Tomb Raider LIVE

Lara Craft might have huge boobs and a well-toned ass, but her games are good too! Actually, they are even better than her peppermint creams; like a Zelda game on crack, these puzzles just don't stop. Plenty of games had busty babes on the cover, and most didn't become cultural phenomenons (see: Lester the Unlikely, Wargasm

It's one of the greatest 3-D adventures of all time, and the original 3 games represent some of the bet the '90s had to offer. 

Tomb Raider Gold was the very first CD-ROM game I ever bought with my own money. I played the hell out of that game, for years. It was an amazing game. But it has been about a decade, and what if my memory is contaminated with nostalgia? I am revisiting my past and re-completing this game live on twitch. The current plan is to play through the first three entries and the new (2013) prequel. 

Having seen footage of the new game on twitch, it is certainly different, but still seemed admittedly epic. Nothing, however, can quite capture the sense of space that the early TR games have. You explore gigantic areas, performing life-and-death jumps over deadly falls in every single level. You will get a real sense of exploration and isolation as you adventure through the many ruins and temple.

Finally, you'll some great CGI cutscenes that show Lara kicking ass. It's another thing that people might forget; that the character in the games is a total badass and does all manner of superhuman crazy shit.  

If you want to talk about objectification of women in video games, you'll have no shortage of material; but I don't think Lara really gets as much credit as she deserves. She is feminine without being a stereotypical "girly-girl" (pink guns?). There are (at least in the early games...) no stupid romance plots. She's not a "nice" person; she's tough. In an opening cutscene, her guide dies. She doesn't cry. She barely gives a shit, like an '80s action hero.

Her body has only gotta more realistic with time, and I honestly think that some of the earlier cartoon look was just stylized art to compensate for the technology. Early Lara looks more like the people in Toy Story (or an anime character, i.e. FFVII) than as a realistic representation of a person. The "2013 model" looks freakishly realistic and much better proportioned. Her waist and shoulders finally look the way a person looks, and not like a photoshopped supermodel.

I'll admit to ignoring the franchise for years after seeing all the movies. The movies weren't even bad, just sort of bland in the end. I just assumed that the games wouldn't be any good, but this was an assumption based upon franchises in general. With so many iterations, I'm sure there are some problems, but I'm looking forward to seeing what I've missed so far. The "reboot" sequel is supposed to be incoming next year.

Watch me play the game live on twitch.tv/Robot2600, or watch in the feed below.

Watch live video from Robot2600 on www.twitch.tv

Playing Resident Evil 2

I've played (beat) through Resident Evil and Silent Hill for the first time this week, and I find myself wondering why I never played any of these games before. The only answer that makes any sense is so I could play them right now. Both games were intense and amazing (don't let my Silent Hill review fool you). I plan on playing at least the first 3 games in both franchises, but I don't know if some of the later Resident Evils and Silent Hills look that interesting. I'm not really into games much recently. Hitting that X button gets old.

But for now, the epic saga continues with Resident Evil 2, watch it on twitch.tv/Robot2600

The broadcast will go live as soon as I post this, and last a few hours. 

Silent Hill Gives the Fun Kind of Nightmare

That is to say, the kind of nightmare in which unspeakable horrors attack with butcher knives and not the kind of nightmare in which your teeth fall out during a business meeting.

The puzzles are rather cryptic, and although you do feel accomplished when you complete them, the game isn't really designed to be fair. This isn't a good thing. Almost every puzzle I've encountered so far has only been difficult by exploiting the fact that monsters respawn every time you go through a door. The school I am exploring has about 30 rooms connected via hallways, with the idea being that I will explore around until I find something. The respawning monsters "feature" isn't fun, or challenging, or anything really (except lazy). Resident Evil had both respawing and non-respawning enemies, and in every case the respawning enemies were a cheap, unbelievable mechanic. In that game (RE), it's not surprising that the later (rushed?) levels use this sort of mechanic, while the first 5 hours (professional review time required?) are perfectly crafted and require no respawning monsters because every encounter was interesting and unique (dog through the window, shit!).

Just let the fucking monster stay dead when I kill it. Your character sucks at everything except saving the game (bot not, apparently, his family). A child could swing the pipe (basic melee weapon of choice) with more competence.  The missing daughter isn't missing, she's just 100x better at killing demons than her crippled father. She already beat the game, and you are just really slow. I understand that the player isn't supposed to be a combat-veteran, but it doesn't take Rambo to swing a blunt instrument with a little speed. T-Ballers would undoubtedly fair better in Silent Hill. You will swing the pipe so slowly, that in real life you would not even do damage to an organism.

Performing the finishing move sucks as well. Monsters stay on the ground a painfully long time, and your character doesn't like to stomp them unless positioned in an arbitrary and subtle way. All this, and you then pop into a storage room to check it out. Nothing. Back outside, the monster grabs your leg and starts gnawing at your knee. This is the standard Silent Hill experience.

I'm not being too harsh on the game (and it is a fun game), but these are some problems with the controls. Especially after playing Resident Evil this past week, in which the difficult controls add to the challenge and fun, in Silent Hill it becomes a weakness. I'm not asking for an easy game, I'm just asking for better gameplay. One idea that comes to mind would be giving the character a kick move that would knock enemies back, but leave them unharmed. Something like this would be perfect.

I will probably power through the game. Despite the shitty cheapness, I still like overcoming a challenge. The creepypasta splattered around 3-D rural Japan is excellent, and the shitty combat is fun as long as you aren't forced to refight some respawning monster 6 times ("I already DID this, let me do SOMETHING ELSE!"). Also the pistol sucks because monsters have invincibility frames after being shot, and they still walk toward you.

Areas are either foggy or light/dark. The light/dark areas are amazing, filled with high contrast camera angles that any film nerd will love. The fog, however, is too grey to look good.

This sounds like I hate Silent Hill, and I really don't. I was hoping for something that topped Resident Evil. It doesn't. But one can't just compare every game to Resident Evil; that's not really fair. As far as being scared, or isolated, or w/e in the game, I can't really say. I think it is fun to be "scared" and so I don't actually get scared of movies or games or rollercoasters. Silent Hill is a fun game. It will probably give you the fun kind of nightmares.

UPDATE; I started using the pistol more and it's much better.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Launch Party

Last Update: 7:11pm

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth launches in about 18 hours or so. Check back here for the stream when it's actually out.

I've already pre-purchased the game, and I got a discount (-33%) for owning the original Isaac. If you don't have these games, now (right now) is the time to get 'em.

Until tomorrow, I'll be playing Wrath of the Lamb in preparation, as well as Organ Trail: Director's Cut, on twitch.tv/Robot2600

The Isaac games are made by the Super Meat Boy guys (and other people). Random Zelda dungeon, these games are that exactly but better.

Robot Banned from Twitch.tv

I tried to log into Twitch this morning and found out I was banned! They wouldn't tell me why, however, nor was any email sent to me explaining the reason.

A quick search online sees tons of other users getting banned for apparently no reason (likely an automated system is to blame).

I suspect that the cause is that I had been streaming "Big Easy Sleazy" (my game, see post below) and they flagged it as either copyright infringement (because it's footage of a non-finished game) or as non-gaming material (because they don't know what it is).

I've appealed their decision, but I felt like I had to make a post here because I've said a lot of good things about twitch recently, and also streamed some stuff like Crawl, ToME, Dwarf Fortress, GTA3, GTA4, and Need for Speed World. I can't really support Twitch anymore, and I strongly suspect that I'm never going to be unbanned and that I'll never hear back from them. Most others online report that this is almost always the case.

As someone who put a lot of time into developing a small subscriber base (55+ users and over 5k views in a month, thanks!) this is a drag. My time could have been better spent elsewhere. I've read several cases where people subscribed to twitch for the added features, then found their accounts banned with no explanation, no feedback, and no customer support.

This isn't exactly "breaking news" but I'll be fair to twitch. If they send me some response, I'll post it here. If they don't respond in about two weeks, I'll post a follow up. In the meantime: be skeptical of all things twitch.tv.

Grand Theft Auto 4 Stream

Last week I beat Vice City and GTA3 broadcasted on Twitch. Now I'm playing Grand Theft Auto 4, so come check it out.

I'm not even going to get into Grand Theft Auto V right now. If it were on PC, I'd be playing it. 

Doesn't matter, 4 is still a great game and one of my favorites. Great driving, regardless of what people say. The cars have many more hitpoints, and the gun shooting is better than even San Andreas. Not a huge fan of the cover system, but it's useful at times. Doesn't really fit my reckless, yolo style.

www.twitch.tv/Robot2600

\Watch live video from Robot2600 on www.twitch.tv

GTA3 TONIGHT

I beat Vice City this morning (after 11 years) but did I slow down? Hell no, I loaded up Grand Theft Auto 3 in glorious 1440x900 resolution and spread out my Playstation 2 maps. This was the third game I bought for my PS2, and to be able to play it in HD with a mouse is amazing.

You know the drill; I'm streaming GTA3 tonight and if you want to check it out come to www.twitch.tv/Robot2600

Twitch is awesome. You are awesome.

Atari Image Gallery

Pitfall, Galaxian, Asteroids, and Breakout. Nothing beats turning off all the lights and playing a few hours of Atari. I'm glad I stopped to make this post because I just remembered I have a USB Atari joystick for exactly this occasion. 

Also this post is an Atari Image Gallery. Some of these are screenshots I took, and others are just artworks I've collected from the web.

Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stream

Vice City is still the best Grand Theft Auto, 12 years later. Nothing against the other entries, but they bottled lightning by combining the brilliancy of GTA3 with the 1980s, which are just more fun in general.

That's enough bullshit, come push it to the limit in Vice City. www.twitch.tv/Robot2600

Risk of Rain Streaming Tonight!

The old school action continues with another new game: Risk of Rain. It's a sidescrolling action platformer roguelike. If that sounds like a lot to handle, it is. However the game was on sale this weekend for 3.39 USD, and I picked it up along with about a million other gamers. With all these roguelikes in the mainstream, it's hard to believe people used to gape in awe when I talked to them about NetHack. 

Risk of Rain is hard like NetHack, but the UI pains that plague many ASCII games are being washed away in the modern generation of games like TOME, FTL, Binding of Isaac, and Risk of Rain.

The game is awesome. The music kicks ass, the sprites are tiny, and the action is huge. Classes are varied and uniquely fun. You can play as a commando, bandit, engineer, mutant, miner, and 5 other equally cool classes as you battle through hundred of enemies in your quest to survive the horrors of the strange planet. Each class is very different. The bandito relies on trigger-fanning shotgun blasts and nimble dodging while invisble. Acrid the Mutant, however, requires you to get up-close and personal as you stack poison on mobs of mobs.

Want to experience the awesome? Then come check it out tonight on www.twitch.tv/Robot2600 or check out the embedded video at the end of the post.

Risk of Rain is brutally difficult, and the longer your game lasts the more difficult it gets. After 40 minutes of action you reach "HA HA HA HA HA" and "I'm coming for you" difficulties in which all good manners are forgotten. I managed to make it this far last night, and I'm hoping to beat the game tonight. I made it to the last level but couldn't take the heat and died in the kitchen.

On top of all this, you can play with up to 4 people in truly epic co-op. The server-side stuff is a bit complicated (I hosted a game and then my computer decided not to allow a second game despite the fact that I changed no settings in the interim). If you want to play come drop by the twitch channel or post a message here. You could be on (twitch) TV! Wow! You'd be totally famous and popular.

Anyway I'm off to a place where there is a risk of rain in space. For great justice and adventure!

Watch live video from Robot2600 on www.twitch.tv

The Binding of Isaac Hi-Res Wallpaper and First Impression Streaming Now

First, enjoy this hi-resolution Binding of Isaac wallpaper. Second, come check out the game itself, a roguelike-Robotron-Zelda hybrid made by Team Meat, the guys who made Super Meat Boy. Basically, I think the idea is that you have to delve into randomly-generated Zelda 1 dungeons to defeat the horror that lurk within.

I've heard a lot about this game and I'm pretty pumped to play it. While I'm typing this up I'm buying it on steam and getting the DLC as well. For 8 dollars I'm sure it's going to be worth it.

I'll probably get some Steam trading cards out of this also...

Check it out now, LIVE at www.twitch.tv/Robot2600

ONIKEN First Impressions Streaming Now!

I just picked up Oniken on Steam and it promises to be a wild ride. Something like a modern 8-Bit Ninja Gaiden. I live for this shit.

Come check it out tonight on twitch.tv/Robot2600

Watch live video from Robot2600 on www.twitch.tv

Let's Play Streets of Rage

Streets of Rage is one of the best beat 'em ups ever created. Hell, it's one of the best games ever created and it's a perfect choice for a Let's Play.

I have spent many night playing through Streets of Rage on the Wii VC. I'll never get tired of the killer music and neon-filled city streets.

You can watch the video below, or check it out on youtube.

NES/Dwarf Fortress Streaming Continues! LIVE!

I'm getting damn close to beating Ninja Gaiden and Double Dragon II. The Dwarf Fortress plods along, almost self-sufficient at this point, but the sieges are becoming more aggressive and the greater the wealth of my kingdom, the greater the terrors that will try to take it.

Come check out the twitch feed at www.twitch.tv/Robot2600

Watch live video from Robot2600 on www.twitch.tv

NES Streaming Live Tonight

While play Dwarf Fortress I've been listening to this list of the top 70 NES songs on repeat, and can no longer go another minute without playing some NES. The D0RFs will last, for now. Castlevania, Mega Man, and Adventure Island here I come!

Taking requests for games to play also.

It's live now @ www.twitch.tv/Robot2600

Day 3 Streaming Dwarf Fortress Starts Now!

Join the Dwarf Fortress phenomenon. Yesterday I streamed for 12 hours. Today? Who knows!

If I can take out the ghost in the above screenshot, so can yooooooou!

As always there will be awesome 8-Bit music rocking all day.