What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[null1024]

Delver [PC].

Making it down to the start of where skeletal enemies show up, and getting killed.
The game really needs a way to keep track of the last few things that happened and save post-mortem logs. I was in a really sticky situation [4HP, no full restore items, health regen would take too long, since I'd get hit for more than I'd heal, surrounded by enemies on both sides], so I just said screw everything, used my scroll of teleport, and was killed moments later as I appeared. Blah.

It's pretty fun, but it really needs an update, especially since there isn't too much weapon variety [inevitably, I end up with wands on four binds, the strongest mace/hammer I can find, and a piece of food].

Oh, and I learned that leveling up magic adds a charge to all wands you have [maybe all in the game, didn't really test, but it seemed like wands I later picked up had more charges than previous runs, where I never leveled up magic].

[M.Knight]

Super Mario Star Road

I finished it with all stars collected a few days ago. As I may have said last time, the (fan-made) game is rough around the edges. It does have for example a few glitches with the Koopa Troopa and penguin races. Koopa got stuck once, and whether the penguin admits defeat or not does not seem 100% accurate, plus there were times when it just flew off the track and out of the level's boundaries, not allowing me to talk to him after the race.
There are also too many stars that can only be collected if you have selected them on purpose before entering the level. It means you can't collect stars you weren't looking for, by exploring and messing around with the level. That was a charm of the original Mario 64 that is somewhat lost here. This issue is aggravated by the fact that the changes made to the level if you select a specific star are not very big, so there was no real reason to remove the elements that would trigger the other stars.
Moreover, level 9 is the biggest difficulty spike in the game and navigating in this stage is even harder than in stage 15. Indeed, while having a theme that will please many shmuppers here, stage 15 is not floating over a bottomless pit, which is suprising.

However, I appreciated the challenge and the pure platforming that was required to get some stars. Getting the 100-coins stars is not a chore at all as the levels are packed with coins while collecting those stars could be a bore and a drag in the original game. The castle also has a few secrets scattered in it when it could have been a simple level select hub, which is a good point. The music selection is good and most of the time, it doesn't clash with the place where the music plays. (Only the final boss music disappointed me)

I tried a few other fan-made Mario 64 hacks but this one is the only one that made me want to complete it.

Muramasa : The Demon Blade (Wii version)

Playing this for the 4th time (the three other playthroughs are from 2011) and it is still as good. It is gorgeous, has a strong identity, good music and a reasonable amount of enemy types. I also like the fact that you have access to your entire moveset from the get-go, even if the game has some "RPG-elements" that hopefully don't have much of an impact on the game thanks to enemy level-scaling. Aside from the various swords' Secrets Arts, there is none of that "buying/unlocking upgrades" bullshit that can make some heavy action-oriented games frustrating to play when you don't have unlocked everything.
I didn't play many beat'em alls and I know some people think this one is shallow or not as deep as the genre's best games, but it is still enough for me. However, I am not confident enough to try the "1 HP" difficulty mode which seems to be closer to an arcade experience than the regular Easy and Hard difficulties.
It is the first time I get to play it with the Classic Controller Pro and I while I prefer using this controller to the Nunchuk in general, I have to admit it was easier to remember what each button does on a WiiMote+Nunchuck setup because of the different shape of the buttons. Furthermore, the main attack button is "b" on the CC Pro while I mostly use "y" whenever I can configure the controller settings.


@null1024 : Have you finished Tales of the Abyss? I played it when it came out on the 3DS, and bumped the difficulty up to Hard after noticing like you that some boss fights were too easy.
Don't hesitate to use a guide if you wish to do the sidequests and missable things because it is as if this game was designed to sell strategy guides. At first, I thought I could do fine without looking at online walkthroughs but I ended up being paranoid and checking every place in the game after each little event (and still missed a few things).

[null1024]

@M.Knight:
I haven't finished it yet. Within spitting distance of the end, although I haven't played since my last post about the game.
And yeah, you're honestly right about that. There's so much hidden crap everywhere!

[lilmanjs]

My Metropolis Street Racer copy is busted (despite looking barely scathed). I consider myself lucky it's not Power Stone 2. Didn't really like what little MSR I played. Seems to be made for people who really are into cars, like Gran Turismo or the first NFS. I knew such a motorhead, but have never been one myself. Here's hoping the seller's gonna trade it for Jet Set Radio.
I feel relieved of temptation to ever play Project Gotham Racing, too.
All those warnings I heard/read lately in street racing games (the first NFS: Most Wanted, MSR) make me appreciate how bluntly devoid of these the original Burnout is. Burnout's car crashes themselves are warning enough, 12 years down the line and counting.

Metropolis Street Racer is what I like to call Project Gotham Racing on Nightmare mode. It may be the predecessor to the PGR series on Xbox and 360, but it is way harder. I have thrown the controller down many times in frustration at that game, but I found a copy of PGR2 a while back and thought for $2usd I couldn't pass it up and I was right. Still gets hard towards the end, but the entire game never reaches the insane difficulty that Metropolis Street Racer gets to early on.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I've only unlocked two cars in MSR (when I select the third one, it crashes every time). Driving to ulock the two I got, however, wasn't a great deal of fun. The experience, coupled with stories how MSR requires lots of no-fun driving to acquire more fun cars, was enough to suck all interest off me. Found the game visually confusing at that. What's the story with not sign-posted, right-angled turns and no headlights in the night? Rarely do I play racers released before 2001, but I don't find Crazy Taxi or Moto Racer quite as eyebrow-rising.

The seller offered another disc free of charge, so I can't say I'm done with MSR yet. For the time being, though, I say everybody who fancy playing a 30 fps street racer on a last-century console*), had better play Midnight Club II instead (rock-hard singleplayer, too).

*) A.D. 2000 was the last century's final year. Deal with it.

[CMoon]

Man, my opinion just did a complete 180 on Resident Evil Revelations (3DS). All the reviews I'd seen were positive and the demo is fantastic. Basically I'd argue that the first half of the game is pretty good with some great moments/atmostphere and even pretty solid controls...although there are a few pretty dismal moments where the game turns into a fps. Then comes chapter 7 and 8. Goddamn time counter with unbeatable monsters from in front and behind, and sniper mobs that you can't take time to shoot. Almost any misstep involves monsters grabbing you (which you often can't see because they are behind you). Making it through this part comes down to one lucky dodge or start over. There were some really intense moments like this in 4, but far better executed and there was often more than one way to approach the situation--not here. Then a huge swimming section where you don't know where you are going, limited air, no weapons and things trying to grab you. Once again, plan on repeating the level a dozen times. Are you having fun yet? Oh boy, next a turret section.

Really, a turret section? Somewhere, someone decided that turret games were actually fun. They manage to work their way into games that don't even make sense (Bayonetta has a really nonsensical one...the turret is less powerful than Bayonetta, but you must use that shit!)

Anyway, I just can't wait to see what's next. Two hours of me wanting to toss the cart into the garbage can. I'd kind of like to see the end credits (don't know why, the characters and story suck), but if the rest is just gonna be forced sequences of fps, swimming w/out weapons + random grabs, run like hell timed events (versus tense, atmospheric exploration, maybe using some strategy, etc.) I'm probably gonna throw in the towel on this one.

[null1024]

Tales of Graces f [PS3].

Played it until a little the time-skip. I started out playing on Hard, but it's a bit of a pain [fighting early bosses was the worst, especially since you have fuck all CC to do anything while your opponent eats a third of your life bar when you get hit]. Dropped down to Moderate.
Combat is interesting -- instead of using Free Run to walk around things [which is slow, eats CC, and is pretty much not really worth anything], the game seems to want you to use some sort of flash step to move around.

The A-Arte/B-Arte system is interesting. A-Artes are pretty much like normal fighting game links. B-Artes are your standard Tales spells/moves like First Aid or Demon Fang. When combined with how CC replaces TP, combat seems to move in waves of "super offense action go!" to "block block block damnit CC, fill!". I think I kind of like how Xillia merged the concept of CC with TP better, but the combat in Graces seems to have its own thing going on instead of seeming like "just another Tales game", which is nice.

also, until the time skip, you don't get to use B-Artes, except when Sophie uses First Aid, I spent ages trying to figure out how to open the B-Arte menu, blah

[replayme]

Just completed Final Fantasy: Crisis Core (PSP). Fell asleep during the end credits so have a total playtime of 28 hours, although I honestly think the actual playtime was more like 25.

Yeah, I haven't had a lot of sleep. And now need to get ready to help a friend with his film-making project.

Next stop: maybe complete Gravity Rush on my Vita.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm, a couple DOOM mods:

- Cold As Hell Special Edition: Boring as hell more like it. Ended up just loading up on weapons just to see it through to the end. Then it was depressing. Don't know exactly what the community saw in it - though there are a few neat touches, and some cool mapping and tricks later on, most of the game is standard key-hunting against incredibly overpowered enemies, while using a variety of peashooters. Environments are mostly quite lousy.

- Reelism Expansion 2: Now that's a bit more like it. Pretty crazy stuff. The first time I entered "Creature of Chaos," the "Reincarnated Soul" music from Castlevania Bloodlines was playing. Got knifed to death by a lab tech woman, of course.

[dunpeal2064]

Another (and probably last) run through dark souls. Pure mage build, nothing fancy. If I were to do one last run it would be to attempt a pure faith build which I've always found the least viable.

Playing DS as well. Have yet to cast a single magic spell in this game (Warrior). Managed to work through Blightown and down the spider bitch.

I'm already looking forward to doing some special runs after I finish my first playthrough. This game just begs to be approached from every angle.

[BulletMagnet]

When combined with how CC replaces TP, combat seems to move in waves of "super offense action go!" to "block block block damnit CC, fill!".

To some degree this is true, but once you start learning the ins and outs of the dashes and combo/weakness exploit systems you'll discover ways to refill your CC faster and stay on the offensive longer; as someone who tends to get overly OCD when it comes to MP (and items, too) in a lot of RPGs (might eventually run out...NEVER USE, EVER), I ended up taking a liking to Graces' system, though it also meant I spent almost all my time playing as Asbel and other close-combat characters, since I preferred actively defending my spellcasters to standing back and hoping the AI would do the same for me. That said, I also liked Graces' camera more than a lot of the other Tales games, as it let me keep a better eye on the entire battlefield at once most of the time.

And for whatever it's worth I found pretty much the entire "childhood" cast insufferable, but ended up liking everybody by the end, though your mileage may vary.

[CMoon]

Playing DS as well. Have yet to cast a single magic spell in this game (Warrior). Managed to work through Blightown and down the spider bitch.

I'm already looking forward to doing some special runs after I finish my first playthrough. This game just begs to be approached from every angle.

I've done at least a dozen builds in the game. Absolutely my favorite from this generation. Strangely, what I've never bothered with is doing all the NG+, ++, +++, etc. Just never got the point since by the time I finished the first run, I was mostly bored of the build. Not too interested in PVP. The mage build may inherently be the easiest, but it is not a beginner build. You definitely need a solid understanding of the game and a decent melee back-up plan (magic doesn't work 100% of the time.) Honestly the easiest build for 1st time players is vit/endurance build using drake sword/lightning spear/crystal halberd (might actually require getting the crystal ember to keep the last weapon alive.) Then either do the mage build or a dex/end build. Regardless, the game is so much better than about everything else this generation. Everytime I start evaluating another game I start saying to myself how much better dark souls did it. Damn.

[null1024]

Tales of the Abyss [3DS].

Final boss was vaguely difficult. It is a shame you are invincible during the last part [and so is he], the background got cool by that point.
There were a few tense moments where my whole party was about to be wiped [and because of the whole preceding dungeon, I was low on items]. But otherwise, eh.

At the end of the game, the clock was almost exactly 45 hours.

also, that ending was a thing

[gs68]

Back to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS). Flushed out all of the quests rated 1-5 stars except for the last two in the 5-star rank.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Spartan: Total Warrior (Wii).
It's like Troma's take on alternate history. At the first glance it could be mistaken for a Dreamcast game with some glow added. It's no Onimusha 3, but once you see how crowded it gets at - seemingly - 60 fps, all flippancy fades away. Animations aren't Capcom-good either, but at least it's not God of War.
Among 'Cube games, it's peerless at what it does as far as I can tell. BG: Dark Alliance and LotR hack & slashers may be equally sound, technically and gameplay-wise, but A.I. makes all the difference. Of such polygonal brawlers, Total Warriors gives me the most convinving illusion of facing the mob.
The developer's egalitarian approach to multiplatform development helps a lot. As if GameCube pad was the lowest common denominator here, I can believe The Creative Assambly did their best on every console.
Alas, no co-op mode, but the upcoming PS4 version's gonna have it.
Last but not least, I have an exclusively German version. Presumably one 'Cube disc couldn't have stored sound data in all languages recorded.

[BrianC]

Just got the law ending in SMTIV. I started playing Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Super Mario 3D World and I like them quite a bit so far. I have been playing NES Remix Wii U and Space Harrier 3DS, as well. I found out that NES Remix was designed by Indieszero, the developers of the Game Center CX/Retro Game Challenge. I like their retro style games and they came up with a nice set of NES based challenges.

[gs68]

While in the Philippines over the past 16 days for vacation, I got to play a few arcade games.

Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4 -- I feel sad knowing that my WMMT3DX+ cards will never, ever make it to WMMT4 because Namco decided to terminate card transfer service in October even though the game is only out in Eastern and Southeastern Asia, while all previous Maximum Tune games were worldwide releases. (I live in the US, which is obviously not in Asia.) I couldn't even get a new card and start over from scratch because the arcade I was at was sold out.

jubeat copious -- Unfortunately, no eAmuse so most songs were locked. Still fun, even if the cab I played on suffered from "splash damage".

DDR X3 -- Only spent a round because I get so tired easily. Accidentally picked one song twice.

[hecheff]

Nearly finishing Hero Mode in A Link Between Worlds. I am liking the 4x damage very much.

Also finished Rogue Legacy over the weekend, now working my way through New Game+.

Have yet to start Starbound, despite having bought it during the Steam Christmas Sale last year.
Don't think I'll be starting that soon though, with Lords of Shadow 2 coming up around February.

[dunpeal2064]

Playing DS as well. Have yet to cast a single magic spell in this game (Warrior). Managed to work through Blightown and down the spider bitch.

I'm already looking forward to doing some special runs after I finish my first playthrough. This game just begs to be approached from every angle.

I've done at least a dozen builds in the game. Absolutely my favorite from this generation. Strangely, what I've never bothered with is doing all the NG+, ++, +++, etc. Just never got the point since by the time I finished the first run, I was mostly bored of the build. Not too interested in PVP. The mage build may inherently be the easiest, but it is not a beginner build. You definitely need a solid understanding of the game and a decent melee back-up plan (magic doesn't work 100% of the time.) Honestly the easiest build for 1st time players is vit/endurance build using drake sword/lightning spear/crystal halberd (might actually require getting the crystal ember to keep the last weapon alive.) Then either do the mage build or a dex/end build. Regardless, the game is so much better than about everything else this generation. Everytime I start evaluating another game I start saying to myself how much better dark souls did it. Damn.

I'm not interested in PVP either, and I am more interested in build-runs than NG+. I like the various restriction challenges. The very first time I played the game (and ragequit after getting cursed like a pussy), I got the Drake Sword, so I wanted to find a different weapon to use this time around. Luckily, I managed to get a Black Night GS last night, after finding the way back to the Asylum, so I am rocking that bad boy now. Still so much to learn about this game, but I'm already loving it more than anything I have played in quite some time. Instead of thinking, "What game will I play next", now all I can think is "What other ways could I play DS?"

[Jonathan Ingram]

I feel that Demon's Souls lends itself better to replays, thanks to the world/character tendency gameplay mechanic that keeps things interesting and unpredictable.

[broken harbour]

Just wrapped Mario Galaxy, wow the final level was buh-roootal. I can't remember how many times I died, nearly gave up on it to be honest. I can't believe anybody said the game was 'too easy'. Fun, imaginative, great game if you like Nintendo titles. Nintendo still needs to fix their camera woes though, most of my deaths were from bad camera angles or a camera that moved at a bad time.

SMG 2 is on the list, but I think I'll try something older next...

[lilmanjs]

Syberia
I've seen it sitting in store for almost an entire year, so I finally gave into my inner child and grabbed an Adventure game of all things. Syberia looks awesome, but I've bought it for the xbox, so not sure if that's the wrong thing to do. Still I'm enjoying this, even if I'm still in the first town. This game looks like it might edge out Beyond Atlantis II as my favorite adventure game.

[null1024]

Tales of Xillia [PS3].

okay, game
okay, game

I'm back in Fenmont [damn, is that place pretty] and now I have to fight Agria or whatever her name is. Cue thirty minutes of being set on fire and killed, all the while she's using a crapton of Lemon Gels [so her health never strays too far below 30k ever, and often I'll check and it's full].

but I will not lower that damn difficulty option

Most embarrassing moment: one minute into fight, I didn't notice she's in Overlimit, got hit, she decides it's time for a Hi-OH JEEZ. Total party kill.

[broken harbour]

Since my wife has the flu and I can't be more than 10ft away from her to help (its ugly) I fired up the PS3 and started Rayman: Origins. I've had it a few months but didn't pick it up until now. This game is amazing, hooked me right away, great art, great animation, music, everything is just spectacular. Control is almost perfect, even the checkpoints are (mostly) reasonable. It can be a bit obnoxiously difficult (I remember the original was too.) but the fact you have unlimited tries makes you come back for more, even the frustrating parts. Even the shmup style levels are fun!

Great game if you want to try an old school platformed that has modern graphics and sound. Love it.

[CMoon]

I feel that Demon's Souls lends itself better to replays, thanks to the world/character tendency gameplay mechanic that keeps things interesting and unpredictable.

Both games definitely have things I really like about them, and genuinely think losing world tendency in dark souls was a blunder as it acted as a sort of meta-game. Still, I think Dark Souls wins out for me simply because the builds are more versatile, and the gameplay feels richer. Still, this is like having to pick between your left or right testical. No sir, I'd like to keep both of them.

What I'd really like to see in Dark Souls 2 (which we won't get) is world tendency AS rank...that is, the more demons you slay, the less you are hit, the less estus you use, the darker the world tendency becomes. Reward better players with more challenging play. I doubt we'll ever get that though.

[Some-Mist]

broken age (double fine adventure) part one is now installed... but I'm at work and I actually have important stuff to get done today.

but I've been waiting for this entirely too long. I'm conflicted

regardless, I'll be playing it all night.

[Ed Oscuro]

Made some progress in Monster Hunter Freedom - got a nifty new dagger (looks more like a sword to me). The second tier one - Assassin's Dagger I think, the ones that can be upgraded with poison and such. Completed the felyne arena; good to get sanction to go after the little buggers (I always avoided it in the wild, at least in Tri where you run into hostile felyne early on).

Hillsfar NES: The NES调和阿斗 great adventure!

I used to wax nostalgic a bit since I have the PC version of the game off the Silver Archives disc from a ways back. What's not to like: Semi-free-ranging exploration, a big city, unusual action for an RPG, and an awesome evocative name! Maybe the PC version is better, but this...well, let's look at some of its features:

- In-depth mansion thievery simulation, with screen updates only one tile-width (no smooth scrolling for us - flickscreen woulda been better!). This is about as much as I ever did in the PC version.
- Similarly awesome lockpicking simulation: Use knock rings or strength, because the thief is too slow to pick the hardest locks. Also, the hardest chests always seem to be the empty ones.
- At least four taverns in which to practice your level 3 magic tricks, carve initials into tables, and start fires!
- Arena: enemy bashing simulation
- Horse riding: Fall repeatedly from a horse because nobody is smart enough to clear the roads of holes, random stumps, low fences in devious patterns that are very hard to survive, terrible collision that changes from speed to speed (and is very strange even when memorized), and also random birds and arrows flying in your direction (love the birds - as usual, they are the deadliest thing in this NES game, discounting tough arena challenges)
- Awesome quest progression!

Here's where I am right now.
Fighter's Guild Steward: Some member's daughter got kidnapped, help him out. OK. Go to his house. Go to the cemetery where his daughter was last. Cemetery looks like the inside of any other mansion and going inside sends guards after you (guards always come after you, even when you're doing things that should be considered good). Find a guild member in a box, who sputters something about "used sling" and dies. I am glad that my player, who was beamed down into Hillsfar about 5 in-game days ago, recognizes the random guy perfectly well. On the "used sling" clue, you're supposed to visit the archery range. Go get a high score (perfect score off chickens is pretty easy, you just have to be super patient and also again deal with the incredibly wonky hit detection). This is the only way to get the range master's attention so you can ask him this profound question:

YOU ASK TANNA ABOUT ANYONE
WHO IS GOOD WITH A SLING.

TANNA SAYS, "THERE ARE A
LOT OF PEOPLE IN HILLSFAR
WHO ARE GOOD WITH THE
SLING."

YOU FIGURE THAT YOU SHOULD
TELL CARATACUS ABOUT
CHARLIE. HE MAY EVEN HAVE
SOME INFORMATION FOR YOU.

So basically, we left the guild master (Caratacus) and all we can do is come back and tell him we found somebody dead and that anybody could have done it. Why does Caracatus even bother hiring people?

Hillsfar plays dirty and wants nothing more than to make you feel stupid (even though there's no real choices to make in the game).

[Mischief Maker]

Aces Wild

Call me crazy, but I say this brawler beats out Volgarr the Viking for indie action game of the year in 2013. A brilliant little game of position and crowd control.

I gained an increased appreciation for it when I realized it is NOT a punching-based Bangai-O because dashing eats just as much rage bar as tapping heavy (launcher) attack, (and tapping launcher attack only eats as much rage bar as dashing), so the wall jump mechanics weren't just for show.

A great thing about this is that you have a gameplay incentive to crank up your rank, because rank controls how quickly your rage bar refills. Higher rank means the enemies do more damage, but it also means you hit harder, can dash into optimum position for a launching more often, and can tear through the levels faster.

You do have unlimited lives, but you start the current room over again with zero rage and zero rank (plus a permanent scoring penalty) so it takes a long time to build up momentum. Interestingly, using the "panic" move to refill your health is worse for your level grade than dying.

While this ain't Devil May Cry 4 Dante, the game does have some depth with the counter attack system. Light counters give you a free dash while heavy counters give you a superior longer ranged launcher.

Like in God Hand, enemies semi-randomly transform when you KO them, only in this game instead of turning into demons, they become a massive CLOUD of low-HP ninjas. I have zero complaints about this game. Even my usual complaint about having to unlock content has been addressed as you start the game with the full level select and both secret characters already unlocked!

If you choose to take advantage of The Inverse Ninja Law and play Eagle Morris, you would be well advised to use one of his palette swaps.

[Ed Oscuro]

Marathon, via Aleph One (and a freshly-downloaded copy; I never got a chance to play my boxed one or the earlier Aleph One release I downloaded two years ago)...I knew it would be an odd game, but it is REALLY odd. Typical crazy organ pipes Macintosh music in the level I'm at right now, looking for an exit after finding some computer chips.

I hope the sequels have much better gameplay than this. I do have some reason to be hopeful though - surprisingly the Aleph One port of Durandal 2 now features the XBLA stuff, which should be interesting as it's made with a much more modern design ethic in mind.

Original Marathon levels...oh man, we really lucked out with DOOM and DOOM II, I'm starting to realize. Hell, even Wolf 3D holds up pretty well compared to this. To be more blunt, if "the thinking gamer's shooter" means "spend half your time at consoles reading useless text, and the other half hunting down keys," I'll probably sit it out.

*runs back to the health spigot after punching alien bees*

If you're feeling adventuresome: http://marathon.sourceforge.net/

[null1024]

I never really bothered with Marathon 1. Go play Marathon 2, which I remember enjoying a fair bit [but I haven't played it in forever and it could just be pretty meh].