What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Blinge]

At the risk of annoying you and making you determined never to play the thing again..

New Londo, the place with the ghosts is not an early area, in fact it's the wrong way. I think the developers intended people to go down there, get rekt or not figure out how to damage them at all, and run back to the shrine.
You should head up the stairs from Firelink Shrine to Undead Burg, I can't remember if there's any weapons with shorter start-up to be found there normally.
However there is a merchant sat by a barrel in Undead Burg, after you've bought some things from him you can murder him and take his katana. It's a great dexterity weapon, and very quick.

But yeah fair enough.

[iconoclast]

1000'd Final Fantasy Type-0.

The combat is easily the highlight since it's basically a fast-paced action game with combos, special abilities, and enemies with patterns that are meant to be dodged. There's also this thing called a Killsight that appears for a second or two after you dodge some attacks; if you attack the enemy while it's active, it will either kill them instantly or do massive damage. I thought that was a good way to reward skillful play, especially since you have to rely on it if you find yourself severely underleveled (which will happen if you only do the main missions).

The story wasn't all that interesting, and I thought it was a little confusing actually, but maybe that's because I didn't really care about it and wasn't paying attention half the time. The characters were pretty likable, though. They're nothing special since they're all cookie cutter archetypes, but it works well enough. The graphics were nice enough for a remastered PSP game, and the soundtrack seemed alright. Pretty decent game all around.

[JBC]

I'm on a Metal Slug kick & have been playing the Anthology on Wii using a Gamecube controller (boooo). The analog sucks for these games but I'm still having fun.

I'm actually pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed Metal Slug 6, since I've felt like the gameplay has declined in quality since X. That last boss is pretty impressive.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Started a new file on Demon's Souls. The last time I tried this game, I had gotten past 1-1 and was having trouble pretty much everywhere else. I didn't dislike it, even though I prefer the faster pace stuff for action.

it had been a while, so I started a new character. Royalty class and have mainly been using magic. Died to Vanguard during the tutorial but got close to beating it. So far, I've gotten through 1-1, 2-1, and 1-2 on this character in that order. I've also gotten up to 4-1's boss, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it yet, but I may come back after trying 2-2, 3-1, or 5-1 next.

[soprano1]

Got Gunman Clive 2 with some leftover eshop funds. Certainly not a waste of money! Music is really nice, gameplay is great. Level design is, i believe, heavily inspired on the NES Megaman games.

[EmperorIng]

I'm messing around with Namco Museum Volume 3 and 4.

3 is a bit sparse, though I enjoy Ms. Pac-Man and Galaxian.

I think the games I've most devoted time to are Tower of Druaga, Ordyne, Assault, and Genpei Toumaden/The Genji and Heike Clans.

Tower of Druaga - wanted to get more into this one since the PC-Engine port is so good (not really a port; more of an enhanced remake that is some seriously good stuff). The arcade version is rough around the edges, for as much as I like the idea of it. I can make it up 13 floors... um, only 47 more to go? Thank goodness for the included hint book. PC-Engine's port is a little more sensible for including hints to help you figure things out (and RPG stats to buff your li'l Gil).

Genpei Toumaden is a really stylish action platformer that I am either playing wrong or is just janky. There's an odd delay between walking and running (hold one direction and you'll shift gears after a second or two), and hitting enemies bounces you all over the map like a bouncy ball. The "big" stages are cool, but I basically have to tank these stages since it seems avoiding hits is not the point (you basically get full healed after every segment, though if you die anywhere it's game over). The Zelda overhead stages are odd, since they don't seem to fit other than keeping up with the "ricochet you off of everything upon collision" thing.

Ordyne and Assault : two good games

I feel like mentioning Pac-Land, just so I can mention that it's kinda better than Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, but would have been a good game if you could actually directly control Pac-Man instead of button-prompting him forward or backward. What's with these games and taking control away from you?

[Leandro]

Jet set radio

I just can't pass the Fight or Flight level...

[Tregard]

Reaper of Souls

As a big Diablo 2 fan I managed to put off buying the third entry for a long time, but it finally snagged me and reeled me back in. I can almost see the flashes of light behind my eyes as the pleasure centres in my brain light up while playing. SQUISH, as my legendary axe bites through the odious flesh of the fallen. CHUNK, as I craft mighty new items upon the blessed avil. HO PLEASE, as I sit back for a moment, spliff in hand, to ogle my character's huge weapon and DPS stat (oo-er).

I HATE how bare-faced and obvious its cycles of addicton are. I LOATHE the cartoonish art. I DESPISE the writing, the lore, and the voice-acting. But I LOVE the game.

[Zaarock]

Been playing Vanquish a bit again. Trying to learn speedrunning hard mode. It's actually making me appreciate it even more than before, such a solid game. There's also a bunch of techniques to learn that I never knew of back in the day.

My best time so far is 2h26m real time but it was a really sloppy run with multiple deaths. The random weapon drops don't affect speedruns as much as score runs which is nice (still the only big fault of the game I think). I still wish there was a bonus game mode where you can play through the games in 'limiters off' -mode where meleeing doesn't overheat you, among other things.

Vanquish:
I've been speed running this a lot recently. My current best in-game time on Normal is 2 hrs 17 minutes. I'm steadily trying to whittle that down to right around the 2 hour mark. Most of it boils down to not making any seriously stupid errors and powering-up the Heavy Machine Gun and the EMP Grenades in the first couple of sectors as much as possible. Obviously the randomness of the item-drops can influence a run greatly... but the game normally heaps Assault Rifles, HMGs and both types of grenades early on. That being said, the game does have a tendency to find some way of killing me at least once during a run.

Missed this post somehow. Nice to see someone else playing it! I'm also trying to go for less than two hours. Though it's worth noting the in-game timer isnt totally reliable. It doesn't count time in some sections, namely when there are no enemies spawned.

Most speedruns so far have been done on Casual difficulty (this doesn't mean it's easy to run). Halfcoordinated who was at the last AGDQ event has some very solid runs on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLtCn3Zm5qU

[juonryu2nd]

Started a new file on Demon's Souls.
(...)
Royalty class and have mainly been using magic.

A melee character is much more fun. Magic makes the game pretty dull.

Figure out how to get the Dragon Bone Smasher. This 8/10 game will suddenly turn into a 11/10.

[G-Darius]

(SNES) Stunt Racer FX ,Street Fighter Alpha 2
(N64) F-Zero X ,Road Rash 64
(ARCADE) Sengoku Metal Slug 3
And a huge amount of various Game Gear and Sharp X68000 games.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

I'm planning to go through with melee at a later time, maybe even try Level 1 sometime as well, but for now I'm just going for beating the game.

[Ruldra]

I'm playing Vantage Master Online once again. I must've played this game for the first time back when I was 18. Made it to the final stages but ragequit after losing a 2-hour battle. Played numerous times over the years but always gave up at some point. This time I want to beat it once and for all.

I love this game but don't like how battles can last for so long later on. I'm probably doing something wrong because every match becomes a tiresome battle of attrition. And the AI is brutal, one mess up of yours and the battle will quickly turn against you.

Right now I'm playing as the Ranger. I know there are better characters out there (Savage absolutely dominates in this game) but I love her ranged attack.

[ACSeraph]

Completely and totally addicted to the Resident Evil Revelations 2 Raid mode. Very fun arcade style TPS shooting geared towards online coop, with character progression and the potential for a ton of interesting builds. Seems like there is more content in Raid than the main game to be honest (though I did enjoy the campaign; it's especially excellent in split screen coop).

The RPG elements are well implemented, since in order to rank well in missions you need to level sync, there's no way to just power through. The general gameplay is also just really tight and well done, the dodge mechanic works beautifully for once, since they stopped using "QTE" dodges in favor of a dedicated dodge button. It's really the best game in the entire series gameplaywise imo. I also like that Raid has distinct stages with a set amount of enemies to kill and goal points, rather than the survive 'til the timer empties style of mercs.

If anyone is playing this on PS3 feel free to add my JP account on PSN (ACSNovabot). I don't think international play will be problematic with this particular game.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Trying to complete Crimson Skies (PC) campaign. Playing "The Stolen Starlet" mission rough (ignoring the director and going straight for the studio gate) all night long have been keeping me stuck on the mission, so I'm gonna approach it with more finesse now.

[gbaplayer]

Still into Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on 3DS. over 90 hours already.
Anybody else here playing this online? Maybe we could go hunting together.

[BrianC]

I'm still playing too. Currently HR4 and on the level 8 Caravan quests offline. I made a female hunter named Kara. My friend code is 1349-4609-0201.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Silent Bomber came in the mail a couple of days ago, so I've been playing that, and GAD DAYUM this is my kind of game! Fucking annihilates my thumb after a while, but I don't care, I'm having too much fun blowing everything up. I would probably have not heard of this game for quite a while longer if BIL, Obiwanshinobi, and some other folks on this forum hadn't brought it up, so thanks, guys!


Also been playing some Wild Arms (PSN Classics version - it was on sale for, like, $0.90, so fuck it , why not?), and... it's a JRPG. Cool intro, great music, decent graphics, and utterly brain-dead battles. The Force mechanic (read: super meter) is a little more interesting than the average Limit Break, but only boss battles really last long enough for you to make any use of it.
I'm seriously questioning the 3D chibi graphics for the battles, though. I mean, the first real plot event is demons come from the sky and murderlize a bunch of villagers, including some kids. Seems a little too hardcore for these adorable killer plush toy protagonists.

[Immryr]

wild arms was pne of the first rpgs I ever played. it's very simple, but I still love it.

[Pretas]

Trying to complete Crimson Skies (PC) campaign. Playing "The Stolen Starlet" mission rough (ignoring the director and going straight for the studio gate) all night long have been keeping me stuck on the mission, so I'm gonna approach it with more finesse now.

Crimson Skies actually had an arcade release. It was one of the games used on those TsuMo cabinets, which featured a flight stick and a hydraulic moving chair (there was also a conversion kit without the chair). You select one mission per credit to score attack, and there's no cutscenes or anything. Not sure if all the missions from the PC version are available, either.

Mechwarrior 4 also got a TsuMo version.

[gbaplayer]

I'm still playing too. Currently HR4 and on the level 8 Caravan quests offline. I made a female hunter named Kara. My friend code is 1349-4609-0201.

I can add you today and iam gonna post my friend code then. Maybe i can help with some HR4 quests.
Iam only at Level 6 Caravan Quests offline and G2 online.^^

[Obiwanshinobi]

Crimson Skies actually had an arcade release. It was one of the games used on those TsuMo cabinets, which featured a flight stick and a hydraulic moving chair (there was also a conversion kit without the chair). You select one mission per credit to score attack, and there's no cutscenes or anything. Not sure if all the missions from the PC version are available, either.

Mechwarrior 4 also got a TsuMo version.

Both franchises started as board games, interestingly enough.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Just need 5-2(this level is terrible), 5-3, and 1-4 now to finish up Demon's Souls. I don't think I'll be taking this character through the NG+ and start a new melee character right away after beating it. Not sure which class I'll use for my next character, but Temple Knight looks like it may be the right choice based on the starting stats. May follow a guide to make sure I don't miss the events, especially since I'm not sure if a level 1 character would be able to get the trophy stuff on its own due to the whole inventory limit thing(plan to attempt level 1 after I finish a melee based run).

[Leandro]

I got BlazBlue and I think it's a great fighting game. Way better than I expected for a recent series. I like it probably as much Capcom and SNK fighters of the 90s, which means it's much better than Street Fighter 4 and it's variations.

[juonryu2nd]

I'm zigzagging between replaying Rorona to unlock the Astrid end and playing Mother 1 for the first time.

[broken harbour]

Guardian Heroes on my Saturn,

I had this waaay back in 1998 when the system was disco'd and they were blowing games out cheap, I had it for a few years but I don't ever really playing it all that much. Then in 2001 I sold all my Saturn stuff like a moron, got this copy for a decent price last year and finally got around to playing it, I'm not huge into either Beat em Ups, or Treasure games for that matter, but I'm liking this. I like how combo heavy it is, and it's fast and easy to get into. Love the graphical style, though I will admit I lose track of my character some times. I also love the branching paths, even if the story doesn't make a lot of sense, its still fun to play a different route each play through. The game is pretty repetitive, but thankfully its about a 45 minute game so just as it gets old it's over. And at no point does it feel unfair, like a lot of other beat em ups I've tried.

I'd love to play this with a friend at some point.

Maybe this will be my gateway into brawlers, I remember playing SoR and Final Fight 20 years ago, but I don't remember loving them or anything. Might try the D&D brawlers after I finish up this one.

[Gespenst]

Got addicted with SLAI:Phantom Crash lately. Currently on the way to getting the remaining 2 secret SVs.

Mowing down dozens of high/champion-tier opponents in Hong Kong map with Proton SV with +99 Samurai Steel/blade is hella fun.

[Jonst]

I got BlazBlue and I think it's a great fighting game. Way better than I expected for a recent series. I like it probably as much Capcom and SNK fighters of the 90s, which means it's much better than Street Fighter 4 and it's variations.

I feel similar to this but in my case it's guilty gear xrd. I played it the other night and for the first time in ages enjoyed a fighting game and actually felt adrenaline! It's the best fighter I've played in a long time (although I do like the blazblue series as well). I never thought there would be a time when street fighter wouldn't be my first love and that capcom could do wrong, alas they have failed me!

[dink]

Both on Megadrive:
Chiki Chiki Boys yesterday
Rocket Knight Adventures Today

[juonryu2nd]

I finished Mother 1. It is definitely unrefined gameplay-wise, but everything else was stellar. I'm glad I stuck with it. Going over to Earthbound now.