What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Drum]

Alien Soldier. Never gave it much time before, decided to rectify that.
So ... what am I missing? I am still not feeling it. Frankly, the game seems like a total mess.

[spadgy]

I got my mitts on a copy of Motorstorm Apocalypse. Lots 'o' fun! Intense, and a nice balance of rollercoaster and demanding of skill. Parallels with Excite Truck too.

[EinhanderZwei]

Alien Soldier. Never gave it much time before, decided to rectify that.
So ... what am I missing? I am still not feeling it. Frankly, the game seems like a total mess.

It may, if you're playing it for 2 mins just to check out. You should adjust to its pace to enjoy it...

[Vexorg]

I've recently pulled out the copy of Just Cause 2 I bought a few months back. Seems like the type of game you can play for hours and hours and not really accomplish anything.

[Drum]

Alien Soldier. Never gave it much time before, decided to rectify that.
So ... what am I missing? I am still not feeling it. Frankly, the game seems like a total mess.

It may, if you're playing it for 2 mins just to check out. You should adjust to its pace to enjoy it...

I am gonna stick with it, but this doesn't fly - first time I played I dismissed it as janky. Now I'm giving it a proper go and ... still janky.
It's really not a matter of adjusting so much as coping with screwy design choices. In a game that's basically about boss battles in tight arenas, having a weapon menu is just convoluted and silly. And you can't just stick with one, because there's a pointless ammo system. Also, the weapons aren't interesting or varied enough to justify their existence, and seem like they belong in a different game (and it's not just because I played Gunstar Heroes first). Game has its charms, but it's rough and I haven't decided if they overcome that. I'll let you know what to think!

[Rob]

janky. ... still janky.

Hate this word.

People of good character like Alien Soldier.

[Drum]

I looked it up and was surprised to find it's a real word, but it didn't mean what I thought it meant. Apparently it means 'odd/untrustworthy' - I figured it was just a synonym for wonky. So I meant wonky.

Got sick of dealing with Alien Soldier's many pointless design quirks and played some Night Stocker. Better now.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I watched Alien Soldier superplay (the one from Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box) and even that annoyed me. Also, the graphics are huge sprite porny. Nothing wrong with large sprites as such - the programming is marvellous and the artwork deserves it - but Gunstar Heroes and Dynamite Headdy have not only large sprites but also bits of charming micro-pixel art (like that tiny boss in Dice Maze) here and there in the vein of Sqoon, Walker, Jets 'N' Guns (dare I say it) and early GB games, whereas Alien Soldier sports nothing of the sort. Everything seems as big as they could have possibly made it. Quite a wasted opportunity. Remember those wee dudes in Assault Suits Valken and Metal Warriors? Such subtle touches make things all the more memorable.
In other news, I cleared the first Parappa. While it was fun for the most part, I don't think I'm gonna revisit it as frequently as Gitaroo Man. Not even because it's got less songs and modes. Rather I don't feel comfortable with the way it rates my performance. Whether I hit or miss, I hardly see or hear it. In Gitaroo Man the feedback was more credible to me.

[The Funto]

Monkey Island: SE

[spadgy]

Ridge Racer 3D networked on the 3DS. My eyes feel sick.

[Klatrymadon]

Just impulse-splurged on Final Fight Double Impact, knowing full well that I can't afford it. First regret: presumably to accomodate online players who may want to jump into your game, the "pause" button brings up the "pause menu" but puts a stop to naff all.

Ed: ah, it appears you can set up strictly local games that pause normally. Phew!

[ZOM]

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll. Loving this grindfest. The presentation is a beauty too. Funny thing is, it's the main reason why the game got such low reviews. Fools.

[sjewkestheloon]

Been playing a lot of Lost Planet 2 which is a real blast, especially in co-op. I love the slow unlock of all the different weapon setups as it is genuinely enjoyable trying the different options out. The story is terrible and pointless which was pretty much expected but the mission design is a lot of fun. I like the graphical variety of the levels and the varied objectives but first time through can be pretty frustrating as the game does not tell you what to do 90% of the time. Becomes more fun the more you play through it strangely.

[Klatrymadon]

Amusingly, I've just earned Final Fight's pointless achievement for beating the game "in under 18 credits" by joining an online game at stage 6 and helping out with the last boss.

1CC!

[EinhanderZwei]

Beaten Ys I on PSP and reached the Solomon Shrine in Ys II

This is the shit!

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

In other news, I cleared the first Parappa. While it was fun for the most part, I don't think I'm gonna revisit it as frequently as Gitaroo Man. Not even because it's got less songs and modes. Rather I don't feel comfortable with the way it rates my performance. Whether I hit or miss, I hardly see or hear it. In Gitaroo Man the feedback was more credible to me.

While the songs in Parappa the Rapper 2 aren't as memorable, it is still better than the original by a long shot. Still my favorite rhythm game, if only for the nostalgia value. (was the first game I remember playing, alongside Battletanx)

[ZOM]

Beaten Ys I on PSP and reached the Solomon Shrine in Ys II
This is the shit!

Of course it ys!

[Evilmaxwar]

I did not play any shmups in the past week, the reason for this is that i got myself completely hooked on X-com apocalypse, a game that was on my ''to play'' list for the past 13 years. I finally got to do it, hehe, its a pretty long game. When i beat it ill be able to resume hi-score posting but in the meanwhile this game is holding me captive

[Arwing904]

Call me weird, but I always preferred the Darkstalkers series over Street Fighter. Im currently playing Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge

[CMoon]

Very surprised to find myself REALLY enjoying Red Dead Redemption. Avoided it because I don't really care for the GTA games, but here's a case where the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Maybe I just dig the old west more than I'd care to let on, but I'm really enjoying this for what it is.

SF vs Darkstalkers? I wouldn't feel weird; the DS series is very highly crafted/well designed. I'd put SF3 over it, but in general I'd say the three darkstalkers games sit right at the top of what fighting games should be. They're just damn good games. I can't say that about all the SF entries.

[Ruldra]

Yesterday I replayed and beat an old, favorite game of mine - Actraiser 2 for SNES. Such a good game.

I'm starting to get into racing games recently. In fact, I'm organizing a F1 2010 league in another forum. We've already raced in Bahrain and Australia; next sunday it'll be Malaysia.

[Skykid]

Very surprised to find myself REALLY enjoying Red Dead Redemption. Avoided it because I don't really care for the GTA games, but here's a case where the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Maybe I just dig the old west more than I'd care to let on, but I'm really enjoying this for what it is.

I was 100% the same with RDR. Didn't care for GTA ever, but RDR grabbed me with the Western hook and turned out to be a much more digestible experience than I expected.

[Ruldra]

RDR looks like a great game, I even traded Demon's Souls to get it. Unfortunately the game for some reason was overheating my PS3 and I had to get rid of it

[PainAmplifier]

I did not play any shmups in the past week, the reason for this is that i got myself completely hooked on X-com apocalypse, a game that was on my ''to play'' list for the past 13 years. I finally got to do it, hehe, its a pretty long game. When i beat it ill be able to resume hi-score posting but in the meanwhile this game is holding me captive

Apocalypse was allright. The pseudo-realtime (or whatever they called it) play setting sucked pretty hard though. It had a few other flaws that were offset by other improvements that prevented it from really being as good as the first/second. Although thinking back, probably the worst issue was just getting it to run properly on the hardware of the age! It was a notoriously difficult game to setup, configure and run. I think DOS-Box now could run it, but at release all I can remember was fighting to get it to run, then turning off the 'realtime' tactical option and then relentlessy playing it until I beat it.

[njiska]

Finally got around to playing Red Faction Guerrilla. Don't know why i put it off for so long since the game is frigging amazing.

Also picking my way through Pokemon Black and Last Window: The Secret of Cape West which i imported from Europe.

[Vexorg]

Finally got around to playing Red Faction Guerrilla. Don't know why i put it off for so long since the game is frigging amazing.

Also picking my way through Pokemon Black and Last Window: The Secret of Cape West which i imported from Europe.

I thought the terrain destruction stuff in Red Faction Guerilla was pretty cool, but the shooter mechanics seem really weak, which made it hard for me to really stick with it.

[spadgy]

Spent a late evening in the arcade on my own last night with Initial D Arcade Stage 4. A real treat.

[tinotormed]

Got back into Doom-ing after a lot of shmupping. I am now playing a WAD called The Ultimate NMD, an under-detailed add-on of Ultimate Doom. I am also playing some maps of Final Doom either. Speedrunning both games.

[Evilmaxwar]

I did not play any shmups in the past week, the reason for this is that i got myself completely hooked on X-com apocalypse, a game that was on my ''to play'' list for the past 13 years. I finally got to do it, hehe, its a pretty long game. When i beat it ill be able to resume hi-score posting but in the meanwhile this game is holding me captive

Apocalypse was allright. The pseudo-realtime (or whatever they called it) play setting sucked pretty hard though. It had a few other flaws that were offset by other improvements that prevented it from really being as good as the first/second. Although thinking back, probably the worst issue was just getting it to run properly on the hardware of the age! It was a notoriously difficult game to setup, configure and run. I think DOS-Box now could run it, but at release all I can remember was fighting to get it to run, then turning off the 'realtime' tactical option and then relentlessy playing it until I beat it.

It will run pretty well under win98 but nowaday dosbox is your friend. I play it under dos box and with the proper settings it works flawlessly . I think i kinda like it a bit more than the predecessors, if only for one reason: Aliens and enemies will move around ans seek you out. Which mean no more wasting 30 min of your life to find the last alien in the map, that happened to be hiding in the very last closet you open in the map. That drove me nuts and is probably the main reason why i never played the games till the end. And i actually like the pseudo-real time mode as you call it, its the way i play. You can play turn based also but missions take more time and that game is already long as it is.

[Ruldra]

Rush'n Attack: Ex-Patriot came out on the US PSN store and I bought it, it's a great stealth/platformer. The game truly shines when you decide to play for score. Rushing through the levels stealth-chain-killing distracted guards and trying not to get caught is really fun.

I'm trying to get to the top of the leaderboards now. The game isn't out for long and scores aren't that high yet so I might be able to take #1.