What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[BulletMagnet]

Finished the main story of "Fishy Tales of the Nekomata" - I've said it in previous posts, but I cannot emphasize enough how infuriating it is when, every other time you descend from the upper screen after a jump or aerial attack, some enemy on the lower screen has thrown out a random(?) attack right wherever you're landing that you're entirely defenseless against. I seriously have no idea how anyone could hope to finish "Fury" mode in Muramasa with all the chintzy hits you're all but doomed to take along the way.

On the bright side, I definitely enjoy playing as this character more than Momohime/Kisuke - aside from the much-needed speed boost mentioned earlier, the three forms feel much better-suited to handle most any opponent than the boatload of swords from the main game, many of which seemed designed only for very specific circumstances. While the main map and most of your enemies are the same, the handful of new stuff is memorable (especially the first boss fight), and seems to delve deeper into some of the weirder/creepier bits of Japanese folklore, which feels more unique (to a gaijin, anyways) than the "cursed swords" storyline. After attempting one of the "cave of evil" segments that gave me fits the first time around and having a much easier time with it in the post-game, I'm tempted to try my luck at the rest with the Nekomata character...

...but will probably end up jumping back and forth between it and at least one other segment, since I gave the "farmer" character's story a quick go as well. Feels more like the "main" game than "Fishy Tales", but the ability to "stack" your special switching move is neat, and the lack of money to buy stuff encourages a more careful play style, since you're likely to have far fewer healing items on hand than usual. I also appreciate the visual humor at play here, which helps to separate it from the more serious style of the other sections I've played - not sure how it'll measure up to "Fishy Tales", but I intend to find out...

[Obiwanshinobi]

Ace Combat 04 is still cool as fuck, but there's too many get xx points in yy time missions so far. Just did the mission where you bomb some targets and then have to go into the ravine to avoid giant EMP blasts. I wish there was some terrain LOD at all, game looks amazing when you're high up and then you go toward the ground and see the texture smeared everywhere, haha.
Man, I've really neglected the PS2's library up till now, hot damn. God Hand is a game I should have picked up forever ago. Same with Gungrave Overdose, it's pretty much the game I've been wanting to play for a while.

Sky Odyssey is where it's at. A.D. 2000, keeps rockin' hard.
One that-gen "3D shmup" which did detail scaling marvellously (so nothing appears too smeared away when you look up closely) was Rogue Squadron II. Somewhat unpolished game otherwise, but the engine, boy, is it shining bright.

[BulletMagnet]

Already done with "A Cause to Daikon For" - not that any of the DLC chapters are that long, but this one seemed particularly abbreviated, and I don't think it was an accident, as long stretches would deplete your extra-limited resources and the combat simply isn't tight enough to (more or less) work without them. In exchange I found it much easier to juggle, trap and otherwise cheese enemies to death than in any other mode - unfortunately, against bosses and other enemies where you can't exploit those openings things become much more of a pain. I can understand why Vanillaware did what it did with this chapter, as they did manage to capture the essence of an impossible, making-it-up-as-you-go-along struggle (though the humor I mentioned in my last post got darker by the end than I was expecting), but there's no way I'm attempting the optional content here.

Unfortunately, things didn't improve with what I played of "A Spirited Seven Nights' Haunting" - you play as a ninja in this one, and thus get to use the toys the enemies drove you nuts with when you fought them, but it's not as much fun as you'd hope. Two of your three weapons are great for covering space but do measly damage, and the more powerful one is a real bear to aim - as such you're even more vulnerable to mobs than before, as it's very difficult to reduce enemy numbers quickly. Moreover, two of the weapons drain spirit even with "regular" attacks, meaning it's even easier to be broken when baddies start ganging up on you - much of the time you're required to button-mash to do anything resembling decent damage, too, which gets irritating. Not sure if I'll even bother finishing this - on a final-ish note, the "tutorial" battle in this one was a huge pain in the neck, but I have to admit a palpable sense of accomplishment for sticking with it long enough to eventually finish it.

Thankfully, things ended on a positive note with "Hell is Where the Heart Is" (ain't that the truth) - while I don't enjoy playing as the demon girl quite as much as the Nekomata since her second form is rather slow, the three modes are still pretty well balanced for different situations, and fun to use (though still occasionally button-mashy, it leads to much better results here, especially when the "super" form goes Fist of the North Star). Unlike "Daikon", whose humor took a dark turn, this story is more consistently about silliness and shenanigans, and dare I say "cute", which not everyone will love but I'm very much okay with. To finish for now, I'm tempted to say that the Donkey Kong hammer special attack is semi-broken, but I'm still looking forward to taking on the more annoying enemies of the "main" quest with it.

[null1024]

Just bought Rage Racer [PS1], so now I'm playing that.
Neat game, wonderful style, fantastic soundtrack. Brilliant courses, and they're damn long. Biggest issue is that it's pretty much designed around grinding for money.
I still don't really understand the drifting, sometimes I'll begin a drift and the car will seize up and just slide forward but sideways and into a wall. For no apparent reason too. Makes a really characteristic noise when it happens.
It seems to be some odd combination of RR1's drift model and something that appears to look at the curve of the track [there are some corners where this never ever happens]? I don't really get it.
[edit]oh wow, RR1's drift model actually does seem to be curve based, try drifing through the construction area on the expert course, you'll just follow the road
RRR's probably is too, but it feels a lot nicer.

the game is blatantly running on a slightly dressed up version of the RR1/RRR engine but I can live with that

oh, and been doing the Extra tracks in Ridge Racer Revolution [PS1]
Apparently, when there's too many cars on screen, there's a fuckton of texture corruption around the city area [try it! play on Extra Novice, type X -- by lap 3, you can get like 6 cars in front of you and maybe two more in the rear-view mirror].
I always thought that was my PSP glitching out, but nope, happens on my PS2 [probably the game running out of VRAM and overwriting the city textures].
It slows down like a motherfucker there too, although the game's fine with so many cars on screen everywhere else.

Using the RT Carrot right now, doing better than with the yellow car since there's a lot of corners I don't need to drift around anymore. I'm getting 4th to 2nd place.
the car in 1st is so fucking far ahead, I don't know what I need to do to go faster

odd side note: was listening to some music on the drive home from work today, and I was thinking about how the song Your Love by the Prodigy sounds like an absolutely perfect fit for this game's soundtrack
like, the way it uses the strings and the Brazil stab in particular

most classic hardcore from that era would fit just fine too, but Your Love in particular really sounds like it should be a Ridge Racer song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_XU6UT5oL0

[Obiwanshinobi]

Deadly Premonition The Director's Cut (PS3) - nothing real special so far, but I must admit for a game this conventional, it makes me care with aplomb.
Whether it's actually that good, or I just got fired at the right moment to savour story-driven games, is quite an academic question.

[Squire Grooktook]

First time I've ever heard Deadly Premonition described as "conventional".

[vector7]

Deadly Premonition The Director's Cut

I honestly think that 90% of elements of that game is awful, badly made or at the very best mediocre, the remaining 10% is why it gets all this praise.

[Obiwanshinobi]

First time I've ever heard Deadly Premonition described as "conventional".

Gives me a strong "been there, done that" sensation all the time. The crude game engine, patchy visuals etc. may seem like it's high concept to some, but it might have been plain cheaply-developed just as well.
What I think makes it stand out is that it's not trying too hard (extremely rare quality in most things man-made). No money can buy coolness. Like all the best things out there, it's free.

[iconoclast]

Deadly Premonition is like a 2/10 if you judge it solely as a game, but the story, characters, atmosphere, etc are all really great. The ADV format Swery used in D4 is a perfect fit for his capabilities.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I've had it with cult-hyped "stories" in video games. Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy was praised for its story(telling) for crying out loud, as was Xenogears and so on. As for "atmosphere", after the RE4's beginning, I'm not falling for that buzzword either.

[Blinge]

Deadly Premonition is totally a cult hit, man..

I'd describe it as far greater than the sum of its parts. The 'parts' individually are garbage; awful combat, awful graphics, awful driving, awful sound mix, awesome game.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I like the characters' faces (better graphics than Bioshock, then) and some of the music. English voice acting better than the original Silent Hill, at the very least (Deadly Premonition is one wordy game, so it matters), if not lip-synched. Not sure if the combat's any worse than any Silent Hill, neither am I sure if you can't, by any chance, see less WITH the flashlight than without it in SH2, which at least isn't the case here.
The sound's botched right up (downmixed to stereo in my case, but it shouldn't produce the sort of issues I'm having with it).

[Blinge]

eh, in the context of the game itself... Deadly Premonition's combat is nothing, you could remove it and the game wouldn't suffer.

Rumour has it Swery didn't even want combat in the game, but was made to so it's kind of an afterthought.
Haha the faces? Have you seen when it shows Anna supposedly smiling? scariest thing in the game..

[Obiwanshinobi]

I have yet to see much expression on their faces; so far it works for me not unlike Freelancer, where they would never try to act harder than it was any good for the character models/animations.
Tons of creepier facial modelling that gen: S&P2, Bioshock, you name it.

[Blinge]

Okay just.. just watch for the smiles.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I just thought a huge part of the Deadly Premonition's appeal for me could be that it's so like a budget PS2 title (I played many of those when I was at a similar point of my career cycle, having just gotten my first PS2 chipped). So I find the "bad" not as bad as the critics/apologists make it out to be. Happens to come with the turf. For my money, it doesn't need any apologies (makes me feel just as younger as I find flattering).

[Squire Grooktook]

Finally got around to finishing Fire Emblem Awakening last night, though I still have the alternate timeline dlc story to play (Future of Despair).

HOW TO ENJOY FE:A BY SQUIRE GROOKTOOK:

Spoiler

1: Play as a girl. Girls are objectively superior, both in story and gameplay.

2: Don't grind for relationships or stats, you little slut.

3: Become a Dark Flier if you want to be broken, become a Blade Master if you want to be awesome.

4: Marry Chrom, Chrom is best husbando.

5: Master the new Pairing and Dual Strike mechanics, they'll make some of the difficulty spikes manageable without grinding and the map design will shine a lot more than if you just steamrolled everything with max stats from grinding.

Overall, I'd describe it as "flawed but fun".

Lots of new gameplay mechanics (according to the developers, they had a list of things they wanted to implement over the course of the series, and basically just threw in the kitchen sink for this one since they thought it'd be the last) that are super fun but aren't totally balanced or refined at all times. Regardless, it still has the same fast paced arcadey tactics and tense missions that I love about the franchise. And when the new mechanics like Pairing and Dual Strike shine, they really shine. Flawed but fun.

Story is deliberately a lot more light hearted and "fun", which I actually like a lot. It has some pacing/script/plot issues in parts, but at it's best it has a sweetness to it which I very much enjoyed, and it has some both genuinely funny moments and genuinely tense moments as well. I found the 3 main characters to be pretty likable and memorable as well. Flawed but fun.

Now comes the waiting game for If/Fates...

[JBC]

Knowledge of the existence of the Japanese only PS2 Point Blank collection had somehow eluded me until this afternoon. It has all three Point Blanks & the original Time Crisis for use with the GunCon 2, a much better light gun than the original for PS1.

I can install that to my fat PS2's HDD rather than using my original discs & having to hear that noisy drive in the slim unit. It also keeps me from having to struggle with all the extra wires it takes to play a PS1 light gun game.

[null1024]

Sonic Generations [PC].
the more I play it, the more I start to think that the level design is kind of crap
Or at the absolute least, that Planet Wisp and Crisis City are awful, awful levels.

Oh, and more Rage Racer [PS1].

You know, I used to like the Rage Racer tracks more. They're great in RR2 on the PSP.
playing them in Rage itself is starting to drive me nuts, namely due to the game's weird drifting [that I'm getting the hang of kind of] and hilariously idiotic collisions [I've gotten teleport bounced backwards a couple of times already, and I've had some of the weirdest effects from wall collisions].

also, there is nothing as annoying as doing well on The Extreme Oval and then you ram into someone doing a third of your speed and then get second

[broken harbour]

Hot damn XCOM EU is good.

I haven't been sucked into a game in a long time like I have with XCOM EU.... playing it on ironman mode with permadeath and no re-loading of a previous save is just incredible. It's quite a ride with highs and lows, one particularly bad mission wiped out 3/4 of my squad of veterans because of a single dumb move on my part. The game scales it's difficulty perfectly, so you never win a mission simply because you have leveled up soldiers, and the sense of always being 2 steps behind the aliens is very real, and it's impossible to please all the countries and keep them in the game.

I think a lot of shmup players would like this game, as it tickles the same parts of my brain that games like Dodonpachi and Raiden do, that sense of "whew I won that because I'm smart and/or lucky" is very similar.

[the_last_shmupper]

Sonic Generations [PC].
the more I play it, the more I start to think that the level design is kind of crap
Or at the absolute least, that Planet Wisp and Crisis City are awful, awful levels.

I agree with you there. I've always been a tough critic of most Sonic games, even the first 3. Sonic Generations is one of those comparison games, its one of the better Sonic games, compared to other Sonic games. Even compared to other platformers, its still better, but I just can't call it fun. It looks better, plays better, but at no time was I saying, "wow I'm having fun."

Perhaps I'm thinking against the grain, but I really enjoyed Sonic 4, Episode 1. It felt smooth, like the speed was always kept going and part of that was the homing attack. Like the levels were designed to work with it to be smooth with it. While the second episode just felt like a struggle to keep speed. It looked better than episode 1, it just didn't feel as good. There was more variety to the gameplay with Tails and combination maneuvers like the Sonic Advance games.

The first 3 games were okay to good and I replay them, making me think they must be good or fun, but I think its the colors that draw me in the most. It doesn't feel fast and when it is fast, its more like you're watching the game. I played through Sonic CD and never understood why some have called it the best Sonic, other than its an issue that "they had it and others didn't."

[the_last_shmupper]

I've had it with cult-hyped "stories" in video games. Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy was praised for its story(telling) for crying out loud, as was Xenogears and so on. As for "atmosphere", after the RE4's beginning, I'm not falling for that buzzword either.

I think "storytelling" is a good way to say its a bad game. "To the Moon" comes to mind. So bad we only have the story to focus on or rather gameplay so common and third person cover based shootery the story is the only thing making the game different.

A lot of games are atmospheric. Its getting easy to do. Dark, but not black. Add some spookiness and segments where nothing happens to raise tension, but really "dark, but not black" is all the atmosphere people need. According to the definition on dictionary.com:

- resembling or suggestive of the atmosphere; having muted tones and softened or indistinct outlines; hazy:
- having or producing an emotional atmosphere :

I only say a lot of games are atmospheric, because looking through indie games for Unity, Unreal 4 and even certain RPG Maker games hang their hat on atmosphere. Its astonishing how many there are, unless its from a AAA developer. Plenty of people with a free game engine seem to churn out all sorts of low quality atmospheric games.

I also like how atmospheric has become a word for spookiness, when even Mario games are atmospheric, but since the word has taken on its own Internet meaning, you can't call a happy, bright and vibrant atmosphere the word "atmospheric."

[Immryr]

Hot damn XCOM EU is good.

I haven't been sucked into a game in a long time like I have with XCOM EU.... playing it on ironman mode with permadeath and no re-loading of a previous save is just incredible. It's quite a ride with highs and lows, one particularly bad mission wiped out 3/4 of my squad of veterans because of a single dumb move on my part. The game scales it's difficulty perfectly, so you never win a mission simply because you have leveled up soldiers, and the sense of always being 2 steps behind the aliens is very real, and it's impossible to please all the countries and keep them in the game.

I think a lot of shmup players would like this game, as it tickles the same parts of my brain that games like Dodonpachi and Raiden do, that sense of "whew I won that because I'm smart and/or lucky" is very similar.

Yeah it's a really incredible game. I've never made it to the end on ironman, always end up losing everyone and giving up haha. I'm really looking forward to xcom 2.

[Obiwanshinobi]

A lot of games are atmospheric. Its getting easy to do. Dark, but not black. Add some spookiness and segments where nothing happens to raise tension, but really "dark, but not black" is all the atmosphere people need. According to the definition on dictionary.com:

- resembling or suggestive of the atmosphere; having muted tones and softened or indistinct outlines; hazy:
- having or producing an emotional atmosphere :

I also like how atmospheric has become a word for spookiness, when even Mario games are atmospheric, but since the word has taken on its own Internet meaning, you can't call a happy, bright and vibrant atmosphere the word "atmospheric."

Doesn't mean any more than "mood" to me and it's something I don't find in many games alleged to have it, so it sounds a bit more hollow every time I hear it supposedly said as a praise.

The first of above definitions descripts one of the ways graphics suggest distance/depth rather than atmosphere, even in settings presumably devoid of the latter (something Rogue Squadron II does for me, yet Super Mario Galaxy doesn't).

[Some-Mist]

loved deadly premonition. bought red seeds profile when I didn't have a 360, and then bought/rebeat deadly premonition when I got a 360. still want to check out the new scenes in the directors cut though I've heard the directors cut has poor performance. it's obviously a homage to twin peaks which makes it easy to fall in love with if you're already a TP fan. His follow up game, D4: Dead Dreams Don't Die, is really quirky, odd, and creepy and has all of the same story qualities as deadly premonition, but it's only one episode.

I like following swery65 on instagram too https://instagram.com/swery65/?hl=en seems like a fun guy to hang around.

----

lately, I've been plugging away at shovel knight and still spamming rocket league very hard. bought the phoenix wright trilogy and finished a couple cases, and holy crap why did it take me so long to get into this series? very enjoyable for a text adventure


armikrog is releasing next month, and the anticipation is killing me. I should be getting the physical edition by the end of the year via backer rewards, but I'm going to instantly jump into the digital version. a lot of positive feedback so far.

[Ruldra]

I think "storytelling" is a good way to say its a bad game. "To the Moon" comes to mind. So bad we only have the story to focus on or rather gameplay so common and third person cover based shootery the story is the only thing making the game different.

You'll be severely disappointed if you're expecting a game out of To the Moon. It's essentially a visual novel, it's all about the story. The little gameplay it has is only meant to push the story forward.

And it actually has a great story and soundtrack. If you're in the mood for a VN, then I genuinely recommend it.

[Squire Grooktook]

A lot of games are atmospheric.

No, no they're not.

Its getting easy to do.

No, no it's not.

Doesn't mean any more than "mood" to me and it's something I don't find in many games alleged to have it, so it sounds a bit more hollow every time I hear it supposedly said as a praise.

That's because "atmosphere" or mood is a lot like quality: completely subjective. What's atmospheric to one person might not be to another. I personally find the second half of Rayforce's final stage to have an incredible dreamy atmosphere/mood, like nothing else I've ever played. But that's just me, not everyone can or will feel it.

[Obiwanshinobi]

still want to check out the new scenes in the directors cut though I've heard the directors cut has poor performance.

On PS3 it certainly has, but I didn't expect it to do any technical marvel. Somehow, I think a better tech would seem out of place there.

[null1024]

Perhaps I'm thinking against the grain, but I really enjoyed Sonic 4, Episode 1. It felt smooth, like the speed was always kept going and part of that was the homing attack. Like the levels were designed to work with it to be smooth with it. While the second episode just felt like a struggle to keep speed. It looked better than episode 1, it just didn't feel as good. There was more variety to the gameplay with Tails and combination maneuvers like the Sonic Advance games.

The first 3 games were okay to good and I replay them, making me think they must be good or fun, but I think its the colors that draw me in the most. It doesn't feel fast and when it is fast, its more like you're watching the game. I played through Sonic CD and never understood why some have called it the best Sonic, other than its an issue that "they had it and others didn't."

I recently tried to give Sonic 4 a chance .
Can't stand either episode. The control is terrible [as if the developers were thinking, "what if Sonic Rush controlled terribly"] and the stage design is supremely lazy. Episode 2 looks prettier and fixes almost nothing.

If there's a Sonic game that manages to feel really fast and smooth, it's Sonic Advance 2.
It's full of issues, but it's a fun, solid game.

Sonic 3&K seems to hold up the best to me of the first 3. 1 is slow overall [you can go quite fast still, but you have to work much more for that] and I can't stand Marble [extremely boring] or Labyrinth [worst water stage, and it's not even particularly hard]. 2 peters off after Mystic Cave Zone and I can't bring myself to finish Metropolis half the time.
3&K has its issues throughout [well, all of Marble Garden, Act 2 of Carnival Night, Sandopolis Act 2, and... that's it], but it's got some real 10/10 stages [Hydrocity, Ice Cap, Lava Reef] and is generally solid otherwise. A lot of people complain about it being gimmicky, I don't really see it. Sure, each stage has its own specific stage objects, but overall it's focused on straight platforming. Stages generally have good flow [if they aren't Marble Garden at least] and have a nice, bold, hi-contrast look that really pops.

And on the note of good things in Sonic, I actually think Sonic Adventure 2's Sonic stages almost hold up. There are some stupid issues around the single action button, amongst other things [rail switching in SA2 is the dumbest thing ever and I actually never want to do it, it's killed me more than anything else other than bounce-attacking into the abyss when I wanted to light-dash], but Sonic's stage design is actually really solid, despite being quite linear. Only issues seem to be stages like Pyramid Cave [simply boring], Final Chase [the gravity poles are completely broken and the stage is designed around them, fuck that], and... that's it. Oh, and Green Hill [zero effort applied, worst reward for 180 emblems].
Feels quite fast while keeping the player actually doing things and the action flowing. I'm still disappointed that Sega dropped the Tony Hawk style rail balancing mechanic, since they've used rails in almost all of the later games as an absolutely lazy way to stretch out stages. I'm not a particular fan of modern style rail hopping.

Generations has a lot of good to it [the first three stages are fantastic as Classic Sonic, City Escape Modern is pretty brilliant, Rooftop Run Modern is wonderful], but it seems to fall kind of flat a lot of the time [I can't stand Rooftop Run Classic or City Escape Classic, and many of the other stages seem just mediocre].

CD's got issues but I love its visual design and the JP soundtrack is magical. Stage design is deliberately choppy to encourage exploration, although there are some real stinkers [Stardust Speedway and Wacky Workbench need to go away]. It's got the best control out of the classics [you can control your trajectory after a roll jump, for starters] and has a really nice camera [why didn't Sega use this in S3&K?].

[BrianC]

I'm probably in the minority, but I found some of the "slow" stuff in Sonic 1 to be the more enjoyable parts of the game.