The Gamer's Quarter

dessgeega

. . . long overdue!

i've been replaying snatcher on my sega cd. the first time i completed it i used kega fusion. i just reached act three.

i was expecting the game to be a lot less annoying the second time around, and while i've hit far fewer snags, it's actually even more tedious in parts - because i know where i should be going or what i should be doing, but the game still requires me to jump through a bunch of hoops before it will let me do what i want.

for example, i've just arrived at the library to pick up the "cooking for snatchers" recipe book that i need to advance the story. but i can't just walk in. first i have to examine the building. there are two different commands that approximate "examine": "look" and "investigate". it's unclear what the difference is, but the game expects me to try them both. so i look building: "the banner reads 'neo kobe public library'." then, investigate building: "a glass double-door leads in." now the object "door" appears in the look and investigate menus. look door: "no one is visible through the glass doors." investigate door: "the front door is unlocked." at last, the "move" command appears on the menu, and i can "move inside". these snatchers are going to be famished by the time i get my hands on this cookbook!

there are a couple points in act two where i have to search for people, and though i (having completed the game) know where those people are located, the game requires me to perform a thorough search of every object in a handful of locations. it's never clear when the game's invisible requirements are satisfied, so it's sort of a chore. also, i still feel there's a missed opportunity in not having the benson snatcher hide in the shooting range. "where do you hide a book? in a library. where do you hide a body? in a morgue." where do you hide a snatcher . . . ?

playing through the game again like this is sort of like watching a movie, which is unsurprising given kojima's direction. to extend an analogy i heard recently, hideo kojima grew up wanting to build firetrucks but ended up working for a toy firetruck company instead.

also, motivated by another thread i bought a copy of pilotwings for three dollars. it arrived today, and i finally managed to reach - and clear - the helicopter mission. wow, it's really something special. though i have to assume that as i spent minutes circling the helipad, lifting and lowering my chopper, leaning forward and back, my intructors were watching and muttering about their first-hand knowledge that landing is my weakest area.

so i'm up to the expert lessons now. i'm still terrible at landing the hang-glider, and occasionally crash the light plane, but i'm looking forward to the new courses. if at least one of my lessons takes place at sunset, i will be happy.

incidentally, i ran the cartridge through my doctor sf7 first, and the graphics were a little glitchy - and when i tried skydiving, i found that by rotating myself, i could actually raise my altitude! whoa! i think if you can fly without a plane you should probably get your certification automatically.

my gamefly copy of elite beat agents arrived today too. i havn't played it yet, but i'll probably play it tonight in bed before sleep. also, a package of japanese hucards was apparently delivered, but there was no one around to sign for it. so i'll have it soon! and if someone buys my copy of we <3 katamari, i am going to use to money to purchase rolling thunder 2. and then i will probably post in this thread about all those games.

what games have you been playing, thread?
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TOLLMASTER · nippon ichi PR man Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 187

I haven't really been in the mood to play too many video games, certainly not the ones I "want" to play. I've been going to a program at the hospital to help with my panic and anxiety disorder, and when I come home I'm pretty much exhausted.

The two games I have found my self playing, then, are two that are easy to fit into bite-sized chunks. Bangaioh, for the N64 I'm talking about, is very nice for this. I'm only doing a few stages a day, and I keep hoping the game will stop throwing tutorials at me, but each level I learn something new about the game mechanics entirely by myself. One level showed that my shots could block the shots of enemies, thus giving my funny little robot a means of managing curtain fire; another lesson was when Bouncy Lasers are more effective than Homing Missiles. According to descriptions on other sites, the N64 version is more "strategic" than the Dreamcast version, with a weaker super shot (which must be charged), but the super shot is key to getting firepower and shot penetration upgrades.

Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars for the GBA is essentially a Super Robot Wars game, but with shorter missions. When you don't have to slather the game in fanservice, things work a lot more efficiently! There's also an option that allows you to control the aiming and evading mechanisms on your robots that is affected by the robots' stats, but no matter what, it seems almost too easy to get critical hits and evade. Or maybe I'm just TOO GOOD?!?

I was really looking forward to Yggdra Union, but I'm not sure that I could play something that involved at the moment. My little brother is getting Gunstar Super Heroes (found for 10 bucks!) for his birthday, though, so that would probably be an efficient time-waster.

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

I'm going to just use this thread instead of the Okami thread to talk about Okami.

I'm about thirty hours in and it just does so much right. Two aspects of this game are absolutely wonderful: geography and characterization.

The places you go feel different, but they feel like they logically lead to one other. They have character, they have color, they have shape, and (as I have said in that other thread) they have a remarkable quality of altitude that gives this particular game much more dimension than what I am used to in the adventure genre.

The other wonderful part is Ameterasu. She is not anthropomorphized in any way. She can run. She can nip at things, or carry them in her mouth (which keeps her from doing other things). She can dig. I like that there are ladders scattered throughout the environments, but that the ladders are only clues and not tools, since wolves can't climb ladders.

The big city is full of people who are sick and in obvious pain. One man is just clawing at a wall because he can't take it.

Look, I did all that without even mentioning how good it all looks. It's a big commitment, but play this game, folks. Sidenote: I am a terrible painter. It took me twenty minutes to draw a moon once.

Oh, and I'm also playing Meteos, but I'm always playing Meteos.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

I've just been playing Gears of War since I got it a week ago. I've already beat it once but I'm on Act 3 in Hardcore difficulty. It's just plain great, through and through. The only thing I can complain about is the AI partners in your squad can be total dumbasses sometimes, but the checkpoint system is forgiving enough that even dying doesn't bother me.

I like how it's just difficult enough, but not overly difficult. Some games are too easy and I lose interest. I haven't gone back to Okami or Bully for weeks because, while I enjoy playing them and want to see them through to the end, the drive to actually get better at them isn't there because there's no challenge to overcome. Likewise in the opposite direction I haven't bothered picking up Godhand because it seems difficult in the same way that Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry is difficult, complex fighting systems that force you to master them to get the most out of the game. Gears nails the sweet spot for me, just hard enough that if I'm not careful I'll die a lot, but if I observe where I'm screwing up it's usually a no-brainer to figure out what I'm doing wrong and correct myself. Sometimes it's a matter of tactics, like deciding to go on the offensive rather than the defensive, yet other times it's as simple as finding better cover. The point I'm getting at is the game gives you options as far as tactical play goes, and the weapons you have become the tools you use to carry out your objectives.

I also like how there's pretty much zero bullshit about the game. It's all pretty simple and straightforward. You start the game, select continue, then choose your difficulty setting and it quickly loads to the last checkpoint you stopped playing at. There are enough checkpoints in the game, one after every enemy encounter in fact, that the game doesn't even bother with making you save or load, it does it all for you automatically. It's a lot like Halo in this regard, only a lot more streamlined. There's a lot more I could say about the game, but I'll stop for now.

Oh, and I also stickied this topic. I thought we already had one of these though, but looking at it I guess we didn't. Go figure!

wourme · . Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia

I finally finished Disaster Report the other night. I had put it aside a year or two ago because I was stuck on the stadium part, but I have no idea why I was stuck there--this time I immediately got through it without trouble and went on to finish the game.

Other than that, Final Fantasy 12.

I've really been wanting to play Super Mario Bros. 2 lately (the JP SMB2), but to do so I either have to finally get a controller for the computer or track down one of those extremely elusive GBA copies.

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

FFXII is the first game I've racked up 30+ hours on in a long time. This is not to say it's brilliant and the be-all-end-all, but it's pretty good and easy to play for long periods of time, and I don't hate it like I hate most RPGs these days. This seems to be a pretty common opinion, I think.

Games are flying in and out of both slots of my DS in five minute intervals, it seems. Scurge: Hive, Megaman ZX, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2, Touch Detective, Juka and the Monophonic Menace, Wade Hixton's Counter Punch, Contact, Super Mario World, Super Robot Taisen... I have no attention to devote to them these days, it seems, cause I keep putting all of them down to just to read books. I haven't gotten much of anywhere in any of them.

The last game I finished was Rocket Slime, cause that game's just a delightful pop song.

SuperWes · Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:51 am Post subject:

I've been playing Gears of War like mad and I absolutely adore it. GOTY hands down unless Zelda is really magical.

I'm on Act 3 in Insane right now and it just gets better and better every time I die. I rarely play through games more than once, but with Gears I literally started again right after the credits rolled as if the story hadn't been completed yet.

I've also been playing Viva Pinata, and when they start making you actually learn how to play the game after around Level 10, it kinda loses some Lustre. I think I'd enjoy the game a lot more if I had the strategy guide and could tell what the conditions were to get new Pinata to show up. Right now I'm just sort of breeding and waiting, racking up a lot of money and spending it frivelously. I need direction, damnit!

Good thread dess.

-Wes
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Neal · . Joined: 13 Nov 2006 Posts: 36 Location: Tennessee

Final Fantasy 5 Advance and Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow. I'm enjoying both games, switching between them whenever I want.
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ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

I'm playing Death Jr. 2: Root of Evil and Bomberman, both for the PSP. Also Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on the 360, whenever I have time. Oh! Contra on Live Arcade.

I'm really enjoying Death Jr. 2. The only real complaint I have is that the controls are too floaty, it's difficult to get a solid hold on jumping and swinging because there's always a smidge more distance added to what was intended. The characters and other control aspects (really lenient lock-on system) make it seem like it's more for younger gamers, but the humour and more unforgiving control aspects tends to give it the feel for an older crowd. Still, I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.

Bomberman on the PSP is so good after Bomberman for the 360. If it came out for the DS, I'd get that one - the PSP cramps my hands - but right now it sits as a great version of the game.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is my younger years compact into an isometric brawler. Sometimes it feels like the old Avengers game - I had the Genesis ver. - updated with some random characters thrown on, and that's more than fine by me.

Contra is still fun, but I'm with Shaper on DE needing to be dumped. It's worth the $4-5 dollars (stupid point system) but every now and then I ball up a fist of rage towards DE for not making it just so.

I found out last night that Medieval 2: Total War is DVD only. AAAHHHHH! I'm trying to play The Guild 2 on my laptop due to it being the only system available to me with a DVD drive and, despite it running decent, it's really not giving me the full experience. Medieval II is far more demanding, so I whimper and tear up a little to think of my laptop trying to handle it.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

dhex · Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:33 am Post subject:

fallout 2 in between school and work and home life. the best and the worst of the western crpg tradition rolled into one, in some ways.

it is frustrating at times, but the gauss rifle x 177 skill in small arms and a fortified critical hit table = love.
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OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

Lockeownzj00 · . Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 214

Just finished Hitman Contracts. I've moved on to Killer 7 now.

I dabbled with NBA Street 2 for a little bit, and then I realised I suck all holy hell at sports games, but I respect it for its style.

I'm at an impass in Advance Wars DS because of this goddamn piperunner level...and Final Fantasy III DS is on the way in the mail!

Otherwise, I've been playing The Lost Vikings with my brother (who's in Japan) over zsnes. For the longest time, we were so utterly confused because we seemed to be playing two different games at the same time--it turned out he had switched the latency settings, which meant he saw me run into lasers and die (which I didn't), and I saw him standing still when he was climbing ladders. The toughest part being you can only scroll with the other person on the screen, too, so it was quite frustrating ;P

ApM · Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:51 pm Post subject:

Lackey · . Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada

I think the last boss inevitably kills huge numbers. Just keep throwing them and being careful, I guess? Incidentally, a no-loss speed run of Pikmin would be really impressive.

I'm playing Pikmin 2 now as well. I've already beat the main part and now I'm looking for Louie.

edit: Oh! I'd love to see a video of this.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

wourme · . Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 4:40 pm Post subject:

there's a siren speedrun on this page.

scratches sucks. i got a review copy.

i reached the night mission in pilotwings expert! it's a little much for my skills, though! moving arches? bouncing ball beams? the sunset mission made me happy, though. hang-gliding under the red sky made me feel warm and fuzzy. i'm slightly better at landing the hang-glider now, too.

elite beat agents is about as dumbly abstract as most (read: every one i can think of except rhythm tengoku) rhythm games. and the songs have next to nothing to do with the missions. and sk8terboi is one of the worst-written songs i've ever heard. but the game itself has potential. i've only played three missions yet.
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dark steve · . Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110

More FFXII and then more FFXII after that. I'm probably going to be playing this game exclusively for the next six weeks just to finish it. Where was this damn game when it was summer and I was unemployed?
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

I've been playing around with Osman quite a lot, even taking it over Strider. Probably because of how damn crazy it is in image more than anything else. Where else can you play a pirate superfighter chosen by a nihilistic, world-burning goddess that wants to see you take down a cosmic slaver and take over a stylised Eastern planet?

I'd like to get Rolling Thunder working again, because I loved that game, but MAME's being difficult.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

JasonMoses · . Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 407

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

Laco · Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:34 am Post subject:

Trying to get through Guitar Hero on expert, still a while off yet. Playing, or rather listening to the songs from Guitar Hero 2 so I actually feel like playing them. Is it just me, or is the original's track list much, much better? The new multiplayer is pure awesome though.

Playing a little God Hand, when I feel up to the task. It's totally great, especially the way you sort of dance in time with the music, but.. it's hard! I suck at brawlers / fighting games.

Planning to actually get somewhere in Oblivion. I've actually started the main quest, after about 15 hours of exploring forests and picking flowers!

Getting in the odd game of Defcon when I can.

Really loving Paper Mario 2. Slowly advancing in Zelda: Wind Waker. Metroid Prime is also on the list for Gamecube, but the hour I've played so far has been a bit 'meh'. I haven't even put in Killer 7 yet, I need to prepare myself, and finish some other stuff first.

Still about 8 colossi to go in Shadow of the Colossus, haven't played in a month or two. It's really amazing, but I know it'll be there to come back to whenever I feel like it. I'm actually a bit more tempted to play through Ico again. Do you unlock anything more? Is the multiplayer any good?

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

I've been away most of this week so haven't had much time for game playing. I just bought a Mac Classic and have been spending some quality time with that baby. KidPix, ClarisWorks, AfterDark! Dark Castle, The Colony, Glider! Woo yeah.

Away from the Classic, I've been playing a bunch of early(ish) CD-ROM games I bought recently. Lawnmower Man was the first one I played. It's a CG dragons lair with a few puzzles thrown in! I also finished it in about twenty minutes. It made me want to watch the movie again. I wonder if it's as awesome as I remember it to be!

I've also been playing Total Distortion which is both one of the worst games I've ever played and also the greatest game I've played, ever. Random guitar dual battles! Filming surreal locations to mix in music videos! Actually mixing videos and trying to sell them to people back on earth! Bizzare dream sequences with fake game over screens and mini-games! A radio aquarium featuring fake radio shows! 50 books to read/play/solve! And one of the greatest Game Over songs ever which you can find here:

http://download.yousendit.com/D41FA6674990F005

Some of the other songs really rock out. Anyway, the game is a little difficult to learn and death comes easily (save often!) but damn if this isn't one of the most entertaining games I've played in a long time. You can even make sandwiches the way YOU want to make them, just like Subway! Here is a free tip: Your favourite coffee will replenish your energy better than other brands. How do you know what your favourite coffee is? Check the posters around your tower. Genius!?

OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

I played Guitar Hero II at a friend's house for a few hours yesterday. The Danzig stand-in on "Mother" sounds nothing like Danzig at all, but, other than that minor gripe, it's a really really good game. Trogdor is as awesome as I thought it would be, and some of the songs are really good on Co-Op (the Primus and Freezepop songs come to mind).

GcDiaz · . Joined: 25 Sep 2006 Posts: 35 Location: Clinton, MA

FFXII. Been playing it since release date, and I just broke the 50-hr mark, with all characters in their high 30's-low 40's. Loving every second of it, but oh how I wish and wish and wish that it had New Game+. I'd like to relive the wonder, not the hard labor.

Lackey · . Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada

I don't know anything about Scratches but this screenshot on Mobygames is pretty amusing.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

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

Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

I am still playing Final Fantasy Twelve. I'm 50 hours in now, and still don't see an end in sight. Thanks to my car up and having congestive heart failure, I haven't really played anything lately.

wourme · . Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia

dessgeega · Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 3:20 pm Post subject:

screwing up "you're the inspiration" makes me feel like a jerk.

i picked up my package from the post office. now i have the pc-engine port of kiki kai kai. lovely! i already own an arcade-perfect port of the game on the ps2, of course, but there's something pretty special about playing a port that is designed for the console you're playing it on. and the pce port of kiki kai kai is pretty special indeed.

i hit an odd bug on my first go, probably because the hucard is super used. in stage 3, just as i was entering that really tricky section where the key is kept, sayo-chan disappeared! i must have been invincible as well as invisible, because i managed to get the key and reach the boss room. but the boss killed me immediately with its vicious tengu powers and the game froze. i wiped off the pcb and havn't had any problems with it since then.

i also received puzznic! puzznic is a very swell puzzle game. it's the lolo manipulate-pre-existing-objects type of puzzle game, not the puyo puyo arrange-random-shapes-that-fall-from-the-sky type. though there is a mission-type mode where random shapes fall from the sky and have to be sorted into various patterns. the main part of the game is clearing rooms by sliding all the shapes to their matches. the shapes obey gravity, though, so if you slide them off of something, they'll fall until they land on something else

the stages get very tricky very quickly. the great thing is that, to keep the game from getting repetitive, there are eight different starting stages, and eight ending stages, and like 48 stages between them that you can choose darius-style, with each stage comprising four puzzle rooms. every time you clear four rooms you get a weird anime cheesecake scene (and password)!

i've also been playing battle mania 2 (or battle mania daiginjo) for the mega drive. on an emulator, because the cartridge is stupidly expensive. the original battle mania was released in the west as "trouble shooter". the sequel is brilliant. you control two characters with rocket packs, one of whom always fires forward while the other switches between forward and backward fire at a button. the enemy patterns are just amazing, though, particularly from the third stage on. and it's also gorgeous. it would probably be cheaper to buy a mega drive copying device than to buy the game itself, which is an option i'm considering.
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Swimmy · . Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 990 Location: Fairfax, VA

When I was younger I always liked the other game that Puzznic had in it, where you push blocks that slide all the way across the room. In retrospect, not as good, but my young brain couldn't handle Puzznic itself. Too intense.

Uh. I'm not playing anything right now.
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"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin

dessgeega · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:50 am Post subject:

i discovered keeper through this thread, which is the same place i heard about battle cross. not just a menstrual cup, keeper is also a really swell super famicom game! it is also a very expensive game. which is why i'm playing it on my game doctor. it's a puzzle game where you push or pull blocks on a five-by-five grid, attempting to match either shapes or colors (or both).you can jump up on top of blocks to push adjacent ones as well. a new block appears at a random position every few seconds. it gets pretty fast! the highest i've managed to reach is level 30.

i've been playing the genesis shadowrun for a while now, on and off. emulated, though i might decide to pick up the cart soon. last week i completed the opening act and now i'm starting to explore seattle and get my bearings. i just completed my first mid-level run, so that's a good sign. i like the game a lot - easily the most faithful to the game and gameworld of the three videogames - but i can tell it's going to take time and effort to really see what the game offers. the matrix intrigues me and i want to go data-mining - i had myself wired to jack in - but my computer stat is so bad i can't even enter a server. if i get the cart, maybe i'll start over as a decker.
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purplechair · . Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 378 Location: in my pants

My main project at the minute is Beyond Good & Evil (GameCube), which I borrowed off a friend back at the start of the summer and only played for a few days before getting a job and not having time to carry on. I've decided to make an effort to get it finished, so I can start on Neverwinter Nights 2. And also, so I can post it back along with her Christmas present, once I figure out what that will be.

Coming back to this game, the thing I've noticed the most is how complicated the controls are. And I can't think of a great deal else to say about it... I enjoy walking around and taking photos of wildlife, but the dungeons feel quite dull and that's pretty much all I've been doing recently. I guess they're just quite repetitive? Sneaking around dark, metal corridors and solving switch puzzles... there's none of the specacle you get in Zelda's dungeons. And the game as a whole feels a bit predictable, no thanks to spoilers like the hovercraft upgrade shop you go to right at the start of the game.

I'm also playing SSX 3 some more, because winter is approaching and I cannot stop myself. I like to switch off the HUD and all the game-related sounds, transport to the top of peak 3, and freeride down the entire mountain with just the wind and the continual swwwooooossshhhhh of the snow beneath my board. Which seems to be a similar kind of principle as wanting to just take photos of wildlife in BG&E.

Finally, I'm almost halfway through Phoenix Wright 2, and am finding that it's basically just more of the same, which is good in some respects ("You're the man now, doll!") and bad in others (HE COULDN'T HAVE WRITTEN HER NAME BECAUSE HE DIED OF A BROKEN NECK, YOU MORONS! IT'S IN THE AUTOPSY REPORT! THE AUTOPSY REPOOOOORT!!!)

To put it melodramatically, all of these games are ruined by the imposition of a storyline.

Lackey · . Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

Call of Duty 3 - What the hell, Treyarch? I'm a few hours into the single player campaign and I've already seen several soldiers run in circles and vanish to check points, and enemies not fire when two feet from me. These problems are more dotted around than anything, but coming from Call of Duty 2 ... this shit's rough.

Sadly, school and work - Look out for Europa Univeralis III, Frontline: Kursk, and AIM2: Clan Wars on a store shelf near you soon! - are getting in the way of my gaming time.

1701 AD came in today ... another DVD title I want to play. Weep weep weep.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:32 am Post subject:

i'm getting more comfortable with shadowrun, and a better sense of the layout of future seattle. playing is still kind of a nervous experience because most encounters can lay me flat. i like it, though. now i'm a little too entrenched to buy the cart and start over, but i will pick it up at some point (after i've gotten that copy of rolling thunder 2).

futzing with the matrix (which i am now less inept at, but still pretty ineffective) made me want to play some decker, which handles cyberspace running actually in a pretty similiar way (probably owing to their shared source), but is a sort of roguelike. playing it makes me realize that a stealth-based roguelike would actually be pretty great. decker is almost there but has a lot of randomness and is very constrained. my icon is a dapper smiley face with a top hat, though. that ain't bad.
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squidlarkin · . Joined: 10 Dec 2005 Posts: 100

How are you finding your way around in Shadowrun, dess? Last time I tried, the first run I got was to escort a guy from the Whooziwhat Building to the Such-and-So Building, but there was no indication whatsoever of where the Whooziwhat Building was, so I was reduced to systematically combing the streets. And couldn't find it anyway.

DaleNixon · . Joined: 08 Jul 2005 Posts: 179

Gears of War - Still trying to beat it on Insane Mode.
Sneak King - Suburbs get! Trying to get all the achievements!
FFXII and Viva Pinata - Watching my wife play these.

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 8:00 pm Post subject:

when you first enter a new area in shadowrun you really need to take a little time and locate where everything is. the areas are generally pretty small! shops and bars usually have signs, and corporate buildings are typically marked with logos, but gang headquarters and abandoned buildings are usually unmarked. don't be afraid to stick your head in and see what something is! most of them will let you leave with it.

so the mega drive port of lord monarch looks completely different from any other version of the game i've played! well, not completely - it's still the same game, but dressed up with shining series-esque sprites and portraits, and with an ongoing storyline. it seems to have been made by sega in much the same way that nintendo ported simcity. and while the coherent narrative means the game is missing the funky skins i love (fast food wars!), it actually looks much better than the super famicom port (which has like a jillion). partly this is because the game is rendered with original graphics at each different zoom level, unlike the sfc port which just zooms the map out until it's a pixelated mess. the graphics are also just much more clean and vibrant and make really good use of the mega drive's palette. the sfc port is just one of the worst examples of the ugly, oversaturated super famicom palette.

lord monarch is a really interesting strategy title (the windows version has been freeware for a few years now). watching it feels like some kind of a-life - left to their own devices, your troops will clear land, build, farm, reproduce, and fight. it makes it feel closer to real warfare - economics and resources decide the outcome to a large extent. most versions of the game you can win the first map without doing anything. where you most get to exert your influence is in bottlenecks - bridges that can be built or town down to connect continents with each other.

bridge-building (and -destroying) actually serves as a kind of shorthand for strategy. by fixing a bridge between your continent and an enemy's you're choosing to direct some of your offensive forces at that enemy. in this way you make choices about whether to try and overtake an enemy nation before it has the chance to build up its forces but risk spreading your own forces too thin. and there's always the risky manuever of sending your leader to slay your opponent's leader for a possible quick victory over their nation - or a quick defeat. it's a total inversion of the type of real-time strategy where you have to click on your units to get them to do anything - there's next to no micromanagement.
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Lestrade · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 10:32 pm Post subject:

Zelda. Zelda Zelda Zelda. I am having so much fun, it should be outlawed. I was sick today, so during my more awake moments at home I played. Man, I played. I can't believe I'm over 8 hours into the game already; they've just flown by (well, except for my hang-up in the first village). Normally, by now I'd be bored of a game, but I look forward to each new moment.

I also downloaded Sonic the Hedgehog and Bonk's Adventure for Wii today, just to see. I never played through Sonic back in the day, and I'm rerally impressed with it. I love its aesthetic. Bonk's fun too, though over composite cables the image doesn't look as sharp as Sonic's does.

Related: The Wii Classic Controller is a dream. It feels perfect in every way, and it was only when I opened its package that I realized something important: the Y, X, B and A buttons are in the standard Super NES arrangement, but they're spaced differently, slightly wider apart. The way I see it, this is so that Genesis games actually feel natural on the pad; the Y, X and A buttons feel quite like the old A, B and C buttons of yore. Very smart!

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

dessgeega · Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:22 am Post subject:

i have been playing some serious ninja warriors again. (thanks therumblefish!) i can one-credit to the stage five boss, who is a bit of a toughie. it is another excellent natsume sfc sequel to a taito arcade game. i really like the way the room-clear attack is implemented. a meter needs to fully charge before you can use it, but you'll want to keep the meter charged for as long as you can, because when it's fully charged you can use a little bit of it to finish a combo with a dashing special attack that knocks down multiple enemies. when the meter isn't fully charged, though, getting knocked down will clear all that you've built up, so there's an element of risk.

mega drive lord monarch is very swell. the second area has your character competing with some poncy jerk for the hand of a princess. one of the tasks you compete at involves rescuing prisoners, who have been placed on hills spread over the map. the prisoners can only be rescued by the kings (alfred and poncy jerk). well, my rival and i had each liberated a few. poncy jerk's troops cleared the way for him to another prisoner, and i had one of my troops build a bridge to that particular hill. my king got there first and claimed the rescue, but poncy jerk was still en route. when he went up on the hill, i had alfred follow and trap him there, then fight him to the death. alfred won, and my rival's forces were stricken from the map! that made me feel very good about this game. i'm thinking of picking up the cart! i seem to be developing a bit of a queue.
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PlasmaDance · . Joined: 01 May 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Wales

Hello! For a number of less than happy reasons, games haven't been top of my priority list for the last few months, but I've started up again recently.

I managed to finally get hold of Koudelka a couple of weeks ago, a game that I've been wanting to play for some time, prompted not so much by its critical standing (of which it has none, as far as I can tell), but rather the fact that Hiroki Kikuta was behind it, and that he supposedly wanted the game to stand apart from Square's late-90s PSone stuff. Oh yes, and for the hilarity value of playing a game set in Aberystwyth, of course.

I'm only a few hours in, the survival-horror/RPG-ish idea isn't bad so far, and after the crushingly dull first few battles against giant cockroaches/beetles etc, the enemy design is actually quite disturbing. I do already find myself (unsurprisingly) longing for the non turn-based combat that was mooted before its release, though. Even a bit of Active Time Battle (or whatever it's called) or some Vagrant Story-esque elements would have been better than nothing.

Ah, and the voice acting. Goodness gracious me, it's atrocious. Plot and other such fripperies seem to have fallen by the wayside a bit as well. But I'm going to persevere, it'll be great eventually, I'm sure.

What else? I just re-finished Metroid Fusion, and then foolishly moved onto Rockman & Forte (I'm guessing the other chap's name from the katakana...Forte? Faulty? Fawlty??). Suffice to say, it isn't getting much play time...I'll have to completely forget Metroid (or at least its control system) first.
I've also started playing Espgaluda yet again, what a lovely game it is.
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helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 1:09 am Post subject:

mega drive lord monarch keeps impressing me, even as its maps repeatedly confound me.

if you're familiar with lord monarch at all, you know that one of the elements of the game is monsters (mafiosos in the "fast food" skin, chinese dragons in the "romance of the three kingdoms" skin, etc). monsters are neutral characters who roam the map, attacking anyone they encounter, until they run out of energy and are defeated. they come from caves, which any player (if they can reach them) can seal.

this particular map (still in the "rivals compete for princess" thread) has a four-way symmetry, with nations located on the outskirts of the map - seperated by rivers - and a common area in the center of the map that connects them all. the paths to this common area are full of caves/holes which produce monsters. you can't seal the holes because you'll block the path, so you have to put up with the monsters (and eighteen caves produces a lot of monsters). here's the great part, though - in the middle of the common area, at the top of a hill, is a magic orb. whichever nation has a soldier positioned in front of this orb will be ignored by the monsters.

this creates a literal game of king-of-the-hill where all nations are trying to kill and replace the soldier in possession of the orb. that soldier steadily loses energy, so you have to keep funnelling troops in. it actually took me a few times to clear the map - my clever strategy was, once in possession of the orb, to build bridges across the rivers that divide my nation from its neighbors, surrounding the enemy on two sides and overwhelming their forces. (building bridges, especially of this length, is very expensive, to balance the fact that you're essentially changing the map.)

it worked! i conquered first the innocent natives caught in the crossfire of an aristocratic duel / racial stereotypes, then moved on poncy jerk. almost poetically, the final blow was dealt by a monster who stormed into his castle. victory! i should really buy this game. it's a shame it's not as common as the inferior super famicom version, but it's by no means rare. still, it's a little more than i'd prefer to spend on a game. it's obscure enough that it will probably be hard to track down a few years from now, though.
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dessgeega · Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 1:53 am Post subject:

so yeah, what the hell, i bought it. usd30. with box and manual. that's not too bad, right?

also today! i have been playing nazo no murasamejou. it's a game i'm long overdue to have played, being no less than the second famicom disk system game ever released. imagine legend of kage with the maps of zelda. (the stages are linear - with branching paths that reconnect in the "overworld" and side paths that lead to prisoners or evil spirits in the castles.) it's fast*, and hard, and lovely. i just reached the second castle.

* except for the load times! ha!
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

Major developments! I got a Wii, and Excite Truck gets almost all my time on that. It's exactly what I was looking for in the system, with this weird imprecision that just works exceptionally. In my mind it's kinda taking up the torch from a combination of the Rush series (massive air) and Mario Kart (fun-based racing). Someone on IC described it as arial truck ballet, which pretty much nails it. It's such a beautiful game, and the people calling it a tech demo just obviously don't get it.

The Wii also means I'm moving my Gamecube out of the living room and into my own, where it'll see much more playtime (I share the living room and rarely get to use it for gaming or much of anything else). I'm currently working through PoP: Warrior Within, which is also a much much better game than it's given credit for.

Lackey · . Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada

There was a tragic missed opportunity for having an actual conspiracy plot in Beyond Good & Evil. Maybe it would have been too easy, but if the stormtrooper goons turned out to actually be trying, ineptly, to defend the planet...well there would have at least been some complexity.

Also I give the game credit for being perfectly short. The developers knew well enough not to over-reach.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

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

Because they ran out of time probably. It's like the most bottom-heavy game since Minish Cap where the last world is just a cloud with a couple of pinwheels stuck in it.

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

I just got home from a cousin's house, and he has Gears of War. I sat down and started a single player campaign (on easy because I tend to be bad at Xbox-y shooters) and got up three hours later without realizing how long I had been playing. It is wonderful.

I love the way the camera goes hand-held when you run. I love that the levels are designed with a very clear objective, and with a very clear yet still challenging way to accomplish that objective. And I love that I'm only getting the story in little pieces, that my squadmates and I are only really aware of what is immediately around us, but that there is obviously something more to this war and to my past looming over everything I am doing. It's also a joy to look at.

My cousin also has a Wii (my extended family always owns technology well before I do) so I have played a lot of Wii Sports and watched a couple hours of Twilight Princess. A reason for any of you to play Twilight Princess who are on the fence: in the dungeons, if you break certain pots, a small beige chicken with a shrunken human head pops out and tells you his name is Ooccoo. He is fucking weird. Or a broader reason: something about the environments and Link's interaction with every part of them just works so well. The wolf's sense of smell is splendid. Finally, the character design is further removed from previous games, and it gives the game a more foreign quality to it. I don't know, I like a lot of what I have seen.

Meanwhile, I beat the first difficulty setting of Elite Beat Agents with A grades on all of the songs today. I love this game more and more, and the weather woman/mother scenario made me laugh more than any game I have ever played. I almost like Elite Beat Agents as much as Meteos.

Hey, anybody know when Gunpey comes out? I was looking for it yesterday and couldn't find it.

This has been a great holiday so far.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.