Bang Bang Racing Preview, Review, Compliments

Hi guys, so there's this Steam sale thing going on right now so let's take a look at the games.  Oh, what's this, a racing game called Bang Bang Racing, let's check it out!  Videos:

Right now, Bang Bang Racing costs 3.39 in United States Dollars.  Even if this game's a dud, can you really complain about paying that much?  Besides, from one "Indie" racing game dev to another, this one's for you.  Seriously, I'm in need of a new racing game and I'm not touching Ridge Racer: Unbounded with its $30 price tag.  And personally, I think I had more fun with this $3 game than I did with games worth ten times the price.  It's a "Bang" Racing Game for your buck.  *noshameinthatpun*

So a quick rundown about the game: There's twenty cars in four classes--five muscle cars, five GT cars, five Le-Mans cars, and five Indy/F1 cars--each with slightly different characteristics.  There's also eight tracks which spoof existing locations--Daytona, Laguna Seca, Long Beach, Monaco, Nurburgring, Bahrain, Spain, and some snow level.  Because of the game's cartoony style, the tracks have been greatly embellished to give you lots to look at, such as palm trees, Japanese cherry blossom trees, fake billboards, buildings of various sizes, overpasses, and numerous elevation changes.  In other words, it's a damn good looking game.

The thing that ultimately makes or breaks the game is the camera.  It's kind of like R.C. Pro Am except the camera actually attempts to face parallel with your vehicle at all times.  At first, turning left and right can be massively disorienting since it takes a while for the camera to catch up, leading you to blindly drive in some direction besides straight (think Grand Theft Auto's driving camera) but in all honestly, you get used to it after a while.  Sure, no close-chase/first-person cam sucks but you get a better view of the action happening all around you so that's good.

Now about the cars. There's nitrous boosts that charge up automatically over time and when you drive through the "pit stop" (PRO TIP: Hit the pit stop as often as possible even if you're not damaged just for the turbo boosts alone.).  While turbo boosts are a common racing gimmick, here they're used well because it can give you a tactical advantage.

There's also the ability to brake which becomes phenominally important at higher speeds.  You can't powerslide Sega-style but it's still good fun to sling the car around, plus it's not an easy game by any means so it is rewarding once you get a hang of it.  Left, right, gas, brake, turbo.  Five buttons is all you need.

There's also oil & water slicks that inhibit your ability to turn for a brief time as well as a few shortcuts too.  Fortunately, there's no Mario Kart weapons present so it rides the fine line of being goofy fun as well as a truly serious racer.

I should mention this game can be played with the keyboard or an Xbox 360 controller.  The keyboard controls are okay but still tough to use.  Once I plugged in that 360 controller, my skills doubled and I enjoyed it more.  So be sure to get a joystick before playing.  This goes for every PC racing game, obviously.

I think the game's great but there's three caveats that must be said:

1. Having "beaten" the game in about four hours, I'm still left wondering what to do besides time trials and racing the computer over and over again.  The CPU's tough on the harder difficulties without being broken cheap (no rubber-band AI) so that's great.  There's split-screen multiplayer but no online multiplayer which is a bummer.  I question the game's replay value but c'mon, it's just a $3 game.  Though some of you may get better mileage out of this game since I'm so "good" at racing games or something.  The first two tiers of cars may be too slow but the game picks up when you get those LeMans/F1 cars, pshyeah.

2. I think the game personally errs too much on being "cute."  While I don't mind driving Micro Machines around cartoony tracks, it would be great if they took a few cues out of Sega's playbook and made the racing more "intense," such as meaner engine sounds and car rumbling at top speeds.  But I don't know for sure if that would make it better...I'm not a game PRODUCER people, I'm just a lowly programmer who does what he's told.

3. Come on, enough with the dubstep, let's get some ROCK AND ROLL in this joint.  Something that really KICKS.  No really, the music in this game is ok but that definitely-not-autotuned lady says (I think) "moooonayyy" or something like that too much.

Kind of like Days of Thunder (now rendered null & void thanks to Daytona USA) and 3D Pixel Racing (didn't play it but gameplay looks similar), this is an Indie game that pops up out of nowhere and exceeds your expectations so PAY DA MAN for actually making a racing game that entertains me.  FUN FACT: There's about 30 people that worked on this game and almost all of them have an accent in their names.  In other words, this isn't a US-made game.  It hurts me to say this but as an American, Europe & Japan are leagues ahead of us in driving games, sorry.

I think the game is great and that you should buy it now.  You have until July 23 to buy it at such a low price so do it now.  Just do it...

REVIEW SCORE: 9.0 out of 10.  Also check out my friend Dave's post on this game too.  It predates my post by about a month so props to him too.


BTW, Super Sprint is still better.

EDIT: Also be sure to buy Renegade Ops off the Steam store for under $4 too!  Do it for Sega!  Or buy four copies (one for you, three for friends) for under $8!  Wow, ya gotta love Steam!!!

You're Killing Me Namco, GameFAQs, Sonic Fans!!!

Well here's a few things on the backburner I would like to mention.  More complaints from yours truly, yay.

First, I would like to begin by applauding Namco for being the greatest, most classiest game developer ever.  They truly blow my mind.  The way they handle their IP's like a pro.  And how they advertise them too.

Ivy Valentine's cleavage in a Namco ad.  Borderline NSFW.

I don't get why the first commenter of the feature discussion (a feminazi who blasted the hell out of Duke Nukem Forever) thought this was okay.  If this isn't objectifying women, I don't know what is.  The entire poster is Ivy's breasts.  How can you defend this?  I don't have a problem with scantily-clad women in games as long as it's not overdone and the women resemble some sort of "beauty."  But now Namco has run out of ideas, resorting to Tecmo's tactics to gain relevance.  Hey, you can strip down any character to their underwear thanks to their extensive customization options so isn't it the same thing as DOA Beach Volleyball but with more violence?

Taking a look at Namco-Bandai's releases in the last few years, they're in Sega's boat in that they're putting out games but most are rehashes or developed by other studios.  And you never hear about anything Namco-related from the blogs other than Soul Calibur and (awful) Ridge Racer so what's the point?  Namco is a benchwarmer now.  At least Sega has "prestige" because Sonic gets some press as does Nagoshi & Suzuki with their antics.  No wonder Namco is desperate...sticking a camera in front of a fictional character's breasts.

EDIT: A month later, Namco has also created ads of Cassanda's ass and Voldo's nether region.  I'm not making this stuff up.  And no, I'm not going to link to it.  Soul Calibur is dead.

Namco will never live up to RBI Baseball...THAT'S RIGHT, the true Namco hero, alongside Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, the Galaga ship, and Mappy the friggin mouse.

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Now on to GameFAQs.  Thanks F40 for rehashing this poll so I could notice.  So they run a poll on 1/7/12 that says "Best Download-only Game of 2011."  Here are your choices:

Bastion
Dungeons of Dredmor
From Dust
Jamestown
Pushmo
SpaceChem
Stacking
Terraria
The Binding of Isaac
Trine 2

The votes are irrelevant since Bastion followed by Terraria are way in the lead.  So there's no Daytona USA but that's cause it's a port of a really old game so what's to be expected there.  But you know what's missing? Renegade Ops.  Didn't everyone love that game?  Giant Bomb gave it a 5/5?  I loved the game too.  That's part of the Sega family and it just got ROBBED.

You know what would be the s***?  If they took down GameFAQs.  I would pay massive Microsoft Points for that DLC addon!!

And another thing.  Call me a moron but I don't think I've ever heard of half these games from the media.  SpaceChem?  Jamestown?  I don't effin now anymore.

Well, what else is new.  I'm beginning to think the Sega logo is a kiss of death.  Some games are hurt much more than others (Bayonetta is relatively intact) but those four blue letters are a good way to get people to ignore you.  DO NOT DOUBT ME.  Let's try to break the curse by aiding Sega when we can, eh?

BTW, the narrator for Bastion makes me want to jump off a bridge.

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And then there's another GameFAQs board (Good Lord) that's up to no good.  It just happens to be the Sonic Generations board.  That board has devolved from actually talking about Generations to bickering over which Sonic games suck or not.  Like this topic, this topic, and this topic.  While I don't necessarily mind debate (hell I roast plenty of games here), I don't go on forums for the specific purpose of getting in 1 on 1's with other people, quoting each other, trying to get the edge by debating the most petty things.

The Sonic fanbase just doesn't know what they want anymore.  If Sega didn't "shake the baby" back during the last decade, this probably wouldn't be happening.  I can see it now--the Mario & Zelda fanbases are laughing their asses off now.  The worst they have to complain about is whether or not Super Mario Galaxy 2 is better than Galaxy 1.  Or whether or not Majora's Mask is better than Ocarina of Time.

Well, what can you say about a franchise that has Chris-Chan as a member?  I just discovered this recently, but there's an ENTIRE Wiki site dedicated to every detail of his life (subtlety NSFW in a few places).  In case you don't know who Chris Chan is (and you really should just turn back now), he's a man-child with severe Autism who immerses himself in a world of constant gaming, fanart & fiction with characters like "Sonichu," rage towards everybody, and tons of erotic fantasies about God knows what.  Never mind the Rule 34 content from the rest of the fanbase, he alone sets back the Sonic community ten years.  I have a young brother with Autism and I know it really sucks but his (EDIT: talking about Chris) behavior is way past the point of using Autism as an excuse.

And about the Wiki site...isn't it illegal to publicly that much private information about someone?  I'm just curious, I don't want the HIRE A LAWLER TO TAKE DOWN DIS WEBSATE.  Sure, the media does this a lot with celebrities & politicians, but nowhere near the extent that this Wiki does.  People have been hacking his e-mail accounts and stuff, gathering every single account of his life, it's pretty demented.  Even if they were making this stuff up as they went along, it's still slanderous.  But nonetheless, Chris still plugs along at whatever he does.

No wonder Sonic is in the dumps.  I'll leave you with this pic:

Chris Chan, Jackie Chan, haha

And I know all the big gaming blogs beat me to this but what is Sonic doing in a Progressive commercial???  Progressive does auto insurance, not health/life insurance.  I don't think Flo can save you from a pit of spikes.

But hey, at least it ain't Klonoa or Pac-Man.  Namco, get your notepads out.

Also the Saints won so Who Dat.  And I'll be heading back to Florida for escuela on a nine-hour drive.  I'll talk about it later I guess.

Renegade Ops, More Renegade Ops, Mass Effect 2, & Enslaved

First of all, didn't you hear that New York Comic-Con just came and went recently?  And that Blizzcon is going on right about now?  Do I care?  NOPE.

Alright, so Sega recently published this game called Renegade Ops.  Sadly, Sega did not make this themselves.  It was developed by Avalanche Studios (who?).  I pick on Sega for not making more in-house games but at least they're doing a good job now of picking good games to publish, like those by Platinum Games (Bayonetta) and Sumo Digital (Sega Tennis/Racing).
 
So Renegade Ops is an overhead arcade game in which you drive with one stick while shooting with another (think Geometry Wars).  You drive cars, tanks, and helicopters.  It's pretty cool.  EDIT: Dammit Google, why do you keep linking me to broken image URL's???

I've only played the demo though.  At least the demo gives you a modest 10-15 minutes of story play (it ends right after you get the helicopter though.  You're just plowing through the world shooting infantry, jeeps, and tanks.  Damn, you're such a bad-ass.  You're also rescuing civilians although you never really see them walking around--you destroy the cages they're in and you magically pick them up and take them back to the church (praise the Lord).

Now about the story.  You're treated to a little mini-introduction in this game in the game's sweet comic-book style artwork.  You're looking at a shot of a peaceful city with people all around.  Then a nuke goes off and everybody presumably dies.  Great--just what I needed--another war game with innocent people dying.  This bad guy named Inferno is threatening to nuke more cities and this wuss-bag at what appears to be the United Nations says we ought to perform sexual favors give in to his demands because the UN sucks like that.

NOT SO FAST as Mr. Hardass General guy never backs down from a fight.  He tosses his precious medals on the table and walks out dedicated to killing this Inferno bastard. " Do you think a man named Inferno has good intentions?" he said.  "Real American Badass.  Really, we need more badasses like this.  In a world where our football players wear pink.  Yeah, we're losing it here.

As opposed to:

Hey, isn't that Kevin Butler?

"Americans traditionally love to fight.  All real Americans love the sting of battle."  All I have to say is be a Man.

Really, Renegade Ops is pretty good.  Controls while driving and shooting are a bit weird (especially since you're driving a car and can't make 180-degree turns on a dime), but it's a fun little arcade shooter without inundating you with an annoying plot.  You can even play 2-player co-op with a buddy.  Try the demo now.

Please note that being a "bad-ass" doesn't mean playing dark greyish-brown games.  No, that's just stupid.  Dark colors make you feel depressed which reduces your manliness (for some of us anyway).

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And now, I would like to talk about some more games.  While I'm at FIEA, some classes are dedicated to watching a game being played out on a projector.  The point is to figure out from a developer's perspective what was good and bad about the game.  Two games we recently watch were Mass Effect 2 and Enslaved: Odyssey.  And both games were rated pretty high from game critics (durr, of course).  To tell you the truth, I have never played either of these games.  But let me explain what I think from the 75 minutes I saw from the beginning of both games.

First, both games take place in the future in war-like settings.  Surprising, neither use that crap brownish hue that games like Gears of War and Rage unabashedly use at every turn.  They are heavily cutscene-driven.  They both involve killing tons of robots but Mass Effect 2 is a shooter while Enslaved is a "hack & slash."  Robots...just like Binary Domain, but at this point, I stopped giving a damn about the "humans vs. robots" motif so whatever.  Just entertain me anyway.

Now some probably expect me to come on here and slam both games for being production-laden crap, but not really.  Neither game was really that bad to me.  Cutscenes were pretty good and I kinda wanted to know what happened next to the characters.

But that's just it...this is not a game, it's a DAMN MOVIE.  An interactive movie, but still too movie-ish for me.  The gameplay (shooting/mashing buttons) was okay but it didn't do it for me.  Like in Mass Effect 2, I was more intrigued by the multiple conversation feature than the actual gameplay itself.  Like I wanted to know what happens what the black guy or that rich dude in the chair says next, not "oh, I gotta shoot some robots again, oh joy."  It's almost like the gameplay is secondary to the actual feature film at play here.  Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's cooler parts later in the game but if they aren't apparent from the beginning then I tend not to think about them.

Although one thing I must say that Mass Effect 2 did gameplay-wise is that your cohorts actually die when shot at.  Well, they magically get up at each checkpoint as if they fell asleep, rofl.  At least it's not some Call of Duty bogus crap where your story-driven friend (Ghost, Gaz, Price, MacMillan) just stands behind cover until you activate the next story trigger and off you go again.

I know some may say "Eric, you suck," but come on man.  Lots of people are movie buffs (at least here in America anyway) so these games are highly appealing.  However, I don't fit that mold.  I don't think I've popped a DVD in the player (except Seinfeld) or went to a theater in ages.  Well, I DO like some movies but not that many.  That's just how I roll.  My apologies.

I guess that's why games like Daytona USA, OutRun, Rock Band, and Advance Wars hit home for me--just present me with a setting, a short plot (if necessary), and let me control my own destiny.

That's really all I have to say here.  If I haven't pissed you off already then congrats...you get a gold star under your name on the poster I have up on this wall here!

Sega & Steam Got A Relationship Going On

First, I'd like to thank all the commenters for the comments I've received lately.  I hope I'm doing a good job here on this blog which I do entirely for free every day!!!

A weekend that lasts six days.  Now that's the kind of weekend we can all get behind!!!

Anyway, go buy Sega games off Steam now!!  Most are 75% off or more.

Well, I own some of these games for Xbox 360, sorry, PC gaming is "lame," rofl.  What's this--buy 79 Sega games for 79 dollars???  Why are all these games on sale anyway???  Is Sega that desperate to sell games that they give them away for that cheap?  Anyway, it doesn't even include all games like Renegade Ops.  That costs $15 and you have to buy it separately.  I've heard it's a good game though!  EDIT: And I also realized RO for the PC will also feature the Gordon Freeman buggy...so there you go again, SegaxSteam fanfiction on the way...

40 of those 79 Sega games are Genesis games.  As cruel as this sounds...just get a Genesis emulator.  You get save states and speed throttling.  If anything, the emulator should cost money, not the games (roms).

You have to realize though that Steam has been practically giving away games recently.  Most people are playing console games, not PC games, hence the whole "PC Gaming is Dead" phrase.  Not to mention rampant piracy on the PC.  I bought Left 4 Dead 1 AND 2 for $5.  Let me repeat--2 games for $5.  Well, L4D1 is now null and void cause you can play L4D campaigns on L4D2 now, but L4D2 for $5...not bad.  Now I have this l33t laptop that can run Source games flawlessly.  But I've got bigger games to play, like Sega Racers, Rock Band, and Advance Wars!!

And another thing...what's up with Team Fortress 2 and all the hats?  I know TF2 is free but the hats require some time & effort to unlock.  So it's sort of their Call of Duty/Farmville hook to get you playing.  Something's not right, people.  EDIT: Finally found that picture I was looking for...two weeks later.

Look at this, it's a mess.  These hats are a mess, yes I said it.  I'm going back to Team Fortress Classic.  I love Goldsource.

Oh, by the way...since I go to a video game school, I occasionally get free stuff, like video game beta keys?  One of my professors made his rounds offering people free Diablo 3 beta codes!  But I turned it down.  Why?  I don't like Diablo, rofl.

Come to think of it, I should've taken it and sold/used it as bribe material.  Yeah, so I guess I screwed up! But that's okay cause I only advocate happy games, remember? I will not sell out on my values!

Poor guy

...I wish I had more to talk about but it's been a long day (sat at school for 8 hours, drank cold black coffee again and got the jitters) so I just want to be left alone for a sec, okay....  If you want something educational pertaining to games, read this: Ten Facts about the Video Game Crash of '83!  Good read...