Hey hi hello. It’s been a while since I posted, and it’s been rather rough for me lately to really get that drive to actually post stuff here. So this will be a fairly quick one.
I went to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo last weekend, as is custom for me. I’ve been writing about it almost every year, and it’s great as always. Nice blend of retro stuff from the Atari/NES days to even an Xbox system link section where games from Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast and Halo 2 were being played throughout the weekend.
I tagged along with my friend Weasel who writes for Hardcore Gaming 101, and occasionally other blogs like Grinding the Rumor Milll, a blog of which I recommend checking out.
Most of the time we were perusing and finding interesting things here and there with not a lot of purchases,at least for me. Despite that, we both saw cool stuff. I posted some of my pictures to the Secret Area Facebook page, deciding to not leave that place dormant. You should go to the Facebook page and give it a like and a share, btw. It helps a lot.
Though, I did grab a few games, none of them I’d classify “retro” except maybe the PS2 stuff. But enough about that, let’s show my “haul”…
TimeSplitters (PS2, $5)
One of the launch titles for the PS2, and heard it was good in its own right. I already had TimeSplitters 2 and Future Perfect on the original Xbox, thought I might as well complete the trilogy.
Kill.Switch (PS2, $5)
Despite the $1 price tag on the spine, I actually paid $5 for this. One of the early cover shooters before Gears of War made it blow up into something big. Might be fun to mess around with.
(Update: I’d eventually swap this out with the original Xbox version at 2019’s Portland Retro Gaming Expo, as often times the Xbox version of a multiplatform game was usually the better console version. You can read about that here.)
50¢ each:
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Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine (Wii)
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Call of Duty: Black Ops II Original Soundtrack
This was in one of the booth’s discount junk bin, which was actually pretty nice.
Iron Chef America was one of those schlocky licensed titles released during the heyday of the Wii’s life. As the cover shows, it has caricatures of Mark Dacascos as The Chairman, host Alton Brown, and Iron Chefs Cat Cora, Mario Batali and Masaharu Morimoto. (Guess Bobby Flay was busy that day.) The only other reason I remember this was Kotaku doing a preview that featured Dacascos as the Chairman name-dropping Kotaku in the teaser. Sadly, that trailer seems to be lost to time, but apparently they got Dacascos to do this promo for other websites, including GamesRadar, so not everything’s hopeless.
As for the CODBLOPS II soundtrack, it’s one of the few games that I’ve seen Jack Wall compose for that wasn’t Myst III: Exile or Mass Effect. While most Call of Duty games don’t have particularly iconic soundtracks, I couldn’t pass it up at this price. Also to see Trent Reznor get back into making video game music for the first time in about 16 years is a treat, even if it’s just him performing the game’s theme.
While I didn’t really enjoy Black Ops II nearly as much as others, I can’t deny it was a bad game. The future stuff did nothing for me, really. The music was alright.
$15:
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Forza Horizon (Xbox 360)
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50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (Xbox 360)
Probably the more recent games in this pile. I liked the free Forza Horizon presents: Fast and Furious when I played it on the 360, and I’m always up for an arcade-like racing game experience.
As for 50 Cent… well, I wanted to see 50 jump off that big-ass ramp. The game being an arcade shooter in the vein of stuff like The Club helps, as I don’t really listen to 50 Cent’s stuff beyond “In da Club.” I bet it’s a fun ride.
Hopefully I’ll get out of this funk and have more interesting stuff for you guys over the holidays. I know there’s a bunch of you that like my stuff, and I always appreciate it. It’s what keeps me going.