My PC is running well enough to play older games - games that don't really stress my video card or require too much memory to run. So, naturally, I've been getting back into the Abandonware scene in a very real and obsessive way. Home of the Underdogs used to be my refuge. Unfortunately, after a long struggle, it was sacked. Even its subsequent resurrection has been an underwhelming affair at best. So, I've moved on - and so has the scene, I think. Abandonia has grown at an alarming rate, and currently is my number one choice for Abandonware titles. In the past two days I've downloaded and begun playing Alone in the Dark, Wing Commander, Albion, Heroes of Might and Magic, BioForge, BloodNet and Eye of the Beholder. Great galloping gravy! These games are amazing. I've played and beaten most of them already, but it's great to revisit them and remind yourself that a well-designed game is timeless, transcending technological and presentational progress. I'm currently having the most fun with BloodNet, which is a seemingly obscure adventure/rpg which blends cyberpunk with vampire mythology, like Shadowrun-meets-Vampire-the-Masquerade. Good times.
On the console end, I should conquer FFXII soon. I really like this game. Few fans seem to really understand it, though. Some gush over it as they clutch their strategy guides behind their backs and brag about how they managed to put together a self-sustaining gambit scheme that allowed them to beat Yiazmat while they were downloading porn in the other room. Others whine and moan, erroneously comparing it to an MMO after reading a half-dozen uninspired reviews that did the same and criticizing the art work and the battle system because they lack the patience to learn a new way to play Final Fantasy, and would rather have the same old tripe over and over again. Anyway, it's a great game, and I could gush about it for weeks.
As good, though, is Dragon Quest IV. I love this game. I LOVE THIS GAME. It has the same terrible NES visuals as the rest of the early series, and the same repetitive Toriyama-drawn monster and character designs, but the story is superb and masterfully assembled as a series of independent chapters and combine at the end, and the gameplay takes the same tried-and-true Dragon Quest formula and adds just enough to make it interesting and immersive in a way that no other Dragon Quest has matched to date. This game is full of surprises and memorable moments. It's a shame that most people haven't played it, and that it is usually overshadowed by DQIII, V, and VI.
Blah blah blah. That's enough rambling for me today.
EDIT: I intended to also include a link to another once-dead abandonware site called ****c Trash, but because Gamespot is understandably fidgety about possible user CSS exploits, the (c l a s s) part of (c l a s s i c) is filtered. The site is called (c l a s s i c t r a s h) and the web site can be found through a simple google search. It's a site to pay attention to in the future, since it was once very impressive, but at the moment it's less than a shadow of its former self.
