Retro Sundays

Metal Slug is one of my favorite arcade based series. There used to be a Metal Slug SNK machine in the corner store in my hometown. I used to spend tons of quarters to beat it in a single sitting. I remember being quite young, must have been around 10 years old. There was also a pool table in this back room of the corner store, lots of the local teenagers hung out, playing pool. I because so go a Metal Slug, that the other kids would pay for my quarters, to help them get farther in the game. It was impossible to get far on your own.

The infamous Super Vehicle

Well the Metal Slug series has been around since 1996 as a SNK produced, Nazca developed arcade machine. It's a classic run and gun story, and the fun factor is very high. I fucking couldn't tell you a thing about the plot or story of the game. Player one plays as Marco Rossi, he is the only character I can remember out of the four. It is clear who the enemies are and it is your job to shoot them in the face, anyway possible. Along the way, are prisoners of war which you can free, in return they grant you bonus items or weapon up grades. Let's not forgot about Metal Super "Super Vehicle", a controllable tank that has a gun turret and a cannon.

They are ridiculous

Metal slug is a 2d left to right side scroller. The objective is to blast your way through hordes and hordes of enemies to get to a boss battle. Enemies include various types of foot soldiers, tanks, mobile artillery, aircraft, boats, armored personnel carriers and more. One thing I really like about this series, was when you didn't come in guns a blazing. The enemies are usually doing leisure activities like; sunbathing or cooking over a fire, often they are startled to see you. The bosses are over exaggerated monstrosities of death. Mostly they are a big ass tank or plane, that has tons of killing power. Sometimes it is enemy character like the boss of the third stage is a big black guy with a chain gun.
 

Nom Nom Nom Braiiinssss......

Metal Slug get high praise for its humor, and fluid hand drawn animation. Metal Slug was so successful, that it spawned six squeals. The squeals come on a varied amounts of ports ranging from arcade machines to the new Metal Slug 7 on Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable, released in 2008. The series in my mind played well and added new vehicles, weapons and enemies including aliens, mummies and zombies. With Metal Slug 2 came some character transformations, like get fat and slow when you eat to much food, or turning into a zombie in the zombie level.

I'd tap that...

I love Metal Slug and I think you should too. Metal Slug Anthology is availible for Playstation 2, PSP, Nintendo DS and a swear I have seen it on X box. There is a good deal now Playstaion Network right now. If you are a Playstation exclusive member you can buy it for 5.99. So go out there and get a copy. Hell, go out and get the newest on as well, it is not included in the anthology.

NAT type.....

I have spent hours on the phone and computer trying to change my NAT type on my router. I am by no means a computer tech, I just watch DIY videos on youtube. What is a NAT type, I do not really know, but mine is NAT type 3. When ever I check my connection on my PS3, it says "When the NAT type is type 3, chat or communication features of games may be restricted." It is hard to hear or talk sometimes, but gameplay seemed good enough.

That was untill SuperTeeJ and I, would try to game together online. We could never join into each others lobbies. First it was Little Big Planet, now Red Dead Redemption. Thing has happened with out friends online with Call of Duty and various other games. Not all the time though, SuperTeeJ was almost impossible to play with. So I called up Sony to see why the fuck I didn't have the best in online gaming. The Sony rep said that it's because I had a NAT type 3 and Playstation is more compatible with type 2 or 1. He said I need to get a hold of my internet provider and router manufacturer, they would have to change it. Then he gave me a bunch of TCP and UDP port numbers.

At this point it was too late to call Telus. A would have to do it in the morning. Now we are at today I called telus and they lead me through my router settings and all they could do was change one option and that didn't work. I call the router manufacturer Gigaset, the guy said he was not the right department and transferred me to the right department which is only open from 3am to noon. He also told me to go to portforward.com. I went there and it seemed really helpful and could fix my problem. I had me back again in my router setting and this time changing ports addresses and making my IP address static. I could change all of the ports I need to except for one, this I think is why that didn't work.

My last resort was to call Geek Squad and ask some questions. They were surprised I want to change my NAT type, Apparently NAT type 3 has been the norm for routers for the last couple of years. Find a place that sells old routers would be hard. He said he has a new router and his Playstation works fine with it. He has a Linksys E300, valued around 140 bucks. I told him how Playstation is more compatible with NAT type 2 or 1. His response was that the Linksys router is most likely backwards compatible. I checked out the stats online for the E3000 and it mentioned a lot about online gaming, dropping Playstation and X Boxs' names.

By the sounds of it, I am going to buy a better router then what I have now. Hopefully that fixes my problem. For now I guess NAT type 3 will have to work.     

Piece of shit

My friends has been talking shit about my blog. SO.... I have decided to give out his gamertag for X box Live. It is Green Goblin69. I do not know if you need spaces or capitals. He says you do. I have no idea why he would give me his gamertag for X Box live. He knows that I don't have an X Box.

Red Dead Redemption Review

  
When I picked up this game, the clerk told me that it was in his top 3, that is a bold statement. As a gamer with 22 years of experience, it is hard to say what are my top 3. He was right to have this game in his top 3 list, for sure. Red Dead Redemption from Rockstar is a unbelievably good game. I am not a huge fan of Grand Theft Auto 3 and up, it was fun to run around, carjack people and go on a killing spree. Just the story and missions really disappointed me. Red Dead Redemption is based after Red Dead Revolver, which was a really good game for PS2 or X Box, and is set in the turn of the twentieth century.

    You start in New Austin, which is located just above Mexico, as John Marston. A former outlaw gone straight, but his past soon catches up with him. Blackmailed to locate three of his former gang members, after a short altercation with Bill Williamson (one of his former gang mate) you are shot and left for dead. Luckly for you, Bonnie Macfarlane discovers you on the side of the trail and brings you to a doctor, saving your life. The story unfolds quite nicely in three or four chapters, depending how you look at it. Being a rockstar game means open world sand box type environment, and I believe it is the best I have seen so far.

    There are element of good and bad in the game, sort of like the Fable series, you can choose if John Marston is good or bad or a little of both. You can help people or just double cross them or better yet, just shoot them in the face. Be careful though, there is a law system in place. Breaking a law with result in Sheriffs and Lawmen that will chase you down and, well either arrest or (remember this is the wild west) kill you. If you manage to outrun the sheriffs and loose your “Wanted” status you will have a bounty on your head. This means Bounty Hunters will also track you. Rockstar did a great job with the Fame and Honor systems. I always play a game like this as “good” as possible for the first run. Sometime you just fuck up and do something evil and the game notices. Fame on the other hand is different, it doesn’t matter how you go about your actions. The more you do the more famous you get and there are perks being a celebrity.

    I have said this before but I am not a western fan, never cared for the movies and there really are not many game devoted to this genre. Red Dead Redemption is by far the best adaptation of a western since Gun Smoke for NES. The under lying theme of lying, cheating, deceit, sex, drugs, and racism still stand true in modern North American life. Want I found in this game is that John Marston is a little too modest and puts his trust into some sketchy characters. Every character in the game, no matter how major or minor, have a great deal of depth and personality. Another thing I really enjoyed was the look of the characters, not as boxy as the GTA series.

    There is so much more then just the main story to indulge in. You kinda have two themes of play, Gunslinger and Rancher. The first few missions are ranched based followed by some hired gun work for Sheriffs and others. Beside the main story there are “stranger” side missions and countless amount of other “hobbies”. Hunting and gathering plants can be very fun and useful. You can search the wild frontier for lost treasure or to clear out gang hideouts. Maybe you want to do some jobs in towns like like night watch or break a horse for an rancher. Try your hand at Bounty Hunting and make better money if you can bring them back alive. If this is all wearing you down, kick back and have a drink, play some poker or blackjack, or catch a cutting edge moving picture (movie) show. There are plenty of mini game through out the game and depending on the mini game, are available in towns only during the day or at night.

    Graphic are great and the environment is stunning. Even the time change in the game felt real. Shops and most missions are playable during the day, while others are only available at night. Some animals are more active at  dust or dawn. It rains and are storms sometimes, the thunder sounds super good on my surround sound. The game world is vast, ranging from the desert of Mexico, bog land that resembles New Orleans, to wooden glens and my favourite a trading post in the mountains (I am Canadian and this reminds me of our old ways). The building and characters are done super well and I have no complains in this department.

    The controls can be a bit tricky at first. There is a few different control schemes for different actions like walking to riding a horse. Shooting in this game has a auto aim, which can be turned off. I suggest you keep it on till maybe your second time through the game. If you are familiar with Red Dead Revolver, Dead Eye aiming is back, as well as duelling. Duelling is toned down since the first Red Dead, I think its nice considering there was a lot of duels in the first one. Don’t worry if you haven’t played the first Red Dead, because it’s not a direct squeal and follows different characters. I did have a few complaints with the controls of John Marston. Just moving around can be a challenge. You can cover yourself from bullets behind almost anything and jump and slide to other spots of cover, it works well. Sometime it can get confusing with the separated crouch button. Also switching weapons is a weird at first and is right next to the aim button. In the middle of a gunfight I sometimes switch weapons instead of aiming, this is not good. Horse riding was a little tough at first, but easy to get used to. While the horses are not too bad, the carriages for some reason I found  are a lot harder. Also with auto aim I have accidentally shot my own horse in the head, trying to shoot at someone else. These are small problems compared to the whole of the game.

The landscape is breath taking

         The soundtrack is pretty amazing too, the music is mainly composed by "Friends of Dean Martinez" member Bill Elm and ex member Woody Jackson along with contributions from various musicians. Jose Gonzalez, Jamie Lidell, and William Elliott Whitmore to name a few. The soundtrack add to the overall feel of the game, and I am actually considering buying it.

    Let’s get to the online multiplayer aspect of the game. Unfortunately, I didn’t play much of the online and had a hard time find other players. Looks like lots of potential in there. When you start, you only have a donkey and not many weapons. There is a “free roam” where you are free to roam the open world and fight gangs and cause chaos for experience points. Experience point are used to level up and earning different characters, horses and call signs to use. There are a few game modes, but really I can’t let you much about them because I haven’t played much. I did do a couple co op missions which are pretty fun. You can find a friends and just have a shoot out with theme in free roam, but it is a lot better to team up and take on gang hideouts or just simple town folk. There are some major different between online and story mode. No money, honor or fame. You can still hunt but not collect the meat and hides, because there are no shops to sell them in. The item menu is gone replaced by your game options where you can invite friends or change game modes. I think my favourite part of online, was the poker. It feels pretty real and not cheaply done like most poker mini games in other titles. All mini games in the story mode carries over to online and kick ass.


    I think it’s time for my final thoughts on the game. Beside my lack of multiplayer experience, this game is fucking off the hook. One thing that really pisses me off is that through out the game, Marston is trying to get his family back and it makes him look like a pussy sometime. There are whores everywhere in this game, back in a time, when it wasn’t unheard of to find some “company” in a saloon and it is no different in the game. If you walk close to a whore she will sometimes offer you a “date”, John always turns it down mentioning he has a wife. Sex does play a good role in this game and spoiler alert! There are a shot of nipples in this game. This game isn’t you the kiddies, there are drug references, sex and plenty of F bombs. One other thing is that the first of three parts in the game is really long and in depth. The second part is shorter and the third is even shorter, when I think it should be the longest.

    Some tips I got for you are; carry lots of medicine for yourself and your horse. Break tons of wild horses, you might luck out and get one of the fastest three early in the game. Hunt lots and pick tons of flowers, and try to complete the Hunter and Survivalist challenges early. Try to do the all the challenges early as there are perks that are really sweet. I did them later in the game and they were not too much help for me at that point. There is sort of a quick save glitch. After hunting and gathering for a while if you die before completing a mission or saving at a safe house you lose everything you worked so hard for. To fix this, buy two cheap horse deeds, when you switch horses the game will save. Also to skip the annoying loot or skinning cut scene, park you horse right on the corpse and you can collect from it with out the cut scene, this is very helpful.

    All in all, this is a brilliant fucking game. Everyone should have this one in there collection. Hell, you’d be a fool to over look this one. After the game is over (it took me around 30 hours to get to 92% complete), the main story is 65% of the game. With online leaderboards for some missions and a ranking system for all mission will give plenty to replay for months. Getting 100% completion is a good challenge and great for once the story is over.  Everything about this game is unbelievable and have very few complaints. Overall I give this game a 9/10. It is almost a perfect game, if the control scheme was 100% it would get a perfect score. One of the best 3rd person action games I have played in quite a while. So with that said, go out and get your cowboy on.

Obsession

There SEGA goes with plugging my Blog

I have be obsessing with my Genesis since I got it and started looking up sites to buy used SEGA games. There is about 10 titles I really want; the Sonics up to Sonic and Knuckles, Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 and a few others. Mainly I want to get the Sega 32x add on for my Genesis and I kinda wish I had a Genesis 1, instead of of the model 2. There are just cooler looking and say 16 bit right on the front. The only reason I want a 32x is for Doom 32x, Doom is pretty close to (if not) my favorite game series. Doom 3 I didn't really impress me much, I wish it looked different or something, the demons needed to look more like the originals. Really missed Pinky, that guy actually gave me nightmares. I will get to the Doom thing later, save a whole entry for Doom. Back to the 32x, I have been looking online and found some floating around 40 to 60 bucks. Going to check the pawn shops too, might luck out. Garage sale would be nice but the town I live in right now is too small and it's a little early in the year for garage sales.

By friday, I am going to try to write my first actually review. I finally completed Red Dead Redemption to about 92%, I have tons to say about it. I am trying to create a structure for this blog. Tuesdays are easy because new releases come out, but I want Friday to be a solid full review. Somewhere in the week I also want a Retro day. Somewhere I give the background on a game or series, something like I have been doing all ready. The number of veiws are are growing and I thank my readers for there time. Please tell any of your gamer pals to check it out. Also comment, let me know what games you are playing right now, or what your old favorites are.

Look at that scary MotherFucker...

I have been looking into recording games from your TV, and found some good stuff. Thinking about starting a youtube or BlogTV channel. Maybe I live stream of me playing the games I am going to review. Plus there are tons of other things I would like to record and put up here on SixteenBit. Like SuperTeeJ and I were playing Little Big Planet and just our banter doesn't belong on a kids game, we also had an epic race on and I pulled a back flip out of nowhere to my death and he high centered on a cloud. It was a nice double fail and got a good reaction. Soon you will see videos.

 

New Sega Genesis

The Original SixteenBit

I got a new, well new to me, Sega Genesis. Got it at King of Trade pawn shop, its pretty fucking sweet there. Tons of vintage consoles, games from Original NES to PS3 move stuff, lots of shit old sports games though. Man, those sport games coming out every year, lots of people get sick of NHL 94 when NHL 95 comes out. There were a few gems like; Altered beast; Sonic 3; Road Rash 2; Legend of Zedla and alike there priced around 20 bucks a piece. I only got Pitfall: Mayan Adventure and NHL 95 (around two bucks), the system with power cord and RF switch (fuck it's been awhile since I seen one of them). Also picked up a AV cord and extra controller. It only ran me about 35 bucks.

Setting up initially, I tried to run the AV from Genesis to my amp receiver and a dual AV cable from the amp to my TV. Didn't work out though, tried a AV few input combinations and holy shit, is the electrical converter huge, covers the power outlet. While flipping through my inputs I noticed there were two antenna options. Couldn't believe this fancy LCD HD TV had this stone age technology. Plugged in the RF switch and everything was good to go, no 7.1 surround sound but it will do. I will figure that out later, sure its possible.

Ok run down of the damage of the what I bought. First we started up NHL 95, two players, my brother and I. There was plenty of confusion at first with what team you were on, then I noticed the one controller's buttons didn't work so well. Still won 3-0 with that handicap, his paddle seemed fine. Big chain pawn shops are great places to get old games hell even new games if you look lots. Most offer a warranty of some kind but be careful shit can still not work, and a lot of the hook ups and accessories can be cheap unofficial knock offs. Still most the time they work good enough though.

I know there is a Nintendo 64 in the closet just no controllers or games, and I swear, I seen a box of Genesis games somewhere and I know Road Rash 2 is in there with a couple of other good ones. Going to be looking through storage tomorrow that's for sure. I am going to be searching more pawn shops and garage sales for some classic gaming also. 

New Releases April 12th 2011

Patapon 3 (PSP)
Release Date: April 12th, 2011
Genre: Strategy
Publisher: Sony Computer Enterainment
Developer: Pyramid
Online Play: 8 versus/ 4 Co op
Local: 8 versus/ 4 Co op

Patapon is bad for a new adventure. This one has some added multiplayer to its musical gameplay. I never really liked this game but always thought the Patapon are awesome looking.

Heavy Fire: Afghanistan (PS3/Wii/Xbox)
Release Date: April 12th, 2011
Genre: Shooter
Publisher: Teyon
Developer: Teyon

I don’t have any info for this game it looks like a squeal to a WiiWare game. I think it’s a shooter using the motion controllers for Playstation Move, Xbox Kinect, and Wii.

 




Rio (PS3/Wii/Xbox)
Release Date: April 12th, 2011
Genre: Party
Publisher: THQ

Another “motion: type party game, but this one is based on the animated movie Rio.  Never even heard of the movie and both are the aimed for the kiddies. Not my cup of tea.



Trackmania Turbo (DS)
Release Date: April 12th, 2011
Genre: Racing
Publisher: City Interactive
Developers: Firebrand Games/ Nadeo
Online Play: 4 Versus
Local Play: 4 Versus


I couldn’t find much information on this on another racing game. A couple racing games coming out this week. Most racing games don’t do to well other then the Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, and Need for Speed series. I will have to ask my DS playing friends to check it out for me.

Squinkies (DS)
Release Date: April 12th, 2011
Genre: Fucking children’s game
Publisher: Activision

This piece of shit from Activision puts you in control of  Squinkie Princess in search of her fucking squinkie fucking friends. With over 250 squinkies to “collect” by winning mini games, such as Squinkies Puzzle, Squinkies Pool, Squinkies Chains, Squinkies Paint or Squinkies Chomp. This game looks terrible, and I doubt I will play it. Never know the Mini Games might be fun.




MotorStorm: Apocalypse (PS3/ Xbox)
Released Date: April 12th, 2011
Genre: Racing
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Evolution Studios
Online Play: 16 Versus
Local Play: 4 Versus


I’ve played an older MotorStorm and it was pretty rad. I am not a huge fan of the off road racing games. Freakstyle was pretty badass though. 16 player online sounds fucking cool. If I see this one in the bargain bin in a few months I will pick it up for sure.

Fantastic Pets (Xbox)
Released Date: April 12th, 2011
Genre: Virtual Pet
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Blitz Games

This pile of puke is a virtual pet game that probably sucks more the Tamagotchi. Tamagotchi was the only pet game out actually and the only that counted your steps and killed your pet if you didn’t feed and clean up after it. It’s exclusively for Kinect and “puts you in the game”, another stupid “motion” game.  

Micheal Jackson The Experience (PS3/Xbox/Wii/DS)
Release Date: April 12th, 2011
Genre: Music
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

This a game for the Jackson fan to spend more money on the dead wacko. Kids can moonwalk and sing Michael’s infamous hits out of tune. Do you know anyone that can sing like MJ? This game is going to be impossible for me considering I can’t sing or dance. 

LEGO Battles: Ninjago (DS)
Release Date: April 12th, 2011
Genre: Battle
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Hellbent Games

Another fucking LEGO game man there is a lot of these coming out lately. Lego Batman was the last one I played and it was pretty fun actually. Being on DS will most likely cut down the gameplay compared to the console versions.

Dungeon Hunter: Alliance (PSN)
Release Date: April 12th, 2011
Genre: Action- RPG
Publisher: Gameloft

Another Gauntlet style Co op Action RPG, these games have been over done. Who has a clue if this will be another piece of shit. If it’s not too pricy I might get it, I liked Gauntlet, fucking classic.