What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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Sumez
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sumez »

Are people generally fond of Gravity Rush? Bought it when the PS4 version came out, been lying in my back buffer ever since.

And I think the game might have grown more in my mind than it could really carry. It's just a prototype/infamous style jumping around a city doing mini-game missions while looking for the next marker to initiate a story section. Pretty much everything you do in the game is running errands.

There's the trails of a highly stylized fun adventure still in there. You can tell the concept artwork had high hopes for the game that it never really seems to realize. The art style, characters, music, and everything just looks like it would be fun. The little "comic book" scenes you get occasionally in the place of ingame cutscenes look super cool, and add to the atmosphere, but being immediately thrown into the flat brown low-poly in-engine world only demonstrates the juxtaposition.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Ken's Labyrinth is a ever so slightly silly FPS game that has a major game breaking bug which I accidentally triggered today:
If, on the last level on episode 1 or 2 (so, level 10 or 20), you have one or more magic items active (the potions and cloaks), they will remain active in the next episode seemingly forever (at least until you die). Here's how this works:

The game timer keeps track of how long you've been in the entire episode (this part you don't see) as well as in each level. When you get a potion or cloak, the game calculates when it should expire (giving 40 seconds for either potion, 28 seconds for the gray cloak, and 18 seconds for a blue cloak; collect more than one, and they stack). When you complete an episode, the overall game timer resets to zero, but the game doesn't recalculate when the items should expire. So, if you took, say, 45 minutes to complete the first episode, and you had a gray cloak active at the time you did so, you will get 45 minutes (plus any remaining unused time) of invincibility to start the second episode.
Since the best way to beat the final boss of the first episode is to lure it to the start where a vending machine sells invulnerability cloaks, it's really easy to trigger this by accident if you exit before it fades. Also the boss spawns two warp areas, and one literally leads to an inescapable room like Dirty Harry for the NES. Amusing game but not worth taking too seriously.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BulletMagnet »

Sumez wrote:Are people generally fond of Gravity Rush?
I personally enjoyed it, though IMO the PS4 "remaster" pretty much renders the Vita original obsolete; moreover I couldn't finish the sequel, as the camera could already be problematic in the first game, but was even worse there. Your summary of running around looking for missions is pretty accurate, but I found that freely zipping around in all directions looking for gems in nooks and crannies was enough to keep me going, not to mention how Kat's endlessly positive personality takes the edge off the brown-ness you mentioned earlier.
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Sumez
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sumez »

BulletMagnet wrote:but I found that freely zipping around in all directions looking for gems in nooks and crannies was enough to keep me going
This is of course the game's whole gimmick, and what drew me to it in the first place.
And I don't know what they really could have done to do it better, but at the end of the day it felt like just another way to get around in a type of game like this, it's similar to the web swinging in Spider-Man, or the running up buildings in Prototype, which is also enjoyable in those games.

But so far I don't feel like the gravity shifting aspect has really been able to give the game much of a unique identity, and it really doesn't feel much different from a glorified grappling hook with the added nuisance of camera jank and less precision.
Instead of changing the gravity to traverse the terrain in interesting ways, I find myself just pointing upwards to launch into the air, and then aiming at where I want to land to go back down, flying around more so than walking on walls. At the end of the day, it effectively feels very similar to the way you're getting around in Prototype, but with a much less intuitive layer on top of it.
I have the sequel, too, and I'm sad to hear that the camera is supposedly even worse in that one?

I feel like the seeds for a fantastic artistically and mechanically impressive game is in there, but not enough effort was put into really realizing it past the concept stage. :(

Or maybe I just really suck at playing it the way it was meant to.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Blinge »

I thought 2 was supposed to be the one?
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sumez »

I'm hoping it, because so far 1 feels like the game that wanted to be something it isn't, which leaves a lot of potential for sequels :P
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Dawn111 »

I've been playing Super Mario 64 on the PC with Render96. Personally, I prefer playing this Super Mario 64 over the one in Super
Mario 3D All-Stars. Nintendo decided to do the bare minimum and simply port 3 3D Mario games and their soundtrack at full price.

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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Arcatech »

Been playing a few sessions of Spelunky 2 with my gf. Hard as nails though, but I'm slowly improving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iImFXg0Zu_o&t=605s
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Hang On GP '95 is one track of joyous 90s Sega racing perfection, with that absolutely blazing soundtrack. After that first one, I'm not so sure.
Sumez wrote:Are people generally fond of Gravity Rush? Bought it when the PS4 version came out, been lying in my back buffer ever since.

And I think the game might have grown more in my mind than it could really carry. It's just a prototype/infamous style jumping around a city doing mini-game missions while looking for the next marker to initiate a story section. Pretty much everything you do in the game is running errands.

There's the trails of a highly stylized fun adventure still in there. You can tell the concept artwork had high hopes for the game that it never really seems to realize. The art style, characters, music, and everything just looks like it would be fun. The little "comic book" scenes you get occasionally in the place of ingame cutscenes look super cool, and add to the atmosphere, but being immediately thrown into the flat brown low-poly in-engine world only demonstrates the juxtaposition.
Stick with it, the back half of the game gets away from the errand structure into more dramatic combat. I played it on the Vita, the control was super awkward there yet I loved it in spite of its faults. Its uniqueness and charm carried it through, as well as those brilliant moments when everything worked the way it was supposed to. It really felt like a Dreamcast-era Sega game in that way.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sumez »

Thanks. That's the kind of stuff I was hoping from the game in the first place.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by chempop »

Sengoku Strider wrote:Its uniqueness and charm carried it through, as well as those brilliant moments when everything worked the way it was supposed to. It really felt like a Dreamcast-era Sega game in that way.
I feel that's what is missing from this gen. Either games are $5-$10 hipster indie jank, or cookie cutter AAA titles. I've struggled to find much creativity that motivates me, other than 3 years of non-stop LET IT DIE (gungho/grasshopper) grinding.

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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Vexorg »

Return of the Obra Dinn

A bit late on this one, roughly halfway through (30 out of 60 fates solved). It's basically one giant logic puzzle, where you are an insurance investigator called to a ghost ship that reappeared after being lost at sea for several years, and have to figure out what happened to everyone on board. You have a book that collects your data with some information like a passenger manifest and some drawings of the crew and a device that you can point at a corpse and view the moment that person died, and from there the goal is to determine the identities and fates of each of the people on board using logic and these scenes. One interesting twist is that the game will confirm that you have correct answers, but only in batches of three at a time (when you make a third correct answer it will tell you that is correct, as well as two others.) It's a pretty interesting mechanic, but it does have a couple of drawbacks, mostly in the fact that the organization isn't great, and if you want to view a scene again you have to find and move back to the corpse associated with it again, which is rather inconvenient because the ship can be rather maze-like. I'm also not sure what to think of the "1-bit" monchrome graphics. They're obviously going for the style of an old monochrome Mac game, but unless they also want to make it act like a Hypercard stack (see also: Cosmic Osmo or the original Myst) it seems kind of pointless.

All in all not bad for one playthrough, but I can't see much replayability here.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Blinge »

chempop wrote:I feel that's what is missing from this gen. Either games are $5-$10 hipster indie jank, or cookie cutter AAA titles. I've struggled to find much creativity that motivates me, other than 3 years of non-stop LET IT DIE (gungho/grasshopper) grinding.
Holy shit Chempop. We need to talk mate!

I've recently beaten Taro and made it to Floor 42! Only just got a G6 character and farming for Kamas/ Night Raider tier 3 atm.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Jeneki »

Ben Bero Beh (Taito 1984), playing the PS4 Arcade Archives version.

Got the #1 spot on the Hi Score Mode leaderboard.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BIL »

Congrats! :o The competition on those boards can be pretty fierce, from my limited perusals. Seems like you've taken quite a liking to Ben Bero Beh, really looking forward to giving it some proper time now. :smile:

I think I got #2 on Dogosoken and was considering aiming higher - the game's anti-leeching mechanics might be interesting to work around - but I get the feeling it's not a terribly popular game. :mrgreen: Metal Slug 3's board seems pretty nuts, OTOH.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Blinge »

Sumez wrote:Gravity rush bla bla
Your post reminded me that I bought both on a sale. Been giving it a whirl recently, it's cute.

I so far agree with everything you said about it.. and I'm still enjoying it. Just something for me to switch brain off and chill with I guess.
unless i'm doing those time trial things. One was enough for me to not seek the others out.

Also I turned motion control sensitivity down to 0 and that's effectively turned it off, so that's good. :lol:

I like the point about it being like a Dreamcast game.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Ghegs »

I just finished up Vigil: The Longest Night on PC.

I think it's a great B-movie in game form. By this I mean the game is at times clunky, there are some design decisions that aren't quite fully thought out (it's possible to lock yourself out of the True Ending within the first ~2 hours of gameplay, and the game takes about 18 to complete), the map is confusing at times, the English is wonky (the developers are from Taiwan, I believe) to the point that some skill descriptions were plain wrong until a recent patch.

And yet, I quite liked my time with it. The art style and story are from the Dark Souls playbook, while the game mechanics lean more towards the Metroidvania side. I distributed my skill points to make a heavy hitter character, with the philosophy that if you hit the enemy hard enough the first time, there's no need to worry about hitting them a second time. And it worked out well for me. But now I kind of want to go again with a focus on swords. The game has New Game+ where most everything carries over, so it'd be pretty easy to do, as well.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by vol.2 »

Ghegs wrote:I just finished up Vigil: The Longest Night on PC.
Looks interesting. Kind of looks a bit like Trine. Not sure if that's accurate at all, but that's the vibe I get from the Steam page.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Ajora »

Ducktales: Remastered. It's fantastic.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Stevens »

I've gone back to Rain World after a year off.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Ghegs »

vol.2 wrote:
Ghegs wrote:I just finished up Vigil: The Longest Night on PC.
Looks interesting. Kind of looks a bit like Trine. Not sure if that's accurate at all, but that's the vibe I get from the Steam page.
Not really sure how you're seeing that, maybe if you squint really hard the graphics kind of look somewhat similar in certain spots.

But the gameplay is certainly completely different.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mischief Maker »

Ghostrunner

It's a first person ninja platformer in a cyberpunk world. I've heard it described as "Mirror's Edge meets Hotline Miami" but that's slightly misleading as the platforming is much stickier than M's E.

The soundtrack is excellent.

It has a demo.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by rapoon »

Ghegs wrote:I just finished up Vigil: The Longest Night on PC.

I think it's a great B-movie in game form. By this I mean the game is at times clunky, there are some design decisions that aren't quite fully thought out (it's possible to lock yourself out of the True Ending within the first ~2 hours of gameplay, and the game takes about 18 to complete), the map is confusing at times, the English is wonky (the developers are from Taiwan, I believe) to the point that some skill descriptions were plain wrong until a recent patch.

And yet, I quite liked my time with it. The art style and story are from the Dark Souls playbook, while the game mechanics lean more towards the Metroidvania side. I distributed my skill points to make a heavy hitter character, with the philosophy that if you hit the enemy hard enough the first time, there's no need to worry about hitting them a second time. And it worked out well for me. But now I kind of want to go again with a focus on swords. The game has New Game+ where most everything carries over, so it'd be pretty easy to do, as well.
I regret not having picked this up when they had their double discount a few weeks ago: initial 10% off + 10% off for existing owners of Salt & Sanctuary. Speaking of which, how would you compare Vigil to S&S?
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Dawn111 »

I've been playing The iDOLM@STER Million Live! Theater Days for quite awhile since early 2018.
It's my favorite rhythm game, but it's also one of the most addicting games I have ever played.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Ghegs »

rapoon wrote:
Ghegs wrote:I just finished up Vigil: The Longest Night on PC.

I think it's a great B-movie in game form. By this I mean the game is at times clunky, there are some design decisions that aren't quite fully thought out (it's possible to lock yourself out of the True Ending within the first ~2 hours of gameplay, and the game takes about 18 to complete), the map is confusing at times, the English is wonky (the developers are from Taiwan, I believe) to the point that some skill descriptions were plain wrong until a recent patch.

And yet, I quite liked my time with it. The art style and story are from the Dark Souls playbook, while the game mechanics lean more towards the Metroidvania side. I distributed my skill points to make a heavy hitter character, with the philosophy that if you hit the enemy hard enough the first time, there's no need to worry about hitting them a second time. And it worked out well for me. But now I kind of want to go again with a focus on swords. The game has New Game+ where most everything carries over, so it'd be pretty easy to do, as well.
I regret not having picked this up when they had their double discount a few weeks ago: initial 10% off + 10% off for existing owners of Salt & Sanctuary. Speaking of which, how would you compare Vigil to S&S?
I took advantage of that discount myself, nice of the devs.

In short, Salt & Sanctuary is Dark Souls 2D, Vigil is Symphony of the Night with Dark Souls aesthetics and a stamina bar for combat. I think S&S is the more refined of the two, but Vigil is worth a play as well.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by versionfiv »

Mr Driller games
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Sumez
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sumez »

versionfiv wrote:Mr Driller games
Good!
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Mr. Driller G vs tourneys need to be a thing
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sumez »

Once this virus thing is over, let's get one set up.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Kiwi »

Arcatech wrote:Been playing a few sessions of Spelunky 2 with my gf. Hard as nails though, but I'm slowly improving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iImFXg0Zu_o&t=605s
Spelunky 2 is unironically Godlike. A perfect sequel, in my opinion. Dwelling could definitely use another patch, though.
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