The Need For Speed

In the year 1994, the world wasn't ready for the 1st & best racing game!

3....2.....1............goooo!!!!!!!!!!

In this game, like most other racing games, there isn't a plot.

Just hit the gas, be ready when to hit the brakes, and watch out not to hit to many cars!

GAMEPLAY: Ever just wanted to run over a road sign or go way past the speed limit? How about turning a car upside down? This is one of the best racing games I've ever played. It is quite challenging. In most racing games, you're usually at the front of the pack within 10 seconds (or so I think), but in this wild game, it is hard to get in first place for even a second. Especially on the harder courses. There are 3 levels of difficulty. The easy courses that don't have too many sharp turns and stuff like that are City, and Rusty Springs. It isn't horribly hard to do well in these courses. The moderate difficulty courses are Coastal, and Autumn Valley. These are a bit more challenging and difficult. The very difficult courses are Alpine, and Vertigo Ridge. Throughout these courses, there are different cars to choose from for different courses (ex. a Ferrari, Dodge Viper, etc.) On some courses (Rusty Springs, Autumn Valley, and Vertigo Ridge, there is a track that you do a certain number of laps around it. However in others, (City, Coastal, and Alpine), you must meet a checkpoint and continue onto the next segment. If you are an expert racer, you might make it in the top times (set by computer). In this game, there are also different modes: Tournament, Head to Head, Time Trial, and more.

GRAPHICS: These graphics are actually, believe it or not, pretty good. It isn't a cartoon race with the tiger and the dog and Mario and stuff. These are real cars in the game. Sports cars. During gameplay, there are small colored arrows above the cars so you can see where they are and how far ahead or behind they are. Sometimes, it's hard to see them. You can see tire marks of where cars have skidded. The track, scenery, and background is well done too.

SOUND: There isn't really any good music or sound effects. Well, there's the obvious sound effects such as cars banging or hitting fences, signs. There is also the turning sound effects and stuff. Nothing major.....

CONTROLS: Very good. Press the ''A'' button to put the first gear on and the arrows to turn, speed up, or slow down.

FUN FACTOR & CHALLENGE: It's fun to play this game but it won't be addictive to you. You'll probably only play it for a week or so and move on. This process will probably repeat itself many times because it is hard to just stay away from this game for a long period of time. This is very challenging to get in first place. Maybe a bit too so. Even for expert racers. I have never finished first in Coastal, Alpine, or Vertigo Ridge, however, it isn't too difficult to place second.

OVERALL: Get it or forget about it? It depends. If racing games are your type, then buy it. If racing games are not great but good, rent before buying it. If racing games are horrible, you think, don't buy or rent. Personally, I love racing games and this one is great!

NAME: THE NEED FOR SPEED

SYSTEM: 3DO, PC, Sega Saturn

Holy crap! An actual update!

A couple bits of news for everyone.

The blog has been updated with a new style & look! Enjoy the new design of GCES!

The older posts will be updated soon to fit the new design!

I have created a search option for the posts. It's pretty rudimentary, but it will allow you to search titles of the posts if you can't find them in the pages above!

The wallpaper page will be updated soon with new walls.

New pages will be released soon for better navigating!

Also, with the last game marathon, Megaman, many fans of the Blue Bomber have sent me there drawings and fanmade pictures over the email as a thanks for the reviewing of the old and new games, so I decided to make an additional page, FAN ARTS. There will be all the fan arts of the games, not just Megaman, but also other games too!

I would also want to thank my best friend for helping me to actually make this blog really cool!

You could find him on his own blog,  or look at the left of the blog, there you'll find the feeds from his blog.

I would like to thank all the people who followed  my blog and for sending me there suggestions on the comments and via the email. 

Thank you!

Serious Sam - The Random Encounter

Random stuff only happens to those "special" people...

In 2001, the world was treated to a little gem of a game called Serious Sam: The First Encounter. It was an over the top shooter that harkened to such classics as Quake and Duke Nukem in which you could literally shoot 1000s of enemies in a level. The game was successful enough that it garnered two sequels. In November, Serious Sam 3 will be released and leading up to that we have seen several indie titles come out, the latest of which is Serious Sam: The Random Encounter.

TRE picks up after the first game with Sam returning from the past and saying that the first encounter didn’t go so well. So, he’s sent to the future to battle the evil alien menace, Mental. But you don’t come to Serious Sam for its story, you come for its gameplay. TRE ditches Sam’s normal shooting mechanics, though, for 2D pseudo turn-based RPG/bullet-hell shooter action while still trying to retain the vast number of enemies and blatantly self-referential humor that the franchise is known for. So how does TRE handle its 8-bitification and the jump to RPG? The answer is “well.” But it’s also a good thing the game only cost $5.

If you’ve ever played a Serious Sam game then you know that one of the key aspects to it is running backwards. TRE takes this and tries to translate it this new style of gameplay. Like many turn-based RPGs, TRE features both a top-down view of the world and an up-close battle mode. In the top-down portion, you move through the map in normal fashion, picking up new party members and weapons along the way. In the battle portion of the game, Sam and his friends line the right side of the screen running backwards, shooting enemies that come from the left side of the screen. Your only direct control over Sam is vertical movement. In this way it’s kind of like an inverted side-scroll shoot ‘em up.

Now, in true Serious Sam style, the game will literally throw a hundred enemies at you at a time, thus it’s not a true turn-based game in the sense that you attack, then your enemy attacks. Instead, the game pauses every 5 seconds for you to change weapons, heal, and whatnot. Then, when you’re done, you continue to fight for another 5 seconds. This is where the strategy in the game comes in. Some weapons like the Rocket Launcher only fire once per round while others like the Revolver fire multiple times. Some shoot in a spread while other fire in a straight line. Some weapons may be useful for one 5 second period and not another and healing means that you cannot fire at all. So you have to decide which characters need which weapons or power-ups for your given situation.

Just like TRE is not quite truly turn-based, it’s not really an RPG either. There’s no character development what so ever. This was the biggest bummer for me. The closest thing you will get to leveling up is finding new weapons and power-ups such as extra damage or the ability to revive a fallen teammate.

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter features a classic 8-Bit art style which suits its gameplay well. There’s nothing that really stands out as being particular awesome, but it’s well done all the same. The animation of the characters is very nice and it’s really quite cool to see Mental’s horde 8-Bitified. The soundtrack is equally retro-inspired and is one of my favorite parts of the game.

TRE is a short lived experience that, for most people, will last between one and two hours. This is a good thing considering I have literally explained all that TRE has to offer. It would have been nice to see the game last a little longer, but that would have required some sort of character progression to deepen the gameplay. As it stands, the length and depth definitely complement each other.

Once you beat the campaign, you unlock Endless Mode, which allows you to fight an infinite number of enemies. But it’s not just you running backwards without stopping. You start in a top-down world like all the others and every time you move, you enter battle mode. As you complete waves of enemies, you get more weapons and power-ups. Though I enjoyed the main game, I didn’t have much desire to play Endless Mode.

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is a fun, albeit short game that delivers where Serious Sam games try too, with shallow but dumb fun. The humor is great, graphics are nice and the game is fun while it lasts. TRE doesn’t do a whole lot, but what it does is fun and I would say that that fun is well worthy of a purchase especially if you’re already a fan of Sam.

NAME: SERIOUS SAM - THE RANDOM ENCOUNTER

SYSTEM: PC

Serious Sam - Double D

Double the gun... wait... a GUN on a GUN? Oh Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaah! More the FUN!

It would seem absurd to proclaim that FPS games are a dying breed, considering it’s nearly impossible to go one month without one of those games getting released. For mainstream shooters like Call of Duty or Halo, the market is as thriving as ever. Rather, the statement better applies to the style of FPS games as they were known in the 90’s: long stretches of corridors filled with thousands of enemies and thousands more of ammunition to mow them down. Back then, the FPS genre cared less about realistic cinematics and more about providing an adrenaline rush that no energy drink could replicate (they didn’t exist at the time, after all).

With Duke Nukem’s long-awaited return alongside the desire to see him disappear forever, the onus stands on Serious Sam’s broad shoulders to soldier on the spirit of the 90’s with his bullet-soaking series in the upcoming release of Serious Sam 3: BFE. But before that…he’s going 2D.

It takes an Indie developer to make an Indie 2D platformer, so Croteam has hired Mommy’s Best Games to handle Sam’s not-so-serious transition from First Person Shooter to 2D Side Scroller, a move that has been handled almost seamlessly; everything that has made the Serious Sam series stay relevant has been reproduced faithfully here, including the most important feature: mowing down endless legions of enemies with highly destructive weapons.

While the shift to 2D offers a slight advantage in seeing which direction enemies will be teleporting from,  Double D is no less frugal in bombarding you with things to kill than its 3D predecessors; Baddies have a habit of teleporting out of thin air to attack Sam, and in addition to series mainstays like the ocular Gnarrs or the screaming Suicide Bombers, a new host of oddball opponents have been created for this game, and many seem like some fourth grader’s heavy-metal inspired fantasy; you’ve got monkeys on jetpacks throwing banana grenades, dinosaurs outfitted with lasers and rockets, caterpillars wearing berets and wielding automatic weapons, and living pancakes that explode on impact and bleed syrup.

Depending how you react to any of the enemy descriptions above, this is either the most awesome game you’ve ever heard of, or the stupidest. Regardless, there’s no denying that the action is as exhausting and head-banging as it ever was, and the guns are just as deadly…or deadlier in fact, thanks to the new Gun Stacker mechanic. By collecting the necessary components, Sam can stack one gun on top of another, allowing simultaneous fire and extra damage, with up to six guns capable of being stacked at one time, in any combination so desired. Want to have a tower of tommyguns, or a stack consisting of rocket launchers, lasers, and grenades? Perhaps an all-chainsaw combination with a flamethrower on top, just for kicks? There’s no real strategic element to any of the combinations, just stick with whatever looks cool and burn through that ammunition.

Speaking of shooting, Double D goes for a Contra-style system of aiming, though heavily modified to allow precise aiming in every single direction while also being able to move and shoot at the same time. As an alternative to FPS controls, it works just fine, but it can oftentimes be difficult to make out which way the target reticule is aiming at when the screen is practically bursting with exploding enemies, exploding grenades, and pretty much everything else that explodes. Enemies range from small and insignificant to massively taking up several screens at once, and even with a combination of the two the game never hitches in the framerate, thanks to the simplistic but effective Monty-Python-like parallax that virtually stitches characters and backgrounds together. Curiously, an option for 1920×1080 resolution does not currently exist in the options, and must instead be programmed manually. There is also an extra amount of story than is per the norm for Serious Sam, with talking heads exchanging corny jokes and one-liners throughout. It’s dumb, but doesn’t try to beat you over the head with its simplicity like Duke Nukem Forever.

Ultimately, that’s what defines Serious Sam as a whole: A dumb, thrilling action experience filled with lots of (often humorous) secret areas, collectible challenges, and varied level designs that takes Sam across several time periods, from ancient Egypt to the Jurassic era. Few shooters exist nowadays to simply play on a gamer’s need for visceral entertainment, and Double D proves that there’s still a market for mid-school (which would be where I would place gaming in the 90’s) shooters, regardless of dimension.

NAME: SERIOUS SAM - DOUBLE D
SYSTEM: PC, XBOX 360

Serious Sam - Kamikaze Attack!

aaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

If I have one single gaming kryptonite, it's the endless runner. Since Canabalt, I have put my mitts on nearly every single one on every device I can in every type and iteration on the same theme, from Robot Unicorn Attack to Jetpack Joyride. Put one of these in my hands, and I will not leave the house, eat or accomplish anything productive. Be-Rad Entertainment's Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! [99¢] takes the idea of the endless runner, then packages it with a series of smaller levels. While most people are probably hoping for a more true-to-form Serious Sam experience on iOS, you'll instead be taking on the role of one of the Headless Kamikaze's here, chasing after Sam in hopes of taking him out with your exploding hands. The game comes as part of the Serious Sam indie series, which tasks independent developers with taking on their own version of the universe, Mommy Games and Vlambeer have already taken their shot and now its Be-Rad's turn.

As is the case with most running games, to finish a level you'll have to avoid bouncing bombs, flying missiles, and oddly placed shrubbery on your journey. To do so, you'll get a nice little double-jump and a hefty kick, but don't kick too much, because it'll add to your rage meter causing you to explode prematurely. It's a good thing you get several lives to complete your attack on Sam. It's a bit similar to Be-Rad's other runner game, Lame Castle, but with a thick coating of Serious Sam -- which basically just means it's considerably more violent. Like most running games, your goal is to run to the right, tapping the left side of the screen makes you jump and tapping the right side makes you kick. You'll have around 40 objective based missions that are nice and short, and after the first couple missions you'll unlock an endless mode and eventually a frog kicking mode (which incidentally, is exactly what it sounds like).

The controls are far looser than most runner games and offer you a much higher chance to correct your mistakes. The double-jump helps a lot, as does the kick -- it's not just about avoiding obstacles, it's also about destroying them. It's helpful in a lot of ways, and the looser nature of the whole thing makes it a far more relaxing runner than most. Each of the standalone missions comes with secondary objectives as well. These tend to be one of just a few different types with a different numerical goal attached. For instance, you'll need to kick thirty frogs in one level, or kick sixty rockets in another. These are points modifiers, which help up your overall score on the leaderboards. When you complete the bonus goals and certain levels, you'll also unlock permanent boosts like the number of lives you get or how quickly your rage meter grows. What's going to immediately catch you is the visuals, which have a hand-drawn look to them and seem like they were created entirely with a colored pencils and a scissors. It works to great effect, even though the environments or obstacle types don't really change much throughout the experience.

Which is the biggest problem with Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! You can't really criticize a runner game for lack of variety, but since this one comes packed with smaller, mission based sections, it does feel like they could have done more to diversify the experience. The endless mode doesn't really need much, it's a fine endless runner, but since the objective based stuff feels like a great opportunity to really change up the experience, it's too bad it didn't happen. You'll get the occasional ribbing and off-the-wall humor of the Serious Sam series in the form of sound effects and the incidental visual cue, and as a weird standalone package, Kamikaze Attack works well. Running around without a head and with bombs for hands is far more fun than you'd think, and even if the game doesn't ramp up the challenge as much as most of its ilk, the total quirk and oddness of it all should make for an enjoyable experience for most.

NAME: SERIOUS SAM - KAMIKAZE ATTACK

SYSTEM: ANDROID & iOS DEVICES

Serious Sam

A really special game for your XBOX!

Serious Sam started life as standard FPS game on the PC. I first came in contact with it while trying out Second Encounter on a friend’s PC. The graphics were very detailed and the effects were cool and all but I felt like I was playing the PC version Turok with Duke Nukem as the main character. Now the Xbox version has arrived and after combining the two Serious Sam games, redrawing the weapons and adding what could possibly be one of the best additions to a game ever you suddenly have on hell of a blaster.
Basically you play as a guy called Sam Stone who has to travel back in time to find the Holy Grail to aid him in defeating his nemesis Mental and his hordes of minions that have their eyes set on invading the earth. That’s all you need to know really. 

GAMEPLAY: Nearly flawless, it plays just like any FPS out there but the control is tighter than most. Every weapon has a specific function and every enemy has a specific tactic. The real innovation here is the new scoreboard and lives system. Rather than abusing the quicksave/quickload system found in pretty much every PC game out there today you are encouraged to keep playing thanks to the fact that you now have lives. With this simple addition the game is taken above and beyond all it’s PC cousins. It’s like playing Metal Slug or Contra in 3D! You can play with or without auto-aim (default is on), it really helps to play the game with the auto-aim on since the marker will appear and help you know if you are aiming close enough or not. I played through the entire game with the auto-aim off on the normal setting and there’s was only a select few spots where I was tempted to turn it on to make the fight more fair and save lives. 

OK, where does he keep his weapons anyway? Pockets?

Most stages in the first part of the game is made like gauntlets. The game makes sure you are never bored by throwing out hordes of enemies for you to dispose of. It’s action, it’s fun, it’s repetitive and absolutely addictive. While blasting enemies and picking up weapons you can read about them in the console mode and while you might miss out on this feature at first it is actually quite entertaining. You find out about mutated chickens with lasers attached, an alien race that lost their skin due to sun tanning too much and why you should opt for the twin pistols even though they are the only weapon you actually have to reload. 

The only thing keeping this from getting a ten is the fact that enemies tend to get a lot of cheap shots at you since most of them tend to teleport into the stage and often ending up behind you which is annoying at times. There’s also a few instances where there are tons of enemies standing on buildings and constantly firing at you causing you to both lose too many lives and disrupting your field of vision, this is a rare occasion though. 

GRAPHICS: Not as detailed as the PC version and the v-sync is turned off (must be a first for console games) causing the picture to tear every now and then. It is not a big problem though and the framerate is smooth even in multiplayer. The graphics are very sharp and has loads of detail in them and while the animation of the enemies are a bit dull you won’t think twice about it when you’re blasting away. The game movies have been improved and feature some of the funniest clips of animation I’ve seen in a videogame. Many of them are so cool you will play the stage several times just to see the movies between the stages. 

SOUND: One of the games strongest points. Much better than the original the music is truly great and many of the tunes are memorable. The music picks up when there are enemies around and all the sound effects are just right. This game is just truly amazing in the sound department and you will have a hard time keeping the volume down. Every now and then you will hear one of Sam’s witty comments that only adds to the experience and unlike other games he won’t bore you with them. Instead there’s rare occasions when you hear Sam talking and you will be looking forward to them instead of the other way around. 

ENDURANCE: This game will take quite a while to complete but even after that you will keep coming back, the ending really leaves you wanting more, in a good way. There’s a secret difficulty to unlock, places you want to visit again and movies that just has to be seen at least twice. There’s also an astronomical amount of secrets in the game, everything from hidden bonuses to secret stages. You haven’t lived until you’ve taken on the mini bull challenge, heard the “jingle bells” rock in the snow stage and visited Pumpkin Field at least once. Add a friend and you can play co-op which works extremely well. Add another and you can have deathmatches. This game could very well last forever in the right hands. 

OVERALL: One of the best FPS games on the Xbox, period. If you already have Halo and TimeSplitters 2 (the best FPS games currently available on console hands down) then this should be next on your list. There’s simply no reason to play the PC counterpart if you have an Xbox since this version is so much better. If you only have a PS2 or GC then you are really missing out on something and you might have to settle for the inferior, but at least cheaper, PC version. If you’re going to pay full price for one game this year, this one game you won’t be disappointed with. 

NAME: SERIOUS SAM

SYSTEM: XBOX

Serious Sam HD - The Second Encounter

HD Remake - The Second Encounter!

With all the HD remakes of classic games coming out, gamers have a chance to revisit the classic games of generations past, witnessing the foundations that laid out the current games we presently enjoy as well as experiencing antiquated but still enjoyable gaming mechanics. But what today’s players may find most surprising of the classic games are the brutal, if downright impossible difficulty found in these old games. Companies back then were less concerned about catering to the casual crowd and more interested in challenging their hardcore audience with as many controller-tossing obstacles as their fresh minds could conceive.

For the current generation of FPS fans, the high def remake of Serious Sam was probably the biggest proverbial kick in the teeth; focusing less on immersive environments and realistically modeled weapons, the Serious Sam games primarily focused on nonstop, visceral action, literally cramming each area with aliens, demons, cyborgs, skeletons, and every other inhuman horror that has defined the FPS genre since the ‘90s. It was brutal, it was loud, and it was a hell of a good time. Looking to strike while the iron is hot, developer Croteam has quickly released the second of Sam’s HD hijinks, a direct sequel that is no less serious but even more chaotic than his first.

Serious Sam HD - The Second Encounter leaves the titular hero still stuck in the past, momentarily sidetracked from his quest to eliminate alien overlord Mental. Beginning in Central America, Sam must travel through historic civilizations and temples, collecting ancient artifacts to help him succeed in his mission while fighting off the near limitless armies of Mental’s army. From reanimated corpses (many with bombs attached to their headless bodies) to rampaging bulls and multi-limbed hellspawns, everything but the kitchen sink itself (sometimes they do, really) is thrown in Sam’s path, but with the help of some paradoxical weapons picked up along the way, those old Mayan temples will soon be packed with the charred chunks of unfortunate aliens.

On a technical level, Serious Sam follows the simple FPS conventions that have been commonplace since the early days of Doom and Duke Nukem; players will navigate huge outdoor areas and labyrinthine temples, often having to find an obscure switch or item in order to open the locked doors leading further on. Naturally, a host of enemies stand in the way of your progress, but to describe them as relenting would be an understatement: enemies will routinely appear and attack with almost every step you take, and while their patterns are basic enough to figure out, their strength lies in their numbers. The sheer volume of adversaries pouring out of the woodworks can become quite exhausting, but also exhilarating. In most games, this kind of chaos would be reserved for a game’s endurance run, but for Serious Sam, its only level 3.

It’s a good thing your arsenal has increased, as taking down the scourges of the universe has never been so satisfying. You’ve got the standard pistols and shotguns, along with rocket launchers, miniguns, and an old-timey portable cannon, but the sequel tosses in a few familiar-but-welcome additions including a chainsaw and flamethrower. Knowing which weapon is most effective against each enemy type goes a long way, but keeping your health up and your ammo plentiful is the real key to survival. Fortunately, there are ample supplies of both scattered throughout the area, but even that may not be enough to deal with this horde of foes. Fortunately, there are tons of hidden supplies and weapons found under each suspicious looking nook and cranny, but for every extra helping you stumble upon, an extra batch of monsters are waiting to attack your freshly healed hero. This is one game that makes you work for every ammo you find, and every step you take.

The “HD” in the title isn’t just for show, as the colorful environments and re-textured models results in an eye-popping experience (filled with plenty of other explosive body parts). It may not measure up to the graphical splendor of today’s FPS games, but the real priority lies in the manic gameplay. The outside environments are quite large for a linear shooting experience, and oftentimes drag a bit with seemingly endless roads. Cutscenes have a tendency to drag as well, consisting of extended camera sweeps to point players in the right direction after an activated switch. The story is mercifully light and mostly relegated to database entries, while Sam’s growl-induced one-liners deliver just the right kind of cheese for a game like this. Sound becomes quite important at determining the kind of enemy lurking behind the corner, and you will grow to fear the howling cries of suicide bombers surrounding your screen.

With an online multiplayer mode as well as replay features, not to mention several difficulty options that’ll make players thankful for a quicksave button, Sam’s second outing is for serious gamers everywhere.

 

NAME: SEROIUS SAM HD - THE SECOND ENCOUNTER

SYSTEM: PC, XBOX 360