Whatcha Been Playing?

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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Yeah I read that and really want to play it.

As for the SNES games, there doesn't seem to be a terrible one among them. Even the football game was fun enough to play a few matches.

I've been browsing lists ranking all the games, and consistently Brawl Brothers comes near the bottom - I really enjoyed it! IGN can fuck off as well, putting Pilotwings in the bottom five. Get out of here!
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79uk wrote: September 10th, 2019, 8:31 pm IGN can fuck off as well, putting Pilotwings in the bottom five.
Slightly related to this but I find IGN’s Nintendo coverage has dramatically decreased in quality, specifically their NVC podcast. I don’t even listen to it anymore.

I find it’s turned into a giggle fight, with silly in house jokes about nothing and throw away comments about anything other than the best Zelda game, Pokemon or Mario 64.

I generally find that whenever guests try to bring conversation to a decent level or back on track, jokes are just shouted over them.

I cringe at the current geist of all podcast hosts guests need to be comedians.

More Jose Otero please.
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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Sinclair Gregstrum »

Suits wrote: September 11th, 2019, 10:15 amMore Jose Otero please.
If memory serves he actually left to join Nintendo a while back...

Yep - he's at Nintendo Treehouse now!
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Yeah, at the Treehouse team.

I’m yet to see him on any of their demo features though, where I’m sure he would flourish.

Perhaps he works mainly on translation works.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Pokémon Crystal is pretty cool, it turns out.

I'm not the biggest Pokémon fan in general and I actually forgot just how much grinding there is to it, which is mostly a negative to me these days (same as the numerous randomized battles). But the core premise is as wonderful and the universe as charming as ever.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I am going to bed, and will spend the next two hours playing Super Metroid. I have never played it before and am excited to get in to it. Will report back. Goodnight.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Yeah, but I won't let my kids watch TV or play on tablets in bed, either. Haha.
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

Having a great time with Super Mario World on Switch, despite my Mario guru Leon Cox telling me I’m not playing it properly! If I get to the end in my amateur fashion, I promise to go back and look for some secret stuff (and I don’t just mean the dash button)!

After spending over 20 hours perfecting my Virtua Racing Medium track skills just to actually win the race, the Expert track took a tenth of that time to beat. It was a cheap win too - very average time, nowhere near my best that did it. After 30 hours total on the Switch Sega Ages version, and at least double that racing my brother on his Megadrive, I can safely say it’s one of my top 50 games ever. Now to see how many more hours I can rinse out of denting the Expert leaderboard!

In complete contrast, I’ve binned Detroit on Chapter 8. I thought business was picking up again with some more futuristic CSI, then I’m back in the scumbag’s house I cleaned before I took the old man to the toilet. No more!
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Caligulas Horse
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I'm playing Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and really enjoying it. I haven't completed many Mario games (I didn't grow up with Nintendo) but I do always enjoy them and I'm a huge JRPG fan so I thought it was a good choice for a first game on my SNES Mini.

It's great to pop on and play for a couple of hours at the end of a long day; it's been a bunch of fun & a nice change to the epic scale of most JRPGs I've played. The dialogue is very tongue in cheek, you get the feeling that they had a lot of fun writing it. It's all a bit childish, in a way that's charming rather than obnoxious or banal.

The combat is cool, when you defeat an enemy they kind of disappear in a puff of smoke and a coin pops out with that iconic sound; it's really satisfying, especially if you take out a batch with one move. You press the 'B' button right before a hit to get a critical, it's simple yet effective. You can also dodge attacks in a similar fashion, I think you are meant to press B just as you are hit, before the damage shows, it's a wee bit tricky and I'm having some trouble mastering it but so far it hasn't really mattered.

The special moves are bit more varied, Bowser's special moves tell you to "rotate the control pad", this led to me twirling my SNES mini controller in the air a few times before I realised how stupid I was being.

It isn't a very challenging game, I've barely had to heal at all as your characters get max health when they level up or beat a boss and sometimes it's gifted to you when you hit an enemy.

There isn't loads to talk about with the cast. Bowser joining the party was a nice surprise, he's an insecure, wannabe-tough guy and it's quite funny, even if it's cliche. Mario is Mario, it's fun watching him communicate by bouncing around the room acting things out. The animations in general are really good and make each scene a joy to watch, Bowser's cry face is my favourite.

The enemies are the usual for a Mario game. The bosses so far have been standard slapstick buffoons and a cake (evil or just badly treated depending on your perspective).

It's much more linear than a standard Square game, you always know what you are doing next and travelling between worlds/towns is done in the Mario way, travelling back to any town takes a few seconds of moving around the board and this adds to how easy it is to jump in and out. The game never drags, you just hop from place to place and do the business.

There isn't too much to say about the look of most of the towns, they are pretty generic; however, they are inhabited by some funny characters that make it worth taking a quick tour.

The dungeons are much more varied and fun to explore. All of them contain some nice puzzles and platforming sections, it helps to alleviate the monotony that sometimes starts to sink in when you've been exploring an area for awhile in RPGs. it obviously isn't like playing any other Mario game because you can only die in a battle, there isn't any real pressure when you're attempting a jump etc. The enemies are all visible so you can avoid them if you want and if you get a star you can just run through them and pick up the experience, which is great 8-) .

My favourite bit of the game so far has been Star Hill, this is where all of people's wishes lie around in the form of smiley stars. You can walk around reading the different wishes, it's a nice touch. A bit before this in the story you come across some comical German bakers who have made a cake that turns out to be sentient and evil (or possibly just acting in self defense since you hit it first, you bastard!) I didn't find the cliche German accent thing funny at first but I have to admit that coming across a star that said "I vant to be the vald's greatest baker" caught me off guard and made me chuckle.

So yeah I'm glad I've given this a go, I'm not sure if it will take me into the Paper Mario series but I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
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Stanshall
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

I've put seventy hours into Fire Emblem: Three Houses and it's probably second only to Sekiro in my list of 2019 games. Just finished my Blue Lions playthrough. Story and characters are far more involving than I expected, and although there's probably too much (optional) narrative and character development content for my tastes and appetite, it's almost all really good. I ended up only tuning into the characters who I most clicked with and so I inevitably missed aspects of the buggers picture and deeper context but I felt satisfied with the resolution and my ending. Absolute ripper, and I have little interest or experience in the genre.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I've been suuuuuuper busy with political stuff the last few days, so not much gaming. If you watch Jagmeet Singh's campaign launch for Canada's New Democratic Party (similar to UK Labour - Corbyn, not Blair), I'm visible in a few shots. On top of doing nearly 100 lawn signs in a city with narrow streets and lots of traffic.

As for gaming, though, I need to finish the *excellent* Trials of Mana, and my friend - who's on hard times - wants to play through Hidden Agenda with me. After that, I want to start Tokyo Xanadu, which was on sale on PS4 for a ludicrous $15 - and considering the cheapest physical copy I've seen was a $125, that's a case where I can justify buying digital. Ever since Ys VIII, I've been wanting to play more Falcom games so.... here goes? I may also try Trails of Cold Steel sometime soon. Really feeling RPGs lately after a long hiatus.
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Stanshall
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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clippa wrote: September 13th, 2019, 9:24 pm
Stanshall wrote: September 13th, 2019, 5:47 pmI inevitably missed aspects of the buggers picture and deeper context
Does the auto spelling correct on modern phones learn from users past behaviour? :lol:
I'm surprised it's not just a string of discordant filth, you fat thumbed deviant!
Speedruns til 4am and sleepwalk my way into work.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

clippa wrote: September 13th, 2019, 9:24 pm
Stanshall wrote: September 13th, 2019, 5:47 pmI inevitably missed aspects of the buggers picture and deeper context
Does the auto spelling correct on modern phones learn from users past behaviour? :lol:
I'm surprised it's not just a string of discordant filth, you fat thumbed deviant!
Magical_Isopod wrote: September 13th, 2019, 7:46 pm(similar to UK Labour - Corbyn, not Blair)
I hope to god Corbyn gets in!
Alex79uk wrote: September 12th, 2019, 1:26 pm Yeah, but I won't let my kids watch TV or play on tablets in bed, either. Haha.
Yeah, I used to get into bed with a tablet, staring into the light of a thousand suns, kidding myself that I was winding down. Ridiculous behaviour.
I have my grievances with Corbyn and UK politics in general - it all comes off as very posh to me, as a Canadian observer - but Corbyn did take the time to wish my party well at our last federal Convention in 2018, over live feed. I'd be lying if I said that didn't endear me to the guy a little bit. He also congratulated Jagmeet for being the first Sikh party leader in Canadian history (he's actually the first person of colour to be elected as party leader here). Was very impressed overall.
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Stanshall
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

Daemon X Machina is about two thirds of a really good game. The core gameplay of zipping around and unloading on big robots with your bazooka and assault rifle and sword is great fun, spectacular stuff.

The story and characters and voice acting (and constant, loathsome banter commentary during missions) are utterly abysmal. I honestly don't know how anyone could come up with this total shit and go home thinking 'job's a good un'.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

Haven't been playing much this week, but I'm finding Battle Brothers to be a bit overwhelming, in the same way as I found Darkest Dungeon to be overwhelming - too many people on your roster, too much gear and abilities to equip, too much 'meta' when reading up about tactics and strategy.

I'm just paralysed by all of it - at the moment I even need to clear out space in my inventory because I can't decide what to sell. I need to man up and get over it.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I thought I liked Roguelikes but when I think about it, I haven't played that many. I will look into it ;)

Man, Darkest Dungeon is so good! I've played the first two hours about 8 times.

After that it gets really annoying. :D
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I was looking through my PS4 download list earlier and came across a game called Rogue Aces. Never heard of it, but it must have been on PS+ at some point. Curious, I downloaded it. Its really fun! 2D side on plane game, not really a shmup because you have full 360 control of the plane, but it's like a cross between that Luftraisers (can't remember if that's the exact title) and an old Amiga game I used to like. You get missions like take out X amount of enemy planes, destroy a radio tower, sink a battleship etc, and you can land any time on the aircraft carrier to refuel and repair. It's quite cartoony, and the 'tally-ho' theme is a little annoying, but it's a really fun game and worth a look at least if you got it free at some point.

If you do try it, check the controls in the options, because the tutorial tells you next to nothing. I didn't even realise I had rockets till I went in the menus!
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

Wings of Fury?

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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Rogue Aces does look exactly like an updated version of that Wings Of Fury, but I was sure the game I was thinking of began with or had 'Aero' as part of the title. I thought it was more about doing tricks and stuff rather than shooting stuff, but Google hasn't proved fruitful in my search. I really can't remember, maybe it was Wings Of Fury I was thinking of after all!

EDIT:

Aha!

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