Deathmatch Frenzy!

Due to yesterday's one-man boycott of St Guinness Day, I spent Friday night alone, cold and hungry. There was some solace to be found in my new Dreamcast aquisitions though - namely Out Trigger and Heavy Metal Geomatrix. By about 7pm I had stopped hyper-ventilating over the thrift-tastic price I payed for them (see previous post) and was in a stable enough state to play through them.

Heavy Metal Geomatrix
I'd never actually heard of this before yesterday and the guy in the shop told me that this was a bit like Power Stone but 'not as good.' Er...'scuse me mate - Geomatrix is freaking awesome! It's not really anything like Power Stone, but rather more like a cross between Quake 3 and Spawn: In the Demon's Hand, in that it's a third person deathmatch game where you chase another character around a themed arena and use all manner of weapons to win the round. These range from projectile weapons (like impossibly large rocket launches) and punches and kicks to suspiciously familiar 'laser swords.' Lets just pray for Capcom's sake that a certain Mr Lucas doesnt get to play this. But what the hell am I saying? As if - even in the infinitesimaly small chance he did, he'd probably be too busy wiping his arse on Rembrandts to care.

Geomatrix has amazing graphics by the way, and that soundtrack...boodiful. Capcom - you've scored with this one guys. Just one gripe though - the arenas are a tad small...but thats just me being picky.

Out Trigger
No, not a game set on a stricken oil rig in the North Sea (for that see Street Piper Alpha...HA! - I JUST THOUGHT OF THAT!!!), but a game much like Geomatrix only this time done by the meastros at Sega Software R&D #2. That's AM2 to the layman...the collective genius behind Out Run, Daytona, Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing, Hang On...and, erm Ferrari F355 Challenge.

You can play from either first or third person perspective and its actually a very accomplished true arcade take on the deathmatch game. Brightly coloured graphics, big guns and appaling voice overs...all present and correct! Top fun too...although I must raise a MAJOR gripe:

The keyboard setup cannot be changed so instead of usin the W, A, S and D keys to move (like you do in pretty much every shoot 'em up ever created), you have to use the frigging arrow keys! Disgraceful - especially when you're trying to balance the keyboard on your knee. Why Sega, eh?! Why you fuckin' wit us?! Shit, dawg...etc.
Now, In retaliation to Guinness's blatant bastardisation of a genuine Patron Saint's day, I'm off to drink a firkin of The Cream of Manchester.

4 comments:

Ross said...

I believe tons of people rented Heavy Metal for the DC here because the DC was near its death and I guess lots of people needed something new to pop into their system. However, the game itself is known to have a mediocre reputation.

Anonymous said...

Nice to hear that your satisfied after all at buying the games :) .
Here's something funny outrigger was only ever online in the states !!
Havent heard much about heavy metal but I dont know much about fighthing game , I usually got for more RPG type games ;).

I hope the along and hungry part was symbolic because thats not fair you sound like a fun dude so good luck with life. Keep dreamcasting :D and thanks

Tom Charnock said...

lol, nah, I was only kidding as always in my posts! Cheers for reading - over 1000 hits now. who'd have thought it?!

Animated AF said...

A lot of DC games wre Online only in the US, the bastards. To be honest there wasn't many UK online games. Shame really.