Razing Storm - Namco/Bandai

[gameoverDude]

Yeah, the dogtags increase that bar, so I guess poor play would make it almost impossible to clear.

It does seem like time is very important, pretty much like Crisis Zone. It took me quite a while to get good at scoring on Crisis Zone, as I'm so used to comboing for points instead. I'll just have to play it more, I've only just got over 2.3 million here... replays would help

Am still enjoying the game too!

I've gotten a score of 2.14M myself. So far I have found 7 of the dogtags (wouldn't mind getting all 10 someday, I bet that'll be a Trophy on the PS3 port).

After having zero luck digging through YouTube, I finally went to NicoNico Douga and searched. Here's a replay I thought was VERY good- over 3 million, and there's a 670+ combo in the grocery scene.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7091193 (1 of 4)
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7090982 (2 of 4)
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7091315 (3 of 4)
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7091486 (4 of 4)

Alternate links (Hatena)
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/video/niconico/sm7091193 (1/4)
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/video/niconico/sm7090982 (2/4)
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/video/niconico/sm7091315 (3/4)
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/video/niconico/sm7091486 (4/4)

[Smraedis]

With the help of that replay, I am already on 2.7 million, and that is with making lots of mistakes in the run... am sure to reach 3 million in a few runs now.

[gameoverDude]

Good work, Smraedis. I've recently done 2.2M and hope to get 2.5 or better before too long- as well as my first 1CC of RS. Hopefully I'll be able to get a 600+ combo in stage 4's grocery cluster-shot rampage.

It seems like the time is more important than the combos (though those do help). Here's what I've found on the combo bonus, which you earn every 10 hits.

Code: Select all

000-040    300 pts (Hit count is blue until it reaches 100)
050-090    500 pts
100-140    800 pts (Hit count turns green from 100-199)
150-190   1000 pts
200-240   1200 pts (Hit count turns yellow from 200-299)
250-290   1500 pts
300-340   1800 pts (Hit count turns red while combo is 300 or better)
350+      2000 pts  (Max value- you get 2000 for every 10 more hits)

[gameoverDude]

Yeah, the dogtags increase that bar, so I guess poor play would make it almost impossible to clear.

It does seem like time is very important, pretty much like Crisis Zone. It took me quite a while to get good at scoring on Crisis Zone, as I'm so used to comboing for points instead. I'll just have to play it more, I've only just got over 2.3 million here... replays would help

Am still enjoying the game too!

There are some parts where comboing is less important than time. When larger combos are possible (Kraken, the grocery store cluster shot vs. HACS scene, etc) then I'd say combos are almost as important.

I had gotten a full combo of 724 hits on the grocery store HACS battle. That did make a big jump in my score for that section. The guy in that replay had a 670 for his FC on that part. Now I'm up to 2.35 M for a full game.

If you fuck up that sniper scene at the start of Stage 3, I'd say you're out around 60,000 pts- your time bonus takes the Hell Express if that happens, since many extra enemies will emerge and it takes a lot of time to clear them out.

Now I'm curious to know just how the time bonus is figured out after a section clear and a stage clear. I might take a notepad to GW with me next time and jot down section times/bonuses to try to see how much it is per second.

[gameoverDude]

Now I'm at 2.46M (no 1CC yet, hopefully that's soon to come though). From taking pictures of the post-checkpoint stat screens, I figured that the time bonus is 20 points per 1/100 sec saved, or 2000 per second. I'm still not sure if the stage clear time bonus is figured differently however.

[Dale]

Does anyone remember the name of that Japanese only Light Gun(I guess in this rare case not a true light gun oddly enough) game where you shoot pellets at the arcade games screen activating hitboxes based off where they hit the touch screen? It's pretty recent.

Great to see you guys raping this game. This is probably my 2nd favorite genre and a lot of the same scoring rules apply as shmups. Is the game doing alright at the arcades you guys go to. Where do you guys go to play this anyhow? The D&B by me probably has it but I can't muster the will to pay all that money for those cards.

[gameoverDude]

Does anyone remember the name of that Japanese only Light Gun(I guess in this rare case not a true light gun oddly enough) game where you shoot pellets at the arcade games screen activating hitboxes based off where they hit the touch screen? It's pretty recent.

Great to see you guys raping this game. This is probably my 2nd favorite genre and a lot of the same scoring rules apply as shmups. Is the game doing alright at the arcades you guys go to. Where do you guys go to play this anyhow? The D&B by me probably has it but I can't muster the will to pay all that money for those cards.

Thanks, Dale.
Is the pellet gun game from Konami? I'm sure that's GunMania, which appeared around 2000 or 2001.

I go to GameWorks for Razing Storm, and it's not doing bad here. If you go to GW, then the best deal on the cards is $35 (gets you $55 in credits). I've been working on a RS FAQ, and have figured out the time bonus cutoffs. To do this, I had a friend shoot a few pictures of checkpoint and stage clear stats from a couple games- and did a little figuring with the time and bonus differences. Every second you beat the cutoff by is worth 2000 points, or 20 per 1/100 of a second. Hitting the cutoff time exactly would get you nothing. Sometimes combos can hurt your score unless you do them fast (i.e. too much wrecking can probably rob you). Even though I had a 724 hit combo at the fish freezer scene and finished that section with 210K, I think the guy in that Nico Nico Douga replay got ahead of me with a faster time for the checkpoint (I remember him having 240K).

Some GWs have a Thursday night special (8pm-12 midnight) with timed play on everything but redemption games and Derby Owner's Club. Last time I nudged my score up to about 2.46M. One nice feature is the checkpoint stat screen's ranking display, where it tells you how you did out of 100 players.

Code: Select all

RAZING STORM - Cutoffs for Time Bonus
1-1             01'01             3-1       01'03
1-2             01'02             3-2       01'35
1-3             00'44             3-3       01'00
1-4             01'06             3-4       01'01                         
1-5             00'55             3-Clear   04'28
1-6             01'00
1-Clear         05'25

2-1             00'52             4-1       00'46
2-2             00'59             4-2       01'06
2-3             00'30             4-3       01'35
2-4             00'59             4-4       01'23
2-5             00'42             4-Clear   05'10
2-Clear         03'55

Stage clear cutoff times add to 18'58. Try to clear the game faster than that.

[gameoverDude]

What makes some of the allies say "Hey don't expect me to thank you!" after you save them? Just curious.

On a Youtube Razing Storm vid by HZH, I see his comments saying that you don't lose points for friendly fire on allies. He says combo is more important than time on just a few scenes (I guess probably Kraken battles and the grocery store cluster shot scene in "Bonus" stage 4). Getting all 10 dogtags doesn't give you any score bonus.

Tonight, I'm up to 2.53M. I need to get my time down on stages 3 & 4. That damn airship takes a long time to wipe out. The toughest part of it IMO is the guns with the sliding armored doors.

[gameoverDude]

I've now gotten to 2.7M on Razing Storm, and this is a single-credit play. That stage 3 scorpion-mecha's BGM is awesome, sounding quite similar to Giga Wing's boss theme.

Here are hints for the dogtags.

Code: Select all

STAGE 1- ENCOUNTER
1) 1-2:  In the hallway, there is a pillar on your right.
2) 1-4:  In the store, look for a piece of furniture with a vase on it 
         when the camera pans up.  You really can't miss this one, especially when an enemy soldier will pop up right in front of the vase.
3) 1-4:  After the HACS has emerged from a back room in the store and made a run for it past your right, he will try to clonk you a couple times.  On the wall behind him will be a yellow light for you to shoot out.
4) 1-6:  After picking off a HACS & 3 soldiers from a balcony, you'll be facing an ally who has a small block in front of him.  Chip at the block in its top-left corner for the 4th dogtag.

STAGE 2- BREAKTHROUGH:  3 Dogtags
5) 2-1:  There's a red barrel which will make a dogtag appear if you blow
         it up.  If this doesn't make the dogtag show up, you have it
         already (the enemy can easily coax you into finding this one).  Blowing up the red barrel guarantees this one. 
6) 2-2:  On the upper story of a building, there are 2 soldiers by a
         fence in front of a window.  This is right after "Nelson! Take
         care of the ones above us."  The dogtag is right on top of the building, in what looks like a vent.
7) 2-4:  There will be a building with a stack of boxes.  This is the one
         that a Raptor will hang on the side of.  Hit this building,
         aiming a bit to the right of these boxes.  This is right after
         Hunt says "Hah!  You don't change, do you Shin?".  DQN missed this one in the replay vid.

STAGE 3- SHOWDOWN:  3 Dogtags
8) 3-2:  There's a dogtag within the destructible electric gizmos right in front
         of the building.  This will be after you kill a few soldiers and start heading left to chase the HACS that appeared during the stand-by.  Very hard to miss.
9) 3-2:  One of those solar panels has a dogtag.  It will be in the leftmost part of one of the rows.
10) 3-4:  Last one.  Soon after one of the helicopters, you will approach a
         pile of debris.  Pick at the left side of it, which has 3 soldiers nearby.

[gameoverDude]

Bandai Namco Japanese Website with upcoming game release dates

On page 2, you'll find a "New Shooter" for PS3 with a TBA date. This sounds very well like it could be Razing Storm. The Guncon 3 is about due for another game anyhow.

Hopefully there'll be a Double Gun mode ala PS2 Crisis Zone, as well as a music player (Takeshi Miura's BGM kicks ass, esp. stage 4's track which sounds like Giga Wing BGM on speed). Namco should consider releasing their own reload pedal controller with a pass-through USB port for the Guncon 3. Two pedals/DDR mats, two GC3s, and the sensor take up 5 USB ports - guaranteeing you need a hub.

At least reviewers won't have a busted 2P split-screen mode (*cough* TC4) to bitch about. The absence of link play in TC4 really sucks, since Namco could've just added Ethernet crossover cable support to LAN 2 systems. I hope the PS3 version of RS will have online leaderboards and rankings - it'd be nice to see the PSN record and your PSN rank also shown on the checkpoint stat screens.

[Smraedis]

Oh that could be good news
But I'm sure they'll mess up the music and rerecord all of the voice samples and mess up the scoring system, just like with TC4.

You can most likely guess that I have been playing the PS3 version of TC4, and it drives me nuts... am still struggling to get 6 million on it, but then I haven't even broke 3 million on Razing Storm, though I have rarely played the game lately.


Anyway it sounds like good news

[gameoverDude]

Oh that could be good news
But I'm sure they'll mess up the music and rerecord all of the voice samples and mess up the scoring system, just like with TC4.

You can most likely guess that I have been playing the PS3 version of TC4, and it drives me nuts... am still struggling to get 6 million on it, but then I haven't even broke 3 million on Razing Storm, though I have rarely played the game lately.


Anyway it sounds like good news

Actually, I'm thinking the home port will be more faithful than the TC4 one. PS3 TC4 could not use any of the PS2 hardware code from the arcade version. Since System 357 is essentially a PS3, I'd say the port is probably half done at least. Hopefully they don't try to "fix" the slowdown or frame rates and end up breaking something.

I've hit 3.14M and 15'36" on my last try. Don't know if I'll hit 4M, but I'll keep on trying. I'm guessing you might hit 3 mil sometime on RS.

It'd be great if Namco threw in a Time Crisis history on the RS home port - Guncon 3 versions of TC, TC2, TC3, and Crisis Zone (arcade & PS2 both) would be nice. Hell, maybe a straight as-is arcade port of TC4 as well, with link play via Ethernet crossover cables. Crisis missions for RS are probably a given, but I'd also like to see an extra scenario which would pick up right after the arcade's cliffhanger ending. This could have a prologue stage where you play as Bravo Squad, which would end with them being captured (concurrent with Stage 3's events from the arcade).

Shame the arcade version doesn't identify the US voice actors. I did recognize Michael McConnohie (TC4 narrator) from the tutorial screen. Hunt's voice does sound familiar - I think his voice acting may have been done by Jim Ward (Commissioner "Rowdy" Betters from F.E.A.R.).

[D]

There was a pedal for the ps1 (ps2?) but I think it was unofficial.

[gameoverDude]

There was a pedal for the ps1 (ps2?) but I think it was unofficial.

That RedOctane reload pedal? I've got that and it works good (tried it on the PS2 versions of Crisis Zone and TC2/3). I've got a PS2->PS3 converter here and may dust off Time Crisis 4 to try this with it sometime.

I just had a 3.2M 1CC yesterday on Razing Storm. Once you're past 3M the scoring gets tougher - it's kind of like reaching 6M on TC4, where you work a bit harder for the points. I have a 6.19M TC4 Hard mode replay on Youtube, unfortunately lacking sound due to technical troubles on my end when I recorded the game.

On Youtube, put "Razing Storm DGZ" (sans quotes) in the search box for something really amazing. You'll love it. This is a 4M 1CC replay. It's not a no-damage run like the 3.6M one from Nico Nico Douga, but everything else goes pretty well for this player, MAT@DGZ.

[Smraedis]

Just to update, I've now broken 3 million on Razing Storm, I got 3,072,830 I feel like I'm still not too quick in the game.. I'd love to get the 4 million on it

Also made improvements on TC4 too, got 6.1 million on the port.. and there has to be at least 200k points dropped because of things not working right on the console port.

[gameoverDude]

A bit of bad news? The Gameworks where I had played at is GONE. It went tits up on March 29, despite being one of the chain's top performers. If Sega is bleeding that much cash, maybe they should sell the chain out to Dave & Buster's. But anyway... I have 2 D&B's locations near me that both have Razing Storm.

Right now my best score is 3.48M. My best time (not from the same run) is around 14'30". I would just like to drop a couple minutes off of that clear time. HZH says 4.38 million should be possible.

I've gotten the UFO's armored gunports scene down a bit quicker. Take 2 gunports out from the top 4, then it pans down to show the bottom 4. When 2 of those are gone, this scene ends - but you still have a little time to pound on the other guns before the Standby.

Namco is a Playstation Move confirmed developer. It only seems natural that Razing Storm would be ported after PSM comes out. My only misgiving is that Namco may ditch Guncon 3. It seems that the Guncon 3 has become the Namco 32X, with no new titles. Namco has renewed the Time Crisis trademark as well. We need a Crisis Zone & Time Crisis compilation (with Time Crisis 4 rebalanced for 100% arcade perfect play).

If there's a soundtrack CD, I'll gladly part with $60 or whatever to import it. Stage 4's BGM is awesome with its furious drum patterns and the jittery chorus of bleeping sounds. Stage 3's Boss theme sounds exactly Giga Wing style, but amped up.

Good job on TC4, Smraedis. Time Crisis 4 on PS3 does seem to have some inconsistencies. I can't full combo the office terror bite scene for shit. This was no problem on the arcade version. During the Jack Mathers battle, there's one part which requires a grenade link in the arcade version to avoid breaking combo. On PS3 I was able to hold combo on that part with NO grenades. I see a score inconsistency on the flying swarmer TBs - Grenading them is worth more on the arcade version.

[D]

a bit of good news
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... ation-3%2F

[antares]

a bit of good news
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... ation-3%2F

I wonder if it will support the GunCon3?

[spadgy]

I think it does.

Still, Move works pretty well in this context. I've spent maybe 40 mins playeing The Shoot with Move, and I found the responce and accuracy superb for a player of my level. Which means for me it's just an ergonomic matter.

This package includes Razing Storm, Deadstorm Pirates, and Time Crisis 4. I was put off TC4 by the latest GunCon, so the fact I can now use Move is great for me.

And Razing storm at home? I'm really stoked for this. It's my second favourite E3 2010 news after the Eric Chahi news.

[jonny5]

I think it does.

Still, Move works pretty well in this context. I've spent maybe 40 mins playeing The Shoot with Move, and I found the responce and accuracy superb for a player of my level. Which means for me it's just an ergonomic matter.

This package includes Razing Storm, Deadstorm Pirates, and Time Crisis 4. I was put off TC4 by the latest GunCon, so the fact I can now use Move is great for me.

And Razing storm at home? I'm really stoked for this. It's my second favourite E3 2010 news after the Eric Chahi news.

hmmmm...whats wrong with the guncon3? design flaws? i was also super stoked for razing storm on ps3, but i need a gun...im not using 'chucks' or anything like that?

[Ganelon]

The GunCon 3's awkward side-handle completely destroys the gun balance. It's also not how you hold a handgun. That said, the Move "space blaster" gun is looking pretty awkward as well without a sight.

[terry330]

The GunCon 3's awkward side-handle completely destroys the gun balance. It's also not how you hold a handgun.

Yeah, the side handle is horrible. It made the game almost unplayable for me as I'm a lefty.

[spadgy]

The GunCon 3's awkward side-handle completely destroys the gun balance. It's also not how you hold a handgun.

Yeah, the side handle is horrible. It made the game almost unplayable for me as I'm a lefty.

This. I'm not a lefty myself, but lightgun game's are why wife's favourite, and she is. We always play them together so it ruined things.

[jonny5]

The GunCon 3's awkward side-handle completely destroys the gun balance. It's also not how you hold a handgun.

Yeah, the side handle is horrible. It made the game almost unplayable for me as I'm a lefty.

weird...that does look odd.....do you really need it for in game though?

fuck me....just realized my g/f is a lefty too, and she is also a big lightgun fan....not good

she holds a rifle normally though....cant recall how she holds pistols....hopefully right handed

i wonder how easy it would be to mod the controller, even put it in a custom shell if necessary?

[Smraedis]

This is good news, I've been waiting for Razing Storm to come out on the ps3 for a bit now..
I hope I don't have to buy all this new stuff to play the game though, the GunCon 3 cost me rather a lot of money. I think the GunCon 3 is about as bad as it could be, I get lots of pains in my hands and my trigger finger always hurts after just one play, as the trigger is quite sharp on the edges.

I wonder if they will fix TC4 any, cause there are a lot of little things just different in the console version, and most of them reduce your score some.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

The TC4 in Razing Storm is supposed to be the arcade version.

[spadgy]

That's great news.

[jonny5]

The TC4 in Razing Storm is supposed to be the arcade version.

beat me to it

well the gun issues aside, im stoked for this to come out!!

jeez...i wonder if my ps3 still works;its been so long....should probably dust it off and check

[Smraedis]

Yeah I saw, but I wonder if they just mean Arcade mode only, and all the added extras of the the port to be removed.
Also in the pictures I saw on one site, it looked just like the original PS3 version.

I've spent hundreds of hours on the PS3 version, and now they do this

Edit: More proof

[gameoverDude]

I KNEW IT. Only a matter of time. Thanks to Namco for keeping Guncon 3 support in addition to Move compatibility. Dead Storm Pirates sweetens this deal even further.

I wonder if Razing Storm's TC4 may have been tweaked to play 100% like the arcade and eliminate slowdowns in the higher resolutions, even though it looks just like the existing PS3 version.

At least there'll be no bitching about a broken 2 player mode in RS & Pirates.