PatMan Picks Retro PC Games. Star Wars Dark Forces

Star Wars and Video games are two of my favorite forms of entertainment. Alone they can keep me very amused. Combined they can potentially blow me away with addictive multi media fun. So back in the day, when I heard of a PC game that was “like that great DOOM game but set in the Star Wars universe”, I was pretty hyped to give it a shot.  Now, not all Star Wars video games are great as some just don’t work out, but when they do they are absolutely special. And the PC classic Star Wars Dark forces worked out very, very well in my opinion. There have been a lot of FPS “corridor shooters” out there over the years, and as a matter of fact Gunsage has done a great job with his own series covering some them right here at WPO. But not that many of those shooters can actually stand toe to toe with the likes of Duke Nukem 3D & DOOM in terms of quality, design and overall fun. Dark Forces is one of the few PC shooters of that era that actually can. The music and sound effects were great for its time and the cutscenes helped progress the story line very well. The actual Dark Troopers were really interesting characters for me. They were bad ass “Super Storm Troopers” with special amour that was made of similar materials to that of Darth Vaders own armor. It was with great nostalgia that I rediscovered the Dark Troopers all these years later in Star Wars The Force Unleashed for the Xbox 360. Dark Forces is an example of a classic Star Wars game done right. There were sequels to this classic game with better technology resulting in superior visuals and sounds. But for me, I will always like the original Dark Forces the best . Obviously the sequels were “technically superior”, yet they didn’t “feel” superior to me personally and thats what matters. This title could stand with the top shooters of its time while having the unique advantage of taking place in the Star Wars universe. A match made in heaven for PatMan back in those retro PC days.

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Best Of Wonderpod 3

We took the week off. What that means for you is a best of show. If you’re a new listener this will be a good time to jump in. If you have been here from the start, there should be a morsel or two for you as well. This was all slapped together by a rabid monkey with a head cold. The crew and I were off being lazy bastards.

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Impact Wrestling: 06/23/11

It’s Thursday, and that means it’s time for Impact Wrestling! But not just any episode, no. This one will feature footage and matches from the BaseBrawl event held in Buffalo on June 18th in which Bored Wrestling Fan founder ThinkSoJoE was present for. You can check out his breakdown here, and I’ll do my best to keep a look out for him as I delve into this episode. With the preamble out of the way, let’s hop to it, shall we?

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RPG of the Year – 2006

Holy shit damn, what a huge year! 57 games! And yes, there was a Sega Genesis game released this year. This is also one of those awkward years where a lot of developers were jumping to the new systems while other ones were still very unsure and wanting to develop stuff on the PS2, GBA, and so on. Very interesting stuff. Well, let’s hop in!
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Fighters to Watch this Weekend

Strikeforce Challengers looks to be shaping up pretty nicely. Here are some people to watch out for on the card:
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RPG of the Year – 2005

Now, at first glance, this seems like a huge year. After all, there are 50 games! This was certainly a strong year for RPGs in that there were a LOT, but not so much in terms of quality. I’m confident in my top 5, but the runner ups…oh, the runner ups. ANYWAY, let’s hop right in with…
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Meditations on Strikeforce

I guess I should explain what I’m doing. I won’t really do a linear recap. You’ll be able to find many great recaps. These are just my meditations and reflections of the weekend that was.
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Stampede Wrestling Classics: A triad of video’s for you!

Last week, the mighty PatMan brought our site a second edition of his Stampede Wrestling picks. They were awesome. Then this week? I think he must be on strike. Bastard. So I’ll fill in and throw down an episode in lieu of his absence. I’m a man-child of Calgary too, after all. This was our bread and butter in Cow Town as wee Pat’s and G’s…

Oh, and PatMan? I stole your PatMan Picks category tag too! Ha ha!
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PatMan Picks Retro PC games. Terminal Velocity

Welcome once again to another PatMan Picks PC classics. This time around I will be showcasing a game by the name of Terminal Velocity. The game was a very fun, action/arcade, space ship, flight game with pretty impressive visuals for its time. It also had a pretty cool soundtrack as I remember.  This was no flight sim, it was all action arcade style fun. The action took place in several locations including the sky ,very close to the ground and even underground in tight tunnels with many obstacles that gamers needed to avoid hitting. I really enjoyed this title back in the day. The air combat was fun as you had to seek out enemy airships and destroy them. A cool feature was the ability to go above the clouds and dog fight it out way up in the sky or at other times stay low and take them out just above the ground. The gameplay wasn’t limited to air combat as you had ground targets to find and destroy, sometimes giving you power ups in the process to make things more interesting. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, you had to enter underground tunnels where you had to blast your way out with out hitting any of the doors or obstacles that moved in front of you. The inside and underground areas always reminded me a little bit of the trench run in Star Wars, which was not a bad thing at all. Speaking of Star Wars inspired levels, there is a level later on in Terminal Velocity that takes place on a “moon base” which is, with out a doubt ,VERY heavily inspired by the Death Star. There was aslo a handy map that you could pull up on the screen, but I hardly used it unless I was stuck looking for something as it kind of got in the way of the view of the action. Terminal Velocity was a fun arcade action title that I enjoyed replaying for years and yet its a PC game that many people may have all but forgotten. Hopefully this helped bring back some fond memories for some of you old school, classic PC gamers out there. Enjoy the video below and I will be back next time with more retro PC games that I once enjoyed back  in the past!

Wonderpod Episode 68

Wonderpod has survived the E3 extravaganza show. Listening to us this week, one might even think we were actually at the show. Sadly, none of us are important enough for that. Still we struggle through and discuss the world of gaming. Call it the E3 hangover episode if you like

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