What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Obiwanshinobi]

There are fishing rod Wii peripherals out there (if as good as Nyko Perfect Shot gun peripheral, I might get myself one just for one game).

[Jonst]

Grinding senran kagura burst... I'm not really following the story, the combat is fun but samey after a while. Is anyone else playing this? Does it get any better or is it the same all the way through?

[dspoonrt]

I've been spending a lot of time with Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 for the GameCube lately. I love those games.

[Mischief Maker]

Been playing Republic Commando and was actually enjoying myself a great deal until I realized my enjoyment came from that "Hunt for Red October"-esque choir chiming in every time my team blew up something big. Once that spell was broken, my interest fizzled.

Probably the best of the post-prequel Lucasarts games, but that's not saying much. I think the secret of this game's success is how much they managed to distance things from the stupid fucking movies.

[JBC]

I've been spending a lot of time with Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 for the GameCube lately. I love those games.

I recently got them, great stuff. It's amazing how much tension such a cute little game can build, & how much precision it takes to be good at it.

[blackoak]

I was doing pretty well going through my backlog, but shmuplations work has limited my time lately (and i've been spending what little I have on Guardian Force runs). I woke up this morning with a major hankering to revisit Chippoke Ralph though, and attempt a proper 1cc. Must be all the platformer talk in the ninja gaiden thread...

Also need to get to finish my Forte run on Rockman and Forte.

[Immryr]

man, that level on monkey ball 2 with the bouncing balls though...... had me stumped for ages. in the end it was my girl friend who spotted that you can slow them down!

[dspoonrt]

I've been spending a lot of time with Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 for the GameCube lately. I love those games.

I recently got them, great stuff. It's amazing how much tension such a cute little game can build, & how much precision it takes to be good at it.

I recently picked them up, too, after enjoying Super Monkey Ball Jr. (GBA) for years. I like the portable version, but the console games are definitely where it's at.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I've been spending a lot of time with Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 for the GameCube lately. I love those games.

I recently got them, great stuff. It's amazing how much tension such a cute little game can build, & how much precision it takes to be good at it.

The original Super Monkey Ball is an enhanced port of a coin-op Monkey Ball, so it's got to be tense.

As for Republic Commando, its selling point is that your squadmates don't typically do stupid things. Very competent A.I. for the job.

[Mischief Maker]

As for Republic Commando, its selling point is that your squadmates don't typically do stupid things. Very competent A.I. for the job.

I could swear, these prequel games I play have an undercurrent of contempt in them. Battlefront 2 has a mode where you slaughter gungans. Republic Commando goes to great lengths to humanize the clones, which George "Greedo shoots first" Lucas retconned into Star Wars to make all the stormtroopers that the heroes shoot in the face into disposable non-beings.

It's like that behind the scenes snippet from attack of the clones where Lucas is telling one of his flunkies about how cool it will be to see Yoda with a lightsaber and the flunkie nods skeptically. That flunkie unloaded everything he wished he said into the videogame division of Lucasarts.

[JBC]

Played abit of Dashin' Desperados earlier today. I wouldn't call it underrated as much as overlooked. Great visuals, plenty of environments, novel gameplay (espesh when playing against a friend). Love it.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Beat Lightning Returns for the first time. Played the game on Normal. Fun game, not sure if I'd say it's the best of the 3 FF XIII games, but it's pretty close to XIII-2 for me. Didn't save the clear data for NG+ as I want the Double Deity weapon drop from the final boss, and they decided it'd be a good idea to make it a 5% drop rate when every other boss drops their weapon or accessory 100% of the time. Probably should be thankful that Hard Mode isn't an option the first run because if it was, I'd have picked it and probably would have regretted it, but if it's actually hard even despite having to be done in NG+, it'd definitely be interesting. I beat both superbosses that are available in the first run and got all the Last Ones, and I'm definitely looking forward to trying the NG+ only superboss version of the final boss.


Also finished getting 100% with Aqua on Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix on the 2.5 HD both on Critical, so now I've done 100% with both Ventus and Aqua. I started doing postgame stuff on Critical with Terra, and so far I've defeated VLS using the rock exploit(I fought him fairly with Ven and Aqua, but screw that fight with Terra), and got up to level 40 and defeated Mysterious Figure(who I never want to fight again, but probably will when I get around to doing both games in 2.5 at level 1)

[Necronopticous]

Darkest Dungeon

[Satan]

Half way into Ada Wong's campaign in RE6. The game itself is a brave attempt at progression with the current RE formula, but despite the improvements: it does seem a bit stale, and I'll be glad to finish it. I don't think a NG+ will be happening anytime soon. If Capcom bother with an RE7, I'd like to see them abandon co-op and get rid of the shitty mutant enemies.

[JBC]

Capcom needs to reboot the RE series, & I say that as a lifelong fan. The story lost it's shit after part 3 & the gameplay lost it's shit after part 4. I enjoyed 5 & 6 and even many of the oft derided spinoffs but even I have to admit it's gone too far off course. A reboot is in order.

Revelations has the right idea - part 4 camera with 1-3 puzzle work, now lets start the story over & just keep Umbrella.

If not, then fucking remake part 2 already, give us a new Chronicles, & then a dedicated console Mercenaries. Merc mode in 5 was incredible.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Half way into Ada Wong's campaign in RE6. The game itself is a brave attempt at progression with the current RE formula, but despite the improvements: it does seem a bit stale, and I'll be glad to finish it. I don't think a NG+ will be happening anytime soon. If Capcom bother with an RE7, I'd like to see them abandon co-op and get rid of the shitty mutant enemies.

That you call RE6 stale honestly surprises me. I'd say it's kind of to the game's detriment that it's all over the place and is always trying to surprise you. Plus it doesn't really play like any of the previous RE games at all, or even any other third-person shooters.

Capcom needs to reboot the RE series, & I say that as a lifelong fan. The story lost it's shit after part 3 & the gameplay lost it's shit after part 4. I enjoyed 5 & 6 and even many of the oft derided spinoffs but even I have to admit it's gone too far off course. A reboot is in order.

Revelations has the right idea - part 4 camera with 1-3 puzzle work, now lets start the story over & just keep Umbrella.

If not, then fucking remake part 2 already, give us a new Chronicles, & then a dedicated console Mercenaries. Merc mode in 5 was incredible.

I don't think I really agree with any of this. There's no point in rebooting the story; it's not as though it'd create fertile ground for new games (rather, it'd probably mean we'd just see more of the Spencer estate and the worn-out Raccoon City). And Revelations definitely isn't the direction this series could go in; it feels like a limp version of RE4 without any of the particular strengths of that game or the original REs.

I kind of doubt Capcom could remake RE2 at the moment and create anything as good as the remake of the original RE either. But I can get behind a full-fledged mercenaries game; it's one of the strongest elements of the newer games. I was pretty disappointed the 3DS one was as limited as it was.

[BulletMagnet]

Didn't save the clear data for NG+ as I want the Double Deity weapon drop from the final boss, and they decided it'd be a good idea to make it a 5% drop rate when every other boss drops their weapon or accessory 100% of the time.

I ended up just buying that one off of another player's NPC eventually...speaking of which, are those still wandering around at this point, or have they started vanishing as the player base has dropped off? I don't think I would have finished Hard mode in particular without all the Turbo Ethers I got from them...that said I enjoyed the game a lot more than I expected to, in spite (or perhaps because) of how hilariously stupid it could be.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

I saw a bit of those in Luxerion. Usually with no item or some lower tier items. I think you can summon specific ones using Facebook/Twitter somehow, but I wouldn't want to mess with it. PS3 version, so I'm not sure how it is on 360(wouldn't be surprised if outerworld stuff required Gold on 360).

I ended with around 1,000,000 Gil or something, which I'd rather save for the Hard mode outfits. I don't think I found any Turbo Ethers(just the normal ones) and I did get an Elixir for 100 Soul Seeds(which is reduced to 80 needed in any NG+ after you get one for 100)

[Ruldra]

Darkest Dungeon

Really looking forward to this one but I'm bummed that it's still an early access game. Maybe I should wait until it's properly finished.

[JBC]

Capcom needs to reboot the RE series, & I say that as a lifelong fan. The story lost it's shit after part 3 & the gameplay lost it's shit after part 4. I enjoyed 5 & 6 and even many of the oft derided spinoffs but even I have to admit it's gone too far off course. A reboot is in order.

Revelations has the right idea - part 4 camera with 1-3 puzzle work, now lets start the story over & just keep Umbrella.

If not, then fucking remake part 2 already, give us a new Chronicles, & then a dedicated console Mercenaries. Merc mode in 5 was incredible.

I don't think I really agree with any of this. There's no point in rebooting the story; it's not as though it'd create fertile ground for new games (rather, it'd probably mean we'd just see more of the Spencer estate and the worn-out Raccoon City). And Revelations definitely isn't the direction this series could go in; it feels like a limp version of RE4 without any of the particular strengths of that game or the original REs.

I kind of doubt Capcom could remake RE2 at the moment and create anything as good as the remake of the original RE either. But I can get behind a full-fledged mercenaries game; it's one of the strongest elements of the newer games. I was pretty disappointed the 3DS one was as limited as it was.

They crashed a stealth bomber into an active volcano & fought super Wesker inside it. Any sense of realism has flown out the window & with it the horror. The protagonists are no longer regular people who could be killed any moment, they are fan favorites you know will survive. They wrap up all loose ends in 6, so it's a good time for a fresh start.

When I say the only element you keep is that of the Umbrella Corporation I mean everything else should be fresh. No STARS, no Racoon City, no Spencer Estate.

[Ed Oscuro]

Revelations definitely isn't the direction this series could go in; it feels like a limp version of RE4 without any of the particular strengths of that game or the original REs.

Hard to believe RE4 is 10 years old now...only? Everybody and everything has been feeding off that, but generally without any of its panache.

Mikami (or whoever did the scripting) gave Capcom ample worthwhile directions for the future on a silver platter. You don't even have to get out of the village to hear some interesting stuff about the larger world from Luis. It's a sad thing when Mikami and company can create and ditch worthwhile characters within a game, but seemingly Capcom is stuck in a swamp when it comes to dealing with these things naturally. I can understand why you wouldn't want to change a roster too dramatically - at least, no killing-off of characters - in a fighting game, but these titles were supposed to be story-driven.

[Mortificator]

When I say the only element you keep is that of the Umbrella Corporation I mean everything else should be fresh. No STARS, no Racoon City, no Spencer Estate.

At this point, I'm not sure there's any reason to even keep the Resident Evil name, other than the Pavlovian gamer response.Take whatever expertise has been gained and make a new series.

On a related note, I recently played through the original Alone in the Dark. My first of this style of survival horror was the original Resident Evil, so its predecessor was a new experience for me. Off-putting, at first, when minutes from start I was in a bare-knuckle brawl with a zombie and a bird monster.

The game ultimately has less combat than Capcom's, with no bosses, and a fair number of unkillable enemies. The Cthulhu-inspired setting gives a different and more ominous vibe... try to go out the front door, and there's a lot worse waiting for you than infected dogs. I appreciated the nonlinearity, and when I looked at a walkthrough after the end, I saw there were a number of alternative solutions I hadn't though of. There were a couple of times I got into situations that seemed unwinnable and reverted to an earlier save, though I'm not sure now they really were. The adventure game roots are obvious, yet I think Alone in the Dark's more effective than point & click horror houses such as Uninvited.

Then I tried the sequels, and wow, this series fell hard and fast.

[JBC]

Not if you successfully merge the design philosophy of 1-3 with 4. RE was made by it's sound design, it's quiet tension, & it's ambiance. It lost all of that beginning with 5. As far as the story goes if you ask me it derailed with Code Veronica & Claire/Steve's hamfisted love story. Even in part 4 you have this ridiculous sinister midget running around sucking every bit of seriousness out of the proceedings.

You only need the best & basic elements to do a successful reboot. Peppering it with fan service is only going to disappoint those same fans of the originals. Look at the new Dante. Hell, look at Blonde Jill & she wasn't even part of a reboot.

As much as I love all of the established BOWs, I don't even think it would be wise to reuse them. We've already seen them, were frightened, then dealt with them. When the lickers show back up in 5 - yes that was cool, but we already know that enemy & people fear the unknown.

Plus, we already have REmake & REmaster. The Umbrella & Darkside..There's no sense in retelling the same story over yet again. A fresh take - a whole new direction - is the only logical step forward.

[mastermx]

RE4 is a good game, but I don't consider it a resident evil game. I grew up with 1-3, they will always be survival horror (including veronica and zero). All these new iterations don't appeal to me.

[Ed Oscuro]

Urban Chaos: Riot Response
by Rocksteady
Platform: Ice Blue Halo Two Xbox

Semi-ugly but in that old Tony Hawk kind of way - things are realistic while still being slightly surreal. Still there's good polish in visual presentation, and within levels there's lots of good attention to detail help even the comparison to a game like Splinter Cell. Fun gameplay overall, and I'm having a hard time understanding why I like it so much when I can't point to a single area it beats Dead to Rights: Retribution in, except in execution of that nebulous concept "variety." There's only a few types of regular enemies, but each fills a distinct niche. Some lob flame bottles at you, some throw cleavers or rush you, and other types shoot you. Nothing is too long, and I've already played through a fun if technically inaccurate "Backdraft" themed level (complete with the exact same backdraft explosion sound effect from that movie). Elite, the highest available default difficulty level, seems like the best to play. It's actually not too difficult, and mostly punishes you for making the worst errors (#1, forgetting to keep my shield up when taking cleavers or shotgun blasts). There's also some fun in seeing if you can clear every secondary special mission at once (though it's not necessary). By way of explaining my "Tony Hawk" reference, there's special missions with a simple theme - run through a level and rescue a VIP - to be unlocked if you remember not to shoot everything that moves.

On the not-so-keen side, the "get medals" concept restrains the gameplay a bit too much - your riot shield is a potential weapon, but realistically you will almost never use it as such so long as you still have stun takedowns to achieve. After that, it's all day scoring hip-fire pistol or assault rifle headshots with the red-highlighting crosshairs, which make the shotguns and weapon sights / rifle scope completely useless. So far enemies come in few varieties, so that the gameplay variety seems to mostly be reliant on level design after you get past the opening stages. There seem to be many more models for friendly characters. Finally, the framerate is really low at times. It's still easily playable, but I've noticed the game wobbles along sometimes.

With no reason to play a Halo or Splinter Cell game on the Xbox anymore, this is currently my most-favored title of that genre. It's early days yet, though.

Dead to Rights already had some similarities with this game, but the last-gen Retribution reboot is unbelievably close at times. I'm not exactly sure where this game is going story-wise, but so far some of the story themes are exactly the same (mobs for hire, corporate-police-media complexes, police under siege); the only thing really holding Retribution back was its failure to deliver compelling enough gameplay.

Take whatever expertise has been gained

There isn't any. This is an unavoidable side effect of the idea of "intellectual property." When your business revolves around the brand recognition of Uncle Ben's Rice, you make darn sure nobody else can take the image or name of Uncle Ben. When your business revolves around selling some the product of an intellectual effort, like movies, music, or vidyas, and you don't have any talent to do something with it, that IP becomes a bargaining chip at the most. When the system works, it works really well: Different groups within a corporation can lean on each other when something performs well or badly. If everything is terrible, though, this system doesn't work anymore. It's only reasonable that all the other people working at Capcom, who don't have much say in these important decisions, continue to get a paycheck even after the talent is gone, but it would be prudent of them to keep their options open now. It's a shame, because I think you can look at any of these companies and see that pretty much everything is better than it was - except for the game concept and overall direction to make them really work for players.

Despite what we used to say on message boards back in the day, I don't think having continuity in a game series is necessarily a good thing. Half a dozen games is probably some developers' entire career. Too often it's worked out where you give franchises to people like Koji Igarashi, who but is dealing with a marketplace that is slowly moving away from his obvious areas of enthusiasm. And of course it doesn't help that "series czars" probably don't have real freedom to make the games they would like to anyway, as there is always somebody on a Board or other telling them what's important. It would be even crazier to say "let's find the original directors of Resident Evil / Castlevania / whatever and just force them to make the same things forever, because we liked those 20/30 years ago."

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Then I tried the sequels, and wow, this series fell hard and fast.

Try out Ecstatica sometime. It's most known for its unusual art style, but it does a good job of creating a tense, survival horror atmosphere (no visible lifebar, you have to tell based on how your character is moving/limping, healing is done slowly over time so often finding hiding areas is necessary).

It's has a bit of the point-and-click adventure game elements of its era in it as well in the sense that there's a few instadeath traps (spears shoot out for no reason if you go into an area without a certain item, etc) but you can save/reload the game at any time so it's easy to manage.

[RealPlumpBox]

I have a few on my plate at the moment.

Xbone- Sunset Overdrive, Shadow Warrior, and I am slowly working at Evil Within.
3DS- NES Ultimate Remix
Vita- FF-X HD Remastered.

[drauch]

I was playing Diablo II hardcore until my buddy died today. Level 78. Pretty distraught, because I'm basically hopeless without him. We play solely together, without trading with others or doing runs or any of that shit that makes the game so easy and boring. Just straight through with what we find; it keeps the game much more interesting after playing it for over 10 years. But he's dead. And I'm all alone, helpless without my Barbarian meat-shield and his war cries. I'll be stuck in this goddamn dungeon forever. RIP.

[Mortificator]

I'm sorry to hear that, Drauch. RIP.

Try out Ecstatica sometime. It's most known for its unusual art style, but it does a good job of creating a tense, survival horror atmosphere (no visible lifebar, you have to tell based on how your character is moving/limping, healing is done slowly over time so often finding hiding areas is necessary).

Thanks for the rec, I hadn't even heard of Ecstatica.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm revisiting Freelancer and enjoying it. Finished story some years ago and now I'm doing it all over again.
Repetitive missions, ugly hardware designs, no distance haze (after Rogue Squadron II it's kind of illusion-breaking; see Super Mario Galaxy and F-Zero GX). Freelancer came out the same year as Rogue Squadron II, that goes to show how advanced the latter's technology was back then. Obviously, Freelancer's tech is older and it was intended to run on a variety of ~2002 computers.

Which brings home the point that Freelancer was a game with a mission. Some reviewer called it a remake of the original Privateer. Said mission being - to be extremely accessible so it could show everybody how much fun messing around it outer space on a computer can be.
For such a repetitive experience, it can be very compulsive [not unlike Diablo II mentioned above, and the maker(s) of Freelancer must had been aware of Diablo's and GTA's huge popularity at the time].

(Freelancer doesn't look too dated in resolutions up to 1600x1200; framerate is capped at 60 fps so you'd better set the monitor refresh rate to 60 Hz before you play. The sound is second to none, "level up"... fanfare being my favourite.)