What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[mamboFoxtrot]

CD's got issues but I love its visual design

It's got a lot of charm but hot damn there are way too many colors going on at once sometimes.


I agree with most of the rest of your post. Sonic Generations was pretty weird for me, as I hadn't touched the series since I gave up on it after Shadow the Hedgehog. Going from the Adventure formula to the Boost formula was like "wtf is this why can't I turn for shit is this whole thing on rails?", but I eventually got used to it and found some enjoyment in some of the modern stages. I think they messed up Classic Sonic's controls and physics quite a bit, though. Rolling on slopes does nothing (or at least I don't remember it doing anything) and you don't seem to have as much control over your jump height as you do in the Genesis games. Having 2D levels with Classic Sonic and then have half of every Modern Sonic stage play in 2D was rather redundant, as well.


I've been playing a bit of Colors myself lately and... wow this is pretty lame, actually. I'm not even sure what they're going for with a lot of this level design. The jump in this game has also got to be the most awkward one I've put up with in a while, even taking random indie games into account. Some of the Wisps are a neat idea, but feel pretty underutilized in most levels. Most of the time they just seem to be there for finding secrets and such.

[null1024]

I've been playing a bit of Colors myself lately and... wow this is pretty lame, actually. I'm not even sure what they're going for with a lot of this level design. The jump in this game has also got to be the most awkward one I've put up with in a while, even taking random indie games into account. Some of the Wisps are a neat idea, but feel pretty underutilized in most levels. Most of the time they just seem to be there for finding secrets and such.

Colors' stage design... the first act or two seems to be the actual main level, and then the rest are of the same quality and style of the challenge acts of Generations [so, vaguely fun to completely embarrassing and made of lego blocks overlaid onto the more developed stage geometry]. Really might have been better with a higher budget.
As far as I can tell, Aquarium Park, Sweet Mountain, and Tropical Resort are the best stages in the game overall, [and then the rest are some degree of eh -- especially shit like Starlight Carnival, which is wholly crap other than it looking cool].

I really do like the jump mechanics in Colors though, and not just because it means Sonic can swim.

Still, I'm increasingly convinced that Colors is well regarded simply because it was solidly enjoyable if just okay and didn't have gameplay mechanics that were out of left field like the Werehog.

[BulletMagnet]

Methinks I'm done with Muramasa - gave Seven Nights' Haunting another try, got to the final boss, lo and behold, another total bitch who overwhelms you (a shame, since the previous boss in this mode was actually rather fun). I finally resorted to YouTube to see if there was something obvious I'm missing, and as I feared it seems the "advanced strategy" for the tougher fights is to simply spam invincibility-granting special attacks and bring along a load of "whetstone" items to recharge your spirit meter so you never have to stop. I suppose I could do that and attempt to complete more of the game but I honestly have absolutely no motivation to do so, since in the end the whole thing is just one long endurance match. I really hope that the Odin Sphere remake's combat doesn't fall into the same trap as this game's does...

I was tempted to fire up Dragon's Crown in hopes of washing the bad taste out of my mouth, but opted for a change of pace instead, with Atelier Rorona Plus. Time to get my pie on.

[Some-Mist]

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.

I kinda get your point, but I just want to avoid any stuttering. I'll eventually get it once I get some extra cash on the side though

Methinks I'm done with Muramasa - gave Seven Nights' Haunting another try, got to the final boss, lo and behold, another total bitch who overwhelms you (a shame, since the previous boss in this mode was actually rather fun). I finally resorted to YouTube to see if there was something obvious I'm missing, and as I feared it seems the "advanced strategy" for the tougher fights is to simply spam invincibility-granting special attacks and bring along a load of "whetstone" items to recharge your spirit meter so you never have to stop. I suppose I could do that and attempt to complete more of the game but I honestly have absolutely no motivation to do so, since in the end the whole thing is just one long endurance match. I really hope that the Odin Sphere remake's combat doesn't fall into the same trap as this game's does...

I was tempted to fire up Dragon's Crown in hopes of washing the bad taste out of my mouth, but opted for a change of pace instead, with Atelier Rorona Plus. Time to get my pie on.

dang. I really wish I could try out the muramasa dlc. I was a huge fan of the original and it was honestly my favorite vanillaware game. less emphasis on food and cooking than previous games, a slightly more intricate combat system, and loads of bosses.

dragon's crown is a great beat 'em up and a lot of fun, albeit a bit easy and not as intense as I'd prefer. still worth checking out down the road.

[BulletMagnet]

dang. I really wish I could try out the muramasa dlc. I was a huge fan of the original and it was honestly my favorite vanillaware game.

Maybe you know something about the game that I don't, but I found far too much of it to be a slog of cheap hits that could only be dealt with via an equally-cheesy player approach; a shame, as it has a lot of good things happening when it's challenging you "legitimately" (for lack of a better term). The DLC is neat (especially the nekomata and demon girl chapters), but the design outlook hasn't changed, so I found myself grimacing at a lot of the same parts, for the exact same reasons.

[Obiwanshinobi]

What do you know, Wikipedia says Red Seeds Profile was originaly meant to be developed for 360 and PS2. That, ladies and gentlemen, could explain the strong "budget PS2 game" vibe Deadly Premonition gives me. Late PS2 to be exact, when the platform was so widespread all sorts of ideas were considered worth a shot for the publishers/devs.
The previous last-gen title which made this kind of impression was Way of the Samurai (I think) 3 port I watched my buddy play on his newly-bought 360 (he just got fired at the time too). I might add both games remind me of the first Gothic as well (the forest at dawn in DP, most things WotS).

Just how cool another Zelda would be if you played as a new kid on the block, better off not messing with the mob early on?

...
Last morning I received one of Deadly Premonition's devious smiles.

[Marc]

Just finished Scholar of the First Sin, played straight after Bloodborne I'm done with From games until III lands. Managed the 1CC on Renegade last night, gonna try for the second loop I think. About 200 on the leader boards but it hasn't updated to my highest score yet (around 175,000).

Delved into the Driveclub demo and finding a much better game than the one I got with the machine and traded in. Price it goes for looks like I'll be picking this up again. Night driving in the rain is particularly amazing. The handling is just where I like it, reminds me of Project Gotham 2.

Failing on the Spelunky daily challenge, still trying to 1cc Puzzle Bobble 2's puzzle mode, and thinking of picking up Zombi next week.

[KAI]

Been playing a lot of Last Blade 2, Vampire Savior, KOF 98 Super Turbo and 3rd Strike on Fightcade. Feels good to kick asses online.

[Some-Mist]

now on the 4th case in phoenix wright: ace attorney. it's fantastic. also been playing megaman 2 on my 3DS in my other spare time.

dang. I really wish I could try out the muramasa dlc. I was a huge fan of the original and it was honestly my favorite vanillaware game.

Maybe you know something about the game that I don't, but I found far too much of it to be a slog of cheap hits that could only be dealt with via an equally-cheesy player approach; a shame, as it has a lot of good things happening when it's challenging you "legitimately" (for lack of a better term). The DLC is neat (especially the nekomata and demon girl chapters), but the design outlook hasn't changed, so I found myself grimacing at a lot of the same parts, for the exact same reasons.

nah, I just prefer the variety of different weapons and attacks that you're offered. Most of the vanillaware games are about cooking and abusing food during harder boss fights (at least that's how I view it). I'd have to play it again since I beat it over the course of 40 hours when it released, but I had a lot more fun with muramasa than I did odin sphere or princess crown even if the story wasn't that strong.

[kaicooper]

45 hours into Dark Soul I for the first time
i donno why i skiped this game

now its totaly in my TOP 3 best games ever with
Mass Effect 2
Bioshock

after that Dark Souls 2 the new edition

[JBC]

I've had a helluva time tonight getting Fatal Frame to work off my PS2's hard drive but I finally succeeded just in time to go to bed & not play. Life is so hard.

I also played a good bit of Galaga Legions & R-Type Dimensions earlier. I waited quite awhile to get them. I feel underwhelmed, but it hasn't been long enough to formulate an opinion. I'll def be playing them through the week.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Played a lot of Ultra SFIV today. I hate how jumping is so punishable in this game. It seems like the worst thing you can do.

Getting pretty burned out on Dead or Alive Last round. Get hit with a thirteen hit juggle then mess up your block or whiff the reversal then get hit with another thirteen hit juggle into the wall then you lose. The reversal system is too difficult. I know it's not just me. I see people missing the reversals all the time. Once someone gets some momentum going it's pretty tough to stop. Feel like I need to do speed to react fast enough at this game. It's so fast.

Had a great time playing KOFXIII. Too bad there aren't more people playing it. It actually ran pretty well during the few matches I was able to get in on. At least it is fun to play even if you lose. Really quality game. Too bad SNK has pretty much gone under.

Finished up the day with Farcry 4. Don't know why I've been ignoring this game. It really hit the spot after all the brutal rigidity of the fighting games that I spent most of the day playing.

[BulletMagnet]

Picked up Dungeon Travelers 2 for Vita last week, and have stuck with it in an attempt to get the hang of it, since I'm not very experienced when it comes to dungeon crawlers. So far it's pretty solid, the basic setup seems fairly meat-and-potatoes, though with a dose of silly humor and several doses of anime cheesecake - I've been cruising along fairly smoothly despite my lack of hardcore-ness, but I've found that during boss fights in particular a bad dice roll or two can completely ruin you.

As an example, one boss a few areas in absolutely wrecked me the first time I faced it, because it used a row-effect spell that one-hit KOed everything it touched several times in a row, and I simply couldn't revive fast enough to keep up (and that early on "phoenix down" items are hard to afford as it is, not to mention your healer probably doesn't have the resurrect spell yet). Leveled up a little bit, went back for another try, and won without too much trouble, simply because she didn't use that spell as much. While I've had far less trouble with "normal" monsters, if a random encounter gets the jump on you and everyone decides to gang up on one or two party members before you can get a shot off things can go downhill very fast. In similar fashion, a critical or miss you weren't counting on in a clutch situation can mess you up good.

I suppose some of that comes with the territory, but the divide feels particularly pronounced here; for most of a dungeon I'll be strutting around like I own the place, then all of a sudden I'm totally helpless. I also feel that sticking mostly to "low level" skills has served me best so far as far as customization is concerned - with a handful of exceptions, the more "advanced" stuff (mid-tier, for where I'm at) costs too much in terms of skill points, MP, casting time, uncertainty and other downsides to be worth investing much in, so I've put most of my points into basic "do more damage" and "heal more HP" type skills than anything else. Maybe once I unlock the third tier of classes better stuff will appear...if I stick with the thing that long, heh.

[JBC]

Fatal Frame is very atmospheric. I'm about 2 hours into the first of 5 games & loving it. Can I beat all 5 by October 31st?

[Ed Oscuro]

Fatal Frame is very atmospheric. I'm about 2 hours into the first of 5 games & loving it. Can I beat all 5 by October 31st?

Ha, I need to get back into that one. Just have too many things on my plate at the moment to consider.

I'm still not burned out on Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen yet, though I'm probably getting close! 119 hours and some minutes of play time, still only taken by the brine once.

I've almost 9-starred all the classes, but going from Warrior (and Triple Tooth) to Mystic Knight (swinging the Font of Fire) to Sorcerer, after I purified not one but two Dragons Arisen from Bitterblack level 1 cursed weapons, was quite eye-opening. I proceeded to kill the Devilfire Grove drake for the first time with ease, just using a rock formation for a bit of security, but it was never a difficult battle. Unfortunately, didn't get any dragonforged items this time, partly because I neglected to put a star into my personal Dragons Arisen. Going from weapons with piddly mixed damage output, and much of that being locked in a useless damage type (I don't have any low-level holy enchanted weapons, if there are such things) that is mostly ineffective against one enemy, to having a weapon which boosts magic damage by 700+ while also having physical damage as good as many early weapons in the game - that's really something! I'm also starting to collect some better gear slowly - the shenanigans surrounding the Wyrmking's Ring are definitely worth exploiting.

Of course, there's always a price for everything, and the Sorcerer (and, as it turns out, Mage) classes are just mobile cannons, and not so effective against individuals of mobs or golems. At about 6-7 stars I switched to Mage in hopes of picking up a useful skill I spotted with my main pawn, but I lost the use of Bolide. It's not as bad as I had feared, and I'm at Bitterblack Isle again with my 4-5 star Mage, but I also don't have a good staff. I'm just hoping to pick up some kills quickly, and maybe cheese the shackled cyclops to death.

Overall, it looks like Capcom was aiming to make uniform parties less flexible than mixed ones - that's what you'd already expect, but some of the inefficiencies of an all-caster party are kind of surprising. I also find myself cursing the pawns occasionally again, as they take far too long to cast Bolide or anything with damage output, and the primary Utilitarian pawns I've got don't seem to be joint casting much at all. I got steamed enough after the golem fight over Bloodwater Beach that I hurled two pawns in the direction of the cliff The fight wasn't problematic, except that it took too long, again (so maybe 3-4 minutes, if that).

All the classes are fun to play to some degree, but I like being able to run up to things and whack them with daggers - using the yellow vocation classes - and then keep on my way. The only problem is that I need much better equipment to have a chance of killing big monsters with those classes. For the moment, I need to get back to the drawing board and look again at my skills and those of my pawns. Bolide is great when it hits, but it often doesn't. Something like High Fulmination might be a much better choice.

Also, wow, the From A Different Sky / Badge of Vows quests (kind of an easter egg / geocache hunt type thing) are taking forever and a day! Some of the locations, like hanging off chains and on walls, remind me a lot of those blue medallions from Resident Evil 4 - yet another Capcom in-house callout, I guess? For the infamous badge #25, I discovered you can get a little extra boost in the air at the end of levitation, by quickly turning to face the way you came and executing an air heavy attack (with a Sorcerer staff - don't think the mage wands, which you physically swing like a cane, will work).

[ACSeraph]

Getting pretty burned out on Dead or Alive Last round. Get hit with a thirteen hit juggle then mess up your block or whiff the reversal then get hit with another thirteen hit juggle into the wall then you lose. The reversal system is too difficult. I know it's not just me. I see people missing the reversals all the time. Once someone gets some momentum going it's pretty tough to stop. Feel like I need to do speed to react fast enough at this game. It's so fast.

I'm a pretty serious LR player both in arcades and at home, so I can give you some insights here. I think intermediate players tend to view reversals as the only way to escape from pressure and tend to flail with them whenever they get caught in something, but the reality is that you should never reversal unless you are expecting a specific movie. "maybe he will hit high next" is not a good reason to reversal. The good players are intentionally baiting you into whiffing your reversals, using weird delayed timing or stopping their strings altogether. I do it all the time with my Ayane; it's essentially a mid combo mixup.

Reversals give you a "chance" to escape, especially if your opponent uses predictable or unvaried combos, but the point of the system is less to always give players a way to avoid taking huge damage, and more to force the attacking player to actually plan and think mid attack rather than dialing in the same combo over and over and over again ala Tekken. As a rule, you will take big damage if you get caught by a stun if your opponent is a good player.

This is not to say you should never reversal, but you will need to think more carefully about when to do it. Because of DOA5's critical burst system, most players will be working their combo's towards that. Characters usually have only 1 (2 at most) Critical burst attacks, so in general that"s the point where you want to attempt a reversal. You can see the stun icon turn red, and the burst attacks have a long-ish startup, so you can sort of see it coming. There is still the question of whether they might anticipate it and throw instead, so the situation definitely isn't in your favor, but I wouldn't say it's unfair as in most games you simply have no way out of combos in the first place. It's far more forgiving than Tekken.

To get specific regarding the use of reversal, mostly it's used outside of combos to deal with pokes that you anticipate and prevent your opponent from always spamming their best stuff. For example at mid range most Kokoro players tend to come at you with 6,6 P because it's fast, has good range, is difficult to punish, and leads into stun. But if you know that, you can shut that shit down early on in the match by countering it straight out. It only takes one or two neutral counters for most people to get the message, and most characters have a "go-to" poke that needs to be dealt with this way. Another good use for reversals is dealing with low attacks, because if you read well enough to know to block low then why not just counter? Not to say their aren't uses for straight up low guarding though.

The other major thing a lot of mid level players neglect is simply breaking the stun by hitting buttons and moving the stick. A lot of stuff people use to move into critical burst is somewhat dishonest in that the stuns are actually breakable. This doesn"t tend to show up much until you get into the higher ranks, but its a major element of the game and much safer than reversaling. The only catch is some players will anticipate you breaking stun if they are good and throw you the moment you do. Basically the Yomi never ends. It's awesome and under-appreciated imo. So much more interesting than poking until something launches and then typing in dial-a-combo #3.

tl;dr

The reversal system in DOA is not intended to be a free escape system for defending players who make mistakes and eat a hit, rather, it is intended to force attacking players to have variety and make yomi decisions mid-offense. It has more to do with the attacker than the defender.

[null1024]

Gensou SkyDrift [PC].
Started playing after seeing Ghegs mention it over at Rolling Start.
Silly little 2hu doujin racer where one character rides the other like a surfboard and can switch positions Double Dash style. Quite item heavy [you spin a wheel when you fill a bar that goes up when you pass the extremely frequent boost rings].
actually pretty fun, except for the last three stages having some stupid design decisions [yes, let's respawn the player right around a corner; yes, let's fucking put these very position dependent jumps here; yes, let's put a giant rock in the middle of where you're supposed to go and a boost that leads off course there]
Racing mechanics seem maybe a bit too simple. Decent visuals, apparently the game is kind of unoptimized [runs okay on my MacBook Air though].
Managing a good drift, especially with characters that have really wide drifts, feels amazing.

Wipeout Pure [PSP].
finally remembered I had a PSP
I like Pure quite a bit more than Pulse the more I play it. Dunno if it's only the European version [which also got more of the free DLC than the rest of the regions] or what, but it runs at 60fps much, much more than Pulse does.

Some minor dumb shit happens because it's a weapon racer [bomb, mine, missile, bomb, bomb -- this happened], but it's overall quite good.

[Stevens]

I just picked up Starlancer (DC) in pristine condition for $20 at my LGS.

From what I have read I believe I am going to enjoy it.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Really enjoyable apart from the missions that feature the damned ion cannon. One is winnable but annoying, the second (final mission) is bloody impossible!

[Ed Oscuro]

To beat an ion cannon you have to believe ion god

[mamboFoxtrot]

My sister and I played some Super Monkey Ball today. Apparently there is a split-screen mode where you race head-to-head on the regular levels. A tiny problem is that the timer never resets, so on some levels it's pretty easy to end up with no players reaching finish because they fell off only once. We did a line-up of 5 of some of the more difficult courses and were tied for first place by the end of it with 0 points each! Still fun as hell, though.

The Monkey Billiards mini-game ended up being a blast, too, as we decided to only go for trick shots. Honestly, it's hard to say what's more amazing: the shots we got on purpose; or the shots that we missed, but then somehow turned into even more amazing shots. Like, "hit the ball, bounce around the table, and then hit the ball again into the side pocket" kind of amazing. I'm rather sad that there's no replay saving in that mode...

[null1024]

Ace Combat 3 [PS1].
Is it just me, or is the plane handling in this game really fucked? They feel so heavy and awful, they go crazy fast and you can't slow them down to any reasonable degree without them stalling.
I've no problem with AC2, and I've none with AC4's handling.

Otherwise, I love the style of the game, the chunky late-90s futuristic everything.

and what units does the game use, I have no idea what the speed number indicates and I stall at a far higher number than in any other AC game [like, ~750 instead of <200]
and when locking onto shit, instead of needing to get within ~700 of them, I'm getting within ~1500 of them, but it feels like I'm still really fucking close to things

Oh, and Ape Escape 3 [PS2].
Ninja morph is making this game fucking trivial.
I love the idea of the morph powers, it's just the execution ends up making it so that:
a - lots of monkeys around in one room? Mage morph, collect them all at once!
b - fast monkey, enclosed space? Gunner morph! Shoot him and then nab him from afar.
c - any other situation at all [so, the majority of times, and it's totally effective in the previous situations too]: Ninja morph! You're fast as fuck, you can hover almost like using the Sky Flier, and you have the same range advantage as the gunner morph except with more startup. I think its capture attack homes a little, too.

I haven't needed to use any of the others except during the level they were introduced.

[KAI]

Play the USA version, it fixes all those things you mentioned.

[null1024]

I am playing the US version of AC3.

[KAI]

I see. Then don't play the japanese version, is even worse tha that.

Just wait until you get better planes, the first you have are hard as rocks.

[null1024]

I see. Then don't play the japanese version, is even worse tha that.

Just wait until you get better planes, the first you have are hard as rocks.

Gotcha. Was planning to grab the JP version after seeing you bump the AC thread with that patch release, but I might hold off for a bit on that.

[Obiwanshinobi]

and what units does the game use, I have no idea what the speed number indicates and I stall at a far higher number than in any other AC game [like, ~750 instead of <200]
and when locking onto shit, instead of needing to get within ~700 of them, I'm getting within ~1500 of them, but it feels like I'm still really fucking close to things

Knots?

My sister and I played some Super Monkey Ball today. Apparently there is a split-screen mode where you race head-to-head on the regular levels.

The first one for GameCube? News to me.

A tiny problem is that the timer never resets, so on some levels it's pretty easy to end up with no players reaching finish because they fell off only once. We did a line-up of 5 of some of the more difficult courses and were tied for first place by the end of it with 0 points each! Still fun as hell, though.

Kororinpa is a more forgiving split-screen ball-roller (the ball respawns and there is no time limit). Different camera and controls, but equally solid gameplay.

The Monkey Billiards mini-game ended up being a blast, too, as we decided to only go for trick shots. Honestly, it's hard to say what's more amazing: the shots we got on purpose; or the shots that we missed, but then somehow turned into even more amazing shots. Like, "hit the ball, bounce around the table, and then hit the ball again into the side pocket" kind of amazing. I'm rather sad that there's no replay saving in that mode...

Make sure you play Monkey Golf.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Alien vs. Predator (arcade)

Does anyone have advice for beating the alien queen in stage 4 with the predator warrior? I really can't work out any strategy for her aside from jumping on the boxes on the right and hitting her from there until she dies (which doesn't even seem consistent). I love the game but this boss fight really frustrates me.

[HydrogLox]

Picked up the Halo: Spartan Bundle on Steam last week. I was actually surprised how it sucked me in to get back to it. Both games are mission-based twin stick shooters (they support Xbox 360 controller, keyboard/mouse, and touch screen) that utilize the campaign scoring from Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST and Halo Reach and up to 2 skulls can be selected at the beginning to act as multipliers for earning XP which can then be spent on upgraded mission loadouts.

Spartan Strike is actually more approachable than Spartan Assault - that is until you hit mission D-2: Serve and Protect; it's also a bit annoying (in Spartan Strike) that you have to "gold-star" all missions in operations A through D to unlock operation E - though for quite a few of the missions you have to apply yourself to not get a gold star once you complete the mission objectives.

[mamboFoxtrot]

My sister and I played some Super Monkey Ball today. Apparently there is a split-screen mode where you race head-to-head on the regular levels.

The first one for GameCube? News to me.

Yup, that's the one! It's the "Competition Mode", if you've never touched it. Basically you just make a sort of Grand Prix cup of any five stages - provided you've gotten to them before in the main game - and then race them. Supports up to 4-player split-screen.

The Monkey Billiards mini-game ended up being a blast, too ...

Make sure you play Monkey Golf.

I did. Never again. Don't know what's more annoying: the finesse required just to not go OB on some of these holes, or the obnoxious audience and their disappointed moaning after every stroke that isn't a hole-in-one.
Monkey Bowling isn't much to write home about. The silly aiming slider mini-game certainly forces you to know how to apply spin, but otherwise, it's just bowling.

PS: In Super Monkey Ball Expert mode, there is no God. There is only pain.