What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Ive sunk 180 hours into The Last Remnant PC and still havnt finished the fucking thing, man in so depressed

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Have no idea why I held off on this so long. I love platformers, and it's always nice to see some challenge from them!

[mesh control]

At Arcade UFO, I played Arcana Heart 3. What a disappointment. The pacing is all kinds of fucked up, because things don't even get remotely heavy until the fifth or sixth fight. At least the early tier fighters proved somewhat of a challenge in the first game. I just don't see myself coming back to it ever again, unless of course the PCB has adjustable difficulty switches. Sadly, I am incapable of playing a game that fails to keep my interest in the first few parts of it, even if it looks like AH3.

You're doing it wrong.
Arcana Heart is a competitive fighter. There is no reason to play against the computer.
Everything you need to know is right here: http://arcana.mizuumi.net/wiki/Main_Page


Anyways,
3D Dot Game Heroes

Nice and relaxing.

[shmuppyLove]

So on a whim I popped in Elemental Gearbolt, and I thought, "surely this game hasn't held up over the years ... It's going to be so much worse than I remember ..."

Man I couldn't have been more wrong ... epic soundtrack, awesome art style, crazy pseudo-science-magic-steampunk technology ... I just wish I still had my guncon, cuz playing with a pad kind of blows.

[R-Gray 1]

I was playing

Tetris Attack
Castlevania Dracula X
Kof 98
Garou Mark of the wolves

[Siren2011]

You're doing it wrong.
Arcana Heart is a competitive fighter. There is no reason to play against the computer.

That makes total sense. If there's anything I've learned from taking down some of the most monstrous Japanese players in Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram, is that the essence of fighting games is sparring against experienced opponents. I would love to play against people via Xbox live, but I don't have a Japanese 360. Soon that will change, though! Very soon.

Ahem. Without any further ado, I present to you all my review of Fear Effect for the Sony Playstation.



Kronos Digital’s existence will always be known by a select few. As Lamefaqs and similar online gaming publications continue to be littered with boring mainstream bullshit which the masses have numbingly grown to love and accept as standard, databases containing massive amounts of information about games from the past are deleted off the servers (See: Select Button’s new page), effectively betraying a bitter, deep seeded hatred and ignorance for our dear hobby and its fascinating history. Cut off from reality, the rabble will continue to be blind to each and every valuable contribution to the gaming world that doesn’t sport the Nintendo “Seal of Approval” on its box (And that in itself is part of the problem, because Nintendo isn’t even “valuable.” Quite the opposite, in fact.). And even if they were brought by the hand to this game, they wouldn’t know how to react when the system boots and the controller is in their grip –much like showing a Christian a voluptuous nymphomaniac bitch with a tongue ring and clit piercing, and telling him he could do anything he wants to her. And he would, of course, squirm at the thought of trying something new and pleasurable (There’s a fancy word for that. Some call it neurosis, others call it gay.). It is highly unfortunate, highly pitiable, but such is reality.

The company got their start with a PC and Sega Saturn released game called Phantasmagoria, in which they made a single cutscene in it. After making shitty fighting games and other tripe, they FINALLY discovered their hidden potential and put it to good use.

Believe me when I say that Fear Effect was the best possible way they could redeem themselves. They basically ripped the Resident Evil formula’s balls off, and tied them to an overly elaborate contraption that, when fed lighter fluid town one of its tubes, would set ablaze not only the balls themselves, but the machine. The result is a blazing, fully functional machine…with balls; the staple of all manhood.

Terrified? You should be.

So WTF exactly is it? Fear Effect is a cell shaded, 3D adrenaline trip. Instead of the standard camera, it adopts the Resident Evil screen location change, much like the 3D Lucas Arts adventure games had. What set’s this game apart from Resident Evil would be Kronos’ very own Motion FX software technology, that takes anything from breathtaking cityscapes at night, to the backdrop of hell and puts the same animation on a loop. The result is a fascinating, creepy-cool atmosphere that no other game has known. It gives the game life.

But enough about the visuals, which are reason enough to pick up this game. Armed with guns, a knife, and a roll/evade move (I’ll elaborate more on that in a second…), your mission as one of three playable bounty hunters is to track down the runaway daughter of a powerful triad leader before he does. The daughter, Wee Ming Lam, is to be used as a bargaining chip when and if our friends Glas, Hana, and Deke, ever catch her…

There is no clear advantage to any of the characters over the others, and they cannot be chosen. Their destinies all intertwine, so you are constantly given control of whichever one is about to do something fucking sick as hell at that particular moment.

Basically, the whole game amounts to non-stop gun fighting with varied and riveting moments to retain your interest in between. Sneaking up to enemies for a knife kill does not alert the other guards’ presence, and stabilizes your Fear Meter, which is another unique aspect that makes this game shine.

The Fear Meter resembles the descending and peaking vital sign found in hospitals everywhere. Different from a normal health bar, this meter is influenced by a number of factors; making the wrong move in a puzzle, being in a room with a lot of enemies, and getting shot all have negative effects on your pulse that can bring the meter into critical red condition, then death. (The positive changes come from beating any particular segment and getting sneak kills.) The added tension in the presence of the first boss is like an extra push for the player to stay alive. Sometimes I couldn’t tell if the heart beating sound was coming from me or the game. Why this feature hasn’t been replicated in other games since is a mystery to me. The only thing I disliked about it was how the physical and mental health of your antagonist (That's right, you play as the bad guys.) does not influence your avatar's behavior. Naturally, if we are indeed shooting for realism here, having a red condition should make it harder to aim at targets (nervousness and fatigue), and being in high spirits should improve lock on speed.

Combat is very fast, and requires that you lock on to a foe --by facing his direction-- before you fire with accuracy. This takes a little less than a second, but amateurs everywhere will shoot before that and miss plenty of times, leaving them vulnerable to taking hits. Most enemies will always miss their first shot if you crouch immediately after getting their attention (Lock on rules apply to their perspectives as well.), making one realize that there are two planes of fire: standing up and crouching. In other words, enemies can only hit you when you’re crouching if they crouch themselves before firing. In that time before they crouch is crucial to killing as many foes as possible, if not all of them in a room. This is about as complex as the combat gets, I’m afraid. But at least there is the challenge of encountering new enemy arrangements. If you don’t know which side of a room they are in, you could very well find yourself in a nasty fix. Thus, mastering the game is a lot about memorizing enemy placement and finding the right weapon for each situation. In this game, I find such simplicity acceptable, but in the sequel, it is unfortunate and unacceptable that virtually nothing meaningful has changed with regards to the battle system.

Also worth mentioning is the controversial evading move. If the button is held down, one can render himself invincible, BUT he won’t have the ability to attack. In some cases, it can prove dangerous to hold this button down, because the second you stand, an enemy who was aware of your presence long ago will have a bullet with your name on it. So the roll is only supposed to be used sparingly. Furthermore, the only way to receive most quest items is to kill people, so you will have no choice but to fight. I enjoy this room for flexibility, except for how it usually gets you stuck against objects due to horrendous collision issues. But that is minor, and avoidable if you only use it when necessary.

I will admit, while the game starts off really strong as far as pacing goes for the first three discs, the fourth is so unbearable, so boring, that one would get the impulse to give up and miss out on the incredible final boss, along with three selectable endings (two with a different boss fight) --the third “ideal” one only accessible after you play through on Hard mode. The final boss is tough as nails, but he’s definitely not insurmountable.

Flaws include inane backtracking in the fourth disc ad nauseam, and taking control of a gimped hero who can only carry one gun –which makes it impossible not to take any damage at all during that particular chapter. Plus, the story really doesn’t make sense at times, leaving the dumbest of gamers to hallucinate “what it all might mean,” instead of acknowledging the plot holes and smoke and mirrors as poor storytelling.

The visuals, while stunning and anime inspired, are far from perfect. Of course, being a polygonal Playstation game, character models have jagged edges when displayed far away, but sharp and stunning when close up. I found myself playing the whole game on my portable PS1 flip screen, which condensed the pixels for a breathtaking resolution. It isn’t a sin if you play the game on a moderately sized CRT, but you’d be missing out.

Puzzles are by no means extraordinarily difficult, but they make you think to some degree. They range from word games to memorization based, and each one of them is incorporated into the game’s storyline in a clever way (Though I refuse to give out any spoilers. Play the game and you’ll see.).

The music is grand, and I grew to love all of the main characters. In fact, when I sped through this game as a teen using cheat codes, I printed out a picture of all three ruthless mercenaries on photo paper, framed them, and put it on the wall of my room. My uncle looked at me like I was a weirdo, but I just shrugged.

Still not convinced that this is a game worth playing? What if I told you that you go from a Blade Runner-esque building investigation to disarm C4 strapped to your boss, to a brothel with a heavy Chinese influence in its grand entry hall, filled with thugs? What if I told you that, on your mission to steal an armored train filled with military weapons, you had to fend baddies off from the top of the moving train only to find out that THE BRIDGE IS OUT, so you run as far away from the front of the train as possible to avoid falling to your death? That is what is in store for you. Pure exhilaration awaits every curious player.

Personally, I had a tremendous amount of fun attempting to 1CC this game for a year. While it isn’t too plausible to do so, thanks to the piss poor pacing of the fourth disc (Or more specifically, putting up with it more than once due to dying multiple times.), there is no denying that it made me feel more like one of the characters. After you immerse yourself so far into the game, where one death could end it all --everything you worked so hard to achieve, killing so many who opposed you on the way--, I actually felt an air of importance to my avatar’s life. The tension exploded, and I was having a fucking blast. Admittedly, when I decided to scrap the 1CC idea, the game was nowhere near as much fun. I suggest you at least try playing it that way and see what you think. I insist that this is how videogames should be: as close to realism as possible. The closer a game comes to achieving this, the more valuable it is --just like the closer a character in a film resembles aspects of ourselves, the more valuable that movie will be to us.

Fear Effect adds an innovative health feature and blends it with a fully rich 3D environment --the first ever game to feature cell shading--, near perfect pacing, adrenaline filled scenarios, cool puzzles and Goddamn it, characters we can care about! I mean, who the hell doesn’t love a sociopathic mercenary with a dark past?

*****

[drauch]

I just bought Fear Effect the other day, actually, after wanting to play it since it came out. Only took like 10 years or whatever. Haven't started it though.

Started playing Valkyria Chronicles, though. I like it lots.

[Siren2011]

Nice, drauch! Be sure to tell me your opinions on the game when you're done.

[iconoclast]

Started playing Valkyria Chronicles, though. I like it lots.

Enjoy it! VC was the first game that made me glad to own a PS3.

...I still hope we'll get a proper sequel on console someday.

[CulDad78]

SF III Third Strike on PSN - awesome to play against friends online, but overall disappointed that I actully find the DC (on VGA) version to be superior graphically.

[Davey]

If there's anything I've learned from taking down some of the most monstrous Japanese players in Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram, is that the essence of fighting games is sparring against experienced opponents. I would love to play against people via Xbox live, but I don't have a Japanese 360. Soon that will change, though! Very soon.

VOOT = XBLA game = region free

[Siren2011]

If there's anything I've learned from taking down some of the most monstrous Japanese players in Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram, is that the essence of fighting games is sparring against experienced opponents. I would love to play against people via Xbox live, but I don't have a Japanese 360. Soon that will change, though! Very soon.

VOOT = XBLA game = region free

If figured as much. But even so, my American 360 is with my brother in Oregon.

[RNGmaster]

More Ms. Splosion Man. There's a Double Play mode XD

[BIL]

Today I killed a man by burning him to death in an industrial furnace, before tucking into some chicken I found in the trash.

"Really Alan?!"

Yes! I was playing Final Fight.

*laugh track*

I just found out about Haggar's invincible frames and the p,p, auto suplex trick, which made life one hell of a lot easier. I was taking advantage of the frames before, but not quite knowing it. Almost to Belger on a credit now. Such a rock-solid beat 'em up. Simple, unforgiving, hard-hitting perfection. Still looks fantastic as well with the huge, colourful sprites and superb background details.

STUPID FURNACE BIT though... why did beltscrollers feel the need to get all platformy like that? I can handle the actual fighting up until the very end of the game with no trouble at all, but no-missing the start of stage 4 was a real bitch.

[JJXB]

for the first time in a while, Magicland Dizzy (yes, i did record this an age back)

[Psikyo_Ball]

Alien vs predator
Super street fighter II turbo
metal slug X

[Obiwanshinobi]

Alien vs predator

...?

[Psikyo_Ball]

Is a beat em up from capcom.

[null1024]

Tasty Static. This thing is addictive.

Thank you for reminding me that this exists.


Also, been playing a metric assload of Super Smash Bros Melee, something I haven't done much of in about 8 years now, so I suck [lots of 4 player matches with friends]. Notably, I keep accidentally doing Luigi's up+B instead of his side+B, the mixup of which ensures my death.

[dcharlie]

I played the ever living sh1t out of Monster Hunter 1 when it came out in Japan - sank about 180 hours or so into it and really liked it.

however, for some reason i just didn't come anywhere near that in Monster Hunter 2.

Toyed with the PSP versions, sinking in about 30 hours in each. About 5 hours on Wii , about 10 minutes on Frontier

Anyways - i have finally got around to MH3rd on PSP (and since last week MH3rd HD) - yeah, it's pretty great. Passed 50 hours in two weeks - it's ideal for commuting. HD has a dodgy GUI but the game itself looks great - especially in 3D.

[louisg]

FAST Racing League! It's like if you took F-Zero X, added some weird polarity rules, and made the tracks deadly as hell. So far, it's fun, hard, and fair. It's not nearly as fast as something like F-Zero GX, but it gets going once you start using polarity and boosts well.

The game mechanics work well: you collect coins scattered around the track, and you can use 1 to switch polarity and 5 to do a boost. If you are on a black or white boost strip and your ship matches color, you boost. If you pass through a jump of the same color, you jump. If there is a strip on the ceiling of the same color, you attach to the ceiling and boost. So, it becomes a matter of optimization: you want to switch polarity as infrequently as possible to conserve your coins, and so you try to find the best color flipping routine for a given track. Good stuff.

[drauch]

Valkyria Chronicles is my main game right now. Absolutely loving it, although slightly frustrating at times.

[Mero]

Atelier Iris 2. Bought it about 2008 but never played it till last week, about 18 hours in atm. Way, way better than the first, which was the last rpg I played back in '08.

[Van_Artic]

i'm a cs1 360 player myself. the 1.03 system data pack apparently brings the balance to cs2 standard.

yes it does, the changes made me drop tager

what changes were they? me and a friend play as tager without major issues. but I main litchi faye ling and occasionally hazama.

it's not like they changed tager that much aside from the chargable 6A and different pulling for his command grabs, it's the changes for the other characters; i play Makoto now

[JJXB]

it's not like they changed tager that much aside from the chargable 6A and different pulling for his command grabs, it's the changes for the other characters; i play Makoto now

I haven't played BB at all recently. the friend i play it with has been focusing on SSF4:AE and Arcana Heart 3. and I've been rather distracted by Deus Ex: HR (i fucking hate the bosses. the third one is especially painful at the second)

[Marble]

3rd Strike: Online Edition, at a launch tourney on Friday then a ranbat on Sunday. Seems like an alright port but it has some problems. It doesn't allow you to disable the PPP and KKK macros, when playing on a monitor none of the display options are quite right (if you want the original aspect ratio you can't disable the slightly-distracting writing on the sides) and all of the menu/music/HUD/etc changes are for the worse, but most of them are optional. Haven't actually checked out the online as I don't own it yet.

And more recently some NES games, mostly TMNT and Batman. Good stuff.

[Aquas]

Ys: Oath in Felghana on PSP, liking it!

And neglecting Dragon Warrior 4 (NES), then playing SF4 arcade edition as usual. Hit up some casuals at the mall tonight.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm trying to beat Revenge Of Shinobi on Normal. I'm going back and playing old games that I beat on Easy, and doing it legit. Well, trying to.

[JJXB]

Ys: Oath in Felghana on PSP, liking it!

it is a great game, i do admit. though Ys Seven was damn good too.

[null1024]

PuLiRuLa. So bloody strange, but rather enjoyable. Need to figure out how to do the level 3 boss without getting hit as much as I do...