What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[linko9]

My bad.. I played Sacred Stones on the gba. Just patched up a copy of FE4 and it looks pretty promising. Thanks for the tip!

Awesome

My only advice is, unless you plan on playing through the game twice, I'd recommend using a guide of some sort; really you just want a checklist of what characters/items to get in each chapter; it's easy to miss out on someone or something that's really important, when often to get certain characters/items, you have to know to send certain units to a specific square on the map or something. Also, if you like the game after the first couple of chapters, plan out your couples (this will make sense one you start playing) early, so you don't regret anything later on.

[null1024]

Virtua Quest.

It is extremely average, and the levels take forever, but I noticed that it plays like a more enjoyable version of Sonic Unleashed's night stages. It does right what the Werehog doesn't, although that still doesn't make it a great game.

Although, it does look rather pretty for a GC game. It's no F-Zero GX, but it is reasonable.

[Chacranajxy]

Started Sonic Generations today and ended up playing it for like 4 hours straight. It is excellent, and I say this as someone who doesn't really even like most of the Genesis games. Definitely one of the best games I've played this year.

[BPzeBanshee]

Contra: Hard Corps.

I didn't think I'd be surprised by anything after seeing stuff like Shinobi III and Thunder Force IV on the Megadrive but this takes the cake in terms of "putting graphics into such a console" department.

[iconoclast]

Just finished my first (and only) playthrough of El Shaddai. Pretty sure this is the worst game I've played all year (it's a tossup between this and Duke). The level design in particular is absolutely horrible; almost every stage is nothing but barren, straight corridors and an occasional platforming segment, with a few designated combat areas where you fight a few waves of repetitive enemies. The combat is shallow and simplistic, bosses have about 100x more health than they should, and there's about 15 enemies in the game (including bosses) that they recycle over and over. Needless to say, I think the game is trash.

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Contra: Hard Corps.

I didn't think I'd be surprised by anything after seeing stuff like Shinobi III and Thunder Force IV on the Megadrive but this takes the cake in terms of "putting graphics into such a console" department.

Wait until you play Pulseman, also commonly known as Seizures: The Game.

[kid aphex]

Just finished my first (and only) playthrough of El Shaddai. Pretty sure this is the worst game I've played all year (it's a tossup between this and Duke). The level design in particular is absolutely horrible; almost every stage is nothing but barren, straight corridors and an occasional platforming segment, with a few designated combat areas where you fight a few waves of repetitive enemies. The combat is shallow and simplistic, bosses have about 100x more health than they should, and there's about 15 enemies in the game (including bosses) that they recycle over and over. Needless to say, I think the game is trash.

Even with all those criticisms levied against El Shaddai, it's still nowhere near as bad as Duke. Claiming something that ridiculous off-hand only made me question your comprehension. If the entire game consisted of THREE button presses, but retained it's art assets, it'd remain a better game than Duke.

[kid aphex]

I've been playing Nier and haven't been as emotionally affected by a videogame since A Link to the Past, when I was 10

[BPzeBanshee]

Contra: Hard Corps.

I didn't think I'd be surprised by anything after seeing stuff like Shinobi III and Thunder Force IV on the Megadrive but this takes the cake in terms of "putting graphics into such a console" department.

Wait until you play Pulseman, also commonly known as Seizures: The Game.

Thanks, I'll take up that suggestion sometime after exams.

[BIL]

I've been playing Hard Corps (Genesis) this weekend... and really liking it, enough to clear multiple routes in a sitting, which surprises me a little. I grew up with the US version (no level select) and got really, really sick of sitting through the same early stages over and over to get to the killer later routes - always considered this a much weaker effort than Castlevania's Genesis equivalent, the rampantly-paced and spectacularly-bossed Bloodlines, which I can happily romp through several times a sitting without the slightest complaints.

I still absolutely loathe the jungle boss - just too much dead time between forms - and wish there was an option to play the whole lot in one go (would potentially make it a good scoring game if milking was stubbed out). But I think being a bit older I appreciate just how crazy the sense of destructive excess is throughout, which makes the earlier bits less tedious. Fang's charge shot really tears apart bosses, too, as fast as you can handle charging and firing while dodging attacks, so it feels a much more aggressive game these days.

The way things explode in this game from popcorn to minibosses to end bosses is orgasmic. Almost Raizing or Seibu-esque... I love how it's never one explosion with a large target, it's always *BAM* *BAM* *target engulfed in flames* *BAMBAMBAMBAM* *colours invert with seizure-inducing strobing* *KABLAM*

[JBC]

Ishar 1, 2, and 3 using WinUAE. I'm sort of on sabbatical from modern gaming after smashing Demon's and Dark Souls back to back.

[Leandro]

I've been playing Neo Geo games using emulator through tv-out... The games look so gorgeous on my old crt tv, much better than on lcd monitor. I'm using a mega drive 6 button pad through lpt1 adapter. Such a joy

[Siren2011]

Max Payne.

[JJXB]

syndicate on dosxbox, turrican 1-3 on winuaex, splinter cell ct. somehow the xbox video output doesn't look like ass in widescreen sd on our hdtv. crt looks better still though.

[1up]

Completed Modern Warfare 3 campaign and most of the spec ops missions. Got my fix of multiplayer, so now Im back playing Assassins Creed II. Just arrived at Venice...

[powersoul]

Dead Space 2
Beautiful Katamari
Battlefield: vietnam and 3
Tomb Raider Underworld

[Drachenherz]

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, PC.

I'm amazed how well the game runs on my new Laptop. It's a i7 Quadcore and has a nVdidia GT555m, and it runs in full HD 1920x1080, without aliasing but all details maxed out except the shadow quality, which is one below max... It runs at a constant 30+ FPS... I am positively

The game itself... Well, it's assassin's creed... You either love it or hate it... Personally... I just love it. It really makes you feel like the deadly-über-Assassins, and the graphics still are beautiful to behold.

[null1024]

Been playing Virtua Fighter 2 [yay Windows 95 port, works on Win 7 64 bit, just set compatibility to XP and color settings to 256 -- once in game you can change it to 65536 colors and bump up the graphics settings -- do not run it at 65k colors beforehand, as there will be a flickery box and some other assorted issues]. I really suck at VF, it's a very different fighter than what I'm used to [read: Capcom and SNK fighters, Tekken].

Also, Pokemon Black, on the 2nd gym. Need to bother to play this more.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, PC

Ah, jeez. I got this through OnLive for $1 [they had a promotion where your first game only cost $1], and I love it -- I just haven't played it nearly as much as I should.

And yes, OnLive. I have a netbook with a better-than-Intel video chip, but is 1GHz, and a laptop with an assy Intel video chip, but 2.1GHz. Neither will ever hope to get more than 6 FPS running this game locally.

[Drachenherz]

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, PC

Ah, jeez. I got this through OnLive for $1 [they had a promotion where your first game only cost $1], and I love it -- I just haven't played it nearly as much as I should.

And yes, OnLive. I have a netbook with a better-than-Intel video chip, but is 1GHz, and a laptop with an assy Intel video chip, but 2.1GHz. Neither will ever hope to get more than 6 FPS running this game locally.

OnLive... I just had to google it... I just can't imagine something like that working properly... I mean, seriously? Streaming the game as a video to you, and sending your inputs via internet to the server? Doesn't it lag terribly, thus rendering the games unplayable?

So, my question to you: how does it feel, playing the games with OnLive? Is the lag killing the fun or are the games actually playable?

[Obiwanshinobi]

The way things explode in this game from popcorn to minibosses to end bosses is orgasmic. Almost Raizing or Seibu-esque... I love how it's never one explosion with a large target, it's always *BAM* *BAM* *target engulfed in flames* *BAMBAMBAMBAM* *colours invert with seizure-inducing strobing* *KABLAM*

One console game of the era to rival Hard Corps in the explosion fetish department is Wild Guns for the SNES.
I'm playing S&P2. Rad explosions too.

[BPzeBanshee]

Zuma! It's surprisingly addictive!

[Ruldra]

Texas Hold'em Poker.

[shmuppyLove]

syndicate on dosxbox, turrican 1-3 on winuaex, splinter cell ct. somehow the xbox video output doesn't look like ass in widescreen sd on our hdtv. crt looks better still though.

Hey speaking of Syndicate ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSNrfNTTP3U

I'll just leave this here.

[Marc]

I think Syndicate looks pretty good to be fair. And I'm a fan of Starbreeze anyway, so getting quite excited for this.

[null1024]

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, PC

Ah, jeez. I got this through OnLive for $1 [they had a promotion where your first game only cost $1], and I love it -- I just haven't played it nearly as much as I should.

And yes, OnLive. I have a netbook with a better-than-Intel video chip, but is 1GHz, and a laptop with an assy Intel video chip, but 2.1GHz. Neither will ever hope to get more than 6 FPS running this game locally.

OnLive... I just had to google it... I just can't imagine something like that working properly... I mean, seriously? Streaming the game as a video to you, and sending your inputs via internet to the server? Doesn't it lag terribly, thus rendering the games unplayable?

So, my question to you: how does it feel, playing the games with OnLive? Is the lag killing the fun or are the games actually playable?

It's surprisingly good considering what it is. There's about as much lag as there is on one of the assier HDTVs upscaling a lo-def signal.
The only real issue I've had is if your connection starts to die on you for whatever reason [e.g, someone else gets on your wifi network and starts a torrent ], it's like watching a scratched DVD. Horrible.

Also, I'd never purchase a game full price through OnLive. They run nice, yes, but what if OnLive is down or I don't have internet at a time? I'd be $50 the poorer for no good reason.
I'm thinking about doing the subscription thing though [about $10/mo for unlimited access to most of their library? Yesssssss.].

I'm absolutely amazed about the whole video thing though, the fact that they can actually do it fast.
Go try it out, you can install the runner for free, and you can play 30 minute demos of most of the games on the site.

I'd never play a shmup over this service, but it works well enough for most other things.


Also, there was this one indie breakout game on the service that I really wonder why was there -- it's too fast paced a game for the service. Playing something like Split/Second is fine, tried out Borderlands and it felt fine, etc. They had Unreal Tournament on there, bad move, too fast a game. It's really game specific too, because apparently they optimize their servers and video quality for certain games over others.

[Moniker]

Just found out that xcom 1 & 2 have psx ports. They therefore now reside on my psp. I don't know why I have such a hardon for portable gaming, but this takes it to a new level.

[mrsmiley381]

I just tried playing Kenseiden again for the first time in maybe five years. I quit after about ten minutes. I can't deal with its bullshit right now.

Rayman Origins should be here soon, so I might enjoy that a lot more.

[ED-057]

I`ve been playing a bit of World of Padman. It`s a multiplayer FPS like many others, but open source and with low hardware requirements. (not that I have any interest in looking at source code, read that as the game being cross-platform and free)

[Ruldra]

I just tried playing Kenseiden again for the first time in maybe five years. I quit after about ten minutes. I can't deal with its bullshit right now.

What? Kenseiden is awesome. One of my favorite SMS games.

[mrsmiley381]

I just tried playing Kenseiden again for the first time in maybe five years. I quit after about ten minutes. I can't deal with its bullshit right now.

What? Kenseiden is awesome. One of my favorite SMS games.

That Wheel of Fortune first boss just drove me a little crazy. I'll probably attempt it again sometime, but right now my ability to execute movement and attacking properly is strangely missing. I'll have to devote a day to playing some stupid hard to get back up to speed. Battletoads?