What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm, I was gonna say that Quake's last episode (good stuff the other episodes - I wouldn't say they're weaker than the first one; if anything they feel stronger at times) is full of exploits and easy trick jumps. To be sure Hell's Atrium does have a mandatory trick jump (using the "you gain inertia running up slopes" trick) for a secret, and there's also another secret you can boost up to easily doing the same thing (though it's not intended). But Azure Agony now has a secret you can just jump up to - which won't trigger the secret - and that can't be right. I also noticed enemies sticking in the ceilings in various levels throughout the game, most recently some zombies above the pool in Azure Agony, again.

I was surprised how quick the final confrontation goes, even without getting the extra pack of thunderbolt ammo. Also surprised when a Vore spawned right above me and dropped into Ranger's personal space during the "you're the master now" scene. Darkplaces

[Ruldra]

Current progress in Tower of Doom:



Magic-centered character vs magic-nullifying boss = you're fucked. I know you can use magic when the main eye is closed but it's not so easy to catch it off-guard. I gave up trying to progress with the Fighter and will stick with the Elf...the fact that she has so little HP sucks but I guess I'll have to live with it.

Call me weird but I actually like the combat in this game way more than SoM. In the sequel you need to keep using down, forward or down, up+attack all the time while here the simple 4-hit combo makes things more straightforward.

[Hagane]

TOD's combat (and overall design really) bores me to tears personally. If you can't get used to Mystara's execution you could always pick the magic user; he has no special moves other than the forward + attack poison dagger and the "nothing" attack. He's also the best character in the game and rather easy for an 1CC.

[BIL]

I wanted to try clearing the first SFC Kiki Kaikai this weekend but ended up re-learning how to use Kunoichi and Kamaitachi in TNWA.



There are so many fun quirks and archetype contradictions in all three's movesets. Kamaitachi can't grapple and has the weakest throws in damage terms, but he can punt a lackey into a boss's face from across the screen and is the only character who can throw multiple enemies at once. Kunoichi's grapple flurry is either the game's weakest attack or second only to Ninja's atomic drop, depending on how long you risk it being interrupted, encouraging hit-and-run grappling on big enemies. Ninja can actually cover short distances faster than the other two while boosting, but the startup and shutdown frames need to be handled properly or disaster ensues. I don't normally switch between characters much in action-oriented titles but here it'd be a shame not to, the selection is the game's best feature after the rock-solid engine and controls.

[null1024]

Just started playing Busou Shinki Battle Masters mk.2 [PSP] after hearing its name be thrown around in the Game Recommendations thread.
It's alright, I guess. Been playing it for under an hour though. It's not in the same class as say, Gundam vs Gundam, but I can at least see myself playing it more.

robots+chicks+fighting
everything a growing boy needs


In semi-related news, I think the PSP is my favorite system right now. Especially since it has the absolute gold-standard Ridge Racer game [which would be Ridge Racer 2 [PSP]]. Delightful handling and feel, every track from every Ridge Racer up to and including R4 [it uses the RR5 versions of the original Ridge Racer tracks], nice graphics [less stylish than R4 sadly, but none of the later Ridge Racer games have come close to the PS1-era games in terms of style], it's really the perfect package. Once you get to grips with it, it feels natural and smooth [usually, there's some kind of auto-guide system for some of the really nasty turns and I have no idea what triggers it consistently, I'll slam into some walls that I'd magically pass through other times cleanly while drifting the opposite way, which is probably the only major issue in the game].

[Hagane]

Finally started playing Dark Souls seriously. The keyboard + mouse hack works decently well even if it's not precise for aiming. Hopefully DS2 for PC will be made with proper controls (strafe with A-D, move looking at the front with S, precise mouse controls, etc). This kind of game works great with that setup.

Just got to Anor Londo, I'm at level 40 with a Thief. Game is kinda Irem like; destroys you until you know what to do, then it's not that hard. Difficulty is extremely exaggerated by clueless reviewers. At first I struggled, but then with proper strategies everything is rather accessible. For human sized enemies, block then backstab, for larger /slow humanoid enemies circle and backstab / hit on the back. That pretty much covers 90% of the enemies. And out of that remaining percentage, there's nearly always an effortless way to prevail. I just need to learn how to parry effectively.

Having a lot of fun with the overall design and enemy placement. Everything is there for a reason. Blighttown sucks though, pretty annoying how you are constantly poisoned. Also love the large enemy variety (even if the strats are rather similar in general), much better than in my favorite similar games (Piranha Bytes' stuff in particular).

[Sumez]

Dark Souls isn't difficult at all (except from the Anor Londo boss, OUCH! - good luck with that one).
It's very challenging though, and both games in the series are a masterful demonstration of the difference between the two, and it's exactly the way it should be for this kind of game. The fighting controls are perfect and always fair, which allowed the designers to implement some truly challenging battles without ever ruining the experience for the player - this kind of game design is what ultimately exposes basic design flaws, imagine if a mindless hack-n-slash game like Skyrim had boss battles similar to those of Dark Souls. It would never work out.

[Zaarock]

Call me weird but I actually like the combat in this game way more than SoM. In the sequel you need to keep using down, forward or down, up+attack all the time while here the simple 4-hit combo makes things more straightforward.

I'm liking Tower of Doom a bit more for 1cc play too for the same reasons. it's more straight forward, easier and there are less cheesy stuff like the oil/hammer in SoM and combos that trivialize bosses (like displacer beast). I also like how you have to respect the enemies more because you can't speed around with charge attacks. I do think SoM has more to offer, I'm mainly liking ToD because it's easier probably.

Played with a great 4 player team on hardest difficulty in ToD yesterday and got a 2cc while some others continued a couple more times (whole team 1cc'd up to dragon, I think) so a multiplayer 1cc seems pretty close.

Dark Souls isn't difficult at all (except from the Anor Londo boss, OUCH! - good luck with that one).
It's very challenging though, and both games in the series are a masterful demonstration of the difference between the two, and it's exactly the way it should be for this kind of game. The fighting controls are perfect and always fair, which allowed the designers to implement some truly challenging battles without ever ruining the experience for the player - this kind of game design is what ultimately exposes basic design flaws, imagine if a mindless hack-n-slash game like Skyrim had boss battles similar to those of Dark Souls. It would never work out.

What about the DLC bosses? those are easily the best in the game IMO, they're much more aggressive and as such intense to fight. Hoping DkS2 will have more of the same.

I agree, if a game plays well then difficulty that forces you to learn makes it better. I guess Dark Souls sold well because that had largely been forgotten.

[Sumez]

Haven't played the DLC yet Want to get the disc version of it.

[null1024]

Black Rock Shooter: The Game [PSP].

'S okay. Looks like ass though, like an early 1998 PC game. The game's design is like a PS1 game from that era too, in terms of control and area implementation.

It'd really have benefited from being a straight 3D run-and-gun than being an action RPG. Not being able to freely move during fights is probably the most disappointing thing about the game.
In fact, thinking about it, it'd ideally be more like Wild Guns -- move in 2D with l/r, deal with enemies in front of you, d-pad aim, face buttons do stuff. But it isn't.

The texture quality is atrocious. The models aren't nearly so bad [it's the PSP, I've seen better and worse], but the complete lack of texture quality gets to me.

The soundtrack is neat-o, although a little unfitting at times. Not too memorable though.

[Phellan Wolf]

Luigis Mansion 2, it is a kickass game. Good graphics, awesome gamplay and an hilarious senss of humour. Really good game, I'd say that is the best game on the 3DS so far. Plenty of secrets and every mission is awesome. Much better than the first one. Can't believe that a non internal Nintendo Studio has done such a great job.

[Moniker]

Getting my ass handed to me in Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS).

Only on mission 3 or 4 on hard-classic, and already I'm having to rethink my general FE strategies. In an early mission that suggests one split one's forces and then reconnect at the boss, I'm having to go on the defensive and bunch my bros together just to survive. And I thought I was pretty good at the gba entries. Hah. Also: good lord but the anime art is gorgeous.

Also: Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)

I originally started the hi score table on rolling-start and am now at the very bottom on each track. Need to reclaim my honor.

[dcharlieJP]

Sayonara Umihara Kawase (3DS) - fans of the series will enjoy it, it's pretty much more of the same and a few added characters that don't particularly add much of note (at least not in the first few hours). Graphics are a bit sketchy but capture the feel well enough whilst moving out of 2D. The frame rate is ropey in 3D mode at best, but some levels will make the frame rate plunge down so much the whole thing chugs. Throw in the added bonus that things feel a bit sluggish and unresponsive in 3D mode anyways, and you're best advised to switch to full 2D mode as the whole thing is much much smoother. Presentation is weird - it's all very "early PS1" - which gives the game a weird kitch feel that i really hope is intentional.

Shin Megami Tensei 4(3DS) - GOTY contender, all over my face. The conversation system is pretty hilarious and the story has been pretty awesome. The setting is great, and the streetpass stuff is pretty interesting with me adding a few extra abilities that are fairly kick arse. Game is brutal at times though - got a bad mix for this particular boss? tough - go back and reassess your team.

Last of us (PS3) - my folks were pretty big on horror when i was a kid so i watched a ton of slasher flicks before i'd reached my teens. As a result i don't tend to get scared by horror stuff, and certainly not zombie stuff. However, there's a couple of sections in this that , at 1 am up on our 3rd floor with the lights off and the headphones on, have managed to unnerve me a little. Some weird glitches here and there, but the game is doing what it set out to do exceptionally well so far : story is good, the action is good, the game is unnerving at times, and the whole "AAA movie" thing is nailed as good as ever has been.

[null1024]

Busou Shinki Battle Masters mk.2 [PSP].
Bought this sword in the shop and it is tearing through everything with no effort. It's a bit upsetting really, things took a bit to kill before. Now I'm constantly getting S-ranks because my opponent dies so easily -- I'm doing the same damage with that sword on block that I used to do on hit.

also, the block and lockon system in this game bugs the fuck out of me, blah

Also: Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)

I originally started the hi score table on rolling-start and am now at the very bottom on each track. Need to reclaim my honor.

Man, Ghegs and KAI got serious.
Been working at this game, I'm still a bit far off. I was tempted to just go and work on R4 times [but they would be mercilessly crushed if real competition came in, and it wouldn't be too productive for my RR2 times anyway], haha.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Battle Circuit. Any differences between the Euro/USA/Japanese versions?

So far I felt like I was doing pretty good, up to stage 5 on one credit, but the bosses start to do crazy amounts of damage (dead in three hits), and it probably doesn't help that I'm using Green, who looks super adorable with all those pointy teeth! Except he's slow, and relies heavily on grabs... and has that annoying tentacle thrust that comes out when you try to switch directions and punch, or sometimes when you're doing his crazy left-right slam grab and mashing like crazy...

I know it's possible to beat on one credit, but it seems to really like punishing mistakes, and I'm also having trouble getting the number of coins I'm seeing replays obtain. Should I be farming bosses for coins by beating up more of their minions...? The extra extends would definitely help...

Oh jesus the master program what the fuck, I'd rather fight inbachi

I clearly underestimated that spit attack, it looked so slow to come out that I never bothered even trying it.

[Ghegs]

Also: Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)

I originally started the hi score table on rolling-start and am now at the very bottom on each track. Need to reclaim my honor.

Man, Ghegs and KAI got serious.

KAI is my Destined Rival, the man pushes me to up my game like no other. Same thing happened with Ridge Racer V as well.

I'll be uploading some RR2 PSP vids later today, hopefully those will inspire others to join in as well.

[Sumez]

Shin Megami Tensei 4(3DS) - GOTY contender, all over my face. The conversation system is pretty hilarious and the story has been pretty awesome. The setting is great, and the streetpass stuff is pretty interesting with me adding a few extra abilities that are fairly kick arse. Game is brutal at times though - got a bad mix for this particular boss? tough - go back and reassess your team.

Awesome! Guess you're playing the Japanese version? I didn't realise it was out already. Have really been anticipating this game.

[dcharlieJP]

Yeah playin the Japanese version - its has been out a couple of weeks.

[null1024]

Black Rock Shooter: The Game [PSP].

There's something mildly compelling about this. It's not exactly good, but it's enjoyable enough.
I'm still bothered that they chose to limit battle so severely by restricting the movement of everything. Seriously, you could have some Sin and Punishment style action going on, just by letting the player and enemies move more freely.

Hell, given the concept of "Black Rock Shooter", I'd probably make GunGage but with better controls.

Silly things: I can use an item at any time, no matter what. I can't say I don't like that, but it is rather silly. In the middle of a boss's huge laser and you forgot to block/fucked up a dodge? Heal after each hit! Fucking magic.


tomorrow I am going to play so much RR2 so I can deal with those times, aaaaa
Seriously, getting beat by over 10 seconds feels bad.
Gonna take a good look at those videos, I really wish I had a setup to record off my PSP.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure and Pandora's Tower - some days off made for my joyful reunion with (action-)adventure gaming this week. (With RE4 Wii edition, I would just unlock stuff previously unlocked on PS2.) This evening ought to make for a hefty Onimusha 3 session.
Pandora's Tower and - even moreso - Zack & Wiki, being perfectly playable in one hour sessions, make me want to revisit and finish Lost Kingdoms too. Perfect for someone who doesn't have longer pieces of time to spare, but is not always in best of shapes for arcade action.
Onimusha 3 is a tougher cookie, since I have some training sessions to complete and Dark Realm is already accessible, thus the evening's shaping up to be mostly pure action.

[broken harbour]

Tomba!

It's..... weird. Controls are strange, and I need a guide to figure out some of the more esoteric solutions to puzzles.

It's fun, and I like the style. I wish modern games were still this whimsical.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I read Tomba! is not quite compatible with PS2. Don't know the details.

[broken harbour]

I read Tomba! is not quite compatible with PS2. Don't know the details.

No Idea, I play it on a genuine PS1.

[Hagane]

Tomba is the reason why I laugh when someone says Fez had awful pointless pseudo platforming since it's really a puzzle game. You can do both well, and that game is the proof.

I need to replay it again sometime.

[Danny]

Rouge Legeacy, amazing game much like Castlevania SOTN but with random levels, permadeath, Phantasy Star IV family legacy stuff and crazy "bullet hell" shmup dodging sections.

[BIL]

Lots of Double Dragon Advance this weekend. Been too long. This game had an unfortunate genesis - given the smallest possible GBA ROM due to budget constraints, with much planned content missing. I think it may have worked out for the best, though. It's effectively an official, incredibly polished and comprehensive DD1 ROM revision plus a survival mode, and I love it for that. For all their simplicity and semi-awkward feel, Technos brawlers always put the "beating" in beat 'em up. This one is just as knee-in-the-face brutal, maintaining the trademark Technos stagger mechanic that makes both giving and receiving punishment so visceral. But it also controls with remarkable smoothness, and the addition of launchers, juggles, running moves and ground attacks gives combat a seamless flow. A single kick in the teeth and a wealth of painful options opens up, no matter how many enemies you're up against.



"lol you can't pull muh hair, NES version rofl rofl - GUUUUUH MA FUCKIN NOSE" Technos - Go For The Face™

I like that the devs clearly wanted this to feel like the older games - there are no health restores, instant death via pitfall is a frequent double-edged sword to be ignored or exploited at one's peril, and invincible frames are minimal. You can't get away with very much here, and even seemingly dominating attacks can be stuffed if used poorly. This is both the most violent-feeling DD and also the most finessed, the first one where the player actually controls like martial arts titan whether it's beating down a single target or taking on six at a time.

[trap15]

Picked up Combatribes again last night after about a week of not playing it. Figured out a strat for the last boss on that credit. Picked the game up again about 40 minutes ago, applied my strats and went on for a 1CC

Next up: the arcade version! Got a PCB coming in a few weeks

[Obiwanshinobi]

Slowly giving up on completing all training sessions during my first Onimusha 3 playthrough. Although I can perform deflect critical consistently enough to make it viable tactics, "clean" critical is too risky to bet on (have yet to finish the Intermediate lesson).
Right now I am too tired to finish Samanosuke's Dark Realm course, but it verily seems doable at this point.
Learned that in Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, Dark Realm can be played through in co-op. Pretty much what I've been dreaming of since Onimusha 2, except originally I thought about something more like Diablo. Capcom be praised for putting co-op in my Onimusha after all these years. All the awkward storytelling and US voice acting is forgiven.
Not ALL voice acting is bad in 3 I must admit. The officer lady respectably speaks with Jennifer Hale's voice.
P.S. Issening with Samanosuke's axe is my guilty pleasure. If the animation wasn't Capcom-good, I would probably frown upon it. Makes him look least human of all two-handed chaps in game, which was a stroke of genius.
So far I've only ever chained criticals by accident. Either chaining is THAT difficult, or I'm clueless (tried by the book but no luck).

[drauch]

Picked up Combatribes again last night after about a week of not playing it. Figured out a strat for the last boss on that credit. Picked the game up again about 40 minutes ago, applied my strats and went on for a 1CC

Next up: the arcade version! Got a PCB coming in a few weeks

Curious to see how that goes. I've never played the port, but I've got the cabinet. Tons of shit going on, so I'm curious to hear of strategy for this one. Haven't tried to take it seriously myself, but it seems a bit overwhelming from my noob stance.

[trap15]

I might try to make a recording of a 1CC of the port soon. Will have to be a shitty camera thing though because I don't have a recording setup for consoles.

Will keep this thread posted with my Combatribes arcade progress though, I guess