[luvcraft]

Started playing Left 4 Dead last night. Happy that I can play it solo with bots, because I suck and I also have to pause lots, both of which would really annoy other players if I was playing with real people. I played through No Mercy, and the first time I got all the way to the last chapter and then got stuck inside one of the other survivors and couldn't move and had to reset! Fortunately I could jump right back to that chapter. I have the most amazing knack for finding bizarre, game-crashing bugs in released games.
_________________

[Loki Laufeyson]

i just finished the undertaker's story mode in smackdown 2009.
at one point, you turn someone into a zombie slave, and you have to make them lose a match by standing next to the ring and casting magic spells at them.
in the ending, the undertaker chokeslams someone into a coffin, closes the lid, then destroys it with a bolt of lightning.
_________________

http://lunaticobscurity.blogspot.com/ - newest post: Snezhaja Koroleva (Arcade)
http://lunargarbagehell.blogspot.com/ - newest post: Batman: Digital Justice

[Mr. Mechanical]

Finally made it past Acme Station in Infinity, and now I'm in the next level (which is yet another airless vacuum level!). After several failed attempts I managed to locate both health and oxygen rechargers so now the level should at least be manageable. I'll be glad when I can play the game again without constantly worrying about running out of air.
_________________

[shrugtheironteacup]

HIGH FIVE MR. MECH.
_________________

[BotageL]

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Dracko]

shit gonna get real, mr. mech 8)
_________________

[Mr. Mechanical]

For real! I'm a couple levels after that last vacuum level now and I'm noticing that the events of this game seem to be happening concurrently with the events of the last game. Hmmmm! So rather than being a "sequel" story this is more a "here's-what-was-also-happening" during the events of Durandal type story.

!

I just recalled from the first game there were supposedly nine other cyborg security officers from the Marathon running around that you the player never come into contact with and only find out about near the end of the game! That might be THE essential puzzle piece necessary for understanding what the fuck is going on in Durandal/Infinity!

Oh shit I'm starting to develop a theory now. Going to need to do some more "research" to test it out...
_________________

[Anoniguy]

I played spore today. Not because I wanted to or expect to have fun, but because someone left it, box and manual and all, sitting on the curb in front of their house.

It runs at.. like.. 4 fps on my sorry computer. Smooth.

Tomorrow: Onimusha 3, found on the same curb.

[shrugtheironteacup]

[shrugtheironteacup]

[fingersmaloy]

Killzone 2 was ¥2000 so I picked it up the other day. I think the older the get, the more disturbed I become by games that essentially try to recreate real-life war. I suppose sometimes you get in the mood to just shoot lots of people, like when your girlfriend ruins your day with nonstop goddamn complaining, but I didn't have much fun with Killzone 2 the other day.
_________________
If you like Capcom or the *idea* of Capcom, I want you over at Capcom Unity. Otherwise hey.

[CubaLibre]

[luvcraft]

Whole family was sick this weekend, so I played a lot of games.

Loved Left 4 Dead, even though I only played it solo because I had to pause constantly to help take care of sick baby and I knew that would've driven people nuts if I was playing co-op. Really solid game design, and I love the little quips, like Francis constantly saying "I hate [context-specific thing]". I'd read this cool presentation before playing it, and it was neat seeing all the various tricks in that presentation in action.

Played the demo of Left 4 Dead 2, and was delighted to discover that it adds the two things I wanted to see in the first one (chainsaws and daytime missions), plus a whole lot of other cool stuff that I hadn't even thought of (Boomer bile!).

Played a little bit of Crimson Tears. It's OK for a "super-Japanese-ified" Diablo-like. It wasn't quite what I was in the mood for, so I didn't play it for very long.

Played a little bit of MGS2:SOL and was miserable with it. I got an inkling of some of the game's subversiveness right near the beginning with the action figure and the flashlight, but I was really unhappy with the whole "hold down R1 and Square, then aim with the left stick, then release Square to shoot" mechanic, and the fact that it gives you the sneaking instructions AND the inventory navigation instructions AND some unrelated dialogue all at the same time, so I ended up not catching any of it (because there was also a screaming baby in the room). One time I accidentally got a guard in a headlock, and have no idea how I did it, and I just stood there for a while, and then I let him go and he immediately went all "!" and called some other guards. I keep expecting sneaking in this to work as well as it does in Batman:AA, but it doesn't at all. I really want to play through this game since people froth about it so much and it's supposed to be so groundbreaking, but the controls just make me so angry. Tips? Maybe I should restart on Easy mode, but it feels like the difficulty I'm having is more just about fighting with the controls than about the toughness of the enemies.

Conversely, I played a few hours of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and LOVED it. By far the best Silent Hill game, and by far the best use of all the Wii's gimmicks. I love that the monsters are an actual THREAT, and you need to just keep running away from them when things go "Silent Hilly"; I think all the other Silent Hill games really undermined their own scariness by giving you big guns and letting you just go toe-to-toe with the monsters. I presume that something like that will happen eventually in this game, too, but I suspect it will be handled better. I also love the integration of the "smart phone", which does a great job of keeping a lot of the menus "in-game", and the sly little psychiatrist cutscenes. Also, I kinda like the fact that if the monsters take you down, they just sort of pet on you as the screen goes dark. Awwww...

[Mr. Mechanical]

[luvcraft]

[BotageL]

MGS2 is one of the only games that ever actually used the Dualshock 2's pressure-sensitive buttons. It takes some getting used to, but it works pretty well for the way the game's designed. I still find myself trying to ease off the fire button in games with similar aiming systems like Demon's Souls. If only that worked...
_________________

http://www.mdgeist.com/

[shrugtheironteacup]

[CubaLibre]

It's probably not you. It's probably Raven Shield, the worst-programmed game of all time.
_________________
Let's Play, starring me.

[Mikey]

PC gaming lol


(okay I'm just being a dick)


I have borrowed my friend's copy of Prince of Persia (the one where you can't die) so I'll probably start playing that, or maybe I'll finally get back into Mad World since I've purged ME2 from my system.

[kiken]

I'm still chipping away at PN03 on Normal. Level 9 is being a bitch though. I can get up to the second boss battle, but the combat just starts to wear thin... plus one mistake at the point can pretty much decimate Vanessa's armour.

Over the past weekend, I played through my GF's copy of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (I was interested to see how it compared to the DC original). You know, outside of the absolute absurdity of the size in the Rouge/Knuckles stages, the only part of the game that I find truly anger-inducing is the final stage... specifically part 4 where you play as Knuckles and have to traverse a bunch of timed gates under water. Seriously, fuck that stage. Also, the spotty lock-on dashing with Shadow makes the BioLizard boss far more difficult than it has any right to be.

I guess I've sort of been on a 3D platformer kick recently, as last night I pulled out Sly Cooper 3 (a game I haven't touched in years). Going back to it now, I realized why I stopped playing it back then... because of the mind-numbing forced character switch ups to progress the story (see SA2). Playing as Sly is fun... he's acrobatic and can utilize loads of context sensitive parts of the environment to get around. Playing as Murray is a mild distraction as it can be rather cathartic to simply steamroll through an area instead of sneaking around. Playing as the other 3 characters though, is simply annoying.
_________________
"Amidst utter chaos lies strict order."

[scratchmonkey]

[Toto]

pes2010 is actually pretty good dude. for real.

[Schwere Viper]

Sonic Rush Adventure is pretty awesome.

That Marine thing is reeeeeeally pushing it, though.
_________________
HeavyViper@Twitter ~~~ HeavyViper@Soundcloud
Blog: Machines That Sing

[another god]

You guys ever play PES for Wii? It's really good.
_________________
interdimensional

[Toto]

winker loved the shit out of it (pes wii that is)
part of the appeal of a football game (for me, anyway) is seeing their realistic looking faces and the way they move and...yeah it needs to be in hd, to a certain extent.

[luvcraft]

still playing Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and I'm getting kind of tired of the snuggle monsters. More specifically, I'm getting tired of the snuggle monster sequences, which make you run around in areas too dark and too fast to see all the spooky details they put into them, randomly charging through doors and running in circles because the snuggle monsters make it hard to stop and check your map to figure out where you're supposed to go. (And when you get the item that temporarily drives away the snuggle monsters, you still can't check your map because you're holding the item in your map hand!!) This was pretty thrilling the first couple times, but EVERY snuggle monster sequence is the same, and at this point I think I've been through like ten of them, and now they're just an annoyance.

So, the game keeps switching between three modes: snuggle monster mode where you're running around in the dark charging through doors and dodging snuggle monsters, "normal" mode where you're wandering around looking for keys and plot points, but where there's no tension because there are only monsters in snuggle monster mode which looks totally different from normal mode, and finally "psychiatrist" mode where a psychiatrist makes you do little exercises that effect the main story in small ways, although I only noticed this actually happening once, and otherwise I haven't noticed the exercises having an effect on the main story.

So, I like the atmosphere, and I think I've figured out the "mystery" of the game, and I'll probably finish it, but it's not scary anymore, and it's a shame that they ended up just replacing one overused mechanic (going toe to toe with monsters with a shotgun) with another overused mechanic (snuggle monster mode).

I keep thinking about going back to working on the short HL2 mod that I was making as a response to Silent Hill 2 but which I abandoned because HL2 wasn't quite the right engine for it. Maybe I'll try it again as a L4D mod.
_________________

[ionustron]

Please tell me little cuddly teddies crawl around en masse and hug you to death in this game.

[scratchmonkey]

PES Wii did seem pretty awesome from what I played of it. Toto, you're the second person who's said that PES 2010 is a return to the good ol' days, so I might have to check it out. I assume it's better on the PS3?

[Mikey]

So uh somehow I wound up buying/playing Lost Winds: Winter of the Melodias, and like its predecessor it's really a nice little game. The character designs are great and there are lots of nice little touches in the animation.

[Ghost Dinosaur]

Bioshock 2 is exactly like Bioshock 1. I guess this is good news for people who liked that game. <3 Gamefly.

[Drem]

I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm really enjoying MAG. It's a game that's better than the sum of it's parts. The large scale battles feel really great; the map design provides a good flow and pacing for the matches. I'm recently getting really sick of shooting games, but I think MAG is probably the only one I'll be playing on a regular basis.

On the flip side, I can see why people will like Bad Company 2, but I haven't been having a lot of fun with the demo. I have a lot of trouble seeing anyone without an icon above their head, as everyone is wearing white that blends in with the snow. I also can't distinguish between enemy and ally, as they all look the same. I also don't understand where everyone is in the map; there are apparently 24 people in the match, but it feels like a 4-on-4 or 5-on-5. I barely see anyone running around, both friend and enemy. There's a lot of standing around or aimless running as I wait to find someone to shoot, which is usually just a solitary guy somewhere.

I have $103 on a Wal-Mart gift card and I don't know what to spend it on anymore. I'm contemplating getting God of War 3 now, as it's not an FPS.

[Mr. Mechanical]

What do you think the lifespan on MAG will be like? I want to get it, but after a price drop or two so it'll probably be a while.

Also I think God of War 3 comes out next month.
_________________

[Talbain]

I'm stuck between MAG and Bad Company 2. I think I like the idea of BC2 more than the ultra-multi-player of MAG, but it seems really easy to exploit the new building physics.
_________________

[luvcraft]

[Rud31]

Rayman 2 is finished and it is still a nice little game.Going to check gamefaqs if there is a secret ending or whatever.

Recovering health

To recover your health while in the game, tap the R button in a constant rhythm.

Woah, that's kind of cool. Keep in mind you lose a tiny bit of your health when you fall in a pit/explode. I never ran out of health in the game. The freaking minigame you get to play if you finish the level with all the collectables is still freaking annoying. I hate track and field alternate button presses games though.

So going back down my list of remaining dreamcast games, I saw oh Sonic Adventure. Played that during 9/9/09. The big the cat levels really aren't that bad, and the level design is pretty atrocious after stage one. If they had made a game that was all overworld I would have loved it. Still would love it! Just tell me to go get the seven chaos emeralds. Get some zelda in my sonic.

Would have really helped Rayman 2 if there wasn't 10 second loading in between areas of stages.

So MDK2? No fuck that, never playing that impossibly hard game again. Not sure why I still own. Probably because it's worth jack shit. I think. Nope it looks like it's worth 10 bucks. okay ebay!

Oh man. The only dreamcast game I never finished. Ecco the Dolphin. Hell i never even beat the first stage. Again, I'm surprised I still own it. I gave it a go though. Took me an hour to beat that first stage. 3D Underwater fog world + no map + adventure game bullshit. Going to see how much of this game I can stand before I feel like breaking the disc in half.

This game could really use a map. I remember reading in reviews the later levels are amazing.


Then I might play Silent Hill Homecoming or GRiD. Picked them up from one of the closing Hollywood videos.

Nah I'll just play more Modern Warfare 2.

[CubaLibre]

[Mr. Mechanical]

Up to Hang Brain in Infinity. With each new level I reach the game throws some new angle at me and makes me question the assumptions I built up from the previous level. The people who wrote this are starting to mess with me, I can tell. Or rather they've been messing with me all along and now they're just getting more blatant with it.
_________________

[kiken]

I finished up Sly 3 last night, and given how Sucker Punch decided to end the trilogy, I'm glad they never bothered with a Sly 4. The clear percentage I had by the end was at 57%... loads of challenge missions remaining that I'm really not interested in messing with at the moment.

Also, despite the thunder snow we've been receiving over the past 2 weeks here (northeast coast US), the GC copy of BG&E that I ordered last Sunday still managed to arrive. Popped it in and was rather disappointed by the fact that the GC version apparently doesn't support 480p (but the PS2 version does). The game looks good all the same and I'm not noticing any major upscaling lag. The fighting engine is really button mashy; just start wailin' on the A Button and make sure not to hit Pey'j. Also, I kinda like the photography aspect, especially when facing off against a boss (Quick! Snap a photo before you beat the shit out of this thing!).
_________________
"Amidst utter chaos lies strict order."

[another god]

[luvcraft]

Started playing Way of the Samurai 3 last night. I like the mellow pace, and the setting, and the whole "the story goes on whether you're there or not" thing. I also like how, if I die, I can choose to either restore a previous save or immediately New Game+. I'm worried, however, that the combat is too precise-timing-based for me; I really suck at precise-timing-based combat systems.

Does anyone have any tips for getting good at the combat system? I can beat the first trainer pretty easily, but the second one immediately kicks my ass, mostly because I'm not fast enough to "pull" when I'm supposed to. Does the yellow flash mean I've successfully parried?
_________________