I picked up Etrian Odyssey V and Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen....and I can't decide which to play.
Speaking of shmups, I also picked up Raiden V...and man I suddenly remembered how much I suck at shmups.
Whatcha Been Playing?
-
ThirdDrawing
- Member
- Posts: 571
- Joined: October 13th, 2016, 2:33 pm
- Location: Poverty Stricken StudentLand
-
Joshihatsumitsu
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
When the opportunity to buy a PCB of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker came up, I resisted for a very long time. But when that board has been "Phoenixed" (i.e. having the suicide battery replaced), I kinda had to cave.
Playing this 1990 game in 2017 is an interesting experience. I remembered first seeing the arcade cab at our local bowling alley, and it certainly grabbed my attention at the time. Although I will say, at the time I would have spent more time playing the Sega Master System version (rented via local video store!), while envying the much prettier Megadrive version.
One new thing I discovered about the game is that while it is only two buttons, you actually have three attacks: the regular tap for a weak attack; holding down the same attack button for a more powerful charge shot; and of course, the spectacular screen-clearing dance attack (reminding me very much of Shinobi's magic attack), which still looks super cool in 2017.
The other reason I wanted to get this board is availability: it is highly unlikely that there will ever be a XBLA-like, digital rerelease of this game. Considering the licensing issues surrounding other games like TMNT, The Simpsons and even "Capcom vs other IP", I could only imagine the legal headache involved in regards to licensing the music alone, let alone anything else about the game.
Plus... I mean, would there be a large enough audience to even justify the effort? From simple business standpoint, it would be a very questionable investment.
But yeah, it's still a pretty fun experience, with all the depth of most arcade games of the time. It's all about spectacle, and in that sense it does everything it's designed to do. Definitely glad to have this in the collection.
Playing this 1990 game in 2017 is an interesting experience. I remembered first seeing the arcade cab at our local bowling alley, and it certainly grabbed my attention at the time. Although I will say, at the time I would have spent more time playing the Sega Master System version (rented via local video store!), while envying the much prettier Megadrive version.
One new thing I discovered about the game is that while it is only two buttons, you actually have three attacks: the regular tap for a weak attack; holding down the same attack button for a more powerful charge shot; and of course, the spectacular screen-clearing dance attack (reminding me very much of Shinobi's magic attack), which still looks super cool in 2017.
The other reason I wanted to get this board is availability: it is highly unlikely that there will ever be a XBLA-like, digital rerelease of this game. Considering the licensing issues surrounding other games like TMNT, The Simpsons and even "Capcom vs other IP", I could only imagine the legal headache involved in regards to licensing the music alone, let alone anything else about the game.
Plus... I mean, would there be a large enough audience to even justify the effort? From simple business standpoint, it would be a very questionable investment.
But yeah, it's still a pretty fun experience, with all the depth of most arcade games of the time. It's all about spectacle, and in that sense it does everything it's designed to do. Definitely glad to have this in the collection.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Unfortunately I'm not having the best time with games recently. I think I need to drop what I'm playing and move on to something else.
I picked up Prey lately, after much deliberation. While the introduction sets up an interesting premise, the game has felt like a real drag after that. Despite not having spent too much time in the game so far, it feels so excruciatingly slow. It feels like barely anything is happening, and the mystery of the plot isn't really going in an interesting direction, as of yet at least. The game also suffers from a problem that I think is somewhat common in games like this, in that it has a problem with how it presents choices in how you interact with the world. I find myself exploring around the levels, presented with an endless list of things that I can't interact with, because I don't have the right skill unlock or resource or whatever. But at the same time, resources/skill points are so rare to come by that upgrading skills in any direction feels like a massive mistake. It feels like investing in anything is not worth it, and locks off options that would have been more useful/practical. And this feeds back in to the lack of resources by making them harder to get in the first place. None of the skills I have available to me are interesting either. I know later on in the game you can get some of the mimic powers and whatnot, but I haven't even unlocked the skill tree that is a part of. Currently all I have right now are boring stat buffs or really basic interactivity features.
On top of that I'm finding the game seriously lacks atmosphere. Usually I dislike this criticism when I hear people use it, but I have to say, the environments in this game do feel rather empty. Sure, they're cluttered with stuff (that I don't have the skills to interact with), but there is a feeling that the whole game is static and dead. Not in an eerie mysterious kind of way either. But there are no human characters, hardly anything moves at all, and there are hardly any enemies either. Although that last point might actually be a positive, because I generally find dealing with enemies a pain anyway. Aside from that, there's a huge lack of sound design in this game. It's almost completely silent. The opening track in the opening helicopter ride was fantastic, yet they neglect to follow that up in anyway way once you get in to the game proper. No music, almost no background sounds, and what is there isn't really interesting or atmospheric in any way. So while the game is on occasion visually very nice, it ends up feeling like a very sterile and artificial "game level" rather than an actual place.
I've also been continuing through No More Heroes 2. I still have mixed feelings like I did before, except now I've reached an impasse of sorts. I've made my way to the final boss, and bloody hell this is complete garbage. I always knew it was kind of bad, but playing it on this higher difficulty level really shines a light on what an utter irredeemable piece of trash it is. Probably the worst boss in any game I've played that I didn't think was just a bad game overall. It has three phases, and I'm stuck on the second, due to a couple of absolutely unforgivably terrible moves he has. Both are combo moves where he throws a series of unblockable, near unavoidable attacks at you, teleporting around you between each hit. One of these two combos also fires giant gusts of wind across the entire arena. He can also spam these combos in succession, over and over. Four times in a row is not rare. He can also hit you out of the window of the room which instantly kills you, seemingly randomly. I even went back to a previous save to go and power up my health to try to survive that fight. This of course means I had to play through the whole final level again. This option was also only open to me because I had a separate save just in case something like this happened, since you can't quit out of a level once you've started it. Meaning if you got to this point and didn't do what I did, you would be totally screwed. Not that it made much difference though, since even though I increased my health three or four times up to the maximum, this boss was still flooring me just as easily.
Such a shame, since it's right at the end of the game! I really don't want to give up here, especially after waiting so long to getting around to replaying it. It's terrible to end the game on such a low note too, whether or not I finally beat it. Some of the best moments in the game are up in the higher rank boss fights too. In particular Margret Moonlight (the sniper woman) and Alice Twilight (the woman with the weird beam katana spider mech suit thing) are some really great fights. The quality and difficulty in this game is so wildly inconsistent. I think I was right all along to stick to easy mode.
I picked up Prey lately, after much deliberation. While the introduction sets up an interesting premise, the game has felt like a real drag after that. Despite not having spent too much time in the game so far, it feels so excruciatingly slow. It feels like barely anything is happening, and the mystery of the plot isn't really going in an interesting direction, as of yet at least. The game also suffers from a problem that I think is somewhat common in games like this, in that it has a problem with how it presents choices in how you interact with the world. I find myself exploring around the levels, presented with an endless list of things that I can't interact with, because I don't have the right skill unlock or resource or whatever. But at the same time, resources/skill points are so rare to come by that upgrading skills in any direction feels like a massive mistake. It feels like investing in anything is not worth it, and locks off options that would have been more useful/practical. And this feeds back in to the lack of resources by making them harder to get in the first place. None of the skills I have available to me are interesting either. I know later on in the game you can get some of the mimic powers and whatnot, but I haven't even unlocked the skill tree that is a part of. Currently all I have right now are boring stat buffs or really basic interactivity features.
On top of that I'm finding the game seriously lacks atmosphere. Usually I dislike this criticism when I hear people use it, but I have to say, the environments in this game do feel rather empty. Sure, they're cluttered with stuff (that I don't have the skills to interact with), but there is a feeling that the whole game is static and dead. Not in an eerie mysterious kind of way either. But there are no human characters, hardly anything moves at all, and there are hardly any enemies either. Although that last point might actually be a positive, because I generally find dealing with enemies a pain anyway. Aside from that, there's a huge lack of sound design in this game. It's almost completely silent. The opening track in the opening helicopter ride was fantastic, yet they neglect to follow that up in anyway way once you get in to the game proper. No music, almost no background sounds, and what is there isn't really interesting or atmospheric in any way. So while the game is on occasion visually very nice, it ends up feeling like a very sterile and artificial "game level" rather than an actual place.
I've also been continuing through No More Heroes 2. I still have mixed feelings like I did before, except now I've reached an impasse of sorts. I've made my way to the final boss, and bloody hell this is complete garbage. I always knew it was kind of bad, but playing it on this higher difficulty level really shines a light on what an utter irredeemable piece of trash it is. Probably the worst boss in any game I've played that I didn't think was just a bad game overall. It has three phases, and I'm stuck on the second, due to a couple of absolutely unforgivably terrible moves he has. Both are combo moves where he throws a series of unblockable, near unavoidable attacks at you, teleporting around you between each hit. One of these two combos also fires giant gusts of wind across the entire arena. He can also spam these combos in succession, over and over. Four times in a row is not rare. He can also hit you out of the window of the room which instantly kills you, seemingly randomly. I even went back to a previous save to go and power up my health to try to survive that fight. This of course means I had to play through the whole final level again. This option was also only open to me because I had a separate save just in case something like this happened, since you can't quit out of a level once you've started it. Meaning if you got to this point and didn't do what I did, you would be totally screwed. Not that it made much difference though, since even though I increased my health three or four times up to the maximum, this boss was still flooring me just as easily.
Such a shame, since it's right at the end of the game! I really don't want to give up here, especially after waiting so long to getting around to replaying it. It's terrible to end the game on such a low note too, whether or not I finally beat it. Some of the best moments in the game are up in the higher rank boss fights too. In particular Margret Moonlight (the sniper woman) and Alice Twilight (the woman with the weird beam katana spider mech suit thing) are some really great fights. The quality and difficulty in this game is so wildly inconsistent. I think I was right all along to stick to easy mode.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
This is interesting to me who's had reservations but been quite close to getting this game. I remember looking at the upgrades in the demo and going, 'These look terrible'. The rest of your take (empty environments etc) rings true to me as well. I'm still firmly on the fence for now.Scrustle wrote: ↑October 22nd, 2017, 1:37 pm I picked up Prey lately, after much deliberation. ..... None of the skills I have available to me are interesting either. I know later on in the game you can get some of the mimic powers and whatnot, but I haven't even unlocked the skill tree that is a part of. Currently all I have right now are boring stat buffs or really basic interactivity features.
Interesting boss names, no doubt including the guy you're at now, Bobby Bullshit.I've also been continuing through No More Heroes 2...... Some of the best moments in the game are up in the higher rank boss fights too. In particular Margret Moonlight (the sniper woman) and Alice Twilight (the woman with the weird beam katana spider mech suit thing) are some really great fights.
-
Joshihatsumitsu
-
seansthomas
- Member
- Posts: 858
- Joined: March 31st, 2015, 8:10 am
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
I've been playing loads of FIFA on Switch. I bloody suck at it and 5 years of solidly playing Pro Evolution at Uni means I am not breaking bad old habits very fast.
Any tips for FIFA noobs?
Any tips for FIFA noobs?
-
hazeredmist
- Member
- Posts: 1709
- Joined: June 25th, 2013, 12:45 pm
- Location: The DMZ
- Contact:
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
This x1000Joshihatsumitsu wrote: ↑October 22nd, 2017, 11:01 pmMy God it is! I'm amazed at how much I play my Vita, especially compared to how little I ended up playing my PSP.
One of the most underrated gaming platforms.
-
SnakeyDave
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
I'm coming towards the end of playing Cuphead. Extraordinarily good game. Like everyone else who talks about it has to mention, it is very very beautiful and very very difficult.
I didn't find it frustrating at all playing through it the first time. However, playing through it on expert (I'm about half way through world 2) has raised my blood pressure occasionally. Managed to get at least A- on everything, which is enough to get the achievement, but S ranks may be beyond me. If you like tight retry-loops (super meat boy, Spelunky, etc) this is definitely one to get. Animation is a joy throughout. Mind-blowingly good.
I'm a bit into Nier Automata too. So far it seems like the kind of cod-philosophical babble I might have tried to write after 2 terms of A-level philosophy and thumbing through Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep. Love the dodge though. Lots of people whose opinions I respect like it so I will persevere. Maybe it caught me when I was in a grump.
I didn't find it frustrating at all playing through it the first time. However, playing through it on expert (I'm about half way through world 2) has raised my blood pressure occasionally. Managed to get at least A- on everything, which is enough to get the achievement, but S ranks may be beyond me. If you like tight retry-loops (super meat boy, Spelunky, etc) this is definitely one to get. Animation is a joy throughout. Mind-blowingly good.
I'm a bit into Nier Automata too. So far it seems like the kind of cod-philosophical babble I might have tried to write after 2 terms of A-level philosophy and thumbing through Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep. Love the dodge though. Lots of people whose opinions I respect like it so I will persevere. Maybe it caught me when I was in a grump.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
It's one of my all time favourite consoles. The breadth of games available for it is amazing. You can go from big studio 'full console' type experiences with the likes of Uncharted and Assassins Creed to indie stuff like Binding Of Isaac and Salt & Sanctuary to really niché visual novels and obscure Japanese titles all on the same machine. I mean obviously it's not the only console to do this, but it such a nice piece of kit. I wish it had been more popular and Sony would release a successor but I can't see that happening for a while, if ever. I really love my Vita.hazeredmist wrote: ↑October 23rd, 2017, 1:22 pmThis x1000Joshihatsumitsu wrote: ↑October 22nd, 2017, 11:01 pmMy God it is! I'm amazed at how much I play my Vita, especially compared to how little I ended up playing my PSP.
One of the most underrated gaming platforms.
-
Jobobonobo
- Member
- Posts: 579
- Joined: July 27th, 2016, 4:30 pm
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Just started Horizon: Zero Dawn and really digging it so far. Its post apocalyptic world with its combination of a hunter gatherer society mixed with sophisticated technology is an intriguing one that I want to explore more of and it is always nice to show that the world can be lush and vibrant after a catastrophe rather than po-faced grimness which is all too prevalent in these sorts of scenarios. The robots you fight are always fun, challenging encounters and the way that you progress by building up skills and crafting new weapons and gadgets is so far making for a fun, addictive experience. Some of the machines can even be awe inspiring in their design and can truly make you feel small. Looking forward to getting further into this, so far it has been great fun so far.
-
Whippledip
- Member
- Posts: 75
- Joined: June 14th, 2017, 3:35 am
- Location: Victoria, Australia
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
What is the best way to get a Vita these days? I'm closing in on finishing Persona 5, my first time with the series, and I don't really want it to end so I'm planning on getting a Vita with P4 GoldenAlex79uk wrote: ↑October 23rd, 2017, 5:42 pmIt's one of my all time favourite consoles. The breadth of games available for it is amazing. You can go from big studio 'full console' type experiences with the likes of Uncharted and Assassins Creed to indie stuff like Binding Of Isaac and Salt & Sanctuary to really niché visual novels and obscure Japanese titles all on the same machine. I mean obviously it's not the only console to do this, but it such a nice piece of kit. I wish it had been more popular and Sony would release a successor but I can't see that happening for a while, if ever. I really love my Vita.hazeredmist wrote: ↑October 23rd, 2017, 1:22 pmThis x1000Joshihatsumitsu wrote: ↑October 22nd, 2017, 11:01 pmMy God it is! I'm amazed at how much I play my Vita, especially compared to how little I ended up playing my PSP.
One of the most underrated gaming platforms.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
If you're in the UK most branches of CEX will have a dozen or so Vita in stock.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
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.
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.
-
KSubzero1000
- Member
- Posts: 3365
- Joined: August 26th, 2015, 9:56 pm
- Location: Germany
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Your best bet would probably be to use a JPN PSN account and download it as a PS1 classic on PS3, as far as I can tell.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Dang. Thanks very much for the info and suggestion. I gave away my PS3 a couple of years ago, sadly. I'll keep my fingers crossed that a version appears on XB1 BC.
-
KSubzero1000
- Member
- Posts: 3365
- Joined: August 26th, 2015, 9:56 pm
- Location: Germany
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Y-You? Give away a console that a Souls game is exclusive to? ...Who are you, and what have you done to the real Stanshall?!
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Tell me about it. Tell me about it. The slightly bleaker reality is that I lent it to an alcoholic to help occupy him during the evenings in a way which didn't involve going to the pub or drinking. He sold it the next day to buy drink.
I also found that I can play Demon's on JPN PSNow, so I do that whenever I need a fix. We all have our vices.
If it brings you comfort, you should know that I only bought an XB1 to play Dark Souls on BC.
I also found that I can play Demon's on JPN PSNow, so I do that whenever I need a fix. We all have our vices.
If it brings you comfort, you should know that I only bought an XB1 to play Dark Souls on BC.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Had a fun night last weekend playing on the Dreamcast with an ex-colleague who came to stay with us over the weekend with his wife and daughters.
We played Fighting Vipers 2, SEGA Rally 2 (he wanted to try that out), The House of the Dead 2 and Sturmwind.
House of the Dead 2 never fails to bring joy and entertainment.
We played Fighting Vipers 2, SEGA Rally 2 (he wanted to try that out), The House of the Dead 2 and Sturmwind.
House of the Dead 2 never fails to bring joy and entertainment.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Coincidentally enough, I had a few hours on the Dreamcast at my mate's last night. He picked one up off eBay a couple of days ago and it was my first play on it for about eighteen years. We worked through some classics but had the most fun with Chuchu Rocket, a game I'd never played at the time and which was marvellous chaos. We didn't understand what was going on for the first ten minutes, which was great, and eventually ended up only sabotaging each other's plans so the CPU won every time. Glorious, every bit as good as Bomberman, in fact.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
^^^^ Maaaaaan... that's what I've been saying all this time. Yup, ChuChu Rocket's mp certainly rivals Bomberman's.
CAT MANIA!
CAT MANIA!