Whatcha Been Playing?

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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

Another fan of Chu Chu here. Personally I prefer Bomberman but they’re quite different.

I’ve been waiting for Sega to bring CCR to contemporary platforms for years now.
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Suits »

I’ve been playing HotD2 recently too.

Back in the day my first experience of it was on the Dreamcast and enjoyed it quite a lot.

More recently I’ve been playing it on my Wii, with the Hand Cannon’s.

It’s fun playing through it again, although I do prefer other light gun games upon reflection. I find the HotD games to be a little too arcades in their difficulty and windows.

For home play, I much prefer Ghost Squad.
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Stanshall
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

ratsoalbion wrote: October 24th, 2017, 2:42 pm Another fan of Chu Chu here. Personally I prefer Bomberman but they’re quite different.

I’ve been waiting for Sega to bring CCR to contemporary platforms for years now.
As ever, it seems an ideal game for the Switch. "A cross between Picross and Bomberman and some cats." An easy sell.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

I am playing a bit of Darkest Dungeon on the PS4. I can’t help feeling that it’s been heavily inspired by corporate team-building weekends.

For a pc game it works very well on console, with the exception of some convoluted menus/button presses in the main menu. The moment to moment gameplay is delightful, if repetitive. That’s if I am even playing it right. For example I have a roster of 16 heroes, and it’s a lot of work to level them all up at roughly the same rate, meaning you replay the same levels with different teams of four over and over.

It’s marvellous though, just lovely to play.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

Stanshall wrote: October 24th, 2017, 9:04 am Dodonpachi... Why is this game not on every format?
The real question is: why isn't this taught in schools? :ugeek:

As mentioned already by other, there is the Japanese PSN PS1 version, which has the bonus feature of having a manual "slow-down" button, which comes in very handy. That is a feature I wish other shmups would exploit; the equivalent of reversing time in a racing game.
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

Stanshall wrote: October 24th, 2017, 9:04 am Dodonpachi

I went to Arcade Club over the weekend and got there early enough to burn twenty minutes of credits on this absolute monster before I felt I was being a hog. I've been playing loads of shmups recently on XB1 BC and I'd heard this was the risen cream.

Why is this game not on every format? Real question. Is there some licensing issue or what? It is an absolute colossus. It's probably the only bullet hell game I've played so far where I felt like I was responsible for at least half of the hell. Once I'd powered up, my regular shots were covering about 80% of the screen with missiles. It was hilarious. The laser beam was - to be frank - thicker and longer than Brave Starr's horse's penis. It covered roughly 25% of the width of the screen and melted everything in sight. Press smart bomb and it takes up 40% of the screen or something. And despite all that arsenal, I probably died every ten seconds for twenty minutes. What a game!

Any suggestions on how else I might play this, folks? I'm coming up blank with my Googling. It seems it's not available in the UK.
How'd I miss this? I've got DonPachi and DoDonPachi on Saturn and Resurrection and SaiDaiOuJou on the 360. Especially Resurrection should not be too hard to find. For the original, MAME would perhaps be the easiest option.
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

Joshihatsumitsu wrote: October 24th, 2017, 10:32 pm As mentioned already by other, there is the Japanese PSN PS1 version, which has the bonus feature of having a manual "slow-down" button, which comes in very handy. That is a feature I wish other shmups would exploit; the equivalent of reversing time in a racing game.
Cave's Espgaluda games have a slow down as an actual game mechanic. It runs on resources you collect though and if you don't switch back to normal speed before your meter runs out, enemy bullets will actually speed up!

Sine Mora has a similar thing from what I recall.
Joshihatsumitsu

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

Michiel K wrote: October 25th, 2017, 1:21 am
Joshihatsumitsu wrote: October 24th, 2017, 10:32 pm As mentioned already by other, there is the Japanese PSN PS1 version, which has the bonus feature of having a manual "slow-down" button, which comes in very handy. That is a feature I wish other shmups would exploit; the equivalent of reversing time in a racing game.
Cave's Espgaluda games have a slow down as an actual game mechanic. It runs on resources you collect though and if you don't switch back to normal speed before your meter runs out, enemy bullets will actually speed up!

Sine Mora has a similar thing from what I recall.
Sine Mora is a game I don't have yet... and I've always delayed getting current games and prioritising older, harder to get games.

Considering how much I love a good shooter, would you recommend getting Sine Mora?
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

It's a beautiful game, but there are many telltale signs that this was the developer's first shoot 'em up and that can feel jarring if you're used to playing games by the masters of the genre. Still worth getting in a sale, I'd say, if you dig the aesthetics.

EDIT: Well I'll be. I see that Sine Mora EX is in my Steam library, without me having bought it. I'll dig in for a bit later and see if it makes crucial improvements.
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Combine Hunter »

Resident Evil 7.

The thing that's most surprising about it, is that writing is actually good. Not like, SOMA good, but it's now in a realm where it can be judged by similar criteria, instead of just being relegated to the land of amusing camp like every other entry. Really impressed with the pacing and low stakes horror. Lets see if that continues.
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ThirdDrawing
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ThirdDrawing »

I managed to get ahold of a SNES classic.

I didn't have a SNES growing up so I haven't played most of these games before.

Really excited to play Secret of Mana!
Joshihatsumitsu

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

Michiel K wrote: September 22nd, 2017, 3:06 pm Also grabbed myself a copy of Hellfire for the Mega Drive, last weekend. Hardest 2D shooter I've played in a long time. Just getting through the exhaustive stage 1 and managing to go the length with the boss and finally taking it down feels like a huge accomplishment. Yeah, I punched the air.
Addictive stuff.

P.S. Toaplan Mega Drive music rulez!

I've been playing the arcade version of Hellfire this week (which was shipped from Cyprus, of all places), and yeah, like you say, it's a tough little game!

It definitely has a bit of a puzzle element to it, in that you could be lazy and just select the diagonal fire and dodge your way around the screen, but really is more efficient and effective to memorise the enemy placements, and cycle-through to use the best type of weapon for the occasion. Plus, when you ship is all powered up... so good! And so painful when you get hit and return back to the weakest shots.

And I've only got as far as the mid-level boss on the first level, but slowly getting better at it. Kinda want the Megadrive version too... and the PC Engine CD Hellfire S release, which added a lot more cut-scenes. Does the Megadrive version add any story too? The arcade version is pretty much story-free, or very well hidden.
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

Oh nice!

The MD version doesnn't have the cutscenes. If I'm not mistaken, both console versions add an 'option' or drone upgrade and the hellfire laser (odd that that wasn't in the arcade version???).

You're spot on with your description. It almost feels like a Toaplan take on core R-Type principles.
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

The past few days I've been making my way through Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD again. Third time now. Also the third version of the game I've bought too, since it happened to be super cheap lately in the Steam sale, and I felt like getting the whole trilogy on PC so I don't have to go digging out old consoles to play any of them. Still enjoying it as before, but a couple of the issues still remain too. It's kind of a comfort food game to me. It's not especially amazing, and I think it's the worst out of the trilogy, but I still like playing it, and it's a good thing to just kind of casually breeze through. The main draws of the rest of the trilogy are still present here, namely the atmosphere and combat, although both of those are less so here, given the original platform for the game limiting it somewhat. Combat is simplified, and graphics and audio are quite a few steps down in terms of quality, as you would expect. But they're still good enough to satisfy if you're really in to the identity of those games in general.

One big thing that it does fall down in though is something that should probably be pretty important, given that it's the only one that goes for the side-on 2D gameplay. The platforming is pretty rough. Your character doesn't feel like they have momentum moving through the air, especially when it comes to the descending part of the arc of your jump. On top of that, the collision detection seems kind of iffy, when it comes to whether you grab a ledge properly or not. Sometimes you won't when it looks like you were easily in reach, and other times you do when you shouldn't really have been able to. Also when you land, you stop moving for a moment too, which is also an annoying momentum-killer. But if you can overlook those things and focus on the good stuff, it's overall a perfectly entertaining experience. It's interesting I suppose how the story builds on the previous game too, and sets up the sequel.

And, as ever, I'm still playing Splatoon 2. Still can't get enough of it. Both the Splatoon games have been some of the most brilliant games to come out in recent years. I just love everything about them. Aside from just being excellent games in their own right, I'm still in love with how fresh and unique they are. How Nintendo took a genre in a completely unexpected direction and struck gold with it. And how it's a new IP from Nintendo that actually took off, and feels right at home alongside the old guard of big-name franchises like Mario and Zelda. That's a hard club to break in to.

Lately though, I've managed to get out of a rut of sorts, along with a couple of other notable moments. For a while now I've kind of been overusing the Splat Dualies. Or more precisely, the Hero Replica Dualies, which are functionally the same, but just look like the ones from Hero Mode. Even though I was having fun with them, I felt like I should really try out some other weapons, instead of just playing "Splat Dualies: The Game". Often when I try to branch out like that, it doesn't go well. Usually end up getting my arse handed to me because I'm not used to the new weapon, making me go back to the old one. At first I thought that might be the case again, as I tried out the Mini Splatling. I've used that a bit in the original game, and liked it, but it was never one of my mains. For some reason in this game though, I'm just terrible with it. I can't hit anything! It's as if, even though I'm in range and have the reticule right over an enemy, every single bullet manages to go everywhere except where I'm aiming. So I ditched that. Had a go with something a bit close to the Hero Dualies though, with the Dapple Dualies. Higher power, but much lower range. Turns out that's not a problem, and they work really well. The kit they have, especially. The Beakons and Suction Bomb Rush are perfect for Splat Zones. The other weapon I tried was the Splat Brella. A weapon I previously wrote off for being too awkward for me to use properly. Yet I had great success with it in Tower Control. So with those two weapons, and sticking with the Hero Dualies for Rainmaker, I've got a nice trio of weapons to use, that have at least a bit of variety.

So thanks to these new weapons I've been doing pretty well in the ranked modes. I even reached S rank in Rainmaker! I never thought I'd ever do that. I also finally made it to level 30 as well. So now that means I've got all the weapons unlocked, to buy at least. Time to have a go with the Clash Blaster I guess. I generally dislike Blasters. Never really found one I was any good with, but I've used the Clash Blaster in Salmon Run, and that seems like it might finally be one I can get along with. Yet to try it out in online matches though.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

I’ve been playing Darkest Dungeon on console. However this weekend I’m visiting my parents, so to while away the longeurs, I ended up downloading Darkest Dungeon on PC last night, and spent a very pleasant few hours with it. It’s great.

Now I just have to find a way to fit in 7 hours of watching the NFL this evening and the weekend can be declared a success.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

Michiel K wrote: October 27th, 2017, 9:12 am Oh nice!

The MD version doesnn't have the cutscenes. If I'm not mistaken, both console versions add an 'option' or drone upgrade and the hellfire laser (odd that that wasn't in the arcade version???).

You're spot on with your description. It almost feels like a Toaplan take on core R-Type principles.
There are definitely some interesting differences between the arcade and home ports with Toaplan. The drone upgrade is definitely not in the arcade version, and the famous Engrish of "all your base are belong to us" in Zero Wing is also not in the arcade version.

Those differences make the Megadrive ports pretty special. Snow Bros, which actually goes for a similar price as the arcade PCB, has much more content, including more of a story.

So yeah, love those Megadrive ports!
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

Joshihatsumitsu wrote: October 29th, 2017, 11:51 pmand the famous Engrish of "all your base are belong to us" in Zero Wing is also not in the arcade version.
I have a Japanese MD copy of Zero Wing... which also has no Engrish in it. Which shouldn't be a surprise, except that a LOT of MD carts switch between Japanese and English when you change the region of the console. Which makes me think the localisation of it came at some point long after the original Japanese release of it as opposed to, say, Mercs which changes from being called Mercs to being called 'Wolf of the Battlefield 2' (i.e., Commando 2) when you flip the console to JPN.
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

^^^^Huh. Interesting.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by nickturner13 »

Went to a friend's house over the weekend and finally had a little go on Breath of the Wild.

Very much enjoyed it and may consider asking Father Christmas for a Switch :)
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ColinAlonso
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ColinAlonso »

Got a Switch for my birthday last weekend (the birthday was further back actually) and started Breath of the Wild. Definitely a change from the standard 3D Zelda intro anyway. A couple of hours later and I've finally reached an actual village. Splatoon 2 is also coming in the post this week, I didn't have a Wii U so I'll see how I take to that.

The Switch is staying in TV mode though as I'm also playing Advance Wars: Dual Strike. I hope there's a new one on the Switch. Intelligent Systems may be too busy with Fire Emblem though.
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