The Warp Pipe - 02/11/2008
By Matt K - Sun Nov 2, 2008 9:01am
This week’s edition includes Resident Evil 2, Tekken 3, StarCraft, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Unreal.
For many of us, the concept of our all-time favourite games reaching 10 is rather scary. It does, however, afford us the opportunity to celebrate these games, reflect on their quality and ongoing influence, and perhaps even pull them off the shelf and give them another play-through. It’s also scary seeing how many fantastic games were released in just one year. Over the next five weeks, we’re going to look at 25 of the best games that were released in the West in 1998.The Tin Anniversaries – Part I
) You need five jewels, ten keys and an emblem to go to the RCPD bathroom |
Two months after the mansion incident in Resident Evil, the T-Virus spreads to nearby Raccoon City, courtesy of rats. The virus devastates the population, with many being turned into flesh eating zombies. New police recruit Leon S. Kennedy arrives in town to find it deserted, before running into Claire Redfield, who is searching for her brother Chris. They team up to find out what happened to the city, but are quickly separated after their vehicle is hit by a truck.
Originally slated to be a quick-fire sequel released less than a year after the original, Resident Evil 2 was famously scrapped when it was almost completed, and re-developed from scratch. The game featured more zombies on screen, higher quality player models whose movement would reflect their current health status, a tighter and more interesting story, better combat and stage design, and a plethora of bonus features made Resident Evil 2 leagues better than its predecessor. It’s a little stiff to play today thanks to the fixed camera angles and awkward controls, and the story is still pretty cheesy, but it’s still an enjoyable game.
Resident Evil 2 was the most successful entry in the series to date, selling almost seven million copies (and about five million of those on the PlayStation). A re-release on the PlayStation followed in November which added DualShock support and some extra mini-games. Capcom went a little crazy with ports after that, releasing Resident Evil 2 on the PC, Nintendo 64 (shrunk down to a 512 megabit cart from 2 CDs!), Dreamcast and GameCube.
The Resident Evil series has continued unabated, with more than 15 releases over a variety of formats. The quality generally remained steady throughout the main games in the series, but varied wildly in its spinoffs. Resident Evil 4 took the series in a completely new direction, shifting the focus from survival to outright action – a move which was a success when it yielded multiple game of the year awards in 2005. Resident Evil 5 is due for release on February 13, 2009.
) Few game characters are as cheap as Eddy |
Tekken 3 hit the arcades in 1997, which would seemingly make it ineligible for this feature, but the home console version set a new standard for the quality of home ports of fighting games. The PlayStation was considerably less powerful than the System 12 hardware which Tekken 3 ran on, but Namco managed to get it to run wonderfully on the PlayStation with only a few concessions.
The home version of Tekken 3 featured two bonus characters in Gon (a small, flatulent dinosaur) and Dr. Boskonovich. In addition to the standard game modes such as arcade, versus and training, Namco added two rather unique bonus games; Tekken Force, a single player Final Fight-style beat ‘em up which let you play as any character with their full moveset, and Tekken Ball, a volleyball style game where you hit the ball at each other using fighting moves.
Tekken 3 was the peak of the Tekken series’ success, selling over 5 million copies worldwide. The series has continued, experiencing both highs (Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection) and lows (Death by Degrees), but never quite reaching the same level of success it had in the late 90s. Tekken 6 is out in the arcades at the moment, and is due to be released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2009.
) Needs more Vespene gas |
What can one say about StarCraft that hasn’t already been said? It’s one of the most popular PC games of all time, having sold almost 10 million copies. It’s an institution in Korea, where it spawned a competitive gaming industry where the best players make a lot of money and matches are televised. It’s also the only game of my 25 picks which doesn’t have a sequel on the market.
There’s a reason for this popularity – StarCraft is one of the best real time strategy games ever created. The game featured three completely different yet (seemingly) well balanced races; something no other real time strategy game did at the time. Every unit on each side had a purpose. StarCraft’s story was particularly engrossing, but the Battle.NET supported multiplayer was the real draw for many players. Early days of the game were marked by cries of “Zerg rush!!” but Blizzard has continued to support the game with ten years of patches to correct glitches and balance issues.
StarCraft received two authorised expansions before its official add-on pack, Brood War was released in October 1998. A port was released for MacOS in 1999, as a well as a Nintendo-published console port, StarCraft 64. The game continues to be played actively today over the Battle.NET service – a real testament to the quality of the game.
StarCraft has had a profound impact on the development of all real time strategy games after its release. Blizzard has dragged its heels on releasing anything new in the StarCraft universe, largely due to their own high standards of quality. StarCraft Ghost was a high profile console project under development at Nihilistic, before being moved to Swingin’ Ape Studios (Metal Arms: A Glitch in the System), which Blizzard acquired. The project was eventually shelved, with the developer citing quality concerns. Development on StarCraft II began in 2003, and has now expanded into a trilogy, the first part of which is said to be due in 2009.
) Well worth the price of admission |
The Saturn fizzled at retail, but Sega continued to support the system with a number of high quality titles, one of which was Panzer Dragoon Saga. It was a great departure from the rest of the Panzer Dragoon series, which were rail shooters. The game told the story of a young soldier named Edge, who was rescued from near death by a dragon which could communicate with him on a spiritual level. Together they take on a rebel faction led by the mysterious Craymen, who was responsible for the attack on the fossil site which nearly caused Edge’s death.
Panzer Dragoon Saga combines a free flight overworld with a point & click style interface on the ground, while employing one of the most unique cinematic battle systems in a video game. It’s a real-time battle system which gives players three action gauges which tied to different types of moves and are depleted and replenished depending on the moves you make. Morphing dragons gave stat bonuses which added an extra level of depth. The visuals and soundtrack were easily among the best the Saturn had to offer.
It’s difficult to gauge how Panzer Dragoon Saga holds up today, seeing that there are very few English versions in circulation, and one needs to cough up around $200 to see it. While Team Andromeda broke up after the game was released, some elements of Panzer Dragoon Saga worked their way into other Sega RPGs like Skies of Arcadia. The Panzer Dragoon series continued briefly with the Xbox release of Panzer Dragoon Orta, but has not been heard from since.
) The Unreal engine really took off |
Unreal was a damn fine first person shooter with fantastic graphics and sound and unmatched atmosphere. Players took on the role of “Prisoner 849”, initially incarcerated on the transport ship Vortex Rikers. The ship malfunctions and crash lands on the planet Na Pali, home to the four-armed Nali race. Na Pali has been invaded by the Skaarj, who seek to harness the planet’s supply of Tarydium, a high energy crystal. As you progress through the game, you see the atrocities caused by the Skaarj, and set out to put an end to their presence on the planet.
It looks a little dated now (especially the animation) which makes it considerably harder to play, but Unreal’s influence on gaming, particularly in the current day, cannot be ignored. The third generation Unreal Engine (the first version of which powered this game) is now the most widely utilised middleware solution in the games industry, with major console publishers like Electronic Arts, Sega, Capcom and Square Enix all using Unreal Engine 3.0 to some degree.
Unreal saw a direct sequel in Unreal II: The Awakening, which received mixed reviews. Epic diversified the IP with the Unreal Tournament series of games, which also expanded to Unreal Championship on the Xbox. Epic experienced great success with the early Unreal Tournament releases, but the recent Unreal Tournament III was met with disappointment. The fate of the series is currently unknown.
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