Author Topic: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E  (Read 282581 times)

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #720 on: June 30, 2017, 03:33:33 AM »
Would you consider the sequel's writing an improvement to the first Re;birth? I tried giving it a go at the insistence of friends head-over-heels for the series, but I found the humor to get a bit grating fast. Might just be a personal preference thing; I've only heard one other person voice some of my concerns about the cast, but they were nearly the same exact conclusions.

Heya. I know I'm not the one you asked, so I'm just gonna smalltext this so it doesn't take up too much page room, and you can also feel free to overlook it if you'd like to, but I'd like to talk about that for a little bit. It might not be quite what you wanted to hear, but I still hope it'll be useful to you in at least some capacity.

As for your question - Is Re;Birth2's writing improved over the first one? eh... a little bit better, but not really. People generally agree the story is a little bit better, that much is certain. But they also hate a couple different aspects of it (with good reason), and the humor in particular is about the same as the other games. If you found the humor of the first one to get pretty grating quickly, you'll most likely run into the same outcome in the rest of the games. I run a small Neptunia community of about 400 people (not all of them are still active, though) and while most of us do love the games for what they are, we're pretty much all in agreement that Neptunia simply just doesn't "do" improvements, in general*. I'm by no means hating on the games, but it's always a lot of the same old, same old. And the writing is no exception to that, so if you weren't a big fan of Re;Birth1, I can't honestly tell you that Re;Birth2 might be better for you.

*editing this bit in: there were huge improvements from the very first PS3 game to the next one. I'm talking about a general lack of improvement afterwards.

Just to be completely honest about it all, everything is copypasted across the entire series. The same style of jokes, the same music, the same few enemies just in different colors. You'll go through completely identical areas multiple times per game, and you'll see them in every game. Neptunia is not a series that wants to better itself. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a "don't fix what ain't broken, it still sells" attitude. So in my real, honest opinion - if you weren't a big fan of the first one, you may not enjoy the others either. On the other hand, someone who likes one of them will most likely enjoy them all, if they can deal with the same-ness of it. It's an extremely hit-or-miss thing, I think.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2017, 06:43:07 AM by Rei Scarlette »

Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #721 on: June 30, 2017, 06:17:17 AM »
There's also the bit about how Re;Birth2's translation basically came before Re;Birth1, since RB;2 and RB;3 is using mostly the original NISA mk2/Victory translation; while RB;1 is basically all IF/IFI because it's basically completely different from the original HDN.


Anyway, off the Steam Sale I picked up a bunch of games again. The two The Room games (fuck release the third on Steam already); got the two Moekami VNs (haven't started them yet); Ori and the Blind Forest; Please, Don't Touch Anything. Off the PS mid-year sale I got Infinifactory and Typoman. And recently I picked up Valkyria Revolution (a little salty that ragnite is now some magical/alchemical ore instead of petrol ripoff; also wtf walking tanks what is this Metal Gear) and am still running through Superdimension Neptune (got the True Ending; now for the grind to get to Delphinus and the Bad Ending), Wipeout Omega Collection (oh my god I am dreading the upcoming A+ races) and... something.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2017, 06:18:54 AM by Ionasal kkll Solciel »
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #722 on: June 30, 2017, 03:11:03 PM »
All responses were very much appreciated there; thank you! Yeah, so it seems like it'd just be entirely out of my wheelhouse, then, which is a shame since I know a lot of friends love it and I really like a lot of the concepts. Hearing that Neptune gets replaced as protagonist at some point is honestly tempting in itself, because... yeah. Grating's the word. So if it settles into that and sticks with it, I'll likely hold off. Thanks! It does make sense that RB1 is the steepest rewrite, since the one part that did get me to burst out laughing was an abrupt event followed by a line something like "wow, this really IS a remake, that didn't happen in this game before".

On a separate note, it still greatly disappoints me that thanks to the magic world of motorsports licensing, almost all of the racing games I want to recommend this Steam sale are all gone from the store. Now even Driver: San Francisco got pulled. I'm still greatly enjoying DiRT 3, and I've settled back on that as my arcade-style racer for the time being; it's really satisfying challenging leaderboard times in vehicles I've yet to try, and even more so to take on time attack ghosts of myself from years ago and battle me for the lead. It's like a surreal battle-in-the-center-of-the-mind dealio.

Also, I've been watching Game of Thrones with my family lately, since they're really into it and I want to try to share some of their enthusiasm. I'm liking it, but I usually get really into a series when I have an interactive take on it, so I gave the Game of Thrones RPG a go. I heard it was bad. I knew it wasn't gonna be great. I just didn't expect it to be, like, intolerably slow and very poorly acted. More than anything, I put it down quickly due to a resounding feeling that they just didn't care about what they were working on; some pretty fantastic concepts were delivered in very slow, stilted, bland ways. Guess I oughta try those CiV mods instead. Guess I oughta actually play CiV ever.

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #723 on: June 30, 2017, 03:51:50 PM »
I picked up Project Highrise off of the Steam sale and I'm very pleased with it. I wouldn't really call it a spiritual successor to the Tower series, it's more focused on managing tenants and services rather than micromanaging 20-30 elevator schedules, but it scratches a similar itch.

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #724 on: June 30, 2017, 09:15:02 PM »
After much osmosis and other sorts of secondhand interest over the past couple of years, I have finally gotten myself and started to play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance thanks to the Steam Sale making it only 9 bucks. Not too bad, I only finished the prologue chapter, and it looks like I'm going to have fun playing it. Just need to get a better handle on the gameplay and how it controls, and I'll be stylishly slicing and dicing without remorse in no time.
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #725 on: July 02, 2017, 12:02:34 PM »
I think story-wise. RB2 is basically Mk2 with new side characters (and improved Conquest Ending) and RB3 is just Victory with new prologue and a post game to it. The story is basically the same (Nepgear's still treated as a joke). Meanwhile, Re:birth 1 features retelling of the first with new twists and turn and improves characterization and more playable from Victory. Although that game basically acts like a quasi-sequel to Victory. That is just my opinion though.

If you want a story filled with barrel of laughter and occasional meta joke, then Neptune is your girl. But she really can't act seriously without transforming. For example, in Rebirth 3, during a really serious moment after a shocking revelation, Neptune's reaction during the whole cutscene is basically "Huh?".

I completely memorized all the dungeon's map and all the basic enemies in Neptunia games. The characters asset, BGM, maps, enemies assets are all reused constantly. They're maybe, like 10-20% new assets every game. Even Megadimension Neptunia, the newest main Neptunia games reuses assets, which looks out of place when compared to the new assets.

In Megadimension Neptunia, there's a new mechanic in dungeon exploration in the form of destructible objects. You can destroy objects of varying toughness provided you have strong enough Power Bracelet. You can forget this mechanic in reused dungeon from Victory since there are no destructible object in Victory. Imagine my surprise when Superdimension Neptune ACTUALLY modifies the existing dungeon and give them new obstacle and objects to destroy (and in Dreamcast era's Virtua Forest, completely modifies the map to make them barren. Holy shit!).

In term of gameplay, there's very little change between RB 1-3. Rebirth 2 add 1 more character in the frontline and that's it. Rebirth 3 has a cool interface and revamped the SP system and encourages you to use it by turning late game enemies into tedious damage sponges.

Sapz

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #726 on: July 02, 2017, 12:54:08 PM »
Crash Bandicoot N. Sanity Trilogy. I can't handle all this nostalgia.

Got the platinum trophy for Crash 1 last night, so 102% completion plus all relics at gold or better. The High Road was a goddamn pain in the ass. Gameplay is exactly how I remember it, with a few bonuses like playable Coco and time trials for 1 and 2. Really, really pleased with this remake (remaster?).

Back to Crash 2.
Let's fight.

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #727 on: July 04, 2017, 12:47:55 AM »
I'm playing World of Tank alot, trying to get that T-34. So close, yet so far...

Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #728 on: July 04, 2017, 09:11:22 AM »
Crash Bandicoot N. Sanity Trilogy. I can't handle all this nostalgia.

Got the platinum trophy for Crash 1 last night, so 102% completion plus all relics at gold or better. The High Road was a goddamn pain in the ass. Gameplay is exactly how I remember it, with a few bonuses like playable Coco and time trials for 1 and 2. Really, really pleased with this remake (remaster?).

Back to Crash 2.
The trilogy is technically a remake, since they were basically built from scratch, but they want you to call it a remaster.

I forgot you have to do the multiplayer to actually get to max level in Wipeout 2048 (unlike the Omega Collection, which decreased the XP needed so you can get 50 with Elite Passes to spare). And everyone votes for Combat events, which has long since devolved to "stay near the finish line, run back and forth between the nearby pads, pray for Quake or one of the homing items".


EDIT: ZODIAC AGE!!!!
« Last Edit: July 11, 2017, 06:21:32 AM by Ionasal kkll Solciel »
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Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #729 on: July 14, 2017, 05:32:53 AM »
I'm so paralyzed by indecision on what classes I want my characters to be. The whole thing about guns being slower for Balthier/bows being slower for Fran; but I don't know if I want Fran or Penelo to be my White Mage; Fran's probably suited to Red Battlemage, but for her shit-tier Magick; but she's shit-tier pretty much everywhere. I know I want Basch to be Knight, but not much else.
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #730 on: July 14, 2017, 03:08:44 PM »
I heard Need for Speed: Undercover was bad. I... you know, I can probably leave this post with just "it is". Most Wanted and Carbon built a fantastic reputation for EA Black Box, and ProStreet demolished it. Undercover buried the remains and The Run torched the grave (or, considering much of the problem was Michael Bay there, blew it up). ProStreet tried to be something new and failed really, really badly due to core gameplay just not working. The physics were horribly awry, just realistic enough to screw you over but not realistic enough to make any kind of sense. Undercover goes back to the style of Most Wanted. Sorta. By clumsily pasting the physics engine back in.

Now, I used to play Most Wanted a lot. I played it as intended on the Xbox 360, and I had a PC copy that I enjoyed messing up with trainers and mods. Screwing with the physics so that taxis launch across the sky and supercars can take corners without braking was funny. However, alarmingly, Undercover is somehow exactly that out of the box. Traffic spawns in on the map, realizes its not moving, goes from 0-60 in 0.1 seconds, and abruptly sails into the air. AI cars fly off of jumps and win by pinballing around on invisible walls. Penalties for hitting traffic are occasionally waived if you go faster and hit them head-on really hard. You don't ever once have to use the brakes until 2/3 through the game because the cars wildly slide around corners. It's a mess.

The stories in Need for Speed games are never good, but they really only have to be competent and corny. You have FMV cutscenes of people acting cool and tough and being really hilariously bad at it, but usually it's funny enough that you don't care. Undercover takes itself too seriously and seems to genuinely think its incredibly flimsy unfinished plot - which often, the cutscenes don't actually line up with the in-game events that come after, leading me to feel like they were recorded early in development and then the rest was rushed - is a masterpiece. That's tough with scenes like a close-up of a rival driver's lipstick as she calls you to say "Y'know the coyote chasing the roadrunner around the canyon? Heh. I love that stuff. Wanna be the coyote? 'Cuz I'll outrace ya, dawg. Be careful.~" It's absolutely abysmal, and that's not counting the disturbing attempts at flirting from the female characters, and that there only being one Asian woman on the entire cast is a plot point.

That being said, mostly, this game is like the obligatory mobile/last-gen console port in a big-budget series. It's superficially based on an interesting game even though it doesn't particularly work. It's clunky, but effective enough as a time-waster. The sale price of $2.50 seems about the bargain bin price it was destined for, and lives up to. I'm just very torn on whether to leave it a positive or negative review when I'm done with it, because it's not good and not at all even frickin' complete, but I've still had fun with it. It's like a terrible knockoff of Most Wanted, except officially sanctioned.

Anyways, I got it for -$1.90 thanks to bundle pricing in a bundle with Need for Speed: Shift and Shift 2: Unleashed. I really, really enjoyed Shift and heartily recommend it to anyone looking for something with semi-realistic racing that's still casual fun; I'll likely give it a big wall of text later, especially when I get into Shift 2 more.

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #731 on: July 15, 2017, 03:42:41 PM »
Don't lecture me, but I'm playing Ax Battler for the Game Gear.  If you don't know, it is of poor quality.  It'd be hard to tell though without playing it, because it looks neat from the outside (for an 8 bit handheld game).  I'm sure this game has ensnared many people into playing for 5 minutes.

Youtube sample:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrM6yEbgyAs#t=4m49s

I played it when I was younger, but never that much because it's hard to maintain steam playing this game.  The novelty of making it farther than I have before is half the enjoyment for me right now.  The other half would be that initial, cute surface appeal.

Ok, so what type of game is it?  It's a Golden Axe spinoff but the genre is very different.  It's kind of like a sidescrolling action RPG with two distinct structures: 
1) a simple 8 bit overworld with random battles where getting hit once or ends the battle, and
2) dungeon locations which don't end in bosses, but rather a treasure chest that gives you a key item. 

You can imagine the entire game structure from those two pieces, because it just cycles between them introducing a new town each time around.  Try to imagine games like Zelda 2 and the Gargoyle's Quest games, but stripped down into fewer components.  You even learn a new move/ability from a trainer in each city, a lot like Zelda 2.  The random battles are 1v1 fights against humanoid-class enemies, while the dungeons have the fodder monster enemies, hazards, and platforming.

~

A certain thought ran through my head every time I sat down to play this:

There is something appealing about playing old games that are in some sense "way too difficult" and "unfairly janky", but because they are so simple it's still a straightforward application of your brain and willpower to overcome their challenges.

Can anyone else relate to that?  Talking about this game is inevitably going to border on mocking it, but when I'm playing I feel more much sincere about why I'm playing and why I'm having fun.  It's like, "OK whatever, you can try to throw dumb stuff my way but I'll still figure out how to beat it and see more of the game".

Here's some notes about what it's like playing this game:
  • This is the only game I've played where the stereotypical RPG complaints of "you take one step and get thrown into another random battle" is actually the low key, matter-of-fact description.
  • The game seems very proud of its enemy progression in the 1v1 battles, with multiple enemy designs and unique "movesets".  Likewise, the player is also gaining their own special moves at each town.  Great!  Except, the combat system doesn't have the depth to do these things proper justice.  Doh!  The only defensive move for 1v1 battles is to walk in the opposite direction at the right time.  That's it.
  • You can't run from battle, and like I said one hit ends the battle (you take damage and simply continue across the overworld).  However the enemy will take multiple hits to defeat.  There is no EXP from winning.
  • What's the point of battles again?  Because you have no choice and want to conserve HP for the dungeon you are headed to.  That's 90% of it, but you also receive currency/MP called 'magical vases' from battles.
  • What's the point of magical vases?  You start with 3 spells, but they all function as a very tedious time stopping animation that deals damage to every enemy on screen.  You can also use vases to sleep at Inns (there are no shops).
  • What's the penalty for death?  You just lose all your vases and get sent back to town, progress intact.  It's weird, because MP feels both like a cheap tactic and not that important (you certainly don't have enough MP to power through random battles with it).  The only other function for vases is sleeping at an Inns, and thus death isn't that different from a really expensive Inn visit.

99% of the penalty of dying is the feeling "Oh for goodness sake I just died because I couldn't avoid damage in a janky dungeon and now I have to fight a dozen battles to get back there".

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #732 on: July 15, 2017, 08:37:08 PM »
I'm all for death being a loss of time investment instead of majorly crucial resources, but that does sound like just a pain. I absolutely hear you on that thought, though, because it makes it feel like a real accomplishment to get through; the odds are against you in no reasonable way and you're still making it. For me, there's definitely a feeling with games I feel are unfair or irritating of "well, I have to keep playing because I want to be done with it and be able to say I finished it". It's excessively rare I put a game down out of frustration; it's much more common for me to stop completely if the game fails to hook me. Long dull exposition loses me faster than cheap deaths.

If you're still enjoying it despite all these flaws while still acknowledging them, and not just hate-playing it to see how it'll disappoint you next, then you're absolutely doing it right. I hadn't realized Ax Battler was a Golden Axe spinoff, too. And since it's Game Gear, obligatory "how many batteries have you gone through".

As far as myself, my tour through the recent Need for Speed games has been sidetracked by playing 1998's NFSIII: Hot Pursuit instead. With patches, it holds up really, really well. And on a base level, I'm amused that (in certain American copies of the game,) there's both the 1998 Chevrolet Corvette and the 1998 Indianapolis 500 Pace Car. The '98 Indy 500 Pace Car is a '98 Corvette, so a single reskin counts as a separate, functionally identical car. I dunno why, but this amuses me. Also, the Australian version of the game includes a Ford and an HSV to cater to that market's Supercars series fans, and because everything else in the game is a high-end supercar and those are standard roadgoing vehicles, they are hilariously useless. (Luckily, all free DLC cars and all region-exclusive cars can just be copied out and pasted into any given version of the game and they work, so you don't have to choose if you can track them down.)

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #733 on: July 16, 2017, 12:13:24 AM »
I'm emulating, so no dumb batteries for me this time :)

The game reminds me of Dark Souls since it plays like a series of linear, very deadly challenges disguised as a game with a conventional RPG structure.  You're expected to die and repeat your dungeon runs, gradually getting familiar with all the enemy spawns and random battles.  Even though I feel the difficulty is poorly designed, it is still instructive (and oddly fun) to figure out what, exactly, makes a certain enemy spawn so difficult and if I can't trivialize it some way or another.

Sapz

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #734 on: July 16, 2017, 01:35:17 AM »
Doom 2016 Arcade mode, also known as Dodoompachi. Been playing against shim, and it's been a long time since I had such fun with a scoring game. Extremely impressed with the mode, not to mention the game in general. This is pretty close to my idea of an ideal FPS, honestly. The extreme mobility combined with the quick and ultra-violenceaggressive enemies makes it a real thrill to play.
Let's fight.

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #735 on: July 16, 2017, 04:36:47 AM »
Doom 2016 Arcade mode, also known as Dodoompachi. Been playing against shim, and it's been a long time since I had such fun with a scoring game. Extremely impressed with the mode, not to mention the game in general. This is pretty close to my idea of an ideal FPS, honestly. The extreme mobility combined with the quick and ultra-violenceaggressive enemies makes it a real thrill to play.
you left out the part where you're ranked #18 on the UAC, you bastard

that's gonna take me forever to beat :V

[09:46] <theshim|work> there is nothing like working for a real estate company to make one contemplate arson

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #736 on: July 18, 2017, 09:01:27 AM »
I just beat GG Aleste for the Game Gear, which is a vertical shmup by Compile.  I've only played Compile's shooters on the SNES and Genesis before, and this was one was much easier.  After a few tries to make it through stage 3, I beat the game pretty easily by cruising through the rest of the game with a maxed out wide shot.  I only got hit once or so after that.   

And man I love some of the explosion sound effects in this game.

One thing that struck me is that it seems like a perfect recommendation whenever someone asks "what are shmups for a newcomer who doesn't want a ridiculous challenge" since it still has a fast pace, a variety of enemies, fun weapons and decent graphics.  Holding the fire button gives the fastest autofire and it's not too punishing when you get hit:  I think your main weapon doesn't power down (or perhaps not every hit?), and your special weapon loses 1 level.  Your special weapon never goes below level 1 though, and you even start with a laser so it's not possible to not have a second weapon active.  It's like, a lot of 16 bit games are only "easy" relatively speaking so when they get recommended I tend to be skeptical if any newcomer would actually want to dedicate themselves to them or not.  But GG Aleste is definitely one you can be done with in a couple days, and it looks and plays much better than Gameboy or even NES games.

There is a master system version of Aleste as well, but I think this one is a stand alone counterpart rather than a portable conversion.

CF7

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #737 on: July 18, 2017, 09:46:23 AM »
Recently, been playing tons of Copy Kitty. It's like 2D platformer shooter kinda like Mega Man game. But you can shoot in 8 directions (basic shot is kinda weak, tbh), kick things, do dive kicks and double jump from the start. Imagine Mega Man decided that not only he could copy bosses's powers, but some basic enemies' too. And then combine up to 3 of them into something big and flashy as well. Like homing/split/explode. Then there's some standalone more unique power ups and even more unique things you get during boss battles. For example
Spoiler:
Blade Arikan's
boss battle is an awesome, fast-paced mirror match between 2
Spoiler:
sword users
. Overall it's a great stress-relief and destroying hundreds of enemies with big explosions feels rather cathartic.
P.S. Trying for a no-damage (or whatever stage's damage threshold is) clears is really fun as well. Especially boss stages.
Sometimes rumors are just... rumors

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #738 on: July 22, 2017, 08:39:03 AM »
I talked about how DOOM (2016) amazed me and inspired me to buy Shadow Warrior (2013) since I don't have good enough PC to run DOOM. Well, now that I finally have decent gaming PC, I can finally play DOOM. And damn its incredibly fun.

Once you finally get to play the game, you'll notice that the gameplay is really different from that of a regular shooter. Your default movement speed is noticeably faster than that of regular FPS. You carry all your guns at once instead of having 2 weapons limit. Guns don't need reload. And there's no regenerating health. So most of time, when you running low on health, your only option is to fight some more.

The enemies are much more varied. Instead of guys with different guns that dies in 1-3 shot. You have enemies from regular zombies, enemies that shoot, to big brute who tried to pound you. This prevent the battle from being too repetitive as you're going to fight more powerful enemy types in later levels.

I really like the weapons. They're all feel powerful, and fun to use. Even the basic pistol can one shot small enemies when charged. Aside from infinite ammo Pistol, we have Combat Shotgun, Plasma Rifle, Heavy Assault Rifle (assault rifle on steroid), Rocket Launcher, Super Shotgun (more powerful shotgun that consumes 2 round per shot and requires reload every shot), Gauss Cannon (very strong railgun-like gun. Consumes 15 energy cells), and Chaingun. Then we have Chainsaw and BFG 9000, the strongest weapon in your arsenal that got it dedicated button to equip it. The Chainsaw is essentially a get out of jail weapon. It one hit any enemies that is not a boss and gives you boat load of items. Its ammo is relatively rare though. Late in the game, you get BFG 9000. That thing rocks! You pull the trigger and everything in front of you is dead. Its drawback is that it can only carry 3 shot, its capacity can't be upgraded with ammo upgrade and It's ammo is the rarest. I really like all the weapon. Well, with the slight exception of Plasma Rifle. My favorite are the one that uses bullets (Heavy Assault Rifle and Minigun). You can also equip a mod that serves as the weapon's secondary attack if you can find a drone. For example, you can equip Combat Shotgun with either burst fire or grenade launcher. It can be switched with a push of a button.

There are a lot of upgrades in the game. Weapon upgrades used to upgrade mods that you obtain by killing enemies or completing challenges, Armor upgrades used to give passives found in (semi hidden) dead elite soldiers, and Argent Cores used to upgrades max Armor, Health, or Ammo. You can find runes in the stages to get its upgrades by completing its challenges first. 

When you stun the enemy, you can move close to them and do Glory Kill, which you kill your enemy in a quick and brutal fashion. It's used to gain health (and occasionally ammo). It's also damn satisfying to use. Enemies can also Glory Kill you if you died against a certain attack. Best not to die if you don't want to get humiliated by the enemies.

The level design are much more varied. There are some platforming involved in the levels, there are a lot of secrets contained in a level, and there are a lot of collectibles to found. Sometimes the level are linear, sometimes you're given a large environment to explore (and one level has you climb to the top of a tower using platforming). The battle arena are mostly a huge open space with many hallways, vertical incline and lots of pickups. The cover is sparse, so you have to move around the arena constantly, pick up item while fighting, and don't ever stop because stopping will get you killed fast. This makes the combat pretty exhilarating as you have to keep track of the enemies that comes from multiple direction (instead of in a single file), dodge their attack, and be quick on your trigger and feet.

Playing this game is a blast. It is pretty to look at, it is challenging, and it is fun.

Aya Reiko

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #739 on: July 23, 2017, 06:29:44 AM »
Elite: Dangerous (w/ the Horizons expansion) is steadily soaking up my free time.  Overwatch and 100% Orange Juice taking up the rest.

Tengukami

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #740 on: July 24, 2017, 06:58:51 PM »
Crash Fever. Never before have I found a mobile game more fun than some of the games I have on my laptop.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #741 on: July 24, 2017, 08:03:25 PM »
Played through a few puzzle games in short order. Namely, The Talos Principle + Road to Gehenna, Magrunner: Dark Pulse, Portal 2 and The Turing Test. Somehow I spent much more time on the former than the remaining three put together; the base game is highly addictive, the expansion improves on it with even better puzzles, much better hub area design and a nice, cute story (a BBS for artificial intelligences? can't get much cooler than that). Tons of great, satiating content. Out of the other three, Magpulse was the best one. Even though it looks and feels like something from the early 2000s, the Lovecraftian storyline is preposterous and voice acting is beyond terrible, the mechanics of magnetic repulsion and attraction are just fun to play with, as is killing grotesque monsters by dropping explosive boxes on their heads. The final third of the game has Cthulhu watching your progress from the sky. Unfortunately you can't take him out with a well aimed crate of boom...

The other two games brought mixed feelings. The much hyped Portal 2 was indeed very amusing (I loved turrets and Cave Johnson), but much too simple and short. Ultimately it left me profoundly unsatisfied. It takes until halfway through the game for the puzzles to attain a level of difficulty higher than The Talos Principle world A, and quite a bit of what's left is just filler. The Turing Test was even worse in this respect, everything is easy if not outright trivial, around Chapter 5 a new, very promising gameplay mechanic is introduced, and yet the puzzle difficulty somehow manages to drop even further. The penultimate chapter finally employs some clever tricks that make you stop and think, but then the final one was clearly rushed, featuring superficially complex areas that in fact have simplistic solutions obfuscated by many barely used rooms and redundant resources. Despite this I really wanted to enjoy the storyline, but sadly all audio logs turned out to be muffled, lo-fi and frankly unlistenable for a non-native speaker like me. Come on, they can build AIs and send manned expeditions to Jupiter's moons, but can't afford decent audio recording hardware? Fortunately, the resident AI, HAL TOM, saves the whole experience somewhat with neat, perfectly delivered dialogue.

No idea where do I go from here.
Рабинович глядит на плакат ?Ленин умер, но дело его живет!?
? уж лучше бы о он жил!

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #742 on: July 25, 2017, 07:41:52 PM »
Well my PC stopped working (signs point to the Power Supply Unit failing) and I don't want to spend money on it with a new semester and a vacation taking place within the next 3 weeks, so I've been mostly playing games on my cell phone again after a long time avoiding them. I currently am playing multiple games casually:

Puzzles and Dragons: Dusted off my old Horus account that I luckily still had on my tablet and transferred it to my phone (more memory). It feels to me like they have added a ton of QoL changes that makes the barrier of entry/early-game a lot better, which I am truly loving. Also after watching some YouTube videos it's a little easier for me to read the boards for combos, and having alternative strong leaders other than Horus definitely makes the whole experience a lot faster (since I'm not spending 30+ mins in a dungeon searching for 4 combos  :blush:).

School Idol Festival: I escaped Idol hell, only to get dragged back in. I played this game for a good few months some years ago, then dropped because it felt like I was heading to P2W. That said it still likely is very-much P2W, but like PAD there's plenty of QoL adjustments to satisfy filthy casuals like myself.
Also Aqours > Muse.  :smug:

LongStory: A surprisingly good OELVN that's LGBT+ friendly. Unlike a lot of OELVNs, mobile or otherwise, it's 100% drawn (including backgrounds), has a well-rounded cast of characters that have actual depth to them, and a great mix of an over-arching plot on top of the "dating sim" aspect (note that you can also play 100% aromantic/friendly as well). The first chapter's free, and the rest (2-7 + extras) can be bought in a $9.99 bundle which, if you compare to other OELVNs on PC, is a reasonable price. I'm finished chapter 3 recently and would recommend at least checking it out.

1CC List (all shmups)
League of Legends / Battle.net: Harmony11(#1694)

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #743 on: August 02, 2017, 09:19:13 PM »
Man, down with the establishment. Imma play some Banshiryuu.

Pywackett-Barchetta

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #744 on: August 03, 2017, 10:29:48 PM »
Hm. Most of the puzzle titles I'd recommend are point-and-click adventure games, so I'm not quite sure what to posit from there.

Next up on the racing game rotation is Shift 2: Unleashed, the Need for Speed game that took itself so seriously, it dropped Need for Speed from the title. Luckily, the actual game isn't so grim, besides perhaps the overdramatic menus and introduction. It streamlines things nicely, taking out the Guitar-Hero-esque Stars for career progression entirely, removing the (barely existent) distinction between Aggression and Precision points, and altering bonus objectives to now just give you a flat XP reward. Gaining XP earns you levels, gaining levels unlocks career events. Very simple and encourages playing however you want (multiplayer and quick race events still count towards your total), with very few exceptions to let you jump ahead if you're gunning right for a specific tournament, and one major exception in the final career tier - GT1 - being locked off until you win the GT3 or Works championship.

There's two physics models here, and while you can change it to whichever you like, one is recommended to you after a minute or so of play at startup; I've been using the Experienced handling, which is much more like a sim than the first SHIFT. I'd call it "Project CARS, except satisfying". (Which is really how I'd sum up the whole game, but hey.) With Experienced handling on, I've found myself getting lodged harder into walls and spun out more easily; it won't bounce you back to the racetrack like the first game did. I keep expecting impacts to go a lot more easily than they actually do; I feel vaguely like Carl Edwards on that. Still, it's not completely brutal, though the AI in higher-powered cars seem to have the ridiculous unwarranted level of aggression they do in PCARS. (I keep comparing them because, while EA published Shift 2 and Bandai-Namco published PCARS, they're the same dev team.)

The menus are outright obnoxious at first, overly cluttered and loud, but eventually, you get used to them, and the bizarre soundtrack theming of "orchestral electronic remixes of punk rock songs" is at least very consistent and distinctive. It's growing on me. The car selection is very, very nice, with high-end supercars and standard street cars from a ton of automakers. I was very happy to find that playing NFS: Hot Pursuit 2010 meant I got to keep a police Lamborghini Reventon from that game. I originally hesitated to pick this game up because two packs of free DLC had been removed from the online store; I hadn't realized that the Steam version actually just patched them in since they were free anyways, so the Legends and Speedhunters packs are there by default.

While the game has a lot of variety when it comes to courses and event types, I find those additions really help. Usually, racing games nowadays overextend by trying to do a bit of everything, and doing all of it poorly; this game has a good enough selection of everything it attempts that nothing feels underwhelming. Even drag racing, which is a straight quarter-mile course and thus doesn't change, has three separate locales just so you have varied scenery. Every course from the first game returns and seems to be remodeled to fit the new physics, so there's a bunch of road courses, street circuits, and ovals to battle on. And despite being a 2011 game, it doesn't restrict itself to courses that existed then; 2009's Silverstone International layout is available, and the Legends DLC means you can race course variants from 1952 to 1978, including Rouen les Essarts, which closed in 1994. It doesn't sound like much, but it's really awesome in practice to be able to race classic cars on courses actually designed for them instead of for modern cars.

It is a bit amusingly dated to 2011, though, much as having intentionally outdated stuff added helps balance that. The energy-drink dudebro vibe is very slightly present here, and Formula Drift star Vaughn Gittin Jr. narrates the game in place of the British crew chief from the previous title. He lacks the pattern of facial hair he more commonly wears now, too, which makes it feel off if you do know who he is. All of the rival drivers in this game are real drivers in their discipline this time (with the exception of the Standing Mile champions, Twins Turbo, who instead are supercar tuners rather than competitors). Chris Rado dropped off the map the year after this game, and actually grenaded the engine of the Time Attack car you can win from him here. Finally, and most obviously, the final championships you battle to get into, the real-world licensed FIA GT3 and GT1 championships, folded in 2012. So, it's absolutely a time capsule in that regard, and it came out at just the right time to capture the car culture of right then.

As with the first game, I haven't tried drifting yet. I do very much like the actual Formula Drift, though; a very good watch every now and then.

Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #745 on: August 17, 2017, 07:58:58 AM »
I may have just accidentally lagged out five people at the same time in Ace Combat Infinity. My ADLER can literally throw out MPBMs like candy, which I guess causes a lot of lag because all the clients need to map out GINORMOUS EXPLOSION every seven seconds or so.

Picked Moero Chronicle back up because it's now out on Steam! Not that I'm going to be playing the Steam version all that much, since I still have potato-tier computers and you have to have either a controller or a physical mouse to deal with the Bumping Scratch. Just picked up Valkyrie in the post-game on the Vita version, just barely making it out at 0.53 seconds. I keep forgetting to retune my party to focus on physical attacks, what with one particular enemy being heavily magic-resistant and capable of amping the MDF of all of its allies.
Let's Play: BIT.TRIP FLUX | Let's Play: Malicious | Skyward Sword: Shieldless Final Boss | Skyward Sword: Boss Rush! | Ace Combat Infinity: Campaign in the X-02 Wyvern


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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #746 on: August 18, 2017, 11:55:50 PM »
Finally stopped hesitating on picking up Mad Max. I'll likely give it a more detailed recap and rambling when I make more progress, but four-and-a-half hours in and having seen none of the related films, I gotta say: awesome car combat, ludicrous harpoon/grappling-hook use, gratuitous explosions, toppling a powerful corrupt warlord, and creative gameplay choices forced by limiting your resources? It's a better Just Cause 2 sequel than Just Cause 3 was. Finally, there's something else I can recommend to scratch that itch of cruising around and blowing stuff up.

Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #747 on: August 23, 2017, 06:35:19 AM »
Well, that hurt. I just beat Guacamelee! STCE on Hard. 0% items. F me, Flame Face was the most ridiculous out of all the bosses. It's really Skeleton outfit or Alebrije outfit or nothing at that point, as you get two- or one-shot by basically every boss, and you desperately need the damage boost from skills or the general damage boost just to survive.

It's just too bad that I'll never "fully 100%" the game, since the DLC has a trophy requiring a second player.
Let's Play: BIT.TRIP FLUX | Let's Play: Malicious | Skyward Sword: Shieldless Final Boss | Skyward Sword: Boss Rush! | Ace Combat Infinity: Campaign in the X-02 Wyvern


Move eternally forward,
So that we may always be at your side.

Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #748 on: September 26, 2017, 08:22:30 AM »
Jeez, it's been a while.

So I just finished Ys VIII; and just in time, since Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash and Blue Reflection both release tomorrow (or rather, released four hours ago). BPS will at least be a good cooldown off of Ys before I either start BR or get around to getting Nightmare Surpasser. ...Luckily, it appears that the transfer data allows me to upgrade to Nightmare with my faculties intact at least, so there's that.

I've mostly stopped playing on the Vita front now that I have a smartphone, but I've picked up Mary Skelter and am making... some sort of progress.

On the Steam front, I've hit a wall on Shenzhen I/O, so I'm now playing Silicon Zeroes... and sometimes the logic makes me loopy. Maybe it's the lack of sleep I've been getting since apparently having us do six days at fewer hours is a better option than reducing the deli hours.
Let's Play: BIT.TRIP FLUX | Let's Play: Malicious | Skyward Sword: Shieldless Final Boss | Skyward Sword: Boss Rush! | Ace Combat Infinity: Campaign in the X-02 Wyvern


Move eternally forward,
So that we may always be at your side.

Third Eye Lem

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #749 on: September 30, 2017, 04:48:18 AM »
I just started playing Cuphead, and it's every bit of simplistic and deadly as the trailers showed. I beat Forest Follies just fine, had to learn to DOOOOOODGE against the Root Pack, and then hit a bit of a wall against the two boxing frogs. It took me a few tries to figure out the punch shots followed a pattern, but all of a few seconds to realize that the bouncing ball platforms on the Slot Machine pattern was the worst attack ever, so I just kept throwing myself at the boss until I got a run without that attack. ^^;;

And then I remembered how to DOOOOOOOOOODGE again when going up against Goopy's Tombstone. Remember to dash, friends!