What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Mischief Maker]

Knights of the Chalice

The visuals of Ultima 7 meet the tactical combat of the SSI gold box CRPGs. This is the best computer SRPG since Temple of Elemental Evil. You create a party of 4 D&D characters and take them on a combat-centric adventure spanning levels 1 through 20. The RNG can ruin your day on the lower levels, but once you hit level 5 and get your fireball on, this game turns into a massively satisfying ride.

Protip for the first really big battle:

Spoiler

Try and time it so the patroling soldiers are away from the entrance when the battle begins. Cast entangle on the entrance. Hang out behind the wall at the edge of the entangle roots and pick off the melee orcs one by one as they struggle through. Once the entangle wears off, you can just rush the spellcasters.

Also, don't forget to cast Mage Armor and Light before starting, they're the two permanent (until you sleep) effect spells in the game and light will protect you against a casting of darkness

Some massively excellent scripted battles await you in this game.

[blackoak]

Knights of the Chalice looks great, I'll have to try that out. I just played through Gateway to the Savage Frontier actually, had a major gold box craving last month and needed to get my THAC0 on. I didn't have many D&D friends as a kid so I played the gold box games instead, mainly the Krynn ones.

I also loved the SSI Dark Sun games to death. Nice to see something developed in that mold. ToEE was pretty fun too, though its pure dungeon crawling wasn't as appealing to me.

[trap15]

Lately been playing 激突！ブレーク学園 (Gekitotsu! Break Gakuen), 8ing's new mobage. Very fun, I'd probably best describe it as Puzzle and Dragons meets Billiards.

[Leandro]

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit PC version and it seems the game just fucked up my hardware after playing it for some time. Started showing some corrupted graphics, now I'm getting BSOD, programs shutting down randomly... Damn it

[BIL]

Wowzers, I didn't know it was possible to counter grapple the midboss enemy types in Return of Double Dragon. Or rather I knew it was possible but didn't know why it only seemed to work 0.01% of the time. Turns out it's proximity-based, neato. You have to be in close, where scrub enemies can be snagged from any distance. There's no particular reason to actually use this on midbosses since you can do more damage for less risk otherwise, but then the primary reason this game's worth playing is the martial arts showboating (cf. Super Shinobi II). Makes the dominance feel much more complete when even the fiercest lackeys can be armlocked and reduced to meat piñatas.







Feel the pain, cunts. (・｀ω´・)

Such a great game. I used to wonder what exactly was missing, with its rep as being unfinished. The fighting system is wonderfully developed for finessed brutality, playing off the trademark Technos flanker AI perfectly. Turns out other than a few environmental obstacles, most of what failed to make it in was cutscenery. To which I say THANK FUCK. Technos had a really bad habit of gumming up their console brawlers with words words words. Even the brief stops in DDIII and The Combatribes get on my nerves, never mind the horror story that is SFC Kunio cutscenes. I want to smash faces, don't make me wait for it! I can quite capably infer that the big baddie is in that jet flying off without a five minute treatise before we bust into his dojo, thanks.

[BrianC]

I like Return of DD too. The Boomerang is one of my favorite DD weapons period. It's especially fun in Return of DD with the ability to catch it and cause more pain. I definitely miss the environmental obstacles. While the game is still awesome as is, things like the glass in stage 1 and the non-moving conveyors in stage 2 show some missed potential.

[BIL]

Seemingly as always with this series, RODD gets the badass boxart + manual illustrations too. ^__^ Seriously... these games are so much more presentable in their NTSCJ formats.

Favourite weapon thing for me is returning a thrown knife right back into the face of its sender for an instant kill. Yeowch!

[Obiwanshinobi]

You lads like to cause pain in your games, don't you?

[BIL]

Not just pain - crazy revenge.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Ona krzyczy och ty chuju a on na niej buju buju.

The other game from that dev is Doman: Grzechy Ardana, but its history is a touch too crazy for me to summarize here.

[BIL]

Do Man indeed! Bahahaha! (it's not a viking bumsex sim is it?)

[Obiwanshinobi]

Not that I hope.

[BIL]

Wao, cool. Get a midboss against a wall or obstacle and they won't be able to escape countering range. It's hard to get close enough with their constant hit and run otherwise.

[trap15]

I wish I liked RoDD. But it just plays soooooo slowly, I get really bored really quickly. Nowhere near as intense and exciting as my shining grail of SFC brawlers, 90s NEW YORK SIMULATOR, aka The Combatribes :3

[BIL]

I've been going between both all day. Combatribes is for sure the better of the two, yep. Brutally treacherous crowd melees punctuated by astonishingly vicious boss battles at continuous seizure pace (fuck off, text! but intermissions are okay with broken bosses covered in blood). Technos beater ethic distilled to blistering purity. The inescapable face smasher move is perhaps the most ideal expression of beating 'em up ever. Lock that thing in and pound the button, they're brown fucking bread.

I do love the particular rhythm RODD's counters and blocking give it, though, as well as the grace of its moveset. Feels good connecting with two high side kicks and a full roundhouse for an echoing *clap* and ferocious kiai as the target goes spiralling and tumbling away; feels even better when that roundhouse gets ducked only for the retaliatory punch to get perfectly armlocked and punished with a superhumanly brutal barrage of kicks to the body and face. The slow movement always bugs me a bit when it's been a while, but on Hard it's so easy to screw up that aforementioned grace and get battered like a noob, I always forget about it. It's truly the equivalent of something like Super Shinobi II; not much in the way of raw challenge or intensity, but as a make your own badass martial arts flick it excels.

Famicom DDIII, RODD and Combatribes are all worth having around even with the almighty Double Dragon Advance, I think. I want to like FC DDII but the ridiculously unbalanced knee just turns me off. I can't even get into the SFC Kunios with those cutscenes, no idea if there's anything decent underneath all the yammering.

*also the best 90s Japan videogame New York outside of Crude Buster

[BrianC]

I still need to pick up Combatribes. Looks like it isn't too expensive. The only real issue I have with SDD/RoDD is that the stages are fairly long and lacking the usual DD obstacles. That to me is why it feels a bit unfinished. I feel the solid combat and enemy placement makes up for it, but it's enough for me to prefer DDII NES, DDIII NES, and Double Dragon Advance over it. Actually, DDA has much of what was planned for SDD/RoDD, while doing the included SDD/RoDD levels justice.

[drauch]

I kind of find Combatribes a bit bland myself. I've got the cabinet in my garage, but I rarely play it. I love the massive crowds and the curb stomping, but I just sorta feel like the gameplay isn't very solid. Worth the cheap price, definitely, but it's definitely not one of my favorites.

But goddamn, I love curb stomping fucks and swinging bodies into crowds of scum.

[trap15]

I'd almost go as far as to say that the arcade version is inferior to the SNES port. I have both, and I find the port better designed, though less stylish.

[Schwerer]

I've been into Dark Souls 2 lately, the addictive gameplay formula is still there but I don't feel the game as memorable as the past entries so far.
I feel like From Software just made the game just because they could, and the graphic engine is ugly.

[Moniker]

Gaucamelee: Super Turbo Whatever Edition (WiiU)

Pretty good.. alternates b/w a sort of 2D DMC lite, and some good platforming, based on interesting abilities. Obvious nods to Metriod throughout. Also reminds me a little of An Untitled Story. The humor is so-so. Not the heartiest of recommendations, but I'm enjoying it.

[Stevens]

I threw many quarters into Combatribes in middle school.

The last few years though when I've needed a beat em' up fix the answer is always Streets of Rage Remake V5.

Got back into Red Dead when I want something slower paced. Also just picked up Lodoss War for the DC. Haven't played it yet though.

[CMoon]

I originally put this in the dark souls thread but might as well post it here. Started speed running Dark Souls...not particularly good, but can get to O&S in about 1h15min (pathetic for the pros, I know.) Turns the game into a much more arcade experience, which is kinda what I wanted out of it.

[gbaplayer]

Playing Suikoden II at the moment, 1 and a half hours into it.

[trap15]

Decided to go back and play a bit of Return of Double Dragon and The Combatribes [SFC] again after the recent SFC Technos Japan posts. I'm sorry but I still can't see the appeal of RoDD It's sooooooooo slowwwwwww, especially in comparison to The Combatribes. Even on Hard, it's just a frustrating experience; enemies that block your attacks, required blocking, I don't want that shit. The best defense is a good offense is how I like my brawlers.

On the other hand, I still mostly have the hang of Combatribes. Almost dropped a 1CC, then Slash managed to wreck me in the boss rush (gonna blame the fucking annoying popcorn guys here; I should have taken care of them first), flailed on Swastika and had to continue again... then goddamn Martha Splatterhead wrecked my shit and cost another 2 credits before she went down. It's quite annoying that stage 5 is so long, and how entirely bullshit Martha is; get the glitchy stun-lock or die, fool :V

[BIL]

Something I noticed after figuring out how to armlock midbosses is, RODD's AI is very proximity-dependent. Enemies of all types will indeed block all day up close, annoyingly. You need to keep distance and attack while they're just entering your attack range. Usually they'll respond with an attack of their own and get smacked, if not belted outright. An easy way to do big damage off this is to connect with either a couple of backfists (L/R+punch) or low/high kick (down+kick) for an instant dizzy, then grapple and beat the shit out of them, ending with a throw. Even late-game common enemies can't survive more than a couple of these batterings. It's a slow-paced game by nature, unfortunately compounded by that sluggish framerate, but I do find it moves along pretty steadily once you're consistently landing solid hits.

[jonny5]

Played about an hour of Adventure Island for NES last night. First game I've played in weeks

[iconoclast]

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (6/10)
Worst game in the series so far and the worst VN I've played, but it was still entertaining. It's just that none of the cases or characters are as interesting as the previous games', so the whole game just felt thoroughly mediocre. It has a nice soundtrack, tho.

Spelunky (6/10)
I avoided this for a couple years because I thought it would be awful, but it's not. It's actually fairly decent. Randomized stage layouts make the "level design" bland and uninteresting, but each world has its own secrets, traps, and enemies that are fun to deal with, so it kinda evens out. The game controls well and most of the items are fun to use, so I enjoyed it enough to beat the game (I didn't do Hell, but I might go back if I get bored). It would be a much better game if they cut most of the randomness out, but I guess that's part of the appeal for some reason...

Resident Evil 6 (7.5/10)
This game is frustrating. The combat mechanics are absolutely fantastic - some of the best the genre has to offer - but they're surrounded by loads of shit. It's almost as if every single chapter of the campaign has one or two sections in it that are just absolutely terrible, whether it's because of bad level design, QTEs, a badly scripted sequence, a bad boss fight, or all of the above. It's a shame that the campaign is so flawed, because the core of the game is really, really good. I haven't tried The Mercenaries yet, but I can't see how it could be anything but the best implementation of that mode to date.

Tales of Graces f
I'm around 17 hours into this. The story and characters aren't even half as good as Vesperia's, but they aren't bad either and they get the job done. The combat is really good on the other hand, so I'm enjoying the game.

[BIL]

I think I figured out why I like Return of Double Dragon so much: the typically ruthless Technos enemy AI meshes perfectly with some particularly authoritative-feeling superheroic martial arts (Muneki "kicking geek" Ebinuma is awesome), as well as an interesting zoning element I'd not twigged before. Noticed this afternoon that there is effectively a "dead zone" at the player's front, extending to the limit of your striking range. Enemies won't enter it on their own, cannot attack while in it, and will always attempt to escape it while turtling all attacks (trying to hit a retreating enemy is what creates that annoying block-happy scenario). The exception is if the enemy is caught against a wall and can't escape, in which case they will attack (this is how midboss countering works, and why it's a great idea to get them against a wall - forces an attack at otherwise difficult to reach counterable range).

Once they're free of the zone they'll immediately go to launch an attack, which you can either stuff with one of your own or gamble on countering. Besides the lockable punch you might get a block-only sweep that sends you back to square 1, or they might back further off for a jumpkick that's perfect for countering with a couple of kicks and a grapple beating. Essentially enemies can only attack from the front at the range where they're vulnerable to getting battered themselves.

It's no match for the sheer savagery of Kunio 1 or Combatribes' crowd battling, but on a more personal level the AI is a lot of fun to collectively manipulate into Norris/Van Damme flick-calibre humiliations, using the aforementioned zoning rule. Adds an interesting additional layer to the defining Technos trait of relentlessly backstabber-minded AI. A good way to inflict maximum damage on a target while defusing a pincer attack is to break off a beating and throw the victim right into his would-be backup.

It's a shame the AI took a step back from FC Double Dragon III with regards to dropped weapons. In that game enemies will not only break off an attack to retrieve them, they'll retaliate if you attempt to take advantage of this. Here once a weapon hits the floor it ceases to exist as far as enemies are concerned. Considering how dangerous armed enemies are it's disappointing the situation is so easily defused.

As with most Technos brawlers, I love how you can't KO even a 0HP enemy with a mere jab; you've got to land several to get them reeling, then belt the fuck out of 'em with an uppercut or roundhouse, or a barrage of grapple strikes to the body and face. The animation and sound of a knockout strike is immensely gratifying here.

Nothing quite beats DD Advance though.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Resident Evil 6 (7.5/10)
This game is frustrating. The combat mechanics are absolutely fantastic - some of the best the genre has to offer - but they're surrounded by loads of shit. It's almost as if every single chapter of the campaign has one or two sections in it that are just absolutely terrible, whether it's because of bad level design, QTEs, a badly scripted sequence, a bad boss fight, or all of the above. It's a shame that the campaign is so flawed, because the core of the game is really, really good. I haven't tried The Mercenaries yet, but I can't see how it could be anything but the best implementation of that mode to date.

I actually just got through playing this for the first time as well. I have to agree - it's really a bummer that the campaign is as uneven and unrefined as it is (well, and that just about all the boss fights are lame), because I feel like this game could potentially have rivaled Vanquish. I really hope Capcom decides to iterate on RE6's mechanics in the next main Resident Evil game, because there is so much potential for a truly godlike game within Resident Evil 6.

Out of curiosity, did you play in co-op?

[iconoclast]

Nope, I only played single player. I think that's one area where they improved on RE5, since you no longer have to worry about the AI getting killed or chewing through ammo. They're totally ignorable. (Although I think RE5's AI was fine if you gave them a sniper rifle. I'm not too sure since I usually played that game in co-op)