What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Marc]

Ha it's mental isn't it? Basically, since lockdown, if I see something that looks even vaguely interesting for less than the price of a pint - I'm having it. Paid £2-odd yesterday for 80's Overdrive - a sprite racer in the Lotus / Top Gear/Racer mould and Binarystar Infinity - interesting looking 2D shooter with a monochrome colour scheme, and stupid levels of screen shake sadly. I think if I split comp games down, I'm probably at around 200 titles now. I do need to make a start on it properly - there are some quite big games in there including Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario Galaxy / 3D World, Pikmin 3, Zelda LttP, Yoku's Island Express......

I've already told the other half as soon as the pub re-opens, I'm taking one night a week off to game - no kids, no distractions. She didn't look overly concerned actually

[Sumez]

there are some quite big games in there including Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario Galaxy / 3D World, Pikmin 3, Zelda LttP, Yoku's Island Express......

Yoku's isn't that big. I played it the other day, and I think I finished it in two lengthy sessions or so? Maybe three.
If you are looking for an undertaking that isn't too taxing, definitely start with that one. Although I do wish it were maybe a little challenging, it's a very relaxed and fun experience. I think it does the exploration aspect better than most indie metroidvanias.

[Mischief Maker]

Yeah, were it not for lockdown I would have never picked up Fort Triumph, but it's a pleasant surprise!

Reviews call it Fantasy X-Com meets Heroes of Might and Magic, but while accurate it's misleading. It's more like Disciples 2 meets Into the Breach. Like the Disciples games you're building a team of heroes, not an army, on a HOMM-esque map full of goodies and neutral mobs and capital upgrades are mainly about unlocking abilities for your heroes. While the combat interface handles very much like nu-XCom, the real emphasis is on kicking and throwing around chunks of scenery to damage and stunlock enemies in satisfying domino multi-hit chains.

I suspect if they just took the tactical combat and made it an FTL-esque roguelite it would have been much more successful than giving players the expectation of a fully-fledged 4X.

[null1024]

Been playing a bunch of random stuff in MAME today, especially since I was kinda curious as to how it handled 3D games these days. Mostly racing games, with a few other random things thrown in.
Everything I ended up playing ran beautifully, which feels weird. Yeah, the video emulation is a bit spotty here and there, but seeing all but Vapor TRX run at 100% with frameskip off on my machine [and Vapor TRX only needing frameskip in a few parts of the stages] seems wild.
Probably shouldn't be too entirely unexpected, this is an i5 4670k, but still.

Spent a decent bit of time with Vapor TRX. Good fun. Shoot the living balls out of the other ships and race to the finish.
Almost wiped out the entire field one race, felt great.
The game feels oddly over-generous with collisions. I've passed calmly through a lot of stuff that really felt like I'd screwed up and was about to crash.

I've also been playing Virtua Racing.
I've been getting better, but I still clip the grass too much. Very annoying. I'll have a seemingly perfect lap and then suddenly, bap, spun, done.
Also, I still can't get over how stylish this game looks. I still just keep thinking about what Sega was putting out next to everyone else and being stunned at how good it looks in comparison.

Driver's Edge is surprisingly fun.
The framerate is a bit awful, but that's just how it is, no frame skipping is happening in MAME.
Kinda wish it had a fixed amount of laps instead of the system where it ranks you based on where you are when your fuel runs out. Getting a decent result is more luck focused than it should be, although I did see in the operator settings that the game can be configured for emitting tickets, so that could be a part of it. Still, it's quite enjoyable. I love the gigantic hills and massive jumps.
The game is a little bit ugly with its color and shading choices, and there are a few spots where I'm not sure if MAME isn't emulating things right or if the developers decided on a really ugly way to add "texture" to certain things, but I still like the look of it.

Hyperdrive is a spaceship racing game that seems like it should be better and I could just be dealing with the fact that I don't have a flight controller hooked up and the off-brand Xbone pad I'm using doesn't have the right range [a lot of games have that problem -- I have to play Namco racing games like Rave Racer in MAME with digital control because the slightest motion on the analog stick gets ready to spin you out], but I feel like there's a massive disconnect with when I input and how the ship handles.
Alas. Also feels extremely weird that this runs in MAME at full speed. Same hardware as Vapor TRX.

Armadillo Racing is cute and fun, but playing with a joystick is flatly cheating.
It's entirely based on flinging the trackball around at speed, so just being able to calmly point in the direction you need to go at full tilt at all times makes it extremely easy.
I also kinda wish I could play the bowling bit without needing to do the race first.
The game also really needs a third course or something. You only get the two very short courses + three frames of bowling if you win the race.

Lastly, I popped in a few credits of Solar Assault Revised, that odd Gradius rail shooter.
My first impression upon firing it up wasn't so hot at all, but I dunno. After another few attempts, it didn't seem that bad.
Dunno, might just need to spend more time with it.

[WelshMegalodon]

Yeah, 3d has gotten much better in MAME these days, although I expect Model 3 and NAOMI emulation to remain out of touch until they can find someone to work on incorporating compute shaders (and they are looking). People using 2003 Plus on their RetroPie setups are missing out.

[Sengoku Strider]

I've also been playing Virtua Racing.
I've been getting better, but I still clip the grass too much. Very annoying. I'll have a seemingly perfect lap and then suddenly, bap, spun, done.
Also, I still can't get over how stylish this game looks. I still just keep thinking about what Sega was putting out next to everyone else and being stunned at how good it looks in comparison.

Not sure how it runs for you in MAME, but if you can, check out the M2 Sega AGES port on the Switch. It runs at 60 fps in HD in native widescreen (no stretching). It looks fantastic, especially 1st person in handheld mode.

The only thing I wish they'd done is add some form of proper soundtrack. You can get away with only having 10 seconds of music every time you get a time extend in a noisy arcade, but it was never a great decision to begin with.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Beat God of War 2018 recently.

Playing Persona 2 Eternal Punishment currently.

[null1024]

Played a bit more of Solar Assault. Apparently MAME has a long-standing crash bug, so I can't go further than stage 3. Alas.
The game didn't rock my world or anything, but I was starting to enjoy it.

Not sure how it runs for you in MAME, but if you can, check out the M2 Sega AGES port on the Switch. It runs at 60 fps in HD in native widescreen (no stretching). It looks fantastic, especially 1st person in handheld mode.

The only thing I wish they'd done is add some form of proper soundtrack. You can get away with only having 10 seconds of music every time you get a time extend in a noisy arcade, but it was never a great decision to begin with.

If I had a Switch, I'd have bought the Sega Ages version when it came out. Alas.
It runs great in MAME, at least. A few odd issues with some stage geometry disappearing for a frame or two every so often [doesn't seem like normal pop in, most of the geometry on screen goes away when it happens], but nothing too bad.
The music thing has always bugged me about V.R., but that's just how it is, I guess.

I kinda wish the PS2 version was accurate with handling.
It looks gorgeous, but the handling is so screwy.
It's still kinda ridiculous to think that the best home release of the game until the Switch port was the 32X one.

Yeah, 3d has gotten much better in MAME these days, although I expect Model 3 and NAOMI emulation to remain out of touch until they can find someone to work on incorporating compute shaders (and they are looking). People using 2003 Plus on their RetroPie setups are missing out.

Aye. Getting a Pi for emulation always seemed a bit crazy, although I did run a few on my Pi to justify owning it a little bit.
but no, since I've had this machine, I've had zero reason to glance at my Pi for emulation

Model 3 is still out of reach for me in the meantime [Scud Race will drop to half speed sometimes, despite most of the course keeping a full 60fps], but this CPU isn't exactly recent.
port never ever, aaaaaaaaa
Same with Daytona 2, god damn it. I think both have brand licensing issues to deal with even if they put the [possibly quite substantial] effort in to bring 'em to modern hardware.

One other big thing I'm missing out on with MAME at least is the Model 2 stuff, but least there's a decent dedicated Model 2 emulator out.
It's really pretty nuts to see how far things have come even still.

[Sengoku Strider]

Beat God of War 2018 recently.

It's. So. Good.

I don't even like that series but I thought that game was fantastic.

It's still kinda ridiculous to think that the best home release of the game until the Switch port was the 32X one.

Is the Saturn port bad?

[Steamflogger Boss]

Beat God of War 2018 recently.

It's. So. Good.

I don't even like that series but I thought that game was fantastic.

Yep. Just a well made game that plays great.

[null1024]

It's still kinda ridiculous to think that the best home release of the game until the Switch port was the 32X one.

Is the Saturn port bad?

The handling is also very different to arcade. All the ports are various degrees of inaccurate, but the Saturn and PS2 are a lot worse vs 32X or even MD [which, apart from the framerate being uncomfortably low, is a ridiculously good release].

[Stevens]

Finished Wasteland 3 again, went for a fourth run but decided against it couple of hours in. I did decide though I wanted something similar to play. Again I am not well versed on CRPGs so I did some research.

I was going for similar but different. Figured I like Wasteland - what else does Inexile have that isn't post apocalyptical that might scratch that itch. After a bit i picked up Torment: Tides of Numenera. After about four hours I decided it just wasn't for me, far too much reading. I am sure there is an audience for it, it just isn't me.

It is also times like this I wish Steam let you give games away to people. There should be a time limit beyond refund, but under say five hours that if you decide you don't like a game you can't get your $ back, but you could transfer it to another players account (each game could only be transferred one time) so at least someone would get to enjoy it on the $ spent.

Anyways I went back and stumbled across Shadowrun. A game I am only familiar with in passing and playing a small amount on the SNES. They were on sale so I picked up Dragonfall and Hong Kong. Within five minutes of playing Dragonfall's tutorial level I knew I found the games I was looking for.

Grid turn based combat. Lots of builds. A character creator not nearly as intimidating as Wasteland. Graphics certainly do the job and what I have heard of the ost is easy on the ears too. I have accepted that I am playing a game with just a mouse: )

[Gamer707b]

Played half of Stories Untold last night. An 'interactive fiction' spliced with a rudimentary text adventure. It's actually a little creepy, and though not normally my bag, the first two episodes were an hour and a half well spent in bed.

This is why I love the Switch eShop, think I paid around £1.50 for this. It's encouraging me to try a lot of stuff that might have passed me by, though I'm not sure how long the 120 or so outstanding games might take me to get through.

I was looking at my Switch collection the other day...if you break out the compilations into individual games (and why wouldn't you?), I have 150 games, give or take one or two. I only bought this system in December 2019.

But I only had the Lite, I didn't even get the full Switch and start collection in earnest until April 2020. This is definitely a personal record. Fantastic little system, my poor PS4 has been quite neglected ever since I got it. It's been pretty much relegated to media playback duties (it's a JP model which comes in handy), the one thing the Switch doesn't really do much of. As I type this the PS4's not even plugged in, it's on sitting on the floor forlornly beside me.

It might well be an inevitability that I hit 200 Switch games in 2021.

This is exactly where I'm at with gaming. Don't have patience anymore with the big "epic adventures" and all that triple A games that I'll never finish . Which is why I love the indies on Switch and a pretty big fan of most of the Nintendo stuff. I just want to turn on a game, play for a while and be done. The main reason I use my PS4 now is for Youtube and DVDs. When I do game on it, it's usually for Shot Trigger games.

[Gamer707b]

Ha it's mental isn't it? Basically, since lockdown, if I see something that looks even vaguely interesting for less than the price of a pint - I'm having it. Paid £2-odd yesterday for 80's Overdrive - a sprite racer in the Lotus / Top Gear/Racer mould and Binarystar Infinity - interesting looking 2D shooter with a monochrome colour scheme, and stupid levels of screen shake sadly. I think if I split comp games down, I'm probably at around 200 titles now. I do need to make a start on it properly - there are some quite big games in there including Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario Galaxy / 3D World, Pikmin 3, Zelda LttP, Yoku's Island Express......

I've already told the other half as soon as the pub re-opens, I'm taking one night a week off to game - no kids, no distractions. She didn't look overly concerned actually

You sound like me a few years ago. I would buy a shit ton of games and never finish them, and then get something else that would interest me a bit and the cycle would never end. I would have games sitting on my shelf for months sometimes untouched. Now I just buy 5-10 games all year, but they're the games that I know I'll truly play. I don't buy filler anymore. BTW, it seems you got quite a bit of Nintendo goodness on your list. Love me some Nintendo. I'm going for a 100% completion on Mario 3D World Bowers fury currently.

[Sumez]

It's. So. Good.

I don't even like that series but I thought that game was fantastic.

Are you sure that you don't like the series? Sure the new one is kinda different, but I feel like they share a lot of the same qualities.
Maybe you should replay some of the older ones GOW2 especially.

[Strider77]

Ys 9...

It starts off pretty awful, but it it wound up landing on it's feet and I've been enjoying it for what it is. Certainly not the best but I'd be lying if I said I haven't been pretty hooked. Man.... rough start though.

[Mischief Maker]

Ys 9...

It starts off pretty awful, but it it wound up landing on it's feet and I've been enjoying it for what it is. Certainly not the best but I'd be lying if I said I haven't been pretty hooked. Man.... rough start though.

Any major combat gameplay changes from Ys 8?

[guigui]

Finished Wasteland 3 again, went for a fourth run but decided against it couple of hours in. I did decide though I wanted something similar to play. Again I am not well versed on CRPGs so I did some research.

I was going for similar but different. Figured I like Wasteland - what else does Inexile have that isn't post apocalyptical that might scratch that itch. After a bit i picked up Torment: Tides of Numenera. After about four hours I decided it just wasn't for me, far too much reading. I am sure there is an audience for it, it just isn't me.

It is also times like this I wish Steam let you give games away to people. There should be a time limit beyond refund, but under say five hours that if you decide you don't like a game you can't get your $ back, but you could transfer it to another players account (each game could only be transferred one time) so at least someone would get to enjoy it on the $ spent.

Anyways I went back and stumbled across Shadowrun. A game I am only familiar with in passing and playing a small amount on the SNES. They were on sale so I picked up Dragonfall and Hong Kong. Within five minutes of playing Dragonfall's tutorial level I knew I found the games I was looking for.

Grid turn based combat. Lots of builds. A character creator not nearly as intimidating as Wasteland. Graphics certainly do the job and what I have heard of the ost is easy on the ears too. I have accepted that I am playing a game with just a mouse: )

If you like something more recent, I’d definitely recommend Fallout New Vegas. Almost same good writing as original Fallout. The whole game is FPS, with some strategic elements to combat. I did not mind a little change on my playthroughs, and 1st person view helps with immersion.

[vol.2]

Figured I like Wasteland - what else does Inexile have that isn't post apocalyptical that might scratch that itch. After a bit i picked up Torment: Tides of Numenera. After about four hours I decided it just wasn't for me, far too much reading. I am sure there is an audience for it, it just isn't me.

Glad you found Dragonfall, that looks pretty great. Might give it a shot.

If you want to see what else InExile did, I have a pretty weird recommendation for you, but it's a serious one. The Bard's Tale from 2004; it's a reimagining of the 1980's series. There are definitely some things about the game that have deservingly drawn criticism, such as the corny sarcastic humor, and the glitches and bugs. But none of the bugs are truly game-breaking, and the humor is really a product of what it is and when it came out, so it's just as easy to overlook that stuff as either unavoidable or charming.

What you find, if you can get past the shabby 2004 exterior, is a well-written game with decent mechanics that is fun to play. It's also unmistakably a Fargo game, and it's got the personality present.

I wouldn't spend full price on it, but if you get a super-sale, maybe try it out.

[Blackfielding]

Still stick to WoW I guess this marathon will be a really long one Not long ago I discovered one useful feature connected with World of Warcraft. I guess that a lot of gamers hate doing different monotonous actions to upgrade their chars and I am no exception. But I used to think that there is no way out until I stumbled upon this https://skycoach.gg/wow-boost service on the Internet. Highly recommend!

[null1024]

Still hammering away at Virtua Racing.
man, this game is fun

I'm still clipping the grass more than I'd like, but I've stopped spinning out. Was a bit too aggressive with my inputs before.
Somewhat consistently able to not time out on defaults now, too.

I need to get a little more aggressive with the throttle without screwing up, but that'll come with practice. My lines are kinda all over the place too, bleh.

[Marc]

Still hammering away at Virtua Racing.
man, this game is fun

I'm still clipping the grass more than I'd like, but I've stopped spinning out. Was a bit too aggressive with my inputs before.
Somewhat consistently able to not time out on defaults now, too.

I need to get a little more aggressive with the throttle without screwing up, but that'll come with practice. My lines are kinda all over the place too, bleh.

I know it's probably frowned on, and I stick to the original for time trail, but (whisper it), the new optional handling model is way more fun than the original, and still doesn't feel borked like on PS2 / Saturn.

[MehaffeyL]

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://www.ssegold.com/wowclassic-gold. Strong privacy, low prices and solid reputation are the reasons to get gold only there

Yeah, I am also a fan of WoW. This game is AWESOME!! I love how Blizzard always adds new content, cool mounts, lol pets, awesome transmog, the classes are super fun to play, and I really like this game. Wrath of The Lich King was just an awesome expansion, The Lich King was a hard, fun, and great fight. ICC was a great raid, and definitely want to see more expansions like Wrath of The Lich King. BFA was an ok expansion, the dungeons in my opinion suck, but 8.3 visions and corruption was super cool. Gold farming is kinda cool, as the AH can give me a lot of gold. Professions are really cool, as I make lots of gold from that. Blizzard came out with Classic, which I didn’t play, but I love watching it. Overall, Best MMO game and best MMORPG game of all time.

[MehaffeyL]

WoW Classic. I played this game about 15 years ago for a short time. Here I am, during the pandemic, a 40-year-old mother playing this game again. I took to it back then after hesitating, now enjoying it or yelling at the game while I have slowly died in a battle. The kids know when mom is dying in the game is when she turns into Momster as they laugh at me. I find it easier now and literally have not purchased armour at the AH. I save that gold for a rainy day.

[Marc]

Rock & Roll Racing on the Blizzard collection. One of the nicest surprises I've had in a while. Expecting low-effort SNES ports. Turns out to have the MD, SNES, a dedicated 4-player version, and an updated version with widescreen support, bits of updated visuals, extra commentary, and a CD soundtrack with extra tracks! Games has always been baddass, but it's even more badass set to Priests' Breaking The Law. Good effort, really impressed with this one.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Can you play the definitive edition with the SNES soundtrack? There's something oddly satisfying about those intrumental renditions.

Which console do you have it for? Wondering if you can play 4 player on Switch using a joycon each. You know, in case we're ever allowed to be in the same house as other humans again.

[Marc]

Pretty sure you can switch between CD and chip soundtracks on the fly, and yes as far as I can tell you can use four single joy-cons. It's a nice little package, possibly a bit costly stacked next to the Capcom one, but a nice surprise indeed. I've meant to go back and play Blawkhawk/thorne for years now.

[Stevens]

Glad you found Dragonfall, that looks pretty great. Might give it a shot.

If you want to see what else InExile did, I have a pretty weird recommendation for you, but it's a serious one. The Bard's Tale from 2004; it's a reimagining of the 1980's series. There are definitely some things about the game that have deservingly drawn criticism, such as the corny sarcastic humor, and the glitches and bugs. But none of the bugs are truly game-breaking, and the humor is really a product of what it is and when it came out, so it's just as easy to overlook that stuff as either unavoidable or charming.

What you find, if you can get past the shabby 2004 exterior, is a well-written game with decent mechanics that is fun to play. It's also unmistakably a Fargo game, and it's got the personality present.

I wouldn't spend full price on it, but if you get a super-sale, maybe try it out.

As a kid I had a friend who had an Apple II and all three Bard's Tales. Not that we could ever figure out how to get far in them, but hey it was fun running back and forth from the Adventurer's Guild to the Samurai to farm: )

I did look at IV and it's on my radar. Enjoying Dragonfall still - it is far simpler than WL 3, although if I have one minor complaint with the UI it would be the item management between characters. I understand why it's that way, it's just kind of annoying there are only certain time I can give out items.

[Mischief Maker]

I did look at [Bard's Tale] IV and it's on my radar.

From what I heard from my friend who's a HUGE Bard's Tale fan, 4 plays nothing like the rest of the series and it a technical clunker on top of it.

If you're looking for a contemporary game that recreates the goodness of old school WRPGs, Might and Magic in particular, then I can heartily recommend Lords of Xulima.

[vol.2]

4 plays nothing like the rest of the series and it a technical clunker on top of it.

Yes. It's totally different. It's way more modern of a CRPG. Technically clunky in that it's bit buggy, although I believe it's been mostly patched at this point. I didn't say it was a masterpiece, but I think it's ultimate a fun playthrough, and a well-written story with plenty of humor and it's got a unique presentation that works out, and will never be replicated because it's kind of silly.