies is a truly turn-based RPG at its heart. You select moves for all of your characters at the beginning of a round, and then watch how the battle plays out, round by round. The main strategic element for random battles is the moon stones that you equip to your weapons. Each moon stone governs the character's effectiveness against a certain enemy. Every color is either strong, weak, or neutral against another color--for example, purple and red are very strong against each other (lower defense and higher damage) whereas yellow is strong against green, but green is weak against yellow. The party also shares a "spirit gague" which is depleted when a character uses a special move or casts magic, and replenished when a character uses a "focus" command or at the end of a round. Other than that, there is really no more strategy in most battles than "Kill everything."

Ship battles are a bit different. The battle is set out on a 4x4 grid, and you select the order in which the characters attack. The squares in the grid are either red, yellow, or green, indicating the likelihood that an enemy will use a strong attack. In every round, the characters can man either a main gun (hits once for big damage), a secondary cannon (hits for 1-4 rounds for small damage), a magic cannon (casts a spell and never misses, but may not do much damage), or a torpedo (hits for big damage, with low accuracy and must strike in a later round). The main strategy is that by synchronizing your hits, it is possible to "stagger" an enemy ship and make them miss. Doing so can affect the outcome of the next round, giving you the opportunity to land a critical hit at certain points, or even use your s. cannon (either a harpoon or the moonstone cannon). There are a few dozen ship battles in the game, ranging from respawning Valuan patrols or Black Pirate raiders to unique battles against Gigas or some of Arcadia's nastier sky monsters.

When you are not battling monsters, you can explore the skies in your airship (you get to pilot 8 ships over the course of the game, but spend more than 95% of your time in either the Little Jack or Delphinius) or on foot in various towns and dungeons. You will periodically be faced with some simple puzzles, but for the most part you just run from beginning to end, fighting monsters in random encounters as you go.


Graphics and Sound
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Skies is visually one of the slickest games that ever came out during the Dreamcast's short life. The world is crisp and vivid, and moving from one land to the other ensures that the visuals will always stay fresh. The flatness of some parts of the world (Skies pre-dates bump mapping and the character faces are 2D images wrapped onto a 3D head) show the age of this game, but by no means is it outdated yet. Furthermore, the attention to detail is amazing. When flying over the towns and dungeons, you can see individual buildings and structures, all to appropriate scale. Furthermore, you can enter first person mode at any time by pressing the Y button to see things in the world you might not otherwise see. Battles are also fully 3D and rendered in real-time, although moves are not as visually impressive as games like Final Fantasy or Grandia II as a result.

In terms of sound, Skies is mostly rock solid. The music is crisp, memorable, and fits every location flawlessly. As a sort of hidden blessing, the voice acting is almost entiely absent. All of the characters speak only through text, with an occasional "Argh!" or "Yay!" thrown in to add to the character of the conversation. This was done because the game without voice files already had to be put on two gigabyte-sized discs, and adding voice would require a third or even fourth. Although I was disappointed at the time, a valuable lesson I learned from other Japanese RPG's is that Japanese RPG's do not translate well into English voice acting, period. This is reinforced by the battle sequences, where full voice acting was left intact, leaving us with such gems as "Your trial will be swift and just! NOW FACE YOUR PUNISHMENT!" and "Where there is light, there is darkness. SWORD OF THE DARK MOON!" Thankfully, you can skip your own super moves, and battles with speaking opponents are rare enough that it never becomes bothersome.


Replay Value
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I played through Skies of Arcadia twice, once just to experience the story, and a second time to get 100% completion. The first game took about 60 hours (40-50 if I didn't grind at certain points to over-level) and the second took about 120 hours. There are a few things outside the main quest to do, which is unfortunate. Beyond the main quest, there are numerous discoveries around the world which, when activated or "found" bring up a neat little informational card about the discovery, and can be sold to a special vendor in each town for a specific amount of gold (some discoveries will be found by other sailors or a rival explorer, which decreases their value if you don't find them first.) Additionally, there are some side-quests (most include hunting down a rare item for a merchant or helping someone reunite with a "lost" family member in another town) which seldom take more than 20 minutes to complete, and carry minimal reward. Also, for the obsessive among you, some monsters carry a 1-2% chance of dropping an exceedingly rare item, armor, or weapon that cannot be found elsewhere in the game. And finally, you will need a crew for many parts in the game. Some crew members have to join in order to progress through the story, and some are optional and must be hunted down and be convinced to join your crew. These people populate your base (some are merchants, while others do nothing) and boost your ship's stats during battle.

Although it is probably irrelevant at this point, the first disc allows you to go online and download three add-ons: one that adds two weapons--Vyse's tuna cutlass and Aika's swirlmerang (giant lollipop); one that adds an optional ship boss of a giant Looper (a persistent enemy in the game notorious for its ability to resist most magic, dodge most physical attacks, and run from battle); and one that adds Hamachou Island, which adds the final Cham needed to upgrade Fina's weapon (Cupil) to its final form, as well as an old man who will tell you your game stats and make snide comments.
 
Skies was ported to the Gamecube in 2003 as Skies of Arcadia Legends. I never had a Gamecube, so I was not able to play it, but it adds new discoveries, more battles against notorious pirates (bounties that can be traded in for substantial money), some enhanced back story, and a quest to gather invisible "moonfish" for a young girl and her Hamachou in exchange for rare equipment that previously could only be acquired as random battle loot. It also features enhanced graphics and lower quality sound (the DC uses uncompressed sound files, and the GC compressed the sound files to make the game fit onto the mini DVD) and allows the game's enemies to level with you, which will maintain the challenge even at level 99.

Closing Remarks
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First off, Skies of Arcadia (and Legends) is one of those games that falls into the category of "Japanese RPG that was critically acclaimed but never sold well and is consequently rare with a dedicated cult following." It was only stocked by retail stores for about a year until the Dreamcast went down the bankruptcy drain, and a used copy will run you $30-75 on eBay, with new copies going for $75-100+. You might get incredibly lucky and find a copy of Legends in a Gamestop or similar store (I heard of one Gamestop 50 miles from my house that had a copy a couple years ago), but again, expect to pay at least $30 for it. Not that I'm advocating piracy, but there are free emulators for both the DC and GC floating around on the internet...

That said, I would place Skies of Arcadia in my top 10 games of all time. True, the story is largely cookie cutter, the characters are mostly static and one-dimensional, and the frequency of random encounters artificially inflates the game's length. But there is a certain charm to this game that few others are able to match. The world feels vibrant and full of life and history. Vyse doesn't need to grow up because he doesn't start out as a sullen, over-dramatic, self-absorbed late adolescent, but rather an energetic, optimistic natural-born leader.

If you can find it, Skies of Arcadia is a must-play for any RPG fan, and I would strongly recommend it even to those new to the RPG.

Video Game: Grandia II

Developer: Game Arts
Platform: Dreamcast
Released: 2000
Played from: 2000-2005

Figured that the first RPG I ever beat should be the first I review.

Overview
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Grandia II is pretty typical for a Japanese RPG of the time. You are an emotionally troubled 17 year old Geohound (mercenary/bodyguard) who takes a cakewalk escort mission for some easy money, but gets caught up in something much larger than a simple job. You assemble a rag-tag team of misfits along the way, fight loads of baddies, and save the world from an ancient evil and against all odds.

Gameplay
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The gameplay is pretty straightforward, but complex enough that you will need some strategy to prevail. On its surface, Grandia II is a turn-based RPG. The real distinction comes in a few key points. First of all, the enemies are always visible on the screen in the dungeon, which lets you see what you are up against before you go head-to-head, and also lets you attempt to sneak up on the monster from behind and gain an advantage in battle. Second, rather than being strictly turn-based, the characters all have an "Action Gague" which fills based on their quickness, and requires a similar warm up time between selecting your action and the actual execution of the action. This comes in to play because in addition to a standard combo attack, all characters have a "Cancel" attack that hits once for extra damage and can either reduce the enemy's action gague, or can entirely cancel an attack if executed during the warm-up phase. Enemies can also do this to you. Finally, while characters have super moves and magic, experience is granted in the form of "Magic coins" and "S-coins" dropped by monsters. These are used to "buy" special moves and magic spells. Additionally, magic is not tied to a character, but rather to a "Mana Egg" which learns the spells, and can be passed from person to person. Each egg is typically a balanced mix of attack and defense/healing spells, but later in the game you can find eggs that are all one or the other.

Aside from the battles, you navigate the world by moving your characters (who follow single-file like a conga line) across a path from the start of the dungeon to the end. There are a few simple puzzles and a handful of secret chests, but for the most part you just walk between battles and cutscenes.

Story
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Alright, here be spoilers, so don't read this section if you want to be surprised at the various plot twists.

Thousands of years ago, a celestial being called Granas came to the world and made a pact with the people: if they would worship him as a god, he would make their world a utopia. The people agreed, and they gave him their faith and piety in exchange for technology and divine protection. However, a group of people felt that all of Grandia was now enslaved, so they created another god to challenge Granas: Valamar. The two factions went to war, and Granas was victorious but exhausted from his battle which left the world scarred in the form of a great canyon where his sword fell. He sealed the pieces of Valamar in special seals at various corners of the world, and slept to regain his strength.

Thousands of years later, Ryudo is a late adolescent geohound who takes a job to escort a priestess to a temple to renew the seal on Valamar's wings. Something goes terribly wrong, and the wings are released and possessed by the priestess Elena. You carry her back, and are attacked by Millennia, the personal manifestation of Valamar's wings with an attitude problem. She kicks your ass, and you agree to take Elena to the Pope to get the wings removed from her. As you travel, you encounter and team up with Roan, a 12-ish year old runaway who you find out later is a prince, Mareg, a beast-man intent on killing the man who destroyed his village, and Tio, an automata who wants desperately to be human. Every town you come across is plagued by one of the pieces of Valamar, and Millennia comes out to help you defeat the threat, and absorbs the piece after its defeat. After reaching the holy city and talking to the pope, you are sent after Granas's sword, the Granasaber. Meanwhile, Roan leaves the party after his father dies so he can rule his people, Millennia and Elena both fall deeply in love with Ryudo, and you learn the truth about Ryudo's past after visiting his home town. Then, you learn the truth: Granas was slain by Valamar, and Valamar sealed himself in structures designed to ensnare the souls of mortals, and Pope Zelas is using you to get Millennia to gather all of Valamar's pieces so he can defeat her to become the new Valamar. The crew travels to Valamar's moon via the Granasaber to try to stop the resurrection, but are too late, and Mareg dies while saving the party. Valamar is resurrected and Millennia is separated from Elena to complete his body. The crew rallies a last-ditch assault into Valamar's body, and Elena and Millennia are reuinited, but as different people this time. The two of them and Ryudo defeat the new Pope-Valamar and save the day.

After the sappy ending, you take control of Roan a year later, and travel the world to re-visit some of the towns you saved earlier on and see what everyone is doing now.

Okay, end of the spoilers.

Overall, the story works very well, although each village constitutes a separate side-story, and can sometimes distract you from your goal. The ending is needlessly sappy, but that is the trademark of most Japanese RPG's.

Graphics
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Sadly, the graphics for this game were outdated even at the time. The game is never muddled, but the characters look like dolls and can only be told apart by their hairdo and clothing. The world is also not particularly varied, and follows the path of Forest path - town - dungeon from beginning to end. The towns are vibrant enough, but none really stand out.

The redeeming factor here are the special moves and magic. They are all pre-rendered animations that play over the battle screen, but damn are they pretty. Oddly, one of Millennia's moves apparently couldn't be rendered correctly, so the team substituted a hand-drawn anime sequence--the only instance of this in the whole game.

Sound
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The music for Grandia II is entirely instrumental and generally mideval or church-y all the way through. It fits, but none of the songs are memorable. The voice actors are all professionals with lots of experience (Millennia is the same voice actress who played the Little Mermaid) and do a good job of voicing their characters, but the dialog is riddled with translation issues and too melodramatic for Western audiences. The actors did a good job, but the translation was lackluster.

Replay Value
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The game takes about 40 hours if you grind all the way through, 60 hours if you stop to smell the roses or need to power level, and 80+ hours if you want to attempt a 100% complete walkthrough. That said, there are some mini games that are almost impossible to beat without extreme practice, and a secret dungeon, but other than that, there is nothing to draw you back to this game unless you want to experience the whole thing over again.

Overall
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This is an RPG with a solid (if not overdone) story, lovable characters, a simple control scheme to master, and outdated graphics. It is worth a play-through for the RPG fan or if you find it on clearance (it was also ported to the PS2 and PC around 2002 if I remember), but don't worry about hunting it down over other, better games.

Video Game: Halo 2

Title: Halo 2
Developer: Bungie/Microsoft
Platform: Xbox/PC
Release date: 2004 (Xbox), 2007 (PC)
Played From: 2004-2008


This was, by an order of magnitude, the single game I anticipated above all others. Nothing was official until mid-2003, when Bungie made a teaser trailer... which I watched at least 30 times. To pass the time, I bought and read all three Halo novels that were released at the time (First Strike was critical to understanding how the Master Chief got himself un-stranded from the middle of absolute nowhere). I played through the first Halo obsessively. I even started playing Halo CE simply because I could not contain my excitement. When I was cleaning out my room about a year ago, I found an old calendar that had a 150-something day countdown until Halo 2's release. That is how stoked I was for this game.

Overview
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The story picks up about 3 months after the original Halo, with the Master Chief and the badass Sgt. Johnson being the only two people who survived the incident. Back at Earth, they are celebrating their victory at Halo when the Covenant appear out of nowhere and start blowing shit up. Then you alternate between the storylines of the Chief and a disgraced Elite who has been appointed Arbiter (which entails taking on suicidal missions until you die and regain your dignity). As you take the fight away from Earth and to a new Halo, you find out that the leader of the covenant has been engineering a civil war to further his own twisted agenda. Further complicating matters, the Flood have been active on this Halo for hundreds of years, and amassed a central intelligence who is bent on manipulating all sides of the conflict to complete his own goal: consuming all life in the galaxy. This sequel is significantly more story-driven than the original, which is a very good thing.

Gameplay
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Halo is Halo, and fortunately Bungie didn't forget that. The core functionality is the same, although you have many new weapons, vehicles, and enemies this time around. This a double-edged sword, since the intricate balancing was disturbed in many places. Many weapons have exact duplicates between Human and Covenant varieties, and I truthfully feel that the SMG and pistol were nerfed to the point of being almost useless, while the Carbine is so efficient at killing enemies in a single shot that it effectively replaces the pistol from the original halo as the ultimate weapon in most situations. Also, most weapons carry half as many bullets as their original counterparts, which is good since it forces you to experiment with new weapons, but sucks when you ditch a battle rifle with 30 bullets left only to find another one that is 30 bullets away from being full later on.

But, with its immersive storyline set across 13 levels, it is impossible to say that Halo isn't fun from the moment you fire up the game to the cliffhanger ending that will have you screaming ancient curses at Bungie. But, it is not 2004 anymore and you can boot up Halo 3 as soon as the credits roll. Even though I beat the whole thing in two sittings less than 48 hours after it was released, the story of Halo 2 feels like the longest and most complex, and that is a good thing. The environments you fight in are highly varied and almost never boring. The voice acting is notably better, and there is a significant improvement in the quality of the game's script. And, when the story is over, you can either play through it all again to find the extensive list of secrets and easter eggs, try to beat it on the beefed-up Legendary mode, or take the fight to multiplayer, although it is no longer possible to play it on anything except LAN.


Graphics
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This is as good as the original Xbox ever got. Human faces are more realistic, enemies are more gruesome and fierce. Bump mapping is at an all-time high. Vehicles begin to break down as they sustain damage and will even fall apart and handle differently in some cases. This is not as good as the current games in the market, but when you consider just how much graphics changed in the 8-year gap between 1996 and 2004 versus the 8 year gap between 2004 and 2012, Halo 2 is surprisingly modern-looking. Truthfully, there are only two shortcomings here: many textures (especially large bitmaps for environments) are very bland, and as the Xbox reaches the limits of its processing power, textures will spontaneously "pop" from low-resolution to high-resolution... even during cutscenes. Still, even today Halo 2 is a piece of eye-candy.

Sound
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Everything that was good about Halo was made better for Halo 2. Marty O'Donnell's moody instrumental scores set the tone perfectly in almost all cases, although I honestly don't like the title screen song as much as I loved the original Halo title song. All of the sound effects are much higher quality this time around, although Halo 3 really did a better job of nailing excellent sound effects.

Replay Value
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If you are halfway competent at FPS games on consoles and playing on Easy or Normal, Halo 2 should take you about 10-15 hours to complete all the way through. Once you are done with that, you can go back through Heroic or Legendary modes for a real challenge. Easter eggs have always been Bungie's forte, and Halo 2 is (in my opinion) home to some of the most intricate, difficult to find, and rewarding easter eggs out there. Metropolis has a super weapon (a plasma rifle with the projectiles switched out so it shoots the Scarab's main beam. Every level has a "Skull" hidden somewhere on it that is only accessible on Legendary mode, and will alter the game in some manner, such as doubling the push of explosives, making enemies toss grenades twice as often with increased accuracy, and making every weapon you pick up almost completely out of ammo.

And when that is all said and done, there is multiplayer. Halo 2 is a dead game at this point, but in its day it was the most played online console game, period. Personally, I do not like the new weapon balancing in a multiplayer setting, since it takes a full clip from an SMG to put somebody down if they are not at point-blank range. The shotgun can kill in a single shot, and the plasma sword has effectively the same killing range as the shotgun, but never runs out of ammo and almost always kills in a single hit. That said, Halo 2 is (read: was, 8 years ago) fun as hell to play online, especially with the plethora of downloadable maps.

Overall
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The story is memorable, the gameplay is rock-solid, and there is enough to keep you coming back for hours. Halo 2 is a must-play for the three of you out there who have not played it yet. Halo 2 has aged very well.

Halo Custom Edition: Single Player Maps

A few notes here: Single player maps are not supported via menus as multiplayer maps are. They appear in the multiplayer map selection screen, but must be loaded manually through the console to prevent the game from crashing.
Also, Halomaps divides the maps into custom, modified, and CMT singleplayer maps. Custom maps are designed for single player, and there are currently about 35 released. Modified single player maps are either set in multiplayer maps (such as Blood Gulch) or are modifications of the campaign levels. There are currently about 200 maps out there, most of which I have not played, and most of the maps I have played were not worth the time it took to beat them. Go by the score given on Halomaps, and stay away from anything lower than 8 or so.
Single player campaign maps
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These maps are usually part of a series, and tell a story.

Area 52 - 55
These are innovative in that they are not only the first single player maps to tell a semi-coherent story (interestingly through the use of area-sensitive dialog that loops), but they are actually multiplayer maps. That means that you can co-op through the level with up to 16 allies.<br>
The series starts with Area 52, which is really just a multiplayer map with AI bots in one room. Area 53 begins as you wake up in a cell, escape through the ventilation system, fight through a mysterious complex, and finally make your escape in a warthog run very similar to the final campaign level. Area 54 has you fight your way through a Doom-esque dungeon and even gives you two alternate endings and a final boss. Area 55 pits you fight against terminator robots as you seek revenge against the final boss.

The three maps together will take you about an hour or two to finish. 53 is the most fun, while 54 is the longest and most innovative. 55 is not very fun and doesn't feel complete.

CMT SPv1
This is a simple campaign mod with various "improvements," namely various Halo 2 and custom weapons, some new vehicles, and altered visuals. It is a fun and refreshing change from the classic campaign, although some of the changes are arguably worse than the original content, and many of the weapons are too powerful--especially the minigun and sentinal major beam, which can both destroy a Wraith in seconds.

Play time is the same as the campaign; about 10 hours.

CMT SPv2
Only the PoA level was officially released, and the rest were released in their incomplete form when the team threw in the towel on the project. All maps are present, although only about half are actually playable all the way through.

What sets this apart from the other maps is the fact that it not only changes everything in the original maps, but adds significant new portions to them. In many cases these new portions can effectively double the map in size. For this release, the textures and models are significantly improved, the guns feel much more like they should, and most importantly, it is FUN.

Total play time is hard to determine, but up to 20 hours.

CMT SPv3
So far only the third level is released. It does not feature the extended levels of SPv2, but includes many advanced features with the Open Sauce version, namely including VISR mode and improved graphics, which make it feel very much like playing a later Halo game.

Total play time for the one map is the same as normal campaign; about an hour.

Halo Covert Ops
This is probably the most impressive in terms of scope. Essentially, you are a battle-weary ODST who has been moved to a remote space station due to PTSD or something. While one of the marines is asking about your past, the station is attacked by the Covenant, and you are placed back into active duty and shipped to Earth to help with the fight there. From there you are free to choose how the game will progress, and will eventually uncover one of several conspiracy plots.

The total game is 6 levels, although you will only play 3 or 4 in a typical campaign. All of the levels are set in various multiplayer maps, and make very creative use of storytelling through flashbacks and dialogue between the player and NPC. Also, all of the speech in the game is entirely text, which is a refreshing break from poorly-executed voice acting and recycled lines from the campaign that barely fit the current situation. There is some new content, but the majority of the game focuses on Classic weapons, enemies, and vehicles. At the end of the game, you are given a rank based on which ending you got.

The story will take about an hour or two to complete, but there are about 4 main story plots to play through.
 
Lumoria
This is the first and only 100% custom, story-driven campaign for Halo CE. It is a two-part campaign, and only part 1 is currently out. Part 2 should be out soon.

The story here is that humans found a Forerunner world, but after deploying a team of scientists to determine its origin and purpose, the world is invaded by the covenant and the scientists are pinned down. So, a Spartan and some ODST's are sent to eliminate the Covenant forces and rescue the scientists. Upon finding the scientists, you learn that the world serves as a database/index of all life in the galaxy, and could lead the Covenant to Earth's location. That is the end of part 1.

Part 2 picks up as you launch a campaign against the covenant's push toward the central database of  the world. Along the way, you fight your way through many scenic landscapes and ultimately face off against a rampant AI that is in charge of the world of Lumoria and a nearly-invincible Elite. Part 2 is significantly more refined than part 1, and is frankly some of the best fun you can have inside of a custom campaign map. This is a must-have for everyone who has CE.

Overall, this is one of the most expansive and fun campaigns out to date. The team has decided to stick to the classic Halo arsenal, and mostly canonical enemies from other games and books, which is a wise decision in my opinion. The first level takes a bit longer to finish than most classic campaign maps; about an hour and a half to two hours. More attention has been paid to every small detail than any other map to date. The skybox is fully custom and gorgeous, and an observant player will notice distant beam towers shooting their beams silently into the sky. There is a very large variety in the environments you fight in, although it mostly feels like a marriage of the Halo campaign map, the Great Journey map from Halo 2, and some things were taken straight from the E3 2000 demo. Really, the only downfall that this campaign has is poor and choppy dialogue execution and fake accents. Still, this map is non-stop action all the way through, and left me saying "Wow" when it was over.



Firefight Single Player Levels
-------------------------------------------
These levels are single player but focus exclusively on action, rather than any sort of storytelling. The player must fend off waves of enemies that become increasingly difficult. This is styled after the ODST/Reach gametype of the same name.

Firefight Airlock
An ODST-styled map in a very well-designed map that suits firefight well. The map itself is fun, but the icing on the cake is the added music menu, which gives you four songs to set your Covenant-blasting to. My favorites are "New Divide" by Linkin Park and "When You Were Young" by The Killers. 20 waves to fight, which equates to roughly 30-45 minites of play.

Firefight Descent
Here is one of the best single player experiences to grace CE so far. Unlike other maps, this map was designed from the ground-up as a firefight map, rather than an adapted multiplayer map. The gameplay is very close to that of Halo Reach, the arsenal is mostly custom, and the enemies are Halo 2 canon minus the brutes. Music is provided in the game and is mostly techno remixes of various songs from Halo through Reach to give it a more edgy, cinematic feel. Every round has around 10 waves of bad guys, and powerups are granted at varoius intervals. The last wave of every round is a special round where deaths do not count against you, and you must fight against special enemies--such as scores of sword-wielding Elite Zealots or Jackal snipers with rocket launchers. Gameplay is immensely fun, and the author of the map said it offers unlimited gameplay, although I have not had more than two hours to play it so far.


Miscellaneous
-----------------------------------
DMT-Air
This is a fun map that doesn't play quite like anything else. You are an Elite...on a hoverboard...racing around through High Charity from Halo 2. It only takes a few minutes to beat, but it is fun to try to get a gold medal for the map.

Halo Custom Edition: Multiplayer Maps

A note here: there are currently well over 2,000 multiplayer maps, nearly 1,300 modified multiplayer maps, and nearly 500 maps with bots to play against. I was extremely active during the first two years or so of CE, but I have gone six months or more at a stretch without even checking on the maps when other things were simply more important in my life. These are the maps that I have played and can testify for as being quality maps. There are probably scores of equally good maps that I have NOT played, and many of my favorite maps were released before the days of Halomaps, and consequentially may not have ratings or very many reviews.

Maps for competitive play

----------------------------------------------------

Blood Islands - Arguably the first "good" map released, and the only one played for a long time. Straightforward design featuring two large bases on a small archipelago. Heavily focused on sniping and Banshee dogfighting.
 
 Night Camp CE - Another early map, and the first one that I would consider good enough to be an official map. Consists of a U- shaped canyon with a neutral base at the top and an underground tunnel at the back allowing a variety of possible attack paths. Works best for CTF games with a focus on coordinated, quick assaults.

Claustrophobia - An excellent and very small map set in a space station and making good use of contrasting light and dark areas. Very fun even for 1v1 matches on any game type. Focus is on surprise close-quarters combat.

Gallowspole - Very similar to Timberland, but geared more for fast paced gameplay. Features a neutral base, underground tunnel for surprise attacks, and a deep canyon connecting to the tunnel to escape vehicle and sniper fire. Suitable for any gametype with a focus on quick vehicular assaults.

Fissurefall - A complicated and beautiful Forerunner structure set in a rock cavern. Works best for CTF, since there are innumerable assault paths, and the bases are notoriously difficult to defend from sneak attacks. Narrow bridges over a bottomless pit add an extra challenge.

Wartorn cove - Two very large bases attached to a neutral open area via narrow passageways. Works best for CTF, although the focus of the map is on the prolonged battle over the control of the neutral area--offense is impossible without it. Skilled players on both sides can lead to very long and high-casualty matches. Several variants exist, although 3 and 4 are the most balanced. This map had 24/7 dedicated servers for the first 4-5 years of CE, but is never played now.

Cliffhanger - A beautiful mid-size map made for CTF. Features two large bases set on opposite sides of a cliff. Best suited for stealthy, quick CTF games.

Quagmire - A map set in a swamp with very low visibility. Good for CTF and slayer with a focus on coordinated stealth attacks.

New Mombasa Classic - Set in an area inspired by the Halo 2 E3 trailer. Well designed and captures the feel of urban combat very well. Focused on vehicular combat, heavy weapon battles and sniping.

Yoyorast Island
Yoyorast Island 2 - Both set in a mind-numbingly complex island featuring a highly convoluted vehicle race track and innumerable nooks for sniper battles. Ideal for CTF games and race, although one capture will typically take 10-30 minutes due to the complexity of the map.

Immure - A large but straightforward map featuring a new fighter plane. Ideal for CTF and still played on occasion.

Church - A Gothic cathedral with a beautiful interior and a passage to the underworld below. It was under construction for years and released too late (late 2007) in CE's life to see much play. Best suited for slayer with at least 8 players.

Sciophobia - A deceptively small space station that is mind-numbingly complex and features innumerable small spaces and alternative routes for surprise attacks. Best for Slayer and CTF with focus on stealth. Saw a very small number of games, and is almost never played anymore.

Precipice - A beautiful map released very late (2011) in CE's life, and too large for any game that ever took place on it. Features a huge structure built into a bottomless canyon, with several bridges between the bases. Due to its enormous size and complexity, best for slayer or CTF with 12-16 players, although 32-64 could comfortably fit in theory.

Interesting/noteworthy maps

---------------------------------------------
These maps are regular multiplayer maps that stand out by doing something innovative, although few are well-suited for competitive play.

Haloball - This is an early map that went outside the norm to do something different: bring soccer to Halo. The map is a soccer stadium, and opposing teams must hop in warthogs to push a giant soccer ball into the opposing team's goal. It was very popular in its day, but is seldom played now.

Hugeass - This is the most popular map for Halo CE, and is still played on occasion today. Each team has a base that is a straight rip of the longsword bay at the very end of the campaign. This leads out to a 25 square kilometer playing field with no cover and some rolling hills. This was an order of magnitude larger than any other map released (except for an unplayable map designed as a test map), and featured a number of new vehicles, all of which are excessively fast to compensate for the insane size of the map. This map achieved fame and notoriety because the player could fly the Longsword - a medium sized spaceship armed with heat-seeking, rapid fire rockets and a nuke that could wipe out large sections of the map at once.

Coldsnap - A sequel to Hugeass set in an icy environment with a bit more in it. The vehicles are too powerful and the map is too large for serious gameplay, although CTF was popular until fairly recently.

Extinction - A take on the Hugeass concept, but the bases are divided between human (base is a crashed PoA) and covenant (base is a disabled capital ship). Each team has their own vehicles, most of which are excessively overpowered. Played frequently until very recently.
GHZ-SP - A fun map where you play as Sonic the Hedgehog in first person on a track inspired by Green Hill Zone. Has a catchy remix of the song playing in the background.
The Land of Hyrule v0.2 - Built as an extension of the canned Zelda project, this is a mod that duplicates Hyrule field and its neighboring areas from the Legend of Zelda game, Ocarina of Time. Each area is set to play the correct music from the game. Fans of the game can take a trip down memory lane, and those who are unfamiliar can take a while to explore one of the largest maps (with stuff in it) ever made for CE.

Title: Halo Custom Edition
Developer: Bungie/Gearbox/Community
Platform: PC
Released: 2004
Played from: 2004-Present

Due to the nature of this game, this will not be a review so much as an annotated history of the game.

Background - 2003 - May 2004
-------------------------------------------

Halo PC was rushed to the store shelf because Gearbox had the wakeup call that they were nearly 2 years behind the Xbox release of Halo. So, Halo PC was released in September 2003 with the promise of a patch that would allow users to publish their own content. Many groups formed and began work on numerous projects, ranging from multiplayer maps to fully custom campaigns based on the Halo novels that had been released. However, after an extended period of silence, Gearbox announced that they were not releasing a patch or update, but a fully separate game that would only support multiplayer modes. Most of the groups disbanded immediately, and many more followed suit when word got out that CE players could not play on servers with--or even be seen by--PC players.

In May of 2004, Halo CE was released along with the separate HEK which allows players to build the actual maps--as long as the user had their own 3D modeling software, specifically the $5,000 3DStudios MAX.

Genesis and Golden Age - May - November 2004
---------------------------------------------------

Understandably, very few people were initially equipped with the necessary tools to make maps until someone made a separate tool for the HEK that allowed models to be imported from the free Gmax. For about the first month, CE struggled to grow its user base, and the majority of the maps released were admittedly awful.

However, things began to turn around by June, as maps began to be released by skilled individuals, many of whom were building portfolios to use when applying for positions as professional map designers. This came to its zenith when the Halo 2 CE team announced that it was developing a map inspired by the Halo 2 E3 trailer, and would be releasing versions of the map with both Halo 1 and Halo 2 weapons and vehicles--big news, as Halo 2 was slated for a November release. When the classic version was released in July, CE regularly saw 300-400 players online at any given time, and multiple servers existed that provided 24/7 rotations of the best custom maps.

However, Gearbox had decided to focus on developing original games instead of simply porting existing games to the PC. Since CE was performing below expectations, they made an announcement: Get the average player count to at least 1,000 by September, or all support for the game would be dropped. Even though players tried to organize a single day in which all players would be online at the same time, the count never went much over 600. So, CE became officially unsupported.

Maps were still continually released throughout October, but the release of Halo 2 spelled certain doom for CE.

Steady decline - November 2004 - 2006
------------------------------------------------------

Myself included, most CE players were only playing CE to pass the time until Halo 2 came out. When it did come out, it shattered first-day sales records for any game in entertainment history up to that point, and school truancy was at an all-time high.

After thoroughly playing Halo 2, I came back to CE to find out that it was a ghost town with very few servers or players. I returned on rare occasions for the next several months, especially when the H2CE team released their Halo 2 version of New Mombasa, as well as several other maps that had been a long time in the making.

During this time, map makers largely stopped caring about how well-designed their map was, and focused on cramming as much custom junk into their map as possible. Halo 2 themed maps were especially popular, with the three main powers being the Halo 2 CE team, Custom Mapping Team (CMT), and a third nameless team.

This time period also saw the rise in vehicle-only maps. Many were made that essentially consisted of an open map (some were as large as 5 km across) and populated with impossibly fast and overpowered vehicles.

Cult Game - 2006 - 2010
---------------------------------------

This period in time is hard to pinpoint accurately, but I generally consider it to coincide with the rise of the CMT team. Around this time, player counts were dwindling until they held steady at approximately 150 to 200. H2CE released all of the maps they had been working on and then disbanded. Many of the most prominent developers threw in the towel and left to pursue bigger and better things. Those that remained focused on the development of new and more innovative content, which resulted in campaign maps being developed and eventually support for campaign mode being fully restored.

CMT asserted itself as a dominant force when it released its SPv1 campaign in 2006, which was a mod of nearly every weapon and vehicle in the campaign as well as various graphical enhancements and changes. Following this, they focused on creating Halo 3 content and incorporating it into numerous other maps released over the next few years.

Around this time, the vast majority of servers stopped hosting older custom maps, and shifted to classic maps, CMT maps, and the four most popular vehicle maps.

Paradigm Shift - 2010 - Present
--------------------------------------------

Eventually it became apparent that CE was dying as a multiplayer game. So, the focus switched from multiplayer to single player development. Innovative breakthroughs allowed modders to create their own cutscenes and import Halo 2 and 3 enemies into campaign maps realistically.

CMT undertook the biggest project that CE had yet seen for its SPv2 campaign - which not only added weapons, vehicles and enemies, but expanded each level to roughly twice its original size through the addition of several entirely custom segments. That is, until the team disbanded and released most of the levels in their incomplete state. SPv2 is completely abandoned, but the team has reassembled to release its first SPv3 map - which builds on the "Open Sauce" code library to incorporate better graphics, more advanced models, and various other goodies.

As of this writing, the multiplayer has withdrawn to about 200 players jammed in to about 15 servers, all of which are playing Blood Gulch. The biggest project on the horizon is Lumoria, a 2-part custom campaign that is pending the release of part 2 "any day now" for the last two months.

So, for newcomers to CE, it is important to know that despite the expansive legacy it left behind, there are precious few opportunities to re-live the glory days when players were faced with the difficult decision of *which* all-custom server to play on. You can still download all of the maps, but you are better off sticking to the single player maps.

Video Game: Halo

Title: Halo: Combat Evolved
Developer: Bungie
Platform: Xbox/PC
Released: 2001 (Xbox), 2003 (PC)
Played from: 2001- 2004, occasionally since


Overview
---------------------------------------------
This is probably one of the most well-known games that I will ever post about on here. And frankly if you have never heard of Halo, you are either 8 or are not a gamer.

That said, Halo is an amazing game... arguably the best FPS at the time of its release, and many would argue one of the best games overall. But, it is easy to forget just how revolutionary Halo was, so this review will focus on that.

First off, in 2001 the FPS genre was much different than it was today. There was Doom, Half-Life, Unreal... and that is about all worth mentioning. All of these games had extensive single player campaigns with a very sparse story. Gameplay consisted of a few short firefights, loads of puzzles, and a boss here and there. Halo breaks away from this to offer a game with nonstop action, a highly involved story that begins at the climax of a 25-year war, almost no key hunts, and no real "boss" fights. Halo was also the first to include a recharging shield (about half of your total health would automatically regenerate, which would not penalize players for making a large number of very minor mistakes.)

Also, in contrast to traditional FPS weapons, which would start you out with a weak weapon and gradually grant more powerful weapons until you had 10 or so, you can carry a maximum of two guns and 4 of both types of grenade. These weapons were meticulously balanced: No single weapon could ever become useless, and only the pistol was powerful enough to be useful in almost every situation.


Single Player
--------------------------------
Halo was released about a year before Xbox Live, so the campaign mode was the main focus. The story is engaging. The levels flow seamlessly between foot and vehicle fights. The enemies are realistic and fun to fight (Grunts and Jackals will panic and hide while Elites and Hunters will stand their ground with fanatic devotion, and the Flood will charge in a blind rage even after losing an arm.) There are literally dozens of easter eggs to go back and find, many of which require a significant amount of skill and creativity to even get to. And when you finish all 10 levels (which will take most people about 12-15 hours on the appropriate difficulty), there are four difficulty modes to go back and test your skills on.


Multiplayer
----------------------------------------
As stated above, the original Halo was not Live compatible. Still, it supported a full multiplayer mode, and up to 16 players could compete when you hook up 4 Xboxes over LAN. Most of the levels were good, although only a few of them ever became popular, and Blood Gulch was the most popular by far, despite the fact that the Blue team inexplicably has a tactical advantage during CTF games. Still, the meticulous balancing that was present for the campaign still applies to the multiplayer, which mostly reduces the need to make a mad dash for the rocket launcher in order to avoid coming in last during a match.

When Gearbox ported Halo to the PC, they rightly guessed that the main draw would be the multiplayer. So, while they left the single player untouched except for some minor graphical tweaks, they added five new multiplayer maps (all of which support vehicles) as well as the flamethrower, fuel rod cannon, rocket warthog, and banshee. The new maps were well received, but most hardcore fans agree that the addition of new weapons and vehicles upset the balance of the game.

As of this writing, however, there are still active games on the PC version of Halo, and the Custom Edition (that warrants a separate entry by itself) still sees maps produced on a regular basis.


Final Thoughts
------------------------------------------
Halo is an 11 year old game at this point, and strangers to the game will notice its age. It was produced on a rushed schedule and with a low budget. The result is a poorly written script (compared to the later games in the series, which used professional writers) and the last three levels of the game involve the player retracing his steps through levels he has already been through (Two Betrayals is Assault on the Control Room backwards, literally.) However, the game is just as fun today as it was 11 years ago, and the Anniversary edition is available for those who want to experience it for the first time with current-gen graphics.

Video Game: Sonic Adventure

Title: Sonic Adventure
Publisher: Sega/Sonic Team
Platform: Dreamcast
Released: 1999
Played from: 2000-2003, occasionally since

Yes, I loved Rogue Squadron. But Sonic Adventure was my first video game obsession. It is, in my mind, the defining line between "Classic" and "Modern" games.

Overview
-----------------------------------------
Eggman is up to his antics once again with over-sized death machines and releases an ancient force to rain destruction down on the world etc. It's a Sonic game, so you know what you are getting into. Melodrama, high-speed platforming, and foiling of evil plots to save the world.

Similar to older games such as Sonic & Knuckles, you have the opportunity to play through the same story six different times with six different characters. The game is divided into three different adventure fields (large open areas with no objective except to find the next level/trigger for the story) and 11 levels, which each character can get into between 4 and 10 of. Each character has different objectives:
Sonic: Get to the end as fast as possible
Tails: Race against Sonic to the end... as fast as possible
Knuckles: Find 3 emerald shards in each level
Amy: Run away from an invincible robot
E-101 Gamma: Get to the end under the time limit and destroy as much as possible to increase your time
Big: Catch your frog (fishing game)

So, Sonic, Knuckles, and Gamma have interesting levels, and the rest of the characters are literally just filler. The developers were obviously under severe time constraints, so most of the other characters are simply playing in smaller sub-sections of Sonic's levels. The only level that Sonic cannot get into is Hot Shelter, which Amy plays in its entirety.

 Fortunately, to give you some more to do, you have your very own Chao (small pet things) garden in each adventure field. Since virtual pets were a big fad around this time, that is exactly what the Chao gardens are: Manage your Chao's emotions and upload it into a VMU to play a mini game to help it level up. It is a rewarding feature if you like that sort of thing, but most gamers will simply pass it by.


Graphics
-------------------------------------------
Okay, so graphics have come a long way since 1999. Still, the Dreamcast is technically in the same console generation as the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube, so the graphics are roughly on par with those systems. Although many ports from the PS and N64 are admittedly poor in the graphics department, Dreamcast-exclusive games are generally of good quality. Sonic Adventure is very clear graphically with very few jagged polygons, smooth 3D animations, and even lip-synching (if you're playing in Japanese). This game blows its contemporaries out of the water. However, the observant gamer will notice that the development time constraints meant that you are literally playing in a box for the most part. If you can manage to get out of the levels (more on that later) you will notice that there is literally nothing placed outside of the level to give it a more authentic look and feel.


Sound
----------------------------------------------
Classic Sonic sounds are back (reminiscent of the 16-bit era in most cases) along with a generally forgettable soundtrack of hard rock with poorly written lyrics about believing in yourself. Fortunately, most of the actual levels have instrumental tracks that fit the level well. Just don't listen to the end credits.


Replay value
-----------------------------------------------------
At its face, Sonic Adventure offers a little to go back for. Every character's level and most mini games give you the chance to earn an Emblem for completion. All levels have 3 tasks to be completed for an emblem, mini games have 2, and most adventure fields have a few hidden ones for the player to find. However, there is nothing to show for it once you do have all 130 emblems, which frankly stinks.

There is, however, one caveat to this: the game is full of bugs and glitches. Normally, a glitch is a shortcoming that impairs the playability of the game, but in the case of Sonic Adventure, it actually enhances the game's playability. Let me explain.

As discussed above, every level is the same for every character. Since some characters have unique abilities (Sonic can dash along a line of rings, Tails can fly straight up, Knuckles can climb up walls and glide at a slightly downward angle), they have exclusive access to certain parts of adventure fields and levels. Certain scripted events also keep characters out of areas they aren't supposed to be in, usually using a locked door or other obstacle. However, the rushed development time and the underlying identical level geometry used for every level and adventure field means that the inaccessible area still exists for every character, even if it is not accessible through conventional means. This includes "bumpers" as well--invisible walls that will teleport a character into a given stage.

Also, thanks to the rushed development time, the level geometry is literally FILLED with holes. The lack of a true physics engine means that if you jump your character at these holes long enough, sooner or later you might get lucky and get them through.

So what does this mean? Find a hole in the geometry, assault it relentlessly in just the right way, and DING!--you have just gained access to a level that not even the developers meant for you to get into. This can be done to get access to about 10 new levels as well as a number of sections of levels the character is not normally supposed to get in to. For a more detailed guide on how to do this:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/dreamcast/198694-sonic-adventure/faqs/9257


Closing thoughts
-------------------------------------------------------
This is a solid game, although my review of it is undoubtedly heavily biased based on how much I loved it when I was 11. There are better games out there, and I even thought that the story was childish when I was in elementary school. That said, it is head-and-shoulders above any Sonic game released since the demise of the Dreamcast. It is certainly worth a play-through, but not necessarily worthy of the attention I gave it all those years ago.

Video Game: Rogue Squadron

Title: Star Wars Rogue Squadron
Publisher: LucasArts
Platform: N64, PC
Released: 1998
Played from: 1998-2000, 2009

Have you ever been reunited with something you treasured from your childhood, only to find out that it just lost its magic sometime between when you were seven years old and the present day? Rogue Squadron is not an example.

The N64 is something of a legend among gamers who, like myself, grew up in the 90s. Sure, it had its share of blunders and flops, but it was home to many of the finest games ever created. Unfortunately, I was not one of the lucky kids who got an N64 for Christmas, so I played this fine game on the PC. Truthfully, I think flying games were better when played with a joystick designed for flight sims, anyway. I was an avid Star Wars fan in my youth, and I played this game endlessly from about third through fifth grade. While cleaning out my room a couple years ago, I decided to boot it up for old time's sake and see if it was as much fun as I remember it being 11 years earlier. Here's my take on it.

Overview
--------------------
So, what is this game? Simply put, it is a Star Wars flight sim. You fly around in one of eight flyable aircraft to blow up bad guys, save good guys from being blown up, and generally be a nuisance to the Empire. You are given a briefing before the start of each mission, although unforseen events often interfere with the plan, which adds some nice variety to the gameplay. The game tracks your statistics (time to complete, enemies killed etc.) and gives you one of three possible medals depending on how you performed. None of the levels are particularly difficult, but obtaining every gold medal can be more than a little challenging.

Gameplay
------------------------
Simply put, this game is good, old-fashioned fun. It is equally appealing whether or not you are a fan of the Star Wars series, and offers enough variety to keep your interest. There are 15 missions in the normal game in addition to 4 unlockable levels that can only be played after completing all normal missions with at least a bronze, silver, or gold medal. Additionally, two extra ships can be unlocked for obtaining a nice collection of medals, and Episode 1's Naboo Starfighter was included as a secret that can be unlocked with a patch (on the PC) or with a series of passcodes (on the N64). In an interesting departure from most other games, the scope of this shooter is not to save [good thing] from total annihilation from [bad thing]. In fact, the vast majority of the missions are much more believable--launch a raid on an Imperial base to cripple AT-ST production temporarily; rendezvous with escaping prisoners and escort them to safety. My only complaint with the game missions themselves is that there are a very, very large number of escort missions, sometimes with very fragile good guys making a blind dash through a gauntlet of bad guys. Fortunately, the game is not particularly difficult, at least until you go back through to get gold medals all the way through. When you have to complete the Death Star trench run with 75% accuracy, a decent number of kills, and a time literally within 10 seconds of the flawless run scenario, you will be cussing and throwing things at your screen. There is something of a loose story here, but you will be just fine if you skip almost every movie in the game.

Graphics, Sound, Mechanics
--------------------------------------
Something happened between 1998 and 2001. Something magical that revolutionized the way video games could look. I like to call it the Dreamcast. But, simply put, this game regrettably shows its age with jagged, clunky polygons, infantry troops that are actually 2D sprites, and low-res bitmaps. But, this game was designed to fit onto a 30-MB N64 cartridge, so let's cut it some slack. Graphics are clear enough to tell what's going on, and that is good enough.

Sound? It's Star Wars. If you don't know what Star Wars sounds like, there are six movies that you need to watch. The music and voices are a little on the compressed side, but it still gives the full Star Wars experience.

As far as handling goes, this game is solid enough to appease even the most vehement of control freaks (get it?). Ships are responsive (some more so than others, but that is the point!). My only complaint is that the camera has a tendency to get "stuck" or lag behind the player's ship, especially when accelerating quickly. So, I just played it in first person mode for the more genuine experience.

Replay Value
--------------------------------
As stated above, this game is packed full of nice unlockables that will take a fair bit of skill to complete. Finish the game, and you get a post-trilogy mission to play with a new ship. Finish that one with at least a bronze, and you get a  new ship to fly through a race. Beat the game with all silvers, and you get the Death Star Trench run. Beat everything with gold metals, and you get two secret ships, the Battle of Hoth, and the ability to use any ship on any level.

Unfortunately, after having played the game that exhaustively, there wasn't too much left to it. I guess after the challenge is over, this game loses much of its appeal until you start a new game. But, since it will take you a nice handful of hours to complete, this game has much more to it than many modern games do.

Cell phone: Motorola MotoZINE ZN5

As my first post, we shall take a look at the appliance that inspired this blog in the first place: the ZN5.

Make: Motorola
Model: MotoZINE ZN5
Carrier: T-Mobile
Owned from 7/2009 - 7/2011

In July 2009, the phone I had carried for the entire duration of high school and part of college had finally kicked the bucket, and it was time for a new phone. After doing some research, this is the phone that finally caught me in a two-year contract.

Introduction
---------------------------
This phone is an odd old relic of a transitional time; a time before the smartphone had fully asserted dominance in the market for premium phones. Rather than touting processor speed and RAM capabilities, this phone was developed in conjugation with the well-known Kodak corporation to create the camera phone to rule all camera phones.

Camera
------------------------------
Since this was the selling point of the camera, this seems like a logical place to start. This phone is essentially a low-end Kodak point-and-shoot camera sans-zoom and with a phone slapped onto it.
Major features of note are:
- 5MP Kodak sensor
- Xenon flash
- Auto-focus (normal/macro)
- 2x/4x digital zoom
- Integrated basic photo editing

Simply put, this is the best phone camera I have ever owned, which is saying a lot since my new HTC MyTouch has a whopping 8MP camera. Photos are crisp and noise free, except when using low-light (high ISO). The xenon flash can tend to over-expose subjects photographed in low light settings, but it is infinitely more useful than the standard LED flash found in most cameras even today. The camera program loads quickly when the lens cover is opened, and shutter lag is minimal, which is surprising considering the phone's tendency to freeze(we'll get into that later.) My only real complaint is the difficulty it has with photographing direct light sources. The protective glass over the lens has some sort of anti-glare coating, which works fairly well. But when photographing a light source (sun or street lamp), the light from that source will bounce back and forth between the lens and the protective covering, causing a number of red "ghost" images to show up in the image. They can be removed with photoshop, but are nonetheless a nuisance. Below are some sample images taken with the phone (all taken by me):

Calls and Text
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Although the camera was the main selling point of the phone, let's not forget that it is still a phone and your only way to communicate with the outside world. So how well does it keep you in the loop?

Calls are acceptable, but not outstanding. It can sometimes be difficult for both parties to hear the call, especially when in areas with spotty reception. Out of the box, it comes with the MotoROKR hands-free set, which offer amazing sound quality and a really, really crappy microphone. So, don't try using those for anything except music. The phone works well enough when held up to your ear, but keep in mind that this phone puts out just about the maximum legally acceptible amount of radiation.

Texting is doable, but only minimally so. The phone was designed without physically separated buttons, so if you are a touch-texter, you only have a series of bumps to navigate by. The bump is very slightly larger on the number 5, which makes it possible to text without looking at the keypad, but this is not a recommended phone for a novice texter (which I was at the time). To further complicate things, the bump on the number 0 broke off after I had the phone for about a year and a half, and the bump on the number 1 broke off about three months later. If that wasn't enough, the phone is notorious for random freeze-ups as it frequently runs out of RAM and has to halt all graphics processing while the CPU catches up. So, expect the phone to freeze for up to 20-30 seconds before catching up to what you were typing. The phone does this when performing other tasks, but expect it to happen most often when composing a message.

Hardware, Software, and GUI

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This phone is simple enough. It sports the standard keypad buttons, two context-sensitive menu buttons, and a directional pad with a central enter button. The phone is locked and unlocked via a switch on the side. It is relatively heavy and very thin, but it has a very good feel if you can hunt down the rubber skin made for the phone. The camera button is located on the side, allowing it to function just like a digital camera when in camera mode. Pushing the camera button or opening the lens cover will cause the camera to go directly into camera mode, although it will yell at you if you attempt to go into camera mode with the lens cover still closed.

Memory is not lacking on the phone, for what it's worth. It can hold as many contacts as you are likely to actually know in real life, and it will generally max out after roughly 3,000 messages. If you are like me and like to hang on to the cute messages that special someone sends you, I would highly recommend organizing them, since the inbox has a tendency to freeze if you store more than a few hundred messages in it. The phone comes with about 350 MB of internal storage, and can support up to a 4GB memory card. This is enough to store a couple thousand photos, so you won't have to worry about constantly deleting the contents of your phone. The phone also has a built-in MP3/M4A player that can put out some high-quality audio, so I would recommend putting those otherwise useless ROKR headphones to good use.

Out of the box, the phone has built in Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities, but without a touch screen, I can't say I'd recommend trying to browse the web on this thing. It doesn't have anything except a couple demos loaded onto it, but there are a number of games and other programs that can be loaded onto the phone, either via USB or BlueTooth. A friend of mine gave me a homebrew Zelda game he downloaded online, but it inexplicably disappeared from my memory card six months later. So just remember to regularly back all your programs and files on a regular basis.


TL;DR
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Bottom line is, this phone was sold as a stand-in for your favorite digital camera, and that is just about all it's good for. It is laggy, buggy and frustrating, but it takes gorgeous pictures.

I am who I am who am I?

What is this blog? Simply put, it is a blog of reviews.

But not just any reviews. I have chosen to call it "Retro Reviews" because I believe that one cannot intimately know anything in and out when given a couple hours to play around with it. What if you were only given one date to decide whether or not to marry a person? Just wouldn't make sense.

So, I will rate things that I have come to know intimately as one can only do after months or years. Reviewed will be everything and anything--old video games, phones I had back in high school, restaurants, literature, and possibly an occasional rambling about nothing in particular.

So (in the odd chance that somebody besides me will be reading this), read; engorge upon my words, and be merry!