What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Estebang]

I'm playing on an actual SNES and I haven't noticed any game-impairing slowdown. Must be a subjective thing, or does it only come up in the later levels?

As for the "red light, green light" criticism--I can't think of any wait-and-go obstacles in the game that aren't paired with thoughtful enemy placement. Like, there's ghosts coming at you when dodging the swinging chains in Stage 2.

Also, the Genesis G'nG was made much easier than the arcade version, largely due to the ability to turn around while crouching.

[mesh control]

Nier.
Woah.....

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

As for the "red light, green light" criticism--I can't think of any wait-and-go obstacles in the game that aren't paired with thoughtful enemy placement. Like, there's ghosts coming at you when dodging the swinging chains in Stage 2.

Mode 7 gimmicks are always a thrill aren't they? stage 5 has you waiting out avalanches too, but unlike in Blizzard Wolfang's stage, they're pretty much harmless. Did not care much for stage 2 or 3 either.

Also, the Genesis G'nG was made much easier than the arcade version, largely due to the ability to turn around while crouching.

I must have been doing something hilariously wrong because I never could turn around while crouching in Genesis GnG. Not a big deal though, after all it still applies to Castlevania games. But there were a boatload of hazards removed; they came back for me in loop 2 though.

[null1024]

Vagrant Story [PS1]!
Prettiest PS1 game ever. Just look at that lighting.
I've been saying it for a while, but good lighting really can help more than poly count does in making graphics look good [even though poly count still matters a bit].

My niggles so far are 1: the camera is annoying to manipulate, 2: block manipulation is annoying, and 3: why are some enemies harder than what appear to be bosses?
Otherwise, I like it. It would be nice if there was voice acting though, seeing proper real-time cutscenes and hearing nothing but SFX and BGM while they speak is a bit weird.

also, what the hell is up with this castle and why is it designed so weirdly
and why is Square's output from the 90s-early 2000s so good


edit:
Fuuuuck, it crashed on the golem fight [and I think I had beaten it when it crashed], so I had to restart that, took forever...
Still, I at least like this battle system enough to continue with 20 more minutes, and I was able to improve my timing for chains and guarding.
Just got past that.

[Siren2011]

Time Crisis 3 is robbing me of sleep tonight. Still no 1CC, sadly. Though I can get to Stage 3 area 1, which is near the end of the game, on very hard with two lives. I felt pretty accomplished when I beat the second stage boss, but after playing this game for so long I'm beginning to get frustrated with my lack of progress. It's crunch time.

[ED-057]

Shining Force III scenario 1. This game proves that it was possible to render 3D towns/battlefields that look decent at a better framerate than Grandia. Still, I don`t see how it wouldn`t have been better if they had left it as 2D, then it would be so much easier to see what was going on without having to zoom/rotate all the time.

The battle on the train tracks kind of sucked. It seems like it`s not always possible to save the 亡命民 depending on who is in your party when you start the round. If ダンタレス doesn`t start on the right square he won`t reach the switch within three turns. Langrisser IV had a round like this, where if a character was one of the slow classes then you would always fail the mission before your first turn came up. lol

Sometimes the game suffers a CD read error and goes into debug mode. Makes it kind of hard to read the dialog when there is a hex dump plastered on top of it. double lol

[IlMrm]

Splatterhouse xbox360 and Skyrim.

[Aquas]

Land Stalker on the Genesis. Godlike adventure game! Enjoying it so far.

Beat Lost Planet for the first time recently, it was cool.

Kinda been playing Star Ocean 4 again, this time in HD. (Had a SD tv on my first play through)

Nin-2 Jump. Not bad for $5 on XBL. Check out the demo.

[iconoclast]

Spent the last couple weeks catching up on some of the games that I missed throughout the year, since I spent a lot of it playing shooters.

Ghost Trick - Enjoyed this one a lot. It starts out a little slow, but it gets really good once it gets over that initial hump. The gameplay is very unique and fairly clever, the animation is excellent, the music is great, and it has one of the best stories this gen (up there with Nier and 999 for me). Just a great game.

Portal 2 - Like Ghost Trick, this game starts out a little slow (I think it stays in the 'tutorial phase' for too long), but it picks up quite a bit after you get through the first major turn in the story. Gels were a great addition, since it let them come up with more varied and interesting puzzles. The story was also pretty enjoyable, with some nice writing and great voice acting (especially Wheatley). And co-op has been pretty fun so far, but I'm not done with it yet (still need to begin the last set of test chambers).

Serious Sam 3 - This game is pretty much nothing but you vs. one horde of enemies after another. Very fun game if you're into fast, twitch FPS.

Phoenix Wright: Justice For All - I'm not very far into this (just about done with chapter 2), but I'm enjoying it so far. I've heard that this is the worst entry in the series, so I hope it doesn't start falling apart after this case. The music sucks compared to the first game though.

[professor ganson]

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (PSP). Really solid so far.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Vagrant Story [PS1]!
Prettiest PS1 game ever. Just look at that lighting.
I've been saying it for a while, but good lighting really can help more than poly count does in making graphics look good [even though poly count still matters a bit].

Nice looking locations, but skanky characters (proportions and animations like in some PC games of the era). Square's own Ehrgeiz (Quest Mode), Cyber Org and Threads of Fate, with their superior character animations and framerate, make Vagrant Story look like a PSX imitation of the late nineties' computer game indeed.

[spadgy]

I know it's one of those iOS games, but I'm really enjoying pushing for high scores on Wreckless Getaway. Pretty simple stuff, but tonnes of fun.

[null1024]

Vagrant Story [PS1]!
Prettiest PS1 game ever. Just look at that lighting.
I've been saying it for a while, but good lighting really can help more than poly count does in making graphics look good [even though poly count still matters a bit].

Nice looking locations, but skanky characters (proportions and animations like in some PC games of the era). Square's own Ehrgeiz (Quest Mode), Cyber Org and Threads of Fate, with their superior character animations and framerate, make Vagrant Story look like a PSX imitation of the late nineties' computer game indeed.

Yeah, I never really liked how the characters looked, but you don't really notice so much.
Also, never played those games you mentioned, I'll give them a go.


Been playing an asston of Guilty Gear XX #Reload with my friends. Sure, Accent Core exists, but there's no PC version.
Been getting my ass kicked by this guy who plays Sol and this other guy who plays Potempkin. Sol corners me in a wall and removes 60% of my health, and the guy playing Potempkin plays really safe and then fucks me up on the first mistake I make.
I play Millia.

[also Wipeout 3 SE, Crash Team Racing, Tekken 3, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, King of Fighters 2003, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves, yay netbook and VGA cable]

[Ruldra]

Decided to try out the arcade version of Double Dragon. I couldn't get past the first stage, the enemies are way too aggressive. I was wondering how the hell people managed to 1cc this...

...and then I found out about the elbow. Reached the last stage already lol.

EDIT: Got the 1cc. After beating the last boss, the game froze, asked me to press start and then the game started again with 99 credits Nice glitch.

[RNGmaster]

VVVVVV. I just beat it with somewhere in the neighborhood of 680 deaths, in an hour and a half. I actually managed Villi People in two tries but Final Challenge did not go well.

What an amazing game.

[mesh control]

Finished Nier last night. I loved every second of it, but I'm not very interested in starting a new game to finish up petty quests that I didn't do in my first playthrough. It took me 14 hours for one playthrough. :p


The story reminded me sort of Blade Runner, also got some Akira vibes too. GREAT FUCKING GAME AND HOLY SHIT THE SOUNDTRACK
http://youtu.be/Wmc3yji0G84


Grinding away at Street Fighter 3rd Strike. Current online record 7-90.
If KOF XIII didn't have such shitty netcode I would be playing that.

Edit: Fuck Chun Li

[iconoclast]

You might want to go for Ending B (at least) in Nier, because the story changes significantly the second time around with lots of new cutscenes and dialogue. It sheds new light on just about everything.

[mesh control]

Was not aware of that! Well, I have 36 hours to kill....

Is the DLC worth checking out?

[Psikyo_Ball]

Been playing an asston of Guilty Gear XX #Reload with my friends.

Null, you can run accent core on naomi emulator.
Im a millia player too, sol is hard match for milia, you must use the cross up skills and mixup like a maniac monkey when you are ataccking. Always save a super, for save your life when you get atacked

Im playing metal slug X ( always i died on the 6th stage) and super street fighther 2 turbo (im a dictator and dee jay user)

[BIL]

I've taken up MSX again, and I find the last stage harder than MS3's infamous final mission. There's less memorising of setpieces and way more fighting off shitloads of enemies, as well as some fairly tricky platforming early on. I'm sure I can 1CC it but it's a bit rough atm since, as usual when I go for Metal Slugs ALLs, I'm breezing through every preceding stage only to get owned by the last.

[sjewkestheloon]

Was not aware of that! Well, I have 36 hours to kill....

Is the DLC worth checking out?

I'm back on Nier at the moment, just finished up my C ending run and then redid it to do the time trial achievements for all of the last bosses. Now I am working on weapon upgrading and my final playthrough as well as a bunch of other bits and pieces.

The DLC is good if you want a series of encounters with extra tough versions of enemies that are already in the game with some great rare loot drops and cash flow. If you want story then do not buy it. I don't regret buying the pack because it lets me go crazy against hard ass enemies and grind for materials at the same time as earning some gold for the crafting.

[null1024]

Been playing an asston of Guilty Gear XX #Reload with my friends.

Null, you can run accent core on naomi emulator.
Im a millia player too, sol is hard match for milia, you must use the cross up skills and mixup like a maniac monkey when you are ataccking. Always save a super, for save your life when you get atacked

Im playing metal slug X ( always i died on the 6th stage) and super street fighther 2 turbo (im a dictator and dee jay user)

Yes, but no Naomi emulator runs at a decent speed on a netbook, whereas the PC port of #Reload is flawless 60fps action. Absolutely gorgeous on the monitor we have it hooked up to as well, looks almost like a sexy HD fighter. On the other hand, my machine is the only thing we plug in through VGA, all the consoles we hook up to it are composite, so blurry lagsville awaits there!
Also, yeah, Sol is a real SOB to face, even my buddy who isn't particularly otherwise can occasionally wipe the floor with me with Sol. Replace that guy with someone who is competent/more than competent with Sol, and down the shitter I go!
I'm not terribly great either, but still.

Playing an asston of Mark of the Wolves. Kicking some ass, getting my ass kicked.
Best fucking fighting game ever! Also, Hotaru and that mount super [2xQCF heavy kick]. There is nothing better than doing it consistently when your opponent gets within the trajectory of it.


[edit]
Playing Acceleration of Suguri 2 [and I don't consider this a shmup]. Just barely too heavy for my netbook [read: if the screen isn't half-covered in glowing shit, it runs fine, otherwise it drops down to 2/3 or 1/2 full framerate], although the shitty video card in my main laptop makes it run even worse there.

[edit 2]
Playing Melty Blood Actress Again on the PC [yay PC port that was released just now, I sure can't do PS2 emulation] against some of my friends. Loving it.
Only issue is that the round title cards seem to glitch up on my machine [and according to the official Japanese support forums, at least one other person], they're all black instead of transparent, and there's a big black bar in the middle of the screen for the first 3 or so seconds of the fight.

[Ed Oscuro]

The Zombie Apocalypse Will Be Boring

Dear Sirs,

I recently had the dubious mispleasure of playing the game "DAY OF THE ZOMBIE" by Groove Games (I had thought, but was relieved to find, that Kuma Reality Games did not soil their reputation on this one), developed by Brainbox Games. I suppose I discovered the game by means of Ultraviolet (1998 UK TV) -> TekWar (on YouTube) -> Isle of the Dead (that'll be interesting to write about sometime) -> let's look at some odd and very obscure Russian FPSes! I ought to note that I was nearly knocked out all day long, because I played this game for something like six hours straight instead of getting more sleep last night, although I don't hold a grudge against it for my poor choice of priorities. I managed to survive the day, at any rate, Day of the Zombie notwithstanding.

This game was never released, except perhaps in Russia (the setup file allows a choice of English or Russian, and is fully localized in natural English - no idea about the Russian angle). It was thought to be in the same type of category as Left 4 Dead, but unlike that title or Irrational's Division 9, it was just a "story-based" linear FPS, with backtracking. It appears to be strongly similar to "Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green," using at least some of the same assets (ugly, fat woman zombies, babushkas, lousy weapon models including the .22 rifle, probably more), and that game (which was released) got a 2.1 from GameSpot (I would give this game a 10/100 perhaps). I'm in no great rush to find Road to Fiddler's Green.

The game was fairly easy to set up, and stable except in one instance (I'll mention that later). Cursor movement at the main menu was really bad, but manually setting SETRES 1920x1200x32 in the menu - the game is based on the Unreal Engine 2, i.e. UT2004 - cleared this up, although I noted when waving the cursor around that it inevitably climbed to the top of the screen - there was no problem with gameplay however. When I started the game, I found myself starring as young Johnny, clueless college-age kid in a dorm, and then hey look, zombies. At first I felt vaguely impressed by the spartan yet vaguely proportional surroundings and the various materials which responded with appropriate sound clips when hit, and especially the flimsy walls zombies can tear through or the doors which can be destroyed with a few hits or shots. I wasn't impressed by the PILLZ! bottles strewn about that seem to return about 1/10 of the health bar (a single zombie attack can knock off twice this much). Luckily I had a baseball bat right in the room (ahh, memories of Action DOOM 2) which did a fair amount of damage, but quite soon I tired of the step-forward-step-back shuffle and whacking kids with dreadlocks and matrons too old to be in a dorm. Zombie models might've come from some for-pay package; some of the models don't fit in with the others at all (i.e. the gray mummified zomies that appear to have boots for feet). There is only one type of somewhat freaky zombie - I believe it's called a "Flesh Feaster" and is basically a zombie that runs on all fours and makes hideous snarling dog noises.

That's about it for atmosphere, though; the levels are set inside somewhat clumsily made city and vaguely university-like settings, as well as a mercifully extremely brief and surprisingly not very disgusting sewer, as well as an industrial dock section at the endgame (of course, the only boats found at the dock are private lake boats). There are three characters, who never meet each other yet around the same levels within minutes of each other. Johnny's quest, predictably, is finding his girlfriend (you already know the full story here). Each player, I should mention, gets a comic book-style introduction. The second player you get is a "school janitor" who has an unhealthy reverence for the University's "proper order of things" and spends his time muttering about pranks and saving the school's 'treasures' - two rare books, the Fenwick Shovel (which, unfortunately, is not usable as a melee weapon, although maybe that's a good thing because shovels suck in this game), a couple other "artifacts." His lines and voice actor can't seem to agree whether to put any effort into making him seem deranged. He is hobbled from the start with a hammer with no range or power. He is the first character to find a firearm dropped by a dead man - a lever action .22 rifle which holds six shots. It takes three head shots from the damn thing to kill a zombie, takes forever to reload, and there's a long wait from one shot to the next. His terrible hammer has (as do the other weapons) a slow wind-up secondary attack, which flings a zombie to the ground but doesn't kill them, or even seem to do any damage to speak of. Doesn't seem very useful even if you allow yourself to be cornered. At this point in the game I was still making an effort to play it "the right way." I soon realized that the game doesn't have any compunctions about throwing endless zombies at you (they fall out of vents with a splat on the ground and take a moment as ragdolls before composing themselves - of course, they can't be hurt at this time). More helpful are the endless amount of heavy doors in this game, which the zombies don't even bother pressing up against.

So far, so bad. The game has shaped up to be a First Person Zombie Mostly Brawling Game. The third guy is a stranded military man, and he starts out in a house somewhere with the sound of zombies pacing back and forth. He starts off with an awesome (maybe) sniper rifle, a glock pistol (very weak, but no worse than the .22 even though it takes around five shots to kill), and very soon after an awesome M16 rifle which can actually start taking limbs and heads off of things. Vaguely interesting. Well, damned if the game doesn't really fall flat here, because soon you are running through a badly done "hedge maze" at the edge of the city. I think I saw the writing on the wall and from this point on I just sprinted through the level.

I did make an effort to play through some of the other levels more or less the right way, and at times it forces you to stop and clear a set number of zombies before proceeding. Johnny gets a slow but powerful revolver which must be cocked after every shot (a nice touch actually), crazy janitor man gets an annoying but still useful four-shot shotgun in his quest to prevent the dormitory fires from spreading to the chancellor's mansion, and I got the "allammo" console cheat so I stopped having to worry about ammo. There were some other weapons - throwables such as molotov cocktails, grenades (very rarely), and later on some zombies learn to pick up melee weapons (these soak up far more damage than other types, so leading them into flames is a must). The most useful melee weapon is probably the lead pipe, which has a long wind-up time but kills a regular zombie in one regular whack.

There was one vaguely fun idea which was poorly introduced by the loading screen - "Have you found all the Kung Fu books yet?" or something. Sure enough, I looked into an open box soon after and a red-cover book was staring up at me - bam, you get tattoos on your fists (but only for that weapon) and you can do a fast punch combo - which zombies still sometimes will hit through. Worthless.

Later on, you get to find some mounted guns. The only place the game gave me any trouble was one of these sections late in the game - you are told to use a minigun (which in practice seemed like using a Civil War era gatling gun chambered for Janitor Man's .22 - slow and not powerful) to rip through cars but any attempt to fire a minigun at that spot (including pulling it up from the console) resulted in a game crash, and Unreal Engine 2 informed me of a runaway loop. At this point it appeared as if there was a branching path available - a pickup truck blocking a barricade before me, and a burning car to the right. As it turned out, grabbing the minigun launches waves of zombies, too, so I ended up just using the M16 to shoot up the car on the right, and wasn't bothered by lots of zombies either.

I can't stress enough how little fun this game was. On top of it all, the endings were pure garbage - all three characters are killed, although the janitor dude is last seen angrily looking out a window at more zombies (as if that would have been a problem). The army guy gets the classic "hooray, I got away in the boat, whoops, zombies are about to eat me" and comes close to showing some green cleavage. Maybe he was going to be saved from a brain-feasting by those dessicated pillows getting in the way? Hmm. In any case, the comic panels would have hilariously destroyed any attempt at tension in the ending segments, since you briefly see the entire page before the camera tracks in to cover each panel. The game's final thoughts, from the wannabe Crypt Keeper narrator, were "Nobody will survive the Day of the Zombie!" How fitting that the game itself couldn't survive the Day of the Zombie.

PRO:
* Zombies can break through walls, and then you can run past them while they flop on the ground as ragdolls
CON:
* Very rote adoption of the worst kind of zombie movie cliches
* Emphasis on repetitive and dangerous melee combat
* Shit
* Possibly released in Russia, an insult to international ethics

I'd be down for a real "Tales of the Crypt" style game, but this one didn't come close. The closest thing I know is still the hilarious and ever-relevant Counter-Strike Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes mission mode, which unfortunately has nothing to do with zombies (absent the company motto in the final tower mission, Rise Hard, possibly referencing them - then again maybe it was the computer kind, impossible to say) but would have been a pretty decent platform for this sort of thing (absent zombie dismemberment, that is).

Final thought: The worst modern FPS I have played thus far. Worse than Soldier of Fortune: Payback by a good amount. Less enjoyable than Carnivores: Cityscape. Worse than the Kuma Reality Games "Dinohunters" Shick Quattro adgames, by a mile (those were enjoyable for the humor alone though). It's especially infuriating that Russia was singled out for poor treatment here - as poor an impression as Metro 2033 and Dungeons of Kremlin make, this was far worse. Considering how good Killing Floor was (and is) starting from the exact same engine, there is no excuse for any of this. Yes, it's true that DOTZ wasn't released in North America because of how bad it is, but the whole game appears complete enough (including endgame credits) that you get the idea that somebody was really, really hopeful it would be given the green light for a disc pressing. Fuck that, and fuck Brainbox Games.

[Marc]

I just started Crysis on 360. Only played first two hours so far but really enjoying it.

[the allett]

Magician lord on AES, trying to 1cc! So far up to level 5

[Moniker]

Battlefield 3. Heaven help me, but I love it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Vagrant Story [PS1]!
Prettiest PS1 game ever. Just look at that lighting.
I've been saying it for a while, but good lighting really can help more than poly count does in making graphics look good [even though poly count still matters a bit].

There is more to it than that. Much of that is actually texturing (for example, the awesome slit effect from a grill in front of a fire in the first few rooms). Also, long before Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead, Square is creating characters with strong outlines that are highly individual and instantly recognizable. The presence of texture swaps isn't so bad. About the only design in the game that I don't care for is the Wyvern (the regular variant especially) which looks clumsily done and out of place next to the other monsters - still, it's no more clumsy than the average Parasite Eve character. By the way, compare any character from this game to the horribly top-heavy and blank-faced Aya Brea model from the original Parasite Eve...now THAT is painful to look at. No grace in her movements either. Just Merlose moving her hand from her chin is more subtlety than anything in PE I've seen so far.

There are some minor sticking points with the game but nothing major.

I would say, artistically, that Omega Boost is right up there also, though. LAZREZ EVERHWAR!

I'm not really optimistic I will get the 30 chain requirement for Knight of Brilliance and I feel I wasted some potion opportunities by getting up to my max chain in the first minutes of my first playthrough (a few months back I beat the game something like, uhh, five or six times on the same file, and have backups of each clear game too). It's too bad there isn't any point beyond bragging to much of the hidden stuff, and especially the weaponry - the game is a bit tough at points on the first playthrough but that's all. After that it's a cakewalk. I'm well beyond the point where I'm running out of simple goalposts to keep my attention...probably wore out my PSX's drive gears a bit by constantly reloading to get the most out of potions, heh It is nice to have the cushion afforded by max HP though.

[Ruldra]

Every now and then I'm playing Hang-On & Super Hang-On. Playing on a keyboard is especially challenging since you can't keep the bike steady during a curve.

[Acid King]

I think Syndicate looks pretty good to be fair. And I'm a fan of Starbreeze anyway, so getting quite excited for this.

The demo for this is out. Has anyone tried it?

[Marc]

Downloading now, though I think it's going to be pretty difficult to judge the full game on the basis of it.