What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Blinge]

Finalbaton, you're a good guy.

now play 3 or 2 olol

[soprano1]

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon. For now it feels easier than Explorers of Sky, which isn't very hard anyway.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Just finished...

Dying Light
Apart from a couple of bullshit moments totally out of step with the rest of the game (the boss fights and a weird halloucination bit) and occasionally inconsistent controls (y u no grab that ledge the one time there's a fatal drop below?), really good fun. A shame the main story doesn't force you out at night more often though, some of the best bits are when you're running like hell to get to a safe zone. Could've done with more of that and less of the more generic "shooting thugs inside a building" sections. Like so many modern games, sidequests that are just "hey mate, you seem like the only guy who doesn't get eaten by the first zombie he sees. My daughter left her teddy bear at home, can you go get for me please?" levels of fucking really? Though there's still enough good structure to what you end up fighting to make them an engaging distraction whenever you run past a marker on your way to the main objective.

Next it's back to...

Final Fantasy 15
Urgh. And I actually liked the 13 series which seem to be so widely loathed. Fast travel seems to work some of the time but even then it's either long car journey or long loading screen. A giant open world is not a good thing if you're just trudging to a marker with nothing of interest except fuck the autopilot has taken me into a tunnel and now I'm stuck between a bunch of high level enemies (not unlike wandering around in Red Dead Redemption only for a cougar to come out of nowhere and maul you to death).

Combat is okay one on one but a disaster if you're fighting multiple enemies - sometimes you get a block prompt but sometimes you just have to gauge the attack... which is not helped by an awful camera and that giant crab I couldn't see behind me just wiped all my HP. It also does stupid things like have teammate techniques as real time cutaways rather than cutscenes with the rest of the "action" paused. Where am I again? Just when I think I've found a way to make it bearable, it finds new and exciting ways to instantly knock my HP to zero. If they'd stuck with the "take you out into an arena to fight" setup of 13 and Type-0, I get the feeling it would've been more like Type-0 (which is really good fun when you get a few abilities) - but having it in the open world leads to lots of camera issues and getting stuck on scenery. I tried wait mode, which helps with the camera/multiple enemies but also prevents you from recovering HP when you go to a warp point.

Using meals as buffs and crafting recipes is interesting at least, but it's such a chore to find campsites to actually cook anything - with diner meals ludicrously overpriced and money only really available by taking on hunts.... more broken combat. Am I missing something or is it just a huge mess of spamming recovery potions?

[wgogh]

Knee deep in Phantasy Star IV.

I am playing that one lately, thanks to your review. Everything you said is confirmed so far, and the macros function is really good. The simplicity of old fantasy rpgs seemed to be well placed here. And Alys reminds me a little lot of Mail and/or Lina Inverse...

[FinalBaton]

Knee deep in Phantasy Star IV.

I am playing that one lately, thanks to your review. Everything you said is confirmed so far, and the macros function is really good. The simplicity of old fantasy rpgs seemed to be well placed here. And Alys reminds me a little lot of Mail and/or Lina Inverse...

Nice! I'm happy that I made you want to play it. And I like that you agree with my review, I like to think that I'm at least decent at analysing games and take pride in my reviews. I also put a lot of thought into them.

Finalbaton, you're a good guy.

now play 3 or 2 olol

Hehe, thanks

I remember being repulsed by the graphics and sound of 3, lol. But I am determined to give it another look.
PS2 I never played but it seems really cool, shame it doesn't have different BG for the fights. Will definitely try it and play it through the end tho.
PS4 I actually know from way back. When I was a teen, a good friend of mine, who was our DM in D&D(and we played all the time in those years) had a Genesis (I only had Nintendo consoles) and Phantasy Star 4. I watched him play for countless hours and we were both blown away by it. We liked it so much that we even made a D&D campaign in the PS universe! We created the different races, the weapons, armors, some character classes. We straight up worshipped PS4, lol.

[kaicooper]

just finished BLEED 2
such a great game..first one was blaaast
sequal is double that..but tooooo Short..40 minutes only but
it has Replay Value for Harder Difficulty and Challenges

[Durandal]

Recently finished Resident Evil: REmake, and I sure got fucking spooked. Even though it can be summed up as 'B-movie styled adventure game where you kill zombies and solve puzzles', the game is WAY more tense than it seems. It's not just that you're not a death god unlike most games, or that you have to worry about your scarce amount of ammo, but it's brilliant presentation.

The core of its horror is that it fucks wih all your ideas of safety. You think you're safe backtracking through corridors you've already explored? Here come dogs crashing through the window. You think that going to another room will keep you safe from zombie attacks? Here comes a zombie crashing through the basement door you're trying to use! You think it's better to fall back to the pistol in order to save ammo when killing zombies? You better have brought a fuel canteen with you... You think you're safe in a save room? *SOUND OF DOOR OPENING FROM BENEATH*
Many of the aforementioned things may be scripted encounters, yet it's because of those breaches of conventions that you're left with a lingering doubt and unease even that you might get taken by surprise when roaming the mansion. Now THAT'S terror. And there's all the other things like how fixed camera angles and off-screen sounds are used to create fear, or how simply no music playing at all is more unnerving than the scariest soundtrack imaginable.

The puzzles themselves are alright, and rarely feel like bullshit. They may be abstract (the Lisa 'boss fight' sure as hell isn't something any armed person would do in the same situation unless I glossed over something while reading the files, but it was only apparent because it was the only thing you COULD do), but I think it contributes to the entire surreal feeling of the mansion.
The story is entertainingly hammy without making you laugh your lungs out like the original PSX dub would ("Chris? S-stop it! "). I'm positive Wesker's voice was what they were trying to copy in House of the Dead 2. Dogs of the AMS. Mm, mm, mm, mm.

Other than that I gave DOOM (2016) a replay on Nightmare difficulty. I noticed some things I missed on my UV playthrough, like enemies being able to lead their shots, Imps being able to shoot while moving and complicating things by randomly traversing the arena and shooting at you from unpredictable angles, but at the same time its flaws were more apparent once fireballs start shaving off half of your healthbar.

Normally first-person shooters present the challenge you have to face within your field of vision considering you can't see everything from a first-person perspective, which is also what usually happens in DOOM when enemies spawn in, but because of the arena-like nature of the levels it doesn't stay that way and you'll often find yourself surrounded. Some games figured they could make up for your limited cone of vision by allowing you to guess what's happening around you through positional sound, so you can hear the enemies and their attacks around you. Not in DOOM, combined with the music, all sounds combine to form an incomprehensible cacophony which makes things more confusing than necessary, and could have been solved with better audio mastering. Only Lost Souls get an audible sound tic (through excessive screaming) because of their new kamikaze-like nature, yet Lost Souls are way too underused in the game to be really notable. If I could hear the shit around me, I could have probably avoided a lot of deaths. As it stands I suffered from way too many 'where did that attack/enemy even come from deaths.

I think there's something about the arena-like level design that's fundamentally repetitive. Basically you are thrown into a playground as enemies teleport in at random fixed locations, and things just play out from there. There's some hotspots like power-ups and ammo/health/armor, but for the most part it plays out like you're playing against fifteen bots at a time. You then skate around as you blast everything with your super shotgun/rocket launcher over and over until everything dies. I feel that the problem here is that there's very little in terms of fixed encounters which explicitly test certain parts of your abilities, as your movement is rarely constrained by the levels to make things harder and the levels themselves do little to change up your general strategies against fighting demons. I'd say only (Cyber-)Mancubi are presented as a major life hazard which the level designers could thoughtfully place around, given their slow bulletspongy nature. There are some cases of this like the nod to Dead Simple, though Mancubi can be dispatched too easily with one or two Siege Mode shots from any range. There's simply too litle that makes one arena stand out from the other aside from portal/jump pad gimmicks.

(I'd like to point out that the cases of monster infighting in DOOM most people refer to are in fact scripted. Especially two in Kadingir Sanctum, one of which being two Revenants against one Mancubus which will play out the same every time unless you step in. While monster infighting actually IS possible in DOOM, it's something you'll rarely ever witness given that enemies are less prone to hitting eachother. Infighting is certainly not used to the same extent like the Cyberdemon/Hell Knight room in Tricks and Traps, as it's more of a case of 'see, we totally have the spirit of the original'. It feels kind of scummy to have to show that through scripted encounters.)

[Marc]

Bummer. This is in my to play pile, but you just totally put me off of it with that post.

[Sumez]

This game is just as good as the best SNES RPGs(and might actually edge them out). And you better believe it! And no, this is not my inner Sega fanboy talking. I actually am a massive Final Fantasy fan, with all of 1, 4 and 6 being extremely dear to my heart. I have like, obssessive love for those games. I have very precious memories tied to them. They are the games that made me a hardcore gamer. Suffice to say, I worship them.

You gotta be kidding me. I have no affiliation, but the "Phantasy Star 4 is just as good as the best SNES RPGs" claim is something I only ever hear from Sega fanboys trying to justify every area of the MegaDrive's game library (as if it didn't stand out well enough without having to constantly compare to the SNES).

PS4 is a fairly competent RPG, but it's very standard fare, with very little making it stand out compared to the the enormous onslaught of run-of-the-mill RPGs for both SNES and PC-Engine that were never even translated, right down to the dry and somewhat rushed/cheap presentation. The story feels highly redundant and the characters are all clichés. It does start out nice with the slow reveal of things going on on a larger scale than your smalltown monster hunting affairs, but once you start travelling to other planets (which are basically just cities), I lose interest completely. The gameplay is solid and delightfully fast paced, though the strictly turn based combat (as opposed to some sort of ATB variant or similar) prevents any real depth to the combat system, making it mostly based on heavy grinding and the abstract macro system.

By no means a bad game, but I can't think of anything that stands out in the game, despite having played it three times + a few attempts that never got anywhere. On a very good day it feels on par with maybe something like Breath of Fire 2, but even thinking of comparing it to something like FF6 and Chrono Trigger, games that both set a whole new standard for the genre and are both extremely memorable and breathtaking on a huge scale, just makes it come short in every way possible, and in no way close to a 10/10 - the only people I've ever heard claim otherwise seem to be speaking mostly out of nostalgia.

[Squire Grooktook]

Go play Trails In The Sky / Mars Matrix

[Durandal]

Bummer. This is in my to play pile, but you just totally put me off of it with that post.

It's kind of hard to describe DOOM. For every good idea and the feeling you get the director wanted to provide a focused experience, there's at least two more which contradict that and make you go 'wtf were they thinking'. The intro has you punching a screen of a character trying to talk to you essentially telling you that the story can go fuck itself, but then there's several sections per level where the gameplay slows down in favor of story exposition. The director wanted to emphasize a style of gameplay where you're constantly on the move... and then encourages this through fast but disorienting takedown animations which net you bonus health and ledge grabbing animations as a means of moving around vertically which take away your control. Inbetween killing things and going fast you'll inevitably be browsing through your several upgrade menus and daily challenges to get better at killing things. DOOM has a sense of black Wikipedia humor as evidenced its many DEEPEST LORE entries with casual hints of Satanism everywhere, but it falls flat due to its overbearing serious atmosphere. I got it, it just didn't make me laugh. The way DOOM handles bosses (Ys style) is actually the best I've seen in the entire FPS genre, but there's only three boss fights in the entire game, all of them only in the second half of the game, they're made too easy by frequent health/ammo drops if you deal enough damage, they badly incorporate your weapon arsenal (just use your strongest weapons), and the boss fights themselves could use a lot of fleshing out in terms of attack patterns and challenge. The arenas are the meat of the combat, but they are separated by sections of a minimal amount of enemies to pose the slightest bit of challenge and platforming sections???

I'm not sure if I would call it a flawed gem. It's not a bunch of issues that are holding DOOM back from being truly great, but choices in design and direction which detract from the intended experience. It's something most people consider a 'step in the right direction', yet that's what might make people overlook all the badly handled aspects of the game. It's why I'm more afraid to see more DOOM clones then I am to see Doom clones. For DOOM to really excel it'd have to be overhauled from the very core to filter out all the bullshit and provide a better means of execution. The arenas will inevitably get repetitive over time, but the hidden classic levels are too sparse in terms of enemy numbers to present a serious challenge, much like the filler sections inbetween arenas. The level layout itself in DOOM is rarely used as a means of challenging the player, other than the rather low amount of skill required to traverse it. Imagine if the arenas actually changed and moved the longer you fought in them, like lava slowly rising, moving platforms, and so on. That'd be a lot cooler than the static ones we already have. Devil Daggers has NO layout at all, it's just a flat arena hovering over a bottomless pit, but the dynamic between different the enemy types and their numbers can create a whole lot more interesting situations to shoot yourself out of.

DOOM is not BAD, but it's not particularly well thought out. It's not a must-play by any means, it's just a bore once you get the hang of it.

[Blinge]

You gotta be kidding me. I have no affiliation, but the "Phantasy Star 4 is just as good as the best SNES RPGs" claim is something I only ever hear from Sega fanboys trying to justify every area of the MegaDrive's game library (as if it didn't stand out well enough without having to constantly compare to the SNES).
even thinking of comparing it to something like FF6 and Chrono Trigger, games that both set a whole new standard for the genre and are both extremely memorable and breathtaking on a huge scale, just makes it come short in every way possible

As someone who played FFVI first, has a special place for it and loved Chrono Trigger, I have to disagree.
PSIV offers something else, mostly it's the speed. The former two have a tendency like nearly every jrpg from that era to get bogged down in drudgery for large sections; and don't get me started on the PS1 FFs.

I rarely felt like PSIV was wasting my time, ever.
So often in FF6 and CT you're just sat there waiting for meters to fill! That's at least one way in which PSIV definitely has the edge imo.

Sure, those games have better setpieces and do a lot of things better but to claim they're superior in every way possible is also slipping into fanboyism isnt it? Also I'm not sure you can claim a combat system lacks depth just because it lacks ActiveTimeBattle..
Wasn't that patented by Square at the time anyway?

It's also cool, really cool.
I dunno man there's something very Sega about PSIV, I approached it wanting an RPG that screams Sega Megadrive from start to finish and was happy with the result.

The game isn't perfect, obviously. I'd have liked it to be a bit harder, so it fit better with PSII.
As much as I liked the combo techs, it's annoying as fuck when they don't come out for attack order reasons. That being said, they're pretty powerful so being able to use them whenever you want is perhaps unbalanced.

tl;dr wouldn't call it a 10/10 myself but I will definitely say it's up there as one of the 16bit rpg greats. It can hang with the big boys.

FinalBaton what about PSI you played/gonna play that?

[Sumez]

While I agree that it's great that PS4's combat is really snappy, it's of little use when battles in the game feel more like setting up a spreadsheet than fighting monsters. If they really wanted to spice up the battle system, (fast) animations and graphical feedback would have helped more, as opposed to the "storybook" text-only model that the game employs.

Both CT and FF6's battles are pretty fast as they are, despite the stupid waiting for bars to fill (provided you didn't set the battle speed to something slow). A more snappy delay-less system would definitely be an improvement here, but as much as it could have helped giving an additioanl edge to these games, I don't see it doing much for PS4 except preventing it from crossing the line of being too dull to play. When half the battles you are fighting are resolved solely from using the auto-battle feature, you really wouldn't want them to spend too much time typing out everything that happens over and over again.

but to claim they're superior in every way possible is also slipping into fanboyism isnt it?

Could be, if I were a fanboy, but looking objectively at these games, I'm not really seeing any single thing PS4 does better. Sure it's an absolutely unfair comparison, and very few JRPGs do stand up to those two, but that is exactly why I think people should stop comparing PS4 to the SNES's top players of the genre.

Either way, I really don't think PS4 is a bad game, but the love for it just feels absolutely unwarranted. It's an extremely forgettable game with very little identity of its own. Despite having played it through three times I couldn't tell you anything about the story at this moment. I do remember one very spoiler-ific moment, but it didn't make as much of an impact as it should have.

[FinalBaton]

I really don't think PS4 is a bad game, but the love for it just feels absolutely unwarranted.

How is it unwarranted? The game is very good to excellent in many areas.
You might not like the style of the game, but that doen't mean that it's not an excellent RPG. Come on, get real...

It's an extremely forgettable game with very little identity of its own.

Wow, what is this, lol
The game basically OOZES style. You know of many games that look like it? that sound like it? because if so then show them to me.

[Xyga]

PS4 is very good but too short (nah it's not just because it's quick) and too easy.

Also it misses a mode7 overworld you can fly over with an airship.

[Shoryukev]

Bonks Adventure - TG16

It's a fairly fun game, but maybe a bit bland. It and Keith Courage are the only games I have for the system at the moment. Need to hop on the bay and get some shmups headed towards my house!

[evil_ash_xero]

Bonks Adventure - TG16

It's a fairly fun game, but maybe a bit bland. It and Keith Courage are the only games I have for the system at the moment. Need to hop on the bay and get some shmups headed towards my house!

The second one is a lot better.

[kaicooper]

Bonks Adventure - TG16

It's a fairly fun game, but maybe a bit bland. It and Keith Courage are the only games I have for the system at the moment. Need to hop on the bay and get some shmups headed towards my house!

The second one is a lot better.

exactly..its like more of the same but better way..amazing game

[Mero]

Just reached the 5th Kalpa in SMT:III.

[Blinge]

The game basically OOZES style. You know of many games that look like it? that sound like it? because if so then show them to me.

i c wut u did there...

[wgogh]

PS4 is very good but too short (nah it's not just because it's quick) and too easy.

Also it misses a mode7 overworld you can fly over with an airship.

I like short rpgs, actually. But I suspect that it is a uncommon taste.
I have not finished PS4, so I dont know how short it is.

[Squire Grooktook]

The game basically OOZES style. You know of many games that look like it? that sound like it? because if so then show them to me.

i c wut u did there...

Though it doesn't have quite the ascetic mettle of the original, hearing an orchestral arrange of OOZE during the P.Darkness battle in Phantasy Star Online 2 was quite nice.

[Immryr]

I started playing armored core silent line a few days ago and I'm already stuck, very early in. im on the protect power plant mission and I just can't keep up with all of the enemies coming in. I basically suck at controlling my mech. I'm only really used to playing the x360 AC games and there I just use the quick boost to do fast turns and instant 180s. On this game I spend half my time just trying to point myself in the right direction haha.

I haven't yet resorted to hiring two helpers but if I stay stuck for much longer that is probably what I will do. Although, if the ai is similar to the 360 games then it won't be much help...

[Immryr]

Uhh, so I just did it first try today..... Not sure why I was finding it so difficult before.....

Anyone know what I need to upgrade so I don't get "output down" after being hit a couple of times? I guess it's the radiator, but I already upgraded to the best currently available radiator so I guess I just need to wait for new parts to unlock.

[NYN]

Came back to Punch-Out!! Wii halfway on Title Defense.

I'm reminded why I'm so glad I picked it up.
Combat is simplistic. 2 punches, 2 jabs, 2 sways, 1 duck and the Star Punch. That's the moveset.
But o man, dee action.
The first two to three bouts are the welcome mat, after that it gets steadily into thunderdome.
The counter system also spiked my interest: Reminds me of Issen from Onimusha. Let the other make the first move, but you strike first. Not that many action titles, to my experience, feature this. (deduct Vs fighting games)
Opponents are boss fights really. They all look gorgeous in that comic comical style and I tend to think the cultural stereotyping to be satirical.
That's why I'm laughing anyway. Either way a far cry from a time pre-pc media-wise.

[Marc]

There was something g8 didn't like about Wii Punch Out in comparison to the SNES version, had to do with how it handled the power bar if I remember right. Might have to fire it up and take another look.

[NYN]

Super Punch-Out!! is the other contact I've had with the, uh, series.
(Guess having just 3 games in around three decades still validates as 'series')
Having fun with that, too. What seems cheap upon higher circuits concerning speed and telegraphing comes around in own experience.
Or maybe it's the massive evidence of rule-breaking in terms of boxing that is irritating. Well, when you do figure it out it becomes part of the fun. Like, even with a cane, kicks, ball-juggling, bear-hugging, grappels and arm-breaking, you got nuthin'.

Looking at the save game on Wii storage made me smile. It says: "Let's keep it clean!". At least till you get to 2nd Aran Ryan, I suppose.

If you do get around to finding out what irked you with it, please feel free to let me know.

[kaicooper]

still playing Take on Mars manned Missions

[Immryr]

maybe i should have put these posts in the from software thread, but, one more thing about armored core silent line, or actually just the series in general.

has anyone played silent line, or any other AC game, after uploading your save game from the previous title? i imagine it changes the balance of the game, or at least the first half or so, pretty drastically. having a crappy mech and hardly any credits, not knowing what it's best to upgrade first is a big part of what makes these games tough imo. it seems like having a fully decked out mech and lots of parts to choose from right at the start would pretty much break the game.

[Gespenst]

has anyone played silent line, or any other AC game, after uploading your save game from the previous title? i imagine it changes the balance of the game, or at least the first half or so, pretty drastically. having a crappy mech and hardly any credits, not knowing what it's best to upgrade first is a big part of what makes these games tough imo. it seems like having a fully decked out mech and lots of parts to choose from right at the start would pretty much break the game.

Especially if you managed to get the OP-I part in AC3 and "cheese"-tier weapon (either a machinegun or a rifle, can't remember. But MGs used to be broken before they introduced limited shots per mag), yes. I carried over my save data from AC3P all the way to LRP years ago - only the OP-I part that wasn't carried over to Last Raven Portable for obvious reason.