Thursday, April 14, 2005
When this baby hits 88 miles per hour...
As a gamer who remembers the early days of the arcade, I sometimes wish I could go back in time, meet my younger self, and show him just where videogames would be like 24 years later. I don't know what the point would be - I doubt I'd have changed my life or anything. I'd just like to say, "See how cool it'll be?!?" Show him Unreal Tournament 2004, or City of Heroes, or Gran Turismo 4. Just to blow my poor, younger-self's mind. The photorealistic graphics. The silky-smooth framerates. The realism. The force-feedback controllers. The massively multiplayer possibilities in an Internet-connected world.
THEN (Pole Position) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NOW (Gran Turismo 4)
Knowing me, my younger self would probably say, "What? You aren't playing holographic games yet? What a rip-off! And you came back in time just to show me THAT? Dude, bring me something I can USE. Like stock tips. Or a functional lightsaber. Or the source code to that Doom game you just told me about! Well, just leave me that PlayStation2 and the games here with me, please, so I can make my buddies all jealous when they try and tell me about how good their Intellivision is."
Little 12-year old punk. I oughta smack him. Or introduce him to Jar-Jar. Same thing.
Labels: retro
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:37 AM (Permalink)
Comments:
Links to this post:
<< Home
It's hard not to stare, isn't it?
Gran Turismo 4 has better gameplay AND a couple more colors in the graphics. Guess that's why I don't play Pole Position too often these days.
Gran Turismo 4 has better gameplay AND a couple more colors in the graphics. Guess that's why I don't play Pole Position too often these days.
I haven't played GT4, but I got GT3 from all the raves I had heard, and I have one of those TV joysticks with Pole Position... and BLECH to GT. I really truly just hated it and could get NO fun out of it. Pole Position? Pick up and play, massive nonstop fun! We took turns racing over and over for hours one day.
I will grant the edge in graphics to GT4 though, I suppose a bit. But really, coming from a nostalgia-free position in which I have played both recently, PP is just way way more fun to play, and it hooked us. We fire it up every so often for a quick race. GT is, well, like driving a real car. Whee.
I will grant the edge in graphics to GT4 though, I suppose a bit. But really, coming from a nostalgia-free position in which I have played both recently, PP is just way way more fun to play, and it hooked us. We fire it up every so often for a quick race. GT is, well, like driving a real car. Whee.
Hmm... I guess I can't say it's definitely better gameplay then. :) Pole Position does have a gentler learning curve, which is always a superior gameplay feature. I'm still not great at GT4 (My souped-up 958 horsepower Mercedes SL65 AMG feels like trying to steer a bottle-rocket, and so I'm forever going off-road as I get the hang of it).
But I got passed the initial frustration in a previous game, so I was able to jump right into GT4 and start having fun immediately, so I didn't recognize that hurdle. I never really enjoyed Pole Position, though I tried many times. I mean, I have fun playing it for a few minutes, but it's never something I really find myself getting sucked into or playing repeatedly to get better at, like I do with many older games like Ms. Pac Man, Tempest, Asteroids, or Galaga (now THERE are some games that have aged well!)
But I got passed the initial frustration in a previous game, so I was able to jump right into GT4 and start having fun immediately, so I didn't recognize that hurdle. I never really enjoyed Pole Position, though I tried many times. I mean, I have fun playing it for a few minutes, but it's never something I really find myself getting sucked into or playing repeatedly to get better at, like I do with many older games like Ms. Pac Man, Tempest, Asteroids, or Galaga (now THERE are some games that have aged well!)
HAH PP,
Remember the scene in D.A.R.Y.L where they were playing PP?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088979/
Great movie, Great game
Remember the scene in D.A.R.Y.L where they were playing PP?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088979/
Great movie, Great game
# posted by 
: April 18, 2005 8:47 AM
: April 18, 2005 8:47 AM
Well,
Maybe not a great movie, but I saw it when I was like 9 years old... Come on, I was a kid ;)
Maybe not a great movie, but I saw it when I was like 9 years old... Come on, I was a kid ;)
# posted by : April 18, 2005 8:50 AM
: April 18, 2005 8:50 AM
I don't remember that scene in the movie. But I only saw it once, and it was like forever ago. Which is about when I was playing PP in the arcades, too...
Interestingly enough, Pole Position looks more fun to me than GT4 :-)
Post a Comment
# posted by : October 24, 2005 2:29 PM
: October 24, 2005 2:29 PMLinks to this post:
<< Home
