Tag: ps4

Categories
dot frank

Beaten Games – 2021

Another year in the books, another list of the games I beat over the past 365 days. Some people listen to music, others watch TV, a few brave souls in this day and age go to the movies. I play way too many games for my health and age. And in order for me to feel any sense of accomplishment, I have to post a list of the ones I beat to the **checks notes** 8 viewers a month to this site (with most of them here for the Nirvana Boxed Set post for some reason). So without further ado…

January 2021

Destroy All Humans (PS4) 1-7-21
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS4) 1-31-21

February 2021

Tearaway: Unfolded (PS4) 2-6-21
Loco Roco Remastered (PS4) 2-11-21
Little Nightmares (PS4) 2-18-21

March 2021

Maneater (PS4) 3-7-21
Injustice 2 (PS4) 3-22-21

April 2021

South Park: The Fractured But Whole – 2nd Full Playthrough – Platinum trophy (PS4) 4-3-21
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch) 4-11-21
Pistol Whip – Story Mode 1 (PSVR) 4-12-21
Concrete Genie (PS4) 4-21-21

May 2021

Streets of Rage 4 (PS4) 5-18-21

June 2021

Nex Machina – Rookie (PS4) 6-3-21
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4) 6-17-21
Super Mario World (SNES via Super NT) 6-20-21
Wattam (PS4) 6-27-21

July 2021

Mario Golf: Super Rush (Switch) 7-10-21

August 2021

The Outer Worlds (PS4) 8-18-21

September 2021

Judgement (PS4) 9-18-21
Blood and Truth (PSVR) 9-27-21
Astro’s Playroom (PS5) 9-29-21

October 2021

Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart (PS5) 10-26-21
Operation Tango – Platnium (PS5) 10-29-21

December 2021

Wario Ware (GBA) 12-23-21

2021 brought with it large scale distribution of the COVID vaccine (part 1) which resulted initially in a demand on the level of the current generation game systems. Once vaccinated and able to take advantage of the outside world with a much, much, much lesser risk of it resulting in being thrown in a hospital or dying definitely affected how many games I went through this year versus 2020.

After just about a year from the original release, I was able to get a PS5. If I didn’t know long it would take for me to get another chance to get one, I would have waited. Outside of Ratchet and Clank, I haven’t seen a game that has impressed me as much. I am playing through Deathloop currently and it is a great game, but not seeing anything that couldn’t have been done on PS4. I am looking forward to being impressed more in 2022 with the next Horizon and God of War games.

The Superlatives

Game of the Year 2021 – NONE – There is no game that came out in 2021 that I played that truly stood out to me. I am playing some good 2021 games now with Deathloop, Hades, Far Cry 6 and some others, but it is 2022 now and I will be beating those games this year. It’s a transition year as the new PS5 and Xbox systems are barely out there and development seems split between exclusive titles that take advantage of the new systems and crossover games between two generations until everyone can get their grubby mitts on a new system. I did borrow and beat Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart which not only looks like a CGI movie but plays great too. If I were to give a game of the year award away, it would be for this one. But I just don’t have much more to write about it.

Multiplayer Game of the Year 2021 – Operation Tango – I beat this start to finish with my friend Will and it was a great experience. Reminded me of the Portal games where you have to communicate with the other player over headset to finish any of the missions within the larger assignments. Plus with each character having their own missions, playing through it twice was a necessity. A great PS Plus freebie game.

Honorable Mentions – Maneater was the best open world (open sea) game I played this year. Judgement was a great experience which is expected after the fun I had with the Yakuza games I’ve played. I don’t think I could play them every day though so I try to limit it to one a year. Mario Golf: Super Rush is just great arcade golf and it got some great courses added to it after release. Hopefully some more too.

Categories
dot frank

PS4 Pro Blu-Ray Swap

The Blu-Ray drive on my Playstation 4 Pro, under the stress of the last eight months of pandemic induced heavy usage, started showing signs of failing. Namely I had to hit the top of my PS4 multiple times after putting in a disk in before it would “catch” and start spinning up.

The thrilling sounds of my PS4 Pro rejecting a disc that put into it.
The sounds of me not-so-gently tapping the top of my PS4 Pro to read a disc.

Thanks to the magic of parts on Amazon (always check your model this one only for PS4 Pro) and the great guides at iFixIt, I was able to swap out the drive with minimal fuss. As a precautionary measure, I set up my “Generic Extreme Sports Action Camera” over it and set to take pictures every 5 seconds in case I wound up with any extra parts.

Conveniently this made a great time-lapse video after stitching it together. I have been messing with Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve as my editor which provides a ridiculous amount of value in it’s free package. I am a big fan.

Anyway here is that time-lapse.

During re-assembly, you have to apply thermal paste again to the APU. The original paste that Sony puts on is sloppy as hell and I wonder if it had anything to do with my Pro sounding like a jet engine during later titles like God of War, Days Gone, and The Last of Us Part 2. I put on my trusty Arctic Silver 5 and right now I am playing through Ghost of Tsushima (great game) and have not heard any fan revving.

But on the other hand I have only played Ghost of Tsushima and Fall Guys (another great game) since putting everything back together. I’ll give it a stress test when I have a chance. But for now all is right with the world. If the world was just this drive problem with my Playstation.

Categories
dot frank

The Quadruple Dip Collection

For the TL;DR crowd: Night Trap and Double Switch

I have recently reached a milestone in my game collection… Not too sure how proud I am about it though. Two games in my collection stand out above the rest. They are the only two games that I own four physical copies of for four different consoles.

The Quadruple Dip Tier is very rarified air.

First up is Night Trap from Digital Pictures. I picked up my first copy on Sega CD many moons ago. It was in the bargain bin of either an Electronics Boutique or Software Etc… at a New Jersey mall. When the game came out, it helped usher in a new era of what could be considered adult content in video games along with what should be allowed.

Night Trap Quadruple Dip

This all wasn’t done on purpose though. The game sorta sucked. It was a campy B-movie with vampires and Dana Plato from Diff’rent Strokes fits into the equation somewhere. You are part of the SCAT team which even as a kid I knew was a dumb name to give any group. Mortal Kombat did the heavy lifting with this new era ushering, but Night Trap sure was paraded around because it looked like a movie (in the 64 color palette of the Sega CD)

But because of all the controversy surrounding the game, it became a hot item for a bit. The beloved used video game chain Funcoland had the price for a used copy over $100 for a period of time. By 1997 – 1998 this was all forgotten as newer and grittier games were released. This was when I got the game for like $20 bucks new in box. That box has since gotten a lot of abuse because I didn’t have great storage options through the years. But other than some visual mileage, everything is still complete.

I could go on forever with the lore of Night Trap and how it has become one of those classic “B-movies” in game format where I just can’t say no to owning a copy of it. Around the time of the game’s 25th anniversary, it was re-released for PlayStation 4 in digital format. Not only a re-release but a remaster of the game as well using higher resolution video sourced from the original footage. It is definitely the best looking copy.

Limited Run Games, a company that specializes in releasing physical versions of digital games, worked out releasing real disc and cartridge versions of Night Trap. Over the past couple years of releases, I was able to get the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Nintendo Switch releases of the game. I decided not to get a PC version because I really don’t have a physical PC game collection outside of my 90’s Mac stuff.

I remember that Double Switch was originally hyped as a “spiritual successor” to Night Trap. Digital Pictures released the game about year later as people were still riding that brief wave of the Sega CD being relevant (I am guilty of this too). In terms of 1993 full motion video games, Double Switch was celebrity packed. It had Corey Haim, R. Lee Ermey, Debbie Harry, and a bunch of other people that don’t have as in-depth Wikipedia pages.

Double Switch

I picked up the game new at some point during the Sega CD lifecycle. It was much easier to get a copy of than Night Trap at the time most likely because of the “T” for teen rating it held. In terms of B-movie, Night Trap had it beat. It did have a fun trap system and the story was interesting enough for a teenage me to be entertained with.

The Sega Saturn version offered higher quality video and moved from 1 disc on Sega CD to 2 discs on Saturn. I picked my copy up only recently which brought Double Switch into the Quadruple Dip Tier.

Just like Night Trap, Double Switch got a digital re-release and remaster with higher resolution footage around the time of its 25th anniversary. Limited Run once again did physical releases only for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. I think they did a PC re-release as well, but I am not really collecting big box PC games.

Look, I know that both of these games are pretty horrible overall. They don’t move the needle very far in regards to gaming. Sure, Night Trap helped start the big conversation of censorship and regulation in video games, but look at games today. Anything released in the last two years with a Mature rating makes Night Trap look like a PG movie. These are just two titles that stood out for their campiness (is that a word) and their uniqueness at the time. A time where I was young and impressionable with full motion video and a Sega CD.

Shortly after Double Switch, I got out of console gaming and became more interested in computers and gaming on them.

Categories
dot

night trap x 3

if someone told me in 1993 that i would own three copies of the same game and that game was night trap, i would probably be disappointed to know that i was still buying night trap 25 years later like i didn’t learn my lesson the first time around.