OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (PSP): I bought this a few weeks ago, and have been playing it in short bursts a lot whenever I needed some distraction or a break. While the PSP's analogue stick isn't as responsive as the 360's one, or, if you can even compare that, the steering wheel of the arcade machines, it's still quite playable, although the graphics lose a little bit of their splendour. Nonetheless, it's heaps of fun.
I had mostly been fiddling with the Coast 2 Coast mode, which includes all sorts of gameplay modes and features not seen in the arcade game, like races against CPU drivers along unique assortments of courses, or missions based on Heartbreak mode, but more difficult.
Save for the drifting missions, a lot of these tend to be a little tedious and even frustrating though. Being one to want and complete things, I played them without thinking any further about it. Another grievance is that in Coast 2 Coast mode (and normal singleplayer in general), the different cars actually have different properties when it comes to handling, acceleration, speed, and so I often suffer the agony of choice: Better handling but lower speed so I don't crash into something at the end of a race and am overtaken by everyone, but also take longer to get to rank one? Which car is suited best for this gameplay mode? And so on.
Today, however, I finally realised what should have been obvious—that this has nothing to do in OutRun. The point of the game is to drive, to have fun, and to have fun driving, without stressful races, fiddly missions, or fine‐tuning.
And thus I remembered the “OutRun 2 SP” option in the main menu, which is just that—the original arcade game, raw, where every car handles the same and drives at the same speed and the only criterion by which you need to choose is their looks and your taste, and where you don't have to worry about anything and can just drive, drive, and feel good (and hunt for a highscore by perfecting your driving, but at your leisure). After a single playthrough, I realised how much I missed this, and I'll probably never go back to C2C again.
Also, more Minecraft. Finished the interior of the church a couple of days ago:
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This post has been edited by P.P.A.: Nov 17 2011, 09:10 PM