Archive for the Games Category

Metal Gear Solid Δ: Does It Still Hold Up?

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games, Metal Gear Solid on September 2, 2025 by slateman

In selecting my favorite games ever, something that’s still not quite comprehensive, one thing was certain: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is top-five. My first playthrough in 2008 impressed; my second playthrough in 2016 solidified that fact. The announcement of a modern facelift was exciting, enough to dissuade me from picking up the latest collection of titles. MGSΔ came out this past week and I’ve spent my extended labor-day weekend devouring every part of it.

My experience began in an underwhelming state. Extended cut scenes and slow gameplay are never inspirational foundations. Finding collectibles became a chore and despite the QOL improvements, the source material is mired in decades-old advancements. What was once truly revolutionary is now baseline. Don’t get me wrong – the game looks utterly phenomenal and the environments are lush. They are small, but carefully planned, unlike so many procedurally-generated environs of nowadays.

Knowing my way around (generally) certainly helped and I resorted to guides when that memory faltered. As the hours continued, I became enamored, once again, by the twisted tale of double and triple crossing agents, defections and the most bad-ass roster of personalities ever. Kojima’s attention to details and if-then scenarios is one thing that hasn’t decayed with age. It’s a cinematic masterpiece whose gameplay, updated or not, is the weakest element in 2025. Its greatness only grew as bosses were felled and the Snake’s tale advanced. As we witnessed Ocelot’s hubris. Boss’ sacrifice. Ava’s ‘sincerity’. With a pair of prior playthroughs in tow, the big picture was enjoyed on an elevated level.

This experience has only deepened my appreciation to the game and franchise and now I yearn to revisit MGS4, Peace Walker and MGSV. (Master Collection Volume 2 announcement soon?!?!) If I have to rank my favorite games anew, Metal Gear Solid 3 doesn’t move in its position. While higher-placed games have a more-fun gameplay loop, none topples Kojima’s story and direction. I’m so glad I got to play a more-modernized rendition of this title. It’s as good as I remembered.

Elden Ring: Playthrough #3 – 400 Hours

Posted in Best / Worst, Bloodborne, Games on August 25, 2025 by slateman

Super Mario Bros. 3. That was my answer for the best game ever for the better part of three decades. There was never a doubt, hardly even a competitor. Imagine my surprise when Bloodborne, a title that shares virtually no DNA with SMB3 usurped the throne. My appreciation truly grew through repeated ventures into its world and my fascination only increased from there. Its lore revealed via YouTube deep-dives, secrets through Wikis and strategies from Reddit threads. Gaming nowadays is different than in ages past. And while Elden Ring was immediately a top-20 game, a second playthrough and its vast DLC helped the title rise the ranks ALSO leapfrogging the aforementioned greatest game ever. One developer with the two most-exceptional titles in history?

Another year hence, I opted to dive back into The Lands Between. As a high-school teacher, summers allow much more free time than normal. The hours melted away; I was hooked. Best talisman combinations. Repeatedly searching the Wiki for locations, weaknesses and shortcuts. My memory is quite good, and a lot of this is familiar, but this game is massive. The sense of exploration is diminished through repeated runs but I’m never not impressed. Even still – several hundred hours down – I continued finding things I hadn’t seen. I completed questlines I didn’t witness in my prior 300 hours.

My sole summertime gaming goal was to beat the DLC and on the eve of returning with students, Promised Consort Radahn was bested. Malenia downed. Bayle felled. I didn’t complete everything – such is a daunting task. But even without those breadcrumbs, this remains the most-beautiful and expansive world I’ve ever enjoyed adventuring through.

It’s hard to know if this now trumps Bloodborne. One has potency through its first-impression weight and rich, decaying world. The other in its sprawling vastness and infinite possibilities. I’ll ponder this contest as the days and weeks pass. Months may be required. Whatever the outcome – the one-two punch by FromSoftware resides in the annals of gaming excellence and undisputed as the most-outstanding games ever released.

Return To Demon’s Tilt – New Record!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games, High Scores/Accomplishments on June 21, 2025 by slateman

After finishing up Neon White, I found myself in the ever-familiar what-to-play stage of life. Summer vacation has begun, I have some PSN credit and nothing is beckoning me. So, on this Friday afternoon, I booted up the best pinball game ever: Demon’s Tilt. Now, its successor, Xenotilt is a great game and truly does address some of the issues with the original. But I think the first remains the best and since Xeno never came out on console, today was a Demon’s Tilt kind of day. I’ve hit a billion points a number of times, and that’s always the goal, but alas, I lost my first ball with less than a million points. What followed was a 20-minute run unlike any other. Multi-balls, Wizard Mode, more multi-balls. My console record was 1.53 billion. My PC score is about 1.8. Today’s result? A whopping 2.23 billion points! I haven’t touched the game in months and I get my highest score ever! Pretty fucking cool. I saved a video of the run that I’ll never watch, but still.

Neon White: Stylish Flair & Incredibly Unique!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games, Personal on June 20, 2025 by slateman

I started this game on PC last year and waited for a sale on the PSN to grab it and play it on console. After a few short spurts, I was enjoying it, but not fully sold. Then something clicked. And for a week and a half, I was hooked entirely. I simply couldn’t get enough. The superhero feeling, flashy style, zippy flow and cool presentation all kept me returning. Despite some frustrating sections, it was, overall, just remarkable. Easily on of my favorite games of the last few years. Without question.


2025 In Games

Posted in Aliens, Blog, Books, Borderlands, Games, Lists, Metal Gear Solid, Ys on December 30, 2024 by slateman

The older I get, the more I want to live forever. Let’s look towards 2025 and its games.

07 Jan: Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana – Loved it on the PSP
17 Apr: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle – Sounds fun!
16 May: Capcom Fighting Collection 2 – Obligatory purchase
30 May: Elden Ring: Nightreign – MORE Elden Ring?!
11 Jul: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 – Kind of have to…
31 Jul: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound – Looks great! Heard good things
28 Aug: Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater – One of the best games ever!
05 Sep: Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots – Should be fun
12 Sep: Borderlands 4 – *shrug*
25 Sep: Mamorukun ReCurse! – Remaster of a fun game
02 Oct: Ghost of Yōtei – Yes, please!
2026: Grand Theft Auto VI – It’s gonna be huge

Wish Games / Announcements

  • Bloodborne 4K60
  • Super Mario Odyssey 2
  • Castlevania anything
  • Resident Evil IX

Mobile Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam Playable: Thoughts & Overview

Posted in Blog, Games, Tony Hawk Series on December 20, 2024 by slateman

Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam on mobile phones was a java-based (J2ME) game developed by German developer Fish Labs in 2007. While the ROM has been dumped for years, I could never get it to run. Once the 3D engine started up, the game would hang.

Using a modded version of KEmulator (nnmod, 2.16), I was finally able to get THDJ running. I thought I’d share an overview of the game as this is likely the most in-depth coverage the title has ever had. I won’t share the link to any ROMs, but it’s not difficult to find and running the file is quite simple.

THDJ has two modes: Career & Free Skate. Five skaters are present and all are available at the start.

There are three cities available each with three courses: San Francisco, Chinese Wall and Rio. You unlock courses by completing the prior one and you must do so for each of the five skaters before they become available in Free Skate mode. The first course in each city shows where shortcuts can be and what they look like. This trains you for what to look for on future stages. Courses are similar to one another but have different paths.

Controls were done via a numberpad. You move your skater left and right by using the 4 and 6 buttons respectively. The fire button, the number 5 on the keypad, is used to ollie. In the air, you can press up (2) for a grab, double tapping up performs a second grab maneuver and up then 5 is a complex grab: a 720 Melon. Flip tricks use just the 5 button. 5, 5 is a medium flip trick and 5 then down (8) performs the final version.

Grinds were available on either rails or some ledges of buildings. Pressing down initiates those and you can press 8 again or 5 for more complex tricks. There is a balance meter, but the game is very lenient with it. In all, the game offers 9 basic tricks.

Completing all three courses in the first city unlocks a special move and beating all stages unlocks a second. These are performed by pressing L + 5 or R + 5 respectively. None of these were particularly easy to pull off on a cell phone 17 years ago. Special moves can be done at any time and don’t require your super meter to be filled. All skaters have unique moves based on their full-game tricksets.

All moves increase the super meter. This maxes out at four charges and gives a boost by pressing up while skating. Like the main Hawk games, boost earned decreases with repeated uses of the same trick. It’s possible to win a round without performing moves as long as you don’t make any big mistakes. That gives it a bit of a shallow feel, but the source game prioritized flair and this title reproduces that fairly well.

Your skater will automatically “fight” his or her opponent if they get close enough. The only way to bail that I discovered was by losing balance grinding, though I did see opponents get knocked over vying for position. It appears to be rare in either instance. You can crash into walls or pull off tricks at the last second without worrying, though you’ll lose speed. It’s easy to get stuck on some of the shortcuts which will effectively need a restart. All stages can be completed in about a minute, so on those rare occasions, it’s not tremendously frustrating.

The music is expectedly limited and loops throughout. There are just a few basic sound effects while skating which are all taken from the console versions of THDJ.

The stages look quite good actually, particularly when compared to other games of the same era. Most titles at the time were simple 2D side-scrolling affairs and this was impressive indeed. Though textures repeat within each city, not surprising given the racing nature of the game, each stage has some unique identifiers to keep things diverse. Recall that this game was designed to run on a 2007-era cellphone and its 2.5”/6cm screen. Skaters are blocky but again, look good for the time and have several animations unique to each including special moves and win poses.

Overall, it’s a short game, whose length is padded by repeat plays with different skaters. They all have different stats, but you can only feel small differences between them all. Gunnar’s turning is dreadful, so he’s a bit more difficult. Ammon has the highest speed and jump which makes him a fun character to play. It’s not too difficult to win with any skater, though there’s a jump on the second China stage that needs extra speed and that can be tough with a slower character. I’d heard that something would be unlocked after beating the game with every skater. I’m going to save you the arduous task of doing so by revealing: nothing is unlocked.

Unfortunately, very few people actually played this in 2007 as it was hardly promoted at all. Despite covering Hawk games on my site, I didn’t even know of its existence until years later.

I can’t miss an opportunity to mention Tony Hawk’s Gaming Domination: A Definitive History Of The Hawk Gaming Franchise, the book that I wrote on the Hawk series (also available physically in several other Amazon regions as well as digitally on my store), but this is one of very-few titles I couldn’t cover in a hands-on manner when writing. I’m quite happy to have the opportunity to finally dive into this game – which renders the one-page entry somewhat obsolete. The rest of the book is still fantastic, I promise!

I would like to thank JakubMaster for his post which inspired this research and Trekeln for the clarifying details. I’d be glad to answer any additional questions, but of course none asking for a ROM.

PSN: 10,000 Trophies!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games, High Scores/Accomplishments, Lists on December 1, 2024 by slateman

Through some strategic planning, this morning I achieved my 10,000th trophy on the Playstation Network – and that trophy was the platinum for Vampire Survivors!

It’s a geeky journey which means little to few…any, really. However, I find it interesting. Some quick stats:

  • First Trophy: 2 July, 2008
  • First Game: Super Stardust HD
  • Total Days Since: 5,996
  • Total Platinums: 70
  • Additional 100% Games: 20
  • Most Trophies/Year: 2016 – 1,122
  • Fewest Trophies/Year: 2023 – 315 (excludes 2008)
  • Total Months With 0 Trophies: 7 (4 within the first year of Trophies)
  • Most Trophies/Month: 236 (Thank you, My Name Is Mayo)
  • Most Platinums/Year: 2019 – 16 (Thanks Vita shovelware)
  • % of Bronze: 75%
  • % of Silver: 17%
  • % of Gold: 8%
  • % of Platinum: 0.7%

Platinums By Platform

  • PS5: 10
  • PS4: 24
  • PS3: 10
  • PSV: 26

Perhaps more to come.

Elden Ring: Where It Ranks & Why?

Posted in Best / Worst, Bloodborne, Games, Lists, Metal Gear Solid on September 7, 2024 by slateman

Despite getting into FromSoftware’s titles late: 2018 with the landmark Bloodborne, I’ve completed surprisingly-few of their titles. This spring I started Elden Ring anew and with it being my GOTY 2022, knew precisely what to expect.

Except, this playthrough was just as good, if not better than the first. And during this new descent into The Lands Between, its long-awaited and massive, sprawling DLC, Shadow Of The Erdtree was anounced. Thus, dozens of hours were added to my second playthrough.

And here, at the end of it all, I feel much as I did back in April of 2022 upon completion of the base game originally. Succinctly, Empty is the only word to detail this sensation.

After my first run through this game, I was confident placing it in my top-20 list of all-time best games. Halfway amidst my second playthrough, it was firmly entrenched in the top 10. It was here where my passion for this game expanded. Looking up item locations, reading Reddit threads on build suggestions, watching lore videos – my fascination deepened. Seeking out every grace, every item, talisman, boss, hidden area…it all became addictive. And THEN….the DLC hit.

The expansion itself, in my humble opinion, places it in contention for the best game of the year, but the Best DLC award is a shoe-in, not only for 2024, but forever. It never felt tacked on or half-baked. The lore was embedded in the story and revelations cleared up concepts from the main story. NPCs had purpose. Bosses were both impressive and impactful. My sense of wonder and exploration and awe never ceased. It assisted in completing what was already a perfect package.

It was then that the game crept up in my list. Leapfrogging God Of War (2018), Uncharted 2, DoDoPachi: Dai-Ou-Jou, it was now facing Metal Gear Solid 3 and Portal 2. Surely it’s not superior to them!? Top 5 ever???

Stuck on the final boss, I went up into clean-up mode before seeking out a method to defeat the Mighty, BS Radahn. “Oh, I missed that talisman and I should equip that shield.” Almost every part of this game is utterly fun and joyous. To be clear, its vague story is best digested in video form. Granted, some bosses were frustration machines. Losing a quarter-of-a-million echoes is a challenge. But after completing the DLC 100%, I went back to visit some main-game missed items. I exhausted NPC dialogues. And after all that…I started NG+. At this point, I raced through, slaying everything and hitting upon all NPC interactions. The draw of the adventure was intoxicating. The familiarity gave me a foundation from which to start, but I kept encountering things I hadn’t yet done in almost 300 hours of playtime. I knew the boss patterns. I was overpowered enough to blaze through much of it which kept the entire experience moving along swiftly. I devoured story videos, wiki entries again and find that’s part of the draw of the whole Soulsborne experience.

Much like my initial playthroughs, I just don’t want this to end. Dwelling in the Lands Between, exploring all of its corners and poring over each breadcrumb of lore makes me truly wonder how high on my favorite games list this title is. Ultimately, something will supplant this on my current-gaming agenda, and it’s likely that title will be Astro Bot in mere days. However, as an experience, I can only claim Bloodborne, the fellow FromSoftware title, to be a legitimate adversary and competitor to the crown of greatest ever. Today I feel confident bestowing upon Elden Ring #2 on my all-time list. I’m all-but-certain a new playthrough awaits me at some later date – starting from scratch with years of walkthroughs and guides and videos to aid me on the adventure. I’m in no rush for time to pass, but I look forward to this future date knowing what a delight such a day will be.

Upcoming Games: 2024/2025

Posted in Games, Lists, Metal Gear Solid, Street Fighter, Ys on July 6, 2024 by slateman

Just a list of upcoming titles worth keeping an eye on:

27 Aug: Castlevania Dominus Collection
06 Sep: Astro Bot
12 Sep: Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection
25 Oct: Ys X: Nordics

2024: Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
2025: Ys Memoire: The Oath In Felghana
2025: Capcom Fighting Collection 2

Minishoot’ Adventures: Fun!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games on April 27, 2024 by slateman

I’ve been quite enjoying Steam’s indie offerings as of late. Not that fantastic entries weren’t available in recent times, but for some reason, my patience for PC gaming has increased and after being simply obsessed with Balatro (after my second 100+ hour Elden Ring run), I’m now firmly entrenched in Minishoot’ Adventures! It’s simple and light and precisely what I need. Looking forward to continuing this adventure and the prospect of more in the future!!!