What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Chaos Phoenixma]

"Finished" my second playthrough of Valdis Story earlier. Was with Vladyn while my blind run was Reina. Unlike the Reina run, I reloaded my saves instead of using the Retry option, so combat rank S. Did miss an item or possibly more items so no Adventurer Rank S, so time to go search every room in the game again while wearing the accessory that shows if there's a chest in a room.

I'll probably wait on doing the Wyatt and Gilda runs until I complete Goibniu mode. I'll be doing another Godslayer Vladyn in order to try to route out some stuff and practice some strats and try to get more consistent at some of the bosses. Since Goibniu requires you to beat Godslayer with no saves, no retries, can only use the save statue heal and potion refill once per statue ,and a time limit(30 minutes + 15 minutes per boss), I'm going to want to make sure I can consistently beat the fights and hopefully with good ranks.

There's a few fights I'm worried about survival on and a bit that I'm not sure I can consistently S rank at the moment. And that's an issue for a run where it can take a few hours just for an any% clear of it. Rank is an issue because of the much lower rewards and experience for low boss ranks, so not getting an S would be punishing. Most of the required bosses I'm confident I would survive, and it's the optional superbosses that I'm not sure if I could get consistent survival on. I'll see if I can get them consistent enough for me to go for, but if not, I'll gladly skip 1 or 2 of the 3. I should be completely fine for the Halls of the Fallen one as Vladyn because I managed to first try SSS her on the Vladyn Godslayer(I would definitely skip that fight if I were attempting it with Reina), but I would definitely try her out a bit on my routing run to see if it's consistent or not.

Plus I would need to see whether fully upgraded shotgun or sniper would let me easily beat some of the stuff. I didn't upgrade past 2 because I wanted to be able to unlock all the weapons. Now that I have them, there's no reason not to upgrade some past level 2, so another run would let me see how much more powerful the higher upgrades actually are.

[reckon luck]

Devil Daggers finally went on sale, so I'm playing that. Up to 191s so far!

[WelshMegalodon]

あの...私の初めての...あの...

Spoiler

I think this may actually be my first Konami clear. Granted, it wasn't a totally blind playthrough, but when there isn't a manual readily available you can only read so much about the game without getting spoiled. I'm fairly satisfied with the Mikihara ending.

[kaicooper]

Devil Daggers finally went on sale, so I'm playing that. Up to 191s so far!

one of the best..its just 1 level..but how far can u survive

[kaicooper]

ok i played these:
Take on Mars
it was EA since 2013 and finally out on 9th Feb
game is SUPER buggy..how could they do that?
its unfinished and buggy as hell..i stopped playing it
=======

Astroneer
such a great game but its still new EA and dosnt have
much to do..i mean like playing 9 hours to 10 hours then there's
nothing much to do..no plot..no missions..nothing..just try to
build the base for now..but yea there will be lots to ADD later
=======

now playing Salt and Sanctuary

[G-Darius]

Yie Ar Kung-Fu on the C64

[wgogh]

ok i played these:
Take on Mars
it was EA since 2013 and finally out on 9th Feb
game is SUPER buggy..how could they do that?
its unfinished and buggy as hell..i stopped playing it
=======

Astroneer
such a great game but its still new EA and dosnt have
much to do..i mean like playing 9 hours to 10 hours then there's
nothing much to do..no plot..no missions..nothing..just try to
build the base for now..but yea there will be lots to ADD later
=======

now playing Salt and Sanctuary

I guess the atmosphere and design alone made Astroneer so popular, since the game seems almost pointless by now. That said, no surprises that it spawned millions of gameplay videos and streams.
There are games that are good to play and/or good to watch, and Astroneer is strong on the second.

[Sumez]

Finally pulled myself together to put some time into Slain. Finished the "intro" stages and the Wolf stages so far.
It's an obviously flawed game, but it's delightfully charming, challenging without overstaying its welcome, and generally fun to play.

I can't tell if the ridiculously exagerrated blood everywhere and constant heavy metal guitar is intended to be ironic, but I have an uneasy feeling that it's not. The less than subtle use of inner bevel in the logo gives that away.

[Durandal]

Gave Crysis a whirl recently

WOO GRAPHIX. Too bad I could only run it around medium. Throwing around Koreans against other Koreans and tactically sniping Koreans and gas tanks with your tactical scope on your tactical assault rifle while constantly switching tactical nanosuit modes feel tactical as fuck. One might feel like the modes could be simplified somewhat like in Crysis 2, but I think the fun comes from getting a hang of your nanosuit to begin with, on top of getting a grip on enemy behavior to understand and predict their patterns. It sure nails that Predator feel of planning your approach and striking like a snake on a herd of suspecting enemies, which games like FarCry 3 can only hope to come close to by making you feel way too invincible with a zillion health items, whereas Crysis has slowly regenerating health with lethally accurate enemies, but it's possible to play gung ho if you know what are you doing.
My favourite moment was zipping between cover while cloaked through a dense forest even more densely packed with enemies, only to lure them all out with a smoke grenade and then blast them with a single RPG. There must've been fifteen of them, it's a miracle I survived that long on low health.

Then the second half kicks in and completely abandons every gameplay concept you had learned while killing Koreans in order to become a generic setpiece-driven shooter. First you play Descent as you punch aliens in the face as your main means of attack, go have some straightforward shooting bits against aliens who are nowhere as fun to fight as the humans, cinematic moments, story shit, vehicle sections, Half-Life style exposition, and so on. It's pure garbage after you kill the Korean big bad, and its 'final boss' even moreso leaving you at a fucking cliffhanger. It's FarCry 1 all over again when it introduced the Trigen after fighting fun to fight human enemies, guess Crytek can't help but repeat their mistakes.

I still think it's worth playing until the aliens kick in. I may not be as good as this guy (just watch it), but I think it is entertaining enough for me to give it another shot through the Warhead expansion.

[null1024]

Devil Daggers [PC].
Bought it almost entirely because it was on sale.
It's pretty damn cool. Just started an hour ago, kind of hitting a wall at 59 seconds.

Visuals are stylish, and the sound design is brilliant.
headphones are an actual requirement because positional audio is extremely important in not dying

[rapoon]

sorry, can't help it.

who the fuck waits for a $5 game to go on sale....

57 hours played. best $5 spent.

[lilmanjs]

More Flatout 2. More how the heck did I manage to lose the championship anger. Still have a blast doing a trucks only run.

[null1024]

sorry, can't help it.

who the fuck waits for a $5 game to go on sale....

admittedly, if I remembered it existed when it released [the trailer was super hype], I'd have bought it ages ago

[rapoon]

sorry, can't help it.

who the fuck waits for a $5 game to go on sale....

admittedly, if I remembered it existed when it released [the trailer was super hype], I'd have bought it ages ago

I'm happy to see more ppl on the forum buy it; I think most shmups members would enjoy it be extremely good at the game, situational awareness being paramount.
my pb is 325.5979. the top-player replays by players sojk and bowsr (~500 & ~250 hours played respectively) is impressive.

Currently playing Berserk (PS4). I knew it was a musou re-skin when pre-ordering it which doesn't bother me. Despite the mindless combat, I greatly enjoyed the FotNS games (particularly the first).
Berserk seems to follow the story fairly accurate (I'm only ~2 hours in) albeit with loads of shit removed. Enjoyment of these games seems to be directly proportional to your enjoyment of the source.
Note: not to confuse or conflate the aforementioned statement with "if you enjoy the series, you'll enjoy the game"

[Mischief Maker]

Approaching Infinity

I hesitate to recommend this game because it's overpriced and has terrible limited number of installs online activation DRM (with option to grovel to the publisher for new ones).

But... it's Tales of Maj'Eyal meets Starflight.

Or if you're too young to understand the significance of that statement, this is the game No Man's Sky SHOULD have been, albeit rendered in shitty programmer art.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Ended up beating Goibniu mode on Valdis Story with Vladyn. Some characters probably would have to worry about dying later into the game on such a long run, which sucks due to the no save or retry thing. Vladyn is pretty overpowered though for most of it, so it was more about getting past the beginning of it.

Currently doing Gilda run on Godslayer. Then will do Wyatt Godslayer, then a cleanup run(s) for the speedrun and no equipment change/upgrade ones.


Also have gotten into Nuclear Throne, and I'm really terrible at it so far. So far I've looped as Eyes a few time and have unlocked 3 of the preloop crowns with him(or is Eyes a her, I'm not really sure like with some of them). I've managed to sit on the throne with YV but haven't looped with him, and I only did that because looping doesn't unlock Rogue.


I've managed to get to Palace a few times as Plant, always while trying to get the B skin which is frustrating. Also got to 7-2 once on a No Rhino Skin or Strong Spirit Melting but garbage spawn, which was my best survival for Melting, my best kills though being a 7-1 where I did take those.

Also managed to loop with Crystal during this weekly, so I now have one of the postloop crowns unlocked for her since the weeklies seem to start you with a postloop crown(this one was Crown of Hatred). I don't think I'll try to improve the weekly though, I was playing it for the crown.

Even in the few times I have looped, I have not made it past the first stages of the first area of the game. I would definitely like to see some of the loop exclusive bosses eventually.

[kaicooper]

Night in the Woods
just released last night and i though its gonna be
a surreal platformer with puzzles..etc
im in Part 3 now..game has 4 Parts

its more focus on Characters and dialog..there's only
one amazing minigame in the game similar to Hyper Light Drifter..awesom

[Sumez]

Wow, I've been waiting for Night in the Woods but haven't heard anything from it in ages. Surprised to hear it is suddenly out.

Is it worth picking up?

[kaicooper]

Wow, I've been waiting for Night in the Woods but haven't heard anything from it in ages. Surprised to hear it is suddenly out.

Is it worth picking up?

yea since 2014..finally released..if u into characters relationship then go ahead
but it has some good minigames..ther's some surreal dreams and stuff hppn
if u like Oxenfree style..just Play this now

[Blinge]

A Link to the Past.

I was enjoying it until the Skull Woods, and now I'm not.
What i'd give for just two more pixels of reach for link's piddly sword.

[WelshMegalodon]

Link's tiny sword is what made me swear off Zelda games years ago. Ys is much better in this regard, as I'm sure you know.

Honestly, with Willow, Crystalis, Ragnacenty, Alundra, etc., is it even worth playing Zelda these days?

[Blinge]

Well everyone's favourite game design expert, egoraptor said ALTTP is best zeldo so it must be true..

I haven't heard of any of those games haha.

Hm.. Ys huh? I wonder if it's possible to do an Adol cosplay/challenge run of Dark Souls.
Running attacks only? I don't know his moveset from later Ys games..

[soprano1]

Dragon Ball Fusions (3DS)
It's kind of like SMT, in the sense you recruit characters and fuse them, making them learn new attacks.
It's not amazing, but flying around is great fun, and the battle themes aren't tiring at all to hear all the time.
There is even a funny quiz you can play to test your DB encyclopedic knowledge:)

[Mischief Maker]

Willow

I loved Willow on the NES! Right up there with Sunsoft's Batman for best movie adaptation games of the generation. I loved how they made the foliage blow violently in the wind whenever a badguy showed up.

[Squire Grooktook]

Honestly, with Willow, Crystalis, Ragnacenty, Alundra, etc., is it even worth playing Zelda these days?

Alundra is god, but Cyrstalis is a little too grindy for my tastes (getting into unwinnable boss fights because you didn't level up enough prior and do 0 damage = asdfljadslfjasdf). It's only real advantage over Zelda is an item that lets you jump on command, but Awakening and the Oracle games top it easily in that regard and every other.

LTTP is okay. Some fun boss fights, and it's a nice bridge between the more linear, setpiece driven later games and the more open and freestyle early titles. Comparatively fast paced too since it has more of a combat emphasis then puzzles. Never had a problem with sword reach.

[Sumez]

Man, this forum some times...

Honestly, with Willow, Crystalis, Ragnacenty, Alundra, etc., is it even worth playing Zelda these days?

...

LTTP is not "okay", it's an expertly crafted masterpiece with super solid gameplay, well designed puzzles, exceptional presentation and attention to detail, and a good sense of variation all the way through
The only possibly "issue" I have with the game is that it is piss-easy unless you play it with self imposed restrictions.

The Zelda series didn't come sleeping to the obsessive fandom that it has today.

[reckon luck]

Nostalgia dictates that Link's Awakening will always be my favorite Zelda.

Approaching Infinity

I hesitate to recommend this game because it's overpriced and has terrible limited number of installs online activation DRM (with option to grovel to the publisher for new ones).

But... it's Tales of Maj'Eyal meets Starflight.

Or if you're too young to understand the significance of that statement, this is the game No Man's Sky SHOULD have been, albeit rendered in shitty programmer art.

I've thought about picking it up a few times, but the price tag is a major turn-off. But then again, I dropped $30 on Cogmind, so...

[Squire Grooktook]

Yeah, you're right Sumez. It's definitely more then "okay". It's just to me, with my own particular tastes and preferences, there's not a ton of reason to revisit it these days. Some aspects of it are still appealing, and it was definitely an incredible game historically, but it's one of those titles that's more in my "museum" then something I actively revisit.

[Sumez]

I'd consider Link's Awakening and Oracle of Ages objectively better as they definitely have more replayability and reasons to regularly revisit them, due to their higher emphasis on the action aspect of the games, paired with highly satisfying combat.
Though never on-the-edge arcade difficult, they definitely provide a solid "casual action" experience that never gets boring.

Still, A Link to the Past (which no one ever called it, whatever happened to good old "Zelda 3"??) is such an incredibly well thought out game through and through that it would be unfair not to count it among video gaming's greatest cornerstones. Zelda 1 is also important historically, I guess, but in comparison it feels more like an interesting prototype than a timeless classic.

[Blinge]

LTTP is not "okay", it's an expertly crafted masterpiece with super solid gameplay, well designed puzzles, exceptional presentation and attention to detail, and a good sense of variation all the way through

Agreed on all points apart from the gameplay. For the combat I just don't see what everyone raves about.
I've cleared it before on gba but didn't play it in my childhood. *shrug* Zelda 1's combat made more sense to me, I'd mention some things that annoy me about lttp but experience of this forum suggests that's not a good idea

Though never on-the-edge arcade difficult, they definitely provide a solid "casual action" experience that never gets boring.

So oracles are harder than zeldor3? Seeing as the latter is piss easy?