The Gamer's Quarter

Lasa · . Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 128

I've lost the will to play anything at all. Well, except Blocksum which reminds me that I'm still terrible at every single puzzle game I've ever played.
Even Yoshi's Cookie!

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

I finally bought FFV Advance over the weekend. I've been playing it befor going to bed. I still think this may be the best FF ever made. I haven't played FFVI yet though. Perhaps later this year.
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Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

How is that port? I have the PSX version but after hearing how Final Fantasy IV Advance turned out I'm afraid to try it.
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SuperWes · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:23 pm Post subject:

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

SuperWes · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:00 pm Post subject:

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

I bought Coloris, Dotstream and Soundvoyager based on suggestions from Dessgeega. Coloris was $25 but with the $5 coupon I didn't mind.

They're sold of orbital! Also, they put Sweet Paradise and Portable Island back to full price ;_; I'm still unsure if I should get Osaremajo Love and Berry or not.
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helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Great news about the Bit Generations, Wes.

Since I finished Hotel Dusk, I decided to power up F-Zero GX and see what I thought of the game after spending some deliberate time with it.

First things first: Harveyjames was right when he said that the game aesthetics are awful. The character design is hilariously bad, the cars aren't much better, and many of the tracks feel molded out of some super-metal-ugly-alien world. The cutscenes (which, for some reason, you have to buy) are only slightly less funny--one of the ones I have watched features a Captain Falcon with thighs each bigger around than his torso.

Beyond that, my main criticism of the game is that the cars themselves drive very boringly. They're fast, no doubt, but don't require any special technique other than turning. Yes, you can shift your weight in mid-air, and there are ways to 'attack' your enemies, both both of these nuances are completely underimplemented during racing, and come across as mostly useless. This places the burden for holding my interest squarely on the track design, which is alarmingly hit-or-miss. There are a few tracks (One called something like Mute City: Serial Gaps and another called Half-Pipe are definite stand-outs ) that really require a lot of thinking, and balance the difficult maneuvering through them with the always-crowded racing field (thirty-car competition is the game's biggest strength). Most of them are only interesting at specific points, though, and there are too many that are so bland that I can literally take my eyes off the screen for more than five seconds and have nothing bad happen to my race.

It's much more forgiving than the original F-Zero in terms of damage taken by driving the course badly, and this does nothing to emphasize the finesse that defined the original.

Still, I'm going to play it some more and see if I can't find some more good to say about it.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

I always felt that the driver-specific theme songs were pretty boss.

dessgeega · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:36 pm Post subject:

octoman's theme is great.

f-zero x is a much better game though.
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SuperWes · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:44 pm Post subject:

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

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

While we're on the subject, has anyone played the GBA F-Zeros?
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I played Killer 7 for the first time last night. I played straight through the first chapter and couldn't put it down! When does it start to suck?
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Ketch · . Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 420

Rockstar presents Table Tennis (as a rental).Nice, fast paced. The 'rally' music reminds me a little of System Shock 2's techno.

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

I really like the way the music ramps up as the volley continues, but at the same time I wish there was more music in general since I like what little there is.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Mike · . Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 7 Location: UK

Hey up all.

At the moment I'm playing through Killer 7 on the Gamecube, and though i'm not entirely sure what to think of it all, I'm enjoying every second. There's been at least 5 times when I've jumped out of my seat with glee at the inventiveness of it all.

Also, I've been playing a bit of the old Umihara Kawase, trying to beat the game in under five minutes, and am getting there bit by bit. It hasn't left my import converter for days.

Apart from that, I play a lot of shooters. A bit of Ikaruga now and again, a bit of Touhou every so often, and i've been playing ESP Ra.De. on MAME a bit too much, so all I can see at night is green and purple dots.
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helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Hey up yourself, new friend.
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friedchicken · . Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Posts: 496 Location: Port Land, OR

I've been rediscovering the joys for pre-FFVII Final Fantasy. To wit: Final Fantasy V Advance.

After an abortive attempt at playing FFIII on the DS, I decided to give V a shot, since a major gimmick, jobs, is essentially very similar between the two. Where I intensely disliked III, I've loving V.

I'm not sure if I've discussed it too much here, but I've been riding a wave of RPG strong dislike for quite some time, since Wild Arms for PS1. I no longer have the time to play them that I did back in the SNES days, and just getting from point A to point B in a lot of newer games takes forever, I think a lot because of the severely overblown graphic effects that accompany every attack, and ten minute fully animated cut scenes, etc. But I can go into more depth elsewhere-- this is supposed to be about what I'm playing.

FFV is really charming. It's no masterpiece like IV and VI, but it's got a lot going for it, and I can play a half an hour a day on a handheld system and get some pretty decent enjoyment out of it. The job system makes for quite a bit of variety too. Like I said, if anyone wants to discuss it in more depth, we could always start another thread to discuss "one of the more underrated Final Fantasy games".

SuperWes · Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:44 am Post subject:

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

elvis.shrugged · . Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 108 Location: Stratford, CT

I just realized how addictive Quest mode in VF4 really is.

I think I've just gave a large chunk of my future away.

ApM · Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:48 pm Post subject:

The other day, I picked up a copy of the PSX port of You Don't Know Jack at a Florida flea market.

You Don't Know Jack is fucking amazing, guys. It is a twelve-year-old, wise-cracking, pop-culture-referencing trivia game that is still funny and does not feel dated. That is an accomplishment, friends! It knows that the amount of time it has to wait before repeating its own dialogue so that you think it's cute instead of obnoxious is about once every couple of games. It responds to your impatience (pressing the buzzer before the answers show up) and indecision (taking too long to pick a category). According to Wikipedia, it even gets angry if you type in "fuck you" as the answer to a type-in question. It's basically the most human piece of software ever written. (Jellyvision kindly gives away their game design secrets on their webpage.)

My wife once got an Impossible Question (worth $20,000 but brutally hard and non-multiple-choice) that went, "What is the third word of the third verse of the third act of Shakespeare's third play?" AND GOT IT RIGHT.

There's even filk! (Warning: Soul cancer.)

I kind of want to start a tribute thread, but I don't know how much more there really is to say.

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

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

I have a friend who worked on those games.

I believe that at least originally, they were done by the same people who made the After Dark screensaver modules for the Mac.

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

Yeah! And they did web versions of YDKJ and other games (mostly I remember Acrophobia) that I used to play all the time.
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ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

I burned through Alien Shooter: Vengeance last night. Now I'm trying the survival mode. Not a bad way to spend $20, but if someone wants to save $20, let me know because I'm done with it.
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nICO · . Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 120 Location: WVUSA

a_plus · . Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Posts: 252 Location: olympia

the plot in warcraft 3 is totally disposable and stupid. why is everyone at war? why is the undead so intent on destroying the world? why do the orcs and humans hate each other? why is anything happening in this game????
i mean, in the end, it doesn't make a difference, but it would still be nice to have some sort of motivation going on. it's still pretty fun.

AJ 187 · . Joined: 26 Dec 2006 Posts: 22 Location: Chicago

a_plus · . Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Posts: 252 Location: olympia

and don't forget that paul ruebens (sp?) was the host of the ydkj tv show!

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

friedchicken · . Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Posts: 496 Location: Port Land, OR

I'll second that. I've been thinking of grabbing LK because I like the character designs. Although I need another game to play right now like I need a hole in the head.

SuperWes · Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:56 am Post subject:

I'm on Chapter 4 of Lunar Knights right now. So far each chapter has taken around 20-40 minutes, so it's not a bad game to play on the go or in bed on a lazy morning.

Overall it's kind of like a slightly darker, more streamlined version of Boktai. I always liked Boktai, but the solar powered gun charging always seemed to get in the way of my ability to play it casually. Lunar Knights gets rid of this feature and thus has a much more casual feeling about it - with a flow that ends up making it feel sort of like a puzzlish Diablo in a way.

It's worth mentioning that there have been a few hints that the game might require you to go through some arbitrary bullshit backtracking later on, but I haven't encountered it yet. There's also a good chance that it's limited to side quests so for now I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

I'm starting to feel like I'm not actually saying much with my description, so I might as well stop. Essentially, from what I've played so far it seems like a fun video game with a good sense of flow. If you expect more from Kojima you might be disappointed, but if you don't mind getting your fun without much substance to it you'll probably have a good time.

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

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

I went back to F-Zero GX yesterday. It's better than I gave it credit for last time. In particular, some of the tracks I trashed are more interesting than I had thought, I just wasn't thinking about them the right way. One of the races, for instance, has you racing on the outside of a big pipe the entire time. You can drive all over the outside of it, gravity be damned, but the tricky part comes when you try to think about getting on the inside track for big 3-D curves.

And the garage is a lot of fun!

I still wish the cars themselves were more interesting in the way they handled.

And this game is much harder than, um, Mario Kart.
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dessgeega · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:40 pm Post subject:

i just reached stage 45 in llamatron, which is almost halfway through the game.

the thought that i'll be seeing jeff minter in person in a few weeks blows my mind.
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Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

I've been playing Dead Rising which has been excellent so far (on par with MGS3 for sheer quality, I'd say). I don't know that I'll have the paitence to go through and complete the full game for the TRUE ending, but I'm certainly still enjoying it so far.

I also played the Prey single player demo which I thought was silly and dumb and horrible. About the only thing I liked was the doors on the alien ship that are gigantic gaping assholes which you can walk through and then contract.
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:38 pm Post subject:

So it's similar to the first stage in Requiem: Avenging Angel then?
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Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

I have no idea. Maybe? Does Requiem: Avenging Angel have spinchter muscle doors? IS THIS COMMON IN GAMES AND I HAVE BEEN MISSING OUT?!?!
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:03 pm Post subject:

Well the first stage has you running through gigantic red colons with things stuck in the walls (possibly bits of corn or maybe people-things, it's been years since I last played it) and dog-type things with no eyes. If I can remember right there's a part where you have to fly over a pit full of these giant worm things that may actually be gerbils rendered in a highly abstract way.

It was fucking pioneering colon rendering in 1999! Eat that Human Head, you unoriginal twats.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I wish Avenging Angel didn't turn out to be such a completely average game.
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:33 am Post subject:

Turning people into salt was pretty fun.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I remember reading in the preview that you would start naked and your first objective would be to find clothes. That would have been awesome, but they must have wussed out or something.
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:43 am Post subject:

If you weren't punished for killin' folk you could rob a bum and nick his gear.
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dessgeega · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:21 am Post subject:

i got the chance to play some where do rub rabbits come from?

i was disappointed to see it has the same plot as the original (which has the same plot as donkey kong). i can only arrange so many baseless heterosexual romances.

the protagonist randomly falls in love with some lady while passing her on an escalator and begins to stalk her, along with twelve other silhuoettes. a couple stages into the game the protagonist has a brush with another character while chasing his love interest, and she in turn falls for him. i let myself get excited for a moment: maybe from here on we'll play from her perspective, chasing the previous protagonist! maybe the game will be a huge, soap operatic chain of lovers playing minigames!

but of course not. what happens is: she becomes the villian, chasing after this poor man. what? she's the villain? when her motivation is equally as baseless and her methods equally as obnoxious as the protagonist's? that's bullshit. i'm not buying it.

you rabbits can rub yourselves.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

That's pretty stupid! Your idea would have made a much more interesting game. In fact, someone should make that.

EDIT: Sorry, but seriously, I have this new fucking colour scheme. It's seriously hurting my eyes and is uncomfortable to look at.
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SuperWes · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:00 am Post subject: