Altered Beast (2005) - PS2

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Sut
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Altered Beast (2005) - PS2

Postby Sut » December 11th, 2018, 4:21 pm

Well I’m pleasantly surprised with this, it’s nowhere near as bad as it’s reputation suggests.

Graphics are decent although they lack colour. The beast upgrading is well implemented. Although a beat ‘em up there are Metroid style sections where you can revisit old stages to open up previously inaccessible areas once you obtain new abilities and new beasts.

It’s not all good, combat can be samey until you unlock more beasts. The initially impressive transformation sequences get old fast. Camera as with a lot of games from this gen can sometimes be problematic. And there the obligatory under water area that no one likes and this is early in the game.

Think this game got a bad rap because a). It was cool to bash Sega at this point in time and b). It’s an Altered Beast game but they went the genome soldier setting rather than Greek/Roman the original was fondly remembered for.

Altered Beast’s flaws hit you early, but the game improves as it opens up and you develop your character.

So don’t believe all you read. It’s a decent game provided you invest some time and overlook its initial flaws.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Altered Beast (2005) - PS2

Postby VideoGameCritic » December 11th, 2018, 9:38 pm

That's for taking the time to write this. I didn't even know it existed.
Now I want to track down a copy, if only out of curiosity.

CharlieR
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Re: Altered Beast (2005) - PS2

Postby CharlieR » December 12th, 2018, 3:30 pm

I'm always interested when an old game gets a sequel on a newer console. I remember reading about this, and thought I remembered it only saw an international released. Just looked it up an sure enough, it was only released in Japan and Europe.

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Re: Altered Beast (2005) - PS2

Postby VideoGameCritic » December 12th, 2018, 9:00 pm

Does this mean I can't play it?
*sad face*

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Altered Beast (2005) - PS2

Postby VideoGameCritic » December 24th, 2018, 2:53 pm

Does anyone know how to play region locked games on the PS2?
Is there some kind of bypass like a cheat device?

VicViper
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Re: Altered Beast (2005) - PS2

Postby VicViper » December 25th, 2018, 9:39 am

You'll sadly have to buy a PAL PS2 to enjoy it in English, unless you want to implant a modchip into your PS2, which is probably less expensive but involves hardware risks. (I tend to stay away from console modding, even when it's supposedly "easy", I'd rather have someone do it for me) I heard of "Swap Magic" too, but I have no real idea how it works.

If you go with the PAL console, thankfully, Altered Beast has a 60hz option on the PAL version (unlike many, MANY PAL PS2 games), so you won't have display issues on an American TV or base framerate loss/letterboxing due to the 50hz standard.

http://www.benoitren.be/60hz-palps2.html

That's one thing Nintendo and Sega were much better and more consistent at with the GameCube & Dreamcast.

PAL PS2s are dime a dozen; PS2 sold the most in Europe, so you should be able to find some at a bargain bin price (though unsure in America, in France on Ebay.fr, I found one used at 25€ as one of my first results), but I agree that it's stupid and annoying to burden yourself with two completely identical consoles for the sake of playing games from different regions.

Region-lock is a jerk, I'd argue from the company's point of view it makes more sense to have it now than in the 80s & 90s with the internet market and what-not (Steam digital games in Brazil for example can range from half to a third of the American/European price, so a Brazilian game key sold to an American/European could both be less expensive and make profit margins to the seller), but it's still an incredible pain in the ass.

I would say Altered Beast of all games is really not worth the hassle, and contrarily to Japanese consoles, most of the time there's no real big perk in owning a PAL console if you own an American one already.

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Atariboy
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Re: Altered Beast (2005) - PS2

Postby Atariboy » December 26th, 2018, 12:46 am

If you do decide to tackle the world of PAL PS2 gaming, there's a fair number of interesting games that didn't come out in North America.

I enjoy mine, but obviously working around the PAL issues is an annoyance. And if you import a PS2 with an internal power supply, I assume you'll need a step up converter of some sort to power it unless it's dual voltage.

Or you can do what I did and just buy one with an external power supply, and substitute an equivalent North American power supply in its place.


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