BP’s Tears In Rain

So there I was… (re)playing Snatcher (Sega CD) on my “unleashed” PSP, when I suddenly I noticed: life imitates art once again.

And like if that wasn’t enough…

I didn’t remembered that detail, maybe because it has been so many years since the last time I played. Oh, well… my personal experiences just made Snatcher became an even better game. Enough with Metal Gears! Kojima should re-do this on the same style as Heavy Rain.  It would be awesome!

Finally! After years of wait I finally had the chance to experiment After Burner Climax. And what’s better: on my own PS3 (thus eliminating the need to go to Japan to play this rarity). Sega really did a great job: Climax is all that I could hope for: it’s fast, looks gorgeous and - hold your breath - has the classic soundtrack avaliable (eat it, Black Falcon!). Not only that, but I can access the XMB to listen to my music which is something very few PS3 games permits. This way not only I can play Climax with its remixed and classical (1987) soundtrack, but now I can listen to all the arrange versions that I have. Yes, you could say that I’m an After Burner fanboy.

I loved every aspect of the game and need to thanks Sega. The only thing missing is the classic refueling cutscene where you land your plane on a runway, featuring cameos from Hang-on and Outrun. By the way: After Burner Climax was made in 2006, same year Sega released Outrun 2006 - which is also very cool. Now, if only Sega could read my wish and release Daytona USA (Dreamcast) on the PSN… It would be the ultimate climax!

Nessa última semana aproveitei algumas noites livres para revisitar Unreal, jogo ao qual dediquei muito do meu ócio na adolescência, especialmente através do já extinto site Café NaPali. São anos desde a ultima vez que encarei o singleplayer, portanto a experiência trouxe muitas e agradáveis lembranças que estavam esquecidas.

Se Half-Life é como assistir a um bom filme, Unreal é como ler um bom livro. É uma longa e solitária jornada numa terra desconhecida, embalada por uma espetacular trilha sonora (ouça exemplos aqui, aqui e aqui) e visuais até hoje inspiradores (mesmo sendo um jogo lançado ha mais de 10 anos atrás). Não é a toa que passei tanto tempo jogando e filosofando sobre Na Pali. Se pareço exagerado, apenas leia alguns comentários nos links acima e você verá que existe uma legião de apaixonados. Unreal é o fps que mais conquistou minha imaginação.

O jogo é tão bom que tirou a Epic do limbo do anonimato e a colocou lado a lado com a ID, de Quake. Uma pena que a épica produtora ja tenha declarado não possuir interesse em um novo Unreal singleplayer, sendo o seu foco agora Gears of War - que embora seja muito bom, passa longe de ser uma experiência irreal (não resisti ao trocadilho).

Talvez até seja melhor assim: numa era dominada por consoles é difícil imaginar como seria Unreal, pois os fps de ação de hoje parecem ter estabelecido uma fórmula um tanto quanto cinematográfica: muitas cutscenes e eventos “scriptados”, pouca oportunidade de exploração (salvo FarCry e companhia), chitchat constante e trilha sonora que aparece apenas em momentos específicos. Isso tudo não é ruim, porém acredito que não funcionaria com Unreal e acabaria completamente com a imersão que o jogo possui. Um bom exemplo disso é o próprio Unreal II, “continuação/spin-off” que não aproveitou nada do que o primeiro tinha de bom. Uma nova versão só funcionaria se o material original fosse seguido a risca, e isso significaria ignorar a tendência atual de transformar os “first person shooters” em “first person hollywood blockbusters”. Dito isso, é bem provável que o novo Unreal - seja ele remake ou continuação - viverá apenas em nossas imaginações.

Em algum momento dessa semana devo reinstalar o Unreal Tournament para matar a saudade. Ouvi dizer que ainda existem muitos servidores no ar repletos de jogadores nostálgicos. Quem sabe um dia o Café NaPali não abre novamente suas portas? Não para ser um portal de notícias sobre a série, mas sim um tributo a uma época de ouro da minha vida.

YES! It’s hard to express my huge satisfaction the moment Sega confirmed that After Burner Climax is coming to PSN. It was the motivation I needed to start a project I had in mind since a long time:

After Burner and Daytona USA are the games which soundtracks I have “collected” most different versions/arranges. After Burner’s tune is locked in my mind since the earlier 8bit days, when I had it on my Sega Master System, and from the way it looks I’ll still listen to it when I became older and older (thanks God I’m not the only one who loves video game music).

On a little, curious-coincidence side note: two weeks ago my father bought a TomTom gps that offers the option to customize it’s interface. Can you imagine which image I replaced the car icon with?

Yup. That’s it. I think my mind was telling me that something big was coming ;) Get ready!

Updated: One week later here I am again. I needed to make a video with the “Final Take Off” song, which is my personal favorite. Now I truly feel the mission has been accomplished. LOL!

Well, I spent this last week playing the fabulous, marvelous, 2009 game-of-the-year (by anticipation) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. All the hype is justified. That’s a game you have to play at least once in your life. While all the levels are somehow cool and wonderful, the game features an stage were you are aboard of a train going from Nepal to Tibet.

The experience is spectacular, the visual is jaw dropping and the action is amazing! You even have an Hind - that badass Russian copter - blowing up the carts in an desperate attempt to kill you. It’s simply breathtaking!

And you know what more? I think that’s the first time I ever see a train stage where you don’t travel on a straight line. Uncharted’s train goes right, left, up and down. It travels through jungle, a tunnel and mountains covered with snow. Each part of the travel, however, is a closed circuit and you can notice the repetition after a few minutes if you just stand there, watching it – and believe me, you will want to stop playing to see.

That “WOW” feeling that this stage gave reminded me of some other (older) 3D games that also featured some kind of action aboard of a train in movement.  If Uncharted 2 has the most impressive train stage ever (until 2009 at least), the games below certainly preceded its coolness and somehow managed to stay on my mind.

- Blood (1997)
The Phantom Express is the third level of the first episode in Blood – a gory funny crazy game (made by the cool Monolith studio) where you control Caleb - a sarcastic anti-hero with a “strong bent towards sadism”.

The game uses the same engine as Duke Nukem 3D, so it was very limited, but with the right tricks developers pushed 2.5D to the extreme. Oh boy, I miss those days. Your objective here is simply to stop the train and kill everyone in your way.

- No One Lives Forever (2000)
The NOLF series is one of my favorites. Monolith strikes again with an intelligent game, mixing action, stealth, great humor and memorable characters (please Monolith, give us a new game already).

While the train stage on NOLF doesn’t have really remarkable visuals, it’s humorous dialogue deservers a mention. Here, Cate Archer needs to locate an agent and then find H.A.R.M.’s engineer.

- Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004)
If there’s one level where Pandora Tomorrow really shines, it is the third stage (again). Sam Fisher invades an high speed train going from Paris to Nice. He needs to go undetected like a ninja, keeping the low profile while setting up high your adrenaline.

You crawl underneath it, go inside, and even must avoid being hit by incoming trains while hanging outside. It’s really amazing, and it must be one of my favorite missions of all the Splinter Cell games. No doubt about it, Uncharted 2 must have taken some hints from this one.

- Gears of War (2006)
The last stage of this bloody epic (pun) game has you aboard of a train that is carrying a bomb which is humanity’s last hope of defeating the enemy. Unfortunately, the train is already infested with them.

There’s no doubt that Uncharted gameplay (or at least part of it) was based on Gears (that while wasn’t the first game to introduce the cover system; it’s the one who perfected it). Find cover, shoot, advance, cover again. Amazing graphics, great speed, nice action and soundtrack. It’s a shame that I still didn’t had the chance to play the sequel.

And that concludes my post. I know there must be dozens of other good levels with trains, especially on the consoles that I have never played (between the Saturn and the PSP/PS3, I’ve been playing only on PC). There’s also the case of trains featured on multiplayer games, which is the case of Unreal Tournament and it’s assault map High Speed. That, however, is stuff for another post, some other time… right now the only thing I want to do is go back to Uncharted. Yup, it is that good!

It’s certainly good to be a gamer those days. While the magic isn’t the same (after all, we will always think that the best times were those when we were younger), at least now we have the technology to have state of the art graphics and sound, and the ability to play with people from all around the world without leaving your coach.

I’ve been raised with a computer at home since my early years. My father always liked it, and as a matter of fact I remember playing games on his MSX when I was just 4 or 5 years old.  One of those games is called Thexder.

Its a side scroller from 1985 that mix shmup and strategy. The action is good, the graphics were also, and the music is catchy. The first time I ever heard Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata was in Thexder’s game over screen (with all it’s 8bit glory). I liked this game so much that since then, when I hear that sad song, the image of a fallen robot always come to my mind.

Nowadays, thanks to services like Playstation Network and Xbox Live, a lot of simple-yet-enjoyable downloadable games are coming back to life through HD remakes that bring tears to my eyes. Thexder Neo is one of those games. Released only on the PSP, it’s a must buy to anyone who ever liked the original. I must also say that they kept the classic song on the first stages and Moonlight Sonata, which is fantastic!

But the good stuff doesn’t stop there. Last week Digger HD was released. Again, that’s an old game (Digger was released in 1983) that I’ve used to play with my father for hours and hours on a computer with monochromatic monitor. Also, Digger introduced me to the Popcorn song. The new remake doesn’t have it, but you can set a custom soundtrack with any mp3 that you have. On my case, I  made a playlist with half a dozen Popcorn versions that I have.

My father, who is now 51 years old and never played games anymore (he says its too complicated to him), loved it and now we play Digger HD on cooperative mode! Really great! KUDOS for Sony, Backbone and Square. Bring back the old gems!

Não que seja um plágio descarado, mas tenho a impressão de que alguém da equipe do SBT responsável pelas vinhetas do Bom Dia e Companhia andou jogando Little Big Planet.

Não o culpo. Realmente, Sackboy e companhia são demais! Get It Together!

Exatos 15 minutos antes do dia 15 de agosto terminar eu conquistei o último Paradise Award. Antartica, uma das mais de 80 musicas custom que eu deixo como trilha sonora randômica, começou de forma épica no exato momento em que o DJ Atomica anunciou o meu feito.

Tudo orquestrado pelo acaso. Data de expedição: 01/01/09. Data em que a completei: 15/08/09. E assim terminou um dia bacana :)

Não posso mais dizer que nunca ganhei nada em sorteios. Fui contemplado com uma música gratuita (e de minha escolha) na Music Store do Rock Band. Tudo bem que a promoção sorteou 7.500 músicas e que o valor do prêmio é de apenas US$ 2.19, mas o que importa mesmo é o “magic moment” :)

Metal Gear Solid é uma saga longa, com jogos que tem mais tempo de cutscenes e diálogos do que de próprio controle do personagem. Por isso mesmo acabam dizendo que é uma espécie de filme interativo, e de fato os jogos possuem cenas de ação melhores que muitos enlatados de Hollywood. Se você não tem oportunidade ou paciência para jogá-los mas gostaria de “assistí-los”, The Legacy of Metal Gear Solid vai parecer como uma bênção vinda do céu.

É um projeto feito por um fã que reúne todas as cutscenes, bem como alguns trailers, músicas, speedruns etc de todos os jogos da saga em 19 (dezenove) DVDs. O melhor: tudo disponível pra download (porém fico imaginando até quando). Apenas através desse projeto tenho a chance de ver todas as cutscenes de Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, remake feito para o Game Cube e que não tive a oportunidade de jogar. Fenomenal o que algumas pessoas dedicadas (e com tempo livre) fazem!

Quanto à parte final da saga, Kojima foi audaz o suficiente para amarrar todas as pontas soltas, e conseguiu até mesmo fazer com que a história de MGS2 fizesse sentido. Não só, produziu a luta final entre arqui-rivais mais memorável e emocionante que eu já vi em mídia audiovisual. Epic win!