The Gamer's Quarter

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

oh, apparently the handful of games that support 16:9 have it as a setting under their options menus; I don't think there's an actual option for it on the Saturn's dashboard. so far I have found the following Saturn games support 16:9:

- All Japan Pro wrestling featuring virtua
- High Velocity
- Nights & Christmas Nights
- Panzer Dragoon Zwei
- Tounge: King of Spirits 2 (3rd option down)

and I read that Virtua Fighter for the 32X was the first home console game to support 16:9 - fancy!
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Lestrade · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:35 am Post subject:

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

Ahhhhh! I can't wait to try this when I get home! What connection are you using? I've never used S-Video for my Saturn, does it make a big difference? (Assuming that you are using it, of course.)
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Lestrade · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:21 am Post subject:

I'm just using S-Video, and surprisingly, even on an LCD TV (which is of course upscaling the image) it looks pretty sharp. Even up close it looks good. S-Video is a surprising leap from composite in my opinion. Everything is crazy-sharp (moreso on a CRT, of course). A few years ago when I got an S-Video cable for my PS2 I felt like I'd been living in a dank cave since 2001. Too bad there are no component cables for Saturn...

Man, I just realised I need to get Shinobi for Saturn!

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

It's just a standard s-video cable, correct? If so, I'll hop over to circuit city and grab one before heading back.
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Lestrade · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 11:51 am Post subject:

Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 2:47 am Post subject:

On a whim I bought Castlevania: Curse Of Darkness. I am pleased that it successfully brings the post-SOTN level design of the two dimensional games into the third dimension only the rooms are more square and the corridors are longer. I've come to terms with that and can look past it along with the game's other faults like the usual Castlevania repetitiveness, the dodgy camera that really needs a zoom out setting among others. You'd think people would be able to program a camera that's worth a damn by now, how long have 3d third person games been around now?

The thing that gets to me the most however is the game's tendency to cause the disc drive to squeak annoyingly which gives me headaches. This is like the only game I own that does this. Mysterious and annoying.
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dessgeega · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 1:45 pm Post subject:

i just finished ghost babel - metal gear gbc. my total time was three hours and forty-nine minutes, i was found eighteen times, killed three guards, and used twelve rations. my code name: TARANTURA. the next time i play, i might restart each time i'm spotted.

this is my favorite metal gear game. i've said that it's "what metal gear solid would be if it were a videogame", and i've decided that what i mean by that is that the metal gear solid games seem to me to be setpieces interspersed with cutscenes. every moment of gameplay is unique to itself, nothing is ever built upon, no mechanic is really explored. (and there's a lot of cutscenes, because what hideo kojima really wants to be doing is making movies.)

ghost babel, on the other hand, is a game about sneaking. the fundamental activity of play is watching guards, learning their routes, and sneaking by them. this is something, for whatever reason, i've never felt i've been able to do reliably in the playstation games. maybe there's too much simulation, or maybe it just feels like there is - ghost babel is a videogame, and certain things can be trusted. i can trust my instincts enough to make it work - to keep out of guards' sights, to run when i see a window of opportunity, to be gone by the time the guard turns around again.

i may start a thread on this game later. SNEAK PREVIEW: i will call the thread "the war against anonymous".
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

SuperWes · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:28 pm Post subject:

I've been playing a lot of Picross. A whole lot of Picross. I love it. I beat the crap out of Super Mario's Picross on the Super Famicom a few summers ago and this is just more of the same. I don't think I'll stop until I've done it all.

When I'm not playing Picross I'm making my own puzzle game. I'm basically just remaking another game I did a while back, Pogo Chick, but this time I'm doing it in 3D and I'm going to try my best to make sure everything is exactly the way I want it and super polished. So far things are going really well. I've got the level editor working, the game controls working, and most of the menus in place.

My biggest worry is that all of the art assets won't be as good as I want them to be, but since that's the only part I'm not really in control of (I've got a guy from work doing that stuff) I guess that makes sense. He's good, but I don't get the feeling like he's sold on the design yet. Bah.

-Wes
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I introduced a bunch of casual gamers to bomberman on my wii, and they all loved it. i really wish the other version was available here, because most of their complaints were fixed in that one.
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Swimmy · . Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 990 Location: Fairfax, VA

I was just fishing around Select Button and found the Persona 3 thread. There's someone there ranting about how it is the greatest game ever and nobody will disappointed at all with it ever because it's great.

He is fucking wrong. Don't listen to him. It is great for 20 hours--maybe even 30!--and miserable repetitive boringness for the next 50. It's not. . . you know, bad, but if you are even remotely tired of RPGs you will be disappointed. I can't wait to finish it, not just to write up my review, but so I can stop playing it. It's TOO LONG. Way, way too long.

So I guess the moral is, you probably can't trust an opinion about Persona 3 from a dude with an Atlus tattoo any more than you can trust an opinion about Dragon Warrior from a dude with a slime tattoo.
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"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Swimmy · . Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 990 Location: Fairfax, VA

I am reviewing it and that's how I got it so early and that's why I need to finish it?

Believe me, if it were just another game I was playing, I would've stopped long ago. That will undoubtedly factor into the review!

I do have a lot of time on my hands, though, what with the singleness and joblessness.

(Drunk post.)
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"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I think by even a quarter of the way through you should consider yourself qualified to tell people what it's about. There's no way one review is worth 80 hours research time unless they were paying you like $1200 for one review.

Also your singleness, joblessness and your willingness to sink 80+ hours into a game you don't like are three heads of the same beast. This sounds like addiction! Break the cycle!

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Swimmy, throw in the towel. Go to EB/GS and grab a copy of the guide, flip through it to the end and see if anything CRAZY happens. If it does, mention that the ending has something CRAZY in it and stop. I wish I had stopped playing Odin Sphere when I still liked it at points.
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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!"

Talbain · . Joined: 15 Aug 2007 Posts: 7

I think I've become a bad gamer recently. The last game I've played was Dawn of Sorrow; I don't really want to finish it, because it's just not terribly interesting to me. I played Etrian Odyssey for a while, and I like it. But I can only play it for so long before my eyes get tired. Maybe I need to get a new DS... DS Lite is looking really good right now...

More than that though, I can't really play most new PC games. My computers just can't run them anymore and I can't afford to buy a new computer. Ah; makes me sad. I want to try out Battlefield 1942 because it looks like fun. Maybe I'll just wait for TFC2. TFC2 looks more fun. But who knows when they'll release it.
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Stop looking at what it does for them and look at what it does for you.
What they want it to be or think it to be doesn’t–or shouldn’t–matter.

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

Talbain · . Joined: 15 Aug 2007 Posts: 7

Oh, I'm using laptops, heh. My last desktop only had a 2Ghz processor in it. It's long since been donated to my parents.

I have a Latitude X300. It can play most PSX games pretty well (as long as the settings are set pretty low on ePSXe); it can also play World of Warcraft, but it's very slow and runs very hot. It's good for retro-gaming and is useful for college work; it's mostly what I use.

Then I have a monster laptop, it has a Radeon X200 card in it (I think?). But the monster laptop will soon, more than likely anyway, be donated to my brother (he's starting college). It might be capable of running Battlefield 1942, but how well is beyond me. It has a 2.13Ghz processor.

I judge my laptops mostly by how much they weigh, since I tend to move around a lot.

I would like to get a desktop, but as I'm currently in college, I don't want to get one until I have some form of permanent residence.

The X300 is 6-ish years old, I think.
The big laptop is 3-4 years old.
My old old desktop is 10+ years old.
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Stop looking at what it does for them and look at what it does for you.
What they want it to be or think it to be doesn’t–or shouldn’t–matter.

Intentionally Wrong · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 11:21 am Post subject:

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

Guys I haven't played a videogame in about a month, what do I do?

Besides make money so I can fix my computer so I can play Bioshock and the next HL2 episode, I mean.

I picked up Picross DS in the store today and got about 2 aisles away before putting it back down again with a decisive feeling of "eh."
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"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
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helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

I just moved(!) and my new roommate is quickly adapting to the fact that I like videogames. He hasn't touched one in years and years and years. However, since a week ago, he has probably put in over twenty hours in Pokemon Puzzle League, and another five or six into Katamari Damacy. He also likes watching me play Shadow of the Colossus. I have to say, I get a big kick out of showing off the games to someone who isn't fluent in them.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

I'm still playing sick amounts of Shadowrun because, well, it's kind of amazing and gets better with age. To quote my 360's Blog

silentmatt · Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 8:25 am Post subject:

I guess I've been living in a cave but damn, I'd never seen the 360voice site before. That is pretty hilarious!
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simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

Yeah, IGN reviewed Bioshock on a Dual Core 4 gig 8800 GTX monster and still had some hiccups. Granted, they probably had it cranked up, but hell!

Circuit City has a sale next week with Bioshock on PC for $40 and for $50 on the 360.

-

I'm playing Project Sylpheed now. Fuck them for not having in-mission saves.
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simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

If I buy it on CD would I be able to run it through Steam?
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"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
-Kurt Schwitters, 1919

dhex · Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:01 pm Post subject:

that's how it works generally, right?

i've only done that with dark messiah.
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ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

I found this:

"Alternately, for some offline purchases (IE retail, boxed copies,) you are sometims given the option to "Register a product I own" and you can enter the CD-Key.

Remember when we first got Steam? That's how we activated our previous purchases like HL, CS, TFC, etc? At the bottom of the "My games" screen, there is a little button to "Activate a product on Steam..."

BE AWARE, though, that if you purchase a game on Steam and then purchase a retail copy and activate it manually, you will have purchased two copies of the game."

I don't have any cd-keys with me to try this out on, though. I own Doom 3 on PC, as well as Medieval 2, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, Company of Heroes, and a few more titles now sold on Steam, so I'm really eager to try this out. It says some won't work, though.

I bought Half-Life 2 Silver on Steam, so I never bothered to register Half-Life 1, since Half-Life: Source came with it, and up until my most recent install, those were the only titles on Steam to purchase.
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simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

Yeah, I know the HL2 package I bought retail worked, but my hard copy of Darwinia didn't. Thought I'd double check, but since it works I'll probably pick it up with that sale.
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"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
-Kurt Schwitters, 1919

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

Really long link to Steam support forum.

Well hell, a lot of games won't let you copy the key over.

From another thread:

dhex · Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 5:44 pm Post subject:

hey is it bad if the first thing you try to do in a simulator is crash into your own house? but you can't because the gowanus canal does not exist.

according to ms flight simulator x (deluxe edition) queens is filled with factories and tiny tiny houses. so is lower manhattan, for that matter. it looks like they filled in ground zero with another building or something. i can't quite tell.

also i know this is a simulator for people who like simulating real-life activities but if i had a cessna i'd like to think i would be able to soundtrack a flyby of manhattan with some mood music. no dice, ms, no dice. time to look into the mod scene.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Currently replaying UFO: Enemy Unknown. I forgot how fun and how difficult this game can be. Still perhaps the most rewarding micro-management strategy game yet. Also replaying Ace Combat 4, a perfect and satisfying arcade flight-sim experience, even down to the story-telling.

I've recently beat Ico, which was an uneven and sometimes frustrating experience. Yorda is dense as all Hell, the camera messes up your jumps more often than not and the lack of checkpoints and save points is inexcusable, especially towards the end. If you don't want to end up totally screwed, you have to save after you solve every single piece of a puzzle, lest you fall down a pit or have Yorda kidnapped while you're busy trying to play the damn game and have to restart the ten-minute process over again. The castle's architecture is cool, but God, how many movable crates does there inexplicably need to be? Shadow of the Colossus is a far more elegant game in every respect, and the puzzles there are natural and tie into the gaming world, instead of being tacked on. I can see why people love Ico, but it's a broken game and hardly deserving of the hype. Though yes, the plot is at least intelligently done. Shadow of the Colossus' is far more biblical and tragic, however.
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helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Your mom is biblical and tragic.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

So's your face!
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

This argument is too high brow. I can't compete.

Oh, and I've been playing Shadowrun. Still. I haven't really gotten any better at aiming... which sucks. Because like, I'm decent, but I panic a lot and overshoot/aim. Whateva.
_________________
“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!"

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

guys, i agree with drako. the only reason i keep my copy of ico is the sweet cover art and art cards that came with it.
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dessgeega · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 1:12 am Post subject:

so!

the ds version of gyakuten saiban 3 is out now, and it contains the english localization that will be making its way to north america soon. i've played through the first chapter.

they changed phoenix's sprite so that his sweater has a big P on it instead of "ryu". i was totally expecting them to invent some story about how "ryu" was phoenix's nickname. i'm oddly let down that they didn't. also, the touch screen has mia's silhuoette instead of phoenix's.

the script is no great shakes. it's not larry "moe" curls bad, but it's nothing outstanding. i only noticed one typo, so that's an improvement. there's was a line about someone's "milkshake" that "bring all the boys to the yard" that nearly made me yell OBJECTION! i'm hoping this is the only pop culture reference the localization staff inflicted on the game. but i am not naive.

anyway, let's get to that fucking gyakuten.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:31 pm Post subject:

by the way, the script gets measurably better in chapter 2, where maya is reintroduced. coincidence?
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helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Oh, you PAL's and your snotty (and ruefully correct) box-art opinions.

And, um, your mom wasn't masterful until her sophomore effort?

(Hearing my roommate accidentally killing pikmin in the next room is delightful.)
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Mr Mustache · . Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 167 Location: Queens

"Solid" games tend to be boring.

I've been playing Harmony of Dissonance, which is kind of embarassing. It's the first "Igavania" I've attempted, and while it is certainly addictive, I think it is a distinctly terrible game. Some of the bosses are neat, but the game has an uneven aesthetic that is further undermined by a complete lack of intelligent level design.

Gameplay wise, I find it stressful in an OCD sort of way, also mostly aimless. Are all of the "Igavania's" this bad?
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SuperWes · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:43 am Post subject:

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

SuperWes · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:44 pm Post subject:

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279