What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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BareKnuckleRoo
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

BIL wrote:EDIT: what superb music too
Thanks, I was happy with my angel bashing playlist. The tunes are mainly shmups in that one:

• Blaynix Stage 1
• Vastynex Stage 1, 5, final
• One of the tunes off the Descent 2 redbook audio OST
• Stage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-1, 6-2, Final Boss, TLB, and two vocal songs from Leiria -stargazer-, download available here.
• ChoRenSha 68K tunes
• one of the boss themes from Labyrinth of Touhou 2

The run with Wangan Midnight tunes is here. There's a bunch here like Glory Days, Blue Blazes, etc. Since I can't remember the playlist I used here and would have to rewatch it, I'd say if you want a proper taste of Yuzo Koshiro's tunes in Wangan Midnight, I recommend this mix.
BIL wrote:Even if the Summoned Swords are giving me Nelo Angelo PTSD
The feather rings you can summon two variants of will straight up murder things and also give you coverage for slow attacks as long as you don't press kick to shoot them out. They're also among the highest combo score to damage ratio attacks in the game, so very useful for scoring. Sadly they're often a neglected ability, so I try to show em off when I can. ;w;
Searchlike wrote:Real proud of Roo-sensei's ability to kick Angel Slayer's ass.
Haha, thank you. I think I started playing it a couple years after it came out actually. Or maybe Vanquish was out by then already? I have forgotten, but I've easily put 500+ hours into it across the Xb360 and PC versions. I also think I might upload a Pure Platinum run of the hardest difficulty. There's like half a dozen runs on Youtube showing this, but only one I've found does each Chapter as a single segment without using the Quit to Title Screen -> Continue exploit to redo fights if they get hit which I'm not fond of, mainly because if you resort to this, you'll never learn how to use your tools properly and build up the habits and strategies that'd help you Pure Plat the real endurance test, Lost Chapter. Tomatyesc is someone who taught me the usefulness of rocket launchers on hands and also has a few PP Lost Chapter runs (sadly only 600 views or so) so I'm always very grateful to them.

I come back to it now for hilarious spooky memes. Zero's just so heckin cute. He's the real main character damn it!
Spoiler
Image
It's also highly amusing streaming it and seeing newbies who've played it and are not aware of his existence asking "IS THIS A MOD??". Their precious confusion at seeing him in cutscenes is just too much to resist. <3 For a nonspoilery highlight of the best ones, kindly see:

Spooky Ghost Adventures featuring Little King ZERO

It's literally canon that his powers come from him having an active imagination. He's so precious!
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XoPachi
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by XoPachi »

So I ran through the Mega Man classic games over the week and something struck me with Mega Man and Bass...

I know Mega Man pulls direct inspiration from rock, duh. But these in particular sound like something I can hear lyrics to but definitely not rock. In fact, I almost feel like I have heard these elsewhere. I swear I can hear a Japanese woman singing to these with lyrics about like...meeting with an old friend and falling in love. Or something equally uplifting I'd hear in some 90's Japanese music.

https://youtu.be/0p4m1xPx3kc
https://youtu.be/wazcbLFicdA
https://youtu.be/GLGUPZC2tD8

(Cold Man's theme is heat)
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To Far Away Times
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by To Far Away Times »

I do love a good Megaman game. Megman and Bass was really good and that one gets overlooked a lot.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by XoPachi »

To Far Away Times wrote:I do love a good Megaman game. Megman and Bass was really good and that one gets overlooked a lot.
People hate it because "it hard". And while it is hard, probably the hardest, most people are just god awful at platformers. I remember seeing some YouTuber, AntDude say the game was bullshit and watching him play, I honestly thought he was faking his mistakes for content.
It's not the best, but it's certainly one of the more unique entries with some nice little ideas that make it worth playing. I thought it was great. But generally I like all of the 2D Mega Man games.

Except X4-8. They're terrible.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BIL »

BareKnuckleRoo wrote:
BIL wrote:EDIT: what superb music too
Thanks, I was happy with my angel bashing playlist. The tunes are mainly shmups in that one:

• Blaynix Stage 1
• Vastynex Stage 1, 5, final
• One of the tunes off the Descent 2 redbook audio OST
• Stage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-1, 6-2, Final Boss, TLB, and two vocal songs from Leiria -stargazer-, download available here.
• ChoRenSha 68K tunes
• one of the boss themes from Labyrinth of Touhou 2

The run with Wangan Midnight tunes is here. There's a bunch here like Glory Days, Blue Blazes, etc. Since I can't remember the playlist I used here and would have to rewatch it, I'd say if you want a proper taste of Yuzo Koshiro's tunes in Wangan Midnight, I recommend this mix.
Niiice, thanks! :cool: Holy fuck, that Descent II cover art brings back memories, still got the big box back home. One of many redbooks I ripped BITD for videogame FTP upload points... Rocket Jockey's another good one, its Dick Dale-esque violent surf would go great with God Hand.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Searchlike »

BareKnuckleRoo wrote:I also think I might upload a Pure Platinum run of the hardest difficulty. There's like half a dozen runs on Youtube showing this, but only one I've found does each Chapter as a single segment without using the Quit to Title Screen -> Continue exploit to redo fights if they get hit
Looking forward to that. I didn't know those were so rare, I have a few Platinums on ∞ Climax that I earned without checkpoint abuse. Sure, they aren't as pretty as the PP awards I can get the easier way, but they shine brighter.
He's so precious!
If I ever have a kid, I'm sending him/her to your place dressed as Little King Zero on Halloween. I expect the best treats. 8)
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sumez »

XoPachi wrote:
To Far Away Times wrote:I do love a good Megaman game. Megman and Bass was really good and that one gets overlooked a lot.
People hate it because "it hard". And while it is hard, probably the hardest, most people are just god awful at platformers. I remember seeing some YouTuber, AntDude say the game was bullshit and watching him play, I honestly thought he was faking his mistakes for content.
It's not the best, but it's certainly one of the more unique entries with some nice little ideas that make it worth playing. I thought it was great. But generally I like all of the 2D Mega Man games.
My biggest problem with Rockman & Forte is not that it's hard, but that the gameplay has such an infuriating flow, making you spend so much time waiting around to time your advancements, rather than just rushing and blasting through the stage like you would any good Mega Man game. There are a lot of little issues with the game, and it's not really that good.
I think it mostly plays better if you're playing as Forte/Bass though, but that also feels like a bit of a betrayal towards classic Mega Man.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Vanguard »

Sumez wrote:
Yeah MM&B blows. Poor level design design made to waste your time as much as possible. Absurd HP bloat - Megaman has to shoot the pink rhinos 60 times to kill one, enjoy your carpal tunnel. It's 120 shots for Bass, but at least you can just hold the autofire button down. The boss mercy invincibility period is like 3x as long as it is in NES Megaman. Megaman and Bass were both weakened in absurd ways just so the game could sell you upgrade items to fix them later. It's bad.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

I expect the best treats. 8)
Only full size chocolate bars for the king!
Spoiler
I'm currently working on a PP clear of Lost Chapter without the use of Pulley's. I absolutely do not recommend this as it is a very good way to suck the fun out of it. Dodging perfectly over an hour with multiple fights where the camera angle does you no favors (hi big guys) and where the camera swings wildly if you touch a wall is a headache which Pulley's normally smooths over and lets you focus on the fun of sexy dance fighting.

I basically build up a good combo on a couple of key fights, then burst down enemies with the lightsaber or pretty halos, which are normally horrendous for combos, but work fine here because you're not judged for combo on each individual fight, but rather the overall verse. There's several fights (all the Jeanne fights + final boss) you can cheese by turning the camera away, charging up the lightsaber with Sergei's Lover, then bursting them all down. It's not as fun as fighting them up close and personal, but it gets the job done for avoiding damage.

I also learned having Bracelet of Time on gives a boost per hit to magic gain to make up for the fact you can't taunt, making Bracelet of Time + Gaze of Despair the fastest setup for rapid magic gain.

Unfortunately Zero is possibly still the worst character for this challenge because Infernal Communicator interferes with Sergei's Lover (he only gets 1 clone), making you spend more magic on the Bracelet to burst things down since you only deal 2/3 the damage. Lightsaber kills are still quick, just not as quick. He does have a bit of extra magic gain per hit and a bit of extra speed, but his poor use of Sergei's Lover is an issue that's hard to overlook.

I very nearly PP'd this without Pulley's until I did a rage-inducing mistake where I taunted to recover magic, then forgot to equip the Bracelet of Time. Cue me getting clapped by Golem when I try to play spooky tunes in its face, and not reacting in time to dodge when I realize holding LB ain't doing what it's supposed to do: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1187266733

I got hit by an Ardor in the next verse from sheer frustration, then cleared without taking any further hits. I'm close, so just gotta grind it out.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Final Fantasy VI
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Searchlike »

BareKnuckleRoo wrote:I'm close, so just gotta grind it out.
You got this! And thanks again for sharing your Bayo wisdom.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

Was going to start either Wreckfest or Dirt 5. Instead bought the Senna DLC for Horizon Chase Turbo, and am addicted to that all over again.
XBL & Switch: mjparker77 / PSN: BellyFullOfHell
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

After embarrassing myself yesterday by reaching the final boss, then getting overaggressive and letting my magic run out in its face (thus eating a kick), I finally did it. My Bayonetta career's possibly peaked.

Lost Chapter: Angel Slayer (Pure Platinum) - no Pulley's Butterfly (YouTube) / (Twitch link)

I really don't recommend doing this. It's a headache without the shield and I basically resort to ultra cheese tactics for all the tough fights instead of fighting them normally because taking no damage over the course of an hour is frankly a headache. There's just so many things that can hit you suddenly, and the camera does not do you any favors in several of the fights (the ones involving giant enemies), so the shielding accessory is incredibly useful for letting you just focus on having fun stomping on enemies by soaking the occasional stray bullshit hit (or an actual hit from a mistimed dodge).
I have a few Platinums on ∞ Climax that I earned without checkpoint abuse. Sure, they aren't as pretty as the PP awards I can get the easier way, but they shine brighter.
Agreed! Especially on the lengthy chapters with lots of fights, consistency is far more impressive to me. I saw someone once doing the Jeanne fight on the plane for a solid 30 minute's worth of restarts on Twitch, getting hit repeatedly... and saw afterwards they only repost on Twitch and Youtube the edited cut that only shows the successful fights. It was clear they'd learned the easiest way of how to get Pure Platinums, but in the process had failed to learn how to actually tackle fights safely and consistently. Instead of developing and refining strategies for specific fights and bosses, they just stuck with whatever they wanted to use (no Pulley's, either) and just relied on checkpoint restarting until they avoided getting hit.

Consistency is what I'm most interested in learning (and teaching others) and I'm concerned a lot of people end up developing bad habits by resorting to this exploit to get their precious medal screen filled with PPs. In particular, it's absolutely worthless for helping you prepare for tackling the endurance test that is Angel Slayer, and I think Angel Slayer is the most fun chapter in the entire game, so I'd much rather people learn to build the fundamentals that will help them fight consistently well!
Last edited by BareKnuckleRoo on Thu Oct 28, 2021 7:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BIL »

Love hurts, and regularly hangs with Hatred and their bitch mom Obsession Image Shamelessly watching for the tunes and simple pleasure of observing an expert at work. Image

Image

Interested to hear about the camera and big enemies - I spent all summer wishing Bloodborne had followed the universally respected and admired Castlevania 64 ( :lol: ), and allowed a "far zoom" toggle for its most supermassive bosses. Love that game, but there's a completely unnecessary layer of trial/error to its biggest beasts, simply because whenever you're in striking range, you can't see their hands or heads, obscuring FROM's elaborate body language cues. What you can see is your wee man hacking away at their shins or taint, and so you learn by extension, eg, if taint swings this way = claw incoming, roll. If shins tense so, = ground stomp coming, quickstep.

It's like GI Joe (6in action figure) fisting King Kong (3ft super deluxe) in a garbage bag :shock: Which is admittedly still pretty fuckin hardcore. grumblegrumble Image
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Love hurts, and regularly hangs with Hatred and their bitch mom Obsession
Truth. :lol:

Super Mario 64 and Castlevania 64 have always impressed me with how good the visibility is on those, and it's mostly because the camera's quite willing to zoom out nice and high to maximize what you can see, even if it's not "cinematic".

Bayonetta on the other hand has the camera go super low to the ground facing upwards, while remaining close behind you, for the sake of making big bosses look big. However, this has the direct impact of hiding what's going on around you, and in the secret chapter there's several fights where it's a big dude with a half-dozen little helpers flying around. Here's an example from a run where I don't manage the camera as much. Big guy can also summon meteors which are telegraphed on the ground prior to hitting, but due to the camera angle it's really hard to actually see them. You can get better visibility by jumping, which then moves the camera above you at its normal angle while in midair, or just by speedkilling the damn thing (the camera only behaves annoyingly while it's alive).

The camera also does this thing where if you touch a wall (the ones at the far opposite ends of the arena) it'll swing the camera around suddenly so the arena isn't visible. It does this so it avoids having to make walls invisible for the sake of looking pretty, but I'd far rather the game behave like God Hand where the game will make walls transparent if they get in your way behind you, maximizing visibility. Or, make the camera zoom out more and stay above you like the God of War games. With the shielding accessory it's all very manageable mind you, but it's definitely a source of frustration in some fights, especially some of the Jeanne fights in the story chapters (she'll scamper around the walls of the arena, forcing you to follow her if you don't aggressively knock her down). The last fight against her starts in a fairly simple, open arena, but rapidly goes downhill to two segments riding rockets where the camera is horrendous (learn to dodge based on audio cues or just go for parries!), and ends with a section where she can run away up a wall to hide.

The secret chapter in Bayonetta also reuses the enclosed arena for the alfheim fights you need to find in the story mode. Compare this to the Devil May Cry games where the equivalent bonus marathon mode, Bloody Palace, has an open-walled arena so there's room for the camera even at the edge of the floor. Devil May Cry's circular, open arena is frankly a far better design for visibility.

The worst sections for camera issues are actually the minigames that Platinum included as a nod to Sega. Why Sega didn't step in to address these is beyond me, especially since they have 3D games like Outrun 2/2SP under their belt and know how to nail that perfect angle for racing cameras. However, when it comes time to ride a motorcycle, the player characters are so tall that when you're shooting your guns it's hard to see what's directly in front of you. Their outfit's large trailing sleeves also don't help, particularly when going uphill or downhill. Couldn't they have moved the camera up a bit? And it's also one of those obnoxious racing games where going faster causes the camera to zoom out (and go slightly lower!) for cinematics' sake, further reducing visibility. Screw that, gimme Outrun 2/2SP or Wangan Midnight where the camera stays glued in position no matter how fast you're going. Because Zero's only about 2/3 as tall, and has no standing up while shooting animation, he's actually the easiest to see with here and makes this minigame considerably more bearable (despite the whole dying in 2-3 hits thing). Here he is at normal speed, and again at high speed, both while upright and firing.

There's also a minigame based on Space Harrier and Afterburner, but in contrast to the relatively thin player sprite there, you've commandeered a missile that happens to have a giant bright thruster with a huge metal base, that makes it hard to react to enemy shots in front of you. It also is EXTREMELY button mashy with a slow-as-molasses autofire rate that basically demands button mashing (or using rapid fire ;3) to make it bearable, but once you know how to speedkill enemy waves, you can easily score kills before the dangerous stuff fires on you. It also helps that the dodge here lets you chain i-frames together and can dodge infinitely with no penalty other than likely dropping combo, so you can always just mash on dodge when in trouble. Dodging does make the entire screen spin with no option to disable this, so god help anyone with nausea issues here.

Bayonetta's an extremely fun game, but with a lotta lovable jank. You also can't remap the controller... unless you're on the PC version where you can do it just fine in Steam's interface (though if using a keyboard + mouse Bayonetta supports full remapping...). It also doesn't explain many of the mechanics properly, doesn't provide a tutorial for Dodge Offset (the special move that lets you dodge without resetting your combo you start the game).You're rewarded with discovering the existence of Dodge Offset if you take the time to read the manual or the ingame documents, but the game otherwise doesn't mention it. Bayo also doesn't provide a good training area with a dummy to beat up, the shop tutorials don't give you a magic meter to use so beginners get confused about the true potential of the "If you have enough magic when you use this attack, it summons a big ol fist" moves, and so on...

I've even seen players try out the perfect dodge move (where you can dodge just as you're hit to turn into bats and negate the damage), then NOT buy it because they've missed the point of it. The tutorial basically tells you you've failed if you don't land the perfect dodge, but the real point of it is to extend your dodge window so even late dodges become successes. However, it's not explained that way, so some beginners (who aren't versed in these kinds of games usually) will think that it's a move you're supposed to do on purpose deliberately, see it as way too hard due to the tutorial's minimal explanation of it and ignore it, rather than seeing it for its true value as a buff to your dodge that will occasionally trigger by accident if you otherwise dodge a bit late, and that also lets you dodge while taking damage out of multi-hit strings some enemies do!

Bayonetta's a really neat game when you know what you're doing but it takes some patience and dedication to get there, a real willingness to experiment and learn. It has lots of frankly powerful attacks, so it's far less difficult than other similar games I'd say, but a lot of folks get in the bad habit of button mashing which results in never firing off their weapons. If you're just tapping the attack buttons, you're basically just doing scratch damage by comparison to what firing your guns can do. It also results in getting parried by higher tier enemies who are deliberately designed to deflect your attacks if you try to just mash the buttons on them, but who can't block stuff like a shotgun blast to the face. 8)
Shamelessly watching for the tunes
On the menu was Rolling Gunner, Stage 5 from REDPULSE, a couple remixes from Rolling Gunner Overpower, Solid State Survivor S4, 5, TLB, Akai Katana's FM remixes, then some DFK and Ketsui.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BIL »

With third-person action cinematography, I've gradually become a functional absolutist. Make walls and scenery transparent, turn models translucent, zoom out like Bangaioh... when a game's intensity rivals classic 2D action, I'd like a similarly practical POV. It may lack form, and grace, and the je ne sais quois of the nouvelle vague - but tbh, so does heroic GoodyMayne McPlayerCharacter losing a fatal duel to BaddyMan McBadBastardShire because the cameraman ran behind a curtain.

ITS FUCKING DISTRACTING (■`W´■)
Spoiler
Image


I make an exception for classic survival horror ala RE/SH, where the difficulty and complexity is typically far lower than DMC et al. Some superb artistry in those games' compositions, would be a shame to lose that. At the same time though, I was surprised at how intense exploring Bloodborne's creepier areas got, despite its camera being freely 360' rotatable. Being able to see every nook and cranny wasn't only helpful VS the fast, vicious enemies - it also made me feel like I'd have no excuse for getting blindsided.

So I like the sound of a classic RE/SH revival limiting its artistic shots to specific moments/locales, which is pretty much what OG SH used to do anyway. (just with a moderately crappy camera outside of those bits :mrgreen:)
BareKnuckleRoo wrote:
Shamelessly watching for the tunes
On the menu was Rolling Gunner, Stage 5 from REDPULSE, a couple remixes from Rolling Gunner Overpower, Solid State Survivor S4, 5, TLB, Akai Katana's FM remixes, then some DFK and Ketsui.
Cheers again, you've got a great ear for this stuff! Akai Katana's FM album is superb, I've long had its "Tsubazeriai" earmarked for some far-off video.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

I make an exception for classic survival horror ala RE/SH, where the difficulty and complexity is typically far lower than DMC et al.
Agreed, in the early RE games rooms with "difficult" camera angles are much more thoughtful and deliberately positioned, where clever use of the autoaim or learning of enemy layouts makes them entirely manageable. And then there's stuff like Resident Evil 3, where when Nemmy chases you around, there's almost always a nice open spot with a perfect camera where you can fight Nemmy comfortably in the open. Definitely a far cry from third person character action games where "camera is the real enemy" sometimes becomes a thing.
which is pretty much what OG SH used to do anyway. (just with a moderately crappy camera outside of those bits :mrgreen:)
SH1's unlockable First Person style mode was neat, I wish the later games had included it as an option to play with.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BIL »

I always replay SH1 with Self View enabled - the level of detail is seriously impressive. There's a particular house near a chasm... or rather, half a house overlooking a chasm. If you get close in Self View, you can see through the front window, into the demolished living room, up to where the floorboards end and the grey void begins. SH2 has a similar scene of tranquil aftermath, that part-obliterated garage whose skeletal rebar juts into the abyss. Those SV replays reminded that while SH2-4 benefited from a quantum hardware leap (and are no slouches themselves artistically), SH1 had already set the bar.

I think once I actually used the "reverse control" option, so Self View was the default. :mrgreen: Takes some work, and definitely benefits from the ability to enter "Normal View" for emergencies - but it works surprisingly well, particularly if you're already familiar with the game. The opening alleyway sequence is absolutely stunning in SV, as is the hell sprint from the Worm's sandpit back to the Hospital (I love how thoroughly batshit SH1's outdoors gets, in its "dark half..." SH2 descends into funereal blackness, SH1 lets loose the hounds and rocks the fuck out with a literal "run or die" sequence :lol:) The Resort Area's uneasy crisscrossing of lamplit, dogman-infested streets is a great bit of VG agoraphobia, too.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Searchlike »

Congrats, Roo! Well-earned victory. :mrgreen: My internet's been crap all week, but I'll make some time to watch this during the weekend.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BrianC »

Been playing Halloween themed games. Mostly games in the HoTD series (including Zombie Revenge), but I have also been playing Demons of Asteborg on the Genesis. I'm glad I decided to give Zombie Revenge another chance. I didn't "get it" when I first played it in arcades, but after learning how to play, I find it to be quite a bit of fun. Definitely like the mix of fighting and gunplay.

My JP Dreamcast doesn't like my US HoTD2 for some reason (not badly scratched, but not in perfect condition). It locks up when I play it codebreaker or DC-X on the JP system, though my US DC plays it fine with no lock ups. I did get the JP version with a gun, but that one had some scratches and possible chip marks and doesn't like either Dreamcast (locks up on both systems at times). I ended up finding a CDI of the EU version (was trying to find the JP one), which supports 60 Hz, and using that to play the game with the JP gun, though I have to turn brightness way up to calibrate, which isn't the case with the JP version. Oddly enough, the mad catz dream blast has no issues calibrating at all in all version of the game. I like both guns, but definitely recommend the Mad Catz over the official gun. Crazy how the gun for US systems actually works with EU and JP versions. The MadCatz gun is the one good thing that came out of the SoA silliness over the official lightgun (which doesn't even look like a real gun).
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by null1024 »

Guilty Gear Accent Core +R [PC].
Grabbed it in the Steam sale. It's fun. I'm reminded of a lot of little things that I'm glad Strive changed, but I'm also reminded of a bunch of things that I'm mad Strive changed. :lol:
+R is the Guilty Gear I've played the least of, played quite a bit more of #Reload with my friends way back when and then Xrd when that came out when I was in university. I've also had original Accent Core on a few systems.

Also, I played some Crazy Taxi [PC], got $14k in a run that was going amazingly until the last three stops. Seriously, I felt like I was on a run to smash past $15k, which would have been my best ever. Kinda mad that it fell apart so quickly, but this was the best I've done in over a year, so I'll take it.

Oh, and I was at Arcade Odyssey a few days ago. Played on the CT machine there, god, I dunno how I'd manage if I was playing like I do on pad. Repeatedly doing the gear flick into flooring it is exhausting. It's a real workout.
I don't have the timing quite down on the cabinet and only managed to get a few boosts, and I didn't put in too much money to get better. Was kinda embarrassing too, one of the operators was hovering around even though that's how you're supposed to play [and I'm certainly being less rough there than anyone on the Virtual On cabinet]. :lol:
I'll probably spend some money going at it next time I'm down in Miami, though. Really, really wish the arcade was like 20 miles closer to me. It's not the furthest drive, but it's not nearly close enough for me to make it a regular thing. They even expanded the floor since the last time I was there, really cool.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

I revisited an old childhood nostalgia game, the Commodore 64 version of The Halley Project. The idea is that it's an educational game meant to encourage you to learn about the solar system by flying around and visiting various planets and moons (laid out on a 2D disc plane). Your navigation is limited to using constellations to guide you and fortunately the game comes with a navigational chart of each constellation. Each mission consists of stuff like "land on this specific planet/moon" and eventually gets more complicated like "land on any moon smaller than Titania".

Essentially it's a glorified trivia game where you figure out where to go, then carefully find the landing spot on the planet and try to avoid crashing. The game and manuals themselves don't provide you with the information though. In the age before the internet, it basically encouraged you to get a book on astronomy and look up the planets and moons to learn about them, or else you'd have to fly to each one and work out which one to go to via trial and error. When you beat all the missions there was a passcode you were given and a card you could fill out and mail, and you'd receive a password back in the mail to unlock the final mission:
Spoiler
Select the normal final mission, then fly immediately to Earth, land, and type MINDSCAPE to trigger the secret final mission.
The game is really interesting in how it scores you. Mission time is score, but your timer is stopped whenever your speed is zero, letting you turn and plan accordingly. Your turning speed is slow as molasses so this is a nice design choice. The timer also stops whenever you go into hyperspace to rapidly travel, where the difficulty is figuring out the distance you need to go and stopping appropriately as hyperspace propels you very fast. This means that playing for speed requires planning a route that minimizes the distance between objectives as well minimizing time spent outsize of hyperspace and making accurate jumps (and thus limiting the number of jumps you make). Landing quickly also helps as finding the part of the planet/moon where the landing beacon will work isn't shown visually, so you basically have to strafe around close enough until you find the spot.

Unfortunately, hyperspace is basically a recipe for epileptic seizures as everything goes batshit crazy and flickers rapidly. This is the Apple II version. Believe me, the C64 version's flickering is much, MUCH worse.

Crashing into a planet causes you to spend a month recovering... which only penalizes you for 5 minutes of ingame time. Your home base, Halley's Comet, doesn't require landing so you can speed into it at near hyperspace speeds all you like. Flying into THE SUN results in you instantly failing the mission while the game scolds you (or presumably what's left of your vaporized remains). The game doesn't give you a time penalty for visiting the wrong planet or moon though, so you can check out what each one looks like if you're in no hurry.

Interesting links with regards to the game:

https://extralives.wordpress.com/2014/1 ... y-project/ (general overview of the game)

http://www.vulcanjedi.com/halley.htm (shows off the special certificate you got for mailing in your completion details and getting the password for the secret final mission)

Spoilers for all mission objectives and pictures of each planet/moon for the Atari version
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Mortificator
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mortificator »

Sumez wrote:
XoPachi wrote:
To Far Away Times wrote:I do love a good Megaman game. Megman and Bass was really good and that one gets overlooked a lot.
People hate it because "it hard". And while it is hard, probably the hardest, most people are just god awful at platformers. I remember seeing some YouTuber, AntDude say the game was bullshit and watching him play, I honestly thought he was faking his mistakes for content.
It's not the best, but it's certainly one of the more unique entries with some nice little ideas that make it worth playing. I thought it was great. But generally I like all of the 2D Mega Man games.
My biggest problem with Rockman & Forte is not that it's hard, but that the gameplay has such an infuriating flow, making you spend so much time waiting around to time your advancements, rather than just rushing and blasting through the stage like you would any good Mega Man game. There are a lot of little issues with the game, and it's not really that good.
I think it mostly plays better if you're playing as Forte/Bass though, but that also feels like a bit of a betrayal towards classic Mega Man.
Unreal they got rid off all the Rush functions except Search, the most tedious part of MM7's collectathon.

I replayed the newer classic games recently, which cemented MM10 as a favorite. It's not as slavish to 2 as 9 was, with more elaborate stages, and while its copied power set isn't as great, having three distinct playable characters makes up for it. Mega Man's three exclusive weapons (via DLC) help him be more than just easy modo this time. Proto Man's the most fun to me, but it's super-satisfying to use Bass's rapidfire against minibosses with weak points high up who have no hit invincibility.

At the moment, I think my classic ranking would go...
10 > 4 > V > 6 > 2 > 9 > 8 > 7 > 11 > 3 > 1 > 5 > MM&B > IV > III > I > CftF > II > 1PC > 3PC
RegalSin wrote:You can't even drive across the country Naked anymore
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null1024
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by null1024 »

Tales of Xillia [PS3].
So like, my PS3 has been on the fritz for ages now, so I finally decided to look into how good PS3 emulation is.

It turns out that RPCS3 runs great on my computer.
It feels incredibly, incredibly weird seeing functioning, playable PS3 emulation.
Had to muck about with some settings [including the particularly odd need to set the emulator's vblank rate to 30hz so that certain parts didn't run too fast, but then limit the framerate to 60hz], but I've been two hours in and everything looks fine and I haven't had a crash even though I've gotten into the habit of saving every couple steps just in case. :lol:
I also really wish that most of these compatibility list details were updated more frequently, most of the entries are from like 2018 and the emulator has had a bunch of changes in that time. I have no idea what settings actually definitely need to be there or what settings were cargo-cult fixes for problems that haven't existed in three years. :lol:

Started the game from the top and I'm glad I did because I barely remember anything at this point.
Apparently the last time I talked about the game was in 2014, where I was mentioning my PS3 problems while playing Tales of Graces. :lol:

[edit]
rip, my PS3 is finally dead dead, it beeps thrice and the PSU clicks off now
Come check out my website, I guess. Random stuff I've worked on over the last two decades.
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BareKnuckleRoo
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

null1024 wrote:[edit]rip, my PS3 is finally dead dead, it beeps thrice and the PSU clicks off now
I feel your pain. I've been hankering for N64 games but mine is currently dead. Power light comes on, doesn't provide any audio or video signal to the TV. I'm having a hell of a time getting it repaired, the place that was supposed to do it is between repairmen and it might just be easier to buy a working N64 (or just emulate from now on...). It also seems a waste of hardware to go and buy another used one that may or may not die on me suddenly. :(

Also: I finally did it. All of NSIC in Bayonetta Pure Platinumed without using mid-chapter checkpoint restarting. Each chapter was recorded as a single segment. Here it is shown with voice commentary, will upload the plain footage to Youtube later: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1199088581

Unfortunately some of the harder chapters were a tremendous pain because I also wanted to have all the cutscenes recorded in the run (cuz Little King Zero's just so darn adorable). Because the music starts at the end of some cutscenes, if you skip cutscenes then manually use edited to put them back in the footage, the music will have a jarring jump cut when the cutscene ends and gameplay begins. As a result, I had to be patient and watch every cutscene on every chapter again (The Broken Sky wins for longest cutscene at the start of a chapter, oof). And there are several nasty late chapters where I had to experiment with finding reliable strategies to ensure getting Platinum combo, or simply not getting hit.
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Steamflogger Boss
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Sadge to hear those broken console stories. Was the PS3 an OG?

I've heard that power supplies are starting to go for N64.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by null1024 »

Been playing some Ridge Racer 7 [PS3]. This is a game I'd have probably played a lot more if I had a PS3 that wasn't on the fritz. :lol:
in fact, pretty much all of my PS3 games are like that :lol:
AFAIK, there are supposedly a few stability issues regarding menus and FMVs in RPCS3, but I haven't seen anything yet. Did muck about with some settings that people have claimed help.

The handling is just a liiiitle awkward feeling -- in third person mode, drifts look and feel extremely unnatural.
It's remedied a lot in first person mode [the only proper way to play Ridge Racer lol], but it still doesn't quite feel right. It's hard to describe, but it doesn't feel smooth.
This is in contrast to Ridge Racer 2 on PSP, which feels amazing all the time.
Steamflogger Boss wrote:Sadge to hear those broken console stories. Was the PS3 an OG?
It was a used machine and it basically always had issues, so I'm not surprised it's dead. It's a fat PS3, but not a backwards compatible one.
I opened it up and there were loose bodge wires that I sure as hell didn't put in. Also, apparently the BD drive's ribbon cable connector on the board, the flap that keeps it down isn't holding properly.
I'm pretty sure I just got a bloody lemon [it did cost $100, back when that was very cheap for a PS3].

I'm really glad PS3 emulation is as far as it is. Not perfect, but it's been stable and fast.
Probably might end up picking up another PS3 at some point, but not right now.
Come check out my website, I guess. Random stuff I've worked on over the last two decades.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mischief Maker »

"Star Command" the early access game?
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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XoPachi
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by XoPachi »

I'm playing Forza Horizon 5 and please help me G O D. I -need- the song at the time stamp. What the fuck is it? I can't find it.

https://youtu.be/Bz3Wi28IStw?t=322
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Rastan78
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Rastan78 »

LUXXURY - Feels So Good
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