Tired Old Hack

Chris Scullion may no longer be in the biz but his blog, Tired Old Hack, means his voice is not lost.

(apologies if this was posted elsewhere - couldn't find it anywhere)

So very Squarespace-y in design! I've just got time to read the bottom article, but it's properly funny. Think I'll be bookmarking this!

I'm pretty sad to see that this thread has only two posts. Maybe some people avoid the news sub-forum altogether, but for the rest of you, Chris is as funny as he's always been, and also has the licence to say some things he couldn't say previously. For example, in his latest issue, he takes a pick-axe to some of his former employer's more grievous practices. Get it in yer eyes.

It didn't help that Chris stopped writing in it for a week or two, straight after I made the post.

I liked his article about lists and agreed with most of his points.

I enjoy list articles and lists in general (excluding Schindler's List - too long, not even in colour, Neeson doesn't punch enough people and too many naked blokes) but only when done properly so not the shit you usually find on BuzzFeed or WatchMojo YouTube videos. Hope he posts some of his list articles soon.

Balladeer wrote:

I'm pretty sad to see that this thread has only two posts.  Maybe some people avoid the news sub-forum altogether, but for the rest of you, Chris is as funny as he's always been, and also has the licence to say some things he couldn't say previously.  For example, in his latest issue, he takes a pick-axe to some of his former employer's more grievous practices.  Get it in yer eyes.

Whoah hang on - watch that link - Norton just shat itself when I clicked on that

Jimbob wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

I'm pretty sad to see that this thread has only two posts.  Maybe some people avoid the news sub-forum altogether, but for the rest of you, Chris is as funny as he's always been, and also has the licence to say some things he couldn't say previously.  For example, in his latest issue, he takes a pick-axe to some of his former employer's more grievous practices.  Get it in yer eyes.

Whoah hang on - watch that link - Norton just shat itself when I clicked on that

Graham Norton? Is he scared of list articles?

Chris gives us his Top 30 DS games.

Ghost Trick and HGSS are there. It's all good.

Given the good dose of puzzle and RPG games in there, I was sad to see that Might & Magic: Clash Of Heroes missed out. Proper belter of a game. Maybe Chris hasn't played it.

Honestly? I didn't think it was all that. Or maybe you needed friends, but the campaign mode was incredibly short and unsatisfying, and there wasn't the usual score-farming mode there is in most puzzle games. I enjoyed my time ploughing through the campaign, but I didn't see what all the fuss was about.

Truly our mileages vary! I spent ages with it and loved the way the genres were fused together, along with those ruddy challenge levels. The story may have been thinner than an amoeba's pancake but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

He's just the same but with GameCube game's
http://tiredoldhack.com/2015/03/24/the-30-best-gamecube-games/

I enjoy this! As Balla accurately guessed, I just don't look at the news forum very often.

Enjoyed the balanced piece about list features, which looked at both sides of the story. If I'd be honest though, I was never too fond of the list features that went up on Nintendo Gamer, but I do think it's important for a list feature to show the reader something new, rather than simply conform with the majority view.

I don't even remember those! But Chris has done a good job with his lists, in both explaining the reasoning behind them and creating them. No Meteos, though? Madne- (is -ed off-stage)

He's doing his Top 30 games for the best system of all-time this week, I can't wait to see what he picks.

It's up all hail the mighty dreamcast and his list is missing a few good game as well which like Chris says a system with one of the greatest ‘good game – bad game’ ratios of all time this list proves that even with 45+ games really you can still have Skies, Grandia II, Kain, Phantasy Star, Tony Hawk's 2 just to name a few missing.

But I hope you read the bit about Shenmue, kinda fits SM64 as well at the moment.

Great selection of Dreamcast games there with a few I hadn't heard of or played (dynamite cop & cannon spike) also surprised to see ready 2 rumble not make the cut but anyway there are still a fair few of my favourites in there.

Actually the Shenmue bit was the one bit I did read. I don't buy it, and this may sound surprising from a SM64 fan.

I've always believed in assessing games on their merits today, taking off the rosy specs as much as possible. That's why I started my SM64 thread by admitting that the camera and graphics were poor in the modern light.

Granted, if you've played something before and it was good then you will be nostalgic for that, and it's impossible to separate that effect completely, I reckon - again, see me with SM64. But I do try. And of course, it all depends whether you're trying to talk about the game to people who will have played it before, or those who hadn't touched it in their lives.

A lot of Shenmue (II) does hold up by today's standards but if you look at the Yakuza series (which I've not played) which some have said has become the spiritual successor would of only improved over Shenmue due better technology now & continuing working on the basis of what was there.

But there will always be something special about the first to do it, how you put SM64 before Galaxy Balla as Galaxy isn't SM64-2 & Yakuza to me isn't Shenmue III, newer doesn't make things better as long as the gameplay still holds up which it does in both of those games then it's all good but you will still get some that can't get past what limitations of the time to play what are still excellent games.

Now where are my sailors.

@Jas Cannon Spike is a game I need for my DC collection, just a shame it cost £60+

Bear in mind that this is purely based on what Chris typed.  I've never played Shenmue.

Chris wrote:

I know there are people in the present day who see everyone asking for Shenmue 3, decide to try the first one out to see what the fuss is all about, and decide the answer is “piss all”.

Now, my view is obviously skewed, but I don't think there's "piss all" fuss about SM64 in this day and age.  Obviously it's aged, as said before, and the camera and visuals are more than a bit off; but the level design, the exploration, the controls (remember when the wall jump took skill to pull off?), even the music - I'd say these are timeless.

Furthermore:

Chris wrote:

But that’s like listening to a Beatles album today and saying it just sounds the same as loads of other music. There’s a bloody reason for that.

At the time of its release, Shenmue was properly ground-breaking. A murder mystery taking place in a living, breathing village? A little shopping area full of buildings that weren’t just scenery but could almost all be entered?

For some reason, Nintendo decided to move away from the more free-roaming template in later 3D Marios: one star at a time in Sunshine, stripping out any and all exploration in the Galaxies, and finally the 2D-3D hodgepodges that are SM3DL/W.  This means that SM64's style of star-collecting still comes across as, if not ground-breaking, at least not the same as loads of other games.

Again, bear in mind that I haven't played the Shenmue games, so I'm purely going off Chris' writing, and you may disagree with that.  But he seems to be saying that, while the game is pish now, it was great back in the day.  I'm saying that, while SM64 was grand back in the day, it's still much better than pish now.  That's the difference.

The game certainly isn't pish now by any stretch of the imagine , but like he says about the Beatles is correct there is other games that do the same now as Shenmue like Yakuza and Yakuza might do that better now then a game from 1999-2001.

But it still does stuff that GTA doesn't even do like being able to go in to almost every building.

And he isn't saying it's pish, he's saying people that go play it now don't get the fuss of why people like me want a 3rd just to finish the story.

I reckon if Andy or Jay played it now they be like urghh like with SM64 that how I was comparing the two games.

But again the gameplay (and the story in Shenmue's case) is still fine in both with other older classics like Goldeneye, OoT, FFVII, Resident Evil 2, Halo etc and they will always be talked about in top 100's or whatever as there classics.

Also go watch some let's play videos of Shenmue II Balla, you will be surprised that it's a DC game & from 2001. It doesn't look that old at all, it's amazing how SEGA did it on the DC hardware.

GT has just DC Top 10, you can guess what Number 1 is but might be a worth a watch and see what they say on it.