The Gamer's Quarter

[dessgeega]

[Cycle]

[SuperWes]

I finally got Way of the Samurai 2 today after what seems like YEARS of waiting for it to drop in price. $20 for a "new" copy at GameCrazy. Not bad! But I haven't played it yet. Instead I spent this evening working on my super top secret project. I'll get around to WotS2 some day soon.

-Wes
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[friedchicken]

I got Wario Master of Disguise for the DS last weekend and I've been playing it pretty regularly.

I've enjoyed it, but only because I decided early on that it's not a platform game with puzzle elements, it's a puzzle game that just happens to involve some platforming. In fact some parts of it have even started reminding me of an old favorite, Solomon's Key.

The storyline, however, is ludicrous.

I also picked up Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 1 and 2 for my birthday. Good stuff, there.

[Shapermc]

I've been playing Indigo Prophecy for the past two nights. I'm really, really loving it so far.

I mean the game has some problems for sure, but there are more things it gets right than it gets wrong.

I understand that the story completly falls apart by the end. So, I'm kind of expecting this, but so far this is the best adventure game I've ever played. I wasn't really expecting this to be good, only interesting.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[Nana Komatsu]

Last night Andrew Toups told me to start playing that game because Matthew Williamson told him to start playing that game. I told Andrew Toups that I couldn't start playing it because I gave my copy to Matthew Williamson.

TGQ circle jerk itt.
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resetbutton.net: videogames for unattractive people

[Cycle]

The DS Game & Watch gallery is awesome. I actually own this but since I have a flashcard I don't have to open it (LOL), and it's really fantastic. I only wish there were more games.

The games are emulated as close as possible, the graphics obviously aren't as sharp due to using pixels instead of a LCD, but they are very close. They even included shadows of every possible move, just like on a real system. It looks, sounds and plays great. Oh, and at the top and bottom of the screen, they have borders to further emulate the experience (the name of the game and nintendo logo displayed just as they are on an actual G&W). You can even set it to TIME mode, where the game just plays a constant demo while displaying the time, so you can just close your DS and leave it as that. Aww.

The games on show are Oil Panic, which requires lots of multitasking. I've been having trouble with this one so I think I'll end up playing it the most. Donkey Kong which I played heaps on one of the old G&W galleries, but it looks and plays so much better here and I really enjoy it. A little too conventional though, and doesn't use the dual screens as cleverly as other G&W games. The last game is Greenhouse which is pretty much a more interesting Whack-A-Mole which is only interesting if you play Game B which gets harder quicker so I play that for quick fixes. So you, amazing stuff. They really need to bring out a real collection with more games.

If any of you want to pitch in and buy me a present sometime, buy me a zelda G&W.
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[Cycle]

Oh yeah, Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy is fantastic. When I reviewed Dreamfall, I even said Fahrenheit was better because it made much better use of the medium, even though the story falls apart at the end while Dreamfall stays solid (and the story and characters in Dreamfall are pretty much the game right there).
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[dessgeega]

cycle's earlier post prompted me to start playing yoshi's touch & go / catch! touch! yoshi again - i hadn't played it since it was first released. i find its purity of design refreshing in a first-party nintendo title. what little exposition there is is handled swiftly and wordlessly in-game, tutorial text is relegated to demo videos accessed from the main menu and does not interrupt the game, and in each of the game's play modes every point you earn or action you take somehow contributes to your success - nothing is wasted. i like it better than catch! touch! kirby.

also played my new copy of son son II on the pc-engine. it's unlike the original son son, which is more of a shooter - son son II is pretty much the console version of black tiger, a capcom arcade platformer. success in black tiger largely revolves around abusing the game system, which is why the console version is so much better.
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[Nana Komatsu]

So far the highlight of my week was watching the Texas state House of Representatives debate over their appropriations bill while playing Riviera: The Promised Land.

I bought Ninety Nine Nights after work today, and I am enjoying it far more than I should. It's extremely silly and I am enjoying it a lot (which is something I haven't been able to say about anything else this week).

Super Paper Mario needs to come out already.
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resetbutton.net: videogames for unattractive people

[Shapermc]

I finished Indigo Prophecy last night

It was really, really good... until it jumped the shark. It makes me look forward to Heavy Rain at least. Based on their post-mortems it seems like they know exactly what was wrong with the game.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[dessgeega]

i watched a super-play of shinobi III by ben shinobi and picked up enough tricks to reach the final boss - who i absolutely could not defeat. wall of beef, as the previous owner of this game cartridge, if there are any tips you could offer they would be greatly appreciated.

the final stage is fantastic, at any rate. your character has all these hot acrobatic moves, wall-jumping and ceiling-hanging, and most of the game doesn't require you to use them, though the stages toss out some rewards if you do. then you reach the heart of the final stage, and it's one giant obstacle course that requires you to use your move set in ways the rest of the game has only hinted at. it's great.

(the closing wall is totally lifted from strider, but it makes so much sense with shinobi 3's moveset that i don't mind!)

oh, and alien soldier update: i beat xi-tiger, boss of stage 9 and of the first of the game's four acts. that is hot! i am enthused. now is time to the 68000 heart on fire!
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[Cycle]

Super Mario Land would be one of the best portable games better if it weren't for these god awful controls. someone disagree with me!

I've been busy lately, so I haven't had time to spend with Stalker (soon to be fixed) but I've been spending lots of time with my DS, mostly playing old GBA and GB games, plus a few DS games, but I'd rather buy the ones I like than playing them on my card. It's been great!

My lady friend and I have been enjoying cuddling up and playing Pheonix Wright together. I get to show her how smart I am when I figure things out. I is so smarts.
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[dessgeega]

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

[Nana Komatsu]

I have beaten four of the story paths in Ninety Nine Nights. Inphyy (the girl in red on the cover) was okay, Ashparr (the other guy with wings in the demo) was as whiny as he was in the demo. Myifee, whose attacks spit fire out everywhere was excellent and I enjoyed his story mode a lot.

After you beat Aspharr and Myifee, you unlock Dwingvatt who is a Goblin trying to kill the Humans (which is a change from all the previous humans trying to kill the Goblins). Unlike the other characters, he is extremely fast and playing as him was really fun. Also, getting to kill Aspharr was good too.

After you beat Dwingvatt's missions, you unlock Klarran (sword wielding priest) and Tyurru (witch girl). I really wanted to play as Tyurru but she's fairly weak and hard to play. It took me a good six tries to beat her first mission. I'm going to go back and try again, but I was disappointed.

Overall, I have enjoyed N3 a lot more than I thought i would.
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resetbutton.net: videogames for unattractive people

[SuperWes]

[helicopterp]

[Nana Komatsu]

Wes if you've beaten the Inphyy story, you should try Myifee. He's a lot more enjoyable if only because his levels are more "one versus mob of 1000" than anything else and his attacks are a lot of fun. Also, I only really had trouble with his last mission, but that was okay since I enjoyed playing it a lot (it's the one on the plainlands only you have to stop an entire goblin divison from the south).

I got annoyed at replaying missions too, but most only took me about 30 minutes (even the first try) and by the second or third playthrough I was able to get to the end with ease.
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resetbutton.net: videogames for unattractive people

[dessgeega]

nitro ball is smash tv on giant pinball tables. you shoot enemies and they roll, like balls, and you can bounce them off bumpers or dunk them in holes for points. and cars and yachts and small houses will pop out for you to grab for points. while a grinning announcer narrates the whole thing. then you turn into a pinball and shoot up ramps. stage themes include "strange football" and town overrun by zombies. this game is the reason we love data east so much.
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[Lestrade]

I am currently enjoying Kanji Sono Mama Rakubiki Jiten. I'm playing learning!

(Actually, I had this brief discussion with my wife today while tromping through Akihabara in the rain -- always in the rain! -- about my ever-changing gaming tastes. They sort of break down like this:

PS2/PS1: old games. The older, the better. Ridge Racer 1, etc.

Xbox 360: beautiful, "big" games -- make 'em as pretty as possible, and as mind-blowing as you can. Make me hug my system in joy. Go for big impact all-around.

DS: quick, abstract, puzzle-like games.

Wii: games at all would be nice!

[Cycle]

[Scratchmonkey]

I've been played Hot Shots Golf Open Tee before going to bed (the PSP version of Everybody's Golf, for those in the PAL territories). Although it's not as good as multiplayer, the single-player still has enough draw for me to wibble around in, collecting various items and unlocking new characters.

Last night I broke my duck of never having collected all the characters in a Hot Shots golf game and more surprisingly, unlocked the final character on Open Tee on my first attempt at doing so. In order to unlock characters in these games, you have to beat them in 9-holes of match play. Typically, the final golfer is a complete and utter nightmare to play against, making ridiculous shots with ease and draining any putt within a reasonable distance. This time around it appears that 1. the difficulty has been eased down somewhat and 2. the final golfer is one that does poorly in water and you play him on a course where it's raining most of the time. Not that I'm complaining, considering I put down Hot Shots Golf 3 down for good 3 years ago after a particulary maddening match against the penultimate character (who I remember resembling Geddy Lee if he was playing bass for Marilyn Manson).

I really do think that Hot Shots is the best game on the PS2 and one of the more underrated series of games, probably because nobody wants to play them because it's golf. Well, too bad for those people then!

[dessgeega]

the new deadly rooms of death game is out. i just completed the demo. there's, wow, a lot of dialogue. that disappoints me a bit, as journey to rooted hold's (the previous game in the series) storytelling was so elegant and inobtrusive. cutscenes will be the death of videogames, mark my words.

as for the game itself, it right away got started introducing new mechanics - whereas the last title was more interested in exploring and extrapolating the mechanics already in place. all the stages in the demo center around the manipulation of different types of switches. the demo didn't leave me too hot, because puzzles built around manipulating switch states just aren't as satisfying - or original - as puzzles built around manipulating monster behavior.

best nag screen ever, though.
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[ryan]

War Front: Turning Point turned out to be a much better multiplayer than single player game. I tend to focus on the main campaigns and only dabble with skirmishes and whatnot, but it's a game made for that. The story picks up some too, getting wackier as it goes on.

Blade Dancer, a PSP title Shaper turned down ages ago that I'm just now getting to - I think he disliked it a lot more than I do. Hot damn is this game a grind. Beyond the world looking like it's breaking apart around you - polygon seams everywhere - you have to put up with being a demigod in one area and then being smacked around like you're nothing in the next. Plus it's a bitch having to craft everything because no one can freaking repair items.

Earth Defense Force for the 360 (I forgot whatever year they used) is a great time. I still think they drag a lot of the bits on for too long, and it's buggy as hell (I fell through the ground twice, with the second landing destroying my vehicle; although it was nice to see the world from so high up twice). It's the Sci Fi answer to Stubbs, but with a lot less class and polish. I do love kicking the crap out of giant insects though.

I have AoE III: War Chiefs (looking like crap) on the laptop. I've found it about as enjoyable as the original. I'm glad they decided to just go all out and drop the historical accuracy pretenses.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

[dhex]

[Shapermc]

[ryan]

I like that tattooed floating skulls were chosen to represent enemies in the outdoor portions. And this is one of the few games that has characters but no personality. Aside from the grating voice-overs, there is no personality. Anywhere. Not just in the design or the world, but literally with the characters themselves. I guess it's to its benefit that it sticks you out in the wild for hours on end, away from others to converse with.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

[Scratchmonkey]

[SuperWes]

I've been playing a lot of puzzle games lately. Honeycomb Beat and Puzzle Quest specifically. Both are really good! Honeycomb Beat is really hard!

-Wes
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[dhex]

[Shapermc]

[Scratchmonkey]

Actually, "open bar" isn't so much of a draw to me anymore. I had a single beer.

[Bulkor]

I like to think the real draw of that place wasn't the free booze or hip hors d'oeuvres or chocolate fondue fountain, but just its weirdness as a whole.

[Shapermc]

Prinnies in trees!

Also: I'm just saying man.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[Nana Komatsu]

Man, you assholes, I would've gladly gone to that shit.
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resetbutton.net: videogames for unattractive people

[Scratchmonkey]

Aw, c'mon, we're just giving Shapes a hard time. Also! Nobody said it wasn't fun. Just weird.

[Bulkor]

Prinny's in the trees? Frag the lieutenant?

Yeah, sorry, what I meant was that the weirdness was what made it fun. Yeah. That and getting to just jump in and talk semi-complicated stuff in Japanese.

[helicopterp]

[SuperWes]

[Swimmy]

In the middle of playing Vagrant Story on my computer--I own it, but I'd rather not play it in the main room where the TV is--it occured to me to check out the state of Saturn emulation. Turns out a lot of games are fully functional now, so I decided to sate my curiosity about one of gaming's holy grails. Since I have no qualms about emulating two-to-three hundred dollar games, I found me a quick copy of Radiant Silvergun and booted it up.

Hey, you know what? This game kind of sucks. It's just like Ikaruga except without the mezmerizing simplicity. Not only do I have to learn the levels (which I don't particularly mind), I have to get used to having seven fucking weapons to level up with the chaining rigamarole--with three colors of ships, oh joy. I can see why it was a big deal at the time, as it's a wildly different type of shooter, but Ikaruga outclasses it bigtime.
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"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin

[Ethoscapade]

i kind of feel the same way, but to be fair i've only ever played it via emulation, and in the post-ikaruga climate, yeah, and i didn't even go to the trouble of finishing it. there are far better shooters out there, though.

i've realized lately that treasure games, for all of their apparently immaculate balancing, are really almost never all that well-rounded. ikaruga is the exception.

[dessgeega]

my feeling is that radiant silvergun is probably bloated and overwrought compared to the elegant minimalism of ikaruga, but i've never really been able to play the game.

as promised, however, i have played cake mania. it's a game about baking cakes. actually it's a game about time management. grizzled deliverymen show up at your cake shop after work, demanding confections. they line up in a queue on the left side of the screen, with little thought bubbles illustrating the cake of their dreams. you need to provide those cakes as quickly as possible (for the best possible tip), but each cake has to be baked in a certain shape and frosted a certain color (and i believe that later the game expects you to create multi-layer cakes) and baking and frosting occur at different stations and take a certain amount of time. so the most efficient way to run your cakery is to multi-task.

while one cake is being frosted, bake the next customer's cake (in the proper shape). when the cake is done being frosted, take it to the customer who ordered it, take the unfrosted cake from the oven and start baking another cake. bring the unfrosted cake to the frosting station and start frosting it (in the proper color). while the cakes are baking and frosting you can scoop up the money left by the last customer and hand a menu to the customer who just walked through the door.

in between stages you can buy additional ovens, display cases, or a television to keep customers distracted while on line. but the best thing about the game is probably the use of the phrase "nuts to that!" in the opening movie.
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[Nana Komatsu]

So do you like it or not?

I went back to N3 after a week of not playing, and I think I'm about done with the game. On to Bullet Witch!
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resetbutton.net: videogames for unattractive people

[dessgeega]

it's kind of mindless, until you make a mistake, which sets you back big. upgrading isn't really my idea of meaningful gameplay, either. (sorry every one of those "tower defense" flash games!)

(and i guess nearly all jrpgs!)
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[dessgeega]

hey, i've got a new blog now.

excitement!

i'm going to post there more or less the same sort of stuff i post here, only probably with a little bit more editing.

please read me, and tell all your friends who run respectable blogs that might link to me.

i'm still going to post in this thread, probably. so don't get too sad.

woo!
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[Nana Komatsu]

I just hope this one gets more love than the last one.

Bullet Witch is silly and I love it! I'd almost say it is to third-person shooters what Ninety Nine Nights is to hack and slash games. As corny as it sounds, Alicia is really interesting and probably what's keeping me really interested in the game. If they had used a generic tough guy protagonist (see: gears of war), I probably wouldn't have cared at all.
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resetbutton.net: videogames for unattractive people

[ryan]

Genesis Rising is either saying a whole lot about people, or they just are just really weak when it comes to "let's put this in there!" moments. It's like Homeworld, if you switch the sides, make it a little less refined, and add some slight conversation elements. Mankind has dominated the universe for something like 3,000 years now, after having been roughed up early on, thanks to the death of a leader who sought to unify the nations and was killed during war.

The leader was crucified, kinda, and his image is now everywhere. Man used bio technology to rise above their enemies and now flies around, kicking the shit out of everyone, in these organic ships. Believing it's god's will, they are now smacking around the aliens that had smacked them around, sucking the blood (and power-giving genes) of their defeated enemies. I'm waiting to get to the last third to see if it really is a good yarn, or just really hammy. One thing: No in-level saving, it only autosaves at key points. Screw that.

Earth Defense Force: Almost done on normal! 23 hours in. I beat about a third of it on Hard and a little less on Easy.

Armored Core 4 was started last night, though not much was accomplished. What an intro though. I was taken back by it, it reminded me of how it was in the mid to late '90s when they were still impressive.

Lord of the Rings Online is free for two weeks, until retail launch. I got to level 6 last night. This game is incredibly polished. It also does things right, like making jumping feel like you're jumping and not gambling with the chances of you landing in objects; quests stay on the side, one click away from bringing up all the information; and whatever item you select is brought up along with the item(s) you're equipped with, so you can see which is better. I won't be playing this after beta, but it's pretty fun (free) way to kill time!
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

[Cycle]

[ryan]