What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Sinful]

Virtua Racing 32X (J).

Do I suck so much that I still can't secure a first place with the Formula car on the beginner track, or is this game that hard? Best I can do is 2nd. Seems like getting the sub 39 or whatever lap time on this track is pretty hard and only happens once in a blue moon.

[Squire Grooktook]

While I like that high-quality 2D games are still being made these days, I don't think I find Hyper Light Drifter's "retro" aesthetic as appealing as actual low-res art (such as, say, TwinBee Yahho!) from whatever time period it is attempting to evoke. Something to do with the juxtaposition of fancy lighting effects and rich color palettes with "blocky" graphics, or perhaps the unfortunate resemblance it bears to raw capture footage from an emulator.

Yeah, I can't say I'm a fan of the "old-school but not really" aesthetic a lot of indie games go for.

I'm not sure if either of you have played it in person, but IMO Hyper Light Drifter is deceptively gorgeous up close. The animations are smooth and impactful, and the lonesome sci-fantasy aesthetic is wonderfully realized. The sprite work is also more detailed then a quick youtube watch or screenshot might imply. Definitely a game I enjoy to watch in motion as I play it.

[atheistgod1999]

I sorta believe that 2D games were meant to look like low-budget cartoons rather than blocky pixels; I see the pixels there as more like a connect-the-dots type thing than what the picture was supposed to actually look like.

[WelshMegalodon]

I'm not sure if either of you have played it in person, but IMO Hyper Light Drifter is deceptively gorgeous up close. The animations are smooth and impactful, and the lonesome sci-fantasy aesthetic is wonderfully realized. The sprite work is also more detailed then a quick youtube watch or screenshot might imply. Definitely a game I enjoy to watch in motion as I play it.

I'm as much a sucker for good animation as anyone else (as suggested by my post on the previous page), and the sprites are indeed quite detailed, but something about the overall art direction is just... off. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it sort of tries to be a hyper-detailed version of this and feels oddly clean compared to this, this, this, or this. I suppose that is appropriate for a sci-fi/fantasy setting, but Lagrange Point manages to convey a convincing sci-fi vibe without looking that way, as does Shadowrun.

EDIT: I'm guessing the creator actually was going for more of an early 80s look. He admittedly pulls it off quite well, but my previous points still stand.

[null1024]

Playing a lot of PS1 stuff today [mostly things I'd put in the shmup version of this thread but I'm too lazy to go over there like R-Type Delta and Einhander], but in particular, I popped in something that'd slipped my mind for the longest time: Dino Crisis 2.
And damn, it's fun, it's been pretty far removed from a survival horror sort of affair: ammo, health, and enemies are all plentiful. Really, it seems a bit strange to have tank controls on an action packed game like this, and I find myself getting hit way too much near camera boundaries because lol suddenly dinosaur from off screen, but it's pretty damn cool.

died to the t-rex trying to shoot it before the message that you can't kill it with your gun showed up

[BIL]

Virtua Racing 32X (J).

Do I suck so much that I still can't secure a first place with the Formula car on the beginner track, or is this game that hard? Best I can do is 2nd. Seems like getting the sub 39 or whatever lap time on this track is pretty hard and only happens once in a blue moon.

VRDX's CPU competition is pretty challenging, at least with the F1 (I seem to remember the Stock being a bit easier, on account of its lower top speed and forgiving handling ; Prototype seemed the hardest). Little tolerance for caution, even less for outright error. I cleared out the F1's races a couple years back - the desert course's brutal tunnel corner made me sweat blood. Incidentally, the Japan version of that course is harder - the fast route's final chicane isn't in the US cart, just a plain straightaway. JP cart saves records to SRAM, too, decidedly the more complete package.

Great game, easily worth keeping a certain infamous bit of hardware around for.

[chempop]

I played through the ResidentEvil7 Demo last night (twice, two different endings). It's interesting and was nice a freaky. I have an aversion to first person games and struggled a little with dizziness. I think capcom took some cues from the Condemned (sega) games, but it still felt like RE fetch quest central. I am not a giant RE fan, only played a handful (only completed RE:CV and RE4), skipped the 5+6.

Now that I have a PS4, I'm more open to trying games that ren't my typical go-to genres. I skipped last gen entirely and am excited to see how games have evolved since some of the PS2/xbox/gamecube era.

So far I have these (happy to hear suggestions even if this isn't the greatest thread for it):

Thumper
Bound
Life is Stange
Abzu
Inside
Resogun

[M.Knight]

I've only played a little of Pirate's Curse, but I will say that based on the other Shantae experiences I've had the controls feel quite good - there are still some occasional cheap hits lying about within the levels, but they're mostly annoyances. As for the dances specifically, it's actually not bad - when you hit the "dance" button everything freezes, and four icons appear around you, each representing a transformation, and you just hit a directional button to change (and hit the dance button again once you're ready to instantly change back). Once you have more than four dances the icons will shift between up to three "sets" every second or two, so you'll sometimes have to wait a moment for the one you want to appear, but you can actually buy an item to make them shift faster, so overall I found transforming to be a mostly painless mechanic.

Thanks, BM! It's good to see the dances are fast.

If you haven't made much progress in Pirate's Curse, do no hesitate to go back to it, it's great fun! The only thing I didn't like were the TLB requirements.

[BulletMagnet]

If you haven't made much progress in Pirate's Curse, do no hesitate to go back to it, it's great fun! The only thing I didn't like were the TLB requirements.

I actually attempted to do Risky's Revenge first some time ago, but somehow wound up in a "how do I progress the story?" rut and dropped it...will have to give it another go at some point, as the general consensus seems to be that Pirate's Curse is the best of the bunch.

[Immryr]

i've been playing let it die on the ps4 a decent amount the last few days, which is a free to play 3d action rogue like by grasshopper manufacture. it felt a little weird playing it at first as it has the same f2p bones as puzzle and dragons - it's published by gungho who now own grasshopper - and the combat is quite simplistic, but it's weirdly compelling. you're basically just exploring a tower, fighting enemies, collecting items and blueprints to make more items, levelling up your fighters etc. it also has some interesting online interactions where you can invade other players waiting rooms or send your fighters out on expeditions to try to get loot or kill other players. i'm enjoying it more the more i play it.

So far I have these (happy to hear suggestions even if this isn't the greatest thread for it):

Thumper
Bound
Life is Stange
Abzu
Inside
Resogun

bloodborne!!!
earth defense force 4.1
puyo puyo tetris

[WelshMegalodon]

happy to hear suggestions even if this isn't the greatest thread for it

The iDOLM@STER: Platinum Stars

[Squire Grooktook]

Makoto best grill

[Mischief Maker]

I'm completely addicted to Thea: The Awakening, a turn-based survival game taking place in a slavic fantasy world.

[chempop]

I have been struggling to find the right PS4 game to dump time into, so far most everything I've gone after has been a relatively short indie style or arcade experience. People have recommended Witcher3, Souls/Bloodborne, etc... but then I discovered a little game called Let It Die - Suda51/Grasshopper's free2play PS4 title released at the beginning of the month. Diablo meets Souls in this dystopian dungeon-crawl/rougelike simulator.

As soon as I got over the absurdity of a skateboard riding Grim Reaper introducing the basic mechanics (which they probably could have done a better job at), and the awfully hard to read menus (maybe I just need new glasses or to adjust my monitor a bit) I quickly fell in love with the style and atmosphere of the gameworld. Having only played Killer7 I started to realize just what type of insane ride I'd just hopped on. While I was grilling mushrooms it didn't occur to me that I wasn't wearing any pants, I was just happy to have found blueprints to a handheld circular saw.

Did I mention the microtransactions are totally optional? In fact people are saying that the game is far too generous and no one has any clue how this game will actually make money lol. The combat might be clunky and the game will be unfair at times (dropping overpowered enemies on the first few floors which insta-kill you if you aren't careful), but it doesn't matter too much because you can train an army of people and retaliate in equally questionable ways such as raiding other real players' bases while they are at work or sleeping (they better have left some defenders or they can kill some of their gold bye-bye).

You basically have to try this game out if you own a PS4 and live in a country where it's available (sorry Japan). It's free, you have nothing to loose, and if you are anything like me, you may have just stumbled on the PS4 game that you've been looking for.

[Immryr]

Yep, it's very addictive. I also love the title screen music.

[Shoryukev]

Went for a 1cc of Rocket Knight Adventures on the Sega Genesis last night. Made it all the way to stage 7, and lost on the pig-knight guy that shoots blue fireballs at you. I haven't played this game in a long time, so I was pretty rusty. Eventually I'd like to clear it on the hardest difficulty instead of just beating it on the standard setting using continues. It's just a fantastic game IMO.

Spoiler

[wgogh]

Went for a 1cc of Rocket Knight Adventures on the Sega Genesis last night. Made it all the way to stage 7, and lost on the pig-knight guy that shoots blue fireballs at you. I haven't played this game in a long time, so I was pretty rusty. Eventually I'd like to clear it on the hardest difficulty instead of just beating it on the standard setting using continues. It's just a fantastic game IMO.

Spoiler

I don't know what you did, but it looks really good in your TV.

[Shoryukev]

I don't know what you did, but it looks really good in your TV.

Thanks! I just got that TV this week and have been super happy with it, it's a 32" JVC consumer set from 2003. I'm using a model 1 genesis that's been s-video modded and had the capacitors replaced. It looks pretty good, but in person I can see some faint jailbars. I think the jailbars are caused by the s-video mod, when I use it on my 14" PVM using RGB they aren't there (either that or the PVM is too small to see them, fingers crossed). Currently waiting on a SCART to Component converter I ordered tuesday morning to ship.

[Ruldra]

Eventually I'd like to clear it on the hardest difficulty instead of just beating it on the standard setting using continues.

Which version are you playing? Because each one labels the difficulty settings differently.



Stay away from Crazy Hard difficulty because everything kills you in one hit.

[Vludi]

Playing some Ghosts 'n Goblins/Makaimura. The earlier revisions are pretty tough for the simple reason that Satans have too much health, the later revisions have bug-fixes and the Satans only have half the health so I strongly recommend that one, seems more fun for multi-looping.

[Obscura]

Playing Transformers: Devastation. This game is waaaaay too good to be a licensed game. Bayonetta with robots.

Do yourself a favor and ignore the broken ranking system.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Playing Transformers: Devastation. This game is waaaaay too good to be a licensed game.

The PS2 (2004) Transformers game by Atari Melbourne House was hardly awful, though.

[atheistgod1999]

I was playing more Half-Life, and I'm stuck at

Spoiler

a tunnel, with a giant spider, that leads to a pit

. Don't tell me how to get past it, though.

And when is picture week this year!?!? I missed it last year

[soprano1]

Playing Transformers: Devastation. This game is waaaaay too good to be a licensed game.

The PS2 (2004) Transformers game by Atari Melbourne House was hardly awful, though.

I own the Transformers 2004 game, based on the Armada series that aired back then. It's pretty satisfying running all over the maps, transforming and shooting random stuff. Unfortunately, that's everything good about it.

[kaicooper]

just finished R-Type Delta on PSX and House of the Undying Sun for PC

next i'll start with ..
Colony Wars Trilogy PSX
Freespace2 PC
Freelancer PC

[wgogh]

House of the Undying Sun for PC

I was curious about that one. Probably not FreeSpace 2, but any good?

[null1024]

Gotta Protectors [3DS].
really, I only downloaded this because it had Yuzo Koshiro's name on it [and the music is pretty okay, the title theme with the lyrics you could hear in your head was super neato]

It's a ridiculously simple kind of sort of tower defense affair that takes a few cues from Gauntlet.
Dunno if it's actually good [probably not, but I've only just started and it seems to have potential for exciting "oh shit they're attacking on all sides" gameplay], but it's got a sense of corny humor to it and it's not miserable.

At the absolute least, the presentation is cute.

[kaicooper]

House of the Undying Sun for PC

I was curious about that one. Probably not FreeSpace 2, but any good?

hi there..first thing first
House of the Undying Sun is great little Indie Space Combat game
soooo short..u can just beat it in Hour..but if u know how to beat eatch mission
faster u can beat it in less then 40 minutes lol..BUT..its great game
there's Harder mod but in the end its just same issue..short..nothing much added like
extra destroy or scan..etc

its v.good game btw..give it a try

===========

u really wanna play greatest Space Combat game? and i mean no trading and rpg and boaring stuff
i mean really awesom action awesom and hard games ..

FreeSpace 2 ... but install Freespace Open first
Freelancer
Wing Commander Saga...its free btw and it uses FreeSpace opn engine
Star Wars Tie Fighter

if u need awesom space combat games on old consoles..
Colony Wars on PSX

[wgogh]

House of the Undying Sun for PC

I was curious about that one. Probably not FreeSpace 2, but any good?

hi there..first thing first
House of the Undying Sun is great little Indie Space Combat game
soooo short..u can just beat it in Hour..but if u know how to beat eatch mission
faster u can beat it in less then 40 minutes lol..BUT..its great game
there's Harder mod but in the end its just same issue..short..nothing much added like
extra destroy or scan..etc

its v.good game btw..give it a try

===========

u really wanna play greatest Space Combat game? and i mean no trading and rpg and boaring stuff
i mean really awesom action awesom and hard games ..

FreeSpace 2 ... but install Freespace Open first
Freelancer
Wing Commander Saga...its free btw and it uses FreeSpace opn engine
Star Wars Tie Fighter

if u need awesom space combat games on old consoles..
Colony Wars on PSX

I'm much more focused on writing than video games these days, having little time for them, wich means that the game being short is not a problem at all. I happened to like some of those indie games...

thx, for the titles. I didnt knew about Colony Wars, but the others are always considered great space combat games with their own strong points. I really liked Tie Fighter.

For something a little different, I've played Descent III recently

[Marc]

New Wild Guns is up on PSN. Not playing it at the moment though, as it's been priced at an astonishing 24.99....