1001 Challenge
[1001] Overkill: killed
And so another of the 1001 bites the dust – this time in the House of the Dead.
1001 No.79: ‘House of the Dead: Overkill’ (2009)
Unlike most House of the Dead games, which took place on ferries to France in the 90s, Overkill is quite unique – almost a reboot of the series, but a prequel at the same time.
Starring Agent G (before he suffered in HotD2 of 1998), along with a ridiculously offensive cop straight out of blaxploitation movie named Issac Washington, it’s basically a piss-take of itself – a parody of the whole series, making fun of the sillyness of House of the Dead in a grindhouse style. The bad acting, the stupid cutscenes, the ridiculous plotlines – it’s all there.
Strippers, guns, and zombies – and surprisingly good fun. We played it on the Wii with some funny shaped bits of plastic, but since then it’s on PS3, and more recently even ported to iOS and Android. Grab it, shoot some zombies, and step back in time to when games where slightly less polished…
[1001] GTA made me do things
Believe it or not, GTA has been part of my life for the best part of 20 years. And over those years, playing through pretty much every GTA there is*, it has made me do things.
Yes, it turns out all those news reports that come out every time a new sequel is released are true – GTA is a dangerous bit of gaming history, one that can manipulate a soft human brain (like mine).
Here’s just a small list of things that Grand Theft Auto has made me do.
GTA1 made me…
Realise that PCs were better than consoles
This realisation came when I found that after I had been enjoying stealing fire engines and crashing trains into eachother on the PC version of the original GTA – the poor old PS1 had no such luxuries. Not a train in sight! PC FTW! PS1 SUXBALLZ!
GTA: Vice City / GTA3 / San Andreas all made me…
Appreciate a good soundtrack, and love the sound of 80s hiphop (amongst others)
All GTA games have had fantastic soundtracks – but it was the Vice City incarnation of GTA that struck me the most. An amazing soundtrack made up its many radio stations, full of licensed tunes and original musicians hired back to act as radio DJs. Brilliant stuff, especially ‘Wildstyle Pirate Radio’.
GTA: Chinatown Wars made me…
Discover that mobile gaming on smartphones could actually be good.
Who knew? It’s not all Angry Birds and minigame crap.
GTA3 made me…
Get into PC customisation
GTA3 was the cause for much excitement – finally the series has broken into the 3rd dimension, no longer a top-down violence sim. Would it work? Apparently not, as my old Voodoo3 2000 graphics card (with an impressive 16MB of memory) wouldn’t cope. And so began my first foray into PC customisation, with the purchase of an incredible Nvidia Geforce3 Ti 200.
GTA: Liberty City Stories (though pretty much all GTA games) made me…
Smash things in frustration – due to savepoints and checkpoints, or lack of.
Fail near the end of a mission? Too bad, now you gotta drive all the way from the hospital for about 5 minutes just to try again – from the beginning.
GTA4 made me…
Get an xbox360 pad
Whether you love them or hate them, the sad truth is GTA4 is a bitch to play unless you get a Xbollox360 pad plugged in to that PC of yours
The entire history of GTA made me…
Get completely caught in up in one of best series ever made.
And it really is – no matter how many hours you sink into GTA, in any of its incarnations, you’ll always come back for more. My advice – go back to the original, and be amazed simultaneously at how far it has come, and how good it always has been.
Roll on GTA5!
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*encompassing (but not limited to) 1001 no. 69 ‘GTA’, no.70 ‘GTA2’, no.71 ‘GTA3’, no.72 ‘GTA4’, no.73 ‘Ballad of Gay Tony’, no.74 ‘Lost and the Damned’, no.75 ‘San Andreas’, no.76 ‘Vice City’, no.77 ‘Chinatown Wars’, no.78 ‘Liberty City Stories’.
[1001] Let’s get Mashed
What more is there to say?
1001 No.68: ‘Mashed’ (2004)
For those who never saw this one at the time back in 2004 (which is quite likely), Mashed is basically Micro Machines updated for the modern(ish) age – the best thing about it being that once you get knocked out you are given control of an airstrike with which you can seek your revenge.
A classic? Perhaps not. But still goddamn fun when you get some mates around one TV – and we wish there were more games with that spirit about them. If you know of any others, let us know in the comments…
[1001] Stay in the shadows… avoid the light
While playing Dishonored, I heard those words. And I thought… I’ve heard that before. Someone else has taken the time to show you exactly where in the vid above, but it was a wonderful moment – reminding me of some good times.
I recently finished Dishonored, and I’d say it was one of the best games of 2012. Plenty about it was awesome, but most of all I probably enjoyed it the most because (as you see above) it reminded me of the Thief series – which started in 1998 but in my view peaked with the sequel Thief II: The Metal Age in 2000.
1001 No.66: ‘Thief: The Dark Project’ (1998)
and No.67: ‘Thief II: The Metal Age’ (2000)
Thief was one of those special moments in gaming, an attempt to create something new. It essentially shaped a new genre in gaming, of stealth – and in first-person too, something that hadn’t been tried before. It was set in an awesome steampunk-style medieval age, and heavily relied on lighting and sound in the gameplay.
It still had flaws (sometimes too many zombies and undead monsters spoiling the mood a little), but Thief II did away with many of these – getting close to perfection, and becoming a real gaming classic. Levels are huge, taking hours to complete, but the atmosphere is incredible – and there’s still nothing so satisfying as sneaking up on an unsuspecting mumbling guard, before smacking him over the head with your trusty blackjack.
Dishonored awakened all those memories within me of good times with Thief; and for that I’m grateful. But now I think I’m going to have to go back and play them all again.
BUT WAIT
Thief 4… on the way? There’s a full reveal over at gameinformer.
[1001] Zombies Ate My Neighbors – the impossible end
First of all, SPOILER ALERT
1001 No.65: ‘Zombies Ate My Neighbors’ (1993)
A spoiler, because the video above shows us getting to the final boss of Zombies Ate My Neighbours on the SNES, and then failing miserably. We needed to record this moment to portray just how ridiculous this was.
Essentially the game had tricked us – of its total of 40-something levels, you get a password every 4. However, this password resets your ammo count. This was fine, up until the final boss. As you see, while Ross ends up resorting to using clowns, a water-pistol and a hedge trimmer to take down a troublesome Frankenstein monster, a giant spider destroys my completely unarmed self. Impossible.