Day 99: Limbo (PC)

On the edge of hell for today's randomly selected title from my 536 game backlog (already reduced by over 100!). I'm playing one a day, every day, for as long as I'm furloughed from work...

Limbo for the PC
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

'Limbo' is a game I didn’t so much ‘know about’, so much as ‘know of’.

I knew a lot of people liked it, I knew it was short, and I knew many have hailed it as a very special game, a game that deals with, or produces from the player, ‘EMOTIONS’.

Well, I guess infuriation and annoyance are emotions…

Day 98: Ridge Racer 64

A return to one of my favourite franchises for today's randomly selected title from my 538 game backlog (already reduced by over 100!). I'm playing one a day, every day, for as long as I'm furloughed from work...

Ridge Racer 64 for the N64
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

Back when I played Ridge Racer 5, I said that it was the only Ridge Racer game in my collection that I hadn’t played. Having rectified that anomaly, I promptly ordered two more for my collection - because why would I ever want to see an end to this backlog?! Right?

One of the two was Critical Velocity, a spin-off in the series that was only released in Japan. This was something of a collector's indulgence because, seeing as I can’t understand Japanese, it’s unlikely I’ll have any idea what is going on. 

This is still on it’s way to me from Japan, it’s a little late actually so I’m getting worried, hopefully it’s just corona-virus delays.

The other was Ridge Racer 64. This turned up after just a couple of days, and has been sitting in my backlog waiting for the random selection tool (Selectron™) to choose it for me.

All this means that I am now the proud owner of every Ridge Racer game except the one on the Vita - because I don’t own a Vita. I’m sure I will one day, though, and when I do you can guess what the first game on my ‘want’ list will be.

Day 97: Human Resource Machine (PC)

Today's randomly selected title from my 538 game backlog (already reduced by over 100!). I'm playing one a day, every day, for as long as I'm furloughed from work...

Human Resource Machine for the PC
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

There are games I get in bundles and decide to keep because they sound interesting.

There are games that I buy because they’re bargains, even though I know I’m not going to be able to play them right away.

And then there are games that, bizarrely, I bought excitedly near launch and have no idea why I haven’t yet played them.

Human Resource Machine falls very much into the latter category. I absolutely loved World of Goo, but for some reason, having eagerly anticipated their arrival, both Little Inferno and HRM (from the same close knit publishing team) have lain dormant in my collection for years.

I wish I knew why so I could stop it happening again, because Human Resource Machine is a brilliant game that has unexpectedly devoured the majority of my Sunday.

Day 96: Sonic Drift (Game Gear)

The Blue Blur takes to the track in today's randomly selected title from my 539 game backlog (already reduced by over 100!). I'm playing one a day, every day, for as long as I'm furloughed from work...

Sonic Drift for the Game Gear
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

In November 2012, Sega unleashed upon the world the ludicrously titled ‘Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed’ and, for two and half gloriously blue-skied years, the title of ‘best kart racer’ was in the hands, for the first time ever, of a franchise that wasn’t Super Mario Kart.

Eventually Nintendo would wrestle back the top-spot with ‘Mario Kart 8’, and rather than rejoin the battle with a Racing Transformed sequel, the follow was 2019’s ‘Team Sonic Racing’, which was, if every review written by anyone, ever, is to be believed, a step backwards for blue-blur racing.

Looking back at those thirty months at the top, it’s hard to imagine this was a journey that started in 1994 with a Japan-only handheld racer - but that's exactly how Sonic Drift was perceived; the first salvo in the battle for the karting crown.

Day 95: Sceptre of Bagdad (ZX Spectrum)

Between Iraq and a hard place in today's randomly selected title from my 540 game backlog (already reduced by over 100!). I'm playing one a day, every day, for as long as I'm furloughed from work...

Sceptre of Bagdad for the ZX Spectrum
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

That’s not a typo, by the way, it appears it was common to spell Baghdad without the ‘H’ until about the time of the Gulf War… I guess exposure to the correct spelling was fairly limited until that time. Anyway...

If you show a sheet of graph paper and an HB pencil to most people who played games in the 80’s, they will be immediately swept away on a tide of nostalgia to their era appropriate childhood bedroom: Lamborghini Countach poster on the wall, barely used Big Track in the corner, and a self-drawn map for the latest ZX Spectrum game bathed in the radioactive light from a television the size of a small family car.

Personally, however, I would be swept back to a maths class: Trigonometry poster on the wall, barely used overhead projector in the corner, and me dutifully plotting the reference points for a parabolic curve. 

It’s not that I wasn’t playing games in the eighties, it’s just that I wasn’t really into the sort of games that required a map to play, I can’t even tell you why. In later years I came to love Metroidvanias and other adventure games where referring to the built in map is essential - but I was never interested in creating cartography for myself - something that many players of similar vintage consider an essential part of the experience.

Certainly, ‘Sceptre of Bagdad’ is borderline impossible without a map and, as such, feels borderline impossible to me.

Day 94: A Fistful of Gun (PC)

You'll need to get more than three coffins ready for today's randomly selected title from my 541 game backlog (already reduced by over 100!). I'm playing one a day, every day, for as long as I'm furloughed from work...

Fistful of Gun for the PC
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

I bemoaned the lack of Western Games while writing about ‘Gun’ back on day 46, but, it has to be said, it’s a much better supported setting in the indie scene than it has ever been in the mainstream.

'A Fistful of Gun: For a Few Gun More', to use it’s full title, started life as a free release on GameJolt named, simply ‘Fistful of Gun’. It’s actually still available on that service and has even been updated with the new engine and modes that were added when the game was picked up for distribution, by those masters of pixelated violence and irreverence, Devolver Digital.

The idea behind Paul Hart’s top-down shooter was originally to allow three people to play simultaneously on a single set-up. To this end, there were three characters; one designed for keyboard, one for mouse, and one for a joypad.

It’s a really clever idea and the balancing for each character is pretty ingenious - but it’s a drop in the ocean compared to what happened when the game received it’s full release.

Day 93: Dynamite Heady (Mega Drive)

A real 'Treasure' for today's title randomly selected from my 542 game backlog (already reduced by over 100!). I'm playing one a day, every day, for as long as I'm furloughed from work...

Dynamite Headdy for the Mega Drive
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

It seems a little absurd to suggest that a game from Treasure; one of the most respected and well known developers of the 16 bit era, could be a ‘hidden gem’, but Dynamite Headdy, only the third game they made after the utterly magnificent Gunstar Heroes and the… rather less so… McDonald’s Treasure Land, is pretty much that.

Obviously this depends on your personal definition of ‘Hidden’ (the gem part is not up for debate) but to me most consoles have their mainstream, super well known titles, their ‘B’ titles that are less well known but not exactly obscure, and then there’s your hidden gems.

Dynamite headdy could arguably fall on the line between the second and third categories, but no more than that.

Which is a shame, really, as despite having all the brilliance of Treasure’s best games, it was largely ignored at launch and, in terms of popularity, has never quite recovered.

And the probably reason why is really annoying.

Day 92: The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (PS2)

Getting ready to SMASH in today's title randomly selected from my 543 game backlog (already reduced by over 100!). I'm playing one a day, every day, for as long as I'm in lockdown...

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for the PlayStation 2
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

During the course of these posts there’s been more than one occasion when I’ve criticised a game for it’s treatment of police officers (people just doing their job) and animals (canicide is never guiltless fun), so imagine how it felt when, while playing 'The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction', I picked up a passing cow and lobbed it at a nearby copper...

Day 91: Xtreme Sports (Dreamcast)

My ongoing efforts to play one title from my 545 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown return to the Dreamcast with...

Xtreme Sports for the Dreamcast

A little while back (day 49 to be exact), I played a cracking little Game Boy Color effort called Xtreme Sports. It has absolutely no connection to this game whatsoever, but I went into some length, in that post, about how I discovered this game while looking for a Dreamcast title beginning with ‘X’ for an A-to-Z list. 

It turns out that being the only game on the Dreamcast to start with that letter is, sadly, pretty much the only remarkable thing about this game. 

Day 90: Nimbus (PC)

My ongoing efforts to play one title from my 545 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Nimbus for the PC

You wait 90 days for a game with an instant reset button, and then two come along back-to-back.

Nimbus is a game where you control a little space ship though increasingly complex puzzle levels. The USP here is that although you can turn the craft, it has no thrust of its own so you have to use cannons and bounce pads and other items dotted around the levels for propulsion - and then use gravity, momentum, and inertia in creative ways to make your way from the start point to the exit.

It’s a very simple concept, and early levels are designed to compliment this, but it doesn’t take long for Nimbus to get devilishly hard and the levels to get very complex. 

Fortunately, the developers, Noumenon Games, have proven here (and with their more famous Snakebird IP) that they are masters of introducing new puzzle elements, giving the player time to master them, and then building the game further with more elements introduced in this same fashion.

Day 89: Trackmania DS (NDS)

My ongoing efforts to play one title from my 546 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Trackmania DS for the DS
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

As I was hitting the instant reset button on Trackmania DS for about the 457th time in my first 10 minutes, two things struck me...

At some point, fairly recently in the history of video games, it became the norm to suggest that ‘trial and error’ was a mechanic flawed by definition. I’d have to imagine this was towards the beginning of the 7th console generation, as it was at this time that frustrated film makers started to ply their trade in video games, and the very idea of ‘failure’ became very unfashionable.

Trial and error is the same as any gameplay element; it can be clever, fun, and addictive - or it can be boring, frustrating, and cheap.

This was ‘Point A’: The idea that trial and error is a poor mechanic by definition is bunk.

The other thing is related to this. As the mainstream courted audiences outside the core gamer demographic by offering (barely) “Interactive Experiences”, the indie scene reacted in the best way it knows how: By making games that revelled in failure, embraced trial and error, and excelled because of it.

Trackmania wasn’t born from this era, but it was at this time that it started to be noticed away from it’s cult following on PC, and I put that down to a growing appetite for this kind of thing thanks to the success of other games.

And this is ‘Point B’: The best way to describe Trackmania to someone who hasn’t played it: ‘Super Meat Boy Kart’.

Day 88: Shank (PC)

Stylish cartoon violence stars in today's title from my 547 game backlog. I'm playing one at random every day I'm furloughed from work...

Shank for the PC
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

Whenever I write one of these posts I copy it over to a few subs on reddit and a couple of Facebook groups where I think others might find it of interest. 

There’s a very good chance that’s where you’re reading this as, without sharing elsewhere on the internet, I don’t think there’s any way my ‘blogspot’ site would be found by anyone.

Obviously it follows that it’s on these subreddits where I get the most feedback and general comments, for which I sincerely thank you all. For most part these are pretty positive and/or constructive and genuinely feel great to receive.

But I did get called some names, and had some not-so-pleasant comments when I mentioned the obvious, endless, targeted misogyny of Vice City Stories… and there was even a couple of commenters who took umbrage to me confessing that I didn’t enjoy the unrelenting murder of police officers you undertake in Kane and Lynch. 

But I bet no one will be bothered when I say I didn’t like having to kill the dogs you encounter in this Shank. 

These are not realistic depictions of dogs, and Shank isn’t trying to make a ham-fisted moral statement. These are cartoon dogs, and as the player you kill them because they’re just another enemy type trying to kill you.

It didn’t anger me, or make me sick, or anything like that. But I didn’t like it.

And I bet no-one cares. 

Humans are weird. And never weirder than when they’re on the internet.

The only upside is that, unlike a certain, very recent, hugely hyped game, Shank doesn’t indulge in trauma porn by insisting on making the killing of dogs as realistic and unpleasant as possible, so that you feel bad about killing the dogs, while not giving you the option to do anything other than kill the dogs as gruesomely as possible. Which is something… I guess.

Murdering everyone else, in Shank, by the way, is excellent fun!

Day 87: Red Faction Guerrilla: Re-MARS-tered (Switch)

Getting my ass to Mars for today's title from my 547 game backlog, I'm playing one a day, every day, while I'm in lockdown...

Red Faction Guerrilla: Re-MARS-tered for the Switch
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

There can’t be many game series out there where most people's first experience is actually with the third part of the series.

GTA is an example of this, and maybe a lot of people played 'Street Fighter 2: Turbo' first, (Which is the third version of SFII after 'World Warrior' and 'Champion Edition') but I can’t think of any others.

I have no knowledge of the first two 'Red Faction' games at all. I don’t know how they play, I don’t know if they are any good, I don’t even know what system(s) they were on. 

Marketing people get a bad rep in the world of video games. They’re the people who decide that putting a shaven-headed white guy on the cover of every game in history is a good idea, after all.

But marketing works, and the above example says more about the ‘closed space’ of videogames than it does about a lack of creativity from the people selling them. 

So when, at some point in the marketing phase of 'Red Faction III', someone said “We don’t want to deter people who didn’t play parts I & II, let's call it something else.” it was a very wise move - as it turns out the people who didn’t play parts I & II were pretty much everybody.

Day 86: GTA Vice City Stories (PS2)

More misogyny than I can handle for today's title from my 548 game backlog, I'm playing one a day, every day, for as long as I'm in lockdown...

GTA: Vice City Stories for the PlayStation 2
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

God. Where to start.

It's been 17 years since I visited Vice City. In 2002 and 2003, I was addicted to the original game. I would play into the early hours of the morning and then wake up a couple of hours later to get in some more game-time before work. And I'd still be late.

This was the dawn not just of truly three dimensional open worlds, but of Rockstar's trademark sense of humour. In giving you control of a lead character who was a self confessed psychopath, 'Vice City' side-stepped so many issues that skittled a lot of other games of this type - even of this brand. 

Tommy Vercetti was so unhinged that mass murder didn't seem an unreasonable way to spend an interval between dirt bike races. Given this is the only game in the entire franchise to use this device, you have to wonder if it was a lucky accident. All subsequent GTA's have characters that try to be more rounded, more functional even in their dysfunction. 

Tommy Vercetti was a cartoon character, and 'Vice City' was all the better for it.

Replacing him with a "good guy" for 'Stories' is the game's first misstep, but it's far from its biggest.

Day 85: Flatout 2 (PC)

A Bugbear classic is today's title from my 549 game backlog; I'm playing one every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Flatout 2 for the PC
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

There are days when I find it very hard to know what to write.

There are very few people that read these posts and, of those that do, most will have clicked here to see what someone else has to say about this game that they already know everything there is to know about.

I'm a bit of a hipster gamer; I'm usually playing and writing about 'hidden gems' and indie obscurities. Finding something of interest to write about Flatout 2 - a game with nearly seven thousand reviews on steam and a 9/10 rating. Wouldn't it be great if I didn't like it? That would be something new to write…

Day 84: Touge King: The Spirits (Saturn)

Finally, the glorious Sega Saturn gets a look-in as my efforts to play one title from my 550 game backlog every day, while I'm locked down, continue with...

Touge King: The Spirits for the Saturn
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

Or is it Touge: King The Spirits? Or even just Touge King the Spirits…?

You can see why they changed the name to High Velocity for the US release.

To save wear-and-tear on my typing finger I’ll be referring to it as TKTS for the rest of this page.

This is basically the game of that bit in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift where you see the tail lights snaking up the mountain - only there’s just two cars in this particular snake.

The main game mode has you take place in 6 heats on each course where you battle a single AI competitor. On release this was chief among the complaints levelled at the game. But not all driving games should be judged equally. TKTS isn’t really a game in which the opponent is really the other car, the opponent is the track itself and beating each without bumping an alcove or fluffing a drift is the real challenge. It’s one of the few games I can think of where the Time Trial mode is every bit as fun as the campaign.

Day 83: Pocket Racing [AKA Pocket GT] (GBC)

My ongoing efforts to play one title from my 551 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Pocket Racing for the Game Boy Color
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

You know the kind of lifestyle advert Nintendo are very fond of? The ones with the happy, ethnically diverse families all playing games together at home, at the beach, in the car…

Well here’s one for your next campaign Furakawa: I played Pocket Racing in my back garden, sat next to the chicken run as I  ensured that our two newly integrated hens (Ginger and Nutmeg) weren’t getting overly bullied by our incumbent matriarch; Pepper. 

Newsflash: Squabbling poultry have no respect for the concentration required to execute a perfect outside pass on a two and half inch screen.

Maybe there’s very little interest in hand-held driving games out there but, much like Super Monaco GP on the Game Gear, there’s very little information on the internet about Pocket Racing (which I believe is called Pocket GT in other territories).

I can tell you it’s developer, MTO, had made a decent name for themselves in Japan-only  PS1 street racing games in the late nineties, but they may be best known to game collectors as the company that made Initial D Gaiden; a spin-off game from the famous franchise for the original Game Boy - boxed examples of which will, when in good condition, regularly change hand for prices in the region of £100 

Interestingly, it’s this game that appears to have had the biggest impact on the developers fortunes as it doesn’t take a genius to see the bones of Initial D Gaiden in Pocket Racing. And while this game may have fallen from the face of the internet itself, their next developments on this theme were the 3 ‘GT Advance’ games for the GBA - all of which reviewed, and sold, very respectably.

Day 82: Urban Strike (Mega Drive)

I finally get to the chopper in my ongoing efforts to play one title from my 552 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Urban Strike for the Mega Drive
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

There are games, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, that just seem to ‘fit’ certain hardware. 

Despite being available on every system in the known universe, 'Tetris' will always be a Game Boy game. 'Crazy Taxi' is another; as it will forever belong to the Dreamcast, and if someone tells me they’re playing 'Cannon Fodder' on anything other than the Amiga I just won’t believe them.

I can now add to this list ‘Urban Strike’, which is one of the most ‘Mega Drive’ games you could ever imagine.

Day 81: The Novelist (PC)

My ongoing efforts to play one title from my 553 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

The Novelist for the PC
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

In a roundabout sort of way the indie game blow up of a few years ago is a large part of the reason why my backlog is quite so big as it is. 

Back then, when the boom was fully booming, my trusty laptop was suddenly unable to play the kind of small independently produced games that weren’t available on consoles.

With the success of Xbox Live and PSN smaller games were getting more attention, XBLIG saw even smaller games get some of the spotlight, and by the time Nintendo embraced this market with it’s ‘Nindies’ showcase coverage of small, arty, games with development teams whose number you could count on one hand were as important to traffic on most games websites as that of the latest COD or [insert name of competitive multiplayer game no-one really cares about].

So to continue playing indie games that weren’t coming to console, or were but at a much later date or hugely inflated price, I had to join the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race. 

I often wonder if people who seriously profess to be part of the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race understand that the name ‘Glorious PC Gaming Master Race’ was actually coined ironically? And that by continuing to describe themselves as members of the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race they are only further highlighting the ridiculous attitudes that the name ‘Glorious PC Gaming Master Race’ was making fun of?

What am I saying…? Of course they know… Right?

Anyway, I bought a PC which meant, at the time, getting games from Steam, which meant Steam sales and Humble Bundles, which meant a huge backlog of games I bought for 50p and never played.

I’ve got in the habit now of regularly ‘Marie Kondo’-ing my digital games but, despite regular pruning, they still make up a sizable chunk of my collection and my backlog.

What was I talking about again? Oh right! The Novelist. The Novelist was one such game.

Day 80: NBA Street Showdown (PSP)

A portable version of the best hoops games ever? Where do I sign? Continuing my efforts to play one title from my 553 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

NBA Street Showdown for the PSP
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

It’s amazing to think that, given the company's reputation with gamers today, EA was once the home of the E.A. Sports ‘Big’ series of games.

'Big', for those out of the loop, was basically a sub-label of E.A. Sports that focused less on trying to accurately recreate a given sport and more on taking the aspects of each activity that made it entertaining and exaggerating them in the name of OTT style and fun. 

A lot of these games had official licenses and, unrecognisably from the EA we know today, were possessed of an almost reverential respect for each game’s history; these games, from the most soulless corporation in gaming, had heart.

Over the 8 years it was going, Big released 21 games with installments based on Basketball, Football (Soccer), American Football, Wrestling, Motocross, Rallying, Skidooing, and, most famously of all, Skiing/Snowboarding (with the SSX series). 

I’ve played 14 of them, and they are all various kinds of amazing fun.

Five of the games comprised the ‘NBA Street’ series. Volumes one, two, and three were put out on sixth generation consoles, Homecourt was the fifth in the franchise and was an early generation seven release. Fun fact: It was the first game of that generation to be native 1080p resolution.

But back when ‘NBA Street Vol.3’ was being released onto home consoles, ‘NBA Street Showdown’ was released for the PSP. 

I picked it up cheap from eBay last year in the name of completionism and it turns out the box and manual of my copy are both in Chinese! 

Luckily, the game itself is identical to the US version.

Day 79 - Xeno and Eliminator (ZX Spectrum)

A Spectrum double-header is today's assault on my 555 game backlog. I'm still playing at least one a day, every day, on Covid-19 lockdown...

Xeno & Eliminator for the ZX Spectrum
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

Another day, another Crash Magazine cover tape I’ve never played. I don’t even know where they all came from; I was a ‘Your Sinclair’ guy back in the day.

Along with the usual ‘pokes’ and a demo of ‘Potsworth & Co’, this tape had two games that were once ‘full price releases’ - meaning that in the mid to late eighties they would have cost a tenner each; top dollar for Spectrum games at that time.

I think by 1992, when Crash stuck this cassette to their magazine, other publications were getting low on material and had begun plumbing the depths of self published titles and music editing software. It’s quite refreshing to find a cover tape from the nineties that is devoid of all that tat.

In honour of this (and the fact I find it difficult to find much to say about these older games) I decided to dedicate this blog entry to the whole tape...

But then the ‘Potsworth & Co’ demo wouldn’t load so it’s just the two full games I’m afraid - I’m actually a bit disappointed because it genuinely looks pretty decent. Never mind. Onwards.

Day 78 - Skate it (DS)

Will touch controls prove ingenious or maddening in today's randomly selected title from my 556 game backlog. I'm playing one a day while I'm enduring Covid-19 lockdown...

Skate It for the DS
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.

All the back on day 7 I took a look at Skate It on the Wii; a spin-off from the main PS3/360 series that was pared back and reworked to fit the Wii and it’s motion control system.

I thought it worked pretty well despite some idiosyncrasies to navigate, and in the end it was a fun game with a unique control scheme that was interesting and reasonably responsive to use.

Launched simultaneously, the Nintendo DS version arrived with the same ethos. It was pared back even further, and this time the controls were re-developed for the DS touch screen and stylus.

That either sounds like an intriguing idea or a horrifying one depending on your outlook. 

I try to keep an open and neutral mind but I admit to being excited to try this one when Selectron™ chose it for me.

Cool Boarders Burrrn vs Cool Boarders 3 (DC vs PS1) - Gaming the Pandemic: Day 77

A face-off with the two versions of the third Cool Boarders title is today's attack on my 559 game backlog. I'm playing (at least) one every day while I'm in Covid-19 lockdown...

Cool Boarders Burrrn vs Cool Boarders 3
Previous days' entries can be read HERE

Thanks to brand licensing issues at Sony, Cool Boarders Burrrn is the Japanese name for a game that was known in the US as Rippin Riders, and in PAL regions as Snow Surfers. 

I didn’t choose to use the Japanese name in the title by chance, I’m actually playing the Japanese version on my European PAL console using the Action Replay CDX demo disc that came on the cover DC UK magazine back in June 2000 - and if you don’t know about that drama this article in Eurogamer is a fascinating read.

I remember finding out about a free disc that bypasses region locks from a friend, and then scouring every newsagent and corner shop in the town where I lived in search of a copy. After finding at least a couple from which the CD had been stolen, I eventual unearthed one in particularly dingy corner of the main shopping centre - I had no Japanese or American  games to play with it at the time, but over the years I’ve picked up a small import collection and it has been an invaluable asset. Compared to the prices I’ve paid for other multi-region solutions on other hardware, £2.95 for a magazine I can’t remember if I ever read is a bit of a bargain.

Burrrn is actually the third game in the Cool Boarders series developed by UEP Studios (pronounced Wep). The game with the 3 in the name came after Sony had purchased the rights and handed them to a second party studio called Idol Minds.

This all led to a situation where what we have is, essentially, two number ‘3’ entries in the Cool Boarders franchise - but which is better?

There’s only one way to find out…

Day 76: Evasion (PC VR)

Some co-op VR makes the latest dent in my 560 game backlog. I'm playing one a day, every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Evasion for the PC (VR)
Previous days' entries can be read HERE

At the beginning of my recent blog post for 'Brute Force' on the Xbox, I talked briefly about the state of VR, about how it’s waiting for the individual elements of greatness that are slowly emerging in disparate software to come together (with cheaper hardware) to create a game that will bring the platform into the mainstream.

It’s only fair that I make it clear from the start that Evasion is not that game.

Way back on day 7, I played 'Space Pirate Trainer'; a VR game that ostensibly has a lot in common with Evasion, but which is not as successful thanks to the high level of repetition that leads boredom to set in very quickly.

Evasion and SPT share similar weapons, similar shields, and even a similar ‘leash’ mechanic, but Archiact’s 2018 game adds two things that help it to hold off the yawns far more effectively; Environments (with the requisite ability to move through them) and co-op play.

'Evasion' marks the third attempt by me and my brother-in-law (let's call him Bob, as that is, after all, his name) to play something in VR multiplayer since lockdown.

The first endeavour involved freebie social gaming platform ‘Rec Room’ in which we wandered around, got beaten by 12-year-olds at paintball, and ended up with me depositing my lunch into the nearest suitable receptacle during the intense VR activity of ‘Ten Pin Bowling’. 

Note to self: Leave the Cubre Libres until after VR in the future.

Day 75: Slipstream (PC)

The spirit of OutRun is invoked in today's randomly selected title from my 561 game backlog. I'm playing one for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Slipstream for the PC
Previous days' entries can be read HERE

OutRun is one of the most iconic, and for me one of the very best, video games of all time. As such, it’s imitators are legion, and have been arriving regularly ever since its original release back in 1986.

I’ll save you a long monologue on Yu Suzuki’s masterpiece now, as I’ve already written about it at length before, and, as I said the last time this came up, the fact I titled it ‘A Love Letter to OutRun’ should give you a clue as to my feelings.

Slipstream is one of the more recent games to pay homage to the old master, with the whole OutRun series serving as inspiration, and a dollop of ‘Initial D’ added for good measure. It began life on Kickstarter in 2016 and finally gained release exclusively to PC (including Linux and Mac) in 2018.

I saw it originally on Rock, Paper, Shotgun in mid 2015, when the developer released an initial demo onto their itch.io page. I saved it to my Google Keep and promptly forgot about it. A digital tidy up brought it back to my attention three and half years later, and this time I immediately took myself to itch to buy it… and then forgot about it for another six months. 

Which brings us to today.

Day 74: Brute Force (Xbox)

A game billed as a 'Halo Killer' is today's randomly selected title from my 563 game backlog; one played for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Brute Force for the Xbox
Previous days' entries can be read HERE

One day, probably in the not too distant future, VR is going to catch on, properly catch on and slowly become the norm for video games.

It will take a few things for this to happen. Hardware prices need to come down, obviously, but more importantly software quality needs to improve.

VR is currently a growth market, and more and more games are trying to take their piece of the pie. Yesterday I played ‘PayDay 2 VR’, a free add-on for the main game that was itself free on one of the major platforms not so long ago. It was a bit of a mess; a low effort grab for a slice of the VR pie, but another game ticked off the ‘unplayed’ list nonetheless.

There are very good VR games out there. ‘Half Life Alyx’ may not be the giant leap that many claim (Valve’s control-freak tendencies sadly ruin it’s potential) but it’s a great tech-demo for what can be achieved on the format in terms of presentation and, when games start to emerge with the playability of ‘Superhot VR’ or ‘Robo Recall’ and the polish of ‘Half Life’, VR will finally become the next chapter in the ongoing history of video games.

And make no mistake: Video games need this to happen. The medium has been stagnant for two decades. The last notable step forward was when consoles entered the online space in their sixth generation, and all that has happened since has just been the application of layer upon layer of polish.

When VR finally sticks it’s landing, the knock on effect will be that games from the turn-of-the-century will finally be believably categorised as retro - and first in line for that (dubious) honour will be games like ‘Brute Force’.

Day 73: Laser Squad (Amiga)

A predecessor to X-Com features as I continue to play one title from my 564 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Laser Squad for the Amiga
Previous days' entries can be read HERE

Not so long ago I was looking at the spreadsheet I use to keep track of my game collection, and I noticed that I owned 798 ‘boxed’ games. With my predilection for round numbers, and despite the goals of this blog, I set about trying to think of what my 800th boxed game should be.

With 30 different consoles to choose from and a self imposed budget limit to negotiate, it wasn’t easy. I’m not really fond of ‘special editions’ and that kind of thing either, I wanted a game that was somehow special to me despite having never played it.

In the end I settled for this lovely ‘boxed with instructions’ 'Laser Squad' for the Amiga, Julian Gollop’s incredibly popular turn based strategy (TBS) game originally from 1988.

Day 72: Pokémon Pinball (GBC)

What did my random selector Pikachu-se as today's title to play from my 565 game backlog...

Pokémon Pinball for the GBC
Previous days' entries can be read HERE

A generation of Gameboy owners will likely be incredulous when I tell them that this is not just the only Pokémon game I own, but also, now, it’s the only one I’ve played.

I guess I missed out on the original kerfuffle thanks to being in my twenties, and after that I never caught up. I had a Game Boy pretty early on, and quite a few friends got them over the years, but I don’t remember anyone owning or playing a Pokémon game. It was all about Tetris, F1 Race, Tennis, and Super Mario Land. I lived in a Pokémon-free bubble until the cartoon turned up on TV - and even then I was baffled by its popularity.

Since then, the premise has never appealed, and the RPG stylings only serve to put me off further. The only reason I own Pokémon Pinball is because of my addiction to gimmicky video game stuff; bespoke controllers, bizarre attachments, bonkers bolt-ons… I love them all. So seeing Pokémon Pinball in a local shop with its bulbous cartridge to facilitate the rumble feature was impossible for me to resist.

Day 71: Kane and Lynch: Dead Men (Xbox360)

My ongoing efforts to play one title from my 566 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men for the Xbox 360
Previous days' entries can be read HERE

Is it a 'getting old' thing that makes me not like killing police in video games? 

I've played about an hour of Kane and Lynch and the small amount of time I've actually been in control of the character has been spent murdering dozens upon dozens of officers of the law.

The first time I ever remember feeling this way was playing 'The Getaway' on PS2 back when it was new. 

I think it's something that has come hand in hand with not just my advancing years, but also the mediums improving graphics. 

From the start of gen 7 onward it's been possible to imagine that the old cop I just headshot had grandchildren, that woman cop has fought tooth and nail for respect all her life and now her brains are all over that middle-aged '2 days to retirement' captain cop's shoes, which are 12 yards from his pelvis.

I don't like it. And I don't like Kane and Lynch.

It's really tempting to end this write up there but I guess I should explain why.

Day 70: Puyo Puyo Tetris (Switch)

Quite a recent game by my standards, chosen randomly as I continue to play one title from my 564 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown...

Puyo Puyo Tetris for the Switch
Previous days' entries can be read HERE

I started this blog to maintain a feeling of control for my life when it was in upheaval. It was a thing I had control over and a daily routine where otherwise there would be none.

Now, as America burns and the British government implodes, it has also become a welcome distraction. 

70 days ago the atmosphere in the UK was one of resolve. As a nation it seemed we were looking inward, finding the best in each other, and steeling ourselves to come together and make the best of a bad situation.

For the first time in a very long time the news wasn’t led by stories from America, China, Afghanistan, or elsewhere; the most important world events for the UK were happening in the UK. 

For a while even politics took a step backward - half the nation didn't want Boris Johnson in charge, but in charge he was, so in these crazy times we would listen to what he had to say and do as we were told for the good of the nation and those most at risk.

70 Days later, I don’t think things could be more different. 

America dominates the news again for the most horrifying and tragic reasons, politics lead the agenda, and politicians are, again, acting exactly like politicians. 

The rules we strictly and unquestioningly lived by for so long are being chipped away by selfishness, boredom, warm weather, and massive distrust towards the people imposing them.

It is, and I don’t use the word flippantly, depressing.

But I’ve always preached that it’s folly to be affected by things that you yourself cannot affect. As terrifying as the events and attitudes are in America there is no practical way for me to influence them beyond expressing solidarity and encouraging the few Americans I know to vote when the next opportunity arises. 

As for closer to home, I live in a nation that endured two consecutive unelected Prime Ministers followed by a general election in which the choice was literally between two evils, of which who was the lesser is still entirely unclear. So I’ll just have to bide my time for a general election in the UK and hope that enough people of my nation are not fooled by populism and bluster again.

And, as I wait, wishing I could do more and frustrated that I can’t, I’ll distract myself, as always, with video games.