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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: July 31st, 2019, 12:29 pm
by Jobobonobo
ratsoalbion wrote: July 30th, 2019, 9:30 pm Walking onto the Palace Pier and seeing two pedestal-mounted Space Harrier cabs in full hydraulic flow was one of the all-time jaw-dropping moments for me.

In terms of how the Home machines of the time handled it, well...



Galaxy 1 remains one of my absolute favourite games ever, and though I didn’t love Galaxy 2 quite as much, I think it’s still absolutely stellar.
First off, I had no idea that Space Harrier was on so many consoles and secondly, some of the ports look downright unplayable. Especially the Sharp X1 version! Incredible how it was not until the Saturn when it was running close to the arcade port! Interesting history lesson, cheers for the video!

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: July 31st, 2019, 1:36 pm
by Flabyo
I remember liking the Master System version but thinking the Megadrive ‘sequel’ was poor.

One day we’ll get a home port of Planet Harriers. At the very least that should’ve been on Dreamcast.


Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: July 31st, 2019, 1:37 pm
by Alex79
Currently playing Yakuza Kiwami 2 and missing Space Harrier and Outrun. Virtua Fighter 2 is OK, but Virtual On is rubbish!

The world looks amazing though, huge step up from Kiwami. I know it's on a different engine, and it really shows. Seamless transitions when entering shops, better transitions in to and out of combat, big crowds of people, the streets are packed and the series has never looked so good.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: July 31st, 2019, 2:57 pm
by ratsoalbion
I think Virtual On is well cool! Takes a bit of learning though, and is better with two players.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: July 31st, 2019, 4:56 pm
by Sinclair Gregstrum
Alex79uk wrote: July 31st, 2019, 1:37 pm Virtua Fighter 2 is OK
How very dare you sir! VF2 is great, and a game I jump into pretty regularly. To be fair if you're coming to it fresh in 2019 it might be a bit different without the benefit of nostalgia goggles ;)
ratsoalbion wrote: July 31st, 2019, 2:57 pm I think Virtual On is well cool! Takes a bit of learning though, and is better with two players.
Yes! Virtual On is great! Although you're right - it takes some getting used to. Getting two players in the same room who know what they're doing these days isn't exactly a common occurrence either...

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: July 31st, 2019, 5:32 pm
by Stanshall
Suits wrote: July 30th, 2019, 11:40 am Excite trucks you say ........
I missed this the other day, but yeah, I would really recommend Excite Truck. There was a sequel, too, but I never played it. It was called Excite Bots, meant to be great.

It's really fast and arcadey, lots of boosting and XXXTREEM jumps and tricks. It's pretty absurd at times, like enormous jumps and massive slides. It's kind of like Onrush mixed with Trackmania mixed with Sega Rally. I know that's pretty big talk but it's a beast. When you hold a jump or a slide until the very last moment to get a maximum star rating, it's awesome. A total rush.

Also, you prompted me to see if my Wii is still alive and it is! It even looks pretty damn good through some cheapo HDMI converter thing. It was great to see my old SMG2 save file Mii heads - an ex-girlfriend and some old dude I used to work with, I'd totally forgotten about them. I'm going to get stuck into the first one a gain this evening. Absolutely chuffed with this.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: July 31st, 2019, 6:27 pm
by Suits
Stanshall wrote: July 31st, 2019, 5:32 pm I missed this the other day, but yeah, I would really recommend Excite Truck. There was a sequel, too, but I never played it. It was called Excite Bots, meant to be great.
I'd heard Excite Trucks was decent before as it goes, but totally forgotten about it until you mentioned it back then.

I've heard and seen Excite Bots, looked a bit odd, mechanical robot bugs wasn't it ?!?
Stanshall wrote: July 31st, 2019, 5:32 pm Also, you prompted me to see if my Wii is still alive and it is! It even looks pretty damn good through some cheapo HDMI converter thing. It was great to see my old SMG2 save file Mii heads - an ex-girlfriend and some old dude I used to work with, I'd totally forgotten about them. I'm going to get stuck into the first one a gain this evening. Absolutely chuffed with this.
Good, nice, I approve of this.

I'm right at the end of World 6 now, just need a few extra stars to get me past the next gate.




Also, (if one was that way inclined) you can now softmod the Wii simply put messing with the internet settings on it.

Now, this is cool, for me especially, because this is probably the cheapest way I can play Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo on a CRT - which is a pretty big deal.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: July 31st, 2019, 8:15 pm
by Stanshall
To be honest, I bought it in China where every console was chipped and modded 'out of the box'! I actually bought SMG2 when I came back to the UK, but it wouldn't run. So I ripped it, changed some dodgy settings and ta dah! It's never run a kosher game in its life... :P

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: July 31st, 2019, 10:22 pm
by Suits
Stanshall wrote: July 31st, 2019, 8:15 pm To be honest, I bought it in China where every console was chipped and modded 'out of the box'! I actually bought SMG2 when I came back to the UK, but it wouldn't run. So I ripped it, changed some dodgy settings and ta dah! It's never run a kosher game in its life... :P
Hahahah, fair enough :lol: .


Well, I finished Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Damn thats a fine video game. Damn fine.

I think, I think, I prefer it to Super Mario Odyssey. I'll have to think about it a bit longer and take a lot in but anyway, it's glorious.

I've beaten Bower and unlocked the S-World. I've had a quick look about in there and it's all pretty tricky, hard platforming levels, that I'm just not in the mood for.

To be honest, I've had my fill. I don't feel like I need anymore to make my mind up about SMG2.

Blew me away that did.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 1st, 2019, 3:41 pm
by duskvstweak
I started Hollow Knight. Technically, I've started Mass Effect 3, but I just haven't been feeling it so I started up a 2D side-scrolling, metroidvania instead. And, I'm really liking it. The art style feels like it has some Binding of Isaac in it, but without the grotesqueness of it all.
I love how Hollow Knight controls. Jumping from platform to platform is so quick and easy, it makes me feel like a ninja.
Oh, and the music is fantastic as well.
I'm trying to keep track of my progress a little more than I normally do, because I've seen others (Ryan of C&R for one) hit a wall and have issues with map progression. I'm not too far, but I can definitely see that becoming an issue. The map seems huge. But, then, I am a little bug.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 1st, 2019, 7:27 pm
by Scrustle
Still chipping away at Judgment and recently had a bit of a revelation with it. I think I'm about 2/3ish of the way through now, and I've been enjoying it, but still felt it drags quite a bit. Not really been liking the protagonist much. He's just kind of bland. But the other day I decided to switch over to the English dub to see what it was like, and I was very pleasantly surprised that it makes the protagonist so much more engaging! It's kind of a shock. I always liked playing the Yakuza games in Japanese, because it feels authentic to the setting, and so never felt any desire to try out the dub in this game. Especially after the trailer they put out highlighting it didn't impress me. But Yagami as a character is so much more interesting in this dub. He's actually got a personality and has a cheeky swagger to him that just doesn't come through in the sub. Some of that might just be to do with the language barrier making those things not apparent in the original voices to foreign ears, but I don't think that can explain all of it. Having played a lot of these games, and watching a decent amount of dubbed anime too, I think I've got a pretty good sense for the cadence of Japanese, even if I can only pick out a few words. And besides that, the Yakuza games have always done a great job of creating expressive characters with a lot of personality that never had a problem breaking the language barrier before. Akiyama has a similar character, and he's always been one of my favourites. Maybe this game having a more subdues tone might make it harder for things to get across I suppose.

But even though I do like Yagami's English dub, it does still feel a bit "wrong" to play the game this way. It's somewhat jarring hearing these voices come out of these characters. Not so much just having got used to the Japanese performances, but more that the accents are very American. The kind you'd hear in many dubs of Japanese games or anime. But in those cases they sort of work, because that style of dub is kind of distinct, and also the less realistic look of those media means that it doesn't feel as unfitting. But with this game where everything is a photorealistic recreation of Tokyo and actual Asian looking characters, hearing the very American accents feels a bit off. And despite Yagami being a big improvement in the dub, I'm not sure I can say the same for everyone else. No one stands out as being worse per se, except maybe Saori, but no one is remotely bad at all. All the performances are at least competent. As of right now I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with this dub. I'll keep it on for now, haven't decided for how long. I suppose I might just keep it.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 1st, 2019, 8:34 pm
by Alex79
duskvstweak wrote: August 1st, 2019, 3:41 pm I started Hollow Knight. Technically, I've started Mass Effect 3, but I just haven't been feeling it so I started up a 2D side-scrolling, metroidvania instead. And, I'm really liking it. The art style feels like it has some Binding of Isaac in it, but without the grotesqueness of it all.
I love how Hollow Knight controls. Jumping from platform to platform is so quick and easy, it makes me feel like a ninja.
Oh, and the music is fantastic as well.
I'm trying to keep track of my progress a little more than I normally do, because I've seen others (Ryan of C&R for one) hit a wall and have issues with map progression. I'm not too far, but I can definitely see that becoming an issue. The map seems huge. But, then, I am a little bug.
Hollow Knight is amazing. It got me through a really tough time last year, I just threw myself in to the game and had such an awesome time. And yeah the soundtrack is incredible. I still listen to it now on Spotify. Can't wait for the sequel.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 2nd, 2019, 10:43 am
by Pitwar
I thought I'd fire up the old PS3 last night as I had a Ridge Racer itch that needed scratching. And I'll tell you what, for a PS3 launch game RR7 holds up really well in both looks and gameplay.

Image

Oh what I wouldn't give for a Ridge Racer 8.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 2nd, 2019, 12:17 pm
by Alex79
That does look nice. Yeah I could go for a new RR game. Anyone Know how the Vita versions fare? I enjoyed the PSP one.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 2nd, 2019, 1:24 pm
by Pitwar
Alex79uk wrote: August 2nd, 2019, 12:17 pm That does look nice. Yeah I could go for a new RR game. Anyone Know how the Vita versions fare? I enjoyed the PSP one.
Very stripped down with not much to it. The PSP one's are way better than the Vita version. If you can get it dirt cheap then it's worth a bash, but there's not much to it.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 2nd, 2019, 3:08 pm
by Alex79
Ah that's a shame. Thinking about it, I might just stick PS1 Ridge Racer 4 on there and see how that's held up. I was pleasantly surprised when I played a bunch of Gran Turismo 2 recently on there.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 3rd, 2019, 12:45 pm
by stvnorman
Cool. I was playing Ridge Racer 4 and Destruction Derby on the PlayStation Classic yesterday. I can play both endlessly, and whilst the machine was a present., they alone make it worth every penny of the current offer prices you see!

I’ve been dipping in and out of Super Castlevania IV on SNES Classic and Switch for a while, and I got to the end this morning. I love this game! The gothic visuals are still stunning, as is the soundtrack. It gets challenging at times in the last few stages but everything is fair, including the bosses; and Dracula is definitely easier here than my last Castlevania outing on the Game Boy! It’s definitely my favourite game in the series, and whilst I’m not a SNES expert, my favourite game on that system too.

Speaking of Game Boy, my new Picross addiction has led me to Mario Picross. It’s not the relaxing modern-day version I’ve spent tens of hours with on my iPad and Switch this week - you’re against the clock, every mistake costs a load of time, and there’s no automatic record of what sections you’ve completed, so you’ve got to be very methodical, but not hand around at the same time. And that’s great! The screen size makes the numbers a little challenging on my old eyes, but otherwise it’s perfectly streamlined and addictive as hell.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 3rd, 2019, 2:33 pm
by Stanshall
I'm just at Arcade Club for a few hours playing Espgaluda, Armed Police Batrider and Ikaruga.

And, most importantly, the beast which started it all!

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Can't get past stage 3...

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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 5th, 2019, 2:26 pm
by Stanshall
clippa wrote: August 4th, 2019, 11:47 pm Top of the leaderboard, where you belong! Do people stand behind and watch you play? I couldn't cope with that. I imagine it's not a hareem of honeys rubbing your shoulders like what Billy Mitchell has, more a couple of asthmatic nerds wheezing, and maybe a backseat flyer in a toaplan t-shirt.
Does anyone ever stand beside you and join in on the second player? That'd be a credit straight down the swanee for me.
There was a kid watching me play Espgaluda for about ten minutes, and when I died on stage 4 he asked if he could have a go, please. Very polite so I told him the buttons and stuff. When I went back twenty minutes later he was still on there so I'll take that as undeniable proof that these games have a bright future. I'm also definitely going to practise Espgaluda, it seems like one of the easier Cave games for a potential 1CC.

Some dad was also watching me fluff my chains on stage one of Ikaruga for a few credits and when he had a go, he just shot everything as soon as it appeared on screen. He must have thought I was a total idiot. He got to the stage two boss and when he walked off, he seemed pretty pleased with himself. Think his score was about 340.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 5th, 2019, 2:32 pm
by KSubzero1000
Stanshall wrote: August 5th, 2019, 2:26 pm Some dad was also watching me fluff my chains on stage one of Ikaruga for a few credits and when he had a go, he just shot everything as soon as it appeared on screen. He must have thought I was a total idiot. He got to the stage two boss and when he walked off, he seemed pretty pleased with himself. Think his score was about 340.
This just made my day. :lol:

Stan even getting dunked on IRL for his Ikaruga skills, excellent. Absolute poetry.
Spoiler: show
Don't get me wrong, I tried again a few weeks ago and I'm back to being complete trash myself. :P