What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[EmperorIng]

Actually played a bit of racing last night.

Outrun, on SEGA AGES, for one.
Still lots of fun, and one of my favorite Sega Arcade/Yu Suzuki games. The Ages version is excellent and much better than any other port i've ever played.

Now, saying that, I've only ever beaten the game on Easy time and enemy settings - setting Enemy to normal made the game jump up in difficulty significantly. And of course, if you play on Normal Time and make a single bump, you can kiss your chance of beating the game good-bye.

Still lots of fun.

I also played my recently-purchased Daytona USA for the Saturn.

I love the game and love the music, but making sharp turns (on automatic) doesn't seem to have a pattern. Sometimes I hit the breaks and start turning normally, but other times I start drifting out of control (and end up losing too much time to where I can't finish the race).

I play automatic because keeping track of all 4 gears is too much for me >.>

[Ruldra]

Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (Mega Drive)
Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage (SNES)

Both are childhood favorites and I never beat any of them. Maximum Carnage in particular is brutal, you repeatedly fight Carnage and his buddies along the way and they're really tough. The entire soundtrack of the game was made by a rock band and it's awesome.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Outrun, on SEGA AGES, for one.
Still lots of fun, and one of my favorite Sega Arcade/Yu Suzuki games. The Ages version is excellent and much better than any other port i've ever played.

Saturn or PS2 SEGA AGES? I didn't like the cheap looks of the PS2 remake.
Did Working Designs change anything substantial in the Saturn port?

[EmperorIng]

Saturn version - I'm a big WD fan! My copy from ebay was CIB, and it came in damn fine excellent condition.

Having both the JPN and WD versions, I can say that there are no substantial changes made to the game, outside of the loss of the remixed music from the standalone JPN ages release (which is a sweet collection of tunes). Other than that, the games are identical - even down to the same little cheat to enable 60fps!

Unfortunately, Outrun JPN doesn't work on Model 2 USA saturns - it only works on JPN Saturns, and I think of those only Model 1 (not entirely sure). So my copy is just collecting dust. Unless anyone here wants it, that is! : D Are non-shmups allowed in the trading section?

[Ed Oscuro]

Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (Mega Drive)
Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage (SNES)

Both are childhood favorites and I never beat any of them. Maximum Carnage in particular is brutal, you repeatedly fight Carnage and his buddies along the way and they're really tough. The entire soundtrack of the game was made by a rock band and it's awesome.

Gotta love Maximum Carnage's red (US region at least) cartridge too.

[null1024]

It is a PC game! That reminds me, I need to pick that up too.

Yeah, my PC [a cheapy laptop from 2009 or 2010] chokes a bit on Portal 1, I'm pretty sure Outrun 2006'll run like crap on it sadly.

There's a PS2 version, and it's ~$20 on Amazon, I'll probably pick that up.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'd expect Portal 1 to be a bit less generous on the hardware than a port of an Xbox game...can't hurt to try though.

Man, that reminds me, I oughta offload my 2007 laptop I don't use anymore

[Obiwanshinobi]

On a PC robust enough to run The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay with everything (bar antialiasing and softened edges of shadows) maxed out in 1024x768 smoothly (took a nVidia GPU as the game was infamous for its poor performance on ATI GPUs) Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast was playable in this resolution, but not exactly arcade-fluid. Performance would be probably better in low resolution, but on a lappy you want native.
I wasn't impressed by the graphics in motion to be honest, but it just might have been the kind of graphics that looks better in 640i on a CRT. There's some neat connectivity between the PSP and PS2 versions, apparently.
@EmperorIng - thanks for the clarification. I wonder if region-patched Outrun will run on a US Saturn, without pulling the Action Replay out beforehand.

[Moniker]

Borderlands 2 (X360). I told myself I'd wait until I could get it used, but couldn't help myself. More of a Borderlands 1.5, but hey, that's good enough for me. New class powers are much better than the ones from 1. Playing a Siren.. kinda like playing an Adept in Mass Effect, but with Diablo mojo. Insanely fun.

GRiD (X360). I picked this up awhile ago on Games on Demand, but only in the past week really put some time into it. I had insane problems with spinouts when I first got it, which turned me off, but now I make sure to test drive every car and fare much better. Also, turning on PRO MODE is a necessity. Flashbacks only prevent you from actually improving your skills.

Finally, NFS: Hot Pursuit (X360). Turns out the Games on Demand version *does* include the online pass now (as of Sept 2012). I freaked myself out for nothing.

Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast [PSP].

so goooooooooood
Seriously, I am having a total blast. Feels like a modern racer, with the heart of Outrun. Shame about the framerate though [yay PSP]. I need to get this on something more capable, it's really brilliant, although it works excellently as a handheld game, beautifully pick-up-and-play.

Get LCFW and bump the processor speed to 333. The game will dip to 30fps about half the time, but that's the worst of it. Truly amazing racer. The girlfriend is a total bitch, though....

[1up]

Jet Set Radio on (XBLA). Had it BITD on Dreamcast but never really played it. The arcade gameplay didn't click with me back then as I was more into RPGs, but playing it now I am glad that I finally picked it up. So good!

Also, getting Borderlands 2 in the mail today, so I will play that a lot this weekend.

[BIL]

Got the extra stage in Klonoa, this'll make for some good time attacking! I love it when easier games whose difficulty curves can't push their mechanics to the limit include stuff like this. Also unlocked the sound test which is awesome just like Rolling Thunder 2's.

[Hagane]

Alan Wake. Started interesting, like a modern Silent Hill done right, but it's getting more and more boring because there's not much going on. Enemies are too few and far between for me to actually get scared. A shame, because the system is interesting.

[null1024]

Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast [PSP].

so goooooooooood
Seriously, I am having a total blast. Feels like a modern racer, with the heart of Outrun. Shame about the framerate though [yay PSP]. I need to get this on something more capable, it's really brilliant, although it works excellently as a handheld game, beautifully pick-up-and-play.

Get LCFW and bump the processor speed to 333. The game will dip to 30fps about half the time, but that's the worst of it. Truly amazing racer. The girlfriend is a total bitch, though....

Wow, that's an improvement. I mean, damn. Sure, it's not a constant 60, but it's not dropping down to 15fps anymore and looking like a total mess. At the start, I thought it made things worse, the title screen became really choppy, but ingame is excellent.

[SuperGrafx]

F1: 2012 (xbox 360)

[null1024]

Ridge Racer Revolution [PS1].

Got music working on the PSP using POPS 3.52.
Also, more importantly, how does drift work at all?! It just does things, and I don't know how to even try to start to control it... gah!

EDIT: oh wow, keeping it in first-person mode makes things noticeably easier, but still, I barely understand how drift works
And this soundtrack is exceedingly cheesy and silly 90s hardcore. Rotterdam Nation '94 gets special mention for being batshit insane in terms of how silly it is.

[Zaarock]

Got the extra stage in Klonoa, this'll make for some good time attacking! I love it when easier games whose difficulty curves can't push their mechanics to the limit include stuff like this. Also unlocked the sound test which is awesome just like Rolling Thunder 2's.

Klonoa 2 is great in the same way as well though if I remember right it gets a bit harder, definitely worth getting if you don't have it. lots of cool puzzles and some extra time attack stages along with a good soundtrack.

[BIL]

Also, more importantly, how does drift work at all?!

Let go of the accelerator at high speed, turn into a corner, hit the accelerator again = drift. Counter-steer appropriately until you re-center the wheels and regain grip. Careful not to over-correct or you'll fishtail. In Ridge Racer logic, the faster you're going, the easier it is to enter and exit drifts. You can initiate a smaller, more easily-corrected drift by tapping the brakes right before re-applying the gas, but ideally you want to never touch them. Playing RR right = no braking ever and letting off the gas only for drifting purposes. ;]

It's really simple once you get the hang of it, then you can start employing bigger or smaller drifts as the situation requires. Note that driving straight is always fastest, so drift judiciously and minimise time spent without traction. You want precise drifts with a quick return to traction, not slack timewasting ones that leave you fishtailing out of the corners.

Naturally, the lower grip rating a car has, the easier it is to drift (the Lamborghini-looking Xeviouses are ideal). Hold L1 + R1 + Select + Triangle + Down during the Galaga minigame to wipe out everything with the super laser so you'll have your pick of cars (minus the supercars unlocked via Time Trial).

And this soundtrack is exceedingly cheesy and silly 90s hardcore. Rotterdam Nation '94 gets special mention for being batshit insane in terms of how silly it is.

It's all about DAN DAT DAY Over The Highway, Rare Hero 2, Rhythm Shift Remix and Drive U 2 Dancing are quite the pumpin' choons as well. Grip, Feeling Over Remix and Maximum Zone are cool tunes for when you don't want hyperkinetic BPM and deranged samples. Lords of Techno is cool with the transition from sludgy to manic. Haha, I love RRR's bizarro soundtrack.

Rage Racer has my favourites of the PS1 games though. "RAWRRRRR!"

Klonoa 2 is great in the same way as well though if I remember right it gets a bit harder, definitely worth getting if you don't have it. lots of cool puzzles and some extra time attack stages along with a good soundtrack.

Oh yeah, I snagged a copy as soon as I finished the first one.

[Ed Oscuro]

Dead to Rights: Retribution is uncannily like Gears of War and (in a few) also like Unreal Tournament 3.

- Collectible badges (even tied to a pair of achievements, one called Honor the Dead, almost exactly like Gears with its three Cog Tags achievements)
- Zoom-in when running
- Cover system is identical, animations might be different but you take cover in the same way, fire over in the same way (blind fire or aimed looking over the shoulder), and can jump over in the same way (I don't know if you can deliver a kick when jumping over in Gears, but that's literally the only difference).
- The voice actor for Jack Slate (Peter Giles) sounds uncannily like the guy as the protagonist from UT3, Reaper (voiced by Chris Cox). They share many identical lines of dialogue, including "and stay down!" "get out of my way!" and "take it!" and possibly some others.
- Decrepit industrial settings (pretty cool actually, all the equipment is shown as higher-poly than the usual)
- Temple Tower, the rather amazing (at first glance) setpiece for the first regular mission, has a plaque stating that it is original from 1886, and the rather chunky stones overlaid with more futuristic overhaul, and a few mossy outdoors fixtures, is at least somewhat reminiscent of the many "hundreds of years old" structures seen in Gears.
- Grenadier-type weapons have extremely limited ammo (bit of a shame really)
- Takedowns, although a concept obviously carried over from the original Dead to Rights series, appear similar to moves in Gears of War. I forget if some kills in Gears trigger slo-mo, but all headshot kills in Retribution trigger slo-mo.
- Red pain haze border that grows more severe with damage; think this is exactly like Gears, once again.
- Huge dudes
- Fascism: The Coalition in Gears of War is clearly depicted as a fascist-like organization. The Grant City Police Department's logo has an axe surrounded by a bundle of sticks - the fasces. Of course this is not a solely "fascist" symbol (it is seen on the U.S. dime) but it certainly is suggestive.

Differences:
- Then vs. "now,"
- No perfect reloads system, nor does the chunky assault rifle have a chainsaw forward of the foregrip.
- No sinkholes to plug.
- Shadow! The dog is pretty awesome to play as, although there is unfortunately no technique to using his attacks; just press A. It is neat to notice how he skids sideways if you change direction suddenly when running.

DTR: Retribution can't claim a lot of originality in its programming, but thank goodness for engine licenses. It let the developers focus more on the game content so that this game didn't end up looking like the original DTR did in relation to its next-gen peers on the Xbox and other systems. I kinda miss the cheesy stuff, actually, but this game stands on its own.

[Ghegs]

Also, more importantly, how does drift work at all?!

Let go of the accelerator at high speed, turn into a corner, hit the accelerator again = drift. Counter-steer appropriately until you re-center the wheels and regain grip. Careful not to over-correct or you'll fishtail. In Ridge Racer logic, the faster you're going, the easier it is to enter and exit drifts. You can initiate a smaller, more easily-corrected drift by tapping the brakes right before re-applying the gas, but ideally you want to never touch them. Playing RR right = no braking ever and letting off the gas only for drifting purposes. ;]

It's really simple once you get the hang of it, then you can start employing bigger or smaller drifts as the situation requires. Note that driving straight is always fastest, so drift judiciously and minimise time spent without traction. You want precise drifts with a quick return to traction, not slack timewasting ones that leave you fishtailing out of the corners.

I don't know if it's the same in Ridge Racer Revolution, but I've been doing a lot of Ridge Racer Turbo time attacking lately and there's an additional effect to drifting in that game - if you do it just right, you get a speedboost that can, for a moment, push the car beyond it's usual max. speed. I haven't been able to do it consistently though.

[BIL]

I wonder if that's something Namco ironed out in the later games - I've not played RR/RRT much at all, but I don't think I've ever noticed a speed boost while drifting in RRR, Rage Racer or R4, or in time attack replays of those games. I'm far from an expert on the various games' engines, though. Rage Racer has at least one big glitch where you can go from zero to nearly top speed off the starting line, by exploiting manual transmission.

Been messing about with R4 today, seems the right place to post this (not my video). Rage and R4 are still lightning-fast, and their replays are total arcade racing porn.

edit: hey, the player has Nexzr and Alzadick score attacks uploaded. Clearly a gamer of refined tastes.

edit 2: ahaha, check out his textbook flying backwards 180' drift!

[Obiwanshinobi]

Klonoa 2 is great in the same way as well though if I remember right it gets a bit harder, definitely worth getting if you don't have it. lots of cool puzzles and some extra time attack stages along with a good soundtrack.

Don't know about 100% completion or time attacking, but I recall 2 being a bit easier to merely finish than 1. More "rushed" feel to it and more recycled graphics too (I suppose Namco had overall lower hopes of 2).
Still, Klonoa 2 demo and DMC trailer on that demo disc made clear to me that PS2 was a fun games console back when.

[Leandro]

I've just played a credit of Alien vs Predator



Lost my last life on the Queen with 1/4 of her health bar left, so frustrating ... Funny how the HS table displayed ALL even though I didn't see the ending and neither got the final stage bonus

[null1024]

edit 2: ahaha, check out his textbook flying backwards 180' drift!

That is terrifyingly cool.


Wipeout Pulse [PSP].
Setting the CPU to 333MHz has done wonders for everything, it loads faster, and looks silky smooth most of the time. Absolutely delicious.

[mesh control]

Super Turbo

[Ed Oscuro]

Coupla dumb flash games: Earn to Die (lol) and Rot Gut (also found on Kongregate), which is worth a look at least. Noir 8-bit style platform shooter. I wonder what happens if you get 9999 coins at the final boss...eh, don't care enough to test it out though. (I already got 2500!) No real point to a replay. Plenty of extra passages but none of it feels essential - there's little reason to do anything but make a beeline for the exit.

[ED-057]

Torchlight (part of the latest humble bundle). I have to say, playing an action RPG with a mouse instead of a control pad sucks donkey balls. This game could have been a lot better if the action was more like Seiken Densetsu III instead of like Warcraft. Yet, I`m still playing it.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Reportedly Guild Wars can be played with a keyboard alone, which is pretty cool (if not massively useful). That game is technically ace and more of a Diablo's spiritual successor than many Diablo clones (such as Torchlight). I believe some former Blizzard employees worked on Guild Wars.
Xenoblade Chronicles, on the other hand, felt like made by people who play MMOs on their PCs told to make it all work on a joypad. No hum. Ironically, you can't even point & click in that game (Battalion Wars 2 let me do at least this much).

[Ruldra]

Progress:

Maximum Carnage: after a few more plays, I'll probably give up. The fight with the Carnage crew is just too tough for me, I can't manage to beat them without losing 2 or 3 lives in the process. And you fight them numerous times, no way I can make it to the end.

Spiderman vs Kingpin: defused the bomb, faced Kingpin...got promptly beaten, instant game over -_- ... no idea how to beat him.

[Kaiser]

Progress:

Maximum Carnage: after a few more plays, I'll probably give up. The fight with the Carnage crew is just too tough for me, I can't manage to beat them without losing 2 or 3 lives in the process. And you fight them numerous times, no way I can make it to the end.

Spiderman vs Kingpin: defused the bomb, faced Kingpin...got promptly beaten, instant game over -_- ... no idea how to beat him.

You are not alone in the quarter-much land. I have problems with arcade GI Joe myself. Destro and Cobra Commander are run-breakers for me. Especially Cobra Commander's 1st form. Ugh I HAVE completely no idea how do you dodge the lasers and his flame attack. It just seems so impossible and random. The 2nd form is less ridicoulous but still insane.

[Ed Oscuro]

Arcade GI Joe is awesome, oughta test that one out again soon.

Currently:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/250533-deus-ex/49403054