Game 44: Grand Theft Auto 2

Grand Theft Auto 2 is of course the game that came before Grand Theft Auto III, one of the most important games of the last decade. I always wondered what kind of games GTA1 and 2 were, and after playing them, it's obvious the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. GTA2 is essentially a top-down look at the Grand Theft Auto universe. Much of the core gameplay we know and love today is in GTA2, just from a totally different perspective. It's a great representative of the change from 2D to 3D as somehow it feels I could be playing the exact same game if it weren't for the view.

GTA2 was released in 1999 on a peculiar variety of systems: the Playstation, PC, the Dreamcast, and Game Boy Color. Every major gaming company got a version of this game, but I will personally be playing the PC version. Mostly because this game is absolutely free from Rockstar Games themselves. Yep, you can go to their site and download both GTA1 and 2 for free, not bad if you ask me. If you're one of those poor souls (like me) who doesn't own Grand Theft Auto IV, well, this may serve as a temporary replacement in your heart. Let's get to the first hour review of Grand Theft Auto 2.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select Play and the first hour of GTA2 begins. Some voice announces, "Remember, respect is everything!" some announcer yells. A nearby pay phone is ringing. I attempt to run up to it. I'm in the downtown district.
01 - There are three fueding gangs here, the Zaibatsu, Loonies, and Yakuza, and I can help them out if I have enough respect from them. The cops will bust my balls for killing innocents though. I can save at a Church, but only if I have $50,000! Now that's a tithe!

02 - I'm told that in a nearby car is a pistol, a pink arrow points me to it. My character is the center of the screen and I'm looking at him from almost directly above.

03 - The controls are Resident Evil style controls, so you press forward to move forward and have to rotate yourself with the left and right buttons. Pretty awkward from this above ground point of view if you ask me. There's a few arrows around my car pointing me where to go, think I'll head to the gray one.
04 - Geez, when you run over people you get points? Is that right...?

05 - Oh oh, I got the cops on my trail from running over too many peds!

07 - I have entered the Zaibatsu warehouse, and I have to climb some catwalks to reach the ringing pay phone. This is really weird. Running up ramps from this perspective just feels out of place.

08 - I have received my first mission, have to intercept some cheap Yakuza crap. The purple arrow shows me the way.
09 - I jack a Truck Cab and I'm on my way. This vehicle is a beast! The purple arrow is telling me to go inside a building... have to find the entrance.

12 - Well, this is a basic delivery mission. Take the junk across town to three or more drop-off gang members. I say three or more because I accidentally ran over the third one. Whoops. Bloody mistake.

14 - I'm going towards the blue arrow this time. Oh man, this mission is a bank robbery! I pick up a screaming green Yakuza car.

17 - That did not go smooth. I accidentally side-swiped a police car so I spent the next few minutes running and driving from them. Eventually, my car started on fire, and well, you know what happens then (explodes). But I was busted before I blew up and the cops drop me off in front of the station.
19 - I'm going to try the other Yakuza mission, I just have to pick someone up.

21 - This time I hop in the Yakuza's own purple Yen car. Cool.

22 - Oh, I beat it. Just had to drive two guys to the J-Lab. Haha, some guy tried to rob me but then a policeman started shooting at him. Thanks! I got $20,000 for that mission. Not bad. Maybe I'll try the bank heist again.
24 - I end up at a different pay phone but still owned by the Yakuza. Someone tells me that I have to kill Zaibatsu to earn Yakuza respect. Makes sense, now I just have to find those guys.

25 - Not really sure where to consistently find Zaibatsu, so I head back to the gray arrow.

27 - It's hard to tell from this perspective who is who, but some guy started shooting at me so I shot back at him. Bullets appear as red balls, pretty hilarious.
28 - Just mowed down three Zaibatsu in a row. But the paramedics came and revived them!

29 - I wasn't really watching my health and was Wasted. I lost my guns but kept my Yakuza respect, which is going up, and my Zaibatsu respect is still way down!

30 - Oh sweet, picked up a Kill Frenzy token which gave me a flamethrower and the challenge to kill 60 people in two minutes! That was really hard though as the cops decided that wasn't a very nice thing to do and captured me.
32 - Haha, I just punched as guy into the street and he got ran over by a speeding car.

33 - I think I might have enough respect with the Yakuza now, so I head back to their headquarters. Along the way I jack a car that has a Christian radio station playing, don't hear that in many games.

34 - Ah, the bank robbery mission again. Here we go.

37 - Someone tipped off the cops! I'm on the run to the car paint place to sneakily change the color of my car. The coppers will never know.
38 - I drop off the car, robber, and cash, and finish the job. Another $20,000 for me. I actually have over $50,000 now. I am now allowed to save my game, haha. Time to head to another blue arrow.

40 - Another pickup job, this time from someone who was in plastic surgery. Hey... where's my arrow?

41 - Just saw it for a split second, but it's gone again. I can not play without arrows pointing me exactly where to go!

44 - Awesome! Some fellow Loonies and I just blew up a ton of Zaibatsu cars! They explode with like a sonic boom.
45 - Okay, for some reason the arrow only appears when I'm under structures. That's odd.

46 - Picked up a GTA2 symbol, no idea what it did though. I'm glad these Loonies are my friends because there are a ton of them around!

47 - Umm... the arrow that appears when I'm underneath is just pointing me in the direction I am facing in. I am thoroughly confused.

49 - I find a Loony phone, not enough respect though yet. They respect those who like killing Yakuzas!
50 - Maybe I'll go on a rampage.

52 - Ugh, killing cops gets you busted quick. And the Yakuza do not like to see me get busted. But hey, at least the arrows are back!

53 - Cool, I'm in a TV van. The satellite dish is rotating above me.

54 - I'm back in the Yakuza headquarters but there are no phones ringing. Man, I haven't had anything to do in like forever!
56 - Ugh, it's the same mission again. I need a Medicar it says... maybe that's why there were no arrows before. Is a Medicar an ambulance? I kill a guy in the middle of the road and wait.

59 - Wow, I wish the game had just told me I needed an ambulance. Well, I picked up the guy from the hospital with the Medicar, and then immediately ran into a cop. Having the police and the Loonies on your trail is never an easy thing, especially when driving a boat like the Medicar. But I made it to the safehouse with my vehicle on fire. Phew.

60 - Our little character smokes when he's not moving. Man, he's just a bad role model all around. I decide to end my first hour of GTA2 in a massive car exploding spree. Uzis work really well for that and I was blowing up cars left and right for the next minute. Awesome.

Time for some scores out of 10.
Story: 2
In Grand Theft Auto 2, you play a nameless hero who finds himself in the middle of a nameless city. A nearby pay phone rings and you're informed about the gangs of the area and how you can gang their respect and perform missions for them. That's pretty much the game's backstory in the first hour. Missions are the only other time for moving the plot forward, and unlike Grand Theft Auto III, you just get a mission over the phone, no cutscenes or random banter here. You may like this straight forwardness, but it doesn't do much for a game's plot.

Graphics and Sound: 8
The top-down view of Grand Theft Auto 2 allows for a surprisingly detailed game in terms of graphics. The vehicles and roads are easy on the eyes but the biggest graphical problem are the people. Because of the view, you can really only see the top of their head and the color of their shirt. Where cars are easily recognizable for their large top, pedestrians are much harder to pick out. Is that a cop? Is that a pedestrian? Is that a member of the Zaibatsu gang? I often had no idea.

There's no traditional voice acting in GTA2, but the awesome radio stations are present and as funny as ever. They don't seem as useful in this game as compared to San Andreas where you had to drive very long distances at points, but I'm sure there are some moments where there's enough downtime to enjoy the embedded humor. Besides the radio, the sound effects are excellent, as they typically are in GTA games. No complaints from me here.

Gameplay: 6
Let me get this out there, the controls in Grand Theft Auto 2 are definitely awkward. Even though I played the PC version, I still used a PlayStation controller and I was simply never comfortable with driving or running around on foot. I'm sure the developers spent a lot of time comparing a traditional control scheme and the controls they implemented, and I'm sure they made the right decision, but maybe this is just one of those games where nothing would feel right to someone like me. I always found myself running into traffic or straight into buildings, I was playing against the controls as much as I was dealing with actual gameplay elements. This is not to say everything is bad, because beyond the controls everything is really good. This is a complex game that has a ton of things going on, I was constantly impressed with the number of vehicles and pedestrians running around at a given moment, and especially how they reacted to my insanity.

Fun Factor: 5
The controls really held me back from enjoying Grand Theft Auto 2 as much as I enjoyed its 3D descendants. I really hate to admit this but it's the honest truth. Maybe after a couple hours of playing I would be a seasoned pro, but since this is just the first hour, I can't cut it any slack. However, the game is still fun, there are plenty of explosions and of course, much death and destruction. The most enjoyable parts of the later games are still around though, just from a different point of view.

Minutes to Action: 2

Overall: 6
Grand Theft Auto 2 is an above average game that gives an early peek at what the blockbuster series has since become. There are not a lot of games that I can think of that offer this top-down perspective from such a height but it allows for a lot of stylized action on screen at once. Since the game is free, there's really no reason for fans of the series to check out where its roots lie, so give Grand Theft Auto 2 a look if you're interested, otherwise go back to the undoubtedly glorious Grand Theft Auto IV.

Game 43: Night Trap

Night Trap was a controversial full-motion video game released on a variety of CD-based systems in the early 90's. It serves as a great reminder to people who wish to defend against video game censorship in the United States as the game's leading opponents: Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl, are still serving in the Senate 15 years later. Night Trap is pretty timid compared to some games nowadays and mostly attracted attention because it used real actors (if you could call them that) in pajamas and had a vampire blood sucking scene. There have undoubtedly been hundreds of scenes of vampires sucking the blood of a young woman out in film and even on TV over the years, but Night Trap gets targeted because why?

Anyways, a little about my experience with the game. I actually beat Night Trap a few years ago, it was an epic moment in my video game career and a story I'll be able to retell for ages. I first played it when it was initially released on the Sega CD back in 1992. Even then I realized how bad this game was, the control is simply horrid and the full motion video is anything but that. My friend and I played it because we were young and intrigued about the notion of the possibility of breasts in a video game. Of course, there isn't any nudity but we liked to think that if we beat the game, we would be duly rewarded. If you consider the opportunity to kill Dana Plato a great reward though, well, you will love this game. Now on to the first hour review of Night Trap for the PC!

(minutes are in bold)
00 - Well, the game starts off right away, I don't even have to press Start! The developer and publisher's logo flash by, and then we get to see the Night Trap logo, with a bloody letter A! An RV pulls up and I get a binoculars' eye view of a house. We cut to what I presume is inside the RV, a SWAT-like team of people are moving around inside, preparing for a mission of sorts.
01 - But they're not SWAT, they're SCAT. I don't think I could have possibly thought of a worse squad acronym. A man named Simms starts talking to me about this slumber party that's about to go down. Five teenage girls are going to a mall friend's house for some fun, but this isn't any normal random set of people, pretty girls have disappeared from here before! My job is to protect the five girls. Somehow SCAT already snuck someone into the house and discovered a robust security system with cameras and traps in every room (including the bathroom) and they spliced the cable so we could also control their security. Right now the trap's access code is simply set to Blue, but anyone could change it at anytime, so I have to pay attention. They could also cut the spliced cable.

02 - Man, this is a lot to worry about. Luckily I'll have a woman on the inside, Kelly, code named in the real world as Dana Plato, the star of Diff'rent Strokes! Simms yells at me for another moment, then I say I'm ready to go and the game really begins.

03 - So I'm looking at a view of the girls climbing out of their station wagon and they begin to unpack. They joke around in hilarious fashion and then Dana Plato, I mean Kelly, approaches the camera and asks if we're ready to go. The family's daughter, Sarah, comes walking down the stairs and says she's surprised they came.
04 - The parents also come out of the house and Sarah introduces everyone, the dad is all creepy like and even kissed Kelly's hand. One of the girl's brought her little brother, Danny. That just seems odd. Through all of this the game is beeping.

05 - I should explain the UI, on the top half of the screen we have the full motion video area, where we get to see the grainy, low-res hotties in action. On the bottom half we have what looks like a view of the house and buttons for the various cameras around the building. It also shows my current access code, and some numbers that say Possible (15) and Captured (0). Every time the game beeps the Possible goes up by one.

07 - Umm... "Weird Eddie" just approached the girls, "he's really cute" one of them exclaims. Danny waves like a dork. They enter the house, but I can see some black-clad dudes on the roof! I click the Trap button but it does nothing. The front lawn is just empty. Guess I'll head inside.
09 - Kelly breaks the fourth wall again and tells me to check out the house. I have to either follow these guys around or look for the baddies. They're hanging out in the kitchen now, unloading their goods.

10 - Woah, I just entered the bedroom and some guy was creeping around. It was playing some "rock" music and I tried to trap him but nothing happened.

11 - Oh man, I just missed out on a trap! A ninja vampire was in the bedroom again and the little bar starting flashing red, but I had already clicked Trap and missed my chance. Darn. 24 Possible, 0 Captured.
13 - Two guys just went into a secret doorway, I don't know how to follow them! The parents are outside talking about leaving, "what could possibly go wrong?" the father asks. Oh, just wait.

14 - I keep entering rooms right when a vampire is leaving. Lame. Oh, the girls are having a dance party in the living room now! Think I'll watch that for a bit.

16 - Holy crap. I just witnessed quite possibly the greatest scene in a video game ever. Someone puts on a song, and it turns out to be the Night Trap song! Seriously. "blah blah blah blah NIGHT TRAP!" That's basically how it went. One of the girls had a tennis racket and was strumming it like a guitar and then using it as a microphone. All of a sudden all the girls stand up and start rocking out. Amazing!
17 - But of course the whole time I was missing out on captures, whoops.

18 - NOOOO! I just had my first capture in the bag but someone changed the code! I don't know what it is now!

19 - Oh snaps, I lost. Simms comes up and tells me the house is being overrun, he's probably right! Time to start again.
20 - All right! This time I don't waste any time watching Simms talk to me and just get right to the house by pressing Enter. That seems to have worked because right away in Hall 1 two ninjas appear and since I know the code is blue, I take them out right away. A door opens up and then a wall shoves them outside. Rocking!

21 - Wow, I'm on a roll! I've now captured 5 out of a possible 7. The daughter, Sarah, was in the bathroom freshening up and some nasties followed her in there (unknown to her). I took them out with a rotating wall and some cleverly placed holes in the floor. Awesome Blossom!

23 - There are trapdoors all over this house, took out another two vampires. And another.
24 - The mom just came out from behind a bookcase, something fishy is going on here.

25 - The game has finally reached the point where the girls are unloading the station wagon. Geez, that seems a little lame that the opening video literally cuts into the game like that.

27 - Owned, the sliding staircase just dumped two enemies to the underworld. LOL, the bed just flipped up to toss one outside. This game is crazy.
28 - The game just pulled the same wall pushing two outside again. And since it was all full motion video, it was the exact same scene. I've captured 13 of 17. Not bad if I do say so myself.

30 - Took out some more in the bathroom. Some of these guys have giant weapon like things that look like they're for grabbing on to people's necks with (and then sucking their blood!).

31 - I come across the mom and dad in the kitchen, sounds like the mom is suspicious of Kelly. Not good for SCAT!
33 - Oh no, someone changed the code! When did they do it? I try changing it to Green and I immediately get an opportunity to try that out, doesn't work. Crap.

34 - Haha, the girls are about the sing the Night Trap song. I'd better not watch this time. Well, the code isn't Orange either. This sucks.

35 - What the frak? One of my SCAT buddies just burst into the house. Odd. I'm doing a lot worse now, 18 out of 34. And I still haven't confirmed the new access code.
37 - Ugh, not Purple either. Little Danny just found one of the secret doors and he went in, and two vampires followed! But I couldn't take them out! Finally, it's Red! Just don't change again anytime soon, please.

39 - Oh sucka! I just overheard the cousins talking about changing the code to Yellow. I rule.

40 - And yellow works immediately, whoopee! The girls have gone upstairs after their little dance-off. Sarah is showing them their rooms.
41 - Someone just pulled up in another station wagon, it's some black guy wearing a crazy Hawaiian outfit, but he's with SCAT! I think he's going to try something... "Give them the old Jamaican number." I am frightened for my life.

42 - Holy crap, Dana Plato in a sports bra! My dream has come true. One of the girls finds some crazy sex-toy thing in the closet, Sarah says her dad collects weird things. Uh huh.

44 - Well, the SCAT guy was inside talking to the cousins, but I didn't pay attention to what they were doing. Instead I found the craziest thing yet (besides the song). Some guy was hoisted up by his ankles in a closet and the vampires hooked some oxygen tank up to his neck and started sucking the blood out! Crazy!
45 - Oh no, Danny saw them do it! And now little Danny is getting chased! I do manage to take out one though.

47 - Woah, I just saw the famous bathroom scene that all the donkeys in Washington got upset about. One of the girls was fixing her hair in the bathroom while one of the vampires was hiding in the shower. She saw him and opened it up, thinking it was one of the other girls playing a trick on her, but then another came out, and another wielding their giant neck weapon! She starts fighting them off and I kill one, then she runs to the bedroom and out the window. Crazy!

49 - Heh, one of the cousins was just hitting on Kelly, but then Danny runs into the living room saying "they're after me!" Maybe they'll believe him and they can get the heck out! Please insert disc 2... fine, give me a minute.
50 - Oh no, my game froze! Crap... guess I'll replay the beginning for another 10 minutes. That blows.

51 - Okay, now the game is on a fritz, it froze again basically. LAME. Well, just the mouse actually, I can still use the number keys to switch cameras and the Enter button to trap. Might as well give it a try. (turns out later on it was actually my mouse that ran out of batteries, sorry to blame it on you Night Trap!)

55 - Using the keyboard's number pad is actually really easy to use. Quite a good alternative to the mouse.
58 - Just playing the game... 16 of 25 captured. Just flung a guy off the roof, only one I haven't seen yet.

60 - I'm proud of myself, I correctly figured out when the guys turned the access code to Red. But that's all there is to the first hour of Night Trap! Wow! Not as bad as I remembered.

Time for some scores out of 10.
Story: 3
Well, if you've read the minute by minute of this game, you'll know that Night Trap's story is pretty much crap. Okay, it's total crap. But it is redeemed by that amazing song that had me entranced for a few minutes. I'm pretty sure this game was intentionally written as a vampire B-movie, but that doesn't mean it gets a break from me. The acting is atrocious but the biggest problem with the story is the gameplay. There might actually be some gems of writing hidden within this game but you'd never know because you have to constantly jump from room to room, causing you to miss 90% of the dialogue. But maybe that's a good thing.

Graphics and Sound: 6
I played the PC version of Night Trap which benefits from higher resolution video, which is a definite plus. The security camera picture actually looks pretty good and it is always clear when the black clad bad guys are creeping around. What also helps is the soundtrack, the only noticeable piece was the vampire sneaking music but it helped so much when zipping from screen to screen. That Night Trap song was also pretty awesome. Finally, the user interface was also completely revamped from the Sega CD version but I'm not sure if it's actually any better.

Gameplay: 6
The core gameplay of Night Trap is really just you switching from camera to camera as fast as possible to find bad guys running around the house and then trap them. Trapping them doesn't take much skill, just press the button at the right time, but it's more about looking at the right camera at the right time. It's a little frustrating to suddenly find the security code has been changed, but I suppose this game has quite a bit of trial and error behind it, and I quickly figured out the correct time of the first code change. Night Trap's gameplay works off a simple concept, but it is executed pretty well.

Fun Factor: 8
I've always had fun playing Night Trap, and my latest foray into the game's first hour was no exception. The game is flawed in many ways, but once you get a hang of the gameplay and can get past the cheese factor, it is really fun. Trapping bad guys can actually be laugh out loud funny but most of the enjoyment comes from the bad acting and of course, the epic song and dance sequence. It's great to see a game that doesn't take itself too seriously, the developers weren't trying to make the perfect game, the premise is too flawed to begin with to achieve that. They did, however, make a game that is kind of like a scary movie, the more people you have around to watch it, the better it gets.

Minutes to Action: 3

Overall: 7
Is it wrong for me to say that I actually enjoyed playing the first hour of Night Trap? I think this game has gotten a tremendously bad rap from certain comedy video game reviewers and the pretty crappy gameplay of some console versions. My experience from playing the first hour does not point to this game being one of the worst of all time. It may have been an awful idea with a cast of D-list actors, but it is so campy and insane that I had fun. It's not a great game, it is though decent and such an iconic moment in video game history that if you ever get a chance to play Night Trap, do it.

The Sega CD user interface.
And the end of my innocence.

Game 38: BioShock

BioShock was widely heralded as the 2007 game of the year. I always pay close attention to games labeled as such because they're generally important to video game history and have great influence on the industry. BioShock seems like it will be no exception. It's a first-person shooter for the PC and Xbox 360 and is set on the dystopian underwater city called Rapture. Our hero unwittingly arrives there and must uncover Rapture's dark secrets while staying alive. Rapture was built by Andrew Ryan, an Objectivist who attempts to fulfill his dream society under the sea. Things obviously don't go smoothly.

BioShock has sold millions, won a ton of awards, and probably has a ton of sequels on the way. But how does the first hour of it fare? Let's dive into BioShock and experience Rapture.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I start a New Game and the first thing to do is set the game's brightness level. BioShock wants to be very dark but I compromise with it and find an appropriate level. Loading... 1960 in the Mid-Atlantic. We're on an airplane, a man is talking about his life and looking at some pictures in front of him and smokes a cigarette. Suddenly there are screams and the plane goes down! The BioShock logo appears, dripping with water.
01 - I'm in the water, drowning. Parts of the plane are whizzing past me at intense speeds. Fire laces the top of the water. Awesome looking water and flame effects. I have control now and have to make my way through the wreckage.

02 - I swim by the plane slowly sinking into the water and make my way towards a lighthouse sticking out of the ocean. It is the only way to go.

03 - I enter and the doors shut behind me, it's completely dark. Suddenly the lights come on illuminating a sign, "No Gods or Kings. Only Man."

04 - I make my way down the stairs and into a bathysphere waiting for me. I pull the lever and descend. Suddenly a sixties-esque video starts playing. It's Andrew Ryan! Who?
05 - Andrew begins the video by defending the common man against the state and church. The video cuts away and we get a beautiful look at Rapture, his underwater city. It truly looks awesome. Science holds no morals here. His words, not mine.

06 - There's whales and squids swimming through the underwater skyscrapers. Neon signs flicker all over. The art design is incredible. The designers have perfectly captured this era that I can not properly put into words. The bathysphere docks and we go to the loading screen.

07 - A couple of men are talking over the radio. There's a man outside my vessel's window. Two actually, and I watch in horror as one guts the other in a bloody mess. The guy has claws for hands. He jumps on my vessel and starts ripping at it! Sparks and screeching, a frightening earful.

08 - The man runs away, phew. I pick up a radio and a man named Atlas starts talking to me as I leave the bathysphere.
09 - I'm looking out the windows now, a great sight. There's moaning and heavy breathing all around, scary atmosphere. A sign that says "Ryan doesn't own us." A "splicer" appears in front of me but then a flying robot chases him off.

10 - I pick up a wrench and knock away some rubble. As I start climbing a staircase someone throws a flaming couch down to me. I attempt to jump over it!

11 - At the top of the stairs is a deranged looking man, we duel with wrenches and I win with two devastating blows to the noggin. I search his body and take a first aid kit.

12 - I'm able to beat down on the surroundings with my wrench, it's quite powerful. In something that looks like a vending machine I find a large needle with a red substance in it. For some insane reason I put it into my forearm!? Why would I do that? My hands start glowing and I collapse over the balcony.
13 - I'm out cold and some splicers appear over me. They mention that it looks like my cherry has been popped.

14 - The splicers run off in fear as a giant walks up, and then a little girl. The girl has a large needle, but she sees that I'm still breathing and they walk away. What a truly frightening sequence of events. I stand up and my left hand has sparks running through it, I can now throw electricity!

15 - Wow! I throw lightning at a door panel to override the controls, as I step into the tunnel, part of the plane crashes through! I have to crawl through part of the fuselage to continue, all the while it seems like the entire tunnel could collapse from the water pressure. What an awesome scene.

17 - In the shadows I can see a splicer run by, on the radio Atlas tells me to give him the one-two punch, lightning and then wrench. I miss with the electricity a few times but eventually get my point across.18 - I have two bars on my screen, one for health, the other for plasmid power. When my plasmid power runs out I inject myself again. Man, I do not think I could handle this needle-driven world.

19 - An elevator in front of me collapses in a flaming mess and a man on fire runs out. I put him out of his misery. Poor chap. I take the other elevator up. Atlas starts telling me about his family and how he's cut off from them. He asks for my help. I don't think I have a choice but to help. I have to head to Neptune's bounty.

20 - I hear a woman's voice softly singing and in the shadows can see her over a baby carriage. Someone sane?

21 - Nope, she's singing to a six-shooter. I knock her out with my wrench and upgrade to the pistol.
22 - I head down to the remnants of a 1959 New Year's Eve party. There's hats strewn about along with liquor. A woman starts shooting at me, it takes four wrench whacks to knock her out. I also pick up a recording of some sort, I listen to it.

23 - A woman named Diane McClintock is talking about how she was stood up by her date on New Year's Eve. It seems pointless, but it adds to the atmosphere.

24 - At the end of the recording there's screaming as something bad happens. This may have been the beginning of the end for Rapture.

25 - I walk out of a kitchen to find a few splicers walking in a pool of water. Atlas tells me to zap them, they go down quickly to the powerful electricity.
26 - I walk into the woman's bathroom (complete with Fallout-esque drawings for women and men signs) and I see the ghost of a woman muttering at the sink. She says she's too spliced up. Creepy.

27 - In the men's room one of the stalls is blown away, leading to the next area. Down below I can see an interesting sight... a little girl is stabbing a dead body with a giant needle, over and over again.

28 - Atlas explains it's a little sister, a transformed girl, and not for the better. They carry Adam, the thing everyone wants.

29 - Suddenly a splicer shows up and starts to attack her. Out of no where comes the Big Daddy! The giant hulking monster slams the slicer into the wall incredibly violently. The Big Daddies protect the Little Sisters. I do not plan to mess with those guys.
30 - The cool thing is everything in the environment can be searched. I've found cake, alcohol, cigarettes, needles, power bars, you name it, it's here. I love the interactivity.

31 - It's very satisfying frying splicers in the water. Woah, a dead Big Daddy. Can they be killed?

32 - Suddenly the gates close around me and the alarm sounds! What's going on? Someone has just tried to flamethrower me!

34 - Running from the alarm I head towards the Medical Pavilion. I'm locked in a room now. Andrew Ryan is talking directly to me. He asks if the CIA or KGB sent me? Did they?
35 - Splicers start banging at the window, oh crap, there's a lot of them. Atlas tells me to run, and I do. Loading.

36 - Next objective is to find the emergency access, I'm officially in the Medical Pavilion. Hey, a vending machine, with a creepy clown as a mascot. And it's selling needles and vodka. What is this, Moscow?

37 - I pick up another message, again from Diane. She's talking about how her splicing hasn't gone too well. Sounds like she's had a lot of medical work done.

39 - A security bot is blocking a door, I have the option to hack it... cool. It's basically a game of Pipe Dream, easy enough.
40 - Wow, the hacked security bot is now on my team, not bad.

41 - Another spoken message, from a man named Steinman. He's a surgeon here, seems to be doing some nasty stuff to his patients. "Change your look, change your race, change your sex. It's your's to change." Crazy, but I suppose he has a point though, huh?

42 - I've found the emergency access, but it's locked down. There's a security panel though, so I activate that. Atlas tells me if I want to use the access I'll need Steinman's key. Gotta find the good doctor.

44 - I hit the emergency button and it's like the Gates of Hell have opened up. Splicers run into the Medical Pavilion in packs, time for a battle. But I have a trusty machine gun with me now.
46 - Wow, a little intense. I even accidentally electrify my robot friend and it's out of commission for a moment. A lot of the splicers are dressed as surgeons. Not a good sign.

47 - I check my map, the Medical Pavilion is HUGE! This is not one hour's worth of work here.

48 - Another verbal diary from Steinman. As he's talking I come across a turret which I zap and now I can hack.

50 - A diary from Andrew Ryan, ranting about his views and values on health care.
51 - Speaking of health care, I come across a health station I can hack... interesting. I hack it successfully and now the station will hurt bad guys if they try to heal on it, awesome.

53 - I hack another turret and watch it mow down some splicers. I take that back, I watch it horrendously miss some splicers. How can machines be such horrible shots?

54 - Two vending machines, one of them for ammo. I can hack them both and reduce their prices. Interesting concept. Why not just make them free?

55 - My little flying robot friend is really in trouble, he hasn't hit much but at least he's taking shots for me.
56 - Ooh, a security camera. I zap it and start the hack.

58 - Nifty little sequence here, I'm inside the Eternal Flame, Rapture's crematorium. There's a body next to the furnace, I hit the button to incinerate it, the body goes in, and out comes something called Hacker's Delight. A physical tonic, it will help me hack better.

60 - I run across a grenade tossing surgeon. Atlas informs me that I'll need to find the telekinesis power so that I can grab the grenades mid-flight and blow up some rubble. Wow, that sounds pretty awesome. Too bad BioShock's first hour is up.

Time for some scores out of 10.
Story: 9
BioShock's story isn't shown to you in cutscene after cutscene, but delivered to you while playing, sometimes while in the middle of battle! Andrew Ryan is introduced quickly as both Rapture's great mastermind and possibly the key to its downfall. Almost definitely the man we'll be taking on at the very end, but within the first hour just heard over the loudspeaker. Citizen's stories are also told through voice diaries you find along the way and it is up to you to piece things together. And finally the mystery man, Atlas, who you only meet over the walkie talkies. It's definitely very atmospheric to feel like you don't have any real allies, but I feel like the game's first hour was missing something. I can't place my finger on it, but maybe it was the lack of background on me, the main character. Even seemingly obscure characters like Doctor Steinman have more information on them. All I know is that maybe I was sent by the CIA or KGB. Not a big deal though, as I expect things will be fleshed out later on.

One incredibly odd thing: why does our hero immediately inject himself when finding a needle on the ground?

Graphics and Sound: 10
Beautiful. Stunning. Incredible. Plenty of words describe the first hour of BioShock in terms of graphics and sound. The game's presentation is the new high level mark for video games, whether they're on the console or the PC. There are many different points to praise but I'll just focus on three: the water effects, the game's atmosphere, and the voice acting. Firstly, Rapture is completely underwater at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. This means there is a ton of water. I don't know how they did it but 2K Games had me thinking I was going to get soaked at every turn. From the innocent drip to water rushing in at me during amazing scripted sequences, it was perfect all around.

Water in such quantities, deep under the ocean, is incredibly intimidating. The world of Rapture is dark, foreboding, and crawling with some of the creepiest humans ever in video games. I was scared while playing BioShock because of the unknown. Lights flicker out, screams can be heard in the distant, and simply never know what will be revealed next. Speaking of screams, the voice acting was stellar. There wasn't a lot, and you never saw the speaker face to face, but the writing and direction drove the story as much as anything else.

Gameplay: 10
BioShock's gameplay is nearly flawless. It controls great: use your weapon with the right trigger and throw lightning with the left. This immediately opens up so many gameplay options later on and even in the first hour you can use Atlas' handy "one-two punch." Shooting lightning at splicers standing in pools of water is so obviously simple but I have never seen it done before! It just works so well with this game. And like I talked about in the Graphics and Sound section, the game's atmosphere is marvelous. BioShock's first hour is dark and scary, and the level design is top notch. The game introduces its core mechanics gradually while never pretending it is going easy on you. Hordes of enemies, turrets, and flying robots you can hack are all present in the first hour, and ready to kill you.

Fun Factor: 9
Well, maybe BioShock's atmosphere was a little too intense! I don't do too well with scary games, and BioShock was no exception. Some parts were very slow going because I was frightened to see what was around the corner! As opposed to some people, I don't see this as pure enjoyment, but the deep gameplay and involving storyline kept me enthralled either way. One of the best parts was how deeply interactive the environments were. You could take your wrench and pretty much destroy everything in the vicinity! Bottles and boxes are crushed under its weight. Or you can pick up bottles of alcohol, smoke some cigarettes, or eat a power bar. All have varying effects on your health and plasmid powers, and it's fun to experiment. The game's political viewpoints were also very interesting, Andrew Ryan may be a bad guy, but he does have some good ideas.

Minutes to Action: 1

Overall: 9
Not too many flaws in BioShock's first hour, as this is one of the greatest hours of gameplay I have ever played. Rapture is a truly wonderful and frightening place, and BioShock is the ultimate medium to deliver its story. The game has me craving more and more of it, but at the same time has me timid at the prospects of continuing on. How many more horrors does BioShock have waiting for me? Will I encounter a Big Daddy head on? Is this game the pinnacle of first hours? I think it falls slightly short in my mind, but that shouldn't diminish BioShock as a whole. Go play it.

Game 35: Homeworld

Homeworld is a 3D real-time strategy game released in 1999 on the PC, Mac, and Linux. It managed to garner a few Game of the Year awards in a pretty tough year of gaming which included Unreal Tournament, Alpha Centauri, Final Fantasy VIII, and the release of the Dreamcast, which of course means Soul Calibur. It wasn't an extremely strong year for the console world, so PC games did very well and Homeworld arrived at just the right time. The game is renowned for its engrossing storyline and cinematic graphical style. Not to mention a great implementation of real-time strategy in 3D space.

I usually take screenshots with Fraps for PC games but for whatever reason it didn't work for Homeworld. ZScreen to the rescue! This is my first time using the open source program and honestly it did a great job grabbing screens of this beautiful space game. Took me a while to find a working solution but ZScreen did the job just fine and worked for me immediately. Now let's get to the first hour review of Homeworld.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - Being entirely new to the 3D real-time strategy, I decide to try out the training first, and thus the first hour of Homeworld begins. A computerized female voice starts talking and introduces me to the controls. I'm looking at a funny looking orange spaceship. The right mouse button moves the camera. I swing it around for a bit.
01 - The game looks good but now that I know how to zoom in, Homeworld shows off an ugly side of blocky textures and polygons. Ah well. This ain't Sins of a Solar Empire.

02 - First up is building ships. Moving the mouse to the bottom of the screen reveals a hidden popup menu with some buttons to check out.

03 - Resources are measured in RU. Resource units I guess. Makes more sense than Gold.
05 - Following the game's instructions I build a resource ship, a research ship, and ten scouts. As I leave the build screen I can see my first scouts heading out from the mothership.

07 - The game has me zooming in and out on my various ships. Dragging multiple units in 3D is currently as easy as doing it in 2D. But of course, nothing hectic has happened yet.

08 - I instruct my resource collector to go Harvest, and the ship heads off with the camera following it to a nearby asteroid. Things are nice and smooth.
10 - I learn how to research next by using my research ship. This is all pretty typical RTS stuff, just done in space, and with spaceships.

12 - Movement is another story though. Now that I have three planes of space to work with, I have to use the Shift key to direct my ships along the vertical axis. It seems relatively intuitive though.

14 - Next up I bring up the Sensor Manager with the spacebar. The Sensor Manager is essentially a super zoomed out view of my current area. I can see my ships, and a red blinking dot signifying the enemy. Brown dots are harvesting points for resources.
17 - Wow, this is pretty cool stuff. I learn how to put my scouts into different formations. Watching them zoom around in 3D and real-time is pretty awesome. I send my scouts off to the enemy using the Sensor Manager. I bring the camera behind their Claw Formation.

20 - Nice, my first combat experience! My ships approach the stationary enemy and with a few clicks, start bombarding them with their little missiles!

22 - I give my scouts the order to dock back at the mothership, but the computer says that if I stick around, I might get some more combat. Why not?
29 - Well, seven minutes later and I'm still fighting my first battle! I don't know if this goes on forever so I think I'll get into the main game. Honestly, this has been pretty tough. It's hard to keep all the scouts grouped together and they don't make for very good fighters. The frigate I built was tough though and was able to take and deal a lot of damage. It is hard to keep everything on screen though when you have so much control.

30 - Now that training is done, I select Single Player and the game begins. Immediately it asks me to pick my fleet, either Kushan or Taiidan. I have no idea what these mean but both of them sound Japanese. Anyways, I select the default Kushan. I can customize the colors of the ships but that's a lot of work and not something I have time for. Clicking Start! sends me to a loading screen, and then the opening cutscene.

31 - Sweet, I really like this art style. It's almost exactly like Hotel Dusk, a point and click adventure for the Nintendo DS. All the objects are hand drawn with pencils and the animations aren't smooth but that's the point and they just look great. Almost like I'm looking over the artist's shoulder as he sketches out the scenes for the first time.
32 - A man's voice is describing the current situation. Humans have discovered an ancient starship on a nearby planet and on the ship was a galactic map etched on a stone. The map points the clans across the inner rim to another planet, which the broken clans can only determine to be their origin, home, Hiigara.

33 - The voice continues saying the battling clans have united together and found a common goal of returning to their home planet. They begin engineering a space fleet and their greatest mind directly into the ships. Man, I love this art style, it's really detailed, a lot more detailed than Hotel Dusk which I mentioned.

34 - The fleet leaves their current home planet and we switch graphical styles to Homeworld's in-game engine and we get a great look at a what must be its mothership. It's a tall command ship and there are a few other smaller ships buzzing around it. A computerized female voice starts reporting diagnostics.
35 - This scene is directed beautifully. We follow a small ship swing around the mothership and dock. There are closeups of the thrusters and antennas, great stuff. This is one of those games though that could really use some bump and normal mapping to make the textures jump out a bit more. Everything looks a bit polygonal and flat.

36 - A small group of ships breaks away from the mothership and starts leading the way. The game seamlessly switches to give me control.

37 - Already this is quite different than training. The game gives me some objectives but obviously no tips. I begin building a research ship, begin harvesting, and need to take out some drones.
39 - I'm told to begin researching a fighter chassis so I give my research ship the instructions. The game keeps going widescreen to give me objectives and show me things. It's a cool, cinematic effect that typically works on me. The voiceovers are a little monotone but that's the military for you.

41 - Next up I give the order for my scouts to use aggressive tactics and take out some more drones.

42 - My next objective is to build a Salvage Corvette and capture a drone. Interesting.
43 - Fighter chassis research is done so now I can build Interceptors.

45 - Ha, cool! The salvage corvette I just built just cruises up to some space junk and magnetically grabs it.

47 - The camera follows the corvette dragging the junk back to the mothership, and then the game tells me it is ready to go into hyperspace! I can launch whenever I'm ready... but I don't know how to go!
49 - I instruct all my ships to dock with the mothership, maybe they all have to be in the house before we pack up and move?

50 - Oh, I was right, you do have to dock all your ships but you also have to enter the Session Manager and click the Hyperspace button. Obvious. The ships begin auto-docking.

51 - WOAH! Hyperspace is cool! Instead of zooming ahead a 2D blue plane begins crossing across the ships slicing them in half almost. They've jumped!
52 - A short, hand drawn cutscene telling me that my mothership has jumped to meet with Khar-Selim, another ship that has been going at normal, sub-light speeds for the last 10 years! This all seems very Ender's Game like. All we need is an ansible.

53 - All my ships undock and I get a message that the Quantum Wave Effect has dissipated! Phew! Not all good news though, we have mis-jumped and have to locate the Khar-Selim.

55 - I send a scout to the location of the beacon. Hopefully we get lucky.
56 - Oh snaps! A cutscene begins as we approach the beacon. The camera pans over what's left of the Khar-Selim. Not good.

57 - Also not good is a fleet of ships heading towards the mothership! The female computer (the super plugged-in engineer mind) seems surprised that they're attacking! I get control right back. Time to fight back!

59 - The enemy fighters are going down pretty easily, but they also have some larger ships that are attacking my mothership and salvage corvette. I try to concentrate on one ship at a time though.
60 - Nice! My seven fighters were able to take out the attacking force while suffering four casualties. But who were these guys? I guess I'll never know since the first hour of Homeworld is up.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 6
Well, I am kind of into the background of Homeworld, but there just seems to be things missing. The story begins with a civilization finding out where their origins lie, so they build a fleet to cross the galaxy and return home. But what's the motivation behind doing this? Was it an excuse to stop the clans from fighting and unite together? Is there an important reason to find home besides just going there? Think Battlestar Galactica where the surviving fleet has to find Earth, but they're being chased and hunted by the Cylons. I can see why they would want to find their Eden but I think they could have used a little more motivation. Plus when I get attacked during the second mission, I have no idea why it's happening. I'm sure I eventually find out, but that's the problem of only playing the first hour.

Graphics and Sound: 9
There have been quite a few technological leaps since Homeworld was released, probably the most notable is bump mapping, something that would have really enhanced the look of the textures on the ships. Without it, the ships appear very flat and fake. But of course, this wasn't readily available at the time on home PCs and the game still looks really good. It helps when you don't have to render detailed environments and can instead focus on the spaceships, and Homeworld takes huge advantage of this. The ships are textured well and you can zoom in really close, something Sins of a Solar Empire, a recently released 3D space real-time strategy, heavily advertised.

The sound that I heard from Homeworld was a little weaker than I expected. The voice acting felt flat but the writing behind it was good. There was some decent chatter between ships that helped clue me in on things. The music had a great ambient sound to it that didn't try to stand out and the sound effects went against all rules of space. But I prefer lasers making sound and small sounding explosions as opposed to nothing. It can really enhance the gameplay.

Gameplay: 8
Well, the training in Homeworld was totally necessary and I'm very glad I did it. The controls are kind of complex as you have keyboard commands, right click menus, and the bottom pop-up menu. Plus you need to have good command over the control, shift, and alt combos. It's the game's biggest hurdle but nothing experienced PC gamers will have problems with. The 3D space adds a new dimension (pun) to real-time strategy games and I think it works well. It's a little tough to manage all your ships at once and I wish there was a way to highlight them better against the blackness of space. It almost seems like things would work better by turning off all the background stars so you can just focus on the battle, but that would take away from the game's graphical appeal. Anyways, this game definitely has a long learning curve and the first hour of Homeworld does a great job starting you off on it.

Fun Factor: 8
Best part of playing Homeworld was watching your ships fly around in formation and attack other ships. It's truly an excellent cinematic experience that you have total control over. The game's pacing is really good which is impressive for a space-based game. The universe is large but it doesn't take too long to get from point A to point B. Once I got to the main game and was being assigned objectives I was really having some fun. There seems to be a great story driving the levels, I just wish I had more time to experience it. But the training is pretty much necessary for new players to the game so there's only about half an hour to get into it.

Minutes to Action: 20

Overall: 8
Don't take the 20 minutes to action too out of context, that was my first combat experience in the game but there was still plenty of things going on before that. Anyways, Homeworld's first hour is really good. I was impressed by its graphical engine and its flexible camera that simply works out of the box. I wish the story had gone a little deeper in the first hour, but the groundwork is there for a good one. As far as the gameplay goes, there's a tough learning curve but I believe there are great rewards hiding within that too. Homeworld is a great evolution from a game like Star Control II, though this game is much more story-driven. I love space operas, and I've added this one to my long list of games to play.

Art by Colin Clark - used with permission.

Game 33: The Lion King

The Lion King was the video game released to accompany the Disney movie of the same name. Games based on movies were nothing new in 1994, especially Disney tie-ins, but this is actually my first movie game review. It was released on literally every platform available at the time, including three Nintendo (NES, SNES, and Game Boy) systems and three Sega (Master System, Genesis, and Game Gear) systems, undoubtedly a feat unequaled by any other game.

Really the only reason I'm reviewing The Lion King is because of the saying: "March comes in like a lion, out like a lamb." If you're unfamiliar with the adage, it basically means March will open up with bad weather and end calmly with Spring fast approaching. Here in the upper-Midwest though, lots of snow typically begins and ends the month. Where's our lamb? Back to the review though, here's March roaring in, now I have four weeks to find a game about lambs... could be tough. Anyways, let's get right into the first hour of The Lion King (Super Nintendo version).

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I choose Start and The Lion King begins. That meerkat Timon appears and says "It starts." Wow, right into the game! Simba moves pretty quick, he's an aggressive little cat. All I can do though is jump and roar, no slashing... yet.
01 - So I'm just jumping around some rocks right now, Simba can hang off ledges and roar to flip porcupines. Then I can jump on their bare belly to kill them.

02 - Woah, I just roared and exploded a dung beetle! I'm down to half my life already!

03 - I jump on a beetle this time and he flies around for a moment and then explodes. Almost dead... until I find a yellow beetle health item.
04 - Just grabbed a red beetle which extends my life a bit, nice. Then I find a symbol that kind of looks like Simba, he yells "cool" and it flashes, but I can't tell if anything actually happened.

05 - Geez, there is a whole assortment of items I'm finding, one extended my roar bar, and another one... not sure what it did, but it was multi-colored.

06 - Boss! I just defeated one of those hyenas from the movies! He went down in only two hits though. He would pounce at me and then become tired and start panting so I could jump on him. A short cutscene plays with Simba's dad, Mufasa saying, "everything the light touches, is our kingdom." Man, this guy has a big ego.
07 - Oh hey, a minigame. I'm controlling Pumbaa as Timon throws bugs down at me. Against all laws of gravity, some bugs fall really slow while others are quick. I end up eating 36 bugs.

08 - I am now in a level called either "Roar at the Monkeys" or "Can't Wait to be King." Probably the latter. There don't seem to be any enemies in this level, just rhinoceros that spring me into the air, monkeys that throw me around, and giraffes that I can use as temporary platforms.

10 - This is almost kind of a puzzle as I have to roar at the pink monkeys to get them to face a different direction so when they toss me I fly in the correct direction. After that sequence I land on an ostrich and it starts belting across the plains. I have to jump over pigs and duck bird nests, all of a sudden two arrows appear... and I die because I didn't jump high enough, or double jump or something. I only have one life left!
12 - Now I just fell in the water and die again. Crap, no lives left. Hardcore. I'm back on the ostrich now, I can "double jump" by jumping with the ostrich and then jumping again with Simba.

13 - You have got to be kidding me. I double jumped too high when I needed to and hit my head on a bird's nest. Lame. Wow, I used my only remaining continue.

14 - Back on the ostrich and I died on the first jump because I jumped too early. Now I fell in the water again.
15 - Fell in... again. Game Over. The old monkey with the balls hanging off his stick looks sad.

16 - Well, looks like I have to start all over again. I'll be back when I get past that ostrich sequence.

19 - Just "played" the bug toss. Timon screwed me over by tossing bugs at opposite ends. I caught one.

21 - Died on the double jump again.
22 - And again. Did anyone seriously playtest this game?

24 - Holy cow, I made it past the freaking ostrich part. What the heck, that pissed me off so much. How was I supposed to know you had to do your second jump really late. Who knows.

25 - This part seems almost worse. I have to swing around on these hippopotamus tails over some water. This is extremely unforgiving.

26 - Hey, a 1UP. That will come in handy. Meh. Now I have no idea where to jump to next! There are no more tails! And I can see that there is another ostrich sequence after this.
29 - Wow, I had to jump like straight up onto a hippo's head, that was clear. Not. I did collect some kind of sun item though, maybe that's a free continue.

30 - Another ostrich run, and this time I don't have arrows telling me what to do. Somehow I pulled off two double jumps in a row without dying.

31 - Another monkey tossing "puzzle."

33 - In one of gaming's most unclear moments ever, I had to get tossed from the first monkey puzzle to the second, flip a pink monkey switch, then cross back over the water on some water colored logs, then do the puzzle again. Why did the art team paint the logs the same color as the water?
34 - Wow, done with that and straight into the next level, "The Elephant Graveyard." Looks creepy. Good music though.

35 - Woah, something about fighting two hyenas at once seems unfair, but I do it with little health to spare. I just ate a bug that hurt me, seriously guys. Piss me off more.

38 - Now I've got two vultures swooping at me, I don't even know if I can hurt them.

39 - Simba has to out climb two gushing geysers as he claws his way to the top of a vertical tunnel.
41 - Now I'm just outrunning enemies as there's no point to stay and fight except to lose health. This is an unforgiving game. Simba was forced to just face off wi