Going Old School #2: Fighting Force 2

If you didn't know, the 3D beat-em up game on the PlayStation called Fighting Force got a sequel. You'd expect the sequel to be the exact same game just with different stage or at least , while being different, would be similar enough to the first game in both genre and play style. Boy, would you be wrong.

Fighting Force 2 is an entirely different game. Instead of being a 2 player arcade style beat-em up, Fighting Force 2 became a 3rd person action game. Now that might not sound very different but let me put it this way. Imagine turning a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles SNES game into Tomb Raider.

Quantity over quality? CD-RKing PS2 Controllers

For those familiar with CD-RKing then just from looking at the top picture alone you are already shaking your heads in disapproval. Shameless, I know. But hopefully these will last me for the next 2 or so months.

If you do not know what CD-RKing then let me give you a brief explanation. CD-RKing is a computer and gadget retail shop here in the Philippines whose products go for usually a third of the price compared to leading brands. The reasoning for such a big price difference is because for the most part they use, dare I say, "bootleg"-esque quality parts. That means that though the price is cheap, the quality is very iffy to say the least. The best way to describe it is "there is strength in numbers" which is exactly what I tried to do in my situation.

I just recently got a hold of a 2nd hand original PlayStation, known also the 1st PSX or the Fat PS1. The controllers that came with work but are very beat-up with a lot of bumps and scrapes on the plastic, as if it was thrown down a rocky hill. Though my issue isn't really about its looks but the main fact that the cord is really short and that these are the pre-Dual Shock controllers meaning no analog sticks. I busted out my PS2 controllers, 1 original and 1 class-A. However, my PS2 controllers seem to have a problem. Some buttons on my original PS2 controller don't register quickly and need a really hard press before they input. The class-A one auto mashes the cross button which makes playing most games completely unplayable.

I'm a little short on cash at the moment but I wanted to get at least 1 working controller for both my PS1 and PS2. At Datablitz, a brand new PS2 controller is going for around 750php I think which does fit in my budget albeit a little tight. However due to my trip to CD-RKing first to pick up a few blank CDs and DVDs, I asked if they were still selling PS2 controllers because I was curious about their price. The clerk told me that the PS2 controllers were going for 180php a pop. My mind went blank as I was caught off guard. I then asked to look at them and saw that they came in a few clear colors aside from the standard solid black. Me being a sucker for clear colored plastic caught a glimpse of a clear blue, it was different from DiEnd (my translucent blue PS3 controller) which had a matte finish and thus produced a foggy effect. These one were in smooth clear colored plastic, similar to the ones you find on action figures. Sure they crack easy but it's not like I throw of slam my controllers around. Honestly if it were not for the clear plastic, I wouldn't have cracked and impulse bought them. After I said that I would take the blue one, I thought to myself that this is a CD-RKing product and knowing the "quality" of their products, a single controller might not even last a full month. Knowing that it had such a low price, I opted to buy another just in case. Went with a color that I haven't seen on PS3 controller which is colorless clear plastic.

I truly am a sucker for clear plastic, I even thought of having my Wii's housing changed to a clear case more than once already. Aside from the tremendously low price, I do have another good thing to say about the CD-RKing PS2 controllers, the buttons do feel better than the ones you'd find on a class-A controller which had very hard buttons. I just hope that these controllers don't decide to break on me so soon.

Recent Buys: Episode 5 - Slow motion shooting and the early days of 3D gaming

Most of them items I'll be mention in this post aren't exactly new but this isn't called "newest buys", this is called "recent buys" which the whole "recent" aspect of it applies to myself and my wallet.

I'll be going through these items chronologically since 2 of them I got almost 2 weeks ago. Those 2 would be PS3 copies of Vanquish and Just Cause 2. Vanquish is another game by Platinum Games which involved a futuristic power suit with a design that I would say resembled the suit in P.N.03, design wise, where you can power slide while jet boosting. That plus guns, right-stick aiming, slow motion powers and a lot of explosions. What more could you want?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr1RzIr0Rzc[/youtube]

Just Cause 2 was more of an impulse buy if anything. I was originally looking for a copy of Blur and hopefully a copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Blur was out of stock but they did have 1 copy of X-Men Origins however that copy had a nasty gash on the side of the disc and was still going for 700php in the shop so I decided to drop that and spotted a Platinum release copy of Just Cause 2. Back before I got a PS3, Just Cause 2 was supposed to be my go to sandbox game but DataBlitz only ever had R2 copies and the game was going for 30$ (roughly around 1300php) on PSN. This one was 700php and worked like a charm. I decided to shell out the money for it since I might not see a disc copy of that game for a while. I haven't played it yet because there's a bug in the game that forces you to both press the Cross and Circle button at the same time to confirm, jump and even grapple. This is a problem since for Asia PS3s, Cross is cancel and Circle is confirm. Apparently there's a patch online that fixes this but since I still don't have internet at home (damn PLDT) I'll put this game on the back burner and finish Bayonetta and Vanquish first.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kjs-SC70Wg[/youtube]

For those of you who don't know me personally, my birthday is coming up and friends got me a little something (Shoutouts to the iAc Ninjas). They got me a brand new copy of Battlefield 3 Limited Edition. I only played a little bit of the campaign mode which hasn't impressed me but this game is all about the multiplayer and once I get my internet back, game oooon!

Time for the biggest purchase for this episode. I've been craving to play a lot of old Original PlayStation games like the Bust A Move/Groove 1 and 2, Chocobo Racing, and especially Mega Man Legends 1 and 2. Since PSN doesn't seem to want to add these awesome games to their PS1 Classics library, might as well take matters into my own hands. I wasn't the only one who had the PS1 craze as Tupasheep was also bitten by the nostalgia bug. He did a search on http://www.tipidpc.com/ and found 2 sellers of the original fat PS1, one of which was a recent ad and the other was a fairly recent one. Both were hovering around the 2000php mark and looked to be in good condition considering it's a 16 year old system. I got mine last Saturday (3/31/2012) from the seller retrogamerPH (Kuya Ed). The controllers were a little beat up and the open button for the disc cover gets stuck from time to time but other than that the PS1 works like a charm. It couldn't read some of the PS1 games I still had but that might be the problem of the discs themselves and not the system. I need to get my hands on some other PS1 games to test it out further but other than that I at least got my Bust A Groove 2 fix over the weekend. Fever Time!

Oh and while digging out my old PS1 games, I found this. I forgot I owned one. The Original Soundtrack for the first Metal Gear Solid game.

This is the first track from the disc.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqqq8uqSDnk[/youtube]

RGP #12 - Final 'Fantasy' Tactics

Random Gaming Post #12 Oh Delita. So this is what goes on in the head of the hero and "Savior King" of Ivalice. Imagining Princess Ovelia in many outfits of the job classes found in the game Final Fantasy Tactics. Perhaps a strange fetish for the Holy Knight but it takes all types to make the world go round I guess.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjYD61xP7Ys&w=640&h=390]