Assassin's Creed and a Gran Turismo wishlist

My oldest son had some spending money last year, so we took a trip to GameStop. He eventually narrowed his selections down to an Assassin's Creed game. But which one? He eventually narrowed it further to the first Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed: Revelations. I initially pushed him toward the first, but he decided on Revelations.

Well it paid off, as Revelations came with the first Assassin's Creed, at least on the PS3 version. I actually enjoyed it (never played it before he bought it) and ended up getting it for myself. I actually prefer the first game to Revelations (probably due to being set in the Middle East during the Crusades), though Revelations open-world style has its perks.

My biggest annoyance with Revelations was the strategy minigame. Sorry, I don't want to put up barricades and tell assassins where to stand to jump off the roof and stab people. The whole reason I play Assassin's Creed is so that I can be the one jumping off the roof and stabbing people. Sorry, Old Man Ezio, I'll stick to Altair (Ezio is my son's favorite main character, but the Ezio from Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I think his favorite game is Assassin's Creed III).

Now, on to Gran Turismo. I am not a mechanic, not by any stretch of the imagination. I wouldn't know a camshaft from a driveshaft. But I like cars, and here's a few I'd like to see in a future Gran Turismo (that I will probably never get as I likely will not purchase a PS4).

5. 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429

This beast of a muscle car is one of the more legendary versions of the Mustang. The Mustang itself is not especially well represented in Gran Turismo. I seem to recall the 2005 Mustang GT and 2000 Mustang SVT Cobra being the only models in Gran Turismo 4 (feel free to correct me on this). Forza Motorsport features the Boss 429 (and it's one of my favorite cars in the game) so it can clearly be done (might be a licensing issue).

4. 1990 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z

I'm actually more of a Camaro guy, and it's had many more models make appearances in Gran Turismo than the rival Mustang. This is unfortunate as it limits the Camaro vs Mustang races you could run, but that's another issue. The 3rd generation Camaros have barely made any appearaces. Gran Turismo 4 featured a concept IROC-Z as a prize for winning a series of Camaro-only races but that's it. The 1990 was the last to be branded the IROC-Z (the Z/28 making its return the next model year) so it's simply the most advanced to add to the list.

3. 1987 Ford Escort GT

I have a personal stake in this one. My second car ever was a 1987 Escort GT (my first was a 1985 VW Golf, which should never, ever be featured in a video game). At 115 hp it was apparently the most powerful and sought after model. I dubbed mine the "Mini-Mustang" given its resemblance, and joked it was "born four cylinders prematurely" (I was later told it was nicknamed the Pony for this reason). So let me have my car back.

2. Pontiac Firebird (1969 Firebird, 1992 Firebird, 1999 Trans Am)

Now, some may argue that including the Firebird would be redundant, as it is mechanically almost identical to the Chevy Camaro. But some prefer the Firebird's sleeker appearance, and the Ram-Air hood scoops on the 4th generation Trans Am actually gave it a meaner look than its counterpart. I nearly bought a Firebird from a coworker years ago (nothing fancy, it was a 1983 with the 2.8L V6. It had transmission problems so I passed. Another friend bought it and put it into a tree. The end), so admittedly a bit of a personal stake here as well.

1. 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

The Camaro has been a staple of Gran Turismo since GT2, which featured the 1997 Z28 and 1998 SS. It wasn't until Gran Turismo 4 that we got some first generation Camaros, specifically the 1969 Z28 and 1969 SS (albeit the 350, I would have preferred the 396). But the rarest one of all (only 69 ever made) is the ZL1 featuring the 427 engine normally reserved for the Corvette. So yeah.

GTA V stuffs

Let me start with a bit of background.  I don't have a problem with violent video games. My oldest son just turned 15, and has been begging for most of the last year (well, slightly less) for Grand Theft Auto V. I have recently loosened the reins on M-Rated games. He has several Assassin's Creed games, a couple of Call of Duty games, and Skyrim. Call of Duty is mainly for multiplayer (pretty tame), Assassin's Creed is a playable comic book and Skyrim is high fantasy. So I can be flexible with that. Grand Theft Auto is a different story of course, seeing as how the game is one long crime spree. So he wasn't allowed to get it.

My luck finally ran out.

His uncle (who is in the Navy and didn't get the memo) mailed him a copy as a birthday gift. My son no longer lives with me so there isn't much I can do about it. Still, he's probably mature enough to handle it (although his history of behavioral problems makes me nervous).

Here's where the irony comes in.

He spends some weekends with me, and the last time I had him over, he insisted on showing me the game. Now, I had never played GTA before. His mother bought GTA III for my PS2 back when we were together but I never had any desire to play it, and I had thought about getting San Andreas but just never wanted it badly enough. Still, I had to admit that the bits of GTA V that had come my way since its release offered some appeal.

He started off by showing me some of his cars. These are not real-world cars, they are lawyer-friendly near-clones. But usually you can figure out what they are. They run the gamut from family sedans to muscle cars to exotics to pickup trucks, all very customizable.

This past weekend, he wanted me to customize a car. After perusing some of the options, I decided on the Imponte Phoenix aka Totally-Not-A-Pontiac-Firebird (specifically the second Generation with perhaps a dash of 3rd). Unfortunately, there would be some difficulty in acquiring one. There is an in-game internet used for ordering all manner of stuffs (vehicles include cars, trucks, motorcycles, dirtbikes, scooters, bicycles, boats, helicopters, airplanes, and TANKS), but the Phoenix wasn't available. After driving around the city looking for one to steal (it's called Grand Theft Auto for a reason after all) with no luck, I settled on the Declasse Vigero (first gen Camaro). However, the game froze up a couple of times in the process of getting to the garage to customize it.

On to the next attempt. Now, upon loading his game, it defaulted to Franklin, who was outside his garage and was wanted by the police who were on their way. To speed things up, we were going to have Franklin "kill" himself (you simply respawn at the hospital, magically healed despite suffering from being near an exploding car or multiple bullets to the head), and what drives by, but an Imponte Phoenix. We run over, open the door and drag the driver out, but then the cops arrived and shot poor Franklin (ok, he probably deserved it).

Exiting the hospital, we saw another one drive by, and there ended up being another one or two at the intersection. But we grabbed the nearest one, which was a hideous green with yellow stripes. No matter, paint job was on the to-do list. Actually, the image I linked looks more or less like my Phoenix, except I kept the standard grill and used a different blower popping out of the hood.

He then showed me some of the weapons in the game (I was sold on "minigun"). Needless to say, I now want the very game I tried to prevent him from owning (I'm still not crazy about that fact).

So hopefully I can get it once it is released for PC.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, my son had previously acquired GTA IV from a friend who got GTA V and didn't want it any more. Now that he has GTA V, he gave GTA IV to me. So apparently this copy is making its rounds and I'll need to pass it along once I get GTA V.

How It Began: Star Wars X-Wing:Alliance

I got this back in 2000 as part of a package. It included the original X-Wing, plus TIE Fighter (both classics mind you), the demo for X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, and X-Wing: Alliance.

The original X-Wing is an award winning space flight simulator released in 1993 where you assume the role of a Rebel pilot fighting against the Empire. This was followed up by the (generally regarded as better) TIE Fighter in 1994, which was largely the same but this time, you fight for the Empire. A few years later, in 1997, came the multiplayer-oriented X-Wing vs TIE fighter. Then in 1999 came X-Wing: Alliance.

X-Wing: Alliance featured a number of graphical improvements over its predecessor, and a full single player campaign, where you take on the role of Ace Azzameen. He's a hotshot young pilot who recently took on a greater role in his family's trading business. The family is neutral in the Galactic Civil War at the start, but a feud with a rival family, the Viraxo, ultimately puts them at odds with the Empire, forcing them to look to the Alliance. Ace becomes a fighter pilot, and the game culminates with (as you probably guessed from the box art) the Battle of Endor, as you (SPOILER) pilot the Millennium Falcon to bring down the second Death Star.

Now, this wasn't technically my first foray into online gaming. I had played AOL's Battletech: Solaris (albeit only once) a few years before, and had played DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D with a friend over a modem connection (you see, kids, back in the days before broadband internet, we used devices called "modems" that used an existing phone line to either connect to an ISP or directly to another computer. This was slow and tied up said phone line, so it sucked. The end.) But this was when I started playing online routinely.

I didn't get online right away. At the time, the computer I was using (I lived with my then-girlfriend at her dad's house) was cluttered with a lot of crap. I finally talked them into letting me just wipe the hard disk and reinstall Windows (98!) fresh. This freed up enough space that I could do the full install, which included the files necessary for multiplayer (you see, kids, back in the day, hard drives were small, and multiplayer was often a large extra installation that wouldn't always fit, because everyone usually shared one computer. {you see, kids, back in the day, computers were expensive enough that families who could afford them typically only had one so we all had to share. The end.} The end.)

So once I finally got all that straightened out, I logged into the old Microsoft Gaming Zone (you see, kids, these were the days before Steam and Xbox Live. And Xbox. And consoles with online capabilites. Except Dreamcast, which had a built in modem, but it was another $35/mo. to use it, so it died. The end). This was long before I was MythicalDakka. I don't even honestly remember what my original name was, because that very night, I was recruited to join The Rebel Alliance (part of the Dark Jedi Organization) by a guy named Blindfire, a flight leader in Green Squadron, and took the name TRA_DashRendar01. I was assigned under his command (Flight 3) by our squadron leader Raziel. I had good times those days. I played for some fine officers, such as Myn_Donos and GearheadCFA (though he was a rookie himself at the time). Green Squadron (nicknamed the Rancors, until Myn changed it to the less awesome but much funnier Green Beans) was one of 2 XWA (shorthand for X-Wing Alliance) squadrons, the other being Silver Squadron. We would occasionally have a Silver vs Green war, much as the other squadrons would do (most other squadrons supported XvT, with Black Squadron supporting Allegiance, Red vs Blue was a frequent matchup). Also, at times we would have a war with our sister club TIE Fighter Alliance. I remember photoshopping their home page image (a Super Star Destroyer) with a picture of the Outrider flying by and spraypainting "DashRendar01 Was Here" on the hull (triggering a happy little comlink war).

Eventually I became Flight 1 leader and then Squad XO. Due to waning interest in XWA, Silver and Green Squadrons were merged into White Squadron (TIGERS), with BlackHawk04 (Silver Squad leader) staying on as CO and me staying on as XO. I wrote the official White Squadron story during that time (about acquiring the squadron flagship), and I had also changed my name to Solid_Snake. There were a lot of Dash Rendars playing Star Wars games, you see, to the point that we gathered together in a Dash Rendar-only room on the Zone one night.

Eventually, BlackHawk got promoted to XO of Wing 2, and I selected Liberty1776 as my new XO as I was elevated to Squadron CO. This is probably my proudest accomplishment in DJO. Unfortunately my time in command was short lived. My broadband provider messed something up and I was offline for a month. I came back to find that I had been removed from command with Liberty elevated to CO. He had offered me the XO position (having felt terrible given the circumstances of my removal, and that had I come back a day or so earlier, I'd still be squad leader), but that pretty much took the wind out of my sails and I went back to the pilot ranks.

Eventually I retired, though I came back a brief time later to find White Squadron no more. I was reassigned to Blue Squadron. I changed my comlink signature to reflect this ("Part Green Bean, Part White Tiger, All Blue Angel"). I even briefly served as a flight leader but my interests had moved on to other games, and was short lived. I returned briefly for XvT WoW 100 (you see kids, back in those days WoW stood for Week Of War, a large competition between clubs using Battlestats). I was invited back for XWA WoW 100 but I couldn't find my discs (and didn't know how to get it to work on Windows 7) so unfortunately that didn't happen.

I had a lot of fun back in the good old days (I remember some improvisational roleplaying of an entire episode of Pinky & The Brain with RedStar_5 on the Zone one night, for example). Met a lot of good people, played a lot of games. Even joined a lot of the other clubs (I was an officer in a few as well, such as platoon leader in United Freedom Fighters, an America's Army club), and created United Marine Brigades, a Battlefield 2 club that lasted a little over a year. WoW (yes, that WoW) was the death of that club, though I did get my wife to not only join but she served as the club's XO for a time.

So be sure to check it out :)

Favorite Racing Series: Gran Turismo

I found myself thinking back to these games a bit while on my break at work today, reading Hot Rod and Muscle Car Review. So I figured I'd talk a bit about my experiences in this series. I am a bit behind, as I only own up to GT4. Being a parent can sometimes cut into your video game budget after all. But here we go...

GRAN TURISMO (PlayStation, 1997)

It was billed as "THE REAL DRIVING SIMULATOR" (as you can clearly see on the image I posted) and boy was it ever. Arguably the most realistic racing game at the time, and the best looking, it also featured a huge number of cars (140, at a time when most games had maybe a couple dozen tops) that could be upgraded and modified, and a wide variety of tracks, with both single player (arcade or career) and two player split screen modes. The career mode had you choose among a variety of races, winning trophies and money (in the form of credits). You also had to earn different racing licenses to unlock some races and cars, with the ultimate goal of winning the Gran Turismo championship.

Admittedly, my experience with this game was very limited, because by the time I got to it, we had also bought...

GRAN TURISMO 2 (PlayStation, 1999)

Following up the best racing game ever was going to be a hard act to follow, but Polyphony Digital pulled it off with this one. Featuring the same realistic driving engine, with some graphical improvements, Gran Turismo 2 also featured an impossibly huge roster of cars, around 650, a massive jump from the first game. While it was still largely the same game, there were more tracks and more modifications. I believe this was the first game to offer used vehicles.  My first car was a 1991 Toyota Supra, a bargain car that actually performs surprisingly well for the money and even better once you're able to add in some modifications (upgraded suspension, turbocharger, etc.). Sadly there was a bug in this game that could cause your cars to disappear. It wiped out my entire garage (almost 50 cars) including my beloved Supra (used cars are a one-time deal, so I couldn't replace it), and this is probably the reason why GT2 sold fewer copies than any other game in the series (thought still very nearly 10 million).

Luckily, I am primarily an American car kind of guy, so I replaced my 1998 Chevy Camaro SS and that became my go-to car for a while. My championship car was a 1998 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4, which scaled well with the upgrades and I liked the stability of the AWD package (though I never won the championship). Another fun car was the 1998 Jaguar XJ220, which went northward of 900 horsepower with the top turbocharger available (good luck steering it, that thing could fly!). Eventually, a new generation of consoles would emerge (natch), so we moved on to...

GRAN TURISMO 3: A-SPEC (PlayStation 2, 2001)

Following up the best racing game ever was going to be a hard act to follow, and I feel that Polyphony Digital dropped the ball with this one. While the best selling game in the series, this is probably due to being bundled with the PS2 console for a time (that is ultimately how I acquired the game AND the console). Perhaps due to being a launch title, it was rushed a bit and felt like it took a step back. The graphics, of course, were fantastic, and the game engine was as realistic as ever, but the stable of cars shrank to a paltry 180 vehicles, and certain features (such as racing modifications, which made your vehicle look like a real racer plastered with sponsorships) were missing.

My first car was another Toyota: a 1985 Sprinter Trueno AE86 GT Apex (basically a sporty Corolla)My go-to car in this game was the 2000 Subaru Impreza WRX, a nice little turbocharged 4-cylinder with AWD. This car was a real money-maker due to the stupid simple race that was added for AWD-vehicles only. It was run on the test track, which was simply a great big oval, and was just a matter of which vehicle was the most powerful. AWD vehicles lack cornering, but the track had very gentle turns, and the stiffest competition was a VW New Beetle that ran about 370 horsepower, which my modified WRX could beat handily

Fortunately greener pastures soon arrived in the form of...

GRAN TURISMO 4 (PlayStation 2, 2005)

This was redemption for the franchise in my opinion. Once again, the graphics were improved, and the game engine was great. The ridiculous stable of cars had returned as well. This game boasted over 700 models, some truly absurd for a racing game (1915 Ford Model T, 1886 Mercedes-Benz Daimler Motor Carriage).

One VERY nice feature: if your memory card had a GT3 game save, you were automatically given the Class B and Class A licenses, and a large sum of cash (I think 100,000. Or perhaps 150,000). This allowed me to bypass the used cars entirely and get myself one of my all-time favorite cars: a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS, with some cash left over for modifications (such as a supercharger). I can't even begin to tell you how pumped I was to start the game off with a real muscle car. Of course, more were added to my garage, although my go-to car was actually a 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R M-Spec Nur (that really rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?), although for muscle races, I usually went with the Camaro.

This game finally had a challenger though, in the form of Forza Motorsport for Xbox (my go-to car was a 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429). While I loved Forza, and it had some features that GT did not (such as custom decals, or even changing the paint job on your car after you purchased it), Gran Turismo still remains my favorite racing series to this day (perhaps due to the Nostalgia Filter, but oh well).

EDIT: I forgot to mention that in Gran Turismo 3, I found I had some affinity for rally (off-road) racing. I primarily used a Ford Escort Rally Car in this endeavor, as I had previously owned a 1987 Ford Escort GT (which is actually my favorite car I have ever owned, as it is the closest thing I've had to a sports car. I called it the "Mini-Mustang" due to it's resemblance to the Ford Mustangs at the time, and found out later it was nicknamed the Pony due to that very reason). I actually torched a few of my then-girlfriend's college buddies in rally races. Gran Turismo 4 upped the ante as in addition to the usual dirt tracks, the game featured snow tracks. I kept plugging on with my Escort rally car though.

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Magic, Minecraft and GTA

Actually got a chance to play a little Magic: The Gathering today. My nephew was visiting and my oldest son had spent the night. My wife chose my Mono-Black Control deck, my son chose my (proxied) Machine Red deck, my nephew played his green Elves deck, and I grabbed my premium Slivers deck. I actually have that deck for the sake of raiding it for a Commander deck, but that's another story.

Long story short, my Slivers never got on track, since the nephew was smart enough to disrupt my rhythm (take out a few slivers to keep them from becoming overpowered). Machine Red never went anywhere and neither did MBC. So Elves win the day (I hate elves...)

Then my son played some Minecraft Dragons with me. I not only won a round, but in dramatic fashion. I was one of the last 2 players, and we both got knocked off at the same time. I must have been a bit higher up (or got knocked higher by the dragon) as I ended up the winner, evidently my opponent hit the void before me. Next time I have him over we'll be trying some other Minecraft minigames.

My son also played a round of Catching Fire Hunger Games (yes, this is still Minecraft) and wound up with a 3 way tie. After 15 minutes, everyone still alive is transported to a small arena for a final deathmatch. After 2 minutes, everyone left alive wins, though he was down to 1/2 heart of life when one of them decided not to be so nice. I was surprised he didn't try to go for the solo win, as he's pretty good at pvp, but he was mostly in chain armor against someone in full iron armor so he felt his best option was to play for a tie.

After I took him home he showed me a little GTA V. His mother and I had been against getting him the game, but he had an uncle who either didn't get the memo or didn't care (I'm betting the latter). Still, I was slightly intrigued. His mother had GTA III for PS2 years ago and for some reason I never had any interest in playing (though I was amused by a few things in that game). I might consider picking it up, though I'll probably wait for a good sale on Steam (so probably next year at the earliest).

Various Updates

Not much time spent on Pokemon, though my Charmander evolved to a Charmeleon.

Oh right, you don't know that yet.

A friend of mine, who also has a 2DS with Pokemon X, noticed the shoulder buttons weren't working. This was the 3rd 2DS she's had to return (she originally bought it for the kids, who broke it twice, so she repo'd it), and we had a trade agreement anyway, so she shipped her Pokemon to me for safekeeping. I inherited her Delphox, Blastoise, Xerneas and others. Of course, as I have only one gym badge, none of these Pokemon listen to me, though they one-shot anything I face right now as they are a much higher level.

All the same, as I now have a Blastoise (AKA my all time favorite Pokemon), I didn't select Squirtle when I was offered a Generation 1 starter. To be fair, we had previously worked that out. Since she already had a Blastoise, she would breed it and send me a Squirtle. I would then select Charmander, then breed the Charizard and sent a Chamander to her.

So after encountering Professor Treename and flattening his Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charmander, I selected Charmander and promptly put Delphox in my storage.

I have also revived (not that it was dead, just more on hiatus) my The Heck Am I Doing series, and I will be polaying the Space Wolves DLC for Space Hulk on Steam. You can find it on my YouTube channel or on Gamerclips.tv. It's a turn based strategy game based on the Space Hulk board game by Games Workshop (which GW now hates along with the rest of their specialist games). A Space Hulk is a large conglomeration of lost starships, often containing lost technology. So the Space Marines (known as Adeptus Astartes in-universe) are sent in to retrieve it, specifically veterans wearing Tactical Dreadnought Armor, which is power armor on steroids, allowing them to carry heavy weapons systems and making them nearly impervious. They are known as Space Marine Terminators, and with good reason.

Except for the fact that Space Hulks are populated by Tyranid Genestealers (not to be confused with Jeanstealers), who happen to excel at killing Terminators.

Another video coming up soon is some gameplay from Minecraft, specifically a minigame called Dragons. It's got some fireworks, so it makes for a nice Fourth of July special.