What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[null1024]

Was on a Sonic kick.

Played a bit of Sonic Mania [PC], finished the game in Encore mode since I hadn't done that. Game's pretty fun, apart from A: I'm pretty sure the game is more aggressive with stupid crusher-related deaths vs Sonic 2 and crushers moving away from the floor absolutely have no reason to admit Sonic into them, let alone crush him, and B: the more I play the game, the more I'm convinced that S3&K just has more entertaining stage design.

Sonic Generations [PC]. Could have swore I had an all-clear save from the last time I played it, but apparently I decided to restart and was at the Egg Dragoon boss.
Game kinda just pissed me off now. Yeah, it's pretty and fairly polished, but I still hate that Sonic handles like a brick and will cheerfully boost in the direction he's still facing vs the direction you're inputting, and a LOT of the stage design in the game just kinda sucks. Planet Wisp is not a good stage.
also, all the challenge missions you need to do really suck and I hate them so much, they're pure filler garbage

stopped playing when I fell through the floor going through Speed Highway [hey, just like SA1, zingo!]

Oh, and Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed [PC]. This game is great, but I kinda feel like individual events take a lot longer than I'd like. I think the handling is a bit weird too, but I can get used to it.


[edit]
More Sega.

Jet Set Radio [PC].
I've reached Grind Square, with the old crew.
I spent all of my playtime today fighting the controls and camera above all else. Just trying to see how to get to a location to tag it is sometimes a nightmare, let alone actually getting to said location. Sometimes, you just want to get off of a rail, except you just keep snapping to it. Sometimes, something as basic as walking forwards onto a platform is a struggle. Sometimes you want to do a nice big wall jump, except you do some weird double-snap onto the wall and then just fall. Sometimes, you just miss a rail despite [or maybe even because of] the almost annoying moon gravity.

also, it's really annoying when you're just barely too far to tag something so the camera does its terrible, terrible autocentering, disorienting you and just mucking up the direction you're moving
seriously, most random PS1 games manage to do it better instead of just immediately, with no transition, teleporting the camera

The game is just really cool when everything just comes together and you're doing a sick line and bouncing from wall to wall tagging shit... but it's absolutely fucking terrible when it doesn't.
Also, I have no idea how anyone played this on DC -- not having the right stick to be able to look around is almost insane.
I also have a sneaking suspicion that the game would suddenly become 10x better if your initial acceleration was higher.

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle [PC]
Does this game not have Steam cloud saves? My save file is gone, so I sat down and did almost the entire Hero story this evening [really, I just need to do the last fight against Shadow, but that fight kinda sucks].
I've long since mentioned my thoughts on this game [Tails stages are clunky and a bit crap, Knuckles stages would be vastly improved by not enforcing a search order on the Emeralds, most Sonic stages are pretty decent].
Playing without any of the abilities unlocked is awful, especially as Sonic. Just getting onto rails without the bounce bracelet is a pain. I still wish different abilities were on different buttons.
I still need to go back to Aquatic Mine and get the breathing thing for when I do the final story, assuming I bother [the Dark story is a lot, lot worse -- Eggman gets better stages than Tails does, but Shadow's stages aren't nearly as good as Sonic's [Final Chase is probably the worst Sonic/Shadow style stage in the game], and Rouge has far more annoying stages than Knuckles, it's just awful].

Final Rush, despite being like 60% spaghetti rails over the void, still manages to be less linear than a lot of the levels in the game, and it's probably the best stage in all of 3D Sonic. Actual branching, cool skips, lots of actual platforming despite the fact that again, you're on rails [literally] or doing a bunch of homing attacks.
Feels great, mostly. It still falls apart a bit because the way certain things fundamentally work [like the camera, but also like the way pathfinding works when using the light dash] in the game just get in the way, but good lord, it's a lot better than like everything else.
It was a breath of fresh air after slogging through getting randomly hit in Meteor Herd, dealing with the nailbitingly clunky last room of Crazy Gadget, and going through the obnoxious everything of Eternal Engine.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Just beat Bayonetta's secret "Lost Chapter" as the character that dies in 2 hits. Took a few attempts, but on the winning run I actually managed to get a Pure Platinum on the last verse. The secret boss at the end went absolutely flawless.

[Sumez]

Played a bit of Sonic Mania [PC], finished the game in Encore mode since I hadn't done that. Game's pretty fun, apart from A: I'm pretty sure the game is more aggressive with stupid crusher-related deaths vs Sonic 2

Absolutely yes! And..

I'm convinced that S3&K just has more entertaining stage design.

Also yes.
Sonic Mania has the appearance of a fun Sonic game. But it's just nowhere near as fun to play.

The game is just really cool when everything just comes together and you're doing a sick line and bouncing from wall to wall tagging shit... but it's absolutely fucking terrible when it doesn't.
Also, I have no idea how anyone played this on DC -- not having the right stick to be able to look around is almost insane.
I also have a sneaking suspicion that the game would suddenly become 10x better if your initial acceleration was higher.

Did you play JSRF ever? It's still a little janky, but I think they improved most of these aspects.
Having a right stick to control the camera always sound like a nice improvement, though

[Blinge]

I'm convinced that S3&K just has more entertaining stage design.

Also yes.
Sonic Mania has the appearance of a fun Sonic game. But it's just nowhere near as fun to play.

Had a lot of fun with it, ackshually.

S3 i didn't like at all. when playing for the first time as an adult. The &knuckles bit was better.
Also going back to S1 has been rought the past few times!

[Mero]

I just hit the final boss in Labyrinth of Refrain for the first time and I've had to throw in the towel, no way am I going to beat that.

This game has a few optional superbosses that I haven't beaten yet, the final boss hits way harder than any of them.

I know what I'd have to do to possibly stand a chance (and even then I wouldn't fancy my chances) and it would take absolutely fucking ages, I'd rather just drop it at this point.

[Steamflogger Boss]

I've not played that game but a lot of dungeon crawlers tend to have puzzle based fights where it's not so much about level but figuring out specific abilities/items to use. Might be the case here.

[BulletMagnet]

Having a "you still haven't played that?" go at the "remastered" version of Final Fantasy 12 on the PS4; I never tried the PS2 original to any significant extent, so I can't really compare them, but here are a few early "in a vacuum" thoughts, having just passed the second boss fight:

- So far, for me the game's defining quality is its sense of "grandness", for lack of a better word; more than most stuff I've played that aspires to the same vibe, this one does a nice job making itself feel like an exciting excursion into a bunch of awaiting wonders, like an old swashbuckler movie. The visuals and overall "style" both hold up well with the fresh coat of paint IMO, the soundtrack (using the "reorchestrated" one, though the original is available) adds appreciably to the mood without being obtrusive (a tough balance to strike), and even the pseudo-ye olde dialogue and text is applied consistently without making things difficult to understand. I suppose I'm partially susceptible to its charms since I haven't played an "Ivalice" FF in ages, but so far it's made me eager to see more.

- The fast-forward toggle is appreciated; when exploring an area for the first time the default speed works fine for me, but when retracing steps and fending off pests along the way it's definitely nice to be able to pick up the pace. I also like the tone that plays whenever you pass near a treasure box or other doohickey you might want to check out, so as long as you look around a bit you shouldn't end up screwed out of stuff hidden behind odd camera angles and such; frankly I'm a bit shocked at how few similar games do this, especially those that, like this one, don't show treasures on the map by default.

- The main thing that I'm scared of eventually "hitting a wall" with is the class system; having to choose a job early and never being able to change it (I think that's the case here, right?) always makes me nervous that at some point dozens of hours later I'll hit some nasty boss that requires a completely different playstyle than the one I've been building around and be doomed to either grind or give up. So far I've mainly just been assuming the game is giving me "hints" as to a "well-rounded" way to go (hmm, this new guy comes equipped with a gun, guess he's an engineer; she's got a bow, guess she's an archer) hopefully the game is balanced enough to let most any setup muddle through. I do like how you can "skip around" certain skills you're not interested in to some degree.

- On a related note, I also like being able to explore spots you're not really supposed to go in, to an extent; even if you just poke your nose in, see a monster that can one-shot you and say "nope" it makes the world feel a bit more genuine, and whets your appetite for what's coming up. Overall so far I dig the way the game gradually opens itself up; certain things, both gameplay- and lore-wise, are not completely explained outright, but there are a good amount of hints to be found if you're thorough. Nothing too vital seems to be optional, thankfully, hopefully it stays that way...

- I don't think I'll ever get completely used to combat systems where you can freely move around but still give/take damage when an enemy isn't "actually" within range, but tooling around with Gambits tends to take at least a bit of the edge off, while also knowing you can override them in inconvenient moments with direct commands. I do find it odd that, at least if memory serves, this system got a lot of praise for "taking the mindless button-mashing out of RPG battles" but FF13 was panned for "letting the game play itself"; I'm sure there are nuances to be discussed between the two approaches, though in the end both of them aimed for the same main goal, but only one, in my estimation, got credit for even trying. Guess that's a back-and-forth for another day, heh.

[null1024]

Sonic Mania has the appearance of a fun Sonic game. But it's just nowhere near as fun to play.

Had a lot of fun with it, ackshually.

S3 i didn't like at all. when playing for the first time as an adult. The &knuckles bit was better.
Also going back to S1 has been rought the past few times!

I think the S&K half is a lot better than the S3 half, but I was surprised at how much I still liked the S3 portion on a semi-recent playthrough.
S1 is kinda rough. The most fun I've had with the game is the arcade Mega Play release -- time limits on every level, cuts out Marble, Labyrinth, and Scrap Brain 3. Leaner and meaner.
The final boss still kinda sucks though, and you're on the timer.

The game is just really cool when everything just comes together and you're doing a sick line and bouncing from wall to wall tagging shit... but it's absolutely fucking terrible when it doesn't.
Also, I have no idea how anyone played this on DC -- not having the right stick to be able to look around is almost insane.
I also have a sneaking suspicion that the game would suddenly become 10x better if your initial acceleration was higher.

Did you play JSRF ever? It's still a little janky, but I think they improved most of these aspects.
Having a right stick to control the camera always sound like a nice improvement, though

Sadly, I've never played JSRF. Never owned an Xbox.
I wanted an Xbox kinda badly back then for JSRF, Halo, and PD Orta, was given a GC for Christmas, and I never did end up getting an Xbox.

[kitten]

The Kiwami games are pretty much just far better versions of the original two. There is an area cut from 2, but it's an acceptable loss imo. You can play the entire mainline series on PS4 now and probably for about $15 a game so there has really never been a better time to do it if you do decide to do it. It's one of my all time favorite franchises but it depends what you are looking for in a game. They are definitely about the experience and total package. Some of the gameplay is pretty janky on a technical level.

i'll keep in mind! i want to get back in, but it seems like such a time investment.



such a... time invest...... ment.............



god damn, what is wrong with me.

going to post some pictures of my house and town and such -

Spoiler

[ED-057]

A couple weeks ago I played Septerra Core for some hours. Haven't played it since. On the one hand, I'd like to see where the story, reminiscent of '80s scifi anime, is going. But the game is super clunky. It's a PC RPG so it's cursed with mouse controls. And the envrionments are visually ambiguous isometric view. Your characters literally bump into each other and get stuck while you're trying to move around. The battles weren't great either, so far just pecking away at enemies one at a time every time.

[CricketyJimit]

Just got Virtual On Masterpiece collection on PS4 - Virtual-On, Oratorio Tangram, and Virtual-On Force. So far just been playing the original, the music is so good

[null1024]

Been playing a bunch, but of particular note is that I'm playing Contra [FC].
All these little graphical touches over the NES release are nice.

I keep dying because I keep standing up on accident.
It's kinda obnoxious. I should find another controller, this one really likes inputting diagonal left/right when you're only hitting the bottom of the pad.
also, the game is a lot easier than I remember so far

[Ddshot]

Been smashing doom eternal but to be honest I prefer doom 2!also trying to get back into ds3 but ain’t played it in ages struggling to find my grove.then I end up going back to batsugun trying to beat the second loop!Cant remember the last time I could sit down and play games all day every day!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ajora]

It's true that once you play Ms. Pac-Man with the speed-up hack you can't go back. It makes the game quite a bit easier, but I ultimately find it a lot more enjoyable. This is excellent.

[it290]

@CricketyJimit, lmk if you want to play some VO:OT sometime. I suck but it would be fun to train with somebody casually.

I spent some time over the weekend playing Paper Beast, the latest game for PSVR from Eric Chahi of Another/Out of This World fame. I have to say it's quite cool, a beautiful and alien world with relaxed puzzle-solving gameplay and some neat physics. It has a fairly limited, but really fun sandbox mode that's a great way to while away an hour or two as well. This type of VR experience—where one can relax and be 'outside' without having to actually go anywhere—has been a bit of a godsend during this quarantine, so I'd highly recommend it to anyone who has a PSVR and is looking for a similar experience.

[XoPachi]

I made a Gradius hat some time ago if anyone wants it. (I hope it works anyway) c:

[third_strike]

Played Street Fighter III New Generation any weeks ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0Es3wrMr8I 98 hits in Gill

And beated Shin Akuma in Street Fighter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpcRUpE7VAE

Too, got my first 2-ALL in sunset riders

[Mischief Maker]

Just rage-quit and uninstalled Overload.

I got stuck on the second-to-last stage trying to find that one last goddamn core to activate in an empty level I'd completely cleaned of enemies 15 minutes ago, and the guide bot is disabled. Screw this.

As much as I love the controls and enemy AI, playing Overload reminded me why I never really got into FPS games until Serious Sam. I want to be running around blowing up alien monsters, not bumping against walls looking for hidden doors/switches.

[Ruldra]

As much as I love the controls and enemy AI, playing Overload reminded me why I never really got into FPS games until Serious Sam. I want to be running around blowing up alien monsters, not bumping against walls looking for hidden doors/switches.

That was the reason I stopped playing Hexen 2 back in the day. Made worse by the fact that the levels are all interconnected, so I had to go back and forth exploring multiple levels looking for which way to go next. Gets boring real quick.

[Ajora]

After having sunk countless hours into Dragon PVP, I've finally decided to end my first playthrough of Dark Souls. It was by far one of the best games I've ever played through, but I was kinda disappointed with just how easy it was, especially towards the end when I had to intentionally gimp my character just to give the bosses a chance. I also felt really bad when I killed Crossbreed Priscilla right before finishing my game. She did nothing to deserve that.

Right now I'm craving something really hard, so I'm gonna see what Gaiares has to offer. I always thought it looked really cool.

[BIL]

Too, got my first 2-ALL in sunset riders

Good going! I'm looking forward to the Arcade Archives release of Sunset Riders. I picked up Sengoku 3 after watching your killer Kongoh no-death clear. I wish I'd played it earlier, game rocks.

[XoPachi]

I have the laziest naming conventions for myself.

[Steamflogger Boss]

After having sunk countless hours into Dragon PVP, I've finally decided to end my first playthrough of Dark Souls. It was by far one of the best games I've ever played through, but I was kinda disappointed with just how easy it was, especially towards the end when I had to intentionally gimp my character just to give the bosses a chance. I also felt really bad when I killed Crossbreed Priscilla right before finishing my game. She did nothing to deserve that.

Right now I'm craving something really hard, so I'm gonna see what Gaiares has to offer. I always thought it looked really cool.

Yeah at a certain point you need to just stop leveling. I highly recommend Sekiro.

[Stevens]

As someone who has played the absolute fuck out of Sekiro - 180 hours over multiple play throughs and boss rush mod I second this.

Currently back to it actually.

[BulletMagnet]

Still chugging away at FF12 Zodiac Age -

- Got the whole gang of six now, and after a lot of hand-wringing ended up going with a Shikari, Knight, Archer, Engineer, Red Mage and Time Mage. No idea if they'll serve me well in the long (or even short) run, but too bad for me (and the game, as far as the possibility of me finishing it goes) if it doesn't.

- Not sure how far in I am at this point percentage-wise, but I find myself increasingly thankful for the aforementioned fast-forward button: I imagine the sheer scale of this thing was especially impressive back on the PS2, but the thought of having to traverse, say, the desert area at the default speed does not exactly appeal to me. One detail where Square definitely dropped the ball: DLC that makes the Benny Hill theme play whenever you activate it. It happens in my head every time anyway, they coulda made a killing by making it reality.

- Perhaps even moreso than the scale of the game, though, what continues to impress me is the detail work that went into this: the variety of accents and inflections present in both the text and voice acting is the biggest single achievement, but as I get further in I start to notice the unique icons in the menu for almost every piece of equipment, the different death animations enemies will make depending on what sort of move finishes them, the Moogles at vendor stalls just managing to peek over the counter by holding onto the edge. At first it even felt kind of weird that the characters don't talk to each other while you're walking around as they do in more recent games, but honestly it probably would have gotten annoying without the ability to turn it down/off, so no huge loss there.

- Just starting to get to the point where you have enough abilities and such to make Gambit construction more interesting; early on there's little reason to bother since your options are so limited. As I said before it is kind of neat experimenting with how different ones play off of each other, and I appreciate the developers making such a time- and tedium-saver a central part of the game, but at the same time it can kind of feel like a major portion of the experience is devoted to making your own efficiency as opposed to having it baked in. I guess you could say this game is a test of just how much you really like RPGs: it does a lot of things quite well, but it's also very upfront about what exactly the underlying, and frequently rusty, nuts and bolts of the genre are, and leaves it to you to either mitigate them or put up with them, largely unfiltered.

- One repeated annoyance I've found is that a lot of the major monsters, especially optional ones, will start spamming nasty stuff when their health gets low so fast it's near-impossible to keep up with unless you know it's coming and have prepared accordingly...or have a whole bunch of healing items stocked up. I know they're supposed to be more difficult, but when I've got them down to their last fifth or so of HP with little trouble and then suddenly everyone starts dying I feel far more blindsided than challenged. Maybe that's what some of the Gambits that look kind of useless on the surface are for...though they'd still be a pain to implement either way.

[it290]

Dusted off some old rally games. First and foremost, Sega Rally 2 courtesy of Supermodel. Man, what a sweet game. I know everyone (rightly) lauds, the original, but the sequel is fantastic in its arcade incarnation too, and Supermodel pulls it off pretty seamlessly using an X360 pad. Still working on my times using the Stratos, getting the hang of some of the strategies I used to play back on the Dreamcast. Stunning looking game too. It's a shame the DC port was kinda rubbish, having 60fps with the career mode would have been a thing of beauty.

Which brings me to Test Drive V-Rally. I never played this one back in the day, being a Sega Rally fanboy and feeling a bit of a stink associated iwth the Test Drive name. My mistake. This game is technically brilliant, even supporting 16:9 at 60fps on the old Dreamcast. The controls aren't *quite* as tight as SR2, but in my opinion the game more than makes up for it with the length and variety of the tracks. They don't quite have that arcade level polish, but damn if they aren't fun to drive on, and the game has a more than reasonable host of cars to use as well. The Dreamcast is a system with a lot of great-to-competent racers, and I think this one is probably pretty close to the top of the pack.

[XoPachi]

This Control game is REALLY nice.
It threw me off because I thought it was gonna be a survival horror title, but it's *pure* action. The combat feels like something that would make some competitive ass multiplayer once you get the serious upgrades. And the progression reminds me of Metroid which is really nice. Also, my god is this game stunning gorgeous on max settings.

This and Jedi Fallen Order are really becoming some of my favorite recent adventure games. c:

[it290]

Eh, I didn't really care for Control. There was enough randomness in the combat that it felt like it was designed with a PC quicksave/quickload type ethos (tho it doesn't have this feature on console), like you're intended to die to RNG once in a while no matter what. I also felt

Spoiler

That the combat is overly reliant on on TKing everything to death and that the story just fizzles out before it even really gets going, no doubt intentionally to set up the DLC/sequel.

Shame too as I did love the art direction.

[Obiwanshinobi]

One detail where Square definitely dropped the ball: DLC that makes the Benny Hill theme play whenever you activate it. It happens in my head every time anyway, they coulda made a killing by making it reality.

Sounds more like a mod idea to me.
The very existence of games like FFXII frustrates me, as they so seem like my kind of thing... twelve years ago. Matter of fact, I've yet to finish Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria started around that time. Either some part of me has aged badly, or there is a way to recover from this taedium vitae of mine; time will tell.

[Marc]

FFVII Remake. Astounding stuff. Biggest surprise for me is just how well the combat has translated, it genuinely feels like the original, just a lot more dynamic. Absolutely stunning audio/visually. Far, far better than I'd allowed myself to hope. Been a long time since I played a game where I'm already sad at the thought of it ending.

Banjo Kazooie.... think I actually prefer this to Mario 64, the terrible Clanker's Cavern aside. Actually, has there ever been a swimming level in any 3D platformer ever, that wasn't tedious and shit?

More Forza Horizon 4. This is nothing more than a love-letter to every racing/driving game released in the last 30 years, it can literally be set up and played almost any way you like. I'd only played a few hours on my son's Xbox as I knew I'd end up picking up one of my own for it, so I'd only seen the rural side of the map. Was overjoyed to find out there's a mini-Edinburgh that immediately calls to mind one of the first two Project Gotham titles. Pure fun on a stick, not sure a game has ever made me smile quite so often.