What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[iconoclast]

I've been playing Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed (PC) over the last couple weeks. I've S-ranked all of the missions in World Tour & all of the Grand Prix cups, and I've beaten the Expert ghosts on every track in Time Attack (some of which were pretty tough), so I think I'm pretty much done with all of the single player content. I guess I could grind out the rest of the mods and go beat the mirrored tracks in Time Attack, but nah fuck that.

This is the best kart racer ever. Really, Mario Kart DS is the only one that's in the same league, and Transformed trumps it. My only complaint is that the soundtrack is pretty bland & uninteresting, which is unfortunate since Sega is sitting on tons of great music, but oh well. Everything else is fantastic, and anybody who's ever liked Mario Kart & Sega should definitely check it out.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm, wonder how the hell you're really supposed to beat the Bossman showdown with four chaingun turrets firing on you, and bossman himself bouncing along on top of a tank. Well, slapped on teh cheatz for that one. Done and dusted. Never again. Add this one to the "strippers level" tag pile.

Decided to take a look at the mod X-Men: Ravages of Apocalypse. Neat song playing in the mansion. Going insane because I can't figure out how to enter the nightmare difficulty level. Ah well...doesn't look terribly promising really.

Legend of Kage 2: So, what's everybody's strategy for the last third of the Yukinosuke fight? He's easy enough to get trapped in a pattern for the start, but if you start miscalculating later on, his attacks will really punish you. Also, rather annoyed at the design not letting me see what's going on.

[null1024]

Played more videogames today than all of last week.

Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram [DC].
Played a few rounds against my nephew. He's finally getting better at it, beat me a few times [when I wasn't playing Grys-Vok at least].
Then I ran through story mode, and forgot how to beat the two bosses [continued like, 6 times per boss], even though I trounced everything else. Would have been a quick little 1cc if I didn't die on the bosses, heh.

Sega Rally Championship '95 [PS2].
aaaaa
I need to stop running out of time with the second round finish line in sight. I'm terrible at this game.

Shatterhand [NES].
Encountered some odd slowdown on the Area B boss, the whole fight was going at 1/4th speed. Blech.
After beating it, I proceeded to make a billion silly and avoidable mistakes and just powered off. I also need to resist the urge to attempt to punch every bullet that comes my way, hahaha. It's so satisfying when you just swat them out of the air. Messing up makes you feel bad though.

[jasoncslaughter]

Moai Kun on the Famicom. Simple but fun.

[dannnnn]

This is the best kart racer ever. Really, Mario Kart DS is the only one that's in the same league, and Transformed trumps it.

Heavily disagree with that. I've been playing it recently myself (S ranked all of World Tour and GP cups) and while it's a good game, it's not in the same class as Mario Kart. Everything about the actual racing is inferior, most noticeably the handling offering nowhere near the same kind of tightness and precision. If we're talking about playing competitively for TT times, it really doesn't hold up IMO. However there is a wealth of single player content which is a definite improvement over MK's measly GP cups and I agree that fans of kart racers should check it out. The game I'd compare it most favourably to is Diddy Kong Racing.

[dcharlieJP]

Moai Kun on the Famicom. Simple but fun.

such an awesome game. <3

[iconoclast]

Heavily disagree with that. I've been playing it recently myself (S ranked all of World Tour and GP cups) and while it's a good game, it's not in the same class as Mario Kart. Everything about the actual racing is inferior, most noticeably the handling offering nowhere near the same kind of tightness and precision. If we're talking about playing competitively for TT times, it really doesn't hold up IMO. However there is a wealth of single player content which is a definite improvement over MK's measly GP cups and I agree that fans of kart racers should check it out. The game I'd compare it most favourably to is Diddy Kong Racing.

The handling is an apples to oranges comparison imo. It might not be as tight as MK, but the controls still suit the game because the tracks were designed around them. I do think that it can be a little hard to control during some of the water sections, but that's to be expected since you transform into a boat (and the handling changes to reflect that).

I like the game more than MK because chaining boosts with drifts, tricks, and stunts (like risk-boosts in plane form) makes it more involving. MK DS had snaking, which was great, but Nintendo decided to keep it simple with the sequels. There's probably a better way to phrase this, but I think Sumo is more focused on making skillful racing games that have a learning curve, and Nintendo wants MK to be more of a party game that anyone can pick up and play immediately. Personally, I like what Sumo's doing.

[Ed Oscuro]

Got myself to 3-1 in Little Ralph on a credit and broke into the top 10 on the ranking. Nothing amazing here - way too many deaths against the second boss (however, this was my first time reaching him). Made it a little ways into 3-1 on one life.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I made it through the Yukinosuke fight in Legend of Kage 2. 99 hit combo, S rank of course. I didn't have much health left so it's a good thing I restarted a few times to get the kinks out. There is some real strangeness with the combos - Yukinosuke does have some attacks where you can swat him out of the air (necessary to defeat some other bosses, the girls' brigade mainly) but I found this unnecessary. Instead I just continually comboed into him. Strangely, when he does his own combo, if you're in your own combo before he meets you, it seems like he will just pass through you - at least most of the time. Rather hard to anticipate that would work, but since it seems to work, why not? Previously I had thought my tactics would be mainly hit-and-run but that means you spend a lot of the later part of the fight not seeing him onscreen, and he also has a dashing attack that covers a lot of the screen and does a fair bit of damage if it connects. I'd rather avoid that of course.

Not really sure what the hell to do at the final boss. I have a couple things left to try out, but in a couple plays nothing is working thus far. Hopefully this means he's easy if you figure out his weakness. One can hope.

[null1024]

Ridge Racer Turbo [PS1].
Found myself suddenly a bit more competent after ages of not playing, went through and started to go after the Extra races. A few little mishaps here and there stop me from getting first, blah.

Ridge Racer R4 [PS1].
Found myself suddenly less competent after ages of not playing, heh. Maybe I'm just expecting the cars to feel too much like RR:T/RR:R style handling, they feel really heavy.

Ridge Racer 5 [PS2].
and I can't even beat the first race, what is wrong with me
aaaaa

Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram [DC].
Slightly better, down to 8 credits between the two bosses [Blah, I can 1CC this! The hell is up?], but I seriously can't believe I'm dying on Tangram, who is easier than Bradtos by far [hell, the first time I reached Tangram ever, I beat it, although it's certainly easier with Raiden because you can RT+CW megalaser the fuck out of it, Grys-Vok's missiles don't have that same kind of massive impact].

Man, at least I didn't time out like when I reach it with Temjin. That's annoying as fuck [you don't even get to enter your initials for your time like in VO:OM, it is not a clear anymore [apparently it overwrites reality or something, unlike you just letting the moon blow up]].
For something with a badass name like Pan-Dimensional Reality Synthesizer Tangram, it sure could stand to be harder than the midboss.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. I surprised at how good this game is. Controls are a little sluggish but it's not so bad that I can't get used to it. The roll is so unreliable I'm not using it very much. Anyways, pretty decent challenge and some impressive levels. I'd take DKCR over the NSMB games any day. Solid game.

[Ed Oscuro]

GunGage on the PS2 slim. I've had this game for years but, apart from emulating it a bit and saying "looks interesting, but kinda clunky" I never gave it much thought.

You heard it here first - a so-far forgotten Castlevania cameo is in this game! There's a couple grainy "DENSETU" posters (the Japanese CV3 cover, of course) at the beginning of the lab level. Konami Man makes an appearance as the cursor in a few menus.

Interesting game, this one. Kind of awkward to play on account of the d-pad only movement, and using shoulder buttons to strafe...but I suppose that leads to an FPS-like feeling. Interesting weapons on some characters. I played through half the game as the legendary Wakle Skade, only to discover he kind of sucks (he's not one of the people who has multiple weapons, and his special weapons are quite restricted too. In fact, it's hard to see the point of including him). Used a walkthrough to get a couple other characters fast - Steyr Harquebus (LOL) and Kard Berdysh (who looks rather suspiciously like a modern Contra refugee, with maybe a little Judge Dredd and Dynamite Duke mixed in...and his four-weapon set seems to fill the same roles I've heard of Shattered Soldier's weapons do; not to mention his default weapon is called the Buster Laser - mashup of Gradius weapon types). Maps are remixed slightly depending on who you're playing with, and might feature totally different enemies (there's a lot of enemy types too).

Despite its rather sluggish control and terrible platforming, the game does have a nice idea for replayability - lives and credits are set up like an arcade game, except for lives collection. Unusually for Konami, there's a bit of (optional) collectathon bloat here - chase down 100 glowing octahedra (or is that triangular antiprisms?) for a life. This restricts life collection to just a few per continue. Still, on the normal difficulty damage doesn't feel terrible, and there are life-up items (tiny and significant) along the way. You also can ignore that entirely if you're good enough to rake in no-damage bonuses. There is another collectathon goal - find plants, some in the open, others fiendishly hidden, and get some goodies once you hit particular milestones. Of course, the game offers two types of goals - just get to the end of the game, or try to rack up a highscore. The score entry is really cool looking.

Although there's only ten maps, and they tend to be somewhat short, there's a nice variety here. Some feature straightforward combat, while others feature more traditional questing to a boss. Either type might be completely wide-open maps (like the neat fight in the desert) or tightly controlled (like the train), and of course there's relatively straightforward levels as well. It's a bit of a shame that no character seems able to see the entirety of what each stage offers - however there is a level select cheat for one of the late flower-collecting milestones and it's possible that will allow it.

I'm not sure a 1999 release with some camera problems and no facility for analog control really deserves undying admiration, but it's been surprisingly fun.

[Marc]

Child Of Eden. What. The. Fuck?

[Jonathan Ingram]

Dark Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls. More than 100 hours in it (over 18 months) and still not fed up.

In Dark Souls` terms, you`ve barely even started.

Also, GF offered me Deadly Premonitions Director's Cut PS3, many thanks. Anyone played it and can tell me if I'll be scared ? I'm the kind of fearing guy

Your girlfriend is a videogame connoisseur with impeccable taste. Deadly Premonition is a litmus test on whether you have any yourself. Fail it and she`ll leave you. It`s that simple.

[BrianC]

The roll is so unreliable I'm not using it very much.

I thought the lack of waggle would make it more reliable?

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

The roll is so unreliable I'm not using it very much.

I thought the lack of waggle would make it more reliable?

No the move comes out. What I meant was that the move leaves DK more vulnerable to attacks. It has a slow startup time, so even if you are rolling you can still get hit if it's early enough in the roll. It also pauses your movement for a little bit after preforming it. Sometimes it seems like it won't plow through multiple enemies correctly either. I'm sure it's invaluable for speed running levels though. I just don't feel comfortable enough with the timing for it yet to use it much.

[Ed Oscuro]

Gettin' annoyed at GunGage. Realized I had probably passed by the fourth character's unlock point a few times, when I was standing right next to it, so I tried again. You have to stand in the exact right spot. It wasn't hard to figure out.

Kard has an interesting weapon set, which kinda grows on me the more I use it. The only problem is the train boss - only homing missiles seemed to work against him (I didn't try the buster laser, actually), and pretty soon he will force you up to the top of the next set of train cars, which is annoying because of his extremely damaging blue paralaser - aside from falling off the train or other assorted insta-deaths, it's the most damaging thing I've encountered and definitely not to be played with. Kind of annoyed I can't just assassin nade his ass in five seconds flat like everything else.

It's nice not to have to rely on the slow buster laser. In the second part of Kard's first stage, there's a secret accessed by jumping on some boxes. That's the one time I don't just shoot a bunch of homing missiles or grenades around the corner to take everything out. It's not the most fun way to play a game, but it gets the job done. Also, in another level a particular type of enemy - a turret affixed to force field generators (looks like) can snipe you from outside the draw distance, nasty. It's only happened with that one enemy, though.

Dee is another shit character, looks like. Just has a weak machine gun and some specials. Look, you've got three machine gun characters in the damn game, Konami, cut it out. The characters all differ in specials and some other minor ways. I've been ignoring the special attacks entirely, which is definitely a handicap, but it feels wrong to be using the bombs in a scoring game...I'll have to start doing that soon just to break the monotony.

Couple bits of errata: The DENSETU posters are in the Subway level (the train). The one-up crystal shards are actually decahedrons - pentagonal bipyramids and not deltahedrons, to be precise.

[null1024]

Ridge Racer Revolution [PS1].

The Expert course makes me want to snap my controller [and considering how insubstantial original PS1 controllers are in terms of mass, that wouldn't be hard, haha]. I finally memorized the curves for most of the track [and can do somewhat consistent perfect laps now, I just need to optimize some of the corners better], but the last few turns on the Expert track are fucking annoying. So damn skinny.

Took a bit to get used to after playing a bit of RR:Turbo, drifts are a lot tighter in this game, and attempting the kind of overlong drifts that would murder your speed immediately upon exit in RR1/Turbo cut out well before that could happen in Revolution [and you will probably slam into a wall once grip happens again]. I did try to do an all-grip race, blech. Not as fun as getting my drift on.

This is still my favorite racing game though, the level design is great, and it's so stylish for an early PS1 game.
I wish you could play the RR1 tracks with RR:R's handling.

[Ruldra]

Ended up buying the PS3 version of Karateka. It's a simple 30-minute game and it isn't that hard to beat, but like shmups, it's all about getting the highest score - or the fastest clear. And it's only $5.

Managed to finish the game with the first guy, and surprisingly I got the 3rd fastest clear in the leaderboards. I think I'll try getting the Way of the Karateka trophy, which means reaching the last boss without getting hit once. Pretty crazy but I like the game enough to go for it.

Also played the demo of Call of Juarez: Gunslinger and boy it looks great! Will definitely get this one sometime in the future.

[null1024]

Rage Racer [PS1].

I like the rollercoaster like track design. Very stylish palette, although I'm glad later games didn't stay that dark -- it'd be a bit depressing.
On the other hand, I dislike the whole credits thing, and I like how R4 gives you cars based on skill instead.

...also, lapping the other racers is annoying, got knocked back into third because I was blocked by a car that I was going to lap...

I wanted to play it on my netbook [it'll run flawless on my big laptop, but I don't bring that around anywhere because it is heavy as fuck], but ePSXe slows down like crazy a few seconds into a race for no apparent reason and pSX screws up the sky colors [outright wrong palette] and is full of flickering in menus. XEBRA/ARBEX runs it fine, but the frameskip needs to be a bit high [and all the settings are barely documented with cryptic names, and why the hell doesn't it have autoframeskip?].

Armored Core [PS1].
first things: remap left and right strafe to d-pad, look up/down to triangle/X, rotate left/right L1/R1, switch weapon L2, and use sword R2
It's a good thing the controls are remappable, fuck.

And it's still a good game.

[AweOfShe]

Finally finished the main part of EO4. Will probably finish the end/post-game stuff later on.

But for now, I will start up Soul Hackers! I have 300 Play Coins on my 3DS waiting to be spent in it!

[null1024]

>looks at own 3DS
>hasn't played it in weeks

I should probably go and finish Tales of the Abyss, I was having fun and then I just stopped playing the thing...


Rave Racer [Arcade/Vivanonno].

Oh damn, that's one snappy game. Has a really lively feel, from the presentation, to the track design, to the physics [watched a youtube video]

Most of the announcer voices suck though, unlike R4, Rage Racer, and RR:R. They keep saying the same word multiple times in a sentence, there's one female voice that's really wired up and annoying as hell [and says the same negative line about your driving repeatedly under certain normal conditions], and I just want to find their samples and replace them with silence. I may see about doing that tonight.

I keep timing out a bunch, even if I'm in second, blah. The soundtrack is delightfully odd and wonderfully slick. I've actually picked that song most of my runs. Been playing for a few hours, have my DualShock 2 hooked up. I have no idea how to remap the controls, but it seems like the default controller configuration is extremely sensible for those little $4 blue PS2->PC boxes [although, pause is oddly R3 instead of start].

also, 60fps on a netbook

[Acid_Rain]

Some Halo 4 doubles (2v2).

[Obiwanshinobi]

Never mind.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Heh, names of cars in Rave Racer, "Baraduke" ftw.
Unlocked something named "Scud Viper" in F-Zero GX today.

I have no idea how to remap the controls, but it seems like the default controller configuration is extremely sensible for those little $4 blue PS2->PC boxes [although, pause is oddly R3 instead of start].

Make sure the analogue mode is enabled before you start a game where you want analogue. With mine I have to do it manually every time I hook it up (otherwise the controls are only digital, whether I play with the stick or d-pad).

[null1024]

I have no idea how to remap the controls, but it seems like the default controller configuration is extremely sensible for those little $4 blue PS2->PC boxes [although, pause is oddly R3 instead of start].

Make sure the analogue mode is enabled before you start a game where you want analogue. With mine I have to do it manually every time I hook it up (otherwise the controls are only digital, whether I play with the stick or d-pad).

Never had that issue, and I have 2 of the things. Might have gotten fixed in a hardware revision?

[edit]
Still playing Armored Core [PS1].

Managed to fuck up a bunch, ended up getting a Human Plus upgrade [much improved radar], sold a part I still had gotten in a mission that was left over to get an amazing generator so I could boost like a motherfucker, and now I'm ages further along. Oh, and a machine gun.
The generator and machine gun were the best two purchases I've made in game. It would be nice if the machine gun had 500 more in ammo capacity, although I'd end up spending all my money on reloading after a mission, haha.

[Ruldra]

Way of the Karateka, motherfucker! That trophy was pretty tough but finally got it.

Also managed to score the fastest clear in the leaderboards (pretty cool to have the only sub-20 minute clear in there):


Now I'm off to practice Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown.

[CIT]

So if it's neither clear time nor remaining life what determines the score in this game?

[EmperorIng]

Also, GF offered me Deadly Premonitions Director's Cut PS3, many thanks. Anyone played it and can tell me if I'll be scared ? I'm the kind of fearing guy

Your girlfriend is a videogame connoisseur with impeccable taste. Deadly Premonition is a litmus test on whether you have any yourself. Fail it and she`ll leave you. It`s that simple.

Truer words cannot be spoken, Mr. Ingram.

I'm finally getting around to finishing System Shock. I finally pieced together the Reactor Self-Destruct Code (a dick move if ever there was one, finding the six pieces of that code!), and entering into the final act of an awesome adventure game.

[broken harbour]

I just wrapped up Sly Cooper: Theives in Time last night.
Great game, funny, well written, great characters. Mechanics felt a little dated tho, and the game is 20 hours-ish, which is about 10 hours longer than it needed to be. Still really liked it tho.

Been playing the original Street Fighter Alpha on my saturn, still fun, but feels pointless now that I own SFA 2 now...

Played Contra 3 with a friend after 20-ish years of not playing, god we sucked at it, used all 7 lives before the end of the first stage!

[Marc]

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. Look lovely, controls well, seems a tad easy so far.