What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

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

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Sumez wrote:Lost Odyssey pretty much ditches the world map outside of some late-game optional exploration bits.

In general Lost Odyssey to me feels more like Final Fantasy 9 than anything else in the series (or genre in general), despite being a little heavier thematically. FF9 fans who haven't played it, should. It's great.
Yeah it's an amazing JRPG. Probably still my favorite Final Fantasy game to this day even if it isn't technically in the series.
vol.2 wrote:
m.sniffles.esq wrote:
Whoa, I really liked Lost Odyssey

I didn't think anybody really played that.
I vaguely remember it coming out, but at a rather confusing time. It coincided with both the initial emergence and popularity of smart phones and the peak of the last big global recession. I think it just got buried in the confusion of it's time to the greater public. I went onto mobygames to look at screenshots and found that there are exactly ZERO screenshots of the game up on the site.
Everyone I know that has played it loved it, but yeah it's mostly hardcore types.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by o.pwuaioc »

Blinge wrote:
o.pwuaioc wrote:FF9 though was a nostalgic trip.
Seems that's its main appeal.
I get it, I mean I really enjoyed the first and last discs. I can just never get over how Black Mage village is pretty much the only interesting place outside of the first continent.
Yeah, I'm sure nostalgia plays a big part of it. I thought disc 3 fell off, but some of the music was really good, too (especially Freya's theme). It's always hard for me to judge RPGs though because it's a genre I only loved as a kid and actually grew to really despise as an adult.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sumez »

Steamflogger Boss wrote: Everyone I know that has played it loved it, but yeah it's mostly hardcore types.
My girlfriend never plays JRPGs* but she loved Lost Odyssey too.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

o.pwuaioc wrote:
Blinge wrote:
o.pwuaioc wrote:FF9 though was a nostalgic trip.
Seems that's its main appeal.
I get it, I mean I really enjoyed the first and last discs. I can just never get over how Black Mage village is pretty much the only interesting place outside of the first continent.
Yeah, I'm sure nostalgia plays a big part of it. I thought disc 3 fell off, but some of the music was really good, too (especially Freya's theme). It's always hard for me to judge RPGs though because it's a genre I only loved as a kid and actually grew to really despise as an adult.
Interestingly enough I'm appreciating the genre more now. The difference between good and bad is pretty huge though.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BulletMagnet »

All right, that's quite enough of FF games that people don't consider crimes against God and nature. :P

Finished the main story of FF15; I nabbed the "Royal Edition", so next I'll try the included "episodes" and see how they strike me. Episode Ardyn is also half price on the PSN at the moment; anyone have any thoughts on that one?

- Seems the GIF reply I got a little ways back did not lie; I still have no idea why half the stuff happened happened. :P There were certainly some nice fireworks along the way, though; I doubt I'll spend too much time trying to find stuff I missed (some of which seems all but impossible to snag without a guide, a new game plus run, a lot more time/patience than I have, or some combination of the three), but overall I had a pretty good time, and spent over 100 hours on the "base" game, so no need to go into the DLC grumbling about how the former felt "gutted" (though some parts, particularly later on, did come across as unfinished, no doubt largely to blame on the game's infamously fraught development).

- I did finally manage to get my paws on a Safety Bit - via a quest reward instead of a drop, but darned if I'm complaining - though I didn't get much chance to demand a rematch with those insta-death bastards since I soon afterwards headed to Anime Venice. I've never been to Actual Venice, but yeesh, I really hope it's not as much of a pain to find your way around in as its FF equivalent, else tourists must vanish into the ether by the thousands over there. :P

- I never get too involved with photo mode or the various cosmetic "customization" options in games, as I tend to see them largely as ways to change up the scenery for people determined to grind their way to a platinum trophy, but I must admit that as the game went on I got some chuckles out of simply checking out the snapshots the game automatically takes for you; some of the goofball poses it came up with are pretty priceless. I also souped up my wheels a handful of times; my personal favorite was the Classy Coffeemobile, dark brown paint job with the Ebony logo on the side. On the other hand, there was also the Kenny Crow and His Short-Skirted Anime Girlfriend decal set...which managed to make his "A Mouthful of Happiness" slogan even more uncomfortable. :lol:

- Just to make sure I wasn't missing anything...was Justice Monsters Five as much of a waste of time as it felt like, or did I overlook something obvious?

Probably going to give Gladio's side story first go; maybe it'll actually lend him a bit of depth as a character? Or is another GIF headed my way? :P
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

Currently playing Wonderboy: The Dragon's Trap redo. I want to like it, as it looks and sounds glorious, but it's quite obnoxious at times. It loves springing enemies on you with no warning, and/or surrounding you in ways that mean you're going to take a hit, then giving you a bit of health back. I can see why the design of it in general was so lauded back in the day, but I'm struggling to enjoy it moment-to-moment.

Dropped Amnesia. Like Outlast before it, nice concept stretched too thin.

I have finally managed to get into Judgement after two failed attempts though. And Moto Raid is a cracker.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sumez »

Dragon's Trap is a pretty good game, but nothing out of the ordinary in the context of the genre's broad popularity today.
Aggelos is better in every way.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Blinge »

Marc wrote:Dropped Amnesia. Like Outlast before it, nice concept stretched too thin.
Really? Amnesia shat me up, and it's general survival horror game length? 10 hours, something like that. Seemed like a reasonable length to me.

Also Amnesia definitely came first. Outlast probably owes everything to Frictional Games/Amnesia/Penumbra
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

Sumez wrote:Dragon's Trap is a pretty good game, but nothing out of the ordinary in the context of the genre's broad popularity today.
Aggelos is better in every way.
That's in the backlog. Alongside one or two Shantae games, Yoku's Island Express, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Momodora, Monster Boy, and probably a few others I've forgotten about. No next gen for me :D
Blinge wrote: Really? Amnesia shat me up, and it's general survival horror game length? 10 hours, something like that. Seemed like a reasonable length to me.

Also Amnesia definitely came first. Outlast probably owes everything to Frictional Games/Amnesia/Penumbra
Yeah my bad, just thinking of it that way as it's been a few years since I played Outlast. I'll give Amnesia another hour or so then, but I got pretty tired of hiding in the dark with no real indication as to whether I was safe or not. Atmosphere is great though.

I believe the second game is a pure walking sim - I've done my best with one or two of those, but I doubt it's for me.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Blinge »

iirc you probably are safe in the dark, it's just a trade off with the sanity loss while you're doing it.
How far did you get, like what's the last thing that happened?

I wanted to stay sane as possible.

..then there was that time that i got got by a really obvious jumpscare and as i jumped IRL I took some skin off my hand bashing it on the corner of the desk.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

Played maybe two hours? I know I put together some acid that got me underneath the starting point, end ended up in a basement where I did.... something, and had to balance a few bits of floor to get back up. I've just done a circuit of the corridors and study-type rooms, and ended up back at the start, sure it was just after that I left it, but it's been a week, and I'd had a few. I mean I was enjoying it enough, but I dunno, maybe just not my thing anymore.

Though I did enjoy much of Silent Hill: Downpour, which I ended up abandoning due to the horrendous combat.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mischief Maker »

For those looking for novel games, my top 10 unique games list just went up at caltrops.

I apologize for the length. Turns out unique games require a little more explanation than variations off an established genre.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

Grabbed Void Terrarium for the Switch, and it's pretty great. VERY timely storyline
Spoiler
(there's both a global pandemic and a AI controlled police force that essentially eradicates the human race...)
People seem to call it a "mystery dungeon," bit I have never heard that term before so I call it a combination of rogue-like and virtual pet, which seems odd, but both sides work well and make it ultimately both addicting and sweet. Like all of Nippon-Ichi's recent non-Disgaea output, it seems designed for the Switch because it plays really, really well undocked. So it's great for the lite or as a commuter game (for those who still commute)
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Ruldra »

Marc wrote:
Sumez wrote:Dragon's Trap is a pretty good game, but nothing out of the ordinary in the context of the genre's broad popularity today.
Aggelos is better in every way.
That's in the backlog. Alongside one or two Shantae games, Yoku's Island Express, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Momodora, Monster Boy, and probably a few others I've forgotten about. No next gen for me :D
Seconding Aggelos, it's a really great game and I agree that it's superior to Dragon's Trap in every way. Boss fights on hard difficulty are so damn hectic, I love it! Give it a try when you can.
Mischief Maker wrote:For those looking for novel games, my top 10 unique games list just went up at caltrops.
Let me ask you something about The Last Federation. The concept of the game intrigues me a lot, but how much of it is spent playing the turn-based shmup mode? Can I avoid it altogether? Because playing a shmup that auto-pauses every 2 seconds is very frustrating. I did play Critical Mass in the past and all I can think of it is how better it would be if it was real-time.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mischief Maker »

Ruldra wrote:
Mischief Maker wrote:For those looking for novel games, my top 10 unique games list just went up at caltrops.
Let me ask you something about The Last Federation. The concept of the game intrigues me a lot, but how much of it is spent playing the turn-based shmup mode? Can I avoid it altogether? Because playing a shmup that auto-pauses every 2 seconds is very frustrating. I did play Critical Mass in the past and all I can think of it is how better it would be if it was real-time.
You can spend less than 10% of the game in it, depending on the options you choose, but you can't skip it entirely.

That said, it doesn't control like an action game and the keyboard shortcuts allow you to quickly glide through turns.

And note that the article is written for a general audience so while I used terms like bullet-hell and danmaku, don't expect proper cave patterns.

Though if you DO want an action game with the kind of patterns The Last Federation throws around, Arcen made a twin-stick arena roguelite called Starward Rogue, but I haven't played the game myself so I make no promises.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Koa Zo »

Mischief Maker wrote:For those looking for novel games, my top 10 unique games list
YO! thanks for pointing out Yoku's Island Express - the old often overlooked pinball adventure game. I'd have never guessed someone did a modern version.
Pinball Quest on NES, DinoLand on Mega Drive, and Holy Striker on SFC never really did it for me.
Looking forward to playing Yoku's Island Express thanks to your recommendation. It's even available physically for all the current consoles.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Is there a way to make your ai party members not suck in Secret of Mana??? I've tried the act settings in various ways and they just don't ever attack, flail around and die...
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

AI party members function best with long range weapons. The whip, bow, and chakram all are worthwhile using to maximize their effectiveness. You'll generally find offensive spells are the best, most reliable source of damage, but MP recovery items can be pricy at the start.

You generally want one member set to aggressively attack (don't let them use any charge or at most 1 or 2 levels) to inflict knockdowns, and then the other allowed to fully charge whatever weapon they have so they can focus on. You as the human player can charge attack or use quick attacks or spells as necessary, and can make better use of the melee weapons.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Thanks. Hopefully things improve because this is triggering my re5 ptsd. :lol:
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Steamflogger Boss wrote:Thanks. Hopefully things improve because this is triggering my re5 ptsd. :lol:
I think I pissed off several forum-goers earlier when I complained about Secret of Mana during a playthrough several months ago. I was fortunate to be able to play it co-op on my first time through, where a friend who was really into the game wanted to replay it with me, which mitigated some of the AI issues. Actually, one thing I praised then and still would is the AI, which functioned way better than I had expected would (when not using the extreme close range weapons). My main issue was I couldn't figure out why enemies would sometimes be hittable during their stagger animations and sometimes not (as it turns out enemies all have a stagger and a knockdown pose that triggers at random - physical attacks during the knockdown pose will connect and register their damage when the enemy stands up from their current knockdown).

My opinion of the game is that it's a decent, but not necessarily good or exceptional RPG. It was very ambitious, but had some development issues that kept the plot from being as good as they'd originally intended, and the combat system isn't as good as other top-down adventure action games of the time that focused on a stronger single player experience such as Brain Lord. The game is very similar to Tales of Phantasia for the SNES; it started off a series that sequels polished and improved greatly, but its first release entry in the series hasn't necessarily aged all that well (Tales of Phantasia's PS1 release is vastly better in every way, ironing out most of the combat issues and introducing many quality of life features that are now staples in the series).

By mid to end of the game, the best strategy honestly is just play as the Sprite, and lock down anything you encounter with spells. Offensive spells are, with only a few exceptions, vastly dominant over melee attacks.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by vol.2 »

BareKnuckleRoo wrote: I was fortunate to be able to play it co-op on my first time through, where a friend who was really into the game wanted to replay it with me
That is very fortunate, I always wanted to play that game with 3 players. Even if there are some weak spots here and there, having two friends to play through with you is a fantastic bonus.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

There is definitely some, I almost want to call it lag when processing hits when you attack rapidly to keep an enemy on the ground.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by guigui »

Mischief Maker wrote:For those looking for novel games, my top 10 unique games list just went up at caltrops.

I apologize for the length. Turns out unique games require a little more explanation than variations off an established genre.
Speed Brawl has me interested. Is there a scoring system ? Replay Value ? Equivalent of a 1CC ?
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mischief Maker »

guigui wrote:
Mischief Maker wrote:For those looking for novel games, my top 10 unique games list just went up at caltrops.

I apologize for the length. Turns out unique games require a little more explanation than variations off an established genre.
Speed Brawl has me interested. Is there a scoring system ? Replay Value ? Equivalent of a 1CC ?
It's kinda like a racing game where each stage is played individually and awarded a medal based on time. A later patch added platinum medals for every stage in the game, which can only be achieved with endgame skills and equipment. Also there are two bonus medals to be earned each stage, one for finishing it without taking a hit, the other for maintaining an unbroken chain the whole way through, which also record what speed medal you reached while earning them.

So arguably yes to all.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Stevens »

Steam is a cruel mistress.

I had 10 games on Steam back in mid March. Now I have 21, and then there are another four on my wish list. Although one is early access (Noita) and another, Weird West isn't out yet.

I have more time to sink into Blazing Chrome before I buy anything else..
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by vol.2 »

Stevens wrote:Steam is a cruel mistress.

I had 10 games on Steam back in mid March. Now I have 21, and then there are another four on my wish list.
I signed up for a Steam Account in ~2003 in order to unlock the "Gold" features of my Half-Life (Half Life 1) release that came with an ATI 128 Rage Pro card. They basically gave away Counter Strike, Opposing Force and Blue Shift, which was very generous at that time. But it really works as a marketing strategy on me because I've been using it ever since.

I _really_ miss the old Steam user interface. It was so wonderfully utilitarian, but I guess it's hard to market to the general public without all the window dressing. If I had my way, I'd launch everything from a command line.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Stevens »

vol.2 wrote:
Stevens wrote:Steam is a cruel mistress.

I had 10 games on Steam back in mid March. Now I have 21, and then there are another four on my wish list.
I signed up for a Steam Account in ~2003 in order to unlock the "Gold" features of my Half-Life (Half Life 1) release that came with an ATI 128 Rage Pro card. They basically gave away Counter Strike, Opposing Force and Blue Shift, which was very generous at that time. But it really works as a marketing strategy on me because I've been using it ever since.

I _really_ miss the old Steam user interface. It was so wonderfully utilitarian, but I guess it's hard to market to the general public without all the window dressing. If I had my way, I'd launch everything from a command line.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BulletMagnet »

Had a go at the DLC "Episodes" for FF15; all of them share the basic notion of focusing on a secondary character, limiting the player's level and equipment and thus not allowing them to "grind" past challenges as much as in the main game (though there are usually enough potions to chug laying around), and awarding a handful of trinkets in the base adventure once beaten. Here's my rundown:

- Tried Gladio Gaiden first; it's easily the shortest of the bunch, a single linear dungeon that took me about an hour to finish. I sometimes switch to him in the main game for certain encounters, but can't say I particularly enjoy "maining" him; his attacks are so slow and open to punishment that I feel like I have to be near-constantly on the defensive and rely on counters, which slows things down to a crawl, and is especially frustrating against speedy enemies who can even evade your counterattacks. There's absolutely nothing notable story-wise here either; the only insight into his character we get is that:
Spoiler
Sometimes he eats regular-sized Cup Noodles, and other times he breaks out the BIG size. :lol:
- Prompto was next; his episode is both the lengthiest and the most ambitious departure from the main game, but unfortunately in the end I also found it the most frustrating. While Prompto's third-person gunplay works well to break things up in relatively low-stakes situations, it's just not well-tuned enough to carry even a side story like this one by itself; switching to the sniper rifle will more often than not leave you zooming in on a wall and guessing which way to move to actually find a target, major battles which force you to constantly retreat to a gun rack for reloads will have you cursing the cheap hits you take as you repeatedly jump like an idiot instead of taking a fresh weapon, and the snowmobile controls are a janky bear to top it all off. Prompto as a character grew on me steadily in the main game, and I wanted to like this segment too, as it certainly shoots for the moon, but it just plain misses in too many areas.

- Came up with a NEW new recipeh after that, and while this episode plays it safest, acting as something of a microcosm of the main game by giving you the ability to run around for awhile before railroading you forward, but as such ended up being my personal favorite of the bunch; beyond that, I also prefer Ignis' combat style, which is admittedly the most QTE-ish out of everyone's but gives you much better mobility than the others and allows you to stay on the offensive much more of the time, which I find much more palatable. As it happens this one was also easily my pick story-wise; it's the only one that both revealed something I wasn't expecting and included one or two moments that I thought were well done emotions-wise, though obviously others' mileage may vary. Not that there weren't significant niggles here as with everything else in the FF15 realm, but on the whole I think this episode turned out the best.

- Had a few dormant bucks in my PSN account, so decided to have a go at Ardyn too; it would seem that at least some of the feedback the devs got was also the most positive when it came to Episode Ignis, since this one is built on the same basic framework, though this time instead of wrecking a bunch of soulless robots (and the occasional jerkface coeurl), you're teleporting behind upstanding guards and knocking them into the air for an insta-kill, breaking festival decorations for bonus points, spouting off "mwahaha" one-liners and generally being a Big Fat Meanie-Face while learning a bit about why you're a Big Fat Meanie-Face. Combat is particularly momentum-based here, as you can rip most anything a new one if you're on a streak, but can find yourself in a rut just as fast if you mess up; story-wise some bits were a tad too melodramatic for my taste, but overall it's another pretty good time.

- Also gave the multiplayer (or, in my case, single-player with bots) "Comrades" add-on a brief try; the time I spent with it suggests that the experience mainly consists of playing the same few "select an enclosed arena, kill everything in it" missions multiple times so you can earn enough shinies to unlock a few more. Maybe there's a few tidbits therein adding some detail to its part of the storyline, which the main game leaves largely blank, but I don't think I'll be going back to it.

From here I guess it's mainly a matter of how much of the postgame I feel like doing, and then it's on to something else. As I said, though, I definitely can't say I didn't get my money's worth out of the thing.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

Playing some Outrun 2 over the weekend. The original via X360 looks like dogshit. I used to have it set up on a CRT via component, and I actually preferred the look of that to the 36. HD version, so was a bit gutted to see how messy it looks via HDMI. I'm aware that there are supposed to be differences in handling between OR2 and ORC2C, but nothing obvious jumped out at me after a quick play of both. Still fantastic games both of them.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Obiwanshinobi »

Playing through Burnout 2: Point of Impact's early bits for the sake of unlocking Supercar, and tougher challenges, for the THIRD time, this time in GameCube one (second time on the PS2 was when I lost my savestates) with a Classic Controller Pro. Bizarre petty omissions in this - also PAL, also 60 Hz - version, such as the lack of option to display km/h (only mph; I don't recall this being the one and only option in PS2 version) and inability to manually switch signal on and off in the Cop Car (it's on in Pursuit events, off anywhere else, it seems, unless I'm missing something).*
It happens that third time working my way through its relatively easy parts, I find Pursuit challenges most exciting. First of all, every collision with the chased car halts my boost, making for a slightly different boost mechanics than Burnout 2's usual fare. Secondly, I'm under impression there's no rubber banding in this mode; chased car is just as prone to spontaneous crashing as in other modes, then respawns appropriately ahead its crashing site, with about the same time penalty as I would receive. This kind of carshing does not deplete it's "lifebar", but a collision with my car, even as it crashes itself, does, which gives it harsh but fair feel of duelling, that A.I. racing in Burnout typically doesn't, really.
Last but not least, I find something thoroughly exciting about such vehicular jousting in games. There's arena mode all about this in Excite Truck which I've yet to seriously practice, that also hints at possibilities lying dormant in the "car gaming" as I know it. Then again, I tend to like vehicular combat games ("kart racing" is a bullshit genre, as is "futuristic racing"; SMK competes dirtectly with WipEout in all but dressing).
Huge chances are I'll soon return to my "casually competitive" form, if only due to more serious tasks awaiting sober me at home, which makes not so serious things all the more interesting.

*) Turns out signal of the Cop Car is turned off/on with a button assigned to "horn" command, in GameCube version too. Also, today's the first time in a while I play such a demanding on the eye game without spectacles (out to get scratched lenses replaced), and I do fine. This and the fact that lenses I've been ordering since - at least - the year 2004 keep those 16 years old specifications, and also do their job fine, ensure me that both my day job and playing games like Burnout is good for my eyesight. On the downside, I do less reading than I used to as a kid (which most likely made me short-sighted to boot), but then again - my start-to-finish reading a book ratio these days is much closer to 1:1 than back when.
Marc wrote:I'm aware that there are supposed to be differences in handling between OR2 and ORC2C, but nothing obvious jumped out at me after a quick play of both.
From what I (mis-?)understood, not so much "between OR2 and ORC2C" as "between OR2 and OR2SE", and I believe ORC2C features both handling flavours, in at least certain modes.
The rear gate is closed down
The way out is cut off

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