Second Hand Slumming: Post #1

Since I do a lot of second hand trading on PinoyPS, oftentimes I find myself picking up older titles that I've wanted to play for the longest time, but are too old to post a proper review of on PinoyPS. I decided to post my impressions of the games I pick up this way here on the blog, in case any of you might be interested in following suit. I hereby welcome you to the inaugural installment of my second-hand dedicated column, Second Hand Slumming, which I will hereafter refer to as 2HS.

So just yesterday I picked up two games from fellow PPSers esajero and tebbob (thanks ulit, guys), namely Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 (R1) and Tomb Raider Underworld (R1). Maayos nga pala silang kadeal if you ever get the chance, they're both real cool guys.

Well, Here goes nothin'. :-D

Tomb Raider Underworld


I've always been a fan of the Tomb Raider series dating back to the PlayStation/Saturn days. Lara Croft may have fallen off the wagon a little bit during the late PS1/early PS2 era (Tomb Raider Chronicles was mediocre, and Angel of Darkness was terrible), but she made a stunning comeback in that console's dying years, with Tomb Raider Legend and the amazing Tomb Raider Anniversary providing an excellent return to form.

So why didn't I pick up TRU back when it was released? I can't really remember why, but parang marami ata siyang kasabay na other games that I was really looking forward to (inFamous? I can't really remember.), and since I ran out of budget I decided to put it away for later.

But enough with the history lesson, here's some impressions. (Disclaimer: I've only cleared the first sequence of levels, and am at 11% trophy completion. Playing through on Hard.) I really wanted to pick this up because I've been looking for something action-adventurey to tide me over until Uncharted 2 comes out, and so far that's exactly what TRU is: a B-grade Uncharted. (OK, maybe a C-grade Uncharted.)

The graphics are kind of mediocre, but that's to be expected because a) it's pretty old and b) I've been spoiled because of playing way too much U2AT Beta. The control takes some getting used to, it's pinpoint-precise but there's not much "weight" to Lara's movement - the climbing in particular isn't very intuitive, parang matigas yung galaw. Another gripe: the gunfighting is absolutely terrible, and is about as much fun as getting kicked in the balls.

When TRU focuses on what it does best, though (that is, raiding tombs, exploring, jumping around) it's still as fun as ever, and in the end that's what really counts.

Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2


Note: You'll have to bear with me for a bit as I really don't know that much about Gundam, so I might not know the correct/real names of some of the robots/pilots. I love me some Dynasty Warriors though!

I wasn't a particularly big fan of the demo for DWG1, but I really wanted to play some new Dynasty Warriors, and I had heard good things about this. Things didn't start out too well, I began a playthrough of the Story Mode as Char Aznable, and the first mission was... um, running around in space killing circular robots, with no real goals in sight. (My brother, who has always thought DW games were stupid, took one look at what I was playing, shook his head sadly, and left the room. Asshole.) It took me the better part of a night just to beat Char's story, and I was entertained, but still kind of meh.

Happily it turns out the fun part was yet to come. I played Mission Mode (which, unlike the Official Mode, doesn't follow the story from the anime and puts you in hypothetical missions that feel like battle royales) and selected the Epyon. Next time I checked the clock, I had already played for another two hours. What the fuck, man, where'd all the time go? Collecting parts and trying to collect all the missions is really addictive, and I havent enjoyed a Warriors game this much since DW5 on the PS2. Highly recommended for all the Omega Force nerds out there, you should give this a shot.

- John out