What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Marc]

Loved it as a kid, but the multi load was an utter bastard on the cassette version I had (the disk drive didn't really take off in the UK).

[louisg]

Loved it as a kid, but the multi load was an utter bastard on the cassette version I had (the disk drive didn't really take off in the UK).

It's enough of a pain in the ass on disk, I can't imagine it on tape. The worst is when you watch it load for a few minutes and then fail your mission in seconds Fortunately that hasn't happened to me since I learned the ropes, but damn that was frustrating. It's too bad it doesn't have an instant retry-mission feature.

[beatsgo]

MH3U: What a lovely series to get back into. Already handing Gobul, Ludroth, Lamborth, Wroggi, Rathian, Queropeco, and Great Jaggia ass to them, really looking forward to how I deal with Lagriacus on a 2DS.

P&D: Grinding fest

[null1024]

Final Fantasy Type-0 on PSP and Tales of Innocence on NDS. The first looks amazing, the second looks ok. I would rather play Tales of the Abyss, but i can't find a copy for my 3DS, so i just watched the anime and got Innocence.

Innocence is okay as a game. Nothing really special from what I've played. Still need to finish it, got stuck on this one boss after I get tossed on this island. Graphically, it's amazing for a DS game though. An awful lot of polygonal DS games look like total ass.

on the other hand, Luca's design is so refreshing because it's the most reasonable outfit I've seen in any Tales game (or in any RPG)
and I'm having great fun with Type-0

Just use Amazon to get TotA. I spent forever trying to get the game at a shop. Ended up just being around Miami and trying the second of two GameStops in Dolphin Mall (why are there two GameStops in the same mall). From then on, I just started buying all my games off of Amazon.

[lilmanjs]

Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition. Once the download finishes. Can't pass it up when it is free.

[EmperorIng]

More Breath of Fire 3. I'm really glad I stuck with it; I'm really enjoying the game now.

[Hagane]

looking forward to bannerlord. are you using free movement with your shield? the game is hard as shit. i think anyone who enjoys the technical aspect of the souls games should check our warband; they share many similarities.

Yes, I put everything on the hardest settings (except the save system because RNG can really screw you up if you are not really good at the game). At first the game seems very tough, but once you get used to the system and figure out some solid tactics the game is much more manageable. For example the Khergits used to destroy me because they always caught me before I was able to get a good position, until I figured out that a wall of Huscarls (close together) plus Swadian Knights utterly destroys them. You are right in that it's sort of similar to Dark Souls in that it's hard until you figure out a solid strategy.

Right now I've finished pummeling the Nords. I rebelled against the Swadians and created my own kingdom, took every city from them plus Halmar fom the Khergits, Curaw and Wercheg from the Nords, and it looks like I'll have to deal with the Vaegirs soon since they will want to retake Curaw, which was in Nord power before. Hope my new waifu will help me with Tihr.

[Formless God]

How do games like Pandora's Tower, The Last Story, and the Wii Monster Hunter (Tri) measure up to it?

So I've been playing The Last Story to see if it's any good. The good: stages are small and compact; leveling up is very painless; combat is dial-a plus skills, which feels better than picking stuff from a menu; UI is slick and sexy. The ugly: the main mechanics break the game (aggro enemies and lead them around the room while your allies club them to death) and you are practically invincible (5 lives per fight, refillable); there is only one playable character; you have to manually accept and turn in quests.
I actually can't decide which one of the two I disliked less. TLS doesn't waste your time, but it severely lacks challenge; Xenoblade is a more solid game that fails to provide enough freshness to justify its length (you'll have seen everything by the 10 hour mark). So let's turn to the more touchy subjects: TLS's music and atmosphere stinks.

MH Tri plays like Xenoblade: you spend an obscene amount of time fucking around in the field before taking on the bosses which are the only good part of the game. MH has worse load times and it takes forever to get anything done. Want to hunt bitches? Do the 6-hour tutorial. Want that specific monster to spawn? Sleep until it happens. Want to save? Wait 30 seconds. Got killed? Wait 30 seconds. Cleared that quest? Wait 30 seconds. Failed that quest? 30 seconds. The combat is vastly superior though because it's action-oriented.

And I haven't played Pandora's Tower.

[Ruldra]

Faster Than Light progress:

Unlocked a bunch of ships by playing on easy, then managed a victory on normal with the Federation Cruiser. Right now I just want to get my hands on the Rock Cruiser, then I'll see which ship is best suited to take on hard difficulty.

There's a huge gap between easy and normal difficulties. Easy gives you so much scrap you can afford a ton of upgrades and become overpowered, pretty much only the final boss gives you a real challenge. Normal brings it back to the usual difficulty you see in roguelikes, where you need to play smart and hope the RNG is on your side.

[mosey]

Far Cry 3, my first experience with the series. Wow this has to be my perfect fantasy island. Guns and drugs and babes and goats! And hidden treasure! Flare guns are my new favorite goat killer too!

[Mischief Maker]

Valdis Story: Abyssal City.

I am VERY impressed with this game. Despite it's rough edges and running on the gamemaker engine, this is hands-down the best metroidvania I've played on the PC. Hell, it's better than most of the actual post-SOTN castlevanias I've ever played. Really hits a sweet spot of balancing RPG upgrade mechanics with player skill.

It's totally the game "Dust: An Elysian Tail" tried and failed to be.

[rapoon]

looking forward to bannerlord. are you using free movement with your shield? the game is hard as shit. i think anyone who enjoys the technical aspect of the souls games should check our warband; they share many similarities.

Yes, I put everything on the hardest settings (except the save system because RNG can really screw you up if you are not really good at the game). At first the game seems very tough, but once you get used to the system and figure out some solid tactics the game is much more manageable. For example the Khergits used to destroy me because they always caught me before I was able to get a good position, until I figured out that a wall of Huscarls (close together) plus Swadian Knights utterly destroys them. You are right in that it's sort of similar to Dark Souls in that it's hard until you figure out a solid strategy.

Right now I've finished pummeling the Nords. I rebelled against the Swadians and created my own kingdom, took every city from them plus Halmar fom the Khergits, Curaw and Wercheg from the Nords, and it looks like I'll have to deal with the Vaegirs soon since they will want to retake Curaw, which was in Nord power before. Hope my new waifu will help me with Tihr.

reading your experience has given me a big boner and i think i'll install M&B w/ Fire & Sword tonight. TaleWorlds is a phenomenal developer!

on another note, check out Kingdom Come: Deliverance
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/12 ... eliverance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84AiE46erkk

[Stevens]

Gunlord for the first time since I cleared it. Hopefully NG DEV's upcoming games match its quality.

[Ruldra]

FTL update: finally unlocked the Rock Cruiser, and it turns out to be one of the worst ships in the game. Horrible initial weapon loadout, crewmembers are slow as hell and the layout of the rooms makes you very vulnerable to beam weapons. Very disappointed with it.

Also just managed a victory on normal with the Engi Cruiser. I guess I'm ready for hard difficulty.

Spoiler

[Lord Satori]

Looks interesting, what system is it for?

[Ruldra]

^PC only. It's pretty much a roguelike set in space, one of the best things to ever come out of Kickstarter. Everyone should give it a try.

[Ed Oscuro]

How do games like Pandora's Tower, The Last Story, and the Wii Monster Hunter (Tri) measure up to it?

So I've been playing The Last Story to see if it's any good. The good: stages are small and compact; leveling up is very painless; combat is dial-a plus skills, which feels better than picking stuff from a menu; UI is slick and sexy. The ugly: the main mechanics break the game (aggro enemies and lead them around the room while your allies club them to death) and you are practically invincible (5 lives per fight, refillable); there is only one playable character; you have to manually accept and turn in quests.
I actually can't decide which one of the two I disliked less. TLS doesn't waste your time, but it severely lacks challenge; Xenoblade is a more solid game that fails to provide enough freshness to justify its length (you'll have seen everything by the 10 hour mark). So let's turn to the more touchy subjects: TLS's music and atmosphere stinks.

MH Tri plays like Xenoblade: you spend an obscene amount of time fucking around in the field before taking on the bosses which are the only good part of the game. MH has worse load times and it takes forever to get anything done. Want to hunt bitches? Do the 6-hour tutorial. Want that specific monster to spawn? Sleep until it happens. Want to save? Wait 30 seconds. Got killed? Wait 30 seconds. Cleared that quest? Wait 30 seconds. Failed that quest? 30 seconds. The combat is vastly superior though because it's action-oriented.

And I haven't played Pandora's Tower.

Thanks very much for this awesome capsule review. Your comments on Tri agree with my own experience of the game (though load times didn't bother me).

If TLS has some amusingly abusive mechanics, that could just add to my amusement.

[iconoclast]

Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae
This is a doujin action game that seems inspired by Devil May Cry & maybe Sengoku Basara. It's on sale for $2.75 on Steam, so I picked it up and have been playing it for the last few days. It's a simple game: there are five stages, and they're all circular arenas where you fight through several waves of enemies until you reach a boss fight. It's fun enough for what it is, but I started getting tired of the game after 6 or 7 hours due to the limited moveset and lack of enemy variety (4 different types + pallet swaps). The various difficulty modes don't help the game much, either. Very Hard throws hordes of enemies at you that spam attacks whenever they're on screen, so you can either play with a safer (ie. more boring) style, or accept the fact that you'll constantly get gangbanged for 100% health (because the player never has a frame of invincibility). Inferno mode is a silly gimmick difficulty that's similar to Heaven or Hell in DMC, where every attack kills you instantly. It's not as hard as it sounds, though, since each enemy has very little health. You can simply spam your safest attacks and kill everything with ease, so it's pretty boring until the boss fights.

The core combat is fun for a while though, and the graphics and animation are relatively good. I got my $3 worth.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The biggest flaw of Pandora's Tower is, well, the controller's long response time. The interaction as is would be more enjoyable if only it was more responsive. Conclusion: play Crimson Tears instead.

Been playing Spartan: Total Warrior (GameCube version on the Wii) for a couple of nights, exclusively German version too. So many things to say about the game... For starters, the character animation in cutscenes doesn't look great, but on the battlefield you ought to be amazed by the accuracy of collision detection. The game cuts no corners where practically all the rest does (meaning Capcom and Koei slashers here; also, Dark Alliance engine-powered Diablo clones and two LotR action games).

To quote the interview:

We'd become pretty adept at a particular kind of high-impact motion capture, so had very strong animation.

So it could look more life-like, but it sure looks fierce. You can tell it was not their first console game. Neither is that the only one rather distinctive faeture of Spartan: Total Warrior, but I'm too exhausted to make much sense right now.

[null1024]

Delver [PC].
little 3D rougelike I bought on Steam last seasonal sale or the one before that

Latest update changed a bunch of things, cave layouts are now claustrophobic as fuck and staggered to feel more like a cave rather than just a generic dungeon design. Feels a bit more difficult than before, new gimmicks like switch platforms over bottomless pits and whatnot.
I approve.

things I still hate: going forever without a bow anywhere and 80 arrows in stock, magic moves slow as hell and you're a fair bit less maneuverable than those fucking lost-soul/cacodemon looking things that fly around and pelt you with fireballs [so, you get hit while dealing with two of them since you don't run at 50MPH like Doomguy+there's much less room to maneuver than in Doom and they're dodging everything]. Oh, and recharging magic wands is the worst. I've ended up with five wands bound, each with only one charge remaining [since leveling up magic recharges every wand you have in stock [I think, it could be recharging every wand in the game period, I seem to have more charges in new wands I pick up, but I haven't really tested that]]

Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae
The core combat is fun for a while though, and the graphics and animation are relatively good. I got my $3 worth.

Just bought it solely because it was less than $3 dollars.
Will probably play it a bit tomorrow, I'm about to go to bed. Saw a friend playing it a month ago and it looked okayish.

[Mischief Maker]

Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae
This is a doujin action game that seems inspired by Devil May Cry & maybe Sengoku Basara. It's on sale for $2.75 on Steam, so I picked it up and have been playing it for the last few days. It's a simple game: there are five stages, and they're all circular arenas where you fight through several waves of enemies until you reach a boss fight. It's fun enough for what it is, but I started getting tired of the game after 6 or 7 hours due to the limited moveset and lack of enemy variety (4 different types + pallet swaps). The various difficulty modes don't help the game much, either. Very Hard throws hordes of enemies at you that spam attacks whenever they're on screen, so you can either play with a safer (ie. more boring) style, or accept the fact that you'll constantly get gangbanged for 100% health (because the player never has a frame of invincibility). Inferno mode is a silly gimmick difficulty that's similar to Heaven or Hell in DMC, where every attack kills you instantly. It's not as hard as it sounds, though, since each enemy has very little health. You can simply spam your safest attacks and kill everything with ease, so it's pretty boring until the boss fights.

The core combat is fun for a while though, and the graphics and animation are relatively good. I got my $3 worth.

I'd say it's more like Ninja Gaiden than DMC because the unlockable moves are flat out better than the starting ones. Also makes me think of NG because the camera is awful. Never underestimate the importance of Devil May Cry's lock-on mechanic.

I wouldn't suggest grinding to play New Game+ with the full moveset. I think the game is geared toward starting at square 1 and being forced to fight well to maximize your orb collection so you can have the best moves by the final level.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Crazy Taxi on Dreamcast is... one vehicular action game.

[Ed Oscuro]

Very late to the game, but finally reinstalled Steam ("Last Online: 599 days ago") and activated the two bundles from KennyMan666.

Nothing yet on Gratuitous Space Battles or Two Worlds II, but Cave Story + is nifty. Playing around with the game set to original music and graphics version. Beaten Balrog (agh). Also sexed the cute whatever-they-are girl who tells you about the Jellyfish Jelly.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Is it 60 Hz at last? On the PC, that is.

[Mischief Maker]

Gratuitous Space Battles is the videogame equivalent of those vibrating tabletop football games from back in the day more than anything else. The best massive-fleet space combat game (definitely NOT without its own flaws) is still Sword of the Stars 1.

[z0mbie90]

Ive become addicted to Pac-Man Champion Edition DX+ really awesome and fun game. One of those game with Time Attack mode that you just want to play "one more game" but ends up becoming 5-10. I really love that you can choose a bunch of cool visuals like Tron style Pac-Man or dot Pac-Man.

I Really recommend this game if you havent tried it out, I think there a demo out.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Dune 2000. It's like Dune 2, but better(and with three zeros)! Group select, hotkeys and John Rhys-Davies FTW!!!

The Harkonnen campaign is proving to be a lot more difficult than the Atreides one. Spent at least 5-6 hours yesterday on the 8th mission; still one more to go. Once the enemy assault begins, it never really ends. The units start pouring from all sides mere minutes into the mission as you struggle to strategically position your own in a way as to incur minimal damage. Limiting the number of access points to your base to just one with a perimeter wall and fortifying it with rocket turrets are key to success. And OMG those goddamn Ornithopter air raids!

A minute of silence for Westwood and mandatory "Fuck Electronic Arts!!!".

[Lord Satori]

Gratuitous Space Battles is the videogame equivalent of those vibrating tabletop football games from back in the day more than anything else.

The game has some excellent mods, though. The developer is currently working on a sequel.

[null1024]

Tales of Xillia [PS3].

haven't played in forever, apparently I forgot what the controls were for a bit
Oh, and I'm brick-walling on the Agria+whatsherface fight [don't feel like waiting for the game to come back up to check her name].

might be able to beat it if I can keep Rowen from dying long enough and ensure he never ever ever stops casting Tidal Wave
but that would mean I'd have to play as Rowen, and the AI is too stupid to avoid Mystic Arte triggering attacks, so I end up getting hit 3/4ths of the time anyway [can you say TPK]

[Moniker]

Shovel Knight (WiiU)

A pastiche of Mega Man, Zelda II, Castlevania Classic, and Duck Tales. Really good so far. Wouldn't say it climbs the heights of Mega Man 10, but the controls, level design, boss fights, music, and artwork are all a solid B+. Shovel Knight has a bit of inertia like early MMs, which I could do without, but it's not bad. The downward strike that bounces you off enemies is very well-implemented. Level gimmicks are interesting and not too gimmicky. Baseline difficulty is at a pretty good sweet spot, and you can self-regulate difficulty Mega Man X-style by destroying checkpoints and avoiding food or upgrades. It also seems to be designed for speed-runs. The money system is borrowed from Dark Souls - if you die, you lose a proportion of your gold, and have to make it back to where you died to collect it, or lose it. Wish they had put a *little* more effort into the artwork - the main sprite doesn't have a MM-style breathing animation when idle.. he just sits there and occasionally glints - but can't really fault it too much.

A must-buy for MM fans, and hearty recommendation to anyone who's into the other NES platformers it cribs from.