What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Marc]

Lots of Split/Second. Most underrated racer of this gen, and ten times the game that pile of dogshit Unbounded turned out to be.

[Icarus]

Nah I just found the pic on the interwebs. I'm sure it's super expensive.

She is. I paid $100 for mine via Yahoo Auctions Japan. I've seen them go for $150+.
She takes pride of place next to my X360, along with Rin and Alicia. <3
Momohime, and the Odin Sphere girls Gwendolyn, Mercedes and Velvet are all very expensive figurines, but the build quality and style more than make up for it.

[Elixir]

Nah I just found the pic on the interwebs. I'm sure it's super expensive.

She is. I paid $100 for mine via Yahoo Auctions Japan. I've seen them go for $150+.
She takes pride of place next to my X360, along with Rin and Alicia. <3
Momohime, and the Odin Sphere girls Gwendolyn, Mercedes and Velvet are all very expensive figurines, but the build quality and style more than make up for it.

It's actually getting a reprint together with Kongiku, apparently, sometime this year. No date.

I didn't think it was that expensive. Gwendolyn and Mercedes were both 7,800 yen each before EMS.

[null1024]

Lots of Split/Second. Most underrated racer of this gen, and ten times the game that pile of dogshit Unbounded turned out to be.

Gaaaah, I wish I owned this. Played this over with a friend, it's so much fun.


Also, playing F-Zero X [N64]. Great way to start the morning! ;D

[Jason X]

Mmm, Velvet. Now there was a character design. Gwendolyn was great, too. Now if only the game didn't force you to play the same shit like, eight times over...

[Icarus]

It's actually getting a reprint together with Kongiku, apparently, sometime this year. No date.
I didn't think it was that expensive. Gwendolyn and Mercedes were both 7,800 yen each before EMS.

Kongiku makes my pants tight. Kongiku and Yuzuruha would make them even tighter.
Yeah, they probably aren't that expensive. But I only picked up Momohime recently, and the £ is terrible at the moment, making anything from Japan extremely expensive to buy.

Now if only the game didn't force you to play the same shit like, eight times over...

True, but replaying over and over is a staple of many RPGs, and is taken to the extreme in games like Disgaea. At least in Odin Sphere, when you do replay the story, it's from a different character's perspective, so you see a different side of the story, along with the motivations of each character, and a change in the interaction you had experienced previously. It makes the overall picture more interesting, to me at least.

[Jason X]

Intriguing...I think you might have just finally made that game click for me. Nothing can compare to the Nippon Ichi grind.

[Davey]

I'm back to playing Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram pretty intensely. The game has been out for three years on XBLA now which is how long I've played it. Getting better and better with Cypher.. one of the best western players of game at least. Still my favorite pvp/fighting game and it works perfectly fine with 360 pad or twin sticks contrary to what some people say about VO. Half of the top japanese players play with pad pretty much.

Too bad the western playerbase is so small + european almost nonexistant and over 80% of american players seem to use the same VR (Temjin) even after all these years which I've never understood because it's not overpowered or anything and has a boring moveset

Ha, I'm still on ragequit hiatus from our last Best of 9! Transitioning from a pad to twin sticks has been really frustrating, since after a year (of sporadic play, admittedly), I'm still worse than I was with a pad. Although now a pad feels weird too... the wiring in the part of my brain devoted to VOOT is all messed up.

I'm sure I'll come crawling back eventually, since it's still the best video game of all time IMO, even if I'm not man enough to handle it. Sad that the community is practically nonexistent in the west, but I gave up on that dream a long time ago. Although I'm still really grateful it come out on XBLA at all.

[Zaarock]

Sad that the community is practically nonexistent in the west, but I gave up on that dream a long time ago. Although I'm still really grateful it come out on XBLA at all.

IDK, you american guys actually have quite a few people who play it every once in a while.. at least 20 which is more than I would expect. there are like 3 active european players though.

Now senko no ronde.. that is truly dead. I need to start playing that every now and then, just for fun. (and yack music + g.rev atmosphere)

Also playing armored core V made me get significantly better at rotating during dashes consistently in voot.. because it controls basically like a 3ps + VO heh.

[tinotormed]

Now playing Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal after a huge struggle on Dungeon Keeper: The Deeper Dungeons.

Also playing another sequel to Final Doom (Plutonia), Plutonia Revisited as well as Exhumed/Powerslave.

[CIT]

Playing Super Sidekicks 3 with Jockel!

[Jason X]

The new Walking Dead game is pretty good. I've never read the comics or watched the show, though, so no idea how faithful it is to the source material. I think they went in the right direction by trying to make everything look like it's in a comic book, though.

[ratikal]

Been playing League of Legends alot. Just turned level 30. Anyone else here happen to play?

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Been playing Catherine quite a bit recently. I've finished Easy mode with all golds and have 7/9 stages golded on Normal. I'm not sure if I'll do stage 7 using the replay feature or do it on Story mode. There's no way in hell I'm using the replay stage thing for Empireo though cause I am not playing those 6 levels in a single sitting just to get the gold, and I'd rather have the ability to save in between.



I also started a second playthrough of Persona to do the Snow Queen Quest earlier. I'm not doing the Thanatos first path cause I didn't want to grind for that. I'm currently in Hypnos Tower as the first one. I'm not sure yet whether I'll go for Nemesis or Thanatos second. I currently have a suspend save in Hypnos and I'll try to finish the tower tomorrow, and hopefully not die to the boss cause you can't make a lasting save while in a tower.

[null1024]

The King of Fighters R-2 [NGPC].
Thrash all opponents. Face Rugal. Have the same combo kill me twice. Give up.

Yeah, that felt really bad. Effing Rugal.

[Aquas]

Minecraft. Got completely hooked. Starting to wane a bit so I can play other games!

[louisg]

Metal Stoker! I got re-hooked on it, and you know what? I *still* can't make it past Hell's Laboratory. Incredible game.

[null1024]

The King of Fighters 11 [PS2]. Haven't turned my PS2 on in forever.

I love this game, but doing inputs feels terrible compared to say, 2002 or 2003. Supers come out too easily [doing them on accident feels way too common], and commands don't come out easily enough. On the other hand, loads of characters have some pretty nice moves now [I like Iori's super, where he shoots the diagonal column of flame, I like Athena's air teleport somewhat [I keep doing it on accident because I keep doing her super motion from 2002 ], etc].

Also, fuck bosses in this game. 3x the health, and since the judgement counter is based on percent damage given, it almost always tips towards the boss, so if you time out, you lose.

All this being said, this is still one of the best KOFs, it has a better balance, cool moves, lots of characters. I like 2002 more, but that's just because I play it more.

I love that Hotaru from MotW is in this, but she feels really bad here, she feels more like she was rushed in than anything.
I understand the [quite severe, it looks horrid] animation cut, and the [very] slightly altered moveset, but her input timings are horrible [doing her f,d,df+P motion is probably the worst: doing the same hand motion that would DP for anyone else in the game just does her fireball, and even when it does come out, it is asstons slower than you'd expect].
On the plus side, her main level 1 super is based off her P level from MotW, so it's asstons safer [doesn't land you right in front of your opponent, totally prone, it instead attacks on the way down, possibly going far away from your opponent].

[Moniker]

Having a little bit of buyer's remorse after getting Awesomenauts on XBLA. Haven't played a DOTA game other than Monday Night Combat, and a 2D version not overwhelmingly populated by assholes and glitch abusers appealed to me. Seems sort of shallow, though. Guess I'll have to play some more.

Other than that, a lot of ME3 multiplayer. It really is quite fun. Almost feels more RPGish than the singleplayer, since builds are pretty important, whereas in the main game as long as your execution's good, you're fine.

[BIL]

Splatterhouse III.

VIOLENCE.

^________________________________^;

Seriously, it's one almightily satisfying beat 'em up. Walking in on the first boss... hulking out... and then CHOKING THE FUCK OUT OF HIM UNTIL HIS HEAD FALLS OFF never gets old. And he keeps goin'! Oh no you don't asshole! *IZUNA DROP* *MORE CHOKING* Boss: "BWAHRRRRR" *glorious multi-sprite dismembering explosion with sfx like a tumber in the garbage disposal*

Rick's slight vertical movement inertia annoys me a little when I've not played for a while, but otherwise the controls are so good. Almost Final Fight-esque in simple utility. The Japanese version is essential, as the perfectly-balanced crowd control move mutates into a game-breaking weenie blankie in the US one.

Why in god's name would anyone keep a print of "Saturn Devouring His Son" around their house? Maybe the monsters brought their own pictures like some people do in hotels? >_>

[null1024]

Asphalt 6 [Android].

Pretty fun. Came with my phone, and it's a fairly decent racer. So glad it's Xperia Play optimized, fuck tilt control.
Speaking of control, it's really easy to pick up and play. Tap brake while turning to drift, other trigger is boost, etc. Only some of the later and faster cars are somewhat unresponsive, but even still, very easy to control.

The announcer's voice and bland music make it worth muting though.

Also, need to remember what side of the road traffic comes on on a per-stage basis. Otherwise, you'll be like "driiiiift" and then slide right into an oncoming car.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Dayatona USA XBLA. Switched over from normal to arcade mode for the advanced course. The AI is a bugger for sandwiching you between 2 or 3 cars and spinning out on corners.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

I've been playing Dark Souls.

[shmuppyLove]

Yay I finally got around to reinstalling AC2



Ezio Auditore de motherfucking Firenze.

Hopefullly it's not as tedious and repetitive as the first one. Man that game really dragged ...

[Auddy]

Alan Wake's American Nightmare.

[Cagar]

-

[Tokyo-J]

Gears Of War III and Street Fighter X Tekken

[Marc]

I Am Alive on 360 which is kind of interesting. Certainly worth 1200 msp. Also got Pure and Thief 3 on the way.

[Hagane]

Put Sengoku Blade to rest for a while, and replaced it with beat'em ups. Thanks to the FF guide posted here earlier and some research I'm starting to get decent at them; they don't seem impossible like they were before.

Still playing The Punisher, can get to stage 6 now, refined the infinite doing piledrivers instead of regular throws; they are completely untechable and easier to chain doing a roll right after you land. Basically any throwable enemy is toast if you can get a piledriver in. The third and fifth bosses are what are keeping me away from the 1cc, predictably because they can't be piledrived.

Also been playing Denjin Makai 2 a lot. Has shoddy spritework, some of the worst character designs outside of a Visco game and awful music, but the game itself is pretty great. Probably has the deepest fighting system out of any belt scroller; you can juggle/OTG pretty much anything, and the movesets are quite large and well thought. Several combo enders and throws that have different uses (raw damage+knockdown, juggle setups, crowd control, etc) and new special moves if you get certain weapons (that vary from character to character), plus different level choices for stages 2~4... truly great stuff. Having to hold down the attack button to do specials is a bit weird at first but now I'm pretty comfortable with it.
Finding new damaging combos is so fun. Pretty much if you think it can combo, it probably does. Been maining Cho Aniki reject Tulks and Zeldia, though the pink ninja is very fun to use too, feels pretty Linn Kurosawa-ish since he can easily combo his air throw from lots of setups.

[BIL]

Was surprised to see this while fast-forwarding through Splatterhouse III's credits to check who'd done the music (which is pretty good macabre stuff all-around but gets frickin' awesome in the last stage. "Monster invasion! Holy shit! I've got to save my hot wife with the big tits! (and the kid too)"



You heard it here first folks, system11 gamers are a cut above the rest.

I love games like this and Contra III that egg the player on. I wonder what it says on Normal. Although it's a satisfyingly technique-rewarding game, it's not especially difficult to clear (easy by arcade beltscroller standards). I'll just have to clear GM now (again).