What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Stevens]

Hits quick, hits twice, costs nothing, and does almost as much damage as a charged ichi double.

Also if memory serves me it does vitality damage on block.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Whirlwind does indeed do vitality damage on block. It's quite good for an early move in Sekiro. Ichimonji Double's posture recovery is hard to resist though, which you get even on block. Whirlwind is also safer and less subject to being punished than Floating Passage for a free move. High Monk is also decent as a sweep punish (though I think it was toned down in terms of posture damage in the last update).

Then there's the New Game+ specific One Mind which lets you stunlock nearly everything, bosses included, into oblivion, lol. And a new move specific to the latest update called Sakura Dance that's very effective and stylish. Lots of fun, effective stuff to play with in Sekiro.

What [Sekiro] lacks in customizing/RPG variety

They styled it to be more akin to a Devil May Cry style of character action game rather than an RPG, if you approach it from that mindset and not from a Souls-style RPG where stats are important, the game makes more sense. It works well, I think.

-

Played a bunch of Streets of Rage Remake this weekend. Have deathless runs on Mania for the three major endings now, including SoR1 route which has a really nasty elevator fight and is one of my happier achievements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGJackYkdK8

[Marc]

I've started Jedi: Fallen Order.
Seems OK. There's the usual on rails bit that's a tutorial trying to hide the fact, then there's a linear set-piece bit, so hopes on starting weren't overly high, but once it let you loose proper... it's not bad. First two maps are decently sized, but not to the point it's a slog. A lot of it actually reminds me of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, in that traversal is pretty nippy, wall-running is present and correct, and there's a lot of climbing around. It's not quite as smooth as PoP, (which really makes me appreciate how much that game got right first time around), but it's far from clunky, and it's pretty good fun just moving around the levels. Combat is Souls-lite. It's not afraid to one-shot you (on hard at least), there's parrying, blocking, power attacks etc... none of it flows as well, and attacks by opponents aren't always telegraphed well enough to give you an opportunity to counter appropriately, but that may well just be me getting used to the feel of it. It's the first Star Wars game I've played to get that damn light sabre feel just right.

I'm actually pretty hopeful for this one. Nice appetiser before I return to Sekiro. Well, start it again, as I rage-deleted my save.

[Sumez]

The "modern" Prince of Persias is a good comparison I think.
I'll admit Fallen Order definitely learned a couple of good things from the success of the souls games, but rather than trying to be like them, it really reminds me more of that whole era of PS2/GameCube third person action adventure games. Something I never imagined I'd feel nostalgic for, but given the trend of most other modern AAA titles, it's really refreshing.

[Marc]

Yeah, it gives of a similar feel to something like Psi-Ops or Second Sight....
Not sure about the combat at the moment. I'm going to try and 'git good' before I moan too much, but on Hard it feels like a game designed around normal, with numbers fiddled with. And there are so many lighting effects, it's hard to know when you've parried properly, there doesn't seem to be the same level of visual feedback as a Souls or Nioh. Still, I was pretty soused playing last night (BAD day), so I'll give it another whirl later. One thing I'm definitely not mistaken on is the AI, it's dumb as rocks.

[Sumez]

If you by "hard" mean Jedi Master, I'd recommend sticking to that.
Early on you'll probably run into a few enemies that'll overhwelm you, but as you approve your in-game abilities that becomes a non-issue. It doesn't ever get particularly difficult, parries still have a huge timing window, and I can imagine combat becoming more of a mindless annoying obstacle if it were any easier. I'm almost certain it's designed around that higher-than-normal difficulty setting.

I did hear from people playing the highest setting, Grand Master, though, that it doesn't play particularly well.

[Marc]

Yeah I got the hang of it last night. There was one stretch on Dathomir where you have to circle around to open a door directly in front of you, and the Darkbrothers there were wrecking me. I was trying to play it way too much like a Souls, and I'd forgotten about the slow-down power (booze and gaming don't really go together at my age). Once I stopped trying to parry everything, and combined the slow-down with evasion, in took me around ten minutes to do what I'd been banging my head against for an hour previously.

I'm still not fond of the amount of lighting effects, makes it hard to tell when you've successfully parried, and the stun state after a parry doesn't seem to last particularly long. I stopped bothering with it, for that stretch at least. Parrying bolts though... that will never get old.

I do like it's open-endedness. And it's one of those games that, so far, isn't totally slavish about aping the SW aesthetic. I've played some games that stick so strictly to it that it feels odd when they introduce anything that I'm unfamiliar with. This is similar to The Old Republic, in so much that it's definitely a SW game, but it has it's own thing going on as well.

[Stevens]

Haven't played a game at all since finishing WL 3 on Friday. It has really stuck with me.

I averaged four hours a day over two weeks, including two marathon six hour sessions. Time well spent and I regret nothing.

I've started to plan my party for my next play. I have my skills and weapons laid out (yes on pen and paper), but I think the biggest difference will be I am going go field a party of five instead if six.

[Vanguard]

Any plans to give the original a shot? I think it's pretty good. Beatable in a day under ironman conditions if you know what you're doing, but a first attempt will give you plenty of resistance.

[Marc]

Haven't played a game at all since finishing WL 3 on Friday. It has really stuck with me.

I averaged four hours a day over two weeks, including two marathon six hour sessions. Time well spent and I regret nothing.

I've started to plan my party for my next play. I have my skills and weapons laid out (yes on pen and paper), but I think the biggest difference will be I am going go field a party of five instead if six.

I got an email offer yesterday for three months Game Pass and Live for £1.00. I got one just before Xmas, but upon trying to redeem it, I of course, got the 'new subscribers only, full price £10.99' message. Much to my surprise, yesterday's worked.

Anyway the upshot being I've left Wasteland 3 downloading this morning, and I appear to have a child-free day this Sunday, so I'm pretty eager to try this. The time investment is a bit of a worry, but I've got three months to play it through in.

[Marc]

Haven't played a game at all since finishing WL 3 on Friday. It has really stuck with me.

I averaged four hours a day over two weeks, including two marathon six hour sessions. Time well spent and I regret nothing.

I've started to plan my party for my next play. I have my skills and weapons laid out (yes on pen and paper), but I think the biggest difference will be I am going go field a party of five instead if six.

I got an email offer yesterday for three months Game Pass and Live for £1.00. I got one just before Xmas, but upon trying to redeem it, I of course, got the 'new subscribers only, full price £10.99' message. Much to my surprise, yesterday's worked.

Anyway the upshot being I've left Wasteland 3 downloading this morning, and I appear to have a child-free day this Sunday, so I'm pretty eager to try this. The time investment is a bit of a worry, but I've got three months to play it through in.

Absolutely loving Fallen Order. Just re-read the Eurogamer review, a bit concerned about some of the criticism levelled at it - the lack of any sort of fast-travel sounds a bit of a pain given that even the second map is already becoming somewhat sprawling just 8 hours in. The more I play it the more PoP vibes I get, but the combat is way better; I remember it ultimately getting very repetitive there.

[Stevens]

I hear you on the time, took me about 60 hours over the course of two weeks. Which is far more than I usually throw myself into a game, but it just kind of sucked me in and I was on vacation for most of it.

Now that I am finished with it for now and working from home, which sucks, I have zero desire to jump back in and spend MORE time in front of my laptop. My job normally has me on my feet 90% of the day.

Anyway 12 weeks gives you 84 days with Wasteland. That is something like 45 minutes a day. I know stuff like this is never uniform, but sometimes seems more approachable when you break it down like that.

Hope you enjoy your time with it.

[Mischief Maker]

For those interested, my Top Ten Games of 2020 just went up at Caltrops.

[CIT]

I'm playing some Manx TT Superbike on Saturn. Surprisingly excellent game, if it weren't for the dearth of content (just 1 1/2 tracks to race, plus mirrored versions) I'd say it's a classic. Graphics are quite nice and the framerate is a steady 30fps. Controls really nice with the 3D pad as well.

Also tried some Hang On GP '95 (a.k.a. the other Sega motorcycle racer on Saturn), but it's pretty much unplayable without a steering wheel. It does have some more interesting environments than Manx TT though, like Moai heads on the side of the tracks and stuff.

[third_strike]

Wild west cowboys of moo mesa from konami.
Got 2-ALL with all charaters and even no missed the game.
Thanks to BareKnuckleRoo for the master class at gamefaqs.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

<3

I'm delighted to hear someone else has tackled the 2-ALL and even no-missed it. It's really a solid run 'n gun, and the dash cancel to dodge mechanic works really well.

[Sengoku Strider]

I'm playing some Manx TT Superbike on Saturn. Surprisingly excellent game, if it weren't for the dearth of content (just 1 1/2 tracks to race, plus mirrored versions) I'd say it's a classic. Graphics are quite nice and the framerate is a steady 30fps. Controls really nice with the 3D pad as well.

Also tried some Hang On GP '95 (a.k.a. the other Sega motorcycle racer on Saturn), but it's pretty much unplayable without a steering wheel. It does have some more interesting environments than Manx TT though, like Moai heads on the side of the tracks and stuff.

With the wheel I think Hang On's better than Manx. Like you say, very tough without it, analog gets you part of the way there but is still touchy. The thing with Manx is leaving you with two songs most of the time and they're both less than 2 minutes long. What's worse, it's repetitive metal played on a mid-90s MIDI sample keyboard...it just breaks me. Hang On's first track on the other hand is epic.

[Blackfielding]

Switched from Destiny 2 and some other shooters to World of Warcraft for a change. Noticed that almost everyone in my social circle did the same for some reason by the way, if you are also a fan of WoW universe I advise to get gold here https://overgear.com/games/wow/gold. Strong privacy, low prices and solid reputation are the reasons to get gold only there

[Marc]

Super Mario Sunshine. All I can say, is whatever half-baked opinion I’ve carried about this game all these years, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s an improvement over 64 in absolutely every single way that matters. I’d actually started with 64, and turned it off after half an hour because I simply can’t deal with that camera any more, thought I’d have a quick blast on this for comparisons sake, and ended up doing a couple of hours. I’ve only rinsed the first two worlds, but unless there’s some massive dip in quality later, it seems I’ve been sleeping on an absolute classic.

My experience with Galaxy is limited to literally an hour on my son’s Wii years ago, thinking ‘yeah, it’s more Mario’ then leaving it. Now, I can’t wait. In fact, looking at the Switch pile…. I’ve got Mario 3D World ordered, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Luigi’s Mansion and Link’s Awakening to start, and on the non-Nintendo side, Monster Boy, Hollow Knight and Dead Cells, plus the upcoming BOI expansion to come – think the other consoles may struggle to get a look in.

[Sengoku Strider]

Switched from WoW to Destiny 2 for a change. I am a fan og the Bungie studio, they make great games.

That's got to be my most played game ever in terms of pure hours. Its gameplay mechanics are as good as anything I've ever played.

I’ve got Mario 3D World ordered

That game was so damn good. Ended up being my favourite 3D Mario (haven't put serious time into Odyssey yet though).

[Sumez]

Got my Mystic Warriors PCB a few days ago, and I've only put a few credits into it so far. A 1CC seems pretty feasible, but I'm not sure about the 2-ALL I was hoping for.

More importantly though, and my reason for posting in this thread over the R2RKMF one, the soundtrack is a god damn banger!! I was not expecting that. But I'll take it.

EDIT: The composer even posted fully rearranged versions of every track in the game to his YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJbavKOC_DA

[Marc]

Nice. I'm hoping for an ACA conversion, looks cool. It's probably on my Pandora, but I'm a bit weird with that.
If it's got a proper conversion, I'd rather play that. If it might get a proper conversion, I'll only allow myself a credit or two. I've basically got it for the licensed games that will probably never see the light of day again officially.

I've of thought about getting rid of absolutely everything I own, and just going into PCB's. The only thing stopping me is that at the moment, when the house is full,, there are 5 kids between the ages of 6-16 here. I'd be scared to get a PCB out at the moment.

[CIT]

With the wheel I think Hang On's better than Manx. Like you say, very tough without it, analog gets you part of the way there but is still touchy. The thing with Manx is leaving you with two songs most of the time and they're both less than 2 minutes long. What's worse, it's repetitive metal played on a mid-90s MIDI sample keyboard...it just breaks me. Hang On's first track on the other hand is epic.

Yeah, I'm trying to score a Saturn wheel. Luckily they go for pretty cheap these days.

There's actually a cheat code in Manx TT that lets you select your preferred music at the start of a race.

[Mischief Maker]

Everspace 2 just released on GOG Early Access!

This Early Access was delayed by five months due to not wanting to overlap with the various Cyberpunk 2077 release dates, so it's way more polished than you would expect.

Still just about the prettiest space game I've yet played, but the overall look is brighter and boxier than Everspace 1. Some of the textures are obviously still placeholders.

In order to simulate contiguous space in Unreal Engine 4, space is broken into sectors that are like oversized hand-crafted levels from Everspace 1, with Hyperspace as its own level.

My two biggest complaints from ES1 are addressed. Weapons and Afterburner burn separate energy stores, and I have yet to run into any music that uses a wah pedal.

Unlike the Rogue-Legacy unlock model of the first game, this functions more like an RPG with XP, character stats, equipment mods, and a party of support characters who unlock abilities and services as you solve their relationship quests.

It's pretty much more Everspace, just a little bit better so far, and that's all I could ask for. Positive!

[Licorice]

I've been playing Armored Core.

Specifically, I cleared Master of Arena and Silent Line. Now just screwing around in Nine Breaker in preparation for Last Raven.

All these games are pretty cool.

Not sure what to think of the ever increasing number of parts as the series goes on though. For example, there is a wiki page which shows which shows which parts were introduced in Silent Line over 3, and it makes me think 3 would have been the tighter game.

I'm also not sure what to think of the first generation games' internal frame rate. Even with emulation where I can overclock the CPU and GPU (amazing for when playing e.g. the PS1 Ghost in the Shell), it seems as though the internal frame rate is capped to 24 (!) FPS.

I like the PS2 games' frame rate and the dual analog controls in Nine Breaker (can't believe Silent Line didn't have analog controls). Wish I could play the first generation games with analog controls and at 60 FPS. That would be amazing.

[Sumez]

Cool, I actually have Master of Arena lined up as one of my next games to get into. It's the oldest one in the series I own, so it's gonna be the first one I play. How does it work as an introduction to the series? It seems to be one ot the more popular entries.

[Blinge]

That series is daunting as fuck to an outsider. I'm scared to play any of them and I've finished For Answer!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Cool, I actually have Master of Arena lined up as one of my next games to get into. It's the oldest one in the series I own, so it's gonna be the first one I play. How does it work as an introduction to the series? It seems to be one ot the more popular entries.

Master of the Arena was my introduction to the series years ago at a friend's place. It's the best of the three PS1 games, and you don't need to have played the others to get the full appreciation of it. The first Armored Core is fun but has some slightly janky missions in terms of pacing. The second one, Project Phantasma, feels like more of an expansion pack than anything else and somewhat more bare bones as the mission structure is much more linear, but it's fun and there's a fun final boss at the end of it. Master of the Arena is pure armored core perfection.

My only complaint with the series is that the difficulty of the later optional arena fights in all the games is largely due to them being... enhanced and able to do things you're not able to do, like use loadouts that completely disregard weight restrictions.

Spoiler

Specifically, each game features an arena where you can duke it out with optional fights between missions to get extra cash as well as for funsies. However, beyond a certain point, the opponents are all Human PLUS opponents, which means they're specially modified humans with cybernetics that are meshed with their AC so that they can do things like ignore weight restrictions, have better energy recovery, have built-in radar at all times that is always always used regardless of equipment, fire shoulder mounted anti-tank cannons without having to kneel to do so, and access a unique and devastating special laserblade attack on the Moonlight Blade. The last two are perhaps the most significant because shoulder mounted weapons and the unique laserblade special attack can melt your health.

It's possible to become Human PLUS yourself... but it's not a performance-based reward. Rather, the process to become human plus in the PS1 games is treated as a "you suck so we'll give you some free buffs in exchange for losing your humanity". It's recommended that for your first playthrough you don't spoiler yourself and try to purposefully become Human PLUS, although if you're having trouble you may trigger the process by accident... Also you can't become Human PLUS in Project Phantasma apparently; you have to import a save file from the first game that's already Human PLUS.

-

I've been playing a lot of EDF 4.1 again; I got gifted a copy of the fifth game so replaying the previous game again before digging into the sequel to fully appreciate it. Dashing around as a Fencer is way too satisfying.

I'm also working on a run of the first GB SaGa game, Final Fantasy Legend, without spending any money (no visiting Inns or Shops ever). Just about halfway through the game currently, grinding up to make sure my stats are sufficient to blow through enemies even with wildly suboptimal equipment.

[Blinge]

I'm also working on a run of the first GB SaGa game, Final Fantasy Legend, without spending any money (no visiting Inns or Shops ever). Just about halfway through the game currently, grinding up to make sure my stats are sufficient to blow through enemies even with wildly suboptimal equipment.

Oh shit man. You recording it in any way?
I found the game just playing normally to be like pulling teeth!

I was Human,Human,Mutant,Monster

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I was streaming it but it wasn't terribly interesting to watch, honestly. There's a lot of grinding involved that would not be needed if playing normally. If I recorded the rest of it I'd probably fast forward the grinding bits involved or cut those out entirely? The presence of healing pools in the first game and the ability to use the guild to farm weapons makes the first game a lot easier. The challenge is mostly gonna come from dealing with the 3 major endgame bosses

Spoiler

Machine, which is a straight-up damage race, Ashura, who is far easier with Battle Suit you can buy in the 4th world for the O-Weapon property, but short of being lucky to get O-Par/WP or O-Change only the Mutant with So-Cho's headband will resist his physical attacks, and Creator, who has the full-party confusion attack Repent and a boatload of health. Using the chainsaw on all three of them is always an option, though.

I'm also planning on doing it with the hardest team possible, 4 Humans, on the second game which I found was a fair bit tougher last time I tried it. I remember getting walled at Venus's world then losing the save file when a friend borrowed the cartridge. Levelling is insanely slow, and you're running around at 1 HP a lot of the time because there's only a handful of HP pools you can use (in the volcano themed dungeons specifically). Being hit with Blind is also more annoying than it is in the first game.

Robots, Mutants, or Monsters would all make the second game easier. Robots can auto-recover HP at any time by unequipping and re-equipping armor, Mutants can get passive abilities and spell charges including healing and status curing spells, and Monsters can refill charges without an Inn by simply swapping monster type.

I found the game just playing normally to be like pulling teeth!

I was Human,Human,Mutant,Monster

How easy the first game is basically is directly proportional to how many Mutants you have. More = better, always. Their stat growth is huge, and at the endgame they can far more easily gain HP than poor Humans can. Mutant abilities are annoyingly random, but they're still often useful, and Mutants are plenty amazing due to their stats alone as well as their ability to use spellbooks, which are the best way of killing things. Spells tend to wreck monsters.

Humans are tedious to level up, especially HP where past 600 HP you can only gain one point of HP at a time, and you really want 800 or so to try and survive two hits of Flare or else you're forced to speedkill bosses to survive. Mutants have massive natural growth and don't have to worry about stats accidentally rolling over past 999 / 99 like a Human can with Str and Agl. Just to prove how good Mutants are, even ignoring Mana based equipment, I once did a run where I played 4 Mutants as if they were Humans with 4 weapon slots, no magic spells or magic weapons allowed whatsoever. Detailed writeup's here, hopefully an interesting read to someone into the game: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/56 ... d/76256868