What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[LordHypnos]

Got 3D Space Harrier the other day. Kicks ass. Can't make it all that far though. I think the furthest I made it is Stage 4 or 5. Somehow haven't gotten a special stage yet, either, though I admittedly forget how you do.

Does it make me a filthy casual that my favorite input method is the stylus with reverse control off, and my second is d-pad with reverse off?

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Finally one-credited Strider last night. After I finally understood my problem with the anti-gravity part in stage 5, it was smooth sailing.

I saw a friend play The Punisher, and that inspired me to try getting back into it after having played a tiny bit of it over a year ago. I managed to get up to the stage 3 boss on one credit a couple of times, but no farther. The stage 2 boss is a pain.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Played some TrickStyle (PAL DC version) for the sake of VGA-to-RGB modes comparison. That is, watched some demos and completed some tutorial missions. Interestingly, the game seemed about the same played both ways, despite interlaced mode being 50 Hz-only. Way to go, Criterion.

The RenderWare engine's history is pretty much the history of PS2 (I read Criterion were the FIRST games dev to ever work with PS2 devkit), and - broader - history of multiplatform development of its time... and here it is, on Dreamcast, in the year 1999 at that.
In a much rougher condition than what powers the original Burnout. The only thing that makes those two seem alike is the demoscene-ish music. Otherwise, TrickStyle reminds me of Kinetica (by the way, another significant game engine, if only used in PS2 games) - similar concept, yet framerate not exactly rock-stedy in either.
Still, some transparencies and light sources aren't without their charm nowadays when those things are usually handled differently. Shame about flares glowing right through the playable characters.

Tracks designs are artistically among the finest of their ilk. Of quality I didn't see bettered before Jak X. That's right, TrickStyle does what F-Zero GX doesn't in making impression of racing through futuristic urban environments (rather than high above them at best, F-Zero GX way). Not having played Sonic & All-Stars Racing games, I can only hope they are graphically more of something along those lines.

It helps that textures are some of the Dreamcast's finest. Alas, pop-up is also distinctly Dreamcast (think Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio). Seen after AirBlade and Midnight Club II, this thing comes as a bit grating.

As for the gameplay, it's begging for some camera control and makes me asking myself why I don't just play some THPS title, or the aforementioned AirBlade instead. Nothing as idiosyncratic as Jet Set Radio at the latter's least compromising so far, however, and I had no chance to check out the 2 player mode yet (neither had I will to, admittedly).

[trap15]

Got my GunMaster PCB today in the mail, been playing it on-and-off all day. Really fun, and not easy by any means. Exciting close-range melee combat and shooting, amazing soundtrack, great graphics, mostly tight controls, pretty much the works. Only complaint so far really is that the "super attack" input is really hard to pull off consistently because of how complex it is. How's this: U,U+R,R,D+R,D,D+L,L,R,Jump. 3/4ths circle to back, then forward. Hurgh

If you're reading this BIL, I implore you to give it a shot, I think you'll like it a lot.

Did I mention the soundtrack is fucking fantastic? Because it is.

[BIL]

Whoa, hadn't heard of that one! Visually reminds me a bit of Midnight Wanderers and Gunners Heaven, but more colourful than either. Thanks for the recommendation, I need to brush up on my mid-90s coinop action sidescrolling.

[Ghegs]

GunMaster

Wow, 2010 Street Fighter: The Arcade Game. Looks very cool, I'll have to keep my eye out for that.

[EmperorIng]

I picked up a copy of TRAG: Mission of Mercy for $3 a week ago, but I've been too busy up till now to play it.

After playing for a good 90 minutes last night, I can say I have easily gotten more than three dollars' worth of entertainment out of the game. Lots of cheesy fun with a combat system that doesn't totally suck. But that's not the reason anyone plays it. It's to rock out to smooth Sunsoft jazz while listening to some of the most horrendous voice-acting ever recorded.

[Ed Oscuro]

I've tried GunMaster a few times and never really liked it. It is colorful though

[trap15]

GunMaster

Wow, 2010 Street Fighter: The Arcade Game. Looks very cool, I'll have to keep my eye out for that.

It's even a cheap board. DrKitty on ebay had this one listed for $50

[Hagane]

I saw a friend play The Punisher, and that inspired me to try getting back into it after having played a tiny bit of it over a year ago. I managed to get up to the stage 3 boss on one credit a couple of times, but no farther. The stage 2 boss is a pain.

The key for that fight is to hit the boss only a couple of times (don't do long combos) and move away. If you do this hit and run strategy you'll have an easy time avoiding his counters. Do long chains and you'll get hit all the time. Also, if you see it jump very high for the quake move, just jump. With those two tips the fight is not that hard.

Oh, and you can infinite any grab-able enemy (The Kingping included) by doing a strong piledriver (do a piledriver at the apex of your jump), rolling towards him after you land and grabbing him again from the floor, then piledrive again and repeat.

[Moniker]

Path of Exile (PC)

Played this awhile ago, left it, coming back to it. It really hits all of the great Diablo II notes and expands upon them. Only thing really lacking is that the story is all over the place, and not particularly engaging. I do really like though how the loot system works. You're not just scumming for items. If you find a regular item that fits your build, you should take it and see if you can upgrade it into something worthwhile. Most of my gear was crafted rather than stumbled upon.

I'm having particular fun with the 'races' that happen every now and then. You join as a hardcore (permadeath) character and see if you can level faster than the other folks on the ladder in a set time limit (1-3 hours, generally). They adjust the stages and enemies so you're really zooming through the game. At the end of every area you can choose between an equipment chest and an 'orb' chest. The latter lets you upgrade whatever you're currently wearing. Gonna need to learn the character classes better so I can compete.

Oh, and it's free (microtransactions are almost entirely aesthetic.. don't know how they're keeping it in the black). And the best Diablo-like out there.

[Ed Oscuro]

Path of Exile (PC)

Guess I'll be reinstalling that stub again soon...I installed the stub downloader a while back but just never got around to loading it up. Good to hear some more good news. Diablo II was pretty great but could easily be expanded upon - will be interesting to see how this fares. I'm not gonna invest MMO-scale hours into it though.

The crafting note is interesting. This used to be one of the top wishlist items for gamers, but now it seems a lot of people take it for granted (or, worse, it gets implemented well in a game that doesn't deserve it, like The Elder Scrubs Online).

[Obiwanshinobi]

It really hits all of the great Diablo II notes and expands upon them.

You might wanna try out X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, for I keep reading it's "Diablo II done better". Haven't personally played it yet, but one HUGE thing it's got Diablo II hasn't is the co-op on single screen (see, even Diablo I&III console ports have it).

[Some-Mist]

It really hits all of the great Diablo II notes and expands upon them.

You might wanna try out X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, for I keep reading it's "Diablo II done better". Haven't personally played it yet, but one HUGE thing it's got Diablo II hasn't is the co-op on single screen (see, even Diablo I&III console ports have it).

I wouldn't go as far to say that legends 2: rise of the apocalypse is better than diablo 2, but it was definitely an awesome game. a little difficult too.

then again, I might be biased towards d2 since I have very nostalgic memories of anni/torch solo-farming and group farming with my awesome 90s orb sorc and lightning jav. I spent much more time with Diablo 2 than xmen legends 2.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

I saw a friend play The Punisher, and that inspired me to try getting back into it after having played a tiny bit of it over a year ago. I managed to get up to the stage 3 boss on one credit a couple of times, but no farther. The stage 2 boss is a pain.

The key for that fight is to hit the boss only a couple of times (don't do long combos) and move away. If you do this hit and run strategy you'll have an easy time avoiding his counters. Do long chains and you'll get hit all the time. Also, if you see it jump very high for the quake move, just jump. With those two tips the fight is not that hard.

Oh, and you can infinite any grab-able enemy (The Kingping included) by doing a strong piledriver (do a piledriver at the apex of your jump), rolling towards him after you land and grabbing him again from the floor, then piledrive again and repeat.

Thanks for the advice. I worked out the Guardroid boss, but I didn't know about the infinite (or that there are stronger piledrivers), so that should help. At this point the first boss actually gives me more trouble than the Guardroid. I know about bringing the barrel from the start of the game into the boss fight to help with health, but he is surprisingly fast and dangerous for a Capcom brawler intro boss.

On my last run I made it up to the stage 5 boss. I got pretty close to beating him, but his speed compared to the stage 2 version threw me off.

[Moniker]

The crafting note is interesting. This used to be one of the top wishlist items for gamers, but now it seems a lot of people take it for granted (or, worse, it gets implemented well in a game that doesn't deserve it, like The Elder Scrubs Online).

As an FYI, it's not crafting the traditional sense (gather a bunch of designated items to create something, ala the Horadric Cube). You collect a series of orbs that modify the values of any given item. One upgrades it from normal to magical, whereupon it gains 1-2 new properties. Another upgrades it to a rare item ('unique' in D2-speak). Another orb scrambles those magical properties. Another reworks the number of sockets (where you put skill/support gems to use), and yet another scrambles the sockets' color.

It adds up to being a non-grindy way of customizing your equipment. You essentially find a base item whose intrinsic properties you desire, then try and craft something that fits with the rest of your outfit. For instance, you may have weapons and armor that have amazing base stats, but no elemental resistances. So you upgrade your flasks (rechargeable potions) to temporarily give you resistance to what you're currently encountering.

[KAI]

I've been playing BlazBlue Chronophantasma with friends. My Jin is getting more Brokenawesome with each passing day.

[gbaplayer]

playing through my game gear collection at the moment.
first game was Eternal Legend, next one was Sylvan Tale and the one iam currently playing is Lunar Magic Shool.

great games, only EL was too long (around 30 hours), ST was too short (around 5 hours) and LMS is way to easy till now.

[Ruldra]

BIL was talking about Shadow Dancer the other day so decided to give it a go yesterday. No-shuriken, level III right off the bat. I'm already very familiar with this game so didn't take me long to remember everything back.



Final boss pro-tips:

- As soon as a ninja comes off the pillar, strike him with the sword, then go to the edge of the screen and hit him again. He won't come back anymore. This is a safe, quick way to dispose of them, plus you only need to hit them twice instead of the usual three required.

- If you try this with the rolling ninjas however, you will probably get hit. So memorize when they show up and move out of the way. They appear on waves 2, 4, 11, 13 and 15 (this is for Level III, the order might be different for other levels).

[BIL]

Holy cow, you memorised when the roly polys launch their savage attacks? I just live in fear of them, I can't count too well under pressure anyway. ^_~

I've been thinking that a default no shuriken, no ninjitsu, no death run on Level III would be incredibly hardcore to plot out and execute. Not going to attempt it any time remotely soon, if ever, but it's nice to know the potential is there. Even just played normally it's really damned brisk, too. I like SDMD easily as much as the Super Shinobi duo now.

[Ruldra]

I've been thinking that a default no shuriken, no ninjitsu, no death run on Level III would be incredibly hardcore to plot out and execute.

I'd totally be up for that, in fact. Doing it without dying is crazy hard but with enough practice hours, I believe I can pull it off eventually. Something to consider in the future.

Of course, it wouldn't go unrecorded.

[mastermx]

I've been playing some super meat boy recently. The difficulty and flawless controls make this a joy to play. There's so much content too.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Made it up to Kingpin in The Punisher. He killed me pretty much instantly since I made it with no lives and no health, but it's something. I probably would have been able to make it to him with at least one extra life if I hadn't made a mistake with food earlier in the level.

Out of all the Capcom brawlers I've played, this one definitely feels like the easiest, but it's still a great game. I think the hardest part of the game for me now is stage 3; you don't get much food and the boss is probably the hardest in the game (aside from maybe Kingpin).

[EmperorIng]

Picked up Armored Core 2 for $3.

Do you get used to the controls? It seems awkward to have to use practically every single button on the dualshock. I never liked pressing a button to look up or down.

Also, Gitaroo Man. One of the best PS2 games. No contest.

[LordHypnos]

Made it to Revi (Stage 9) in 3D Space Harrier just now (on 1 credit, obvs.). Half way done! hell yeah. Also haven't had to use the level select yet, but I might have to for Revi. IDK. game seems pretty reflex / generalizable strategy based
Also, stilll being a filthy casual and using touchpad autofire controls
It makes me feel a little better though that for 80s PC versions, mouse controls were often used. auto probably does make it way easier, though.

[Illyrian]

I have beem hitting Diablo III pretty hard for a few weeks. The expansion ia so much better than the original in so many ways. Better loot system that gives you loot for your character and not just random as hell, and the stupid auction house is completely gone which is a massive improvement!

[R-Gray 1]

I was playing Mega Man Zero on gba emulator

Nice challenging game, have things that i dont like for example repeat all the stage after i lose and don't have continues (Z's). You have to find Z's in game to obtain continues. And I have to listen again and again Ciel same words to mission information and save options

The most important is the history about this game and the relation with X saga. Gr8 boss battles.

[lilmanjs]

Cogs.
I've had this from a humble bundle for ages, but have yet to really dive into it. I am liking this, but man am I getting stumped too easily. I really need to play more puzzle games.

[Ruldra]

I decided to take up BIL's challenge and now I'm working on a Shadow Dancer no death/no ninjutsu/no shuriken clear on hardest difficulty. Already managed a no ninjutsu clear so I just need to polish up things a bit more to do it all in one life. I pretty much know how to deal with every part of the game now, I just need to stop making stupid mistakes.

...yeah don't mind me, I'm crazy like that. Someone proposed a Megaman X minimalist run (X-Buster only, no upgrades) a couple years back and I ran right into it. I love these kind of absurd challenges.

Bonus footage from one of my runs:

[BIL]

I love it when that happens.