What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Last evening me and my bosom buddy had some beers and it made for a perfect opportunity to play HotD: Overkill in co-op. Now, there are better gun games on Wii (also published by Sega), but in our state of mind that night those would be wasted on us anyway. Overkill, on the other hand, was like those movies best watched while pissed.

[cocoron]

Ridge Racer 6, finally!
I wanted to play it since I got my jap. xbox, but didn't had the time.

[Hagane]

Tried to play IGS's The Gladiator... and my god it's unforgiving. No extends, two lives, no health refill between levels, and the few food items you get refill very little health... plus bosses have like one hundred frames of invincibility on everything and you can get juggled for lots of damage. I creditfed to see how the game is, and the final bosses are insane, particularly the fat monk and the final boss. I found it so hard that I decided to play Armored Warriors, which seems pretty tame in comparison, hah.

Also played a bit of Shovel Knight. It's decent, though it could rely less on nostalgia and try to take the genre a bit forward... I do appreciate that, even though it does have some of the filler and casual friendly elements of newer games, Feats force you to play in a more focused arcade way. And some of the bosses are decently challenging, too. All in all, I'm having fun with it.

[null1024]

Quite a few things today!

Ys: Memories of Celceta [Vita].
About to face a boss I think. I'm near the village where the girl on the cover is from.
Vita's charging right now, can't be arsed to go grab it and check specifics.

Final Fantasy Type-0 [PSP].
Haven't touched this in a bit. Did my first invasion type mission [yes, I'm still that early in], the mechanics are a bit awkward for those.

Man, I need to see if there's an updated version of the English patch or if my copy is corrupted or something, there's a bit of display corruption when entering the command post menu.

Found myself using Cater today after accidentally getting my teammates killed. Lots of fun with her auto-charge gun. Really, you could reasonably make a good action game with just any one of the characters as the main mode of gameplay.

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Extend [PSP].
why am I failing so hard

There is nothing as annoying as getting an 84% on a song you know you can do, or at least could. There is nothing as embarrassing as getting ranked out on a song you know you can clear and chose specifically to warm up with. There is nothing as stupid as feeling yourself hit the wrong buttons even though you clearly saw and understood what the game wanted you to do and you tried to do it.

gah

[BulletMagnet]

I still remember the first time I tried the demo for Project Diva F, before it was even announced for the US; finished my first song, Miku applauded politely and announced that I got an "S" grade. I felt proud of myself...'til a moment later, when it was revealed that "S" is for "Standard".

Miku lives to troll. Her games are merely another way to toy with the humans.

[Mischief Maker]

Crimsonland just hit GOG.

It's an old game, but in my opinion one of the best action "Rogue-lites" ever made. It's an overhead mouse-WASD Robotron clone where your score also acts as XP and each time you gain a level, you pick one of 4 randomly chosen perks, like radioactive aura, or fast-reloader, or fireball hiccups, etc.

If you've already played the freeware version, the upside of this paid version is more weapons, more perks, more aliens, and better balance. Telekinesis is no longer the game-changer it once was.

The downside of the paid version is you have to unlock 2/3rds of the weapons and perks in a boring mission mode. Boy do I love "earning" a fully functional game that I've already paid for with money "earned" at work. Survival mode (and blitz) are the only modes in this game worth playing.

I also picked up Ys Origins.

I dunno. In the Zelda-game category this has the best combat I've ever experienced, but for a combat game it's lukewarm. I miss the good old days of silent protagonists and optional NPC conversations in Japanese games.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Ys Origins is the second helping for those who wanted more after The Ark of Napishtim and The Oath in Felghana. Adol is not a talkative protagonist.

[Red]

Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae, or Devil May Pantsu: Stunlock Simulator.

It's fun and feels fluid, but it's far too easy. Every stage is just an excersize in stunlock abuse and every boss fight is learning the patterns, then practicing it over and over until you're good enough at it not to be fatigued to death, because the bosses only really lethal weapon, is their giant health bar.

[Ed Oscuro]

Survival mode (and blitz) are the only modes in this game worth playing.

What kind of survival times are on the leaderboards these days?

Good to hear about the balance - blah to hear about the grinding, but that was expected, I guess.

[Zaarock]

Freedom Planet [PC]

Sonic-style platformer with characters that have a lot of movement and attack abilities. I thought the level design is was great for the most part. The combat and bosses feel similar to platformers by Treasure. Nice difficulty curve too, the game gets quite challenging by the end even on normal difficulty. I don't think I enjoyed the classic sonic sonic games as much.. I'm guessing that's mostly because of the added attack mechanics and more complex boss fights.

I'm surprised how little attention this has gotten compared to Shovel Knight, I think the difficulty curve on Freedom Planet is tighter and it's more arcade-style. I need to put more time into both games though.

[ACSeraph]

I still remember the first time I tried the demo for Project Diva F, before it was even announced for the US; finished my first song, Miku applauded politely and announced that I got an "S" grade. I felt proud of myself...'til a moment later, when it was revealed that "S" is for "Standard".

Miku lives to troll. Her games are merely another way to toy with the humans.

I love how they come off as condescending when you barely pass like that.

Not big into the vocaloid scene, but Project Diva is my crack. Been playing since the first one. I even bought one of those giant arcade style controllers for it.

[Battlesmurf]

NES stuff. I like having twitch, it's a nice way to goof off with friends

[BulletMagnet]

I love how they come off as condescending when you barely pass like that.

A dark heart beats beneath that warbly robo-voice.

[Ghegs]

Super Cyborg. Very awesome run 'n gun in the Contra vein.

[Battlesmurf]

I'm going to have to check out that game o.o

[Squire Grooktook]

Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae, or Devil May Pantsu: Stunlock Simulator.

It's fun and feels fluid, but it's far too easy. Every stage is just an excersize in stunlock abuse and every boss fight is learning the patterns, then practicing it over and over until you're good enough at it not to be fatigued to death, because the bosses only really lethal weapon, is their giant health bar.

Have you tried the other dificulty settings? The hardest one available from start is quite a bit better imo, and their are two additional ones unlocked by clearing that.

[KAI]

Ys Seven [PSP]
It's fun, but I still don't like the 3D Ys. The old bumping mechanic was excellent, the Windows games were perfect, and this is just generic.

Also, cleared Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC [PSP]
GOD! DAT ENDING!!! I want to play SC NOW!! No more delays Xseed, please.

[EmperorIng]

Resident Evil: Director's Cut (original):

Mostly a vanity impulse buy, since I have beaten the DS port so many times now. I played around with it a little yesterday getting about 15 minutes in before a zombie chomped me into my death. I love RE1 so very much - I feel like it's Capcom at its finest.

Rival Schools:

My brother is in town for the week so he brought this over and I tried it out. I like it, though it is much slower-paced than Street Fighter. The lack of analog sticks for commands blows, honestly.

Daiku no Gensan: Ghost Breeding Company:

Fun GB action platformer. I haven't gotten too far, but what I like thus far is that the action is fairly fast-paced despite being a small screen (enemies are constantly coming at you) and it is pretty crisp, if I had to give it a vague descriptor. Makes me interested in trying the arcade Hammerin' Harry, and the SNES game.

Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun GB:

This game has definitely got charm, though I think as it stands it is a little easy. It really poops out lives at you constantly between levels. I hope there is some hard mode that can be unlocked, because it is a fun, well-controlled platformer as it stands. I love the Life Force-esque ACID FLAME!s in one of the later levels. Now THERE'S fan service!

I am thinking of selling back Jajamaru-kun and another game I bought in the last few months, Legend of Mana. I'm not feeling either, though I really, really want to like Legend of Mana. Do I just not get it? I sort of float around from place to place without feeling like I've accomplished much. The lack of forward-moving plot is a real killer, especially when combined with a sort of sloggish overworld (unskippable battles).

[Ruldra]

Mark of the Ninja

Got this as a gift from Ghegs. Excellent ninja-style stealth game, lots of different ways to approach the levels. You can go on a killing spree and stealth kill every guard in the level, or you can do this like a true ninja and complete your mission without ever being seen.

Now that I finished the main story, I'm going for a NG+ clear using only the Path of Silence costume - that means using only distraction items, not killing anyone and never raising the alarm. 2 levels down, 10 to go.

[MURPHAGATOR]

Been playing Alien Vs Predator arcade a lot recently, managed to get a deathless clear on max difficulty yesterday with the Predator Warrior, looking to snag one with the others soon.

[Formless God]

Onimusha 2: It's like a less shitty RE, but still isn't that fun. The Critical mechanic blows. You just stand in one place and passively wait for the enemy to make their move. The fixed camera and low PS2 resolution makes it retardedly difficult to see yourself/the enemies at times. If you choose not to go down that route, the game becomes an odd mix between an action game and a survival horror, except action games don't have tank controls and survival horrors are supposed to be scary. It seems you're fucked no matter what play style you choose. A slow, basic action game with tank controls where your attack options are a lunge, a lift, a dial-A and a bomb, or the manly, Critical route that is like trying to EXHC a Lv.1 IIDX song set to 100 GN. Bosses are alright, but some of them are downright stupid such as the 2nd round with Ginghamphatts. This thing hasn't aged well. Except for the backgrounds; they're lovely.

Resident Evil 6: I don't like how my camera, my aim, my movements, everything is wobbling to fuck and back. Enemies are easy to outrun and bosses are just bullet sponges. The "dying" period is annoying as hell, especially when you're alone. The new health blocks + tablets system is pretty cool though. In the end I game overed the most to the QTEs and Gnezdos spawning right next to me.

[Stevens]

I snagged EIGHT new Dreamcast games over the weekend. Average price $10. All complete and most of the discs are in really good condition.

Tetris 4D
Wild Metal
Red Dog
Toy Commander
SF III Double Impact
Suzuki Something Racing
Wetrix
Fur Fighters - Disc only, but it's pristine. Wanted this one for a while.

[River]

Pangya.
It's a fucking golf game, but it's flawless aside from the Monhun-tier load and wait times.

God I love arcade style golf games (that aren't the "realistic" tiger woods crap). Mario Golf Toadstool Tour was in my Gamecube for like a year straight.

[LordHypnos]

Was just playing Sega Swirl (I have it on the Sega Smash pack vol. 1 for DC). It's pretty fun to play the untimed version, where you can plan out all of your moves nicely, but I think it feels a lot more arcadey, and has more replay value in the timed mode. I'm not sure how the stages work entirely, though. Seems like you have to achieve a list of goals to go on to the next stage. Not sure if there's a limited number of stages or if it keeps going up infinitely / to a huge number (like 255, for example). I only made it to 2 (with a score around 4000. Not sure if that's good or bad)

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

I'm pretty into the Contra series, so I decided to go back and play the original arcade games - right now I've beaten the original and am trying out Super. It's bugging me a little: it feels like it should be a total improvement over the NES game, but since there's a lot more going on in this game than the first one, the aiming delay is really throwing me off (especially when you get to stage 3 and the game starts throwing enemies right in your blind spot...) I think I could really get into this game, but it seems pretty rough.

[BIL]

I couldn't get along with AC Super Contra's controls at all until I learned a few workarounds. In case any of this is news to you:

-there's no aiming delay when you're in the air; the game effectively handles like the console ports, then. As in those games, jumping forward while blasting at enemies below/above is a good technique. Works great in the fortress assault at the very end of stage 1.

-as with the first AC game, avoiding diagonals will eliminate delay. I treat it like a four-way game while on the ground, pretty much. This also applies to the two overhead stages.

-machinegun and super machinegun are the game's best weapons hands-down, with spread a distant third. Get the MG early in stage 1 and the SMG at the helicopter, and keep it for the easiest 1CC/1LC. Tapping will make even the standard MG kill stuff quickly.

The aim delay is still a pain in the ass in both AC games, especially if you grew up with the console versions and their frame-instant snap, but with the above countermeasures I find it adjustable to.

I don't like AC Contra as much as the FC port and treat it more as a curio, but AC Super Contra's enormous crowds, detailed graphics, floor-shaking explosions and rampant pace didn't translate perfectly to FC, giving it a certain edge. I wish FC Super Contra had deviated even more from the arcade than it did, tbh. When it attempts to mimic the AC game too closely (stages 2 and 3), it feels barren by comparison. Its platforming-oriented original stages are generally a lot more fun, that boring autoscroller in stage 4 aside.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Ultra Street Fighter IV. It's funny how people try to test Poison's fireball chucking abilities. Makes for a good time.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Pangya.
It's a fucking golf game, but it's flawless aside from the Monhun-tier load and wait times.

God I love arcade style golf games (that aren't the "realistic" tiger woods crap). Mario Golf Toadstool Tour was in my Gamecube for like a year straight.

Monkey Golf (on the original Super Monkey Ball disc) is where it's at, whether you play by yourself or with someone else.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I can't get enough of Spartan: Total Warrior (GameCube version here, but I doubt it really matters). Why it went under so soon is anyone's guess; my bet would be something inbetween market oversaturation with console TPP slashers at the time (just count all Capcom titles) and the fact you die a lot in STW (checkpointing is generous enough, but you get to see "game over" screen all the time).

[shmuppyLove]

PC Darksiders - Good, but tedious.

DS Summon Night: Twin Age - Fun portable action-ish RPG (I say action-ish because it's completely stylus-controlled, but it's real time).

360 Tales of Vesperia - So good, I was afraid Tales of Xillia, being newer, would over-shadow it, but not at all. Presentation on the 360 is incredible.