What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[rancor]

I'm going to take a wild guess and say you know way more about the system's library than I do. What have you played so far? I might be able to compare a few notes after seeing a list...

I just got the discs about a month ago. They are all loose, and were on sale for about a dollar a disc at my local pawn shop. I grabbed 100, made sure there were no dupes, and laid down my cash. No regrets so far. So far the winners I've found are:

Call of Duty 2 : Big Red One
Crazy Taxi
F-Zero GX
Freedom Fighters
Mario Kart
Medal of Honor : European Assault
Rainbow 6 - 3
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Smugglers Run: Warzone
Super Puzzle Bobble Allstars
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 and 4
Wario World
Wave Race

Those are all the good ones I've played so far, but I still have a LOT to go through. Driven looks good, and so does XIII, the Resident Evil Series and of course Metal Gear - But those are a bit too deep for me to delve into at the moment. I feverishly looked for Ikaruga in the stack, but no dice. I suppose I'll have to track that down on ebay someday.

[Vexorg]

Last week I grabbed Borderlands off of Steam when it was on sale. It definitely reminds me a lot of Fallout 3 (which was cited as being a heavy influence on the design,) but also serves to highlight a lot of what just plain didn't work with that particular game, mostly by not making the same mistakes. The VATS system used in F3 might be interesting for people who aren't really all that good at FPS games (or who constantly fight FPS controls on a console,) but really, doesn't it just make more sense to shoot at something and hit it if you aimed properly than to shoot something at point blank and missing if the Random number generator says you do?

I haven't had a chance to try this in co-op though, so I can't say anything about that aspect of the game. Does anyone else around here have it on PC?

[Khan]

I've had the game for a while now but just havent bothered installing it, i hear on steam theres a few problems with the dlc as in it makes the game crash so I would stick to vanilla if i were you.

[BIL]

Finally got around to finishing Metal Slug 5 on the three-credit limit I tend to set myself for casual arcade play. Middling game as I expected, except for that last boss design. That was about as menacing a boss intro as I'd think possible for a 2D game.

[mortified_penguin]

I've had Borderlands since launch but picked up the DLC from the steam sale, so been busy with that with my two friends. Great game but multiplayer can get kinda crazy when people are different levels and don't stick to their character's specialty. Basically, we've got a lvl 43 berserker, (me), firing rockets like mad, a lvl 21 hunter built for suicide melee rushing rather than sniping, and a lvl 15 solider trying to snipe and not get killed in two hits. So yeah, total chaos but still tons of fun.

I was experiencing some crashing with an ATI 5570, supposedly the 10.7 drivers have a massive memory leak issue, but after putting the old 8800gts back in I'm crash free so far.

[Minzoku]

SCOTT PILGRIM THE GAME [apparently all caps] just came out on XBLA, so I've been playing that.

My hands are killing me =(


It seems like I'm fangirling over SP lately, but it's really more I have $70 left in XBox money that I got gifted and am looking for things to spend it on Haven't gotten past the first twenty-ish pages of the actual comic...

[mesh control]

Carnivores mini game for the PSP.

[JohnnyK98]

Hey Rancor, nice pick ups! F-Zero GX is awesome. I love fast paced futuristic arcade racers. I've been playing a lot of Hydro Thunder Hurricane lately, it's very much like the original.

I'm also playing Field & Stream: Total Outdoorsman Challenge. That's right. I bought the game, haha! I actually enjoyed the demo, so I bought it. I enjoyed the first couple of hours playing, getting new firearms, hunting new animals, exploring the environment... Then you get a hold of a semi-automatic shotgun and the game becomes an all out animal massacre. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The most outlandish GameCube title I can think of would be Darkened Skye. I found a copy of the PC version in a supermarket's bargain bin about seven years ago. It's a budget Zelda clone heavy with Skittles product placement. Recently it turned out to have a GameCube version as well. Bizarre.

[ZOM]

M&M Mars licensed use of their candy but maintained some editorial control upon the game. One requirement was to "remove all the snakes from the game."

[Obiwanshinobi]

To be fair, there was something strangely likeable about Darkened Skye despite all its sub-Heretic II visuals and gameplay. Namely the music, the writing and not too shabby voice acting (at least in the version I played). It wasn't trying to be cool if you know what I mean. Say, if the last gen Naughty Dog made it, it would certainly have awesome production values and brilliant technology, but cringeworthy animations and humour (worse than product placement). At least the Darkened Skye's animations are bad for budget reasons rather than god-awful "cartoony" style.

[Ed Oscuro]

Call of Duty 2 : Big Red One
Crazy Taxi
F-Zero GX
Freedom Fighters
Mario Kart
Medal of Honor : European Assault
Rainbow 6 - 3
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Smugglers Run: Warzone
Super Puzzle Bobble Allstars
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 and 4
Wario World
Wave Race

Surprisingly we have no games in common. I haven't gone too far out into the woods with the GC library. I've played and think all the following are great: Resident Evil (remake of the first), Resident Evil 4 (great, probably the best version still despite the PC release), Zelda Wind Waker (also quite good), Metroid Prime (just need to challenge the very last boss), Phantasy Star Ep. 1 & 2 (even played offline solo - if you ever spot the Plus version, grab that, not only has it more content but it's also rarer and more valuable!), and the Game Boy Player was the reason I got my GC in the first place (not that GBA games are better than the GC library as far as I'm concerned), though I still haven't used my Hori controller with it. Killer7, also, is a must-play IMO.

I also have Resident Evil: Codename Veronica (happy supermarket find), which I personally think is great but it's quite dated, being a fairly straight Dreamcast port. (The same is true of Phantasy Star Ep. 1 & 2, actually; items pop up quite noticeably). Then there are other games: Dead to Rights, which is kind of like an original PlayStation game running at a higher resolution - very primitive in parts but there is some neat stuff there as well, and Blowout, a really lousy sidescroller which uses the usual Aliens-style theme, but with less feeling and low-rate visuals. Blowout probably is closest to the old Bungee title Abuse (have, never played - I'm bad about opening many old games...)

I also have seen Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, which looks reasonable but I haven't played due to not being much of an MGS fan. Also have and haven't played: Harvest Moon: Magical Melody (haha, apparently it's not worth even the thrift store price I paid for a used copy), Resident Evil Zero (and I didn't even go out of my way to get the rereleases of Resident Evils 2 & 3, or the "Pure Evil" two-pack with Zero and Remake on it. Can you tell they went overboard with that series on the GameCube? It was Nintendo's big push to make the series appeal to a wider audience...well, hardcore RE fans appreciated it, but the skater / football crowds stuck to the PS2 and Xbox. I also hear good things about many other exclusives, such as Eternal Darkness, L o Zelda Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 2, etc.

It's interesting to see Darkened Skye mentioned recently...I tried to find the PC version some time ago, I thought it looked cheesy but cute and promising. I'll have to try again.

[Dragoforce]

Just cleared Terranigma. By far the worst game in the Soulblazer/Gaia/Terranigma trilogy. Boring graphics compared to Gaia and the main plot was both illogical and incoherent.

[Drum]

This: http://vectorpark.com/thomas/seasons.html

[rancor]

Surprisingly we have no games in common.

haha.. yeah, it appears so. I just really can't get into RPGs, or games that take more than a few minutes (generally 30-45 minutes is my max play time) to play. (I suppose thats why I'm on this board.. ). Phantasy Star, the R.E. series, and Zelda just require more of a commitment than I'm willing to give.. I'm sure they're great, but my A.D.D. wont let me sit still for that long.. haha.

[sjewkestheloon]

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite.

That is all.

[mesh control]

Gran Turismo PSP

In preparation for GT5.

[drunkninja24]

Went and picked up a copy of Ys Seven yesterday, been playing it for a bit. Really fun game, and the LE package is quite nice.

[ZOM]

Ys Seven. Again. For the 3rd time - this time in English.

[Drum]

So, I should play Ys 7 then, right? Maybe I should beat Ys Book I & II before I do.

[ZOM]

^^Great game, but A) I'm a biased falcom nut and B) You need to play it on a high enough difficulty setting;
there's more depth found in the battles then you'll see at first glance, but the problem is that the game just doesn't force you to use things like the "flash-guard"(0dmg at right timing, else double-damage), instant character-switching, the enemies' stun gauge, and finally, the launch/juggle skills, if played on normal.

Also, another personal dislike is that they've made it a bit more "RPG-ish" and less "action". Story progression felt like a typical JRPG,
something that IMHO could've been left to [explore dungeons -> if you want talk to npcs ->kill the bad guy] for this series, without loading it with too many story events.

Other than that the game is great, and while some of the earlier bosses just plain suck(two attack patterns, long but not challenging, etc.), the game makes up for it with the latter boss fights which are pure fun to dodge, flash-guard, attack and take down.

Ys: Oath of Felghana is still the better game tho.

[drunkninja24]

Yeah, Oath in Felghana looks sweet, I'll probably pick it up when the PSP version hits as well. Along with Ys I & II Chronicles. Funny what Ys VI just did to me

[lilmanjs]

last game I played was Vanishing Point on my dreamcast. fun game it is.

[drauch]

Started playing Farcry the other day, as I never got to play it on PC when it first came out. Starts off kinda hard, but now I'm really starting to enjoy it.

[gs68]

DJMAX Trilogy. 1.28 patch = no more autocorrect = hooray, this game has value again!
Typing of the Dead. Tower's 2nd phase is currently pissing me off.

[drauch]

Finally got Myth: The Fallen Lords to work on XP and started replaying it. God, is that game brutal. Myth II: Soulblighter is probably in my top ten games, but the first game I just never did beat, mainly due to some awkward control and it's difficulty. Well, here's to finally beating it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hey, I have that one for Mac, haven't ever played though.

Uhh, been dicking around with Hackneyed Skye. Wait, that didn't come out right. Too many puns. The ugly 16-bit era textures make me wish this had been made just a couple years later...actually, that's true of the original Thief games too. Great art direction, if you aren't following my meaning. Shit combat though. Puzzles range from dumb to passable time-wasters.

[CStarFlare]

Final Fantasy for the NES

This is great; I can read during battles because it's so fucking slow

[rapoon]

warhammer online. loved the game. so many fucking bugs for years.

2+ years later they seem to have ironed them out. Great PvP.

[chempop]

Final Fantasy 9, first rpg (or non shmup) I've played in quite a few years. I like it a lot but usually burn out after 40 hours, hopefully it keeps me attached till the end.

I was going to also start Yakuza 2 soon which I just recently found a copy of, loved the first game!