What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Finished the Star Wars: Republic Commando PC demo on Medium. Freaking sweet, and it's not something I say every day of a first person shooter.
Not all firearms are pew-pew-pew-tastic (and even those that are do the job sufficiently). There's a lot of dying, reviving and forlorness. Reviving and healing doesn't work quite like in any other game I know. There was a bit when I was exchanging fire wich an LMG-wielding enemy (wielding a pistol myself) while all of my squad mates lied incapacitaded at his feet (where they would have kept reviving me and coming down before). I prevailed at last and could revive them all. Such a last man standing situation wasn't in any way scripted; mayhem in this game just occurs when you get reckless.
Now, getting reckless is encouraged by generous checkpointing, but that was just Medium and I didn't find it pathetically easy.
Sure, loading-corridor-arena-corridor-arena-loading... level design could have been better disguised. This is something a sequel might have improved upon, though. Oh, and the game doesn't hesitate to be silly. Shoot a slaver's backpack and witness a rocket knight adventure. Why would they carry such a thing on battlefield?
I don't think a true sequel is likely to appear. The market is so saturated with first person shooters and Star Wars-licensed games I doubt Republic Commando was successful enough to convince producers another Star Wars FPS i just what people want for a Christmas present.

[SuperGrafx]

Tetris Blitz on my Windows Phone

[Ed Oscuro]

Gangs of London continues to be a mixed experience.

Good: More snooker! All done with the UK 8-ball so I guess I'll mess around with the US version a bit. For Ye Olde Arcade, level 28 (or was it 29?), Wimbledon, is of course Pong - except the ball moves faster and faster and you have to control BOTH paddles at the same time. A bit tougher than it looks, though if you're smart you realize the ball moves in a very consistent pattern, and you will just move both paddles up and down at the same time so that you don't have coordination problems (which you will already have had plenty of just getting to this point).

Bad: Cop Escape PRO STRATEGY TACTICALS:

Wait with the L shoulder button held down to spot the cop vehicles (cars, vans, even purple unmarked cars) spawning a ways off in the distance. Start driving along, and wait for then to come alongside you, maneuvering as much as possible so they can't shoot your vehicle or damage it. Slow down, continuing to try to maneuver to avoid damage. Stop. Wait for them to stop. Inch forward if possible. Wait for the police to dismount. Drive forward a little ways - you have to be careful here, because it's possible to have some police get back in their car, and if you go too far new vehicles will appear to intercept you. Drive slowly until you are just out of range of their weapons, and no further. Watch and laugh at the bullet trails evaporating inches from your vehicles as the police walk back and forth without advancing on your vehicle. Let the timer run out and win the mission.

In practice it's a bit more involved than this, especially for the final missions, where it's easy to take deadly damage very quickly and you will probably want to swap vehicles (your "armor") even using this tactic. In practice this just means timing your initial stop so that there is an undamaged civilian car nearby to hijack.

[null1024]

Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed [PC].

I kind of wish it would play a bit more nicely with DirectInput controllers [it uses specific button numbers in menus, so on my controller, R1 is the Start button in a menu, Triangle is the A button, etc, etc].

Damn fine game. Very pretty too. Better than any of the Mario Karts, at least. I kind of wish I had a better PC, but this laptop was cheap and tiny, so I'm happy. It's dripping in Sega fanservice too.

Delver [PC].

Huh. Got down to where the orb that you have to reach is [I'm surprised the game doesn't go deeper down], and promptly got killed. Tried to use a Magic Shield potion to stop the lich-looking thing from killing me -- it helped, but didn't completely nullify the damage, so I died anyway. I was at really low health and didn't see anything to eat anywhere on that floor.

[RealPlumpBox]

Fire Emblem Awakening on 3DS

[Ed Oscuro]

fucking sega's anti-science story in Phantasy Star Portable

Vivienne (a robot): "I learned that you cannot use probabilities to predict the future"
ALL MY TRAINING HAS BEEN A FAILURE. YOU ARE A BAD ROBOT.

it's supposed to be an anti-racism story, but it reads nothing like that when you see stuff like the above.
and ironically everything about the game betrays the line, besides storyline personalities (I GUESS)

[iconoclast]

Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed [PC].

I'm about to start playing this again once the new Ryo DLC comes out:
(I assume his flying transformation is an After Burner cab)

The best kart racer just keeps getting better.

[ryu]

Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed [PC].

I'm about to start playing this again once the new Ryo DLC comes out:
(I assume his flying transformation is an After Burner cab)

The best kart racer just keeps getting better.

is that pc only as well?

[gs68]

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS).

Tried to use bowguns. Wasted 15 minutes of my fucking life with the horrendously imprecise scope aiming.

[iconoclast]

is that pc only as well?

Sega hasn't officially announced Ryo yet, so the platforms & price are anyone's guess at the moment. I wouldn't hold my breath for a console release, but I guess it's possible since he's one of the most requested DLC characters.

[CMoon]

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS).

Tried to use bowguns. Wasted 15 minutes of my fucking life with the horrendously imprecise scope aiming.

Apparently all the gunner weapons are pretty much useless without a circle pad pro. I've got one ordered and am curious to see how it transforms the game.

[Ruldra]

Alright I'm done with One Finger Death Punch. Really fantastic game, but you have serious chances of developing carpal tunnel syndrome if you play too much My wrist hurt bad right now.

Unlocked all skills in mission mode, beat student level for the extra skill slot and went for it in survival mode. Picked Freezing Point, Deep Impact, Healing and Iron Fist as my skills of choice. Iron Fist looks like an useless skill at first but it helps a lot giving you regular breaks from the action.

Top score:



At 3k kills the game becomes unbearably fast. I had no chance of keeping up.

[alpachinko]

Been playing a bit of Muramasa on the Wii. Not a console that really gets much attention from me, but it's an outstanding game and I just wanted to play it on the big screen instead of the vita version I also own. Also had a few quick bouts on StreetFighter Zero on the Saturn. Good stuff....

[guigui]

Alright I'm done with One Finger Death Punch. Really fantastic game, but you have serious chances of developing carpal tunnel syndrome if you play too much My wrist hurt bad right now.

Unlocked all skills in mission mode, beat student level for the extra skill slot and went for it in survival mode. Picked Freezing Point, Deep Impact, Healing and Iron Fist as my skills of choice. Iron Fist looks like an useless skill at first but it helps a lot giving you regular breaks from the action.

Top score:



At 3k kills the game becomes unbearably fast. I had no chance of keeping up.

Jeez, you're good, congratulations.

You should try and see how far you can go on Master/Grandmaster. I am stuck in Master, laser round by the end : too fast.

Beating Master unlocks a new skill, better for survival. Plus, who knows what comes after Grandmaster ?

"Your ennemy is strong, try to focus"

[Obiwanshinobi]

Spend 3 hours or so grinding away in Guild Wars (effectively single player). Haven't touched it for years (multiplayer wasn't much of my thing and single player seemed rather pedestrian next to Dungeon Siege II), but I tend to find even sub-par Diablo clones compulsive like that.
I still like the engine and presentation quite a bit.

[professor ganson]

Pokemon Conquest - really impressed by the creativity of this strategy rpg. It might get too easy soon, but so far I'm keeping it interesting by avoiding all grinding opportunities.

[Obiwanshinobi]

In other news, OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast was unplayable on Radeon 8500, but works like a charm on GF 7800 GS. Now that's a justification for the upgrade I made.
Wasn't it the best arcade racer on PC since the ancient Moto Racers? Midnight Club II doesn't count since the port was pretty poor. Unless my new graphics card will make just as big a difference in the latter as well. Or San Francisco Rush 2049 on Midway Arcade Treasures is a good as I dare not hope.

[null1024]

Tales of Xillia [PS3].

Oh hey, I saved right before a boss! Haven't played in a bit, so spent about twenty minutes getting thrashed by it [managed to stay alive for 10 minutes trying to solo the thing after running out of life bottles instead of just resetting like a smart person -- but it was pretty intense to try to do alone, so I wasn't complaining]. Then I lost after getting interrupted by one of the little enemies that the boss calls in. Restarted the fight and had no problem [it did take 10 minutes though]. About to enter the Coliseum now.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Darkstone (PC). Third time the charm it seems. First time I played on LCD and it was ugly (640x480 only). Second time it almost gave me gaming sickness (was glitchy overall). This time I didn't notice any technical problems and the game grew on me. Oddly enough, newer graphics card/driver is more compatible.
It's easy to dismiss it now as antiquated Diablo clone, but that would be unjust. First of all, in the year 1999 it must have been more of an alternative than clone. Furthermore, unlike most Diablo clones (Diablo II in that number), it didn't forget certain qualities that made the original great.
Tips:
a) play single player mode as two characters,
b) disable texture filtering and DON'T force anti-aliasing.

To be fair, the game's native texture filtering looks better than anything I've seen on N64 (emulator), but I like it pixellated.

[railslave]

So,.................... i fancy myself as one of these arty, indie hipsters,


i got myself a copy of "gone home", to more or less start my little journey into all this "look how cutting edge i am i have a deep opinion on ....."
( as well as dear Esther).

I literally open the first door, saw the scale of the house, flicked a few light switches and had to turn it off out of fear of jump scares ..
(earlier that day i watched an interview with the designer where he mention Amnesia, this didnt help... the tutorial to that frightened me. Even after being told that the first enemy doesn't appear till about an hour in )

I think im getting to old for this.

Back to 2d

Dear Esther, hmmm nice ambient lighting, but at the moment it feels more like this "avoid the invisible walls-em-up"

[trap15]

Tried for about an hour on stream to learn to speedrun Dragon Unit [arcade]. Holy shit, what a poverty game. Literally no hit-stun, so if you collide with something that has a lot of life, you just instantly die. Base speed is absolute molasses, and of course it takes like 10 speed power ups to get to a good speed, which you all lose when you die. Lots of strats involve just bum-rushing through the stage, since there are full-heal powerups everywhere. So angry.

I still want to run it... It's like a 5 minute game if you have a decent run... heh...

[gs68]

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS).

Tried to use bowguns. Wasted 15 minutes of my fucking life with the horrendously imprecise scope aiming.

Apparently all the gunner weapons are pretty much useless without a circle pad pro. I've got one ordered and am curious to see how it transforms the game.

The CPP makes camera control much more comfortable since you can just use the secondary pad and the secondary shoulder buttons to rotate the camera, especially if you're moving at the same time. However, it does nothing to fix the extremely sensitive and imprecise aiming.

I'm not sure if this is the fault of the game for poorly implementing variable-magnitude analog controls as well as having the secondary circle pad provide no better precision than the D-pad's, or the fault of the 3DS (XL) itself for having a joke of an analog input method (3D Space Harrier is infeasible with the Circle Pad) on top of a crusty D-pad.

Either way, screw this, I'll just go back to melee weapons.

(I originally got the CPP so I could play Kid Icarus: Uprising, since that game is virtually unplayable without a CPP if you're left-handed.)

[gbaplayer]

Bravely Default

anybody playing this right now? great game but on "normal" mode quite challenging.
12 hours into it right now. i like it so far.

[Picozord]

I've been completely hooked to Starbound, I don't usually like this kind of "crafting" games, but this one is just so relaxing and the universe is fun to explore. Also I have been losing my mind with La Mulana lately, that game is evil.

[KAI]

beatmania IIDX 15 DJ TROOPERS (PS2)
Broke my joystick while playing it, this shit is too intense.

[BIL]

Tried for about an hour on stream to learn to speedrun Dragon Unit [arcade]. Holy shit, what a poverty game. Literally no hit-stun, so if you collide with something that has a lot of life, you just instantly die. Base speed is absolute molasses, and of course it takes like 10 speed power ups to get to a good speed, which you all lose when you die. Lots of strats involve just bum-rushing through the stage, since there are full-heal powerups everywhere. So angry.

I still want to run it... It's like a 5 minute game if you have a decent run... heh...

I was just reading about the FC version in Macaw's FC action game topic at gamengai. Sounds like it's a pretty accurate home conversion.

Apparently Sword Master (FC) is something of a home-exclusive sequel, at least I don't think I've heard of an arcade counterpart.

[trap15]

I watched Funkdoc's TASs of both Dragon Unit (FC) and Sword Master (FC), and they both look significantly better than the arcade version

I also forgot to mention that there's a flail weapon that's basically instant death to get. Guess why? It's an extending item. So what happens when an enemy gets between the spike ball and you while it's retracting? The enemy gets shoved into you, and you die because hurr no hit-stun.

[M.Knight]

Midnight Club II doesn't count since the port was pretty poor.

Was something wrong with the PC port of Midnight Club 2? I didn't play the other versions but loved this game and didn't notice anything particularly troublesome.

[Ed Oscuro]

The enemy gets shoved into you, and you die because hurr no hit-stun.

lmao

if anybody has pointers on the US NES version (Seta?) I'd love to hear them - the game seems like an unmitigated disaster (once again). I managed to jump over the fairy in the second stage without touching it.

OH NO, DRAGON HAS STOLEN THE MILK BO-oh wait it's just cinderella

Edit: Arasoi says Sword Master is a hidden sequel and much better game.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Was something wrong with the PC port of Midnight Club 2? I didn't play the other versions but loved this game and didn't notice anything particularly troublesome.

On my previous PC (meeting the requirements; the game certainly didn't look too demanding) it run about as bad as GTA III on said PC (maddeningly inconsistent framerate). As if the engine was basically the same, with premature real-time reflections slapped onto car models. Having read that Xbox version run a tad worse than PS2 original, I thought the PC port was just not very good.
PS2 NTSC version is pretty amazing and if my sorta-new PC will render the port just as good, I'll be delighted.
I agree that Midnight Club is all sorts of awesome. Burnout Paradise was a nice try, but MC2 remains THE street racer of the kind.