What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Square_Air]

Speaking of Resident evil, I just played Remake (GC) last month for the first time, and then 3 subsequent times after that. It's a fantastic game in spite of its rather lackluster ending.

Currently playing Fire Emblem 7. Trying to Repent for getting 90% of the way through Sacred Stones as a kid and having to give up from losing too many characters.

[Squire Grooktook]

Fire Emblem 7 is damn good. Easily a favorite in the series and the genre in general.

[M.Knight]

Yeah, I remember seeing Mr. Monkeyman's score run of Stage 3 on YouTube, which was two half-hour-long videos. An entire damn hour on one stage! I'm pretty sure I watched that video and was just shaking my damn head at Treasure. Shame, though, because outside of the milking I think the scoring system is actually pretty good. "Shoot stuff, don't get hit" at the base of it, time bonuses, and then secret medals and also taking every opportunity you can to reflect enemy projectiles into stuff for coins - that's what I had focused on when I played the game, and enjoyed that immensely. I didn't know about the "at the buzzer!" bonus or the "stand on the ground for points!" thing until later, and for obvious reasons I'm going to continue to ignore it!

e: wait, no, it was two 13-ish minute videos... what the hell crack was I on to think it was two half-hour videos? Some of the milking is pretty silly, but not that much!

You might be thinking of stage 2 or 6, both of which can take up to 40 minutes when played for score. Even though it's not an hour, it's still waaaaay too long. Stage 2 has some redeeming elements and one of the milkable bosses -the submarine- is actually enjoyable as you have to reflect stuff on turrets for more points; however stage 6 wasn't that great to begin with due to its atrocious lisibility and awful last fight. That one is by far my least favorite stage in the game, no contest.
Stage 3 has a bit of dumb milking so that could explain your mix up, but it stays relatively short and is very fun to play if you ignore it.
I get the feeling Treasure and Nintendo wanted to avoid the all too common "it's too short" criticism and as a result created a game that sits in a weird place. A full playthrough is still too short for "modern game" standards, but at the same time, it is too long for the arcade-style game it is supposed to be.

The multiplier-based scoring system is interesting, but I think it may have impacted the level-design and its pacing. In the original Sin&Punishment, you didn't need to build up any multiplier, so there was a better flow between bosses and setpieces but you still better not get hit to maintain a high point item value, while S&P2 has sections with lots of popcorn enemies and nothing noteworthy going on. I like destroying loads of popcorn enemies in something like Darius Burst, but for some reason I don't enjoy it as much here. Could just be me.
I agree that the secret bonus system is really cool though, as most of the trigger conditions are clever. Same goes for the missile reflect point bonuses that are fun to rack up.

Been playing 3D Super Hang-On on and off for many months. Still haven't cleared the senior course, although I've been trying since sometime in november iirc. Almost made it today for like the 4th time, but I got bumped into an obstacle right before the final checkpoint. I had time left and made it to the checkpoint, but it wasn't enough to clear the last stretch before the goal. :/

You're almost there! Don't give up~
Game overing so close to the finish line happened to me a few times as well and is frustrating, but it means you're very close to clearing it.

[ryu]

You're almost there! Don't give up~
Game overing so close to the finish line happened to me a few times as well and is frustrating, but it means you're very close to clearing it.

Thanks for the encouragement! Just had another close run last night. No plans on giving up yet.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I think Treasure might have wanted to make S&P2 a game of branching paths and/or variable order of stages, like OutRun or Gunstar Heroes, but run out of time to arrange that. See how abruptly cut-and-dried it is: no attract demo, Isa & Kachi mode is the only unlockable content (other that select already beaten stage feature) and it's not even possible to start practice from a particular checkpoint (as it was in Gradius V - another game pretty long for a single session).

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Making some progress on Impossible Boy achievement on Super Meat Boy. My current best is now 16/20 levels without dying, then I died to one of the easy levels because the framerate just dropped for no reason. This is the last achievement I have left for the game too.


Edit: 19/20 then made a stupid mistake on 7-12x which is a very easy level

[Leandro]

Finished Resident Evil 5. Died 19 times on the last level, lol. A qte (shake the left stick) wasn't working with my perfectly fine xbox 360 pad during a certain scene, so I had to switch to keyboard for this part. Also took a while to figure out how to defeat the last boss.

Now I want to play coop with someone

I can't even score a grade better than C on Mercenaries. Damn I want to play as Jill.... that ass

[professor ganson]

Fire Emblem 7 is damn good. Easily a favorite in the series and the genre in general.

Yeah, I agree 100%. Insanely good game! And I was just thinking earlier today how I'd like to return to it.

[Square_Air]

Fire Emblem 7 is damn good. Easily a favorite in the series and the genre in general.

Yeah, I agree 100%. Insanely good game! And I was just thinking earlier today how I'd like to return to it.

I think I might like FE7 more than FFTactics, even though it lacks the insane depth of character customization, it feels like a much smoother experience overall even though losing can send you back a long way. I Miss the branching classes of FE8, but it seems to be the better game despite that.

Also, Sick avatar. I prefer II to What Burns Never Returns, but Don Caballero's first three albums are all very solid.

[Blinge]

Playing Fallout New Vegas from scratch as a pacifist, it's quite fun and i'm planning to record a more refined route.

On my main file the DLCs had started to wear thin, Honest Hearts was pretty meh but at least it had a new large environment to explore.
Lonesome Road has some cool set pieces and some verticality for once.
Dead Money just isn't holding my attention. I liked the concept but the exploring that villa wore thin very quickly.

[Squire Grooktook]

Fire Emblem 7 is damn good. Easily a favorite in the series and the genre in general.

Yeah, I agree 100%. Insanely good game! And I was just thinking earlier today how I'd like to return to it.

I think I might like FE7 more than FFTactics, even though it lacks the insane depth of character customization, it feels like a much smoother experience overall even though losing can send you back a long way. I Miss the branching classes of FE8, but it seems to be the better game despite that.

Yeah, FE's strength is that it's basically the ultimate stream lined SRPG. It's mean and lean and each mission moves at a wonderful pace. You get a lot of puzzle situations where one wrong move is death, and where you have to position your guys real smartly to survive, but it never feels complicated or has you wondering what x action will do. Everything is immediately intuitive.

[Immryr]

Fire Emblem 7 is damn good. Easily a favorite in the series and the genre in general.

Yeah, I agree 100%. Insanely good game! And I was just thinking earlier today how I'd like to return to it.

I think I might like FE7 more than FFTactics, even though it lacks the insane depth of character customization, it feels like a much smoother experience overall even though losing can send you back a long way. I Miss the branching classes of FE8, but it seems to be the better game despite that.

Also, Sick avatar. I prefer II to What Burns Never Returns, but Don Caballero's first three albums are all very solid.

What burns... is my favourite, but I agree that the first three albums are all great.

the only Fire Emblem game I've played is the one on wii and while I enjoyed it I missed the feeling of being completely in control of my party that you get with the FFT games. I have been meaning to check out more of the series though, so I think i'll give FE7 a go once I get through the games I'm playing atm.

[Squire Grooktook]

I feel like you have more control over your party then FFT, in combat at least. Being able to command everyone per turn (as opposed to FFT's speed-based turn orders) means you can do tons of timing intensive group maneuvers and formations.

It's kind of ironic, but I think of FFT as being more of a strategy game and FE as being more of a tactics game. FFT you have much more control of how you build your guys long term, but IIRC you get outclassed a lot faster if you don't level them properly. While FE is more oriented around moment to moment spacing and positioning in order to maximize damage against enemies and minimize damage against your guys.

[Obiwanshinobi]

You chaps oughtta give King's Bounty: The Legend a go. My only real problem with it is that it may seem too forgiving for the first couple of hours, then too hard if you have squandered too many goods foolishly (a tad too much like the harsh truth of life for a computer game). That was misunderstanding on my part rather than game's inherent flaw to be fair. Bottomline is - protect your units; they are not infinite resource.

Grinding at Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, I'm yet again in awe of how far away "true" jRPG's gameplay can get with appealing to the 1 year-old in us all... and how some of them keep disguising themselves as more complex than that. Lufia: The Legend Returns did the same for me last year.

[Blinge]

I'm yet again in awe of how far away "true" jRPG's gameplay can get with appealing to the 1 year-old in us all...

Speaking of which, I played Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch to completion this past month. Something which was y'know.. actually written for children.
Ahh it was an enjoyable exprience, I can still find appeal in nice cute things so i'm not a joyless bastard just yet.
Not much challenge to be found, other than babysitting your other party members so I could recommend it for "baby's first RPG" so to speak..

[Immryr]

I feel like you have more control over your party then FFT, in combat at least. Being able to command everyone per turn (as opposed to FFT's speed-based turn orders) means you can do tons of timing intensive group maneuvers and formations.

It's kind of ironic, but I think of FFT as being more of a strategy game and FE as being more of a tactics game. FFT you have much more control of how you build your guys long term, but IIRC you get outclassed a lot faster if you don't level them properly. While FE is more oriented around moment to moment spacing and positioning in order to maximize damage against enemies and minimize damage against your guys.

yeah when I say control over my party I do mean in the long term, strategic, sense. I really like choosing how to level up each of my guys and being in control over the total make up of my party, combined with the tactical battles. You're right that FE is a more pure tactics game.

[M.Knight]

I think Treasure might have wanted to make S&P2 a game of branching paths and/or variable order of stages, like OutRun or Gunstar Heroes, but run out of time to arrange that. See how abruptly cut-and-dried it is: no attract demo, Isa & Kachi mode is the only unlockable content (other that select already beaten stage feature) and it's not even possible to start practice from a particular checkpoint (as it was in Gradius V - another game pretty long for a single session).

Interesting theory, though I don't think the lack of extras is any significant indicator. AFAIK, Treasure arcade-style games don't have loads of bonus content. At best an alternate mode as the prototype mode in Ikaruga. Even the original S&P didn't feature much in terms of unlockables, only featuring small tweaks in the frameskip and turbo mode options.
Furthermore, as the game has loads of cutscenes and a linear story structure, I don't think branching paths were seriously considered, as those would have required different endings and such. Unless you mean branching paths within stages themselves, which honestly would have helped to alleviate how overly long some of them are, at the expense of making some of the paths null and void for scoring purposes.


ryu : I suppose you haven't unlocked the World Tour feature yet? Wanting to give it a shot is one of the things that motivate me to clear all four courses, so it might be a good incentive for you as well.
I still have Europe/Expert to clear and that one is so long I get the feeling you are not allowed to crash even once to stand a chance to finish it.
But it is such a cool game. People often mention Outrun when talking about classic Sega racing games, but Super Hang-On also deserves some praise I think.


Immryr : Have you tried the Devil Survivor series? It mixes its square-based tactical-RPG aspect with short classic-RPG battles so it may not completely appeal to you, but the team customization is pretty great.

[ryu]

I suppose you haven't unlocked the World Tour feature yet?

Nope. My goal is to clear all four basic courses in one go each. Don't tell me World Tour means you get to play all 4 courses back to back... (that's crazy!)

Outrun is great too. Super Hang-On is just a special case for me because it was one of the first games I ever played, which is why I'm to stubborn about clearing it.

[M.Knight]

From what I have gathered, World Tour indeed makes you play all 4 courses one after the other. That sounds quite difficult and intense, but seeing how Expert mode seems tight on time limits, I suppose you get more time bonuses or something to make up for the increased course length.

[professor ganson]

Fire Emblem 7 is damn good. Easily a favorite in the series and the genre in general.

Yeah, I agree 100%. Insanely good game! And I was just thinking earlier today how I'd like to return to it.

I think I might like FE7 more than FFTactics, even though it lacks the insane depth of character customization, it feels like a much smoother experience overall even though losing can send you back a long way. I Miss the branching classes of FE8, but it seems to be the better game despite that.

Also, Sick avatar. I prefer II to What Burns Never Returns, but Don Caballero's first three albums are all very solid.

Thanks for noticing my avatar-- I think it's the first time someone said anything. Don Caballero II is quite possibly my favorite album, thinking about my life as a whole. I still make a point of listening to it a few times a year even though these days I listen more to experimental electronic stuff & field recordings.

And Fire Emblem 7 might well be my favorite game of all time. With the scoring system and the hard mode, it just feels so deep. The washed out blues, greens, and browns of the battle field-- such a pleasure to look at. The probabilities are so interesting to think through, though they can also make for great frustration. Best laid plans... Such is life.

[Squire Grooktook]

^^^Scoring system? Interesting, I don't remember any analogue to scoring. Unless you mean trying to unlock as many supports as possible.

[Mischief Maker]

The Embers of Rage expansion for Tales of Maj'Eyal just came out tonight. Right after I finished my doujin collection, my cup runneth over!

Right now I'm playing a steampunk ork dual-wielding spinning buzzsaw blades and one of his abilities is sticking those blades into the ground to zoom across the battlefield damaging every enemy he passes.

This game is fucking insane in all the right ways. If you ever wanted an RPG in a settling like that of the Dominions 4X games, this is it.

All you guys talking about your love of tactical RPGs owe it to yourselves to try this game. The base game is freeware, you pay for the expansions. Even though it's descended from a roguelike, the interface is as easy to use as Torchlight 2. (Better, actually, being turn-based and all).

[Squire Grooktook]

^^^I played Maj'eyal briely, and yeah it's a great game. Still not sure if the solo-roguelike experience is really my thing, but I enjoyed the dungeon crawling and savored actually being able to tell what the fuck was going on in a roguelike for once :3

[pokemon123]

^^^Scoring system? Interesting, I don't remember any analogue to scoring. Unless you mean trying to unlock as many supports as possible.

there is a ranking system in some FE games in several categories (most of which i forgot but one of them is turns taken i think, the max rank you can get is S and there are some runs of people S ranking every category (some with 0% growths i believe! 0% meaning when you get a character you get base stats and when they level up no growths accomplised by hacking growth values using a tool)

[DQ187]

Playing Project X-Zone 2 and enjoying it quite a bit! pretty much the same as the first but I really enjoyed the first so that's a good thing! Will be playing Fire Emblem Fates next. My girlfriend is playing my copy first since she's a big fan and I'm nice! got the sweet little bundle for Fates! Really wish we would of got another bundle for X-Zone 2 in the states like we did the first.

[Squire Grooktook]

^^^Scoring system? Interesting, I don't remember any analogue to scoring. Unless you mean trying to unlock as many supports as possible.

there is a ranking system in some FE games in several categories (most of which i forgot but one of them is turns taken i think, the max rank you can get is S and there are some runs of people S ranking every category (some with 0% growths i believe! 0% meaning when you get a character you get base stats and when they level up no growths accomplised by hacking growth values using a tool)

Ah right, I only remembered ranks in Advance Wars ^_^

That low-level S-Rank run sounds impressive as all hell though.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

I am definitely excited to get to FE7 at some point - it seems like one of the best in the series. I've played through all of the first five games (FE5 is my favorite - probably not as balanced as FE7, but it's a total masterpiece that truly captures the feeling of playing a weak guerrilla army standing up to a huge military power; you really have to fight for every inch in that game), and I want to play through the rest of the games in order. So whenever I feel like playing a Fire Emblem again, I'll play through Binding Blade (which I haven't heard great things about, unfortunately).

[Squire Grooktook]

Binding Blade is okay, IIRC most of the flak it gets is because:

-rng is sometimes unbalanced and can lead to your guys dying from random enemy critical hits. IIRC they rebalanced how rng and crits work in general after this one.
-Roy is one of the weakest lords in the series and is basically a walking escort mission.
-The story isn't as involved or good as its prequel, Blazing Sword (aka 7), so English players who played 7 first and enjoyed the (surprisingly good) story will be a bit disappointed by 6.

Otherwise it's still good ol FE, and therefore fun.

--

My copy of FE:Fates came today, though I can't play it till tomorrow since I'm studying for an exam tomorrow. Everything I've heard from casuals to hardcore strategy fans alike say it's one of the hardest and best balanced games in the series (on the Nohr route, at least). Can't wait to play. The title screen alone is haunting also.

[Marc]

Still Spelunky. Made it to Olmec last night having met all the requirements to open the doorway to hell. Killed him in exactly the right place, rode his head down to the doorway, and fell off the platform in my excitement. Gutted is not the word. Tried d a few more times after that but then majorly pissed and rushing too much so pretty much went downhill from there on.

Oh and a fuckton on Downwell on Android. Absolutely the best game I've played so far this year, but will be even more so when it lands on PS4. Kind of demands a controller.

Also trying to get into Everybody's Gone To The Rapture. Half and half so far, but damn is it pretty, really rings a chord graphically with its depiction of 80's little England.

[rapoon]

shadwen

one of the better stealth games i've played. a core mechanic of the game is time manipulation. when shadwen is not moving, time is frozen. in the event of a mistake (killed or noticed) you can immediately rewind.
her primary weapons are a dagger and grappling hook, as well as several traps at your disposal (poison dart trap, mine, sticky bomb). the grappling hook is fantastic. in addition to allowing you to scale structures, it can be used to pull and grab items to distract or kill guards (e.g. i'm a ledge overlooking the guards and there's barrels stored up there with me. I attach the grappling hook to a barrel, wind the rope in (via mouse wheel) and I can then cut the rope and drop the barrel on a guard or lob it across the courtyard and distract him).
conceptually, the game is brilliant with a plethora of methods for advancing your way through a level. in this way it reminds me of styx. it's imperative to not get noticed otherwise the guards will
sound an alarm and the game is over. the beta is a free download on steam right now. fans of styx and thief should have a look.