What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Moniker]

A visit to the bargain bin today yielded Nier, Crackdown (X360), and Bully (PS2). All told, it set me back $15. Starting with Nier, since folks around here have talked it up a bunch. At the very beginning, and getting a good Dark Cloud 2-ish vibe.

Also decided to jump aboard the Brutal Doom train. Pretty fantastic. Playing Doom 1 now on UV -- it seems easier than it should be. I spent quite a lot of time on Doom2GBA on UV and it was very difficult - almost like a puzzle game. Maybe the WASD+Mouse controls are just making it easier. I wonder if Brutal messes with the difficulty options? Really love the changes to weapons.

Finally, Metroid is progressing slowly but steadily. Finally got the high jump boots. Still have yet to figure a good way to fill my energy tank. Autospawn pipe enemies seem to stop dropping items after awhile.

[Marc]

A visit to the bargain bin today yielded Nier, Crackdown (X360), and Bully (PS2). All told, it set me back $15. Starting with Nier, since folks around here have talked it up a bunch. At the very beginning, and getting a good Dark Cloud 2-ish vibe.

Also decided to jump aboard the Brutal Doom train. Pretty fantastic. Playing Doom 1 now on UV -- it seems easier than it should be. I spent quite a lot of time on Doom2GBA on UV and it was very difficult - almost like a puzzle game. Maybe the WASD+Mouse controls are just making it easier. I wonder if Brutal messes with the difficulty options? Really love the changes to weapons.

Finally, Metroid is progressing slowly but steadily. Finally got the high jump boots. Still have yet to figure a good way to fill my energy tank. Autospawn pipe enemies seem to stop dropping items after awhile.

Play Crackdown. It's fucking awesome. GTA stripped of all the fat with the most fun 3D platforming outside a Mario game. Plus, voice over man rocks.

[BIL]

Also decided to jump aboard the Brutal Doom train. Pretty fantastic. Playing Doom 1 now on UV -- it seems easier than it should be. I spent quite a lot of time on Doom2GBA on UV and it was very difficult - almost like a puzzle game. Maybe the WASD+Mouse controls are just making it easier. I wonder if Brutal messes with the difficulty options? Really love the changes to weapons.

BDOOM actually makes UV a bit harder, through its long list of big and small tweaks (not all of them necessarily in the enemies' favour, but the difficulty balances out a bit higher than Vanillla DOOM). Have you tried the "Fast Monsters" option in the Gameplay Options menu? Definitely makes things nastier / more fun (it makes DOOM II and both Final DOOMs into semi-memorisers, with all their ambushes and traps, but the original game's relatively mild levels work fine).

Going from the GBA to KB+M must be like shrugging off your own weight in sandbags - not surprised you're kicking ass.

I was quite fond of the first game's GBA port, even after the sheer novelty of it wore off. Never got to try the second. Strafing with the shoulder buttons was a pretty good compromise... at least you could circle strafe, unlike in the 32X port. PC DOOM's KB+M gameplay is unbelievably smooth, though. The directional controls feel almost analogue when I'm weaving between projectiles or scooting along narrow pathways. And especially when doing both simultaneously while returning fire.

[TransatlanticFoe]

GBA Doom II is a massive resolution and frame rate compromise compared to the Doom port. Although at least it's more or less a straight port and unlike the Doom port based on the Jaguar bastardisation with missing/different levels and bosses.

But then, I liked the SNES port so what do I know?

[BIL]

I thought the 32X port was a godsend for about three months, until my family upgraded the PC. It wasn't a bad little port at the time if you had no way in hell of playing DOOM on a decent PC. As soon as you did, well, at least the 32X's cartridges looked kind of interesting.

I won't be going back to VDOOM except for challenge-oriented play (had I not stumbled over this mod, I would be playing Vanilla on Nightmare with respawning powerups right now. It's really fun since it creates a tug-of-war dynamic instead of forcing you to rush through at full speed, and in turn you can enjoy the terror of battling against a resurging ocean of monsters).

BDOOM is just too damn good.



Aww yeah. Nothing says balls-out horror action like thrashing legs protruding from a devouring maw.

[Ed Oscuro]

I was talking about Deimos Lab (not Phobos Lab) earlier. This map plays so very, very much better with the new additions. I finally figured out how to get free marines too. Holy hell - in the next map I've got a marine running around with a rocket launcher...he's hurt me somewhat, but been very useful when I'm very careful. Are those guys invulnerable to their own projectiles, just like monsters? Because, as we know, the bad guys with guns seem to hurt themselves when firing at obstacles due to ricochet. But the rocket splash damage doesn't seem to faze 'em.

One of the most dangerous areas is the hallway full of lost souls - if you approach it as if you're going to grab and chuck all the skulls or as if the skull in front is not a threat. There's the slowdown factor in this area, too.

Near the beginning of Deimos Lab there's an Imp that seems always to have a Berserk pack as a drop - to be precise, one of the Imps in those two rooms surrounded by sludge moats, past the first teleporter, and in that opening to the left. That long line of sight is very helpful for getting that pinky enraged at imps. Speaking of which, pinkies don't do too badly against Cacodemons.

Man, this game has me counting shots like never before. Before, I didn't really give a shit that it took 9 or 10 shotgun blasts (or whatever) to kill a Baron of Hell. Now I care

Also, the skulls on one of the decorative poles can be destroyed! The one that has four strung along. Oddly, the other types don't seem to.

Another small, but interesting, point is that the freed marines don't add to the enemy count. Not sure what the hell is going on!

I'm not sure yet, and probably a glance at a readme would confirm this, but it's impressive as hell whether this is spontaneous / procedural, or targeted towards specific things in the DOOM / DOOM II IWADs. At no point do you get the feeling that it's just barely bug-free; there are little touches that give the solid impression that it's tweaked for specific circumstances.

One thing I'm not sure on, though, is the "cruelty bonus" +5 and +15. It appears I get it more often when I'm directly over a choking/dying enemy, rather than at other places. It makes sense that you'd have to be on top of them, but it still doesn't seem quite coherent enough. Another thing is that it doesn't seem possible to grab choking enemies without a berserk pack, which is a shame.

[BIL]

Yeah, the cruelty bonus definitely seems a tad random to me - more of a neat effect to go for than something that can be relied upon. I'd almost say that you need to get the splatter on you, but I've triggered it by sniping from a distance. Maybe it's deliberately an ammo-for-health gamble, heh. Or health for health, if you can't resist leaving cover to boot a screaming dude in the mouth! I don't know what determines armour bonuses being given out either.

(Also, "cruelty?" More like charity. >_> MY AMMO IS NOT FOR MERCY KILLS, YOU PUSSIES >:[)

I didn't realise you'd not known about freeing friendly marines, they're pretty crazy huh? Unless there's plenty of space, they have to be treated almost like roving sentry guns, I find - they can be devastating if let to their own devices (pretty sure they are immune to their own fire), but they're kamikaze all day every day, and I've had them do stuff like dash in front of me while I'm firing rockets. *No* concept of self-preservation either - I learned quickly that if they want to dash headlong into a room full of Cacos and Barons, you've just got to respect that decision. ;_; Their weapons are randomly allocated, it seems. Minigun Marine and Plasma Rifle Marine will really tear shit up.

Since they just replace the old invisibility "powerup" (edit: AKA projectile trajectory randomiser - a Scythe map teleports you onto one of those damn things in a small arena with three Cyberdemons... aieeee!), occasionally you'll find one in a spot where his sketchy pathfinding won't let him come out to play. I wouldn't mind having a simple "follow me" / "stay here" command.

You can destroy quite a bit of the other "human sacrifice" furniture too, like the skewered riflemen and thrashing hanged guys. When you get to Episode 3's opening area make sure to wreck a few trees. (if the enemies don't get to them first)

[Marc]

What's the best Phantasy Star title for a complete noob to have a pop at. Well, best one on the PSP or 360 comps anyway?

[dannnnn]

Playing Revenge of Shinobi on XBLA, always a bummer when you play old games and they're not as good as you remember.

[Ruldra]

What's the best Phantasy Star title for a complete noob to have a pop at. Well, best one on the PSP or 360 comps anyway?

I'd say Phantasy Star IV, it's the best of the series. I heard PS-II is a grindfest and PS-I has first-person labyrinths that will confuse the hell out of you if you don't have a good sense of direction.

[MX7]

I second Phantasy Star 4. 2 is cool, but I've never got beyond the halfway mark. 4. Is very user friendly, with party chat, snazzy cut scenes and fairly straightforward dungeons. Plus it looks gorgeous and the music is amazing.

[Ed Oscuro]

Fortress of Mystery is awesome for a 14-enemy map. Plasma against the Barons, shotgun against the Cacodemons. Played the Cacodemon section a few times until I got through using just the shotgun and with no damage so I could keep my 230 armor bonus (man, that chaingun eats ammo like nothing - the cacodemons alone used more than half the available bullet ammo and I still used the shotgun to finish them off). The next map is one where you must run through sludge without protection, of course.

Also I enjoyed making the thrashing hanged guy stop squirming - I found that one about the time you were posting, BIL, most likely. Always funny to see just a little nub of wire or a pole left from the original furniture. I am sad that the "birthday cake" skull / candle thing can't be messed with, though.

[BIL]

Barrels O' Fun. Also Barrels O' Frameskip on my PC when entire rooms explode, but can't say it feels exactly wrong for massive explosions to slow things down a bit. Otherwise it's been pretty smooth sailing, much better than I'd expected given DOOM II can put quite a few enemies onscreen (nowhere near Scythe levels, though - the last few stages of that megaWAD are... crowded, as well as brilliantly designed).

Weakening a strong baddie just enough with ranged weapons, then rushing in and nailing a fatality = SATISFYING HEALTH RESTORE STRATEGY. Arachnotrons give 50%. The Arachno pulls a sad puppy face right before the Doomguy sends it to mechaspider heaven, LOL. You or me chum! Damn charlatans don't even have eight legs.

[null1024]

Virtua Fighter 2 [Saturn]. Same as the PC version pretty much, although it does look a bit nicer on a CRT.
Virtual On [Saturn], I have been playing this more than VOOT. The controls on the Saturn controller are nicer, easier to get comfortable with. I wish a second Saturn controller wasn't $20 [yes, I am in fact a cheapass when I probably shouldn't be ], and I don't feel like getting a $5 aftermarket controller and it being complete ass.
Crazy Taxi [DC], yessssss! Got an S rank in Arcade finally! And accidentally deleted all my other scores because my VMUs were in the wrong order, and one of them had a Crazy Taxi save from its previous owner. Oh well.


Also, the US Model 1 Saturn controller is surprisingly nice. I like the D-Pad more than normal cross ones, very comfortable. The L/R buttons completely suck though, they don't even feel like buttons.
Supposedly the JP style controllers are even better, so I am tempted to shell out the $20, although I got the Saturn with a game and cords for $50, so I'm trying to put this all into proper perspective... -_-

[Obiwanshinobi]

The first Burnout on my Wii. The music has got some Amiga demoscene vibe going for it. I like my racers detached like that.

[BIL]

Went back to finish Thy Flesh Consumed (couldn't resist jumping to BDOOM II to see its changes), and man - some of the second game's bigger levels really suck in comparison to these. Complex yet action-packed and tight as hell. DOOM's got better levels, DOOM II has its awesome new monsters. Can't remember what Plutonia and TNT are like, hope they're a happy medium.

When you see a Baron start a fight with a zombie (now playing E4M9 "Fear") it's time to dive for cover, because when he inevitably rips the bugger a brand new asshole™ that upper torso is gonna come flying at you like a Cyberdemon's rocket (*SPLAT*). It's effectively a second new projectile attack.

I've also noticed that gunmen who've been killed by explosions (ie barrels or rocket splash) won't drop their guns for you to pick up. Glitch, maybe? A direct rocket hit will yield a pristine firearm amidst the raining gore as usual, so I'd guess so.

LOL @ Plutonia and TNT's stories btw. Doomguy is taking a relaxing walk and chilling at the beach, respectively, when the demons arrive and slaughter everyone else. Of all his formidable attributes, his superhuman ability to be chilling nearby when everyone else gets their shit ruined must be the most critical.

[iconoclast]

I played some Gigantic Army (a doujin run and gun) over the last couple days. Beat Insane mode a little earlier with 11.4m. I think it could've used one more stage since it's pretty short, but it's still a fun game either way. Worth checking out.

[null1024]

Virtual On [Saturn] and VO:OT [DC].

Jeez, it's almost surprising how different these two games are. Like, same premise, and general basic moves, but VO:OT to the first Virtual On is like Super Turbo compared to playing Champion Edition...

Also, I suck less at VO on the Saturn. Doesn't stop me from being completely unable to beat the third opponent, Dorkas. That fucking hammer hits me from every damn angle, and I can't seem to get away from it.

[EmperorIng]

You have to shuck and jive to beat Dorkas.

He's kind of the n00b test of the game, ha ha.

He still gives me a bit of a hard time. Basically you have to duck behind cover a lot and rely on your homing weapons, if you have them (I like using Viper myself - though her defense blows). Knowing how to jump cancel helps (L+R at the same time). Easy way to get the camera centered. Also, bombs block projectiles and if timed correctly, his hammer attack. From my experience, melee fighting Dorkas is a bad move - it's best to pick him off from a distance.

A lot of the Arcade mode is knowing how to use your terrain effectively.
I mean, I'm nowhere good enough to get anything other than an E Ranking in the game, but at least I've beaten it a few times. Last boss is a total bitch, though.

The game is actually fairly deep once you learn some of the mechanics. The saturn controller works nicely for the game, even if the controls initially feel awkward.

[iconoclast]

I bought Oniken earlier today as well. It's a faux-retro indie action/platformer that came out recently. It's not bad, but I've only played it for a few hours and I've already managed to no miss everything. So it's pretty easy, but for $5, it's good enough.

It does have some really basic design faults, though. For some reason, stages seem to be separated from one another - you can play all of the successively, but your lives and score don't carry between each stage. For your total score, it just adds all of your best scores together, so there's no incentive to do a full run from start to finish. That's pretty dumb.

edit: Got #1 on the leaderboards as well, for now at least.

[null1024]

You have to shuck and jive to beat Dorkas.

He's kind of the n00b test of the game, ha ha.

He still gives me a bit of a hard time. Basically you have to duck behind cover a lot and rely on your homing weapons, if you have them (I like using Viper myself - though her defense blows). Knowing how to jump cancel helps (L+R at the same time). Easy way to get the camera centered. Also, bombs block projectiles and if timed correctly, his hammer attack. From my experience, melee fighting Dorkas is a bad move - it's best to pick him off from a distance.

A lot of the Arcade mode is knowing how to use your terrain effectively.
I mean, I'm nowhere good enough to get anything other than an E Ranking in the game, but at least I've beaten it a few times. Last boss is a total bitch, though.

The game is actually fairly deep once you learn some of the mechanics. The saturn controller works nicely for the game, even if the controls initially feel awkward.

Thanks. Got past Dorkas with that bit of advice [used Viper too], made it up to Z-Gradt, and promptly got my ass kicked a bunch, and timed out [with me ahead in health], netting me the bad ending. Bah.


Also, currently playing Virtua Fighter 2 [Saturn]. Playing as Pai, currently not good enough at it to get far.
Sega likes putting opponents in a fixed order in their arcade games a lot, eh?

[EmperorIng]

What you might not be aware of (I wasn't until a few playthroughs in) is that until Z-Gradt glows yellow, it's practically pointless to attack him (focus more on dodging, with a few shots here and there). When he changes color his defense drops way down and that's your chance to attack.
Plus, Viper's 7-way missile sucks when in the air. It does a lot more damage on the ground.

If you're doing bad, it's best to kill yourself on Z-Gradt instead of having to do the whole game over again.

And I can't get past, like the fourth fight in the arcade mode of VF2. I'm no good at the Virtua Fighter games.

[null1024]

What you might not be aware of (I wasn't until a few playthroughs in) is that until Z-Gradt glows yellow, it's practically pointless to attack him (focus more on dodging, with a few shots here and there). When he changes color his defense drops way down and that's your chance to attack.
Plus, Viper's 7-way missile sucks when in the air. It does a lot more damage on the ground.

If you're doing bad, it's best to kill yourself on Z-Gradt instead of having to do the whole game over again.

Yeah, the time when I realized that was also the time when I timed out instead of dying. Wasn't paying attention to the clock, and thought he'd glow a third time so I could finish him off.

Also, thanks for telling me about the 7way, that's pretty interesting.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Metroid: Other M and Burnout again. Interestingly, in Burnout I find my car demolished by the stuff I didn't see coming more frequently than in Burnout 3 (where I thought the relevance of this issue was grossly exaggerated by internet crowd). So either I suck at arcade racers more now, or back then I was "reading" the screen faster. More bizarrely, while getting totalled here is supposed to be more punishing, the rubber banding is less rigid than in 3, so even an accident near the end doesn't nullify one's chance of finishing first.
While I still owe Burnout 3 my most "hardcore" achievements at such racers, the first one seems better balanced to me these days. Not as refreshingly demented, but just as challenging and oddly surreal (or so it appears today, when even as candid car game as Excite Truck comes with "achievements" heralded by gaudy captions). For a street racer, the first Burnout has a surprisingly somber ambience to it.

The more I play Other M, the more it feels like something between Heart of Darkness (the game) and God of War (reminiscent of "cinematic platformers" rather prominently) to me. I didn't expect a Metroid game to be cheerful, but this one, coupled with Dragon Quarter I'm replaying, I find surpisingly bleak.

[null1024]

Fighting Vipers [Saturn].
It's like a whacked out extension of Virtua Fighter 2, and I love it. Armor, kicking people through stage walls, etc. So coooool. And all the character designs are silly.
Great visuals too, it actually has lighting, unlike VF2, and runs in 480i, just like VF2.

EDIT:
Got an 18 minute clear. The final boss took up most of that time, it wasn't hard, unless it decided to do this one really long, really painful combo that usually breaks both my upper and lower armor. And then I would die.
I won by spamming Candy's Y button move, the AI seems to be a total sucker for it. Felt a bit bad, but hey.

[dannnnn]

Metroid: Other M and Burnout again. Interestingly, in Burnout I find my car demolished by the stuff I didn't see coming more frequently than in Burnout 3 (where I thought the relevance of this issue was grossly exaggerated by internet crowd). So either I suck at arcade racers more now, or back then I was "reading" the screen faster. More bizarrely, while getting totalled here is supposed to be more punishing, the rubber banding is less rigid than in 3, so even an accident near the end doesn't nullify one's chance of finishing first.
While I still owe Burnout 3 my most "hardcore" achievements at such racers, the first one seems better balanced to me these days. Not as refreshingly demented, but just as challenging and oddly surreal (or so it appears today, when even as candid car game as Excite Truck comes with "achievements" heralded by gaudy captions). For a street racer, the first Burnout has a surprisingly somber ambience to it.

I played through Burnout 3 a few months ago and although I remember liking it years ago, was less than impressed this time around. Crashing into stuff you can't see (like when going over a bank) is annoying although not too frequent like you say, but unavoidably crashing again immediately after a crash is much worse. The rubber banding is ridiculous, it's silly when only the last 30 seconds of a 5 minute race count for anything. Boosting only seems to be of benefit when catching up, use your entire x4 boost bar whilst in 1st and laugh as the CPU is still a millisecond behind afterwards. The soundtrack was typical EA crap, in fact the whole game felt very EA influenced to me. A frustrating experience and not in the same league as the better arcade racers out there. I only played a bit of Burnout 2 in multiplayer years ago, but I have a feeling it was a better game, any opinions on how it compares to 3?

[Marc]

2 utterly destroys 3 in every imaginable aspect. 3 basically plays itself at points. Have a look for Stuart Campbell's article, it explains better than I ever could.

[Kaiser]

I played through Burnout 3 a few months ago and although I remember liking it years ago, was less than impressed this time around. Crashing into stuff you can't see (like when going over a bank) is annoying although not too frequent like you say, but unavoidably crashing again immediately after a crash is much worse. The rubber banding is ridiculous, it's silly when only the last 30 seconds of a 5 minute race count for anything. Boosting only seems to be of benefit when catching up, use your entire x4 boost bar whilst in 1st and laugh as the CPU is still a millisecond behind afterwards. The soundtrack was typical EA crap, in fact the whole game felt very EA influenced to me. A frustrating experience and not in the same league as the better arcade racers out there. I only played a bit of Burnout 2 in multiplayer years ago, but I have a feeling it was a better game, any opinions on how it compares to 3?

I have to say one thing, FUCK the formula one time trial in 3, most frustrating challenge ever if you are doing a gold medal completionist run, SERIOUSLY fuck it. Nothing's harder in an arcade racer on consoles than that. Except maybe initial D.

[Obiwanshinobi]

If you're talking about the F1 Burning Lap in Alps, I scored gold there. Some Burning Laps in 3 are where my hardcoreness at this kind of game peaked. Nonetheless, F-Zero GX is where I hit the brick wall.

[dannnnn]

I have to say one thing, FUCK the formula one time trial in 3, most frustrating challenge ever if you are doing a gold medal completionist run, SERIOUSLY fuck it. Nothing's harder in an arcade racer on consoles than that. Except maybe initial D.

I got all golds and yeah the time trials in general were the hardest to get. I think I spent most of my time in the formula one car just grinding the barriers which is kinda silly in a racing game, but as long as you're boosting it doesn't matter. As far as arcade racers go though, F-Zero GX is much harder IMO, I never did finish Story Mode on Very Hard.