Retro, 8-Bit Team Fortress!

Just recently I gave Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead a whirl, and I really liked it, despite moments of frustration because of my noobish-ness. Well, I liked it so much, I went and tried out Pixel Force: Team Fortress Arcade. Let me just say, it was excellent. It felt like a pretty well made side scrolling, classic shooter, much like Metal Slug and other "run-n'-gun" type affairs of yore. This is something that if you found it in an arcade, it wouldn't in the least look out of place. The visuals are well executed and has that nice, retro graphics look, excellent explosions and animations.. Me gusta!
I mean, just look at it!

Die, robot-scum!

It also feels and controls pretty well, despite the controls being a little goofy. You have access to the regular cast of characters like you'd find in Team Fortress 2, each with their own special guns and abilities and varying stats. In my run-through, I played as the scout, the spy, demo, and heavy. Naturally, scout is fast, maneuverable, and has a nice double jump, but low health. Conversely, heavy is rather slow, can't jump for crap, but a large amount of health. He also wields his mighty chain gun which decimates. The spy was interesting to play as also. Though he only wields a pistol, he can also turn invisible and "one-shot" most enemies with his trusty butterfly knife. Last and certainly not least, I played as the demolitionist. He was especially fun to play as. With his grenade launcher, he can shoot sticky mines which are detonated with the jump button and if you're on top of said mines, they'll launch you into the air for a kind of super jump. It's a really excellent way to both avoid enemy fire, and blow them up with. It felt pretty satisfying. Heh heh heh...
Definitely give this a whirl! If you haven't read the previous post for Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead, that and this were made by Eric Ruth games, a budding game developer. Check out his work. He deserves kudos for sure, so click the pic above. (It's secretly a link.)
Below is my video of myself playing this bad boy if you need some extra convincing to try it out. :]

The Black Mesa Overhaul; Half Life in glorious modern graphics.

Title says it all.. I've been in a Half-Life mood after playing through Episode 2 again, recently. Horrible ending, by the way. Especially considering it's been 5 or 6 years since it came out and neither an Episode 3 or a third Half-Life game has yet to come out and is only hinted at or rumored on occasion. It's truly maddening...
But my post today isn't about that. Rather, it's about Black Mesa. Black Mesa while is the name of the facility in which the events of Half-Life take place, but is also the name of a total overhaul of the original game. Let me just say, it looks freaking fantastic! Holy gerbils it looks great! In case you're unfamiliar with it, the Black Mesa Modification Team took the original game and used the modern Source engine to update and overhaul everything; the texturing, the lighting, effects, soundtrack, et cetera and so forth.

Here's a comparison;

Old (Half-Life)

New (Black Mesa)

Ah, man... Back in the day, I played the crap out of this game and I'm so glad that this was made. It looks gorgeous, sounds gorgeous, and by golly, I love it. I highly recommend trying this out for yourselves. I've only discovered it recently myself, and have only delved into it just a wee bit, but I thought I'd rave about it a little bit. I plan on getting more in depth with it later on.

Here is the Black Mesa site to check out at your leisure; http://www.blackmesasource.com/#/home.


Seriously guys, well worth the very minimal effort it is to click the link and download. Beautiful update to a historic game.
Soon I'll also be revisiting Meteor Madness 3D, Full Throttle, and maybe the original Alone in the Dark (?). And I'll also be launching my vlog, once I get some vital material components.
Well, cheers!

Star Control 2!

Here we go! New post. It's been longer than I've meant for. Still setting up my new computer, waiting for some parts to get here so I can get into this odyssey of mine. As I've said, I wish to bring to you the re-imagined Maniac Mansion and also Full Throttle, among other potential things I've been considering. Again, if you have suggestions, please don't hesitate to comment or message me personally (so far, only one person has contacted me by either means. Yay audience engagement! :D).

Now to the meat of this post. While I've been waiting on parts, and other such prep work, in my free time I have been literally sucked into and old DOS game called Star Control 2. Up until recently, I had largely been unawares of this classic until I had seen a Yogscast video of it that was sent to me by a colleague. Rather a video of a rebooted Star Control 2 being called The Ur-Quan Masters.
Lemme tell ya; this game is so cool! So hype!!

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

I mean, how sweet is that pic right there?! It's hyper-sweet!! It's also a link to the site so you can download and try it for yourself.
I won't give away too much. (I hate spoilers too guys..) Essentially though, Earth and much of the galaxy is enslaved by the Ur-Quan, and it is your duty to emancipate your species and others from Ur-Quan tyranny. I love the lore and feel of the story. It's so rad in a retro B-movie sort of way, with its dynamic array of alien species you can come in contact with, the stylized look in all its cheesiness (the good sort of cheese), the many different interactions the aliens have with you and also amongst themselves, et cetera. It draws from many sources to create a great science fiction experience.
Lore and aliens and what-not aside, the game play mechanics are awesome! You captain your own ship, which you name and customize with its own upgrades and compliment of escort ships. You have to manage your fuel and crew numbers as well. To fund all this, you're required to go to various planets in the many, many galaxies within the game and harvest minerals and resources. You can also acquire other upgrades and items through trading with other species, and also through diplomacy.
It's great, just great. Don't believe me? Go download it and try it out! I don't know if you will, but I had to monkey with the settings for it to look good, and I messed with the control scheme a little bit too as it was a little awkward to fly with the arrow keys, and fire my weapon with Enter..

Anyways, I should have material coming next week when I should be all set up, but school just started back up so we'll see.
Cheers mates!
The Elusive Red Herring

Ps Happy Martin Luther King Day y'all!