JOURNAL: Castor Troy (Ryan Molina)

previous page next page
  • New video game obsessions part 3 2004-08-05 03:07:45 I'll only be reviewing one game this time.... and it's pretty obvious what it is :P

    I went to target this morning and picked up Doom 3 for 45 bucks which is hella lot cheaper than anywhere else and played it immediately upon getting home. I ended up playing so much that when I checked the clock to have lunch, it was already time to leave for work! :P

    Doom 3 - PC

    I've been a fan of doom for as along as I remember. I beat Doom, Doom 2, and Final Doom obviously with the cheat codes and then worked my way to beat nightmare mode without cheats with all 3 episodes on Doom but only reached the 16th or so level on Doom 2 and never went Nightmare on Final Doom. Many years later Doom 3 comes out and the time for Demon blasting has come once again...

    First of all, I am terrible at the current generation of FPS games. I tend to stand there clueless as many other players are jumping around blasting me with their rockets in games like Quake 3, CS, HL... etc.... and the funny thing is there another "Castor Troy" who I've seen on Quake and played against... and lost to :P So I was a bit hesitant to get into Doom 3 right away.

    First of all, the good points.

    The graphics are absolutely fucking amazing even on the low settings. I have a shitty 1.5 ghz amd athlon with 512 MB ram and a rusty old Radeon 9000 and the game STILL manages to look good. Although on my crappy setup, there tends to be a bit of choppiness in combat, I tend to use it to my advantage to anticipate in the split second where to position myself to shoot the enemy.

    The game models itself alot like System Shock 2 but now with green instead of blue :P There are many dark and run down corridors in the game and at first you don't know what's lurking around every corner. The people and enemy designs are extremely good and like I said before, I nearly wet myself when I saw the first imp and shat my pants on the 4th level...

    I've also adjusted myself to the current control scheme of FPS games (w, a, s, d for up-down-left-right and mouse to shoot and aim) so moving around is like a charm.

    Now for the bad points...

    The space is way too cramped. The doom games were always known for wide areas and more flexible movement. Now there's barely any room to escape an imp while it slashes and fireballs you to death.

    It's too damn dark. The lights are out most of the time and it's usually hard to see former humans coming at you. You do get a flashlight to use but why couldn't you strap the flashlight to your gun?

    The weapons are alot weaker than their previous counterparts. I could barely take down anything with the shotgun this time around and ammo is more scarce.

    The scare factor begins to wear off. I've just barely gotten halfway through the 4th level and I've predicted where most of the enemies would jump out and attack. The original doom games really didn't have any scare factor but kept tons of enemies in each room waiting for you.

    The enemies are not too smart or strong. I'm playing on the hardest mode which is 2nd to last until I unlock nightmare mode and so far I haven't lost alot of health to most of the enemies even by just standing there and shooting. Even with my weak arsenal, I was still able to take down 3 imps and have enough health to reach a replenishing station.

    There is no level music. I really loved the midi tunes from the original doom games and I know the lack of music was made for the scare factor but the music was one of my favorite parts of the doom games.

    Well, I know I've said alot of bad points but I still love the game enough to give it a huge recommendation. It still deals with Hell and Mars but in alot more detail. Plus the fact that you're alone in the dark surrounded by demons is fun and scary. If you're a big fan of Doom, pick it up :)

    My review - 8 out of 10.

    I recently got a blockbuster game pass for a month so expect the next installment of new video game obessions 4 to have alot more stuff :) 
  • OMG SCARY 2004-08-04 15:42:09 DEWM 3 ROX

    I nearly shit myself seeing the first imp. :O

    Review shall come in the next edition of "New video game obsessions 3" 
  • Off to Otakon! err... wait... 2004-07-29 14:04:16 Alot of people do that mp3 of the week thing in their livejournals so I guess I'll do it here too...

    Super Double Dragon (Return of Double Dragon japanese version) Title Theme and Final Boss Room

    http://www.spiritdetective.com/castor/sddtitle.zip

    192 kps, 44 khz, mp3, Ripped and encoded by me.

    In my last journal entry I mentioned that I couldn't get the Double Dragon Theme out of my head so now you get to share my pain... er joy :) I chose the SNES version because I thought it was the one that sounded the best. I chose to title it from the japanese version since that was the first super famicom cart I ever got working in my system over a decade ago. I would so think of an amv idea right now but someone else will be doing a DD video for RVG and I assure you it'll kick ass :)

    I spent until 3am in the morning playing Resident Evil Outbreak online. The funny thing about being a n00b is that everyone else does the work for you since there was no way in hell I was gonna battle zombies swinging a crutch at them. Although I was kinda pissed that EVERYONE ELSE was getting the better weapons than me for a while. I think I'm gonna go through all the scenarios single player and know the layout before I go online again. Fun stuff :)

    Good news is that teknoboy informed me that Matt Pyson is gonna try to get the NES Project shown at Otakon despite the set in stone schedule, if it plays, then PLEASE let me know how it went since this will be the biggest showing of it yet! 
  • New video game obsessions part 2 and other stuff. 2004-07-28 19:24:16 PS2

    Street Fighter 2 Anniversary Collection (Japanese version)

    Street Fighter 2 is the only fighting game I really consider myself good at because fighting games are now all combo-combo-combo. Back as a kid, the biggest thing was learning how to do the special moves and people considered you good. But in order to get really good, you had to utilize the special moves in accordance with the regular ones. The PS2 anniversary collection has "Hyper Street Fighter 2" and "Street Fighter 3 Third Strike". Hyper SF2 is basically a combination of regular-champion-turbo-super-superturbo because you can have the more powerful Guile from the regular edition go up against the crappy one from turbo edition. I basically dominated the game with regular edition Ryu since he does alot of damage and had fun flying away with Turbo edition Ryu's Hurricane kick :) Street Fighter 3 is kinda weird and I barely ever played it in the arcade but it's like Street Fighter The Rap album. I really don't like SF3 in comparison to 2 and I wouldn't have minded another "Ultra mega super turbo SF2" :P Definitely pick this up if you're a street fighter fan. The japanese version even comes with a crappy quality cinepak encoded version of the SF2 animated movie! (Just like the cartoon ep from the Megaman anniversary collection).

    ------------------------

    GBA

    Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

    While it shares the same structure as Symphony of the night, it's more old school Belmont whipping. I really got into Aria of Sorrow and I was a bit underwhelmed with this one but it's still colorful and kinda fun. If you beat the game, you get to play as Simon Belmont complete with his NES sprite and everything which I still have yet to do. A fun title, but not as good as Aria of sorrow but I like it better than Circle of the Moon.

    Tactics Ogre: A knight from Lodis

    After not liking Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and hearing the rave reviews of this game, I decided to check it out. I've only beaten the first mission and it was pretty fun but I still have to advance a bit more in the game to see it's potential. So far the story beats the crappy one in FFTA so I guess that's a good sign.

    Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World

    I own the cart of the SNES version and know it pretty well and I've always wanted to play it on the go. It's pretty similar to the SNES version but now Mario and Luigi are totally different (Think SMB2 Luigi) and obviously the screen resolution is smaller so I ended up dying a few times at the scrolling levels. Like Zelda 3, it takes a while to adjust to the controls but I got the hang of them pretty fast. While I still prefer to play the SNES version, playing SMW on the go is a pretty good dealie :)

    --------------------------

    I'm almost done with my AMV HELL segment, all it needs is some tweaking and it'll be done. I hope to get it done by tommorow or this weekend.

    Sadly I'm not sure if the NES Project will be showing at Otakon this weekend since it's not showing on the schedule and I sent Matt Pyson a copy of it a month ago. Teknoboy should be passing out VCD copies of it so make sure you pick one up.

    Ever since I declared my semi retirement, I've felt more free to do other things, mostly being lazy :P It feels really good not to have such a huge amv burden on you since RVG is already giving me that :P

    I can't seem to stop humming the Double Dragon theme whenever I'm walking around at work. Maybe beating all 3 of the NES roms over the weekend didn't help, haha :) 
  • I am Spiderman no more. 2004-07-26 23:48:06 I have decided to can Project Man-Faye since I don't feel that I have the drive to work on something that massive. Plus I have other obligations like RVG and AMV HELL that I need to work on.

    Well, I'm late with this but now you'll know why Bust a cap in yo ass productions no longer exists....

    Ikasu, who most of you know for the fabled "Sin City" from last year was supposed to be my partner in Bust a cap and last fall, he told me that he wanted to retire from amvs and pursue an acting career. I have to admit he has a really big drive for it and I think he has pretty good talent. I felt pretty sad that he decided to retire and not wanting to be in a studio alone, I dropped the Bust a cap name and went back to being solo. Recently he talked to me and said he won't really retire and will try to enter AX2005 but he won't really focus so much on amvs anymore since he's playing Counter Strike all the time and practicing acting for short films. I really wish him the best of luck and I hope to see him on the big screen in the distant future.

    Well, I can't lie to myself anymore. I have lost a great deal of interest and motivation in amvs and anime itself. First of all, the amv community has been really good to me and anime has been pretty solid..... so why the demotivation? Sometimes they say, "Too much of a good thing can be bad". It's probably because things have been going so well that... I feel that I want to do other things since things in the amv community are fine and in good hands.

    To be honest, the only thing that interests me in amvs anymore is the RVG Project since I've always considered myself a video game fan more than an anime fan. I had a great time doing my NES Projects last year and I've felt more connected to my RVG videos than any other videos I've done in the past. I know alot of people's dreams are to see their videos on the big screen and win awards which is ok. But the thing that excites me now is getting RVG done and seeing it on the big screen with everyone else at AWA.

    I think I've achieved everything an amv creator has ever wanted. Glory, respect, awards, fangirls, etc..... although my entrance to the contest scene was an extremely controversial one. However I don't regret any of it since I am still here making videos and I didn't run away.

    The most important things that came out of all of this were the awesome people I got to meet, the skills that I got to learn, and the chance to express myself. I am extremely grateful to the amv community for all of those things.

    Some of you are probably thinking I'm gonna retire now, but it's more like a semi retirement. I won't be entering major contests anymore.... or probably for a very long time. If I do, I won't be putting a massive amount of effort into my videos for contests.

    I'll still be working for the RVG Project for as long as it exists. The NES Project saved me from retirement last year and I owe MJ alot for letting me on board. Plus I'll be doing small projects like AMV HELL and a few others I see interesting so don't really count me out yet ;)

    I still think the amv community's in good hands and there are many up and coming top notch editors. Best of luck to them.

    I'm sorry for all of this but this is the path I have chosen and I think it's what's best for me. I just don't want to force myself to do things that I don't want to do anymore.

    I guess I'll begin ripping stuff for my AMV HELL segment now. I hope to see most of you at AWA! 
previous page next page
Current server time: Nov 12, 2025 18:54:39