What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Zaarock]

Played through Megaman Zero 2, 3 and 4 on emulator in the last couple of days. (got to one of the last stages on 1 a long time ago, didn't feel like replaying). Somehow managed to beat the last boss of 4 without any hits which was cool. I think 4 was the hardest and certainly hard if you were abusing cyber elves in the previous games.

What is generally considered the best of the series? they all seem pretty equal but 2 might be my favorite (best soundtrack IMO as well). 4 nails the cyber elf system IMO but the parts making system from rare drops is stupid. None of them come off as excellent games for me but they're certainly all good.

Guess I better play the ZX games at some point.

[Ghegs]

lmao. This occurred when I decided to rush across the room to destroy the fake immediately, instead of waiting for it to cross to the safespot. Rather than dying after a couple windmill stars as usual, it got all its health back and spawned a second copy. Left-hand pedestal safespot still worked (ended up killing one of the fakes before the real one). No idea if it's reproducable on cart. If I had a console to play my new Ninja Ryukendens on I'd try right now.

This happened twice to me...today. Playing on a real cart.

[BIL]

Did you kill the fake (or the real one) really quickly? I think it's something to do with speed... I got there with the Jump Slash, instant-killed the real boss and had a brand new set reappear back on their pedestals as the score tallied up.

It's interesting Ninja Gaiden/Ryukenden III addressed the respawning issue - generally enemies you've killed will stay dead unless you exit and return to an area through a doorway. Otherwise only baddies you outran will respawn. It's rampant in the first and second games, almost to the point of glitchiness. But because they're so fast-paced and brutally aggressive it just feels right to me.

[blackoak]

I just finished Elnard (the 7th saga) for SFC. Mixed bag... not really a good game, some very lacking level design, and the charm runs out 2/3 in. You feel like they ran out of money halfway into the project (pallette swaps, scanty 2-frame animation for monsters). The music is great though... really sad this composer only did one other game.

Lazily going through Lennus (Paladin's Quest) now. I love the art style for this game... I read a blog post by the original Japanese project leader where he talks about choosing two semi-famous Japanese artists to get the vaguely sci-fi look of the game down. Another "near miss" for a great sfc rpg though due to tedious system. I heard the translation was butchered but its mostly as I vaguely remember it...

[Illyrian]

Mass Effect 3, loving it so much!

[null1024]

Street Fighter x Tekken [360].

A friend of mine brought it in, and I have to say, this game is pretty fun. 4 player tag mode [switch ins] is really great, too, and Pandora mode hasn't been a massive game breaker so far [usually timing out before being able to do shit with it]. Same with the gems.
Sure, all that bullshit with DLC on the disc and whatnot is really crap, but, it doesn't stop it from being an enjoyable game.

[iconoclast]

Yeah, I'm liking SFxT a lot more than I thought I would. The fighting engine is great and the netcode is really good, so I've been playing it a lot over the last couple days. The gems don't seem to be much of an issue, and Pandora seems pretty useless unless you combo into it, so nothing is as bad as it seems on paper.

Although I wish it followed SF4 and SSF4 and had an achievement for completing all of the trials in challenge mode. I love doing that stuff.

[mesh control]

[quote="iconoclast"]Yeah, I'm liking SFxT a lot more than I thought I would./quote]

I am too. :p
I'm afraid I'll eventually lose interest. I can never stick to a fighter for extend periods, especially when capcom starts releasing DLC.

How does the netcode compare to ASW or GGPO? I didn't want to get blown up online yet.

[iconoclast]

The netcode is really solid. It's not quite on GGPO's level, but it uses a similar rollback method to deal with lag, so there's pretty much no input delay (unless you're playing on a really bad connection). There are some sound issues, but the actual gameplay is pretty smooth so I don't mind.

I also like how they're finally using proper matchmaking for ranked matches. I really hated trying to join games and getting "unable to connect" messages because someone got in before me. Thank god they've eliminated that.

[Ghegs]

Did you kill the fake (or the real one) really quickly? I think it's something to do with speed... I got there with the Jump Slash, instant-killed the real boss and had a brand new set reappear back on their pedestals as the score tallied up.

I did kill one of them pretty quick, though not Jump Slash-quick. Think I had the Windmill Star for both occasions and destroyed one of the statues in 2-3 hits, then two more respawned.

last one I gave a shot was the PCE version of the original, and man, not only is it even uglier than the SNES rendition (plus st-st-st-stuttery parallax!), it screws with the gameplay. Want to shred that enemy and leap the gap behind him in one razor-sharp move? Think again you NES motherfucker, we don't bring out attack frames until we're good and ready in Hucard land!

Forgot to mention this before, but one cool thing about the PCE version is that the hu-card actually contains Chinese and English versions as well. You can switch between the three languages with a simple button combination in the title screen (Hold I and II and press Select). Earliest case of multi-language support in a console game?

[stryc9]

Street Fighter X Tekken.

The way Capcom handled the Tekken characters is awesome. Cross Assault seems under powered, and I don't like how you can't special in the middle of a tag chain, but the actual engine is dynamite.

I wasn't expecting so much synergy between your team and it all leads to some really sick combos, very impressed. King is really fun to use in this game.

What I'm not so impressed with is the sound glitches during online play. They are severe as fuck, and kill not only the asthetic but also my game, as sound cues in fighters must be more important than I gave credit for.

Gems seem to be interesting, they appear so far to work how Capcom claimed they would, and are not some sort of game breaking 'scrub' mechanic that posters on SRK would have you believe.

Awesome fighter, even in light of KOF XIII and Soul Calibur V

[replayme]

somewhat shooter related, but i completed call of duty modern warfare 3 the other day.

back on topic, i bought luigi's mansion the other day from cash convertors (for £1) so might give that a whirl...

[Ed Oscuro]

Cleared Operation Wolf (via MAME) on my second credit, easy. Got 405K points, and to the second section after the loop.

[Moniker]

Picked up a used copy of RAGE today. Will probably return it - it just makes me wanna play Borderlands.

[LtC]

Played through Journey (PSN) twice, and for sure as hell am I going to play it again multiple times in the future. While the game is pretty short, it's probably the most immersive and beautiful experiences I've had when it comes to a game. The multiplayer is sort of like that of Dark and Demons' Souls, except you won't be able to tell who you're playing with at all, great experience when you play with the same stranger the game from start to finish only vaguely communicating with simple different pitched sounds.

If you got a chance to play or buy it, I really suggest giving it a chance.

[Mero]

Playing Bare Knuckle 2 at the minute. I keep running out of lives on the final stage (or earlier if I'm not doing well). R.Bear is a motherfucker.

[null1024]

KOF '94. Very impressive actually, even though I hate the lack of team edit. Also, fuck the cheap AI, but hey.
It would be nice to be able to turn off the seizure flash at the end of a round though, considering that I'm playing this on a big screen and it's switching at 30hz or so.

And jeez, the fighting might get better every year [except 96, I love it, but fuck the input windows as they are atrociously tiny and make using a pad nearly impossible, and also ignoring 99-2001], but I notice that every KOF since has less and less personality to it, until 13 [those backgrounds are too full of personality, which is a good thing ].
Little things like dust animations and the backgrounds, the intro animation for stages, having your teammates visible in the background while you fight, all those really add to the experience.

Also, the gameplay feels really nice even today [although the sidestep feels really lame, even though it was a nice concept], fought some friends earlier, and it would be nice if the Neo Geo version had proper 2P support instead of having arcade mode only, but also, hey.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Playing Bare Knuckle 2 at the minute. I keep running out of lives on the final stage (or earlier if I'm not doing well). R.Bear is a motherfucker.

Remember that your defensive special also acts as a free dodge if it doesn't hit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwS04zTazBM

The above tactic doesn't work so well with Blaze, who has the slowest defensive special though.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

I've been playing Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2.

I've done everything in the game so far except for the Satan fight. This grind for levels, skills, and stat items is insane. I'm only up to level 80 at the moment. I don't even have anywhere near the amount of stat items to finish maxing the stats either.

I was going to start a DDS1 Demifiend run after doing this fight, but it'll wait cause I don't want to deal with another ridiculously long grindfest right away.

[null1024]

Starfox 64 [3DS], multiplayer.

I don't own the game, but one of my friends challenged me to a dogfight, and I accepted [yay download play!]. Got 2 more people in on it, it's some really great fun. Very pretty too.

[gct]

I started playing Dark Cloud 2 again recently. I know I pre-ordered this when it was released, and played through to the end at the time, but all the stuff that's happening in the game - I can barely remember any of it. It's like I'm playing a game I've never played before.

...Actually I vaguely remembered one thing, and that is 15 years old girl with big boobs who can be dressed up in a leopard bikini with cat ears headband. WTF is wrong with Japan...

And, soooooo much grinding and other playtime-extending bullshit, world-building and weapon-building and medals and crap take so much damned time.

[Mero]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwS04zTazBM

The above tactic doesn't work so well with Blaze, who has the slowest defensive special though.

Yeah I was playing as Blaze, I managed to clear it in the end.

I made it to Mr. X's chamber with 3 lives left, and incredibly I managed to beat Shiva without losing a life by spamming Blaze's double-tap & punch attack. I thought I was going to make a mess of it right at the end but I beat Mr. X on my last life with about 75% of my health remaining. Final score 767k.

[BIL]

I've been enjoying Actraiser 2 a lot this past week. Nicely technical-feeling 16 bit sidescroller, another for my wtb list. I love setting up and cramming in the invincible diving stab wherever possible. Verily it doth feel as if Mr. Angel just smote some motherfuckers when you rip through a crowd of smaller monsters with it, or put bigger ones at death's door before dispatching them with a farewell chop. Also cool is enemies having visible HP. So it's easy and satisfying to soften tough ones up before diving in with the killing blow, or knock the wind out of 'em before a parting stab, or any variation the circumstances demand, and you quickly figure out which ones can be obliterated outright by a sufficiently strong attack.

People who either suck at action games or played while performing brain surgery / defusing explosives seem to regard it as horribly difficult, but with a little observance it's got a smartly-balanced system that heavily favours aggressive play. Challenging yes, stupidly hard no. Enemies freeze when hit by the sword, which swings fast enough to 100% even big ones off the first hit, so meeting baddies head-on and hacking them to death is encouraged. And the aforementioned invincible downstrike allows a lot of aggression with enemies that attack from beyond sword range. Evasion is indeed difficult, but by no means impossible with exploiting of the dive stab and various spells (lots of invincible frames in those). And there's also the multi-positional shield that stops nearly all projectiles.

It's a bee-yootiful lookin' and soundin' game too. The monster sprites can be a little cartoony but the settings and soundtrack are consistently grand, Modero's desert cliffside at sunset, Tortoise Island's tragic drowned city and Death Field's hellish warzone especially.

[Mortificator]

A bit of Killer7 and a bit of Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon. The former is awesome; the latter is good, but I'm ready for it to end. I kind of want to fuse a full set of Fiends before clearing it, though.

[Ruldra]

I've been enjoying Actraiser 2 a lot this past week. Nicely technical-feeling 16 bit sidescroller, another for my wtb list.

Actraiser 2 is one the best games on the console. Really great game.

[BIL]

I'm glad my first exposure to the game was this guy's speedruns, which showcase the aggression and creativity its combat allows. The popular consensus would have you believe it plays as rigidly as Haunted Castle.

[iconoclast]

Just got Ninja Gaiden 3. My expectations could not possibly be any lower, but I'm hoping I'll still have fun with it since NGB and NG2 are two of my favorite games of all time. Even a dumbed down Ninja Gaiden should still be fun, right?

[Marc]

I hated ActRaiser 2 back in the day, but I must admit I never game it a second chance. The original feels quite kilted and jerky these days so I may have to give 2 the benefit of a second opinion. I've been playing some From Dust. It's... odd. I'd like to see some of the elements worked into a true Populous sequel. And I'm gonna pick up Syndicate on GoG, even though my brain is screaming that it's a one-off that should be left as a good memory.

[sjewkestheloon]

Just got Ninja Gaiden 3. My expectations could not possibly be any lower, but I'm hoping I'll still have fun with it since NGB and NG2 are two of my favorite games of all time. Even a dumbed down Ninja Gaiden should still be fun, right?

Keep us informed, I am interested to hear your impressions.

[null1024]

Tales of the Abyss [3DS].
Getting a copy of it was pretty annoying -- went to 7 physical stores [4 of them GameStops -_-] before finding it, originally tried to get it off of Amazon but the seller couldn't ship to my address, and the other sellers I saw were stupid expensive [$60?!], tried Best Buy online and they had it backordered, along with the other big online retailers I tried. Finally bought it at a GameStop in Miami...

Just got to Choral Castle, been enjoying the game so far, haven't played the PS2 version before, even though this version is supposedly near-identical.

The 3D on it isn't as badly done as I've heard some reviews say [it still has asstons of issues though, and the battle transition is probably the worst offender, suddenly snapping back to 2D for a second and looking really bad].