What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[BIL]

Just discovered the GZDOOM mod Brutal Doom, and it is really damn good. Surprised me. Besides the obvious gore gimmick, the sense of power behind every weapon is inexhaustibly gratifying, the new enemy behaviours and attacks really liven things up, and the sparing system additions are all relevant and seamlessly applied.

The DN3D-style quick boot is great for shoving back monsters, reloading and secondary fire make firefights more interesting without bogging things down, the sniper scope is a surprisingly excellent addition, invaluable against the hyper-aggressive firearm enemies, and best of all: the monsters are much more aggressive, several with new attacks and movement patterns (the Imps' unpredictable leaping completely revitalises a very, very tired enemy). You can't just waltz around them comfortably now, especially as the bigger ones have instant death attacks up close. Getting cornered by a large monster in a corridor = pants-shitting back to the wall terror! They even bust 'em out on other monsters!



Pictured: A Baron tears a Pinkie a brand new asshole starting from the roof of his mouth, as Doomguy looks on in manful silence.

The gore isn't a total gimmick either, since murderizing enemies with the Berserk pack (or stomping on dying ones) nets you health bonuses. The Berserk kills are handled with some slickness. Clobber a monster with a right hook (or several quick lefts) and BOOM instant death grapple in third person, while you're free to target the next chump. It looked like a stupid gimmick to me at first, but it's pretty fun (and practical) to tear through crowds of low-to-mid-level enemies this way. Bigger ones can really ruin your shit if you're not careful about wearing them down first.

You can even rescue captured marines who'll support you until meeting horrible deaths (saw one poor guy get eaten whole by a Caco, shit was like the end of Jaws only backwards ). It still feels exactly like DOOM, just with lots of neat little additions that restore the simple fun of obliterating legions of monsters, along with one hellacious violence boost. On the most basic level it just feels really good to gib a Caco. Wanted to do that for so long! Only issue I had is sometimes it's too "XTREME" for its own good. First thing I did was unbind the silly "sweary taunt" keys. Doomguy lets his unspeakable violence do the talking! Otherwise this is great stuff - I'd happily pay full retail for this. Glad I got all the pre-Quake III id+Raven stuff on CD back in the 90s, at least.

[Ed Oscuro]

since murderizing enemies with the Berserk pack (or stomping on dying ones) nets you health bonuses.

(or stomping on dying ones)

(or stomping on dying ones)

...whoa.

Do they drop their gun to let you know they're dead?

Edit: Just to Military Base and I've already had three rolling laughs over this one. For a fun time, try taunting or cheering after you're in third person smashing mode

Some of the really notable weapons tweaks really seem to help the game, like actually mostly invisible invisible demons, and the reloading, and even pushing barrels. The huge amount of gore decals (and it seems to be scripted at times too) does bog down my machine at times, though.

Edit: Reloading when Berserk changes between Smash and Rip and Tear! modes

Man, this just keeps on giving. Bugs, though - the new "ragdoll" badguys can block things, such as the teleporter in the first episode secret level (the pentagram one with the crack for sound in the wall behind it). You can just kick the corpses out of the way to let more badness in, though. I also like the "new" (actually almost as old as DOOM...) secret noise they've put in.

[louisg]

I'm playing Need for Speed: The Run on Wii. It's really enjoyable so far, and very arcadey. It's actually somewhat close to a racing game I kept wanting to make that I had in my head (but obviously with way better production values ). So, it's pretty much right up my alley.

Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram [DC], is there a way to get 2 player mode to use more of the screen? I was playing against my nephew and we had these absolutely tiny viewports.

Yeah, you should be able to do either vertical or horizontal split screen. I think you can just hit 'start'. The link cable mode works great, too.

Virtua Fighter 3TB [DC]. I remember this not being nearly as popular as 2 or 4 were, what was so bad with it [unless it's the fact that it was on the expensive as fuck Model 3 board in the arcade]? And I really need something better than the DC pad [which feels great for everything except fighters...], I'm considering getting one of those PSx->DC boxes so I can use my PS2 fightpad.
And damnit, I haven't played any revision of VF5 yet...

I picked that up recently too; haven't played it much yet (though I rented it back in the day). IIRC, it's not bad, but was overlooked because it wasn't as pretty or polished as Soul Calibur or DOA2, and I remember people freaking out that it still had floaty jumps ("omg it's not realistic!!"). It's a better game than those, though, and the only VF with variable height terrain.

[Ghegs]

I'm playing Need for Speed: The Run on Wii. It's really enjoyable so far, and very arcadey. It's actually somewhat close to a racing game I kept wanting to make that I had in my head (but obviously with way better production values ). So, it's pretty much right up my alley.

Oh damn, thanks for mentioning that. It looks pretty fun, I'm going to have to pick it up. I see it supports Classic Controller, does it have a Time Attack mode or something where you can compete against yourself and other players by comparing results? I had a lot of fun with Wii's Need for Speed: Nitro, but after I was done with the main mode I had no reason to go back to it since it lacked any proper Time Attack mode. That's my number one source of fun in my arcade racers.

[louisg]

I'm playing Need for Speed: The Run on Wii. It's really enjoyable so far, and very arcadey. It's actually somewhat close to a racing game I kept wanting to make that I had in my head (but obviously with way better production values ). So, it's pretty much right up my alley.

Oh damn, thanks for mentioning that. It looks pretty fun, I'm going to have to pick it up. I see it supports Classic Controller, does it have a Time Attack mode or something where you can compete against yourself and other players by comparing results? I had a lot of fun with Wii's Need for Speed: Nitro, but after I was done with the main mode I had no reason to go back to it since it lacked any proper Time Attack mode. That's my number one source of fun in my arcade racers.

Hmm, I don't think that it does. It has a lot of challenges, but I haven't played those much yet. It's definitely more of a cinematic game than a traditional racer-- it's not really as good as Burnout 2, and I don't think the tracks are as interesting to race on. It's also a freeway racer and not a lap game. Think of it more like G-Loc in racing form, or that mode in OutRun 2 where every few miles is a different goal.

I think my general advice, although I really enjoy it, would be "don't pay too much for it". It really does feel like a once-through experience to me (albeit a good one that I'll probably replay a few times). It also has that modern cinematic game thing where there's not really a difficulty curve. There are hard parts and easy parts in no particular order that advance a (not very good) story.

[BIL]

Some of the really notable weapons tweaks really seem to help the game, like actually mostly invisible invisible demons, and the reloading, and even pushing barrels.

Definitely, the attention to improving the actual game really impressed me. I was wondering why I was getting my ass kicked so hard by the typically useless zombiemen, until looking in the official thread and seeing they do 2x damage now, as well as really letting rip with their rifles instead of a paltry *pap* now and then. This mod makes zombiemen worth paying attention to, that's frickin' rad!

It took me a while to adjust to the Spectre being a flitting pair of red eyes instead of the massive, obvous blotch from Vanilla DOOM. I like how you can spot them by seeing and hearing their footsteps on fluid surfaces, too.

Just found out you can do a "stealth execution" by sneaking up on an inactive zombie or Imp and busting out the RIP AND TEAR, will have to give it a go! Have you tried hitting a Baron with a Fatality yet? The first one I got nearly killed me in the process, which made the resulting animation all the more satisfying. Checking out the various kills reminds me of the old DOS Battle Chess and its catalogue of little horrors (weirdly, the marines' guttural death sounds also bring to mind the way that game sounded on a PC speaker - I heard a horrendous bawling and ran around the corner to see my poor buddy marine's thrashing legs sticking out of a Caco's mouth. Scary shit. )

Fatality on a Lost Soul = improvised grenade.

The huge amount of gore decals (and it seems to be scripted at times too) does bog down my machine at times, though.

I've gotten a bit of lag too, when a small area sees a massive level of carnage - then again my PC's from 2005, so I wasn't surprised. Only two spots in E1 and none in E2 so far, though. There's a few tips in the official thread, but they don't seem to apply for me since I'm apparently not in OpenGL mode despite running GZDOOM (not particularly bothered - I love how this thing looks, a perfect balance of pretty lights and oldschool DOOMpixels). If it's any help:

ADVICE:
Before playing, you MUST BE SURE of:

1 - Please, use Open GL mode to properly show the new special effects and taste the full Brutal Doom experience.
2 - In the Open GL settings, set your Adjust Sprite Clipping to Always (Prevents things from getting half in the ground)
3 - In your display options, make sure your deathcam is on! (So you can see the amazing new player deaths)
4 - Read the guide that comes in the readme text.

TROUBLESHOTING:

- If the 3D bloodpools aren't showing up, even if you are using Open_GL, open your console and type "gl_use_models 1"
- If the bloodpools are rendering in a weird way, in the Open GL settings, set the Smooth Sprite Edges to Off
- If your framerate is low, type "gl_use_models 0" to hide the bloodpool 3D models. This helps a lot on old computers.

[null1024]

Ridge Racer: R4 [PS1].

So sexy. Need to get more adjusted to the controls, and it doesn't help that the car's handling feels vastly different each time it gets upgraded [or changed if you don't suck like me ;D] in the Grand Prix. I had a car that worked like a dream in it's stage 3 form, that feels so weird in it's stage 4 version. And doing the extra trials is a biiiitch, you need to be damn near perfect. Only completed one so far, against that rocket car, jeeeez.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

I've been playing The King of Fighters XIII (poorly ).

[sjewkestheloon]

Picked up witcher 2 finally and just tried it for half an hour. Good stuff so far, looks like it will be a keeper.

Also picked up shadows of the damned for a really good price a few hours ago and I am really looking forward to playing that. I love killer 7 and no more heroes so I have high hopes.

I have also been occasionally breaking out persona 4 which I love but am playing at a very slow pace. I really like the narrative and the overall feel but for some reason I never seem to get glued to it to the exclusion of other games. I am moving house in a week and will be without the internet for about a month so maybe I will use that time to finish it off and move onto some other PS2 rpgs that are queued up in my backlog, maybe even dragon quest 8.

[Ghegs]

I think my general advice, although I really enjoy it, would be "don't pay too much for it". It really does feel like a once-through experience to me (albeit a good one that I'll probably replay a few times). It also has that modern cinematic game thing where there's not really a difficulty curve. There are hard parts and easy parts in no particular order that advance a (not very good) story.

Well, I ordered it already, but it was only €14 so no big loss. Maybe the challenges will be nice to work on.

[Moniker]

Polished off Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Fusion, and Super Metroid. Those are the ones I know fairly well, so now we're going into terra incognita. Metroid 1 & 2, here I come.

[BIL]

In Brutal DOOM II you can dismember Mancubi and Revenant corpses with the chainsaw and steal their weapons. The Mancubus flamethrower sets monsters on fire and they can burn other monsters to death. Best when fired into small, crowded rooms!



...and the new Super Shotgun tears monsters in half when fired at point-blank. Good stuff!

[Ed Oscuro]

Damnit! Got killed at Phobos Anomaly by the two Barons of Hell. Too many sprites flying around to really use the chaingun effectively.

I'm using the team's zDOOM package on a fresh copy of zDOOM so there's no .pk3 blood pool models - which is not going to hurt framerate. I guess I'll try again with OGL but I'm honestly not surprised at the slowdown in parts (although it is really rare to get slowdown like that - Action DOOM 2 only bogs down for me in zombies mode when you've got thousands of badguys roaming the streets, for example).

Edit: Forgot that I could get off the ledge in Phobos Anomaly at the Barons...took a few tries but I did it.

Died at Containment Area, decided to run down the green slime tunnels with 20 health! Now that's an amusing death scene.

[BIL]

Halfway through Brutal DOOM II, having built up a handsome cache of Mancubus and Revenant weapons. Since the Doomguy is not a real doctor, you can only get one flamethrower per Mancubus - he'll just make a bloody mess of things if you try for the second. And you can't salvage weapons from monsters you've killed with Plasma weapons, they turn 'em into a crispy useless heap! So that's yet another nice bit of strategy born of seeming fluff. Kind of like Plasma kills kicking up a ton of blinding smoke. Similarly doors now crush weapons lying on the floor, so the ol' "shoot them as they enter the room" strategy gets a neat wrinkle too.

DOOM II's bigger levels have always underwhelmed me a bit, since there's so much of them you're simply better off not exploring compared to the original's tightly-wound design. Much more fun here though. When a Pain Elemental explodes in this mod it's like something out of Under Defeat.

I love how the author justifies stuff like the Cruelty health bonus ("stress relief!") and captive marines ("they're being kept for evil rituals!") in-scenario. Have to admit carving dudes like hedge sculptures with the minigun is pretty refreshing. The Doomguy must have a liver like a French goose with all the extra 'roids this mod gives out though!

CRITICIZMZ:

*it's annoying how the mod seems to regard the Assault Rifle as your go-to weapon when another runs of out ammo... even if you've not got any AR ammo either. I've gotten so used to this I anticipate it and quickly get that empty AR out of my HUD.

*the AR and standard shotgun look a bit too alike, although again, I've gotten used to this.

*red "pain flash" when inflicting severe meaty carnage, ie pointblank supershotgun blast to the face, can be distracting for obvious reason.

edit: holy shit, they really went all-out with sprucing up BDOOMII's secret/joke level, or at least its enemies. No more shitty shrunken WOLF3D sprites! These are some mean Nazis.

edit2: just saw a Revanant punch the living fuck out of a Pinkie. Took his head off. This mod is so awesome. Also, getting near a Cyberdemon is officially a Bad Idea, it'll kick the shit out of you now. I hadn't realise how contemptuous I'd grown of Vanilla DOOM's enemies until playing this.

[Ed Oscuro]

You don't just get to chuck Lost Souls, but you can even run around with humanoids in your grip! Also, a melee fatality against a Baron is amazing, I went from 31 health to full in the course of it, so it's worthwhile to do crazy shit.

In non-DOOM news, holy hell is Evil Dead: Resurrection bad. And this is supposed to be the best of the Evil Dead games. Yes, you have to kick midgets in this game. So far I have suffered through to some woods, which hopefully have something going for them. Combat is pretty sloppy and random though - there is one type of enemy (that holds a spade) which will block your attacks repeatedly, except when you can somehow take an arm off, and then you can kill it. Very annoying if Sam (aforementioned midget) can't help you out. Did I mention this is a bad game? Duke Nukem never had to beat up on midgets or verbally abuse them, sheesh. Even Deadite midgets.

[BIL]

You don't just get to chuck Lost Souls, but you can even run around with humanoids in your grip!

Oh man, had no idea this was possible! MEAT SHIELD TIME



Demons don't seem to care much about the safety of Doomguy's hostage, but at least they make good meat shields!

[Ed Oscuro]

No reloads for the rifle either

The imps look super silly, but then again the Lost Souls look sillier. So far I actually haven't picked up the green-haired rifleman, but instead imps and the shotgun sergeants.

I wonder how multiplayer would go with this.

Currently in that Phobos Lab map...it's blue, just as I remembered it

Also, health and armor go up over 200 for me.

[BIL]

Same here re: health + ammo - I guess it's a balance change (Archviles are weaker, somewhat). I had to cheat to get that screencap, can't say I'd use the meatyshield much in an actual game. Still good to have the option of hurling monsters around though! I love that the Lost Soul actually *flies* away when you chuck it, haha. Kinda cute!

A Baron just fatalitied a shotgun guy and hurled his skull at me, really fucking quick too, caught me square in the face for 40% damage. I wouldn't have moved anyway, too awesome. Lots of love in this mod, the monsters keep spontaneously doing shit I wanted them to as a retarded 15 year-old, only better!

DOOM II's "Gotcha!" map is something to behold here. Now this is the pants-shitting terror being caught between a warring Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind should evoke.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm gonna flip when I see that Spider Mastermind deadly breakdancing (THAT'S PHOBOS DANCING). Shit, they should add that in...if it's not already in there.

Minor update on Evil Dead Resurrection:

I decided to map out the controller buttons so I could read the F1 combo help (and on-screen prompts, after I watched Ash get his head bitten off by an unavoidable dog monster; I was uselessly mashing the mouse buttons when the onscreen prompt should have said "PRESS JUMP"). There are a fair number of combos in here, but none of them seem to be really well-thought out; some are pretty useless. I just got a new weapon to swap with the famous prosthetic chainsaw - a harpoon gun. I now realized that the "blocker" zombies can just be harpooned with this baby, and you can juggle them for a long while with the shotgun - and that'll help you build up a rage meter (for unleashing "Evil Ash," technically). Too bad rage is the sort of thing I wouldn't use (kind of like how in Rune I never used the weapon powerups until a couple times at the end) and doesn't seem especially helpful after being forced into it during the intro (flashback) scene.

The game is short, too - I'm basically halfway through, and it feels like I just went through three areas. Currently in a mine. Hooray!

[louisg]

I think my general advice, although I really enjoy it, would be "don't pay too much for it". It really does feel like a once-through experience to me (albeit a good one that I'll probably replay a few times). It also has that modern cinematic game thing where there's not really a difficulty curve. There are hard parts and easy parts in no particular order that advance a (not very good) story.

Well, I ordered it already, but it was only €14 so no big loss. Maybe the challenges will be nice to work on.

I think you'll like the challenges. I started playing them today and had trouble stopping. There actually are quite a few time trials in there too. 14 euros is definitely worth it for that game IMO.

[Moniker]

Blundering my way through Metroid 1.

Was originally using the DBtroid hack and Metroid lua script with automapping, but it kinda felt like cheating, especially the fact that the script fully recharges you after death. I also like having to memorize the layout, gives me that Zelda 1 feeling of open exploration. Combat is also pretty great. Limited motion means you really have to figure out each enemy if you want to survive. Those pipes that constantly spawn those insect things that are pretty much recharge stations in Super Metroid are pretty dastardly in the original. Finally figured out you have to either keep killing them until they drop a powerup, which you don't pick up, or, later, freeze the enemy and leave it alive to stop the spawning so you don't get hit.

Cleared out most of Brinstar, and just finished getting stomped in Kraid (can't even make it one screen in any direction), so I think I'll go do Norfair first. Hopefully something there will give me the means to survive long enough in Kraid to recharge my suit.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Metroid: Other M. I wonder how many people talking shit about it even finished it. Isn't it "modern, short & easy" after all? Should be a piece of cake. Oh, but it's "linear" as well. I guess this put the discussion to an end.

[null1024]

Virtual On [Saturn].

Well, actually, I'm waiting for my Saturn to arrive in the mail [this shipped faster, even though it was purchased the same day], so I popped it into my laptop, which ran it at about 85% fullspeed in SSF.
The controls don't suck like VOOT on the Dreamcast, and even if they did, they are fully remappable, unlike VOOT. I'd kill to be able to map rotation onto the triggers in VOOT, and have X and A be the attack buttons, B dash, and Y jump. Gaaaaaaah.

Also, slim jewel case because Netlink edition. I haven't ever seen one of those big cases US Saturn games come in, waiting for the rest of my Saturn related things to arrive.

[lilmanjs]

Burnout Paradise. never did beat it, so I fired it up and had some mindless fun

[Illyrian]

Metroid: Other M. I wonder how many people talking shit about it even finished it. Isn't it "modern, short & easy" after all? Should be a piece of cake. Oh, but it's "linear" as well. I guess this put the discussion to an end.

It ruined Samus Aran's character, many people said.

[BIL]

Having a blast with the endgame of BDOOM II, will definitely move onto Plutonia and TNT next. I'd like to try a favourite megaWAD of mine, Scythe, with this mod, but I have no doubt its jaw-dropping hordes of monsters would choke my PC to death with BDOOM bells & whistles attached. Maybe it's finally new PC time. For a 1993 game, haha.

Random stuff noticed last few sessions:

Riflemen, shotgunners and chaingunners can no longer damage their own kinds. Their shots will pass right through their fellows to hit you, in fact. This is a great change, allowing riflemen to become lethal in packs where they're totally irrelevant in Vanilla. A group of four will put up a pretty fierce offensive. On "Fast Monsters" setting they can make Sonny Corleone / Alex J. Murphy outta you. Shotgunners and chaingunner gangs are just brutal, now that 100% of their fire can hit you. Differing gunman types are still subject to friendly fire and infighting. Zombie race riots possible!

Gunmen are subject to the same self-inflicted ricochet damage as the player. I've had zombies kill themselves by blasting away as a door closing in front of them, heh.

Riflemen and shotgunners's reload frequency is roughly equivalent to the player's AR and shotgun. Chaingunners likewise reload very infrequently, and very quickly (and very angrily! I had to wedge myself in a spot where a CG could blast away harmlessly for a good ten seconds to see his "ARGHH!" reload action).

The Pain Elemental's new revenge explosion has absolutely mental blast power and damage. I've been blown out of windows by it at safe distance. I've died with 100% health (no armour) at close range. They blow up other monsters real good too! If they're huddled in with a bunch of other enemies it's like a floating bundle of barrels begging to be sniped.

Archviles can't revive destroyed corpses. This mod is so good at tying its aesthetic polish to interesting, useful new mechanics.

The Imp's leaping slash isn't as random as I'd thought - it'll reliably do it every time you're close enough. With an obstacle between you it'll leap uselessly all day. I still like this addition, since the slash is harder to circumvent than lame fireballs and effectively creates a danger zone around the Imp. And it's actually interesting to bait since you can really punish the bugger for whiffing. Alternatively you can counter with a kick and make the Imp fall flat on its ass with an "oww!" face, LOL.

Stumbled over the Skulltag grenade launcher, railgun and plasma bazooka thing while messing around with IDKFA. I wish the GL was in the singleplayer game, it's really cool and useful. The latter are way overpowered against monsters, but the GL isn't without its drawbacks (slow, and it's easy to have an artfully-angled grenade backfire). Railgun is fun as hell to skewer rows of monsters with, and its alternate fire sniping mode is so cool. I think I'll do a "New Game+" with the GL sometime.

[Ed Oscuro]

Archviles can't revive destroyed corpses. This mod is so good at tying its aesthetic polish to interesting, useful new mechanics.

Wait, what if you change the compatibility setting on reviving smashed corpses (classic DOOM mapping trick)...I wonder if destroying a monster turns it into a DECORATE item or a different type of monster or what.

Also: Final map of Evil Dead Resurrection, Ash decides that he has to say something good about Sam, who's been taking crippling body blows and been punted into wood chippers for the whole game just to help Ash...or just for laughs, hard to tell. I realized that many of the normal Deadites use the SAME VOICES as the late soldier Ganados enemies from RE4 (some other sounds are familiar as well). About the only interesting thing in the game, sadly. Well, I like the Sam possession music. I bet there'll be another "Peepers" soul feeding puzzle in the last map, unfortunately. Edit: Maybe not. Also, the architecture is kinda cool for once - almost on par with Clive Barker's Undying, in fact, which is a good thing; and with the benefit of a slightly more modern poly count.

Also editing: Done, didn't need any stinkin' transformation crap for the finale. Watched all the extra clips (Bruce yammering about various things) except for two pages that I somehow missed between saves (yech). Oh well! Done, hooray!

[BIL]

Wait, what if you change the compatibility setting on reviving smashed corpses (classic DOOM mapping trick)...I wonder if destroying a monster turns it into a DECORATE item or a different type of monster or what.

Just gave it toggling that flag a go - doesn't seem to make any difference where BDOOM's extensive monster damage is concerned. "Crushed monsters" refers to the puddle of gore a closing door will turn a corpse into in Vanilla DOOM, right?

It's neat, though - there's a threshold at which the Archvile can't help out his pals. Regular Vanilla DOOM corpse = no problem! Heads or limbs blown off by ballistics = that's okay too! Blown to pieces by an explosion? Now we've got a problem! I actually just saw Archie try to heal an Arachnotron I'd split in half with the BFG, the thing just collapsed in a heap. :[ Utterly smashed into little bits of mincemeat post-mortem = Dr. Archibald won't even look at those, don't bother phoning him.

Also, monsters that've been burnt to death by either fire or plasma also seem FUBAR.

Using "Summonfriend" to call up a friendly Archvile is funny as hell in this mod since it makes him a serial arsonist.

[Ed Oscuro]

"Kill it with fire" was spoken by a wise, wise man. I guess plasma is a kind of fire. You know, Pinkies are kind of like big running hot dogs...cancerous ones.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Further into The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Metroid: Other M.

As for the former, I wonder if the colours on the GBA aren't improved (I found one shopkeeper claiming his store can be found only on the GBA). The graphics seem more detailed than LttP, which would be mighty impressive on the GBC.
I wonder why this game seems so forgotten. Even though Nintendo handhelds are pretty saturated by the series... Actually I like it better than Wind Waker at this point. Perhaps the Tree did the trick for me (and it's not the only breath of fresh air to be had here).

Other M heaps bosses upon bosses, and those put up some good fights. The difficulty, for an action adventure game (cinematic and all), is surprisingly old school. I find it no easier than, say, Brave Fencer Musashi (which I still haven't finished, because the DDR bossfight had driven me up the wall).