O tempora – Page 9

O tempora: Dino Crisis series

02/04/2011 04/07/2019

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

The Dino Crisis franchise has a weird spot in Capcom catalog. On one hand, the first two games were really popular and apparently sold well. On the other, the company has been obviously unsure about making a new title, especially after the failed experiment with the third game. And besides, if they do make a new game, what type of game would it be? All three games in the series were so different.

O tempora: Gobliiins 1-3 (Gobliiins pack)

10/11/2010 28/06/2019

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Gobliiins hold important memories for me. Along with the Kyrandia titles from Westwood they were the very first adventure titles that I’ve played. They were the games that somewhat defined my humor, defined my understanding of the use of voices in games, defined my visual style preferences as I was a kid. While people with powerful PCs played Doom, I was playing Montezuma’s Revenge on my Поиск-1, my friend played these games on his system. And I helped. Then we switched to Space Quest, to Leisure Suit Larry and other titles, because we realized how fun the adventure games could be. A few years ago we saw a very quiet release of Gobliiins 4. I played it only for a bit and it made me question myself – what if the classic titles were as tedious, as uninspired, as illogical? Was it all nostalgia and the original games weren’t that good anymore?

O tempora: Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven

04/09/2010 28/06/2019

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven was really big back in the day. Well, in the PC gaming space. This incredible project was extremely well received, but a lot of people missed it partially due to the PC exclusivity for a long time (and later released console port wasn’t good) and partially due to the expectations set by GTA III released a year earlier. People expected an explosive sandbox, rather than a linear story driven experience in an open world. I remember loving the game back then, but years later, can it still be great?

O tempora: Parasite Eve 1 & 2

15/07/2010 28/06/2019

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

SquareSoft’s Parasite Eve had a weird fate, probably not something both developers nor its first fans expected. Both of the games in the series were popular, both sold well, both were critically acclaimed. Aya Brea is still considered to be one of the best female game protagonists. Yet, they tend to not appear in “important” lists of “important” gaming websites. Despite being so loved and well known, the games got somewhat forgotten. And I’m actually somewhat confused that Square Enix decided to announce another sequel for this or next year (though it is a spin-off) to arrive on PSP. But today, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about two games that I love dearly that definitely stood the test of time.

O tempora: Crash Bandicoot & Spyro

04/07/2010 26/10/2019

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

For most people from post-soviet countries Playstation was the fifth generation of consoles. All of it. Sega Saturn was barely known, N64 not well known and it felt outdated due to the usage of cartridges instead of CDs, 3DO was known to only a few, no one ever heard about Jaguar and I still don’t know what an Amiga CD even is. That’s why, PS1 titles were so memorable. And most knew that a crazy mascot of PS1 was a bandicoot called Crash. But he wasn’t the only one competing for being the mascot. Apart from Gex, whom I still love due to Gex: Enter the Gecko (best 3D platformer, fight me), Spyro became extremely popular as well. And today, almost 15 years since the original Crash Bandicoot, I’ve finally decided to play these classics for the first time. So I didn’t even have to fight my nostalgic memories.