TCP

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Want to talk about vibes? This game has vibes. The gothic surf rock, especially with this song, is so fucking good. I never finished this back in the day and I couldn't recall why... until about half way through I hit a familiar spot. You have to grab 10 flowers (two types, five of each) for West Dickens and there's no other missions at the time. The flowers are a pain in the ass to find. Still not worth dropping the pack for, but definitely something that should have been adjusted to one of each. I probably had to wrap the game up early to play Uncharted 3 or something. Outside of that the game is a ton of fun and definitely earned it's reputation for being one of the best expansion packs of all time. It's too bad Rockstar refused to do anything like this for RDR2.

Red Dead Redemption I have a lot of nostalgia for this game and it's still a ton of fun to play in 2024. I haven't touched it since it came out originally and I was surprised that there was less jank than I was expecting. Here's a random collection of thoughts: That said, the game has aged poorly in some respects. Characters are racist, antisemitic, sexist, homophobic, etc and no one gets their comeuppance. I get that they're trying to paint a realistic portrait of what common beliefs/attitudes would have been like in 1911 but this is also a game where John Marston kills like, over 1000 people, in a one month span. So it's already not realistic. They could have just... not done included that? Instead a random shopkeeper will just say like 5 horribly racist things during a single transaction and doesn't get challenged on it, nothing bad happens to them, it just is. I think my biggest gripe has to be with the representation of indigenous people. Off the top of my head I can think of one Native American with speaking lines in this game, and he is unceremoniously killed off after a few missions. Meanwhile Dutch's gang is mostly indigenous men and you kill so many of them. I suspect Red Dead 2 is probably better for all this, which I'll probably be playing next, after Undead Nightmare. Gameplay wise, it was more arcade-y than I remember but it's still a ton of fun. I love the world they crafted even if it does feel kind of small. The soundtrack is great (love all that Fender Bass VI you can hear). I'm glad this game is available to play again, it worked really well on my Steam Deck.

Now here's an interesting one. Beating III HD-2D inspired me to take on an old game, that I've planned on finishing for a long, long time. See: I finished one of those games back then, but tonight I finally completed my original save file, from the cart, on a DS... Dragon Quest IX I bought this game when it came out in the summer of 2010. I was 23 then. It was my first Dragon Quest game and I remember really liking it. But eventually I hit the final boss, Corvus, and he easily destroyed my party. I think I tried a few more times got frustrated and as this was the era of $59.99 CAD games ($49.99 Wii and... maybe 30 or 40 dollar DS games? I can't recall) I probably had a bunch of new games to play so I moved on. I always intended to come back and I think I might have tried one or twice, and probably when I made the above post in 2011, but by that point, 8ish months later, I couldn't exactly remember where to go or what to do. So if that was a challenge in 2011, you can bet it was a challenge here in 2024. But I'm old as fuck now and with that means I've completed like, three Dragon Quest games since then. I'm arguably smarter. More worldly. So I found my wife's old DSi XL, my copy of DQIX, and hoped the save was still there. Turns out it was! And the DS somehow had like half a charge, I don't remember when I plugged that in last. Either way, I googled the best place to fight Liquid Metal Slimes, struggled to figure out how to get there, but eventually spent a few hours slicing those little dudes up. And then I made my way to the bottom of Gittingham Palace and.... nothing. Turns out I must have finished that as it is not the final boss area I thought it was. After consulting a GameFAQ walk through (as per the spirit of this endeavour) I realized I had to go somewhere called the Realm of the Mighty. Which I have no memory of. But I've been there before because there was open chests. Figuring out how to get there took time too, no guides just tell you, they expect you to know because in game you were there like 5 hours ago maybe. It's like the devs didn't even account for someone coming back 14 years later. Eventually I made my way to the top and accidentally started the final battle with low HP and low MP. Oops. So I got wrecked again. And then a second time with proper provisions. At this point I realized, shit, I should have 4 party members. How the fuck do I find my other party members? More googling, but eventually, much like DQIII I found an inn with Patty, found my fourth party member, a fighter, who, like my warrior, was named after a long gone family pet (). Oh back to slicing up Liquid Metal Slimes for a bit too. Anyways, long story short, I finally beat this game. 14 and a half years later. I had no idea what happened at the end. There was a bunch of angels and some flash backs. I'm sure it would have been great in August 2010. But at least now, I can finally check this one off the list. I liked it, even if I don't know why or how. For that I will give it a score of... Grade: ?+ Also, the DSiXL screens make everything look awful, I can't believe this was an actual product. And the DS is so uncomfortable to hold, how the fuck did I ever play this thing all the time. Bring out a remaster and put it on Steam so I can play on my Deck. This time I'll do it in the span of a few weeks not 1.5 decades.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Fucking hell I love Dragon Quest. I've been playing this game in the past two weeks as temperatures dip and snow starts to fall, and I haven't minded because DQIII HD-2D is cozy AF. I love the way this 2D-HD art style looks, and I would love to see Final Fantasy VI remade like this. Especially with thick depth of field... and the way the lighting engine makes lanterns look at night. It's a ~vibe~ and I'm here for it. I guess this has been the year of TCP playing classic JRPGs as I also beat Final Fantasy VI and VII for the first time as well. And similarly to those two games, I can retroactively see the influence of this game on other games I've played, especially Pokemon. It's a shame other classic Dragon Quests aren't on Steam. I'd love to play V and VIII. I and II are coming but knowing they won't be as deep as this game has me less excited. Anyways Grade: A

Final Fantasy VII Well, that was good but I have questions: Who did Red XIII bang? In all seriousness I think Remake/Rebirth kind of spoiled me, I would have enjoyed this more if I played it first. But it did make me even more excited for Part 3, things just kind of happen in VII with no weight given to it, I'm excited to see everything expanded. I also used a bunch of texture packs via 7th Heaven, they looked really good, Square needs to do something official and do a faithful remake/remaster. Grade: A-

Final Fantasy VI I've started this game many times but never completed it until now. Looks and plays great on the Steam Deck with the Pixel Remaster. It's a classic for a reason, just a really great 2D JRPG. I can only imagine how great it would have felt in 1994, but it holds up in 2024. Fun fact: coincidentally, I learned earlier today that today, April 2, is the 30th anniversary of the game! I saved last night right before the Kefka boss fight and saw something today about it being the 30th anniversary. Clearly, it was meant to be. One other thing: this game needs the HD-2D treatment. Expand the script a bit, make some areas bigger, but keep the ~vibes~ Rating: A+

"Rebirth makes Remake feel like a tech demo" is that better?? or "Rebirth retroactively makes Remake feel like a tech demo"?? At some point in the next year or two Square will rerelease XIII (I think it's the only game currently not really available except maybe via an old PC port and Xbox BC) and I feel we'll see a lot of people come out of the woodwork to sing it's praises. Basically, it's going to get some Star Wars prequel revisionism.

Remake felt like a tech demo for Rebirth. There's significantly more to do in Rebirth, side content, main story, areas to explore. And almost all of it is great. There's a bunch of mini games in there that could be there own game. I heard a podcast today where one person said "Rebirth is one of the best games I've ever played", and another person responded "Rebirth is two of the best games I've ever played, Rebirth and Queen's Blood". But also: Rebirth is the best mini game collection disguised a semi-open world RPG.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth This game fucking slaps. I was skeptical, Remake was "just ok". But goddamn I loved this game. It's my favourite Final Fantasy. Hopefully we don't have to wait 4 years for Remembrance... or whatever it will be called. Grade: A++

Spider-Man 2? Final Fantasy Rebirth? I couldn't hold out any longer, something had to be done.

Metroid Fusion I never hear anyone talk about this game (compared to the other Metroid games that is) but I think it's one of the better ones. I imagine people have issues with the robo telling you where to go, but there's so much reward for exploring that it makes up for it. And honestly, I like that I didn't always have to figure out where to go. The boss fights were great. There is a lot of modernized Metroid in it, like Samus holding onto edges. Each area was varied. I liked the super missiles just being an upgrade to the regular missiles instead of their own separate weapon. The moments when you randomly (sometimes literally) walk into SA-X. But most of all I liked the pixel artwork. This game looks GREAT. I wish Nintendo would still make the occasional pixel based game. There's some great moments like when you walk past windows and see the planet below floating past. The game is very colourful especially coming from Zero Mission and Super, which makes the image really pop on the Analogue Pocket screen. Grade: A

Super Metroid Yeah, I somehow have never finished Super Metroid. I've started it a bunch, but I've never gotten that far for one reason or another. This great shame ended today. It's a game rich in atmosphere and ~vibes~. I liked it more than Samus Returns/Return of Samus and more than Zero Mission. The controls kind of.... sucked. Maybe that was one of my issues in the past with it. But especially coming from the other games, this game felt very differently. Fortunately I used the Redux patch which, among a few other things, modernized the controls making the game a much more comfortable experience to play. Score: A+

I'm trying to play more retro games, and despite the lack of save states on some cores (most frustratingly SNES), it's definitely the best way to experience those games portably, IMHO.

Not the game but the hardware: I was excited to see my Metroid II save file that I would have started in 1995 is still alive. My Oracle of Seasons save file from that games launch also still exists.

Steam Deck! There's a few different layout options, including stacking the screens on top of each other in the same screen, having one big one small, side by side, etc. I prefer going full screen, on the Steam Deck if you use Emudeck R5 will swap screens.

Metroid: Samus Returns The original Metroid II holds a special place in my heart. It was the first game I ever beat. My memory is foggy since it's been almost 30 years but I played it all throughout grade 3 when I was just an 8 year old TCP. There was no map and every location looked the same. What I was suppose to do next was never clear especially as a kid. I'm pretty sure I sequence breaked at one point because I definitely sank through a bunch of acid and got to an area before I was suppose to. At some point I killed all the metroids and took on the final boss, then, with the baby I got to the surface. My point is, it was a perfect game to just wander around in for the entire school year since you lucked into getting to the end. I think this was always going to be a difficult game to remake because by it's tedious by it's very nature. I think MercuryStream did a good attempt at it. Ultimately I think there could have, and should have, been more variety in the types of metroids because by the end it feels like you're repeating the same boss battles over and over. Either that or just have the majority of metroids in each area be the basic metroids and have the challenge be in finding them. Obviously my memory is foggy but none of the areas felt familiar. Some of the enemies were straight out of Return of Samus which was cool but there was a lot of gameplay based on the aeion abilities which were obviously not a thing on the Game Boy version. So a very loose remake which is understandable. The depth of the backgrounds look cool and I bet it would have looked cool in 3D. It looks good playing at 2x resolution on the Steam Deck via Citra. It sets a lot of groundwork for what would later be seen in Dread and honestly I think I would have liked it more if I played Samus Returns before Dread. It's a fine Metroid game but the weakest of all the ones I've played recently (Prime, Dread, and Zero Mission). I'll be moving onto Super Metroid in a bit but I'm waiting for a new piece of hardware to arrive to do 8 and 16 bit games on so for the moment maybe I'll try Prime 2. Grade: B-

Metroid Zero Mission A nice, short, Metroid game. Great pace to it too, you're constantly finding upgrades. The section where you play as Samus without her armour and weapons is pretty cool, I wish they had expanded on it. Anyways, onwards to Samus Returns! Grade: A

Metroid Dread So I started playing this game at launch, got maybe half way through and just sort of... forgot about it. But after playing (and mostly liking) Prime, and wanting a game I could play portably without a huge focus on story so my wife and I can watch TV at night, I thought I'd give Dread another take. I started a new save and dived back in. This game fucking slaps. It's everything I want out of a Metroid. Samus' movement is great and gets better throughout the game, through both unlocking new abilities, and you the player mastering those new abilities. There's a lot of quality of life enhancements too that the Prime Remaster was lacking, like auto save outside boss rooms that make retrying the bosses much less frustrating. Which is good because the bosses are tough in this game. But honestly, it's kind of fun learning their patterns and retrying, progressing a bit further each time. I think I prefer the exploration in Prime. The secrets were harder to find. The environments were more engrossing due to being 3D. Both styles of Metroid games have their advantages. Bring on Prime 4 this year. Grade: A+

Has anyone here upgraded to a Steam Deck OLED?? If so, what are your thoughts? I want to upgrade but at this point I'll hold out for the next revision. Unless they start selling refurbished OLED Decks like they did with the LCD models.

One last game!!! Metroid Prime Remaster Fun fact: I've never finished this game before. I got maybe half way through on the GCN version (playing on a Wii) back in '09 or maybe '10 but stopped somewhere around the part where you see Metroids in tanks and the lights go out. I'm not sure exactly why! I do recall enjoying it. Maybe Uncharted 3 came out and I got distracted? Anyways, so essentially I've been playing a 20 year old game for the first time. When this game is great it's very great. Unfortunately it's also very tedious: Did you just walk back into a room you were just in? Fuck you! The enemies are all respawned. Seriously though, for a game that wants you to backtrack they sure didn't make it fun. Save points are few and far between. Defeated enemies will give you bombs when you need health or vice versa. The underwater section, without the suit that makes mobility easier, is SO slow. And then when you do get the suit the platforms are all still arranged for the old suit so you can easily over jump an fall all the way to the bottom. Speaking of the underwater section, I got about 75% through it and then the game told me I can't progress. Thanks for letting me waste my time! Want to get to the ice area from the overworld? Ha fuck you! See something cool that you can't get yet so you want to mark it on your map to come back to? Also fuck you! However, the world design is (mostly) great. The music is great. The power ups are awesome. Most of the bosses are cool (except Thardus who got stuck in a wall which made hitting it's weak spots very annoying. Visually the game is gorgeous Nintendo/Retro did a good job cleaning it up. I just wish they'd put some QOL changes into the game as well. Score: B+ That finalizes my list of games that I've completed this year: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 2023-06-21 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D - 2023-06-23 Super Mario 3D Land - 2023-12-03 Starfield - 2023-12-03 The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - 2023-12-23 Super Mario Bros. Wonder - 2023-12-25 Metroid Prime Remastered - 2023-12-31 This is compared to three last year (both Pokemons and New Vegas) so.... I'm basically MetalCaveman or Pojo. Ok maybe not but as you can see I did pretty good in December.

Glad to see TOTK in it's rightful place! That said, I'm very disappointed to see none of you voted for Super Mario Wonder.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder I feel like this is what playing Super Mario World in 1991 would have been like. I mean, I'm pretty sure I did play SMW in 1991 or maybe 1992 at my uncle's house but I was 4 and dumb and didn't understand the difference between an NES and a SNES. So this is what playing Super Mario World would have been like when it was new and you understood the context of what you were playing. That is to to say, this game is very good. In any other year it would probably be a consensus as GOTY but alas 2023 was crazy. Grade: A++

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds I bought this game when it was released.... 10 years ago (wtf). I remember being really down on Nintendo at the time and not liking the 3DS at all. The resolution was crappy, it was uncomfortable to hold, and the 3D effect never really looked that good. So I played the game, grinded out rupees, bought all the items and then felt unmotivated to keep playing. Fast forward to 2023 and now I have a Steam Deck, which is much more comfortable to hold in my hands than a 3DS. Most 3DS games, including ALBW look really good in HD and the Steam Deck has no issue playing most games at 3x resolution. Well, the game itself looks better but maybe "looks good" is a step too far. The artstyle in this game is atrocious. It's the New Super Mario Bros of Zelda. I'm so glad Link's Awakening got a better art style in the remake than this game did. It's definitely a lowpoint in the series visually. Which is too bad given the whole painting theme with this game, it could have been their excuse to do something really creative and ambitious with the visual style. That said, gameplay is fantastic. I love top down Zelda, but have never really been a huge A Link to the Past fan, I just don't like the way sword combat feels in that game. Fortunately this is much more link Link's Awakening, Oracle games, and Minish Cap. The dungeon design is great, I especially liked Thieves Hideout, Dark Palace, and the Ice Ruins. Lorule, while dumb in concept, feels really fresh. The items you collect compliment the game well and it's focus on layers. You can also see some Breath of the Wild elements in this game. The treasure room challenges are essentially proto-shrines and collecting monster parts to turn into potions is something they'd elaborate on as well. Overall I feel I was too dismissive of this game back in 2013 but I'm glad I could play it now. The Steam Deck is great at breathing second life into some of these 3DS and Wii U games. Grade: A+

I beat a second game tonight... Super Mario 3D Land Anyways, one of my big gaming discoveries this year is that emulation is actually..... pretty great. I remember emulating NES/SNES games 20 years ago and it never felt right. But 3DS games at 3x the resolution on the Steam Deck? Pretty good! Anyways, I started this game a few years ago when it came out. ...According to Wikipedia that was 12 years ago. Fucking hell. I liked it a lot but I recall it was a busy fall. Looks like Uncharted 3 (the second best Uncharted) and Skyrim came out just days before it, and Skyward Sword a few weeks later. So anyways, it was a pleasure to return and finally roll credits on it. I'll chip away at the special worlds too but looks like they're mostly remixes of previous levels. 3D Land shares a lot of it's DNA with Super Mario Bros 3, a game which holds a special place in my heart. The game feels like a genuine combination of 3D and 2D Mario. The powerups are a lot of fun, the level design is pretty imaginative. The world map is kind of plain but for a 3DS game I guess they had to cut corners somewhere. Still, I can't believe Nintendo has never re-released this game. 9/10