What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[EmperorIng]

My pre-teen and teenage years were spent consuming vast quantities of time with Civilization 3 and later 4. Ah, the halcyon days of my PC gaming...

Civ 5 never really grabbed me for some reason; I barely put any time into it. I am told the expansions make it worth playing, though. Maybe I'll pick those up one of these days in order to see if the game has that "spark" like Civ 4 had. I am cautiously excited about Civilization 6.

[Ruldra]

If we're talking Tycoon games, nothing beats RollerCoaster Tycoon. That game is seriously fun.

[Mischief Maker]

Can someone explain to me why everyone seemed disappointed with Rollercoaster Tycoon 3?

[atheistgod1999]

Just played Stardew Valley for an in-game week, and what can I say?

Spoiler

I'm not hooked. What's weird is that this is the game I dreamed of when I was like 13/14.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Can someone explain to me why everyone seemed disappointed with Rollercoaster Tycoon 3?

News to me. Didn't play it myself, but the only review I seem to recall reading (in a printed PC games magazine) was pretty flattering in a way that seemed sincere to me (even the graphics got praised, back when graphics of every computer game that wasn't FarCry was typically described in either condescending, or apologetic tone by the "PC gaming press").

[lilmanjs]

Can someone explain to me why everyone seemed disappointed with Rollercoaster Tycoon 3?

I think it was mainly the fact that the original creator of the series had nothing to do with it, and its more or less built around the first person riding what you built gimmick too much. The original is by far the best and then you add in the 2 expansion packs that are also quite large.

[iconoclast]

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge

I've put around 70 hours into this so far. I've played through Normal, Hard, Master Ninja, MN again with Momiji, and I just finished an Ultimate Ninja run (with the original lifebar). I'm impressed by how much they managed to improve NG3 (which is a terrible game), but RE is still far from perfect. Honestly, it's unfair to hold it to the standards set by NGB and NG2 because the guys responsible for those games are long gone. Essentially, this is a new team's first* attempt at Ninja Gaiden, and even though it's really good, it's still sloppy in comparison.

Most of RE's flaws are pretty minor, but they really start to add up after a while. The two biggest issues are the combat and the enemy AI. Maybe it's fair to say that it plays like a dumbed down Ninja Gaiden II. You usually don't have to think about which combos you use - once you understand the fundamentals, pretty much anything will work. There isn't much strategy to it, you can do whatever you feel like doing and most of the time, it'll be fine. You do have to change up your tactics for certain enemies, but it still doesn't have anywhere near NG2's level of depth. That's hardly a deal breaker, though. It's still very fun.

There's no excusing the obnoxious AI that some enemies have, though. Sometimes they'll just decide to block and evade all of your attacks, and there's practically nothing you can do about it. Maybe they thought players would praise how "smart" they are, but it just makes them really annoying to fight. While Team Ninja was busy copy+pasting as much as they could from NG2, they should have looked at that game's AI and figured out why it worked perfectly for it.

But of course, they made a lot of good changes to the game. Like I said, they lifted as much as they could from NG2: Enemies, bosses, the dismemberment system, ninpo, weapons, Tests of Valor, the shop/upgrade system, etc., and it all goes a long way towards saving NG3. They even had some good ideas of their own, like the Cicada Surge and the Steel on Bone mechanic. The SoB was in the original NG3, but it was pretty much broken. It works differently in RE. Enemies now have attacks (typically grabs) that make their hands glow red. You have to dodge one and counter with a heavy attack to start a SoB chain. In NG3, you just had to weaken an enemy, slide into him, and hit Y. There's some risk involved now, especially since grabs usually do insane damage on MN/UN. They also added a limit to how many enemies you can hit in one SoB chain (up to 4), so it's a nice improvement all around.

The Cicada Surge is interesting. It's a new counter (on LT+A) that teleports you behind whoever is attacking you, except you can use it at any point, even during the middle of a combo. It requires some ki and if you mistime it, you'll be vulnerable for a moment, so it's not a safe "I win" button. This lets you dodge hits that you'd normally have to take, like if you were to start attacking an enemy that suddenly does something with super armor, or if you're attacking one enemy, and another comes out of nowhere and tries to attack or grab you (NG3's AI does this all the time). To me, this mechanic goes against Ninja Gaiden's principles, but I think it works perfectly as a bandaid solution for this game in particular. That's because NG3 is much more ground-based than the previous games. Your combos are longer, enemies have more health than before, they dodge launchers constantly, and they're always trying to attack. The Cicada Surge is practically a necessity in this game.

I'm optimistic about Ninja Gaiden 4 now. Razor's Edge is basically Team Ninja's way of saying, "we know NG3 was shit, we're going back to what made the previous games great". They weren't completely successful, but at least they have the right idea now. If NG4 is built from the ground up with the right vision, it might even be great.


PS. I hate how the Ninja Gaiden B-team has never been able to get the after-image effect right, even in the Sigma games. It looks so much better in NGB and NG2.


(2 on the left, 3 on the right)

[null1024]

Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure [PC].
Just started. Bought it on Steam, had it as a gift purchase for whatever reason, forgot I had it for ages.

Neat game so far. Spent way too long faffing around with where to go/who to speak to in the opening town though, blah.
Lots of little "satisfying" touches throughout, like her wallrun animation and how the homing attack feels, how attacks hit, etc.
Seeing Sonic Adventure style homing attack chains here is the silliest thing ever.

I wonder how long it'll take before the difficulty picks up if ever. I don't expect it to be a terribly difficult game, but I do hope it doesn't stay too easy.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Unfortunately, it really doesn't get too hard until the higher difficulties which have to be unlocked and are designed around NG+. And I don't find it to be the fun type of difficulty either.


Some Wings of VI Demon Turbo Purified. I'm so bad at the demon bosses. I've cleared Demon Purified before, but not with Turbo active. Planning to eventually use this file in order to practice for Doomed Demon Turbo Purified, or maybe drop the Turbo. On the leaderboard, there's 13 clears of Doomed Demon, 9 different people, only 2 of them were with Turbo active, all have Purified on. Purified being on during Demon Doom isn't really a surprise since the enemies are a total pain to fight in the first area on Demon with the default weapon even without 1 hit deaths. First boss is a pain on Demon without Greed and Sloth(you'd only have Pride on fresh start), but any later areas in the game, you'd be able to unlock proper weapons before they were needed on a fresh run. I'm sure a fresh Doomed Demon is possible, but it'd be a bit annoying to try to route out the first areas.


Also started a new run on Rabi-Ribi. I had cleared Bunny Extinction which was the hardest base game difficulty, but the artbook DLC has 2 difficulties(Unknown and Impossible) that were cut from the main game in addition to some other cut beta content, some other stuff about undodgeable patterns at times, some bosses being able to crash the game if they use certain attacks. Made it up to the 3rd boss in the Prologue on Impossible so far. The speeds of the normal enemies can easily catch me off guard at the moment, the damage taken is very high, and since it's the prologue, I don't have any items to use yet or the Bunny Amulet(Bunny Amulet pretty much being either a panic bomb or a way to extend your combo depending on when you use it)

[Mischief Maker]

Still playing Grim Dawn!

It's like they took all the best parts from Diablo, Sacred, and Tales of Maj'Eyal and crammed them together into an engine with an incredibly satisfying sense of impact (ragdolls in an ARPG! Yaaay!)

Too bad the setting is just a watered down version of Darkest Dungeon.

[Ed Oscuro]

12.49% done with Spider-Man 2, GameCube version via Dolphin. It used to have some terrible slowdown, but the last year's optimizations have got it running fullspeed all the time.
But I know you were all waiting to find out about Space Raiders. Fear not, it seems to work beautifully now too!

Spider-Man 2 makes me smile with its silly pop culture references ("a three hour tour!"). Humorous, gentle cynicism suits the game better than the "oh look, Parker is late again" cutscenes, which I hope will be done soon. Most everything else is grand, from picking up balloons, to Bruce Campbell's voice hints, to punching goons repeatedly, to just marveling that the GameCube is really doing all this stuff at the same time, with two distinct ecosystems. Sure, there are a few things that hold it back: It's pretty difficult to go fast and accurately, so the challenges are absurd (I've got just 1 out of 150 mega challenges...phew). The background quests (including collecting) get old after a couple hours and a lot of the gameplay is simply thin (rushing goons to guard break gets pretty old, sorry Bruce but one attack button is pretty lame). The lack of a good wide-view map makes finding Spider Stores a big chore. Finally, the main plot line unfolding seems uneven, though I've only gotten a few chapters in. I've spent most of my few hours with the game hunting down markers, of course. After this open and demanding a title, though, it's hard to look at regular games the same way.

Like Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds. Very simple arena-based brawler, good enough in what it sets out to do except that it's not very satisfying.

[orange808]

Uh-oh! A new Titan Quest remaster just landed in my Steam account. I must point and click!

I hope we can upgrade all the gear this time...

[dunpeal2064]

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge

Great write-up.

Do you happen to know if there are any big differences between the Wii U release and the ps3/360 ports?

[Durandal]

Too bad the setting is just a watered down version of Darkest Dungeon.

My biggest gripe with Grim Dawn aside from the meh ending and modern Blizzard armor design.
One thing I liked about Diablo 1+2 and Path of Exile is the absolutely dreadful atmosphere which kept me on my toes on all times with the fucked-up world which became integral to the ARPG genre.
After dealing enough damage, the first boss in Grim Dawn exclaims how that wasn't even his final form.
Yeah...

[iconoclast]

Great write-up.

Do you happen to know if there are any big differences between the Wii U release and the ps3/360 ports?

From what I've seen, the Wii U version has more slowdown in the larger battles. It also has/had some glitches and exploits that they fixed in the 360/PS3 versions. I'm not sure if they ever patched them on the Wii U. (I played the 360 version.)

[Blinge]

I've been abroad recently, took muh DS for plains and trains.

Etrian Odyssey

So the cutesy anime look really threw me, this is a brutal, grindy ass game.
Which is fine.. but i'm dug in for the long haul now. Met a couple of 'boss' enemies that one shot me, and it's hard to make progress when you're spending all your goldz on reviving people or sleeping.

As of now I'm on B3.

nitpick: I thought an odyssey was a long, difficult journey. It's hardly a journey if I'm nope-ing back to the surface every couple of in-game hours.

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

So the last time I was in Italy I had the game-book with me. Returning this time with the DS version was pretty cool.
Correct me if i'm wrong but it seems to play like Ultima Underworld. Or loosely like King's Field, with the combat.
The active combat element surprised me, I'd assumed it'd just be a text based game. The writing is good though, and deep character building at the beginning. It's rigid; looks like you have to stick to the strengths & abilities of whatever you rolled.

I've barely begun tbh, made my way into the mountain, cleared some rooms out and met some dwarves.

[Squire Grooktook]

As of now I'm on B3. nitpick: I thought an odyssey was a long, difficult journey. It's hardly a journey if I'm nope-ing back to the surface every couple of in-game hours.

It could be an emotional Odyssey!

Haven't played the first one, but the third game does develop some potent atmosphere while staying on the right side of minimalism.

Also Etrian A cute

Spoiler

[Stevens]

Pandemic, with the On the Brink expansion.

[BulletMagnet]

Tooling around with Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X. I really wish Sega would get its head out of its backside and not require the use of the analog stick (or worse, the touch pad) to hit certain notes, especially when the shoulder buttons are sitting there doing nothing.

[Blinge]

It could be an emotional Odyssey!

It could be, but it ain't.

[null1024]

Tooling around with Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X. I really wish Sega would get its head out of its backside and not require the use of the analog stick (or worse, the touch pad) to hit certain notes, especially when the shoulder buttons are sitting there doing nothing.

Yeah, I'm still bothered about that too.

hell, they've even acknowledged that it'd be better [in the F games at least] by making a help item to let you hit star notes with L/R

[Squire Grooktook]

It could be an emotional Odyssey!

It could be, but it ain't.

It will be.

Or you have failed.

[MX7]

It could be an emotional Odyssey!

It could be, but it ain't.

Just wait...

[atheistgod1999]

I 100% completed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on PS1 a couple days ago.

I honestly think it's kinda overrated; at least half of the songs sound generic (and all of them sound really similar so even the good tracks get pretty boring), the framerate is pretty shitty and unstable and sometimes screws up my timing (like making it hard for me to special trick over the support thing and land in a grind on the half pipe in the second competition, or boneless off the very edge of that roof to grab the secret tape in the San Francisco level), there's some lazy game design (like saying Officer Dick is unlocked every time you collect all the tapes as a skater even if he's already unlocked (and maybe even playing as him), or reloading the level if you want to see the goals), the controls are pretty floaty, and the physics make Sonic Adventure look polished. And I was kinda pissed that I didn't get any bonus content for beating the game as every skater, considering that I had a headache by the end of it.

I got THPS2 in the mail yesterday, though, and it's a lot better. The music is very cool (except for the "the guilt must be huge" and Bad Religion ones, but that's only two out of many) and every track sounds unique, the framerate is a lot more stable and higher which makes it way easier for me to time things, the controls are tighter, and the physics are a lot better. It still reloads the level when I select "View Goals" and still has a few frames of input lag, though. I can tell that a lot more work went into it.

After playing THPS2 for a couple hours, I got bored and decided to 100% Super Mario World. So far, I'm 72% done according to my save file. I unlocked all the "!" blocks. Also, I'm not using a guide.

[BulletMagnet]

After playing THPS2 for a couple hours, I got bored and decided to 100% Super Mario World. So far, I'm 72% done according to my save file. I unlocked all the "!" blocks. Also, I'm not using a guide.

Quick tip for you, in case you weren't already aware: the number next to your save file refers to the number of different end level goal posts you've passed through, this includes ones that don't actually lead anywhere, and secret keyholes don't count. The total number is 96, not 100; it's a bit tricky to get them all without a guide, particularly if you're not aware of one particular level's "gimmick".

[null1024]

The music is very cool (except for the "the guilt must be huge" and Bad Religion ones, but that's only two out of many)

you're dead to me

But yeah, THPS2 is probably the best of the lot to me, although 3 adds a fair few quality of life things [grind indicator, manual chaining -- which is pretty damned great].
Do you have it for PS1 or DC?

haven't played 4 in long enough to comment on it

[Kiken]

Given that it's this month's freebie (first half of the month, anyway) on XBL for Gold subscribers, I've been playing Forza Horizon. And I gotta admit, despite all the hilariously paper-thin omages to the Fast & Furious films, I'm enjoying participating in the variety of races as well as just driving around the map (and getting into ridiculous accidents). This is only the second racing game I've played on this generation of hardware (the firsst being the retooling of Daytona USA).

[atheistgod1999]

Cities: Skylines. It's what I wanted the SimCity "reboot" to be 3 years ago, and I'm not even talking about the server issues. Must be kinda humiliating for EA due to the fact that they're an AAA company and a company with less than 20 employees made a WAY higher quality product than them.

[Ed Oscuro]

Interesting (?) fact about the small text on the menu and character select screens in Space Raiders: It appears to be coverage of the 9/11 attacks. The section under "Who will save the Earth?" is taken from Salt Lake City Tribune front page for 9/12/01.

But ehh, I'm not playing that. I spent some time with Altered Beast on PS2, which didn't get a US release. Speaking of strange, beat-up visions of the US, here they're offered in 60Hz and this PAL-only English language release takes place in a strange little town, with Louisiana backcountry-style wooden quays and crocodiles; a sprawling graveyard with its own copy of Notre Dame (de Paris); a sun-drenched canyon to the west, and a surreal beat-up town with advertisements that must be seen in true real high def (TM) to be believed. The Mall's even got a "Warmcolor Pizza" outlet. Of course, the game makes a pretty poor impression through drab early stages, and the beat-em-up aspect is pretty unwieldy, but I think it added just enough in the way of Zelda-style puzzle exploration to hold my interest a bit. I've gotten a ways into the final "hub" area and I'm taking a break for now, though. There's a lot of extras, and the Wikipedia article is currently wrong; you can read fake histories of altered beasts at any time you choose. Overall, the game feels a bit like a mashup of Dino Crisis or Parasite Eve with a bit of Silent Hill, and...something else. Big downsides: Unintuitive and annoying upgrade system, too many slow characters, awkward ways of dealing with blocking enemies, and really aggressive queuing of slow attack commands...and then you have to deal with your Spirit stock, yuck. It's not the complete trainwreck some have claimed, but how did Sega go from Shinobi, Nightshade, and Phantasy Star Online, to competing with Rygar's successful PS2 reboot with this?

Dead to Rights II has outstayed its welcome with me. The gameplay revolves tightly around the orbit of avoiding damage, hoarding weapon pickups as long as possible, maybe sending in Shadow for a kill and ammo, or doing slow-motion dodges for aiming, and maybe doing some very basic brawling at the start of some stages. Even ignoring the minigames and looking to the basic gameplay, the original title seemed to have more to it - pretty well difficulty balanced for casual play on the GameCube - and the 360 reboot was also a better game all around, overshadowed by the competition but still with some saving graces. All DTR II has going for it is "better graphics," which of course means more detailed stereotypes of fringe hate group / criminal gangs rush you in sometimes lovingly detailed but claustrophobic environments. Story-wise, the only possible emotional tie to another figure (outside Shadow the dog, or the apparently taken-for-granted female supporting character), the captured judge, is simply executed for no apparent story benefit in a scene that makes no sense in many different ways, and indeed elsewhere there's strong hints that the game is meant to be completely streamlined to the killing. Slate himself seems to be a vicious psychopath in this one - even by the standards of the series which mostly held to the "good guy in a bad situation has to murder his way out" angle. That's probably appropriate given his baddies' gallery: I slogged through 'hick town,' front and back, and now they've got me in a "graveyard" fighting...more stereotypical Deliverance/Easy Rider rejects, I think is what they're going for here. The little 'plot' here is awful but it did manage to win a grin at its shameless opening to the current stage, not because of its extended ripoff of Pulp Fiction "Zed's Dead, baby," but because the cutscene pivots at its end to, of all things, a reference to a SNL skit from 1975. Chutzpah! Too bad lock-on shoot-dancing in tiny spaces isn't any more entertaining than playing 50 Cent: Bulletproof; I'm probably not sticking with it long enough to see Jack Slate doing his Punisher impression, or hoping that the story pushes Slate's character from heel to face.

Also fooling around with Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Reigns on GC, which is made more amusing by Dolphin's speed problem in this game; in fits and starts it occasionally goes into hyperspeed (usually when enemies appear). Hope to track down a version number, after I've finished up the game, for improving Dolphin. Beyond that, it's got surprisingly high production values with a complete movement and brawling model, but married to a game that smothers players in its dumb/cuteness. Sure, I had the word "Spoopy" (as in "Skellington") on the mind when looking for this game, but honestly, nobody likes uninspired reheated crap. It's a shame, as there's a good amount of decent work here, and occasionally some things genuinely impress me - some of the audio work is pretty good, there's a huge list of moves, combos, and weapons, with variations per character (pointless ones, though), you can jump on ladders, some of the one-liners are fun the first time you hear them, Sid, and the story has the potential to be fun if it can take a little break from being completely dumb and telegraphed. Oh, and I still haven't tired of trying to hit jump + kick at the same moment so Buffy will make a pained yell and appear to have stomach cramps.

Having more fun with Spy Hunter, also on GC. Back when this released the advertising didn't really get my attention, though I've got some old promo thing for the game around somewhere. It really calls to mind the lovingly-detailed 3D racers of old, but with some combat elements instead of racing (which suits me fine; I find staying ahead of a pack a bit stressful compared to simple twitch blasting). Unfortunately, the fun level is lowered by the obscurity of some objectives, hidden away in secret areas Cruis'n style, and the combat is often more taxing on finger dexterity than on reflexes, and doesn't work as well as it should. Again, there appears to be some kind of issue in Dolphin with the windows on the second Interceptor type being green before starting a mission.

When I get my mad keyboarding ease back I'll check out the fan-made compatibility fixed Ecco The Dolphin PC release from here:
http://web8.orcaserver.de/ecco/download ... /index.php

[Square_Air]

12.49% done with Spider-Man 2, GameCube version via Dolphin. It used to have some terrible slowdown, but the last year's optimizations have got it running fullspeed all the time.

Oh man, what an odd game. I just very recently played through this game again for the first time in almost 10 years, and i'm pretty happy that I can still find a lot of the joy I got from it as a kid still. There are so many things in Spiderman 2 that I despise in almost every other game like how the focus of it is "move from point A to point B in a relatively empty world, punch a few dudes, rinse, repeat" but the mechanic of just moving is such a blast that if the game was built around anything else I would still probably spend most of my time just dicking around and going fast. The movement doesn't fare too well indoors as the speed was obviously meant for moving quickly around a vast cityscape, but luckily the indoor segments are brief and mostly centered around the combat which while not perfect, is pretty fun once you upgrade it enough. It's not a game I would marathon for long periods of time, but works great as a stress reliever. The movement can seem a little obtuse at first, but once you get some essential upgrades (*cough*web zip*cough*) and put the time into honing your precision, wall sliding, and jumping it's very rewarding. The game has quite a few shortcomings, but with a bit of skill, you do honestly feel agile like Spiderman, which is something the rest of the Spiderman games seem to strangely forget.

I've been on a mission lately to complete most of the Resident evil games. 4 has always been a favourite of mine since It first released, and I recently played REmake and ended up playing it 6 fucking times in a row and consider it to be on par with 4. I don't expect any of the other games to top REmake or 4, but i just feel like I gotta scratch this itch. I beat 2 a few months ago and enjoyed it, but I find it to be a little overrated and am currently at the clock tower in 3 and find it to be cool, but a mixed bag. It's a little too early for me to really form an opinion on 3, but from what i've played it feels like a transitional game in the series and in certain ways like a prototype to 4 while still keeping the framing of the original games. Not really a fan of the dodge system though, it doesn't seem to mesh well with fixed camera angles and tight alleys, but maybe i'm just a scrub still, so i'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

I played 5 once Co-op with a friend in highschool when it was still new and thought it was decent as a 2 player arcade-type experience that helped quench my thirst for more of 4's style, but It seems underwhelming as a single player experience. From what i've seen of Resident Evil 6, I'm probably better off doing something more productive with my time, such as drinking a can of paint, or seeing how many HU-cards I can fit up my ass. 7 looks interesting, but I can't help but feel their thought process went something like "People really liked PT, so let's just do that". I've seen some pretty mixed opinions of Zero, but i'm going to stay open minded. I'm really in the dark about Code: Veronica, but a few people have praised that game and compared it favourably to REmake, so it will probably be what I tackle after 3.