Tyrian port release today? (UPDATE)

When I heard about Deniska's port of Tyrian (OpenTyrian) to the PSP I was excited. I am not a patient guy and I really need to play this. Is it still coming out today? This post at QJ claims it will. Although I can't wait I would rather Deniska take the time to do it right. I'll give an in depth review of this port when it arrives. Here is a video of Deniska's work so far.




UPDATE:
As I said earlier, I am impatient. Only a few hours after I wondered if OpenTyrian was coming out, Deniska released it. See my first impressions here.

Trigonometry Wars versus Polygun Wars

First off, I want to congratulate both 71M and ahrimanes for creating excellent clones of Geometry Wars. One strange thing is that both seem to be a combination of the original GW and GW: Retro Evolved. Since this is a head to head comparison there must be a winner and by the time I conclude this post it will be obvious who that is.

Trigonometry Wars:
by 71M







Trigonometry Wars (TW) final version was released on Aug. 19, 2006 so it is a little dated but stands the test of time. TW is only available for the 1.5 kernel.

Controls:
They respond the way you would expect. The SELECT button allows you to switch between 3 different control schemes: Original, Analog fire, and Analog thrust.

• Original mode:
  
• Analog stick: Steering
• Left shoulder: Thrust
• Right shoulder: Fire
• Triangle: Destroys all enemies on screen
• Analog Fire mode:
• Analog stick: Fire
  
• Cross: Thrust down
• Square: Thrust left
• Triangle: Thrust up
• Circle: Thrust right
• Left and Right shoulder: Destroys all enemies on screen
• Analog Thrust mode:
• Analog stick: Thrust/Steering
• Cross: Fire down
• Square: Fire left
• Triangle: Fire up
• Circle: Fire right
• Combining two Fire buttons will shoot diagonal; IE: Triangle and Circle fires diagonally up and right.
  
• Left and Right shoulder: Destroys all enemies on screen

Graphics:
The graphics in TW are pretty good. The colors seem a little bland but sufficient. The net background is done very well. It will distort with movement, bullets, explosions, etc. very accurately.

Sound Effects and Music:
Nothing impressive but fit the game quite well.

Game play:
I have played this game several hours and it is fun but a little hard. I believe there are four main enemies:

• Violet Pinwheels: Dumb and lazy. This enemy just wanders around the screen with no purpose waiting to be shot.
  
• Blue Squares: Dumb and slow. This enemy follows your ship but gets in no hurry.
  
• Pink Squares: Dumb and fast. This enemy also follows your ship but is much faster and will tend to take the shortest route possible to get to you. There are two sizes small and large. This makes it interesting because the small Pinks are harder to hit.
  
• Green Squares: Smart and fast. This enemy is the same as Pinks except they will dodge your bullets.

There may also be an enemy similar to gravity wells in the original GW. I caught glimpses of a grew circular thing but could never live long enough to investigate.

You have a set number of lives and bombs but as you progress through the game more lives and bombs are earned.

Artificial Intelligence:
AI was quite good, I was pleasantly surprised. The Green Squares are the most impressive, dodging your shots with great agility.

You need to try this game. It is quality homebrew but the graphics are nowhere near the quality Geometry Wars.

Polygun Wars:
by ahrimanes





Polygun Wars v.02 (PW) was released for 1.xx and 3.xx on Nov. 17, 2007. This recent release is the reason I decided to check out and compare these two clones. I thought there must be some improvements that ahrimanes had made to release another Geometry Wars clone. I was wrong but this is only v.02 so hopefully ahrimanes will continue to work on this game because it is a great start.

I have a few problems with this game:

• First, there is no splash page to start the game. When you start the game it throws you into the game without warning.
• Second, there is no way to pause the game. Pressing start exits the game without warning or notice. If you have to scratch your nose you are dead because this game is much faster paced than Trig Wars (more on that later).
• Third, stats are in what I believe is Spanish. An English version would be good.
  

Controls:
There is only one control scheme in PW. In Trig Wars it is called Analog Thrust (see above). I don't mind only having this control setup because it is the one I prefer, other people may disagree. The analog controls are flawless. They perform accurately and as expected. The left shoulder controls the bomb which destroys all enemies but it doesn't work. The net background distorts and there is a lot of sparks but when the light show is over the enemies are still there. Right shoulder does nothing.

Graphics:
Between TW and PW, I prefer the graphics in PW. The color of the sprites are more vibrant. The net background bends and flexes like TW but when your ship explodes the net blends to red where your ship used to be. This is a nice touch not found in TW. The enemy explosions are more colorful and similar to Geometry Wars.

Sound Effects and Music:
As with TW the music is appropriate to the game. My preference leans towards PW for its sound effects.

Game play:
Polygun Wars is a much faster paced game than Trig Wars. Your ship and the enemies move faster which makes for a game with a little more tension.

PW only has two enemies that I have found:

• Violet Pinwheels: Same as TW. Dumb and lazy.
  
• Blue Diamonds: Similar to the Blue Squares in TW. Dumb but faster. The diamonds come after you but are much faster than the Blue Squares.
  

That's it. Only two enemies. I hope the lack of enemies is due to this being v.02. I believe that the increased speed of PW will become a problem in future versions assuming new enemies will be faster and smarter.

Artificial Intelligence:
The AI is adequate. With only two enemies and the pinwheels having no intelligence there isn't much AI to worry about yet.

This is worth trying, it is fun but needs some work. An option to pause the game is essential; a splash screen, more enemies, and English stats would be nice. To his credit ahrimanes states on QJ forums that he plans to work on some of these problems.

Final Word:
If you were only going to have one Geometry Wars clone on your memory stick then it would have to be Trigonometry Wars. Polygun is doing well but has a long way to go. I will update with new info when later versions of Polygun are released.

Playstation Network Store for the PC goes live!

What we have been waiting for since the PS3 came out is finally here. Download games to your PC and then put them on your PSP without having a PS3. Hopefully the Playstation Network Store lives up to our expectations. I am in the process of setting up my account so I'll update later.

Well it's about 10 mins later. This is the buggiest site I've ever seen. I tried to set up an account and got an "unexpected error" and could go no further. I thought that maybe the servers were getting hammered with the new launch so I would browse the site for a minute. Every page I went to I couldn't "back" out of (with the back button), so you have to click on the header logo to go to the homepage and start over.

Now it is about 4 hours later. I have successfully created my account. It didn't take that long, I had other stuff to do, but the site is still buggy and the content is a little underwhelming. I hope this is like all of Sony's other ventures. Start out slow and shaky, without many games at launch, but after a while it becomes quite good: PS2, PSP, PS3 (hopefully)... Check it out and see what you think.

Best commercial for a game ever: EXIT

This is the commercial for a new PSP game, EXIT, but there is no gameplay shown. There is nothing from the game shown at all but it is an awesome commercial none the less.




Exit Site