[slipstream]

[bruin]

[slipstream]

It must be personal, because as I was driving my car of choice on the New York Circuit, I couldn't stop smiling.
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[kiken]

So, yesterday I got the Saturn port of Dodonpachi (mostly because I was really curious about how the port was handled)... and I'd really like to know what the fuck was Atlus's malfunction. They were responsible for some amazing Saturn games, so how could they screw up the Cave ports this badly (Donpachi suffers from some inexcusable issues as well)? Broken audio effects (ex: the boss explosions are always silent), pixelated explosions and shot effects (this is the fucking Saturn, right? 2D powerhouse and all... plus at least the 1-Meg expansion cart was available at the time), and I swear to fucking God that the hitbox spontaneously moves around the ship of its own accord.

On the plus side, the loading times are short (1 to 2 seconds between levels), you can easily select all three ships in either screen orientation, and the Saturn Mode is good for practicing Hibachi (the tacked-on extra level at the beginning looks cool, but it pretty damn pointless) since it's a single loop.
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"Amidst utter chaos lies strict order."

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

Fuck yeah, awesome epic battle map. Wait, they start out with 10k resources?



Fuck.

Wait, what are those dragons doing?



FUCK.
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[dementia]

Did I mention my 360 broke? Those hardware wizards at MS strike again!

I'm playing FFXII and I might start P3:FES

[Tokyo Rude]

Been playing that GTAIV! It's pretty okay. Doesn't look good on this TV, but that should change in a few months.

I tried a few more demos. Siren is fucking genius! I love it and can't wait to slap down for the first finished product.

Floaty doesn't begin to describe the controls in Sega Rally Revo. Ugh. I guest D.I.R.T. was closer to what I want. Ridge Racer 7 also didn't please me with it's drifting tactics. I should probably just play more Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Drift 2 for my troubles. That's a fucking video game.

Kane and Lynch has more personality than I expected, but the gameplay felt really unexciting.

Basically holding off until I lock myself away for Metal Gear.

[RobotRocker]

I got and started Mario Galaxy today. Its really, really linear. I mean, thats not particuarly a bad thing as there is a hell of a lot of imagination put in each level, but 64 and Sunshine's world let you muck about in them and exploring before going towards your objective. With Galaxy, its like your being lead by the game to each star with a slight crossover in elements from each Galaxy. I have 25 stars, 3 observatories and I am up to the 3rd boss level in about 3-4 hours. Where it took me 5 days to hit 30 stars and the first Bowser fight in Mario 64.

I will say production is fantastic though. The graphics really show what the Wii is capable of, the music is the best Nintendo has ever done and it is pretty much "Dawww! :3" the video game. If anything, its like a really interactive Childrens book that everyone can enjoy but whoever was giving it 10/10 scores really need their heads checked. Its good, but its not that good.

Edit: Also, how in the bloody fucking history of man can Nintendo screw up their own perfect camera system that they invented 12 years ago, twice. Its never where you want it and its given me a few unfair deaths already.
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[glossolalia]

i was elated to find that it was more linear than the other 3d marios. the exploration in mario 64 was great for the time, when simply moving around a 3d world was something of a marvel, but some parts haven't dated that well. galaxy is probably the first 3d platformer that is actually about platforming and yet also takes full advantage of its 3dness instead of being a crash bandicoot cop-out (mostly.) it doesn't have the "woah" moments of, say, finding the wing cap and metal cap stages, but it doesn't have the frustration of wandering around endlessly trying to decipher some cryptic phrase. it's a perfectly engineered sugar rush, best played a few stars at atime.

and this way, the few worlds where you do have a chance to wander around feel like breathers, whereas in sunshine they all blended together into this horribly bland tropical snoozefest.

i don't understand why people had such a problem with the camera. it did make things harder a few times, but i honestly never died because of it. sunshine's camera was hard to take because it was doing the same things as 64's camera but worse, but given the extreme novelty of galaxy's environments i think they did the best job they could.

it's a better game than mario 64 in every way except the hub world.

edit: one element that i was sad to see they took out of the demo was using the cursor to affect the environment in ways completely separate from mario. i'd like to see the sequel focus on that, and give it some narrative justification.

[zombieman000]

would like to try my hand at filling the gaps on my challenge board in Brawl, but finals are next week :(

man all you posters with PS3s are making me jealous. MGS4 next weeeeeeeeeeek

Also I've got an embarrassingly huge backlog to cover on 360 and PSP.

But MGS4 will probably take priority over the summer if I can get a hold of a system to play it on.

[Lurky]

Ninja Gaiden 2

[internisus]

Flash games!


DINO RUN
Tactical Assassin
Tactical Assassin 2


Fun!

[Mr. Mechanical]

The Tactical Assassin games I have played, or at least one of them. Dino Run was new to me though. What a neat little concept-turned-game! I love it!
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[glossolalia]

started okami (for wii.) it's pretty as hell. it's real finicky about your painting but the end result is very cool. seems like everything else about this was also in twilight princess - being a wolf, digging, battles closed off with a force-field, snarky sidekick - but it's done better here (cept maybe the sidekick.) i dunno it's cool i don't have anything interesting to say about it yet.

[Max Cola]

played some Heart of Darkness today for the first time in months. it made me remember why I stopped playing it months ago!

beautiful game, awesomely creepy-little-kid's-movie atmosphere, and clever puzzles... but shit man, that difficulty wears you down fast! for some reason I can deal with Another World kicking my ass, but HoD just drives me nuts.

also Andy's death sequences make me shudder. especially that one. you know what one I mean.
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Everybody hurts sometimes

[Bo 0]

Currently playing Sword of Vermillion for the first time on the Sega Genesis Collection for PS2. That game is hard as hell and kinda buggy. Also, how was I supposed to know that once you "open" a chest, you then have to select "take" in the menu so your character actually grabs the item in the chest, wtf, I discovered that way too late.

[dementia]

Ninja Gaiden II is really tarnishing my image of Team Ninja.

[Wall of Beef]

Doom (360) / Doom 64 (64 emu)

Never played Doom beyond the first episode, and never really played it without God mode (last played this when I was 11, and all I wanted was blood and guns!). Just entered the Shores of Hell, and I am in love.

Started out playing Doom 64, which is different, but also very awesome. Doom 64 focuses more so on scary environments, and dealing with more battles in close quarters. Its also 3D, and has re-drawn enemy sprites. Check it out!
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Tumblr

[zombieman000]

To-do:
Going to try to make some progress in my neglected Dark Cloud 2 file sometime in the summer. For some reason, although the first one wasn't laden so heavily with optional content, I liked it a lot more. Must be the music.

Hopefully I can get a PS3 with MGS4 this week. I really like the Drebin Points system, let's hope they're not too hard to accumulate. Speaking of which, the OST was released in Japan a few days ago. Does anybody know if the OST disc in the limited edition has all of the songs? It looks like the stand-alone OST has two discs and the bundled version only has one. Things don't look too good.

Going to try to finish the 19 or so remaining challenges on the board in my Brawl file.

Need to beat that fuckin' asshole level in Patapon with Gong and the rock barriers.

Need to beat RE4 and the Separate Ways mode. And I'm going to try as hard as I can to run the Mercenaries gauntlet and get the handcannon.

edit:
???

[tacotaskforce]

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[Schwere Viper]

[zombieman000]

I have not seen enough movies to be familiar with Morricone's music. I liked his score for Mission to Mars though.

Right now since I don't have a system to play MGS4 on, I am spending time being the chew toy of hordes of zombies in HotD 2/3 on Wii, because my gimp hands can't aim for shit dammit.

[CubaLibre]

[zombieman000]

DON'T LAUGH AT ME!!! T_T

[Schwere Viper]

[zombieman000]

hey thx, much appreciated!

"30 paces..." "DRAW!!"

[Tokyo Rude]

I didn't expect Marathon 1 to take this freaking long.

[Mr Mustache]

It's a long game. Nice atmosphere, somewhat frightening, but not as compelling as the other two.
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The people are like wool to me

[CubaLibre]

It's just an upgraded Doom, best to think of it that way. If you liked Doom, you'll enjoy it all. If not, well.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[Tokyo Rude]

Doom was a lot better to look at.

[Mr Mustache]

I actually think the two games are fairly different, particularly in terms of pacing and aesthetics. Not that they can't, or shouldn't be compared.
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The people are like wool to me

[niitaka]

Should I just skip over / read summaries of the first one and just skip straight to Duranthal?

[BotageL]

I picked up Game Center CX for the DS on a whim. Some of these faux-NES games are really fun! Except Rally King. That went from "kinda neat, I guess" to "fuck this game" around the time I unlocked the "special edition." The shmups (Galaga-style and more modern) are both pretty rad, and I like Haguruman's indirect combat abilities. Right now, I'm picking away at the DQ clone Guadia Quest, which is less tedious than I'd expected. The spell that lets you warp back to any location you've visited - including the Demons' Dungeon - helps a lot.

I wish the challenges you have to complete were more involved; in general they're on the level of the "gimme" achievements in an XBLA game. They're not quite as bad as the "Pick up the pipe" and "Pick up the knife" achievements in XBLA Streets of Rage 2, but they're close. You can take on the games in Free Play mode to score or time attack as appropriate, but it would've been nice to have some more interesting goals to hit in the "main game."
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[CubaLibre]

[slipstream]

Hey, Dynamite Deka/Die Hard Arcade works perfectly in Mame! People don't talk about this game enough.
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[slipstream]

[Tokyo Rude]

Sega games work in Mame now?

The arcade board name slips my mind.

[Tokyo Rude]

Model 2. (This isn't a double post this is like 30 minutes later MAN.)

I'm very very sorry if I recommended any of you Brave Story PSP. This game is a JRPG in every shape and form. The random battles, "Make sure you equip items to <color>use</color> them", and well every thing that marks a JRPG a JRPG. I though something about it would be intriguing. No it's fucking JRPG trash. It might be the best trash possible, but continuing to play that game would lower my life quality as a human being. I just played the first disc of FFVII on my PSP. That game is further ahead in entertainment than freaking Brave Story.

I'm so sorry for recommending it. I forget that Tim just fucking loves JRPGs.

[kiken]

[RobotRocker]

[slipstream]

All of the ST-V games work near flawlessly. Now there's no excuse to buy Radiant Silvergun because you can play it for freeeeeeee.

Whenever we have MAME month/week I am ready to talk about arcade games.
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