Playstation

Playstation: College years - playstation games are pretty good. Well...except for the load time.

Completion level:

* played basics
** played to near completion
***basic completion
****played to death

Arc the Lad III *
Armored Core - Master of Arena ***
Armored Core: Project Phantasma ***
Civilization II ***
Bomberman World *
Breath of Fire III ***
Breath of Fire IV ***
Bust a Move II ***
Bushido Blade**
Chrono Cross*
Dragon Ballz - Final Bout *
Eihnhander **
Ehrgeiz RPG***
Final Fantasy VII ****
Final Fantasy VIII ***
Final Fantasy IX ***
Final Fantasy Tactics ***
Ghost in the Shell ***
Gran Turismo ***
Gran Turismo II ***
Grandia ***
Hoshigami - Ruining Blue Earth ***
Kartia: World of Fate **
Legend of Dragoon ***
Legend of Mana ***
Magic the Gathering ***
Marvel vs. Street Fighter **
Mega Man 8 ***
Mega Man Legends ***
Megaman Legends 2 ***
Next Tetris **
Railroad Tycoon **
Railroad Tycoon II *
Raystorm ***
Siphon Filter *
Sled Storm **
South Park: Chef's Love Shack **
Soul Edge ***
Star Ocean ***
Spyro ****
Tomb Raider II ***
Tomb Raider III ***
Tomb Raider - The Last Revelation ***
Tony Hawk **
Vagrant Story *
Valkyrie Profile ***
War Zone 2100 **
WWF Attitude **
Zap Snow Boarding Trix 98 **

In Progress:

Maybe I'm actually tired of playing video games...haha, we'll see.

Random thoughts on the games I've played:

1. Final Fantasy VII **** - Did I really play this game through 3 times? Death of Emerald twice? Final Fantasy focuses on spells and individual skills...

2. Zap Snow Boarding Trix 98 ** - Interesting.

3. Dragon Ballz - Final Bout * - ummmm...this one just doesn't seem all that fun. Character's move so slow. Moves/Meteor were just way to complicated to remember. Sufficient playing to learn the game just doesn't feel worthwhile. Build-up is a nice idea at least.

4. Tomb Raider II *** - Tomb Raider is one of the more challenging games. Pretty nice 3-d mapping - Nice precision controlling. Lots of guns...so why no grappling hook? Oh, that would be too easy...

5. Eihnhander ** - that's not how it's spelled. Fairly challenging. Why are the simple 2-d airplane games so hard?

6. Gran Turismo ***- Fun. Difficult to master. Beat all the tracks in first, but couldn't gold a few of the Class licenses. Nice customizing...Nice way to learn about the complexities of driving.

7. Tomb Raider III *** - I had to refer to the web twice to get un-stuck. So I couldn't see the key that was right in front of me...even after walking over it 8 times or so. Weapons? Cheat. They weren't really serious about the shot gun were they? So we can save about 3-6 times per level...challenging, yes...probably pushing the player frustration up a little too much. Cheats help, but why not just have a more friendly easy mode?

8. Sled Storm ** - A fairly simple game. Easy to master after something like Gran Turismo.

9. Civilization II *** - Can grow and last under Deity mode. I wonder if the space race is possible in deity...

10. Spyro 1 **** - Well, getting the gems wasn't all that hard. This game took 2 days to beat to death. So, I guess it was intended to be playable by children as well. Although I did get stuck. (when I had to figure out to jump around the wide castle at charging speed to take off from a jump; if you played you might know what I'm talking about)...but then when I woke up the second day, the first thing in my head was the solution...Interestingly, I think this influenced me to leave problems for later if I have exhausted the visible possibilities...by taking a nap. But then, my brother helped too, so I can't say that I officially beat it to death.

11. Bust a Move II ***- I use to be able to shoot and aim as fast as I could move the pointer...with very high accuracy...scary.

12. Next Tetris **- For some reason this game seems mentally draining. Can max/hold level 10 on versus - but then holding any level only seems to last an hour before the brain just can't seem to quite see stuff. Well, seeing chains of 3 is basic and planning chains of 5 is at best for me. Never did figure out the last puzzle, "Zipper"

13. Bomberman World *- I never seemed to get the logic for this game. Well, versus I mean.

14. Raystorm *** - perhaps one of the few airplane games I've completed.

15. Ehrgeiz RPG*** - Peculiar. Some unique ideas, but none quite developed. The RPG was hard, but what do you do if the enemies repop every 10 seconds if you can't kill them. It forces you to use spells...but you can't get hit to cast...and it's only a one character at a time RPG. Does have some unique MUDD like features.

16. Siphon Filter * - Run and gun with snipering. Not bad. Timed missions always seem challenging.

17. South Park: Chef's Love Shack ** - Unique.

18. Mega Man 8 *** - A simple hard game. It's not all that bad once you get used to it.

19. Ghost in the Shell ** - Still on level 12. Quite a difficult game I would say. Simple weapons, and simple enemies. Wall walking makes the game interesting though.

20. Soul Edge*** - weapons are fun. I got to take some time and analyze weapons and techniques. Got pretty good at varying attack and keeping defense.

21. Bushido Blade *** - This game is cool. I've always wanted to see a realistic fighting game. Although it's not quite as playable as other fighting games, it was fun to learn and explore and show how quick death really is.

22. Marvel vs. Street Fighter * - Street Fighter seems to grow in little leaps and bounds. Different characters, same idea.

23. Tony Hawk ** - This is a nice game. It's challenging and creative - I'd say pretty hard too. I like the idea of objectives that aren't death and destruction.

24. WWF Attitude ** - Although I don't quite understand the underlying rules of WWF and why movements are so big and deliberate, I did like the character creation. Detailed customization and coloring is a really nice feature...fun to play with and increases oneness with the character...heheheh...I dunno about that.

25. War Zone 2100 ** - A war strategy game. Has its merits. Retreat on damage is useful. Auto-repair facility easy to set up. Unit design simplifies unit types, and still allows great flexibility. Well, since its for PSX, it's a bit hard to control though.

26. Star Ocean ***- So the first time I played, I got all the way to the last boss and couldn't beat them. Star Ocean has a different focus - a item-based power. Characters are pathetic without the proper equipment and items. Death seems too frequent - even a full heal cast every round doesn't keep the group alive sometimes. So, spelling up becomes somewhat wasteful when the other character is dead by the time you have blessed them. Item creation is fairly unique although I don't see how having music in the background imparts so much more skill...Character diversity is nice. Food? Well, I suppose if you wanted to burn yourself out every battle. I do like the skill complexity and dependencies though.

27. Final Fantasy VIII *** - Some new ideas. This was different. There has always seemed to be an ideal in Final Fantasy to differentiate characters, and yet allow the player to select whomever they want to be whatever they want. Well, being that I might want the main character to be a warrior, or a mage, or a healer, or a thief. The Guardian Force seemed to allow this to happen to a much higher degree. Although, another idea of specialization of characters is to emphasize the drawbacks of that specialization. This is supposed to bring strategies, decisions, and complexity into the gaming. This is one of the nice attributes of Final Fantasy and has lead to a higher degree of playability and analysis. I naturally enjoy games that present a greater challenge. Having to draw each spell is unique, and somehow feels correct, although, defining energy to such a high degree does have its limitations, the idea of having different energies is nice. No money from monsters. This is a really good realistic modification. This generally has been avoided since it's annoying to have to produce so many items that would be of value. Taking the time to do this is nice. However, the salary system might need to be a little more restricted. Money no matter where you are? How does it get to you...and this and that. A salary similar to Star Ocean's. Card game? I don't know. Perhaps it is nice since they tie it into the game more than before. So, the story line isn't highly variable. Perhpas there is some tradeoff in variability and content. Good content is nice. Weapons and defense are highly simplified, but having to get parts for weapons is a nice feature. Monsters having raw weapons is kinda strange.

28. Tomb Raider ***- The Last Revelation: Well, I can actually see stuff this time. The game has a very gradual increasing difficulty, which was lacking before. The standard switches have grown to a higher degree - on walls, floors, and take different shapes...pretty nice. The perpetual traps are more varied...Well, I was hoping they would fix the flares...who ever would make flares that last only 10 seconds and only have brightness within 5 feet? The occasional torch is nice but you can't keep it. What ever happened to a flashlight anyways? It's nice to be caught offguard, even when being fairly careful - some nice instances of that.

29. Grandia ***: Not bad for an RPG game. This one is a bit more MUDD like in nature. Skill dependency is fairly nice, although a bit simple. This game reminds me of Secret of Mana, minus the battle control and multi-player. Weapons are really simple, and spells aren't all that varied. 2-d mapping and area spell affects are not bad, but the type of affects are a bit limited (some spells just work all the time on some guys). Death just never seems to come. The game seems a bit too easy, and I have only had someone go unconscious one time so far after about 30 hours of play. The encounter rate is nice since there is only a repop when leaving area. Exploring doesn't involve killing endless hordes of enemies. Having stats based on skills feels more realistic to me, rather than having those level based stats where players just become infinitely harder to kill.

30. Gran Turismo 2 *** - Well, this is about as fun as the previous Gran Turismo. Additions include dirt tracks and car damage when playing versus. I still think that the damage should at least be optional for the Simulation Mode and that things should have to be repaired. There are a lot more cars, and a lot more dealers. You can change your rims which is nice (since some just feel unpleasant to have when changing to racing). Perhaps it would be nice to have a customization engine similar to WWF Raw, where you can color the car, add stripes/icons, add text...too bad. More tracks...took a little while longer to learn. The license process was more reasonable and made the game playable to the less skilled players. Licensing before was pretty difficult. So what is the special license for anyways? That took a few hours to get. It is always nice to have some challenging stuff, so long as it isn't a large part of the main track of a game. (placing it on the side is nice). Using the Cultus - Pikes Peak finished off the unrestricted races, and well, the remainder stuff, I'm not sure if I'll finish.

31. Legend of Mana *** - the sequel to the Secret of Mana - has some pretty nice features, and some features I don't quite understand. Screens are a bit small, so repopping as soon as you leave a screen is a bit annoying. Why can't player 2 change their skills? It would make 2-player more interesting. The fact that you can load in a second player off memory card is a nice start. Perhaps there will be more use to it in the future...second player just can't progress that much in that case, so it's not really all that worthwhile for the second player. Trading weapons and stuff could be nice too...infinite potential resource? Not really due to the play time and sacrifice of the other players...could be interesting. I haven't seen these features before, and I think they have some good potential. Second player can't change their equipment - a bit understandable so that 2 full sets of equipment don't have to be stored in memory...maybe a way so that they can load a limited set or something...some way of changing the second player...so that second player can learn skills and stuff while leveling. Oh well...maybe they'll refine that later on...or maybe it's just not meant for PSX. Hehehe...nightmare mode was funny. Lotsa interesting features to play with, but I guess I got sort of lost in them...never figured out the weapon tempering or bot construction...well since good production of them required consumption of rare items.

32. Legend of Dragoon *** - Hmmmm...RPG meets hand-eye coordination. I'd say this was a little challenging...I think I died around 6 times through the course of the game. On a good day, I think I can hit the Dragoon special perfect only around 30% of the time. The basic moves took a little getting used too, but then I had probably around 95% accuracy by the end of the game. Why is it that the main character has to always be in the group anyways? By the end of the game, Dart had mastered everything in excess, but the others got their skills a little spread. Anyways, I think the graphics were pretty cool, but then PSX had to load them every time, and spells took a while to cast. Focus was on just straight attacking, but then spells/items are necessary for boss survival...which made battles take a while. I never did earn enough money to buy any special items...since a change of weapons/armor made a big difference at every point, I generally bought most sets. Finished at about 50 hours, level 37.

33. RailRoad Tycoon II ** - This game would probably be more fun if it could save a game in progress. Maybe it can but I just never figured it out. AI in this game seems okay. Well, trains that are set up run okay, even under complex tracks. Competitors don't seem that aggressive...The gold objective in missions doesn't seem too difficult to obtain - goals may be beat well before the deadline comes. Regardless, the game was challenging, but in a simpler/easier to master kind of way. Complications of economics and competitors adds more depth and re-playability.

34. Final Fantasy Tactics *** - Battles are long and involved, and that is what the game focuses on. I like the strategy and complication. The differentiation is actually meaningful. There are more parameters to attacks such as distance, height, attack area...making more strategy possible. Movement and speed are more meaningful. I don't know about summons only hitting either friend or foe. Perhaps what might be interesting is to not be able to see the hit percentages and damage. That would be optional of course, but more realistic. So many players on a single clock is difficult though. I would suspect that this is difficult to do in a turn based system. Realistically, as I am running over, the other person should be moving at the same time. So that it might be a freeze frame command, but continuous motion until the command was complete. That would just make timing and the game hard. So, a person can move in, attack some one, and fend off 4 attackers all in the same amount of time it takes to move and attack. Realistic timing is complicated. But even the limited discrete turn-based commands are still much more interesting than the standard 0-dimensional Final Fantasy. A different standard in RPG. So how does a person change from being a weak magician to a super-strong monk? They just change jobs for a while...I guess. But then the accumulated stats do help differentiate them somewhat. Perhaps it might be more interesting to have just a fire skill and then a modulation of intensity. Well, that would be the way I would do it anyways. You could define your standard spell settings or customize when you want that extra boost of power.

35. Kartia *** - I vaguely remember this game. Limited Resources, and triangular weakness loops. Kinda had strategy, but then I never thought of any effective one, so I don't know if there was much too it.

36. Final Fantasy IX *** - So, I eventually finished this. Wearing equipment to get skills. Everyone has different skills. Points to allocate to skills. A bit forced on the player differentiation. I like the story though. Treasure hunting with choco was amusing.

37. MegaMan Legends *** - I thought this game was really fun. I think it was fairly well made. Similar to the old mega man and many ways, but in 3-d.

38. Breath of Fire IV *** - This game was alright. I like the combo attacks and stuff and how skills are acquired. Masters are a really nice idea. So, I guess we never found all the fishing spots. Hmmm...required random encounters? I guess its somewhat realistic...have to look for fishing spots. I didn't understand the purpose of the fairies...well except for their group heal skill.

39. Chrono Cross * - A RPG. Perhaps I'll finish it one of these days.

40. Vagrant Story * - Another RPG. Looks like Parasite Eve I guess. Skill System seems a little odd. Some strange weapon ideas. I haven't played enough to understand their system yet, although, it has been 4 hours, and I still haven't had the change to purchase or sell or repair anything...or so it seems.

41. Arc the Lad III * - An RPG. Well, kinda like some 2-d strategy, except that players can jump over anything. Skills are relatively simple so far, so there's not much space to try out different strategies. I guess it seems a little simple after having played Tactics or Hoshigami.

42. Armored Core *** - Master of Arena - Well, more of the same thing, but I still like the tradeoffs of speed and power, energy and shell weapons, range and damage. Finished the master arena, but I'd have to admit that I cheesed the computer a few times to do it. Don't know how long it would take to be as accurate as the computer...Jumping around with a constant lock on the target.

43. Hoshigami - Ruining Blue Earth: *** - Kinda like Tactics, except that I never really understood the warrior classes. Perhaps the game is a little too level based such that warriors are useless without level. Magic always hits 100%, so magic is only weakly affected by the level difference. Accordingly, classes didn't balance so well. The two extra classes would have been nice, except that they were based on specialization in only 2 of the six areas, so it ended up that only the magicians got even stronger. Shrug. Maybe I just didn't get it.

44. Megaman Legends 2: *** - Very similar to the first legends, and well, it seemed a little easier this time around. The level design just didn't seem quite as good as the first one. Oh wells, I still enjoyed it either way. I was hoping that hard would actually be harder, but there seemed only slight variations, and just took a little longer.

45. Magic the Gathering *** - Yah, I guess it could be considered complicated. Each card introduces another rule, and rules only come into effect with certain probability. Although it's kind of hard to imagine why there is a trade-off between tapping resources and creating units, designing the deck does have interesting features. Although to beat the computer it seems to have just come down to a good ratio of land and units since we happen to be playing the White/Blue Cards. I still don't know what some of the cards do. Introducing the 2-d map/interface kinda complicated some stuff. Defending seems really difficult, since defenders often miss attackers, or targeting an attacker means trying to scroll around and mouse a moving target. Not sure what it added. It does add some little graphics to animate unit death and stuff I guess.

46. Valkyrie Profile *** - An RPG. Train an army one unit at a time. A different motivation and environment generates a new rule set. Although much is the age old level and damage. Attack synchronization and counter skills are an interesting feature, although I haven't figured them out, so I don't really use them. It took me a while to realize that I would have to create items as opposed to buying them. The areas and themes are nice, and the differences in character's moves actually matter. I.E. there is a meaningful distinction between warrior and magician. So, I ended up playing through the whole game.