What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[mesh control]

ST and I want to punch my cab in the fucking face

also

Pokemon BW2

[Moniker]

ESIV: Oblivion (360). My last remaining Bethesda title (meaning I haven't rage quit on account of bugs and sold it off yet.. and I think I have Daggerfall from GOG or some bundle or something).

ANYWAY. Bethesda does so many things wrong, but one thing impeccably right - their level of immersion is simply unmatched. I can't even point to how they really do it, except that your average conversation with an NPC really feels authentic. The open-world part helps, but isn't the key factor. I just don't know.

I have an old save of another character, but I decided to start over again and solemnly restrict myself to roleplay. No signing up with the mage guild simply to steal and sell back all their equipment at every village. I am a wood-elf thief, and will comport myself as such, doing chiefly story missions, and probably the thieves' guild stuff. No magic, no exploits, no bullshit.



I also really REALLY want to get XCOM:EU, but don't have the money. However, drunkenness unaccountably expands my bank account. We shall see.

[BrianC]

Been playing a lot of Kirby Mass Attack (DS), Spelunky 360, and some Pinball FX2 (mostly Infinity Gauntlet since I finished reading the graphic novel recently. Crazy good stuff).

[Marc]

ESIV: Oblivion (360). My last remaining Bethesda title (meaning I haven't rage quit on account of bugs and sold it off yet.. and
think I have Daggerfall from GOG or some bundle or something).

ANYWAY. Bethesda does so many things wrong, but one thing impeccably right - their level of immersion is simply unmatched. I can't even point to how they really do it, except that your average conversation with an NPC really feels authentic.

I also really REALLY want to get XCOM:EU, but don't have the money. However, drunkenness unaccountably expands my bank account. We shall see.

Really? That's always been the massive problem with these games for me. They create these beautiful worlds that I simply can't immerse myself in because the interaction with NPC's is so wooden and poor. I know where you're coming from with the drunk thing though ha.

[CptRansom]

ESIV: Oblivion (360). My last remaining Bethesda title (meaning I haven't rage quit on account of bugs and sold it off yet.. and I think I have Daggerfall from GOG or some bundle or something).

ANYWAY. Bethesda does so many things wrong, but one thing impeccably right - their level of immersion is simply unmatched. I can't even point to how they really do it, except that your average conversation with an NPC really feels authentic. The open-world part helps, but isn't the key factor. I just don't know.

After I played Oblivion and FO3 on 360, I swore I wasn't going to play any more Bethesda games because of shitty leveling systems or annoying NPCs or any of a number of little things that annoy me that just seemed to pile up until they ruined the games for me. Then someone talked me into Skyrim, and I got it for PC then proceeded to dump about 90 hours of my life into it over the course of 2.5-3 weeks. I finally broke my hold on it because I've got several other non-STGs I want to clear by year's end so I can focus on STGs and writing for 2013.

If you've got a PC that can handle ES games, then start getting them for PC and never, ever look back to console releases. The mods that are out for Skyrim are completely amazing--everything from balance changes in perks (found a mod that actually makes magic a viable option for high-level play and another one that lets you use dragon souls [useless after you finish your shouts] for perks) to adding new monsters to making NPCs shut the hell up unless you talk to them first. There are also a lot of new quests added through mods in case you somehow run out of stuff to do. Another of my favorites is one that adds a glow to books you haven't read yet. Don't even get me started on the unofficial patches made for bugs and all the graphic/audio overhauls. Switching from console to PC for these games made my view on them do a total 180. I highly recommend it.

[null1024]

KOF2002: Unlimited Match [PS2].

So much nicer than the 360 version of UM. All 3D backgrounds [not cut-down 2D renditions like on the 360], there's a port of normal 2002 available, and most importantly, it uses Playstation controllers.
The 360 pad is garbage for fighting games. Sure, so is the PS2 pad [very soft with somewhat low d-pad sensitivity, even when new in box], but a good digital PS1 [or hell, DualShock 1] controller works wonders.

[EDIT]
Outfoxies [Arcade/MAME].

Goddamnit, I wish this ran at some kind of playable framerate on my netbook [it barely breaks 70% speed at 10 frameskip], because I can carry that around to go play it with my friends. Runs at a barely playable framerate on my big laptop, at least it's running at 100% speed. [EDIT] apparently running it on my big laptop in fullscreen makes it much slower >_< [EDIT2] oh hey, running in OpenGL mode on the big laptop makes it keep a constant 60fps, effing beautiful.

The constantly disintegrating stages make things interesting, and it's like a violent precursor to Super Smash Bros. I dunno if the Smash team ever even heard of this game, but Smash and this do have quite a bit of similarities. My only major problem with it is the spastic Samurai Showdown/Art of Fighting-like camera that zooms in and out like crazy. If it didn't snap to only 2 different scaling positions, the camera would be fine.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Survival mode in Streets of Rage Remake frustrates me to no end. Getting a damn S Rank as Roo's been eluding me for a while, and which enemies that appear and whether or not you're lucky to get health drops from the big guys can make a huge difference.

[system11]

Since Sega shut down Phantasy Star Universe thus MURDERING ALL MY CHARACTERS AND DESTROYING MY HARD EARNED ITEMS, I've been playing Modern Warfare 3. I'm not very good at it, but getting a little better.

[null1024]

(Sega Ages 2500) Virtual On[PS2].

I think I like the Saturn version more. Sure, this one is asstons smoother, but some of the altered weapon mechanics in the Saturn version seemed like they were for the better.

Also what the hell -- I do a beautiful run that would have gotten me an SSS rank on the Saturn version, and here I'm stuck fighting Jag, who I never learned how to beat because I almost never had to fight him. And I play as Viper II, so I die in 2 hits. Assballs.

[Ed Oscuro]

Deus Ex, and #2 and #3, so we remember what a good game looks like. But shit, watch that first video - greatest thing ever.

Deus Ex: Invisible War

Another game to add to my list of "shit games with stretchy polygon errors." Right when you think you're safe, ragdolls (but only certain ones) send their arms out past the ceiling like they think they're Super Joe. And this made it seem downright reasonable that enemies kept falling off walkways three stories up (in the Black Gate ruins, specifically) and surviving (this can happen in Deus Ex too, but generally that game is smart enough to make them die for their indiscretion).

Just started getting unplayable near the end. Good stuff first, though: For most of the game, though, I just ran around and hit things with the baton. That part was good insofar as that kind of nonlethal combat was far less annoying than DX1. I actually think the universal ammo was a reasonable idea - I spent a lot less time on scavenging runs than usual in DX1 (although it becomes annoyingly prevalent from the Cairo return to the endgame) and was a reasonable step towards streamlining the game to fit into 64MB. The rest of the game, though...

Unlike Deus Ex, the game completely falls to pieces whenever you try to fight seriously. Flamethrower? Nope. LAMs? Nope (also, for some stupid reason there are now both bouncy grenades and rare mines, whereas in the original game ALL explosives could have the dual function; this ended up wasting valuable inventory space, and I never thought to use a third of the shit in my inventory as a result - the other third I tried out and discovered that it sucks). Spiderbombs? Nope, they either get toasted immediately or come running back to you, like harmless snarks, instead of engaging the enemy. Guns are considerably more annoying to use than in DX1 (I didn't ask for this) and most are far less satisfying (the "it shoots through walls" Mag Rail is a pretty useless weapon until you need constant EMP damage, I guess). Weapon types effective against the annoyingly prevalent enemies at the endgame makes your ammo reserves deplete rapidly (or maybe I was doing it wrong; I dunno, this game is pretty damn unintuitive at times). Is this supposed to push you towards more stealth play? Considering what a cakewalk the first 12 hours of the game (it isn't much longer than that) were, the difficulty curve is pretty fucked up. So much for complaining about Deus Ex pushing you to make tough choices between mod types: In Invisible War, you have to choose between THREE modifications for each slot. Some of the mod types seem pretty critical to me (like the neural interface for hacking), so you can kiss goodbye to the other types. The only consolation is that the only biomod canister type is an upgrade, and they're very common, and you can simply assign your surplus canisters and ditch old mods. But all I needed to do by the endgame was use the Aggressive Defense Drone to have rocket-wielding types kill themselves. EMP drone would've been OK too, I suppose.

I figured out what bothers me about the game dialogue choices: There's far too much "go to this person, initiate CONSEQUENCES through DIALOGUE" instead of just doing things and having that show your intentions. It ends up looking and playing a lot more like it wants to be an Elder Scrolls game than Deus Ex. Most unfortunate. Unlike a good Elder Scrolls title (say, Morrowind), there's not much in the way of new backstory. Old characters are recycled, but now most of them are dicks. Hooray. Most of the game feels like one long denouement, and the game's strange emphasis on not throwing you into possible tough combats means that the excessively streamlined gameplay isn't punctuated by anything of note. A few times people threaten you over your link, but all that accomplishes is preventing you from saving (I think; that's the DX1 behavior too; no saves when somebody's yammering at you).

I think the game's highpoint was probably in Cairo and Antarctica, which isn't saying much since most of the time was spent crawling through ducts and looking for ways to get items without using multitools. I think all I managed to do was ruin my fond memories of what Invisible War was probably going to turn out to be, having played no further than the Seattle slums. At that point you're still waiting for it to build to something good. And you wait, and wait...and it never happens, despite what I've read some people say online. It never gets better. The game plot is basically summed up by the Coffee Wars quest, and NG Resonance is gullible.

The game started feeling uncannily like the original game...in some strange ways - the UNATCO Headquarters (spoiler) revisit was wrong; the music was wrong (on purpose, though), the building dimensions felt wrong, they can't even spell "PERSONEL" right on the damn UNATCO signs anymore...but aside from a bunch of ham-handed DX1 references (you could probably argue with the "Skull Gun" reference's timeline, since Agent Hermann isn't inactivated until hours before Sam Carter is out of UNATCO, at best, it seems; although I enjoyed the lemon-lime discussion, but not the silent lines the NPCs couldn' play). They even had a "hang on, I gotta drop something" moment from Alex. (I first found the related bug in the return to Cairo, where I could repeatedly gain healthkits from a doctor as a reward. I believe this is exactly the same style bug as in DX1, because at UNATCO in DX2, the bum's item sale drops uncarried items centered on your person, while the dialogue makes it seem as if you didn't complete the transaction, and I don't think credits were deducted - that is exactly how it works in DX. So, we can say with certainty - Invisible War managed to lose all the good things about DX1 while keeping the things that we didn't want, and again nobody figured out how to avoid that bug, ever).

That "secret ending" was pretty lame. Flaming penguins almost redeemed it, though.
Fun (maybe) related fact: Both Deus Ex and Invisible War have references to women having penises in their dev quote files. Just thought you wanted to know. What a shame.

I apologize for that text getting out of hand - I only wanted to say a little bit about the game, but it turned out to be too much.

I am pretty excited to see how Human Revolution (and its DLC) plays, though - the stuff about cover mechanics has be concerned, but so long as I can get a fair amount of story, and do a lot of goofy things, it should be alright since the other bases seem covered.

Since Sega shut down Phantasy Star Universe

jesus, it seems like it just came out yesterday - and I never checked it out.

You don't have any offline backup of items, like in the original PSO? I wonder if that would be true in the PC edition...

[trap15]

ten page essay

Good job Timmy! A+ on your report! I'm so proud of my son!

[Ed Oscuro]

You must be new here.

Why exactly should I be harassed over writing posts to this thread? Come on, man.

Back on topic, DX: Human Revolution is thanking me for the preorder. You get the "preorder" DLC when you order the game (or at least this was the case with the four-item DX Complete pack sale). Damn I love PC gaming.

[EmperorIng]

And I hate pre-order DLC : p

I'm playing the REmake for the GC (my Wii's kaput right now, but its GC drive still works oddly enough), in the spirit of Halloween.

Man oh man, I still love this game. Maybe I'll actually beat it this time, or at least make it to the lab.

Too bad the GC d-pad is one of the worst d-pads out there, sans the 360 d-pad. Classic REs demand a good d-pad for their controls, and the analog, while I get used to it, is less than ideal.

I'm also contemplating another run of Super Metroid because that is still one of the greatest games ever made, ever. Like seriously.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Sure, so is the PS2 pad [very soft with somewhat low d-pad sensitivity, even when new in box], but a good digital PS1 [or hell, DualShock 1] controller works wonders.

The PS2 d-pad is technically analogue. Wasn't sure about it, but in Burnout 2 there are even selectable analogue and digital modes for d-pad. The lobby of gamers still using it for racers must have been strong.
Speaking of which, this evening I switched to the bumper camera in the first Burnout ('Cube version). Not sure why, but it made the game better. I normally use internal view only in the likes of Ridge Racer and Battle Gear, but here, if not exactly internal, the FPP view works a treat.
Checked out the split screen with a buddy the other day and it was very solid. The framerate, albeit halved, was rock-steady and nothing else seemed compromised. I doubt split screen in other Burnouts is this tidy.

(Sega Ages 2500) Virtual On[PS2].

I think I like the Saturn version more. Sure, this one is asstons smoother, but some of the altered weapon mechanics in the Saturn version seemed like they were for the better.

Have you switched the dash cancelling (Oratorio Tangram style) on?
Apparently the ancient PC port of Virtual-On can be played in 60 fps.

[trap15]

Why exactly should I be harassed over writing posts to this thread? Come on, man.

It was just a joke, didn't mean to harass ya.
Just poking fun at the crazy lengths of your posts, which makes them really hard to read unless I really care about the subject you're talking about (reading about what games people are playing is not really one of those).
Think of it as encouragement to write smaller posts so that I can actually read them

Also I was a bit drunk still from the shmupmeet

[Ed Oscuro]

Human Revolution's loads are damn quick! The actual game seems to take forever to load, but once loaded, it blazes through area transitions in a few seconds flat. I'm not using a SSD either. In Invisible War, the screen blanks out (before the actual level load screen) longer than Human Revolution's loads. I am pretty astonished at how well the game performs - I have anti-aliasing off, and V-Sync as well, but screen tearing seems nearly non-existent. Constant FPS, lots of detail in areas. Good times!

Think of it as encouragement to write smaller posts so that I can actually read them

Silence is golden, isn't it? I get the message from the lack of responses. Still, when I want to write about something, I'll write about it in as much depth as I need to - I don't really see a way to shorten some things without just wasting more of my time. Or did you want more +1 "I like this" and "I hate this posts?" I thought you hated that about Shmups Forum. Like you said, it may well be worth it to the person who cares. And since you don't care, get off my back. Still, credit due for your progress in being a dick less often

[trap15]

Well, I probably would care if I could be assed to read your essay I do hate those super short posts that don't say anything, but if you could make that post like half the length, I could probably read it. That's not cutting out too much detail, is it?

[Ed Oscuro]

For somebody who doesn't care, you sure care a lot! You know I'm not going to encourage you like this

[trap15]

I want to care

[null1024]

(Sega Ages 2500) Virtual On[PS2].

I think I like the Saturn version more. Sure, this one is asstons smoother, but some of the altered weapon mechanics in the Saturn version seemed like they were for the better.

Have you switched the dash cancelling (Oratorio Tangram style) on?
Apparently the ancient PC port of Virtual-On can be played in 60 fps.

I turned it on, and I'm probably keeping it on. VOOM style dash cancelling is annoying.
And if I could get the PC version of VOOM to run on my computer [it spews some crap that seems to be it complaining about a lack of processor instruction set extensions, even though I have the one it's looking for], that would be nice.

The King of Fighters 2006 (Maximum Impact 2) [PS2].
Wow, this is surprising. It's a 3D fighter, with projectiles and all the KOF inputs and stuff, but it also has Tekken-style dial-a-combo inputs, 3D sidestep movement, and it seems to be put together rather well. Very, very fast paced. Got lazy and downloaded an all-clear save because I didn't want to deal with fighting that cheap as hell last boss over and over [can you say 80% damage super that can be somewhat easily hitconfirmed into?] to unlock everyone.
Only thing I don't really think was a good idea is how you can hit most things OTG. Doing Athena's Phoenix Arrow to a downed opponent feels really damn cheap.

Also, I can't say I like any of the original characters for this game. They seem like Street Fighter EX rejects or something.


also, long posts are OK I guess, unless they are horrible walls of text that aren't even broken up with newlines and take 3 hits of the pgdn key to get through

[Obiwanshinobi]

The fewer people post long messages, the more is likely to read those.
I'm guilty of putting the words "Hitler" and "China" in one short post of late and it had stirred things up, but too "my pen is big" way for comfort (having one is not unusual enough for this direction to be welcome).

[CptRansom]

Just re-played Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and enjoyed the hell out of it. Then I played Dark Athena and enjoyed... half of it. The second half pretty much threw away everything that made the first game and a half awesome. =/ Oh well. I'm trying to decide between Fallout: New Vegas and Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the next item on my backlog. Slowly but surely chipping away...

[Acid King]

I just finished Super Metroid and while I enjoyed it, it also reminded me why I stick to arcade games and straightforward action games. I spent a little too much time wandering around trying to remember where to go to use what gadget, but otherwise it was fun.

[EmperorIng]

Once you know Super Metroid, though, its experience rivals, if not surpasses most arcade games.

The game is always fresh because every single time you play (once familiar with the game), you go for beating your previous time, item collection %, or both! Of course, the game is just as fun going at your own pace and exploring the world. Both players looking for speed and looking for an immersive experience are catered to, which is no mean feat.

This is helped by the sheer amount of sequence breaks you can do - only Metroid 1 and Zero Mission allow as much non-linear progression. It's easily one of the few games I consider "perfect" - even despite some niggling control issues (that are ultimately infinitesimally detracting towards the game itself).

The Metroid series (if you couldn't tell by my username) is my all-time favorite video-game series; I've been posting on one of the largest Metroid forums for going on 5 years now, and all this time I still find new ways to enjoy the games (currently I'm appreciating just how damn good the first game is. I still need to buy a physical copy of Metroid II: Return of Samus).

[spadgy]

If borderliners go here, I'm all over Shock Troopers right now. Trying for a 1CC on the mountain route.

If borderliners don't go here, I am a very naughty mod.

[Aquas]

Dragon Warrior III.

I just can't resist the charm of 8bit RPG. I just rescued the guy and his girlfriend so that I could buy PEPPER from the guy to give to the KING so I could get a BOAT. Getting the boat felt so rewarding after the hell-frequency of encounters in that dungeon prior. The boat song is really nice too. Fresh challenge in this game. I guess I'm considering changing professions for a couple characters now, after learning about it. I will probably see this one through.

[Ed Oscuro]

I loaded up Black Mesa one more time to see the "Resonance Procrastinator" achievement. It kills you! Bah, what garbage. Not as bad as the obligatory Garden Gnome Achievement, though ("send the hidden hat to Xen").

[trap15]

I'm all over Shock Troopers right now. Trying for a 1CC on the mountain route.

Great great game. Get that clear!

Also, I'm playing Demon Front lately.

[mesh control]

I spent a little too much time wandering around trying to remember where to go to use what gadget, but otherwise it was fun.

You may enjoy Fusion if the exploration became overwhelming.
Fusion and Zero mission, to an extent, were much more linear than the previous Metroid games. Iirc.

20hrs into Pokemon Black 2.
The majority of that time is from playing at work.
Great purchase.

[VixyNyan]

What [not shmup] game are you playing now?