What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[BIL]

Back to the Ninja Ryukenden for a bit now that I've patched up my leaky roof. The crisp purity of classic FC action sidescrollers is just the thing to cleanse one's hands and mind of such lowly toils...

[gbaplayer]

Legend of Xanadu (PCE)

what an awesome game. iam speechless.

[Technosoft]

Shining Soul 2 GBA.

A really good game but the story is bad.

[spadgy]

I just got The Puppeteer (preview/'not quite polished' code) for PS3, and I've only played a little, but it's like a less floatly LittleBigPlanet. Bloody lovely looking, and full of personality.

[Ed Oscuro]

Red Dead Redemption - here's some hours to make you feel bad.

OK, I'd better give that up and play NG instead.

Edit: Something people like BryanM might like:
http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/

Spotted from an R. Belmont posting at MAMEWorld.

[KAI]

Oath in Felghana, again, but this time I'm gonna beat it.

[Moniker]

Black Ops II (PC).

My first CoD game. Quite like it to be honest. 7 or so hours into Campaign Mode. It's that old corridor/health regen/checkpoint FPS stuff that everyone complains of, but it's still quite fun for someone new to the paradigm. Playing on the hardest difficulty - getting through the shooting-only missions well enough, but haven't managed to clear any tower-defense/offense missions yet. Those are incredibly cool from a meta standpoint. Being able to direct movements and/or take control of any unit on the field at any time kicks all kinds of ass. Just need to figure out how to direct the rest of the gents properly.

I just lost 17 lives on the final boss of Ristar.

LOL. Did you beat him after that? The ending is worth it.

No, 17 was all my lives .

I might try again sometime this week. I only have time to play about 1 credit a day of this, the game is so long.

FYI: There's a stage select code if you want to practice.

[Obiwanshinobi]

What rubbed me the wrong way when I played a WWII CoD demo years ago (most likely United Offense) was the music. Something... indigestibly Hollywood about it. Couldn't suspend my disbelief.

[railslave]

Just finished quake 4 again(after a loooong time), and it realy surprised me how much i got into this game ...
(after recently playing bio infinite and farcry 3)

It realy does get rather good (post-op section imo) and pretty exhilarating. Theres a genuine sense of discovery as you go deeper and deeper into the base with a realy nice selection of enemies/boss characters.

Its actually nice to play a back to basics shooter without a hundred pda, upgrade screens, lite crafting systems..

And, in alot of places with the right combo of colored lighting, this is SUCH a pretty game

Im playing it again !! most fun ive had with a shotgun in a long time . Its just a shame about the outdoor sections and the first couple of levels.

[EmperorIng]

My older brother took his PS2 back with him ;-; so now I can't play Silhouette Mirage, Strider 2, or Air Combat.

I guess on the plus side this forces me to finish the games in my unfinished backlog of Saturn games, like Dark Savior, aka Hard Thugga Life on Prison Island, Deep ShitFear, and GunGriffon. And that Souky 1CC I keep on putting off!

I feel pretty dumb, because I just discovered last night that GunGriffon saves automatically. Before I would play for 90 minutes, get to the stage that I always fuck up at, continue to retry that stage for 60 minutes, and wearily turn the game off due to fatigue, only to repeat the process the next day. This saves me a whole lot of bullshit so I can once again jump right back to getting my ass kicked on a really unfair level that I can't show you because no one has uploaded a playthrough of this game to youtube (outside of one shitty quality, video- and playwise). For those in the know, it's the level where you have to defend the C17 carrier from those endless waves of cheap-ass spider mechs and mobile artillery units.

===

Does anyone on this forum actually know how to play Afterburner II? I mean, like play it and progress far without dying constantly.

I also played SEGA AGES last night, since I have been listening to the AB2 soundtrack, and with the 3D controller it feels like I slide around the whole screen, occasionally destroying things but more often than not getting creamed by a missile. It's pretty surprising that the game controls better in MAME than it does on the Saturn. Maybe I should use the normal controller, but then I lose the ability to control my speed via the shoulder buttons, and instead am stuck with awkwardly tapping the XYZ buttons twice to speed up and slow down.

[Mischief Maker]

Took the plunge with Divinity: Dragon Commander.

It feels like a Microprose game from the 90s. Sword of the Samurai especially comes to mind. A series of minigames sewn together into a full game that's greater than the sum of its parts. The 3 sub games are Court Intrigue, Strategic Map, and Action RTS.

The court intrigue is the strongest part of the game in every aspect, including graphics. The interiors of your flagship are beautiful and full of interesting activity in the background, while the courtiers you interact with are entertainingly disingenuous sycophants. I love the art design, too. I'm impressed they managed to make a "sexy" dwarf princess. This part of the game is played out in a series of conversations and imperial edicts revolving around thinly veiled fantasy versions of today's hotbutton political issues. The decisions you make affect your popularity levels among the 5 races which have serious repercussions in the other 2 modes.

In this I think the game really shines. The "are games art?" crowd should especially enjoy this game because it puts your beliefs to the test in a way that movies cannot. A beloved reputation with the race occupying a province you're attacking can double your resource production in the RTS battles, while a hated reputation can halve it. So you might be planning to invade a heavily fortified undead province and need the popularity to make up for your starting disadvantage, then suddenly the elven ambassador asks you to legalize fantasy weed, something that would tick off the religious fundamentalist undead. Where are your values now, Mr. Libertarian? On top of that, every round begins with a copy of the morning paper in which your slightest innocent comment gets blown completely out of proportion. I suspect this game is a gigantic Obama apology.

The strategic map is the weakest of the 3. Build units, move them between provinces, supplement armies with generals and bonus cards to improve their chance of victory, then let the RNG decide the victor. Popularity among the races determines how much benefit you get out of provinces they populate. No, you don't have the option to choose ethnic cleansing ala. the Age of Wonders games. One battle you choose to handle personally which brings us to the RTS battles.

The RTS battles seem designed to be a 2-stage affair. At the start you stay in overhead view mode with full RTS control and capture as many strategic points as you can. Once you've gobbled up all the territory you can and built an army big enough, you switch to Dragon Mode. In Dragon mode your army controls are reduced to "Select all" and "attack my target" but your army will fight better thanks to your aura, spells, and ability to pick off key enemy units with your fire breath. Sadly this is more a strategy game than an action one, so the only real test of your action skills in dragon mode is remembering to do a RMB dodge right before slow homing missiles make contact. There are 2 striking things about the RTS portion of the game that I think were implemented once they started playtesting the dragon's effect. First, they made troops cap resource and build sites at an alarmingly fast rate. You could end up with enemy defensive turrets being built at the entrance of your main base before you know it if you're not fast. Also, every unit is highlighted with garishly bright blue or red colors to denote their side. Maybe these are cool looking mechs stomping around at my command, I wouldn't know, because the highlighting makes them look more like something out of a TRON game than steampunk.

I regard this game the same as I regard my copy of Ketsui Death Label. It's not worth the price I paid for it, but I'm still having lots of fun with it nonetheless.

[ArmoredCore]

Playin dragon's crown in between Ketsui, gonna drop DC soon as being lvl 99 & doing labrynth chaining dungeons get kind of old fast. No incentive 4 looting when multiplayer a mess with delay lol.

[null1024]

Ridge Racer 2 [PSP].
asdfghjkl
I screwed up a brilliant run that would have wrecked my old lap time. Lost control near the end. Was doing the city course from Rage Racer.

Ys Seven [PSP].
I'm on the second boss. Fun game.

[edit]
And now I'm on the third!
I'm having fun with the bosses. Sadly, it looks like there isn't a boss rush mode...

[Ed Oscuro]

"sexy" dwarf princess.

Err la la? this and also this as a bonus. Glad to hear it's a good game though!

I recently cracked open that other Capcom set I procured a long while back - Devil May Cry.

What a strange game.

It is harder than the stuff I'm used to, although I am starting to warm to the game a little bit, it's not exactly my thing. The architecture certainly is ambitious - today I have to admit it's a mixed bag in terms of how it holds up, at times, but so far it never fails for ambition and that counts for a lot. I am starting to appreciate the mixture of the "mission" based system (short chapters) with the difficulty level - it seems like a good modern-day compromise between challenge and easy playability. There definitely was a bit of enjoyment out of getting an easy A rank from the third mission (I haven't missed any Blue Shield fragments or hidden missions so far, and I enjoy finding things hidden throughout the environments). However, I am (as usual) at a bit of a loss when it comes to the combo system. Usually it seems safe just to flail away with a standard Square button combo (three or four hits); the guns don't seem to do anything for me, the special combos don't seem to have a place yet (i.e. High Time) and keeping the Style meter going is still a bit beyond me as well. Still, it's not too much to ask a person to come to grips with.

[Mischief Maker]

"sexy" dwarf princess.

Err la la? this and also this as a bonus. Glad to hear it's a good game though!

That's the lizard princess.

I recently cracked open that other Capcom set I procured a long while back - Devil May Cry.

What a strange game.

It is harder than the stuff I'm used to, although I am starting to warm to the game a little bit, it's not exactly my thing. The architecture certainly is ambitious - today I have to admit it's a mixed bag in terms of how it holds up, at times, but so far it never fails for ambition and that counts for a lot. I am starting to appreciate the mixture of the "mission" based system (short chapters) with the difficulty level - it seems like a good modern-day compromise between challenge and easy playability. There definitely was a bit of enjoyment out of getting an easy A rank from the third mission (I haven't missed any Blue Shield fragments or hidden missions so far, and I enjoy finding things hidden throughout the environments). However, I am (as usual) at a bit of a loss when it comes to the combo system. Usually it seems safe just to flail away with a standard Square button combo (three or four hits); the guns don't seem to do anything for me, the special combos don't seem to have a place yet (i.e. High Time) and keeping the Style meter going is still a bit beyond me as well. Still, it's not too much to ask a person to come to grips with.

There's a "right" way to kill each enemy type, and that's what awards you style points. For instance, that secret mission about killing the ghost in one hit was teaching you the "right" way with that monster. Also, most boss moves can be countered. DMC3 is a very different game.

[Ed Oscuro]

Good thing it didn't give me any indication what I'd done to kill it! I could see I was stunning it, but for some reason I was able to kill it at a distance with the shotgun one particular time, whereas every other time it didn't work. Also, I have learned how to step on bugs, multiple times. It's highly important to know how to do it quickly.

In other gaming news, here is the most shameful Let's Play failure I've seen in a while. I had to stop watching. I played that on a SDTV with only one audio channel and a component connection and I still knew what I needed to do. What's the excuse here? How is Beetus (I think he's playing it) not seeing the paths on the walkway? Also, dat indignation at the Scrotality achievement. They should be happy they got it on the first try. Arghlol

Anyway, off to stop some Assaults On Precinct 87!

I have to say, the game's a mixed bag. Dumb fisticuffs and dumb barely-squeaking-through cover gameplay, and a mixture of great setpieces and areas where you can feel decades of history, and other areas that look ripped straight out of generic shooters (sewers, a Halo-like area, etc.). Not the greatest thing ever, but it has its moments.

[Mischief Maker]

Waitaminit. Are you playing the original Devil May Cry 1, or the reboot DmC?

[BIL]

Sounds like Ed's playing the O.G. DMC (2001 AD)

I could see I was stunning it, but for some reason I was able to kill it at a distance with the shotgun one particular time, whereas every other time it didn't work.

Seems you stunned it from a distance with the shotgun, then landed another shot for the critical hit. Here's the typical method for stunning them with a sword (any will work): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWCi8-MhYwY

Like MM said, the game's full of stuff like this. If you've run into a Shadow/SOTN Black Panther thingy, you've probably noticed its "stop in place -> launch elongating head spike at Dante" attack. Try getting a feel for when it's about to do the spike, then backflipping, landing on the spike and letting rip with the dual handguns. MASSIVE DAMAGE for MASSIVE JEWELS. ^_~

Gahhh, I want to play DMC now... so far away from my PS2, and too cheap/lazy to get another atm.

Also, I have learned how to step on bugs, multiple times. It's highly important to know how to do it quickly.

Watch out, you'll have to handle that Mario Party-calibre stick spinning action two more times if you want all the Secret Missions cleared!

[shmuppyLove]

Just finished Infinite Undiscovery.



Magnificent.

[Ed Oscuro]

Waitaminit. Are you playing the original Devil May Cry 1, or the reboot DmC?

I was wondering whether calling it DmC instead of DMC would cause a problem. I'm not going anywhere near the reboot for a long while, if ever.

@ BIL: I took a breather for some DEAD TO RIGHTS RETRIBUTIONING so I've still got to clear Mission 4.

I wonder if it'll be worth my while to fight Phantom when he appears in the hallway.

[CStarFlare]

Started playing Princess Crown. Don't know if I care for it yet - combat feels really stiff and slow, and it seems like victory will be entirely dependent on my level since I'm not mobile enough to avoid hits. So far, I feel like I'm only able to trade hits, so it might as well be turn based. To be fair, I don't understand Japanese, and that's not the ideal way to play RPGs.

I don't "get" the Tales Of series, either. Maybe the only action RPGs I'll ever like are the Star Ocean games? EDIT: And Seiken Densetsu, of course. EDIT: And The Elder Scrolls/Fallout 3+

[Obiwanshinobi]

I don't know what "action RPG" is supposed to mean, but may I suggest Gothic, bugs and all?

[Mortificator]

Viewtiful Joe.

At first, it felt less like an action game and more like the battles in Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga. The enemy takes his turn attacking, you stand in place pressing high and low with the right timing to dodge, you take your turn. The constant slo-mo also makes fighting less realtime, and there are a lot of puzzles breaking up the combat.

I really struggled to get through the game as Joe on Kids mode. Started an Adults run as Dante, but surprising feelings of Joestalgia made me cut that short and start a fresh Adults file as the little dude. Things finally clicked on this third attempt, and I carried that file over to V-Rated.

I'll definitely play this game again sometime, though it looks like the non-Kamiya sequel magnifies its flaws, so I probably won't pick that up.

Misc. thoughts:
* Alastor was the coolest boss fight, though looking online now I see he can be cheesed and beaten without the chance to retaliate.
* Big difficulty spike at the end of the boss rush! I had 9 lives in stock going up against Fire Leo on Adults, but it took all that and a few continues to reach the end.
* The zoom + slo-mo combo's overly useful against bosses. You don't even need to look at the screen while doing it.
* The camera's too close. It'd pull back during some boss attacks and I'd be, like, could you stay that way?
* I went with the PS2 port because it has one more playable character, but now it's hard to imagine playing with the GameCube controller.
* As great a director as Kamiya is, I hate how he popularized shopping for upgrades in action games.

[null1024]

I don't "get" the Tales Of series, either. Maybe the only action RPGs I'll ever like are the Star Ocean games?

Man, I'm still confused at how someone would like the Star Ocean series and not be a Tales fan. Or is it the other way around?
Which ones have you played?
Playing Tales of the Abyss is great fun, and free run really feels right. Dunno how Tales of Symphonia managed without it [didn't really get into that one]. And the 2D ones are still pretty enjoyable. Except Legendia. Fuck that shit.


Also, still playing Ys Seven [PSP], just beat the wind temple, now on to Ruins Island. It took me until just now to realize that skills come from weapons, I just assumed it was a level up thing until I took off a weapon and lost a skill that my character didn't learn yet.

I think I would like this game even more if it had 2 or 3 times more bosses.
It would be one long Radiant Silvergun-ish affair: "lots of bosses, oh hey little enemies, back to the bosses bosses bosses", and would be amazing. 'Tis the high point of the game.

That bird boss took me 3 tries, almost downed it the first two times. I'm wondering if the game has health-based rank, if I'm high on health, I'll lose it ASAP, if I'm low on health, I won't be hit for ages. Maybe it's just me getting overconfident after using a healing item...

also, fuck that full-screen petrify move

[CStarFlare]

I don't "get" the Tales Of series, either. Maybe the only action RPGs I'll ever like are the Star Ocean games?

Man, I'm still confused at how someone would like the Star Ocean series and not be a Tales fan. Or is it the other way around?
Which ones have you played?

Phantasia and Symphonia. The thing I love about SO is being able to go in over my head and win by dodging attacks and chipping away at their HP whenever I can safely get a shot in. I never really got that feeling of control in the Tales games - I was mostly just trading hits. (I didn't spend much time with Symphonia, but I made it ~3/4 of the way through Phantasia before I finally gave up on it)

Maybe it's more accurate to say I like action games with RPG elements?

[shmuppyLove]

Started playing Princess Crown. Don't know if I care for it yet - combat feels really stiff and slow, and it seems like victory will be entirely dependent on my level since I'm not mobile enough to avoid hits. So far, I feel like I'm only able to trade hits, so it might as well be turn based. To be fair, I don't understand Japanese, and that's not the ideal way to play RPGs.

I don't "get" the Tales Of series, either. Maybe the only action RPGs I'll ever like are the Star Ocean games? EDIT: And Seiken Densetsu, of course. EDIT: And The Elder Scrolls/Fallout 3+

If you like Star Ocean, play Infinite Undiscovery.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Although I find the first Valkyrie Profile game deeply flawed, its combat (turn-based, yet rewarding of sharp reflexes) can be exquisitely rewarding for a jRPG. Don't fall for the cult hype, though. And play the US PSX version (some improvements didn't make their way to the PSP one; also, pixel art is filtered in the latter).

[gameoverDude]

I tried killing the hardware PhysX on ROTT'13 and now have better framerates. I am being careful though, and still running at 1280 x 800 resolution. I'll wait until the next patch before going hog wild on settings.

[CStarFlare]

Although I find the first Valkyrie Profile game deeply flawed, its combat (turn-based, yet rewarding of sharp reflexes) can be exquisitely rewarding for a jRPG. Don't fall for the cult hype, though. And play the US PSX version (some improvements didn't make their way to the PSP one; also, pixel art is filtered in the latter).

I bought Valkyrie Profile at the height of its price, and didn't regret it for a second. I'm pretty sure its system had a lot more depth than I went into, but I beat Iseria Queen the five times or whatever was necessary to do whatever. I don't know anymore (does that mean it was a waste of time?). Sakuraba did a great job on that one, too.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well this is some kind of pretty pickle. I killed off Dead To Rights: Retribution last night, and after an entertaining enough (and diverse!) ending mission, I found myself admiring and laughing at the concept art and descriptions for locations in the gallery. A lot of stuff looks really great there, but sometimes there was a gap between what they were aiming for and what they achieved. The game looks best in Temple Tower and the Chinatown (and Entertainment district rooftops) areas, where it doesn't rely on tiny details. Many of the post-urban-collapse rust areas look nasty - did I mention the game designers really did put a lot of thought into the social history of Grant City - I'm not going to just laugh at them; the original did this as well but in a fantastic, "whatever pushes the story along" way, whereas here the designers were trying to make a believable space and it is always challenging to find what's relevant for your media when you set out with that historical / political view. The sewer concept looks nothing at all like the nasty mess in the game. Sometimes the game tries to get too gothic and fussy for its own good, and while the Xbox 360 is certainly a huge leap ahead of the systems the original game ran on, people seem to keep trying to run realistic metal and stone textures through the Unreal Engine 3, with the same blocky results as before. Even those areas often look good, but it feels like a waste when this game does wooden and sandstone areas so well.

There certainly were a lot of interesting things to see in Grant City - just not a lot of it.

The thing that hurts is the DLC situation. $4 or $5 for some replayability that should've been there from the start, in the form of a very minimalist arcade mode, and an extra episode from the viewpoint of the opposing force.

Did I mention that the "super advanced techonology" thing is pretty hilariously out of place in the game?

Anyway, now I'm at a strange place, where anything I want to play on the 360 is either out of reach and what I do have (things like Fallout titles, PGR4, more Red Dead Redemption) I don't want to play anymore. Hmm, time to fire up the ol' Xbox and play some more Otogi 2 and Ninja Gaiden (Black this time!) then.