Myst vs D - Point and Puzzlers

 Back in the hayday of our favorite console, there weren't a whole lot of games to fit in each and every genre. Now days, we have games that fit in to just about every niche one could possibly think of and can often find a decent amount in each one. Back in 1995, this was not the case, especially when it comes to consoles. Point and click adventures, on the other hand, were commonplace and there were plenty of them. The Sega Saturn sported two that we will be comparing today. D and Myst were two prominent titles on the system in North America because they were very commonly found in stores. When both sport such similar gameplay but in strikingly different ways. Both have strong cult followings and both have puzzles and explorative features that all can enjoy. 

One difference that a player will notice immediately is the setting. Myst is more akin to a different planet while D is far more like a haunted mansion (aside from the hospital cut scene at the very beginning). Another very noticeable difference is the way you move. This may seem like a cosmetic feature, but it is far more important than one might think. Myst has a fade effect when it comes to the point and click movement. Once you click forward or whatever direction you're wanting to go, the screen goes out then comes back in with your movement progression. D, on the other hand, you actually see yourself move forward. You walk slowly and actually turn in a visible way. The real difference is not only graphical movement, but also atmosphere. 

Atmosphere is one of the key factors that set these two games apart. Where Myst is an otherworldly experience with discovery and puzzles, D is a horror experience with discovery and puzzles. Not only does D sport a more gothic, macabre feel to it, but it also boasts a soundtrack that plays an eerie sound throughout your experience. This background soundtrack keeps you feeling that unsettling creep factor all throughout. 

While Myst does possess a more diverse list of levels, it lacks heavily when it comes to any sort of atmosphere. This is due to there being next to no soundtrack. There are some outside sounds and sometimes that's pretty nice, but after a while, many will find themselves pining for some music or more background noise. 

Another point of comparison is... oh boy... the acting. I'm going to be honest, Myst will always lose when it comes to acting. The voice acting from D isn't great, because it's all just Dr. Harris, Laura's father, popping in and telling her that she shouldn't be doing things. Myst, on the other hand, is some of the worst acting this side of the Sega systems. The brothers you choose to either set free from the books or not set free from the books come to you, say they want pages and they ham it up like they're trying to win a Razzie. It is physically painful to watch. 

To more of D's credit, it also sets itself ahead of Myst in the ways of character. You play Laura Harris, a young woman who is trapped in her father's mind and is forced to work her way through his house of horrors in order to save him from insanity. You are a human being with a clear goal and an emotional connection with the situation. Not only do you know she is trying to save her father, you can also see her reactions to her situation as they happen. We feel her tension and we see how horrific her circumstances are and thus we are engaged. 

Myst has a severe lacking of any of this. We are a faceless person who teleports around to places, collecting pages and putting them into books with psychopathic thespians who apparently couldn't pass Drama 101. There's some sense of awe when we see the scenery, especially if you're seeing these graphics back in the mid 90's for the first time. However, you don't see your character reacting to these events and you don't have any sort of connection to them at all, aside from being the player. This makes all of the difference in the world. 

[Spoilers] D is not a perfect game, it has its flaws and it's got very little replay factors aside from some background beetles that tend to show up at random and the option to either join your father or kill him. Myst has the replay factor where you either want to go the long way through the game or the short way through the game to get the different endings. Both games have different endings and both games have their ups and downs. From a story and atmospheric point of view, D has the goods. Either way, both games will scratch your itch for exploration and both games are rather short in length, especially if you know your way around the puzzles already. Science Fiction nuts will probably prefer Myst while Horror fanatics will probably have more fun with D. It's all up to taste. By the way D stands for Dracula! I SAID SPOILERS! NO TAKE BACKS!

Deep Fear (Saturn) - Resident Garbage!

 

So everyone is getting tired of all the copycat games that ripoff the popular titles of our era. Once a certain game comes out that revolutionizes or popularizes a certain genre or gameplay style, you see twenty or thirty clones of the like. We saw it with Minecraft, we saw it with PUBG, we saw it with Doom, Mortal Kombat, there's a lot of copy cats out there, waiting for the next cash cow to come along. Resident Evil was no exception. As soon as survival horror with tank controls and puzzle solving became the new trend, the consoles and PC were flooded with very similar titles. 

Deep Fear was one of the less successful attempts to cash in on this franchise. Silent Hill, this ain't. It pretty much takes everything not scary about Resident Evil, avoids the survival element of it and adds a dash of annoyance that would be very heartbreaking, if it wasn't so funny! I'm not kidding, this is hilarious! It's like they just didn't know what to actually do with the franchise. They thought that if they put you in a sealab at the bottom of the ocean, add in these... creature things to walk at you slowly, then horror would ensue. Spoiler alert!!!!!! It doesn't.

The graphics are pretty bad, but not horrible. It's the Saturn and the graphics are hardly important (in most cases). No, the English voice acting, now there's where it came close to Resident Evil. This voice acting is legendary in its awfulness. The real problem with it is that it gets grating to the ears. It gets downright painful with how terrible these voices are and how the actors just aren't trying. The dialogue does not help this matter. 

And they took the survival out along with the horror. If you run low on ammo or healing items, just refill them! No, I'm not kidding, they literally could not be asked to distribute these items evenly throughout the game. You just go to certain places and there's full ammunition and health in a juice box with drinking straw. Drink until full. You can't get much lamer than this. 

The story is lackluster and lacks involvement. The characters are scathingly awful and the gameplay is just downright boring. After a while, the hilarity of the game's presentation does not carry it as it still pads itself out until you are ready to go take up quilting as a more stimulating experience. I really tried to find something I liked about this, unironically. Not even the Saturn charm of its graphics are a point in its favor. The setting is just so mundane and repetitive, the graphics have no chance of standing out. So, even if you wanted to play this in front of friends to make fun of it, it loses its edge. Try something better or worse and you'll have a much better time. Virtua Bland...

Mortal Kombat (2022) - Attack of the Tonfas

At first, this movie brought out a great sense of morbid joy. Then it didn't age so well. At first, it was nice to have a proper Mortal Kombat film that superseded the stipulation that video game movies cannot be made well. The first movie has its faults, but it is definitely better than most all of the video game movies made around this time. 

When you look at it for what it is, a Mortal Kombat game-to-film translation, it did it rather well on some counts. It does have an extensive character roster, for better or worse. The real factor that they got picture perfect, that the other films failed at miserably, was the blood and gore. This film fought hard to maintain an R rating, but the censors fought just as hard. They did not neglect that element, though. 

Now, for the meat of the situation. The characters and the actors who portray them. Well, I can guarantee we will not be getting any Sindel quotes, promising Kitana she will die. Instead, we get a character that no one has heard about until this film and that was quite the double edged sword. On one hand, we have a new character who has never heard of the tournament, and can be targeted for exposition as such. On the other hand, we have a very simplistic fighter who punches all of the check marks on the list. 

We get all of the greats back as well, Raiden, Sub Zero, Scorpion, Jax, Sonya Blade, Kano and so many others make an appearance and unlike the second film, they don't feel like they're bunching up all of the scenes. We get a bunch of great performances from just about everyone. Even Shang Tsung, who is not as good as Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, still holds his own as the villain. And yes, he does take souls! So that's a good thing!

Kano is one of the best things about this film. His character is utilized so beautifully and his simple quirks are amazingly humorous without killing the tone. His chemistry with Sonya and his path between good and evil is handled amazingly well. Well, up until he just flat out joins the evil side and no one saw that coming. So, they did him right, but everyone else was kind of dumb to it.

There are a few things about the trailer that you should note. While some of the lines and scenes were made for the trailer, they are at least useful to the viewer in more ways than one. Mileena looks awesome in the trailer, but quite honestly, she turns out to be just another character. Liu Kang is very intense and melodramatic while also being somewhat sidelined, compared to his role when Robin Shou played him, he's much more of a face in the crowd. 

As said before, there are many characters and if I go through every single one of them, I'll be here all day. Raiden is probably one of the more disappointing characters. Not only do his glowing eyes look strange, but he is once again relegated to a spectator. He only serves the plot in indirect ways and is more or less an excuse for the bad guys to wait longer. 

The plot revolves around the group of people who gain a special mark on their bodies that resembles a symbol we all know. Outworld is taking the low route and going after them before Mortal Kombat begins. The plot is simple and to the point, which is very nice because it means that it moves fast enough to get to the good parts we all came to see. The bad part is that when the film is rushed, it is very clear where the writers dropped the ball in terms of the script. 

The CGI is very well done and it is very cool to see some practical effects brought in as well. There are so many movies that try to make blood through special effects, but this film does very little of that. The blood and guts are clear to see without being over used. The worst thing that can be said about the CGI is that when it's done to manipulate body parts like Jax's arms or Mileena's mouth, it is severely noticeable.

Now, let's go a bit deeper into the plot.

(Spoiler Warnings from here)

So, when I say the new guy, Cole Young, is by the numbers. I mean that in the most basic sense. If he were a character in the game, I doubt he would be played much because he has the most mediocre abilities and has been shown to be a very basic fighter. His weapons are a tonfa and a tonfa blade. Tonfas are given to characters you can't think of any other weapons for. Then his powers are seen and it's nothing more than a suit of armor that absorbs powerful attacks and allows him to power up as a result. He uses this power against Goro and honestly, it shouldn't have been that effective. They made one of the favorite penultimate bosses into something of a joke.

As far as characters go, as said before, Kano is the best out of all of them. His initial fight with Reptile is one of the best scenes in the entire movie and Josh Lawson does a fantastic job. While Reptile is a far better character in the games for this reviewer, seeing his heart being removed forcefully by this criminal was an absolute delight. 

The rough spots are quite noticeable when it comes to characters, there are some that do not meet up to par. Kung Lao is a great character and the portrayal is well done, but there just wasn't a whole lot done with him. He kills some throwaway lady character with demon wings. While the fatality he performs is awesome and from the games, he's killed off for the sole purpose of giving Liu Kang something to fight for. 

Reiko and Kabal are some of the lowest points in this film. Kabal's dialogue is the most stilted and rushed out of any of them. Reiko, on the other fist, has no lines, yet his actor still manages to be the worst in the entire film. So, pick your poison, clumsy ADR, or terrible nonverbal performances. It invokes a lot of cringe.

To continue my Raiden talk, this time around, he starts out as an elder god. This means he cannot get directly involved. Even when the bad guys are cheating by killing Earthrealm's fighters, the god of thunder can do nothing but make cryptic promises and use vicarious tactics to help our heroes. Hell, he blatantly insults the main character for being weak when he did NOTHING to protect countless other fighters that Shang Tsung killed!

The truest low point comes when the plot decides to take a large dump. Near the end of the movie, we have our dipping point and all of the heroes are sad, pretty much everyone loses and there is a lot of gore. Raiden literally teleports everyone to a blank white realm. It was called something fancier, but that's all it was, a white space. It was the writers scripting themselves into a corner. So, at the lowest point of the film, both storyline-wise and tone-wise, they pass us a snake-eyes roll and we are treated to a space where the bad guys can't go, and where the good guys can form a plan. 

As the plot goes, yeah, they pulled it out of their asses and didn't explain a whole lot. This part nearly ruined the movie for me. Not only did they force the protagonists into a low point that seems to be a staple of movies, but the villains actually seem to go out of their way to allow this to happen. It's clumsy, but the movie picks itself up quite well.

The ending battle that ensues between the side characters are only really noteworthy because of the fatalities. Besides Kano vs Sonya, there's really nothing special to talk about. As for the fight Sub Zero, however, you get your money's worth. It doesn't forgive the bigger mistakes but it certainly saves it from being a gigantic slog. 

The third act is a bit rushed, because with so many characters, there's a lot to tie up. However, as a whole, the movie is definitely one of the better video game movies we've seen. It's obvious they put a lot of work into making this film and you can appreciate it as a fighting movie in general. It just needed a bit more polishing with the pacing and the sequencing. Characters survive for plot reasons and a lot of the time, you're asking "Where's the tournament?" Well, sad to say, there is no tournament this time around. We wrap up the plot with the promise of a Mortal Kombat in the next film, which is fine. 

In the end, we got what we came for. There are some bad ass fight scenes and blood. While the main character is bland and forgettable, he is not unlikeable or annoying. He holds his own in battle and he's not completely cliched, just some. 

Beyond anything else, we have a movie that's decent and at least can be watched along with the first one. The 95 film is still good so it's worth giving them both some attention. It's not perfect as films go, but for Mortal Kombat, it's a place to start. Definitely give it a watch if you're a fan of the franchise. If not, it's still worth a look. Don't sweat the small stuff, but if you do sweat, be sure to drink some water.

Happy 25th Birthday, Dreamcast!

 

Wow, it's already been 25 years and all of the great game systems are starting to be able to drink! These are the games we grew up with, now that we have our white hair, canes and breathing problems! This is when we leapt from the 32-bit era and delved into graphics that were once only meant for arcade cabinets!

We here at Planet Virtua feel that the Dreamcast was a beloved sendoff to the Sega consoles and the fact that so many people are celebrating its brithday gives us great joy. To mark this momentous occasion, we have decided to put together an article that shows off what made Dreamcast great in its time. There are so many ways this console was great, it really is a shame so many people didn't see it for the marvel it was. 

Games like Jet Grind Radio (in the US), Crazy Taxi, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Shenmue, Sonic Adventure and so many more are chiseled into its history. These games have been remade, reported and revamped so many times because they were great to begin with. Some of these were once Dreamcast exclusives and people loved them so much that they wanted MORE! Fans have come out with fansubs, fan remakes and nothing but love for this wondrous Swan Song and detractors can easily be ignored because we don't need them! 

The open worlds and the large, engrossing landscapes are one of the qualities the Dreamcast excelled in. Games like Skies of Arcadia, and Shenmue showed these huge graphically enhanced environments. Phantasy Star Online was the first of its kind as a successful console based MMORPG, and this was just the start of it! The Dreamcast was also the earliest example of a console having a built in modem, allowing you to play online with friends. Was this the greatest internet brought to you by Sega Net? No, in fact, many still had dial-up internet and even with a fast internet, there were several problems with connections for many, many people. 

But Sonic! That's a Saturn! This is a Dreamcast article!

That does not stop the system itself from being spectacular. It had cool features like a screen menu on start up, the online stuff and even some very early downloadable content, but that was not the focus. The games still came first! With Virtual On, you were able to customize your own robot and save that robot to a file in either a flashdrive or the Dreamcast itself. This is what people used for Virtual On Dreamcast competitions! You come the scene at a convention and play with one of those, you're one of the cool kids! 

The graphical capabilities were only magnified by Sonic Team and Sega putting their brains together and making the best use of them. Crazy Taxi was one of the best sellers on the system because it was near, shot-for-shot, just as good as the arcade (sans the cool controls, of course). The driving was smooth and the controls, even on the regular controls, it was very easy to learn. 

The controller, modeled after the Saturn 3D Pad, wasn't quite as popular among gamers, and even the original Xbox had The Duke. Both were seen as large and especially cumbersome to use. Being one with very large hands, this was never a problem for me. There was also the Xbox controller, but there is something to be said about one of the very first iterations of a console controller having a small, flat joystick. 

This console had the potential to become absolutely great to the wide public. The mistakes Sega made with the CD's and their security files, some of the mechanical issues with loading and other such little things had a bad effect on sales. It really undercut the whole experience because so many people were selling Dreamcast games bootlegged and people were buying them, or even figuring out how to make the CD's themselves. It's obvious the console wasn't perfect, but that was not at all having to do with a lack of a gaming library or good games. 

Whatever has happened to your Dreamcast, whether you sold it, broke it or its simply been neglected into catching dust, do yourself a favor, and seek out these games. Crazy Taxi, Grandia 2, Sonic Advneture DX and so many other titles for this machine are now wholly accessible on the Steam store, and several of them are available elsewhere as well. Shenmue III just had a release, and while it wasn't universally well received, the Shenmue fans got something out of the deal. If we can keep this up, along with all of the other Dreamcast titles getting a resurface, rebuilding your old school collection should be much easier now, more than ever. 

If you never loved the Dreamcast, there's not much to say. It can be viewed as mediocre, with a small gaming library, by comparison, and an old relic that old people just can't stop fawning over. Well, that's your view and it is not ours. The Dreamcast came at the right time, when people wanted more of their favorite games and it brought us sequels that we love as well as brand new titles we still love to this day. Anything from House of the Dead II, Space Channel 5, Power Stone and even Resident Evil: Code Veronica first found their home on the Dreamcast and it is the best way to play them: Old School! 

So, here on this day, we remember the day of 9/9/99 and reflect on a system that carried the torch until its dying embers. Thank you, Dreamcast, for the memories. Also, for the dreams. Virtua Dreams.

Hexen: Beyond Heretic - I cast "Bugger Off!"

There are some among us who can remember those good old days of video gaming when all you had were the video game cartridges and/or CD's you could hold in your hands. These were the days when first person shooters were in beautiful bloom and experimentation was bringing about new and exciting discoveries in graphics and video gaming technology. One of these experiments led John Romero into assisting a team with the Doom Engine. Raven Software used this engine to create a fantasy game that had all of the bells and whistles one could ever ask for to quench their thirst for swords and sorcery. 

When we were kids and didn't care all that much about beating games as fast as possible, this game gave us what we wanted. We could use our axes and staffs to drive the evil forces to an early grave. Now that we are adults and the kids are far more focused on getting through levels and killing monsters at a fast pace and with furious efficiency. If you are looking for a game that will challenge you, Hexen with either be your dream come true, or the greatest nightmare you ever had. 

At first glance, the graphics look stellar on the Sega Saturn. The frame rate isn't great and the pixelation on the monsters is noticeable, but overall it is a fantastic port. The controls take two seconds to get use to before you are ripping two-headed beasts apart in a gothic medieval setting. this game is gorgeous when it comes to its monster designs and atmosphere. The setting is pristine in its depiction of a medieval world that you can get lost in.

Oh, I'm sorry, did I say lost? Yes, yes, I did. If you have never played this game before and you are not watching a walkthrough, you will get lost. It's not so much a problem as finding a path, but it is a matter of finding a path, finding the switch and then finding the new path that switch opens up. Sometimes this path can be in a whole other planar dimension. So you need to hit a switch, go through a portal and try and find where a door opened. This is probably one of the most maddening parts of the game. 

Despite how they feel at the beginning, the weapons are utterly shite! This is a subjective view but it is also very valid when you are shooting monsters five or six times each while eight other monsters are chasing you around an entire map. Some people like these weapons, but some of them are slow while others are inaccurate. The real problem with the majority of these weapons is that they do not do near enough damage to get the proper job done. 

So, with the extremely confusing level design and the weapons that barely scratch, you may be thinking this is the challenge for you. Yes, if you are willing to take down flying monsters that sometimes you can't even shoot properly, then you are barking up the proper tree. Just be sure you have a ranged weapon and ammo, those fiery little bastards are a pain.

One very interesting aspect of this game is that you are able to choose between a Fighter, Cleric or a Mage. Each of them is different, and they all have their gimmicks and faults. I don't want to set any of them apart from the others, but do not play the Mage. His weapons are ineffectual and playing this class is just an all around abysmal experience. The fighter has the strongest weapons but he also doesn't have ranged attacks at first. It takes a lot of trial and error to find the class that is right for you. 

This game is the text book example of a mixed bag. It is fun and satisfying to play, but too much of this game at one time can be a convoluted and confusing experience. The real problem with saving and coming back to the game, and you run the risk of forgetting what was going on and what switches or pushed to get to what door and sometimes it's not really worth dwelling over. It's a terrible feeling when you're in the dead center of a game you decide to start all over. It is a cross this video game needs to bear. 

Imagine playing this game without a walkthrough of any kind. You could buy the game but you couldn't afford the game guide until next paycheck. Either that or your parents say it's either for Christmas or Birthday respectively. Pouring endless hours of bloodshed and madness into this game sounds like it would be fun, but it is rather bewildering. Do not start this game lightly if you intend to beat it. Just remember to drink those little vials of blue liquid. I think they're water.

Sega Rally Championship - Ride Like the 32-bit Wind!

From the beginning, this game had a disadvantage of being late to the party. The first day I got a Sega Saturn was the first day I got Daytona USA as well. It was a fantastic racing game as far as I was concerned and today, I still own a Sega 3Pak collection. Sega Rally fell by the wayside in comparison, and didn't interest me. However, throughout my journey with the Saturn, it is a name that constantly comes up when sports games are mentioned. The first time I ever played this was on a demo disc. It had one race and nothing else, so it didn't get played much. 

That begs the question, how does it hold up today? Well, playing it for the first time, the first thing that comes up is the controls. They are janky here and there, but it's more of how you use your speed and are able to drift. It's a bit of a harsh learning curve, and many practice rounds were in store for me. Quite honestly, I never was very good at it. I was amateur at best in Daytona USA, more or less because racing games are not a forte. 

However, the more I did it, the more I began to get better and enjoy my time with this game. It has some great backgrounds and very smooth rides with a nice little background music. If we're really going to play comparisons to Daytona USA, that is one place where this game falls a bit short. The soundtrack for Sega Rally is good, it's catchy and it's a smooth ride, but it is in no way even close. 

This is a great racing game. It just takes some getting used to and you may even get really good at its mechanics. Sega Rally is more just a great bit of old school gaming that brings back that old time country flavor of 32-bit goodness that came out of the mid 90's. It ranks far higher in my books for its time capsule qualities. The Sega Saturn stays such a fine machine because it captures gems like this and holds them in stasis for newcomers and oldcomers alike. 

Sega Rally does well to represent what the Sega Saturn is capable of. Even when the 2-player mode doesn't hold together very well all the time, it is still a marvel of its time with the ability to do that. It holds up in high esteem for many reasons. If you love old school racing games, this is definitely one that should be on the top of your list. It's easy to learn, hard to master and reminds us of a time when games were made right.