What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[XoPachi]

I don't have this, but my god I've gotta buy it here soon.

This is like a lost PSP game. It's so nostalgic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1tCk_wwyGc

[Creamy Goodness]

Finished up Zelda. Nice game!

Playing Trials of Mana. Kind of surprised it got decent reviews considering how linear and generally easy it is. But honestly I could use a game like that these days. Something I can just turn my mind off with and enjoy.

There's a boss in the game that is extremely bullshit and nearly made me quit. I think it was some kind of door or wall with eyes and there were spikes all over the damn place with hazards you just couldn't focus on from every angle.

I know which one you are talking about. Constantly creating walls of flaming spikes while spawning henchmen to attack you. That boss was some serious BS. Luckily it was back to smooth sailing after him.

[Marc]

Playing some Tumble Pop currently. It's not what I'd call A-tier within its genre - Bubble Bobble/Memories, Saboten Bombers and Zupappa are my standard bearers- but it's a solid B. One slight annoyance is that movement seems to be 'sticky', from landing on a platform, it feels like there's the tiniest delay before it will register another jump input, but I've no idea if that's usual DE jank, or something the Evercade is responsible for.

[Sumez]

Playing some Tumble Pop currently. It's not what I'd call A-tier within its genre - Bubble Bobble/Memories, Saboten Bombers and Zupappa are my standard bearers- but it's a solid B. One slight annoyance is that movement seems to be 'sticky', from landing on a platform, it feels like there's the tiniest delay before it will register another jump input, but I've no idea if that's usual DE jank, or something the Evercade is responsible for.

Did you try the sequels, Diet Go Go or Joe & Mac Returns? I haven't actually played Tumble Pop, but I played the other two and had a ton of fun with them. My only gripe is that they're quite a bit too easy for an arcade game.

[Marc]

Playing some Tumble Pop currently. It's not what I'd call A-tier within its genre - Bubble Bobble/Memories, Saboten Bombers and Zupappa are my standard bearers- but it's a solid B. One slight annoyance is that movement seems to be 'sticky', from landing on a platform, it feels like there's the tiniest delay before it will register another jump input, but I've no idea if that's usual DE jank, or something the Evercade is responsible for.

Did you try the sequels, Diet Go Go or Joe & Mac Returns? I haven't actually played Tumble Pop, but I played the other two and had a ton of fun with them. My only gripe is that they're quite a bit too easy for an arcade game.

I've got J&MR on Switch, it's great from what I've played, which, being a Jonny Turbo port, isn't as much as I'd like. Hoping it pops up on AA at some point.

[BIL]

Yooo, DAYUM, I recognise that Shinkawa artwork a mile off! And it's a Front Mission sidestory! Holy fuck maybe it'll bring back a bit of that Nano Breaker cheese! *record screech*

I bought Left Alive for 480 yen knowing full well what I was doing. I have a soft spot for kusoge with lofty goals. It reminds me a lot of the kind of games that D3 used to do under The Simple 2000 series.

I'm kind of enjoying the trial and error unforgiving stealth gameplay. Reminds me a bit of when I first tried out MGS on PS1. The combat is horrendous though, there really is no defending it. You can shoot enemies in the head and they don't give a fuck, it doesn't even stun them most of the time. Basic enemies also take a ton of shots to kill, feels like shooting RE zombies ffs. I could actually live with that if the game didn't force you into combat situations, but unfortunately it does. In stage two for example you're forced to fight your way out of a hospital. On my first attempt I carefully fought my way out, and by the end was completely out of bullets and support weapons. I suicided and decided to try just rolling all the way to the end on the stage EDF style and made it easily without wasting a single shot. That probably tells you everything you need to know.

Anyhow I plan to keep playing it and I'm enjoying it despite (because of?) the jank. With a little more budget and development time it might have been something really special.

I rove you d00ds u know that ^w^ Indeed, I was getting flashbacks to that wonderful time in the PS2's mid/later-life when suddenly everyone was tryna be Discount Hideo, including several people the man worked with!

Sound a bit more overtly busted than I was hoping for though. Ah, probably gonna stick with just the gorgeous PS2 ZOE2 for now.

[XoPachi]

I've confirmed for myself that Kass is not in Tears of the Kingdom.

I want to throw a black hole at Nintendo.

[Sima Tuna]

I'm getting that itch again. It's either time to get tested or time to dive back into Earth Defense Force!

Anyone else a fan of bug-shooting, arcadey, cheese-filled, b-grade sci-fi action? I'm just not sure which game I want to play. Unfortunately, the switch versions of EDF 2-4 haven't dropped in the west yet. I have 2017 aka vanilla EDF3 and 2024 aka vanilla 4.0 on my xbox 360. 4.1 on ps4. And EDF 2 on pstv. I think 4.1 is probably my favorite, although I've heard the 2017 portable version for vita added the Wing Diver/Pale Wing to that game. Which might be my dream combo. Wing Diver is what I always play, mixed with some Ranger. Good old Army Mans are always fun. Ranger is the run n gun fun class for when you want to shoot and shoot without reloading. Rockets that cross the entire map are always fun too. But man, the jetpack.... Wing Diver's Rapier and LASR are killer workhorses and her mobility allows for you to exploit the verticality in level design.

I still haven't played EDF 5, despite everyone saying it's the best one. I heard about the weapon upgrades and that kinda sounds like the opposite of what I want. The colonist enemies look pretty cool though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vpXniXMu_o

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I'm absolutely nuts about EDF. I got into the series via Insect Armageddon, the rather laughably bad western made game that forces you to run to specific parts of the map like a generic checkpoint based shooter. The freedom in the JP made games is part of the fun, and EDF 2017 is a lot better. Same goes with 2025/4.1. Heck, even the first two PS2 games have aged really well!

Don't be afraid to get the Switch versions if you want 'em. You can refer to this comprehensive list for the weapons of EDF3:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220126111 ... pn.com/3p/

Sadly, because the original site is down, I don't think the English option works any more because it relies on a drop down button to change the language. It's a shame as it was the most comprehensive weapon listing on the web for 4.1 and 5 in English. I'm actually tempted to write one up for GameFAQs now even though I'm aware how old the game is, just so there's at least an English version with this data out here (there's a very competent list for EDF 2025 on GameFAQs that works well in a pinch).

https://web.archive.org/web/20210303014 ... n.com/4-1/

EDF5 has a lot of mechanical quality of life changes they added to remove what a lot of players felt was jank in EDF 2025/4.1. Rangers can sprint, motorcycles are now usable, accessories let you tweak abilities, and grinding is seriously reduced as you get weapons and armor for all classes no matter what you play. Map completion also considers all difficulties below the current one as beaten if you beat a mission on a given difficulty. Maybe some of the changes were so players would wrap up EDF 5 sooner and move to the next game? If you want the more classic feel of having to grind each class separately, make a save file for each class to use.

I still think EDF4.1 is pretty charming and play the PC version a lot. Multiplayer's great fun!

[Lander]

Hell yeah EDF. Irreverent genius incubated and iterated by way of a PS2 budget software line.
Now where did I put my Very Heavy Grenade with the comically long windup...

I think 4.1 is my favourite overall, probably by virtue of being my first. 5's quality of life improvements are significant, but it covers a lot of the same ground and doesn't have quite the same degree of charisma post-redesign.

motorcycles are now usable

In the broadest possible sense of the term I still remember bails-a-plenty from my last co-op session!

[Marc]

EDF is one series I've made multiple attempts to enjoy, but it's just missing something for me

[To Far Away Times]

Zelda Totk. Sequel to my favorite game ever. I even had a fucking dream about it. It gets its hooks in you and it doesn't let go.

Jury's still out if the improved mechanics outweigh the fresh new feeling of BOTW. But Tears of the Kingdom is probably the most advanced game ever made.

[m.sniffles.esq]

My roommate has been playing Tears of the Kingdom--and merely observing in passing--it looks like BoTW 1.5
I mean, I'm sure If I actually got down to the nuts and bolts of playing it, there's major differences that can't be detected by watching someone else play for a couple minutes, and 'if it ain't broke', etc. etc. I was just kind of shocked how samey it looked seeing that BoTW was such a major shake-up of the series.

---

I've been playing... a bunch of things, actually. But my last major purchase was Puzzle Bobble: Everybubble. Which is--y'know--Puzzle Bobble. No wheel is reinvented. I found it a little lame that they're charging $40, yet the original isn't included like they did with Bubble Bobble 4 (it's sold separately for an additional $10). Also, the "Puzzle Bobble vs Space Invaders" mode (that I was really looking forward to) is a little janky. Unlike the main mode it doesn't scale with the amount of players. Thus, one player is way too hard due to the width of the play-field, and four players is too easy. Two player games are a lot of fun, however.

But other than that, it has all the modes/features you'd expect (plus a randomized, endless 'Snood" mode), and the OST is real nice. Definitely worth snagging on a sale.

[XoPachi]

My roommate has been playing Tears of the Kingdom--and merely observing in passing--it looks like BoTW 1.5
I mean, I'm sure If I actually got down to the nuts and bolts of playing it, there's major differences that can't be detected by watching someone else play for a couple minutes, and 'if it ain't broke', etc. etc. I was just kind of shocked how samey it looked seeing that BoTW was such a major shake-up of the series.

I did basically everything that matters in the game and it's...impressive but the initial splendor wore off like 80 hours ago. It's kind of surprising the things they didn't bother to do and problems from the last game that persist.
The more I played the more missed opportunities I found and it started to get annoying. The best content in the game was all extremely short lived for me relative to it's shocking size.

This game also has the worst inventory and menuing in the series. It's actually kind of unbelievable for a game lauded in it's "immersion" to be throwing you in menus this much in a series where that's been a criticism for decades. Weapon durability removing mods makes things smoother and it's still almost as much menuing as a turn based RPG. There is nothing to streamline any of it short of sorting by most used items.
Dungeons are still bad. All still extremely cheesable, over in 15 minutes, no unique minibosses/enemies, and there's only 5 which is insane to me. But they at least have lovely unique aesthetics now, really exciting lead ups, and actual bosses this time.
Depths were cool until you realize there's very little in the way of exciting set pieces for something that's the entire size of Hyrule. And enemy variety is still extremely underwhelming though it was nice to see some classics return. The Depths having a single unique enemy is criminal. There is so much wasted potential down there and like Korok seeds, the game mocks you for the tenacity of exploring it all by rewarding you with a useless trinket instead of something cool like what you get for doing all the shrines.

The biggest thing this game totally nails is traversal though. The options at hand is something this tired genre needed beyond glorified sprints and a single obligatory glider no one else reinvented for nearly a decade now. Getting around is a lot more fluid and really fun. I haven't seen another open world come close to being this fun to traverse outside of racing games. The fact that things work how you expect them to when building (within reason) and nothing under the hood just breaks is a testament to Nintendo's push for polish. That shit is so impressive and no one in the AAA space is going to match it for years though imitators are certainly going to try. But surprisingly it doesn't feel "forced" the way stuff like that usually is.

I initially was having a lot of fun but the overall package is like a 6/10 mixed bag for me. It's certainly an innovative technical marvel. I think it's way WAY better than Wild though because Jesus Christ, that game man...

Actually just remembered that they removed Kass. Game sucks.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

totk spoilers ahead

Spoiler

The best content in the game was all extremely short lived for me relative to it's shocking size.

This isn't that surprising. The more you pad out a game with size, the more you risk there being a disconnect between how much game there is and how concentrated the fun actually is. It's unfortunate the Depths don't sound as fun to explore as they could have been. They could have reduced the surface area to explore and make it more of an enclosed cave system and probably come away with a more focused design? Who knows.

I think they focused more on refining the building system than making refinements to the actual combat system, and as a result the game's suffered a bit for it. But the game is incredibly impressive in terms of the sandbox elements and the sheer freedom you have in terms of how you build and create ways to tackle puzzles, so if you're into that creative element there's a ton of fun to have there.

This game also has the worst inventory and menuing in the series.

The fact that you have to pause the game constantly to attach things to your arrows is really awful. Why there's no quick shortcut button to attach the same material as the last thing you used is deeply unfortunate.

Actually just remembered that they removed Kass. Game sucks.

GET YOUR BIRD DAD BONER BACK IN YOUR PANTS, SON

[Marc]

Tumble Pop: 1 screen away from the 1cc, git this if I stop making silly mistakes

Deathloop: Ditched. Its got some Arcane magic, but if feels like an uneasy halfway between Dishonored, and a shlooter like Borderlands.

Resi 3 RM: Ditched. Fuck me this is shite. It takes every complaint I had about the original, and magnifies them a hundredfold. Nemesis isn't fun, it's boring as fuck.

Slipstream: I WANT to love this, but the handling is just off for me. Its yoo sluggish on manual, and not engaging abough on auto. And it doesn't help that not a single corner seems to be signposted.

Started Luigi' Mansion 3 tonight, seems fun.

Trying to convince myself buying Batsugun digitally on PS while I wait for my Seitch physical would be silly.....

[Lander]

Resi 3 RM: Ditched. Fuck me this is shite. It takes every complaint I had about the original, and magnifies them a hundredfold. Nemesis isn't fun, it's boring as fuck.

The little city > sewers chase after the train departs exemplified the remake as a whole during my first run.

You want S.T.A.R.S.? I'll give you *whack* OOF

Started Luigi' Mansion 3 tonight, seems fun.

LM3 is a great journey. Very much its own thing structurally, but every zone is polished and full of fun scooby doo spooks.

My one standing dig is that the big new gadget makes Luigi completely OP, but doesn't get a corresponding 'big moment' beyond solving some visually impressive puzzles.

[Air Master Burst]

Resi 3 RM: Ditched. Fuck me this is shite. It takes every complaint I had about the original, and magnifies them a hundredfold. Nemesis isn't fun, it's boring as fuck.

At least the original one handles okay, the remake has Jill making some uncontrollable staggering animation like every 3 steps. They did a pretty good job making the story coherent, but it's such a chore to actually play I don't see myself going back.

And the RE2 remake was so good, too.

[blackoak]

I enjoyed the recently released Bat Boy (easy-but-breezy platformer in the modern shovel knight vein) so I decided to check out the dev's previous game Super Sami Ball. It's a 3D platformer/"marble physics" game that some people have compared to Super Monkey Ball. It's *almost* a great game, but the dev never bothered to iron out (or create stages sufficiently lenient to accommodate) the unreliable physics. It's an accumulation of small things that ultimately makes the game really frustrating by the second half. My overall impression is that they didn't have the knowhow or experience to modify the physics engine--even if that meant sacrificing some realism for playability/reliability--and mostly just wanted to make cool levels.

[null1024]

Got to go to my "local" Round 1 [it's still ages away, even when barreling down the highway], spent a bunch of time with the rhythm games.
I am immeasurably glad I remembered to bring earphones, because holy shit, it's loud in there to the point where I wish you could lower the cabinet volume while playing. Some machines are set to "bone liquifying" volume.

I spent most of my time on Music Diver. I have hit the outer pads on accident way too often, and I think the game treats that as a bad hit if there's a pink note coming up. Also, the rope for the drumsticks kept getting tangled. Pretty fun for the most part. Seems to have a few odd issues sometimes [in particular, one song, with the piano note setting for the melody line enabled, ended up just playing one out of key note for all the melody sections], but I really like the game.

I also spent a fair bit of time playing Chunithm, which is sadly not set up for IC cards like many of the other games. Very fun game. I thought the "hold your hands in the air" mechanic was stupid the first time I played, but it grew on me a lot. I really wish it was set up online and updated with a fuller selection of songs.

Groove Coaster is great, of course, but the right button isn't terribly sensitive on the cab, and the left button gets a bit stuck [at least it's more sensitive lol]. Kind of painful. If you hit them really hard, it works, but boy, it kind of kills the fun when you very definitely hit a note and it doesn't register. Got a free credit from using the NESiCA card for the first time on it.

Also, I am bad at Sound Voltex. Didn't play much today, but I'll probably be back.

Oh yeah, IC cards are like $6 each there, and you need like 3 different ones across all the games, god damn it. Sound Voltex takes eAmusement, a bunch of the other games are NESiCA, and there's a third one that I can't remember that some games looked for, and I'm not even sure if the service is hooked up.
Been trying to register my NESiCA card online, I keep getting an authentication error. Put in my card number, selected the games I last played, picked a name [tried using full-width chars too] no dice. Bleh.

[Lemnear]

60 minutes of KOF98UM...of which 45min where only to recolor my team

[XoPachi]

I'm playing the Majora's Mask remake and this shit is stupid.
Why did they make so many garbage changes? The bosses especially are straight up worse for no reason.

[Sima Tuna]

Yeah, they ruined the zora swimming too. One of the best features of OG majora was equipping the zora mask and swimming everywhere super fast. You can't do that anymore because they tied it to the magic system directly. So you either waste all your magic for an approximation of MM zora swimming (but have zero magic left for enemies or bosses) or you deal with the shitty new swimming system.

The shiekah stones are dumb too. The bomber's notebook was already reworked to make finding objectives much less difficult. But the stones straight-up spoil solutions to every puzzle. It's like Nintendo decided they wanted to market Majora to six year olds, specifically.

I'm playing God Eater 3 right now. It's alright, but I kinda just want to go back to God Eater Resurrection/Burst. Better story and characters. GE3 has better gameplay, but I don't know if that's enough in itself to compensate for the downgrade in every other area.

[XoPachi]

Yeah, they ruined the zora swimming too. One of the best features of OG majora was equipping the zora mask and swimming everywhere super fast. You can't do that anymore because they tied it to the magic system directly. So you either waste all your magic for an approximation of MM zora swimming (but have zero magic left for enemies or bosses) or you deal with the shitty new swimming system.

The shiekah stones are dumb too. The bomber's notebook was already reworked to make finding objectives much less difficult. But the stones straight-up spoil solutions to every puzzle. It's like Nintendo decided they wanted to market Majora to six year olds, specifically.

They completely killed a lot of the game's challenge and initial core design.
Instead of owl statues being a temporary quick save with the real saving being tied to the Song of Time, now you just save whenever with no commitment. The amount of planning and forethought needed to play the game is halved largely killing what the game is about. Even the Song of Double Speed is just kind of broken now. It let's you advance by hour instead of, again, having to make a tough choice of prioritizing a quest over something you might miss by jumping 12 hours.

The new Bomber's notebook is annoying too. Before you just got a ping and 1 text box after meeting an NPC with a quest. Then it was out of the way. Now they have to stop you, open a new menu, and slooowly tell you everything you're doing for every NPC in the game for eeeeveeeery little step. You are stopped so much and the notebook logs more than it originally did so it's just so damn tedious.

Certain things are out of order in a way that doesn't make sense. Shiro is put -in- the Pirate's Hideout. He's in the beginning of Ikana Canyon for a reason because there's a lot of illusory themes in that area requiring the Lens of Truth. When you realize this, you'll be encouraged to use the Lens in other places and eventually find Shiro. But the mouth of Ikana can be explored early. You can come here and find Shiro, help him, and have a reward that makes your actual next objective easier. It's a light reward for attempting a sequence break. But now he's somewhere that in context doesn't make sense for him, you might miss him because Zora Link DRINKS magic on your way there with no replenishes, and that makes Ikana just a small bit less rewarding. The Song of Soaring is just...given to you the moment you enter the swamp. It's no longer a reward for traversing the Palace (also made way easier because platforms don't move until you land on them now) then scaling it's mountain(?) evading Dragonflies.

They wrecked Deku Link as well so getting through his areas is an absolute slog. Why they felt the need to kill him acceleration is beyond me. None of the others have this quirk and hopping across lilies now takes twice as long with more mistakes being possible.
Goron Link is the only form they didn't totally ruin. He controls even smoother and the camera is tastefully zoomed out. The more zoomed "action camera" in the original is cooler, but this is necessary for the small screen.
But I wish you could switch between toggle and hold for rolling. It makes the Goht fight even sloppier since now you have to get out of Goron form and shoot his new stupid eyeball with arrows if you knock him down by an airborne collision. And knocking him down is not only optimal, but can be done accidentally. Before if you were able to manage magic, you had a very fluid battle where you didn't have to stop rolling so long as you didn't get hit. It was extremely replayable for that aspect too. But I'd say Goht was least ruined. He has nice new animations for readability on attacks and the boulders he kicks up seem to either follow you or be aimed in some fashion for additional challenge. You can break the stalagmites if you're in full sprint which is a good way to encourage maintaining top speed. Had it not been for the eyeball, this would have been a straight upgrade.

GYORG on the other hand has been totally fucked up. His new second phase makes the fight drag for upwards to a ludicrous half hour fight! I've done RPG and MMO raids that were over sooner than this idiot. Odalwa was made into a total nonfight but at least that was over in just a couple minutes. And I've heard stories about Twin Mold, I might quit when I reach him.

Ice Arrows were also ruined now only being able to freeze new sparkles on the water (except Gyorg's room for some reason even though the ice arrows serve no purpose here???). The sparkles give away secrets, make one of he game's more dynamic items totally rigid, and kind of feels like they think players are dumb. I get that if this is your first run of the game, you'll enter Great Bay Temple, see the sparkles and be mystified as you can't interact with them, and then have an "aha!" moment when you get the arrows. But is it really worth it for a less useful item and more rigid play experience? Come on...

And then there's changes they just didn't do. You have a 4th button for items but now you only have 2 tactile buttons for items. You will most certainly have one of your form changes on one of these and the touch buttons are not good for your aiming items. They made dedicated buttons for the Pictograph and Ocarina, but not the masks. And it kills me because there's 3 free directions on the DPad. They do this with Zelda sometimes. Because Link's Awakening S had shit item management too. Not utilizing enough of the controller and wasting it on dumb shit like two buttons for shield, two buttons for boots, and the dpad has a useless camera panning feature, while right stick does literally nothing. Meanwhile Link is moving in 8 digital directions on a STICK, but I digress.

Like there's still positives here. When the game isn't killing the atmospheric, gloomier areas with 100000 lumen lights all over the place, it's a very pretty game. Dialogue is way faster, certain non critical cinematics end sooner (the Business Scrubs flying off), alarms for the notebook, etc.
But the annoyances outweigh the new bonuses and I'm only sticking with it because Majora's Mask on the go (fuck NSO).

/rant

[guigui]

I'm playing Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon

This is a puzzle game in the universe of Shovel Knight. Gameplay has Shiren style where every move you make makes ennemies move. Then it has time elements and strategy elements.
So far it looks very good to me, precise and frantic gameplay, lots of characters and ennemies to change and adapt playstyle, suitable for short sessions, jsut one more run please, you always know why you loose and see how to improve. Best time I had with a puzzle game since Baku Baku Animal, Magical Drop, and Meteos.

As with all Yacht Club games in the franchise, graphics, music and everything is very polished. So highly recommended if you want to try something fresh.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I ended up replaying Wing Commander: Privateer this weekend. It's a fun game, though you're stuck in one system for a large chunk of the early game as the Tarsus is woefully incapable of fighting anything meaningful outside the smaller, weaker enemies in the Troy system. I also wish Pirates and Retros used more than just Talons... a LOT of factions have Talons and it feels like you're dealing with them most of the time.

While most guides recommend working up to the Centurion, the very fast ship that has 4 guns and 2 missile bays, its speed isn't helpful in asteroid fields, nor is it helpful if an enemy decides to suddenly veer in front of you and crash into you. A full speed crash with shields maxed at level 3 is survivable, but half your armor will be gone and you'll have serious systems damage, ouch.

I went with the Orion for this run; it costs a lot of cash to fully upgrade but it supports level 5 shielding and engine upgrades, which turns it into a literal tank. It's also the second fastest ship, capable of outrunning encounters with one exception, and can safely hit an asteroid at cruising speeds with only half shielding gone. Sure, it can only carry two guns and one missile bay, but who cares? It has so much shielding that it's by far the safest ship to dogfight in asteroid fields with, and you can even use its insane shielding to ram right into enemies.

There's also the Galaxy ship, but it's actually worse than the starting Tarsus. Its two turrets do not automatically fire, meaning there's generally no reason to use them unless fleeing an encounter, in which case they're more awkward to use than a rear turret. The cockpit and ship design are cool, but the hitbox is so gigantic that it gets ripped apart far too easily, even moreso than the relatively small Tarsus. Such a shame, I used to think it was really cool as a kid and then got destroyed whenever I used it. It only occurred to me later after many failures that it's actually treated as a bigger ship in terms of a target, so it gets hit way more easily than even the tanky Orion.

Spoiler

The second last mission in the game is WAY harder than anything else. You have a very long trip where you have to navigate multiple asteroid fields full of nasty enemies only to be faced with the Steltek Drone chasing your ass as you escape with your newfound gun. If you want the gun to be on the right side of your ship, you have to sell off the gun first as it overwrites your leftmost gun first. The Steltek Drone suuuuuucks. I'm convinced beating the game using a Tarsus or Galaxy is basically impossible as it'd rip you apart with its shots unless you're able to chase it off with missiles long enough to escape every encounter. The Orion isn't quite able to outrun it, but you can launch missiles or turn around and fire at it to scare it away, despite it being technically invulnerable. Once I made it back to a base I foolishly tried a switch to a Centurion to outrun the thing and it was a horrible mistake, as you're barely any faster than it so you need to have an initial lead on it, and if it swings in front of you, smashing into it deals ridiculous damage. I nearly died, limping around with my afterburners badly damaged, waiting for my repair droid to patch me up so I could zoom back to base, swap BACK to an Orion, and then try to escape to a mining base where the plot proceeds.

As it turns out, the game randomly decides if the drone chases you or not every time you exit a base, so once you get back to Rygannon, you can enter and leave until the drone's gone, then get to a jump point to escape the system as you head to a mining base to get the plot moving and get rid of the drone.

The powered up cannon you get for the "final boss" if it can be called that is hilariously overpowered and kills the drone (as well as everything else including capital ships) in a few shots.

I've started the expansion pack, Righteous Fire, as well. I'm convinced the Orion is the top tier ship of the game here by a wide margin because as expensive as it is, Level 7 shielding and engines, and the new shield regen upgrade, all makes you insanely powerful and difficult to kill. The additional thruster upgrades also mean you're even more nimble than before, whereas the Centurion is stuck at a measly level 4 engine and shielding.

Interestingly, while getting to RF with a Tarsus is more or less impossible, you can start a new game to begin as one, and it's actually quite a viable ship now compared to the larger Galaxy, since it can actually get meaningful engine and shield upgrades. It's still worse than a Centurion or Orion, but it's at least decently usable for missions, once you've fully upgraded it anyways.

I remapped the hell out of the controls using Autohotkey. I remember as a kid failing many missions because I'd press X by accident when trying to hit C to communicate, and would suddenly dump all my cargo, an instant mission failure (even if you pick it up after with a tractor beam!). My remapping uses C to afterburn, X to fire, Z for missiles, LCtrl for targetting, V, for lock on... and no button mapped to drop cargo. If you accidentally pick up contraband and militias come after you because of it, it can be a mild nuisance, but this is generally not a problem in practice and you can outrun them easily enough. Not accidentally dumping cargo due to a key press is far more useful. Having replayed it with control remapping, I'm convinced the default control scheme is riddled with issues, and remapping makes it far more playable (maybe it was designed so multiple keypresses wouldn't be dropped as they tended to be with older keyboards, who knows).

[SuperDeadite]

Decided it was time to play through Evil Within again. I've put over 200 hours into this game now, and it's still too much fun.

[Mero]

Finally 1cc of Ristar this morning, the final boss had been ending my runs for years but I finally got it. You only need to hit his second phase 5 times, I was pleased to discover. Got taken out by his lightning attack too many times, and was sucked into the black hole a few times as well. Arrived with 13 lives, 2 lives remaining at the end.

[XoPachi]

Finished everything in GunFire Reborn save for running the game with 2 of it's 9 characters because I don't like them. I've realized the starting cat character is horrifically broken and he carried me through so much these last 15 hours of play. WILD game.

[Mero]

Finally 1cc of Ristar this morning, the final boss had been ending my runs for years but I finally got it. You only need to hit his second phase 5 times, I was pleased to discover. Got taken out by his lightning attack too many times, and was sucked into the black hole a few times as well. Arrived with 13 lives, 2 lives remaining at the end.

Lol, I'm an absolute moron. Just played through it again, you just have to stand there spamming diagonal attacks. Easy when you know how! I'm still shit on the height bonuses though.