IC Forum Archive

Baron Patsy · Posts: 573

I rented Touch! Kirby from Blockbuster, so my DS is actually getting used now. Well. It's being used quite a bit.

I've also been diving into all three of the Playstation 2 Grand Theft Auto's. So far, I am almost finished with Vice City, I'm in the middle of the Staunton missions in 3, and I am nowhere near even getting out of the first city in San Andreas.

Playing all three of them at once, like this, has made me realize a lot of things about the series and the differences in how each of the games was designed and put together.

GTA3 is more. . .focused, and polished. It's not obsessed with making things as big as they can be, or as flashy as they can be. It just takes a couple sections of a city, and makes them interesting.

Vice City (the city itself, not the game) just feels. . .empty. It's shallow, and vapid. The city itself is not interesting. When I play Vice City, I actually feel physically uncomfortable. I get irritable, and I feel dissatisfied. It's not nearly as satisfying as 3 or even San Andreas.

San Andreas handles the city(s) in a much different way than the other games. The first city is gigantic, daunting in it's huge size. When I first played the game, I remember being almost overwhelmed by the huge city. However, the city is still unfocused and relatively uninteresting. It's not nearly as bad as in Vice, but I still wasn't as compelled to actually explore the city in SA.

The other cities in the game, however, were vastly unimpressive. It was kind of depressing, actually. I haven't actually reached the cities in the storyline yet, but with careful manipulation of a few cheats, I can explore them at my leisure.

San Fierro is the more interesting of the two other cities. It's still relatively interesting to explore, and I actually like the city itself better than the LA-based city. It was actually slightly interesting, and I just enjoyed strolling around.

Las Venturas is. . .well. I really don't like it. It kind of gives me the same feeling as Vice City. It just feels empty, for some reason. I don't like it. It's very dissapointing, actually.

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

I had a birthday while I was gone (19 wahoo!), so games aplenty.

Final Fantasy X: Played it from start to finish, and I still can't lay a opinion down on the thing. I like the plot. I dislike the voices. I love the combat system. I hate the characters. I just... don't know. It was fun, I guess, to hate. Mixed bag of the year, for whichever year it came out.

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner: This game is fucking awesome. I played it from start to finish in about 1.5 sittings. Maybe it's just been too long since I made a robot destroy other robots, but it is just too fun, even when it's frustrating. My only real gripe is that the versus mode is one of the least balanced 2-player experiences I have ever had.

Gunroar: Not the best of ABA Games, but certainly lots of fun. Especially with a PS2 pad and Twin Stick mode. Since I got it, it has gradually dwindled down from BEST GAME EVAR to GAME I OCCASIONALLY PLAY.

Kirby: Canvas Curse: I played it for 5 minutes at a demo in EBGames. It makes me want a DS. I don't know how much longer I can resist its charms.

Legend of Dragoon: Got it from one of my friends who swore her life on it. It is inescapably a PS1 RPG, which means it is chock-full of loading times and long, drawn out battles with huge monsters made out of about 8 polygons. Nevertheless, I'm finding it kind of fun. The battle system reminds me of a more complicated Super Mario RPG. But with more wings!

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: Yes, I've played it before, but the game is really a different beast after playing MGS3. I find myself actually thinking about the stealth parts, watching enemy movement patterns, rather than running around like a wounded duck until I find the radar. The Colonel still is the best character, though. "I need scissors! 61!"

So, uh, I think that's it, for now. I also played some Ur-Quan Masters and Ragnarok Battle Offline, but I have talked about them before.
Speaking of RBO, There's an expansion coming out on August 14, with 2 new stages and tons of bells and whistles. I'm excited.

jiji · Posts: 780

chazumaru* wrote:

Well, no dollar is usual to me.

It's the one that's heavily focused on roleplay, right ? You made me want to try one out some day...

Yes, and it's more fleshed-out in that area than VII or VIII were. Now there are requests you can take on in the tavern of each city, and these can range from quite a few different menial tasks that build character skills, to longer, more involved quests (like winning 10 duels in a row, or going on a pilgrimage to different famous locations, or seeking revenge for the killing of a child's parents) that get you more experience and nice items. Things like character interactions and relationship-building seem less randomized than in VIII, and the new debate system (a simple-but-fun turn-based card-like game) makes tests of your character's intelligence and charisma more than just a stat check. The duel system does the same thing for more...direct means of solving small conflicts.

Oh, and I've been playing (or trying to play) Siren lately. I don't think I have the patience for a game like that...the icky camera, icky pathfinding, inconsistent object interaction, the constant focus on MGS1-era stealth... all those sort of compound to show the game's flaws most right when it demands the most performance out of the player. If the game in its current state was less stealth-obsessed, I think it's something I'd be able to enjoy.

Darklighterx · Posts: 2

Hey, I have not been here in like 3 years? But I had to reregister for some reason. Were the forums down?

Anyway, I had some major ZAMNage (Zombies Ate My Neighbors)! And have been bust with my PSP and its' emulators.

Sub · Posts: 696

RE4 and Killer 7, both on Karoshiccomenndation.

In between I've gotten out Bombastic again, played a Super Robot Wars map or two, and "test-driven" a great many PCE games, only to find out that they cost too much on Ebay. The music in Monster Lair (a quite affordable game actually) makes me nostalgic.

RET'S EDIT: HEY GUYS AFTER A GREAT STRUGGLE, MY AV IS FUNCTIONAL

nICO · Posts: 130

Skies of Arcadia Legends: This is really about all I've played all summer. It's a long game. Just the story took about 40 hours and there's dozens of hours worth of extra stuff to check out if you so choose. And the extra stuff is kinda the point of the game, far as I can figure, so I had to do at least some of it. SoA was good. Great even. It restored my faith in RPGs.

Lumines: Haven't played it a whole lot, but I've messed around in a couple games. It's fun enough, but I don't see myself falling in love with it.

Shaq-fu: Okay, I haven't really played this much, but I did buy it for a dollar! Defender of Justice.

Rockman Pocket · Posts: 50

I'm finally catching on some of my old stuff during this little summer vacation. Last week I finally finished Silent Hill 3. Last time I previously played it was about half a year ago. I just lost interest somewhere in the hospital. Picked up that save game last week and after some brainpain with the hospital's basement puzzle I was disappointed to finish the game relatively soon after that. I figured that since this was the first place - a recycled one at that - you have to visit in Silent Hill itself there would be some more places to visit in the town itself. But no. Oh well. Figured I'd play through it again, though I'm still at the mall. The extra outfits are cute and the light saber is sorta cool, but I'm not really in the mood to play it again. I actually tried to play the PC version, but it won't even start on my PC. Fuck. This did promt me to install Silent Hill 2 on the PC, which does work. So I'm playing through that at the moment. I never noticed Maria's outside idle animation for some reason. Pretty cool.

Played a lot of Double Dragon Advance lately too. Really nice remake of the classic. Really hard too. Haven't finished it yet, keep dying in the cave. Also playing Megaman Battle Network 4 at the moment. This is actually my first Battle Network game (well, not counting the GC version) and it's pretty cool. Nice music too. People say the first 3 are better, so after this one I'll probably play part 3, which shouldn't be too hard to find. Oh, before these two, Kururin Paradise was my main GBA course. Bought it from Play-Asia's summer sale and it certainly didn't disappoint. Never played the original, despite being cheap here in Europe, but Paradise makes me realise the mistake in that. Great game, and perfect for portable play too.

I also tried to play The Oneechan Bara this week, but I really didn't like it. I like the concept, but execution is horribly flawed. Level design is bland and endlessly killing the same harmless zombies gets boring fast. The real killer is you can only save between levels. I gave up during level 2 and I'll probably never touch it again. I guess that's all part of the risk when buying something from the Simple Series.

ApM · Posts: 113

Finally got my mitts on the PS2 port of Psychonauts.

It single-handedly justifies the platforming genre.

I'll talk more later, once I finish it. I'm only starting to get into the really brilliant stuff.

Ataru · Posts: 295

for the past few months, the only thing I've been playing with any seriousness is Dodonpachi (in mame) - nice mix of forgiving and brutally hard. I'm a shmup fanatic and this is one of the all time best, imho. I'm able to one credit to stage 4 on a good day but I'm slaughtered at that point.

I've also played a bit of Metal Slug 5 and Chaos Legion. Both are fun but nothing to get wildly excited about.

I've also been toying with three games that I've long had on my "I want to beat this eventual" list. Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy X, and Vagrant Story.

Final Fantasy Tactics is goddamn awesome but involves so much dedication that I always get distracted by something else after 10 to 15 hours of it, and then I feel like I can't remember what I was doing and have to restart. Oy vey. I might run through it with one of those ridiculous speed faqs for it just to see the rest of the story.

After reading a couple faqs for information about how to approach the game's intimidating combat system, I played Vagrant Story for an hour and a half last night and I think it finally clicked with me. This is my third serious attempt at playing through it, but this time I think I'll actually stick with it, as I've for the first time made it to and beaten the first boss that you can chain and defend against. Now that I know that the timing is based solely on the appearance of the ! mark above the main character's head, I can actually regularly get 4 to 6 hit chains, so I no longer feel like a doofus. The fact that Hitoshi Sakimoto did the music and that it's quite possibly the most beautiful 3-D game on the Playstation works very much in the game's favor.

I've not played a straight up RPG in a long time and I have Final Fantasy X sitting in my pile of unbeaten games. I realize this must be blasphemy to some, but I really like to just plow through FF games with a faq by my side, consulting with it any time I can't quickly figure out what I'm supposed to do next to progress in the plot. I suspect that FFX will probably get slighted again, now that Vagrant Story has my imagination.

I'm also playing through ASTRO BOY gba again, this time on hard mode, and additionally I'm trying to focus on leveling the punching skill first at the expense of all else. That the second stage is a flying level where the laser skill matters most is making this extra difficult, so I might cave in, restart my game, and level the laser and the boosters one or two stages each first and then focus on the punching. I went through the game the first time focused on the laser and this time I want to play it more as a straight brawler than relying on long distance attacks. This was my favorite game of 2k4, and I'm replaying it in part as a warm up for Gunstar Super Heroes.

Ana · Posts: 6

Man, I'd been waiting for this forum to come back for awhile. The moment I came back to register after a few days of topic browsing... POOF! Gone. Nice to see it back though.

Aaaaaanyways, I've been busting my thumbs on F-Zero Climax. Great stuff, nice and difficult too. I'll probably do more custom tracks once I finish up all the Grand Prix modes. I held back on importing it for awhile cause I'm a cheap bastard, but after NCSX discounted the price, I couldn't resist.

My one complaint is that F-Zero isn't really the best thing to play on the go. I play my GBA on the bus most of the time, so I'm not really paying as much attention as I should since I'm always watching for my stop. If you're gonna be parked down for awhile though, it's good fun.

I've also gotten my hands on Riviera after hearing much about it. I've only had to retry one battle once thankfully, but I still wish the leveling system didn't rely so much on finding new weapons and items. Graphics and music are superb though, I like all the characters, and I enjoy the easy to navigate dungeons.

Zero3K · Posts: 15

Riviera: The Promised Land
Pokemon Sapphire
Pokemon LeafGreen
Pokemon Emerald
SGO - (http://www.sgoj.com/)
Goonzu Online - (http://global.goonzu.com/center/default.asp)

smallmouth · Posts: 8

I played through Resident Evil 4 twice. Aside from Streets of Rage 2, it's probably the only game ever that I bothered to complete more than once.

Resident Evil 4 is a great game, but—except the labs where the Regenerators are—all atmosphere was lost after the Village. And aside from Krauser, the first boss was the best and they go downhill from there.

But I liked it enough to finish twice, and possibly a third time so I'll shut up.

You've unlocked: The Mercenaries mini-game is teh best.

I also finished Killer7, which was a lot more fun than I expected. It throws you off a steep learning cliff—mostly just trying to figure out what the hell is going on. But the game wouldn't have had near the impact it did if it did it differently.

I liked the on-rails shooting and the pared down gameplay. I'm sick of getting stuck on crap because of bad collision detection or because the character has the turning radius of a bus. Instead I could just sit back and enjoy the smooth shooting.

I started a game of Killer8. But good Lord! It's way too hard for me to enjoy.

Lastly, I opened everything in 1080 Avalanche. I really like 1080. It's not over-wrought—just good, clean fun. Criminally underrated.

LegatoB · Posts: 1546

I had written a much longer post on this subject, but I accidentally closed Opera and lost it right before I finished it. So here's the gist of it:

Ys: The Oath in Felghana is totally sweet. Unofficial translation of official site here.
Adol can now do crazy long combos on the ground and air
Gains awesome moves like fireballs and whirlwind slashes which let you float in air
Graphics are purdy
Music is typical Ys, which means it's good
Little birdy tells me fan translation is under way, making good progress
Not that you really need to understand Japanese to be able to play this - it's an action game with RPG elements, after all
<3 Falcom

DaleNixon · Posts: 766

Hamtaro: Ham Ham games. Track and Field. With Hamsters.

WarpZone · Posts: 396

Ataru wrote:

After reading a couple faqs for information about how to approach the game's intimidating combat system, I played Vagrant Story for an hour and a half last night and I think it finally clicked with me. This is my third serious attempt at playing through it, but this time I think I'll actually stick with it, as I've for the first time made it to and beaten the first boss that you can chain and defend against. Now that I know that the timing is based solely on the appearance of the ! mark above the main character's head, I can actually regularly get 4 to 6 hit chains, so I no longer feel like a doofus. The fact that Hitoshi Sakimoto did the music and that it's quite possibly the most beautiful 3-D game on the Playstation works very much in the game's favor.

Nice to hear another player is making it "over the hump" with that game. Getting 4-6 chains sounds just about right too. What's impressive is the game can be played so differently- you can try and chain forever and approach it like more of an action game, but then RISK skyrockets. Or you can just do a few chains with more finely honed weapons.

One tip: watch the type of the weapon you use (ie: blunt, piercing) in relation to specific enemies. Early in the game this is far more important to be concerned with than the affinity (beast, human, etc.) of the weapon and is what tripped me up initially.

Agreed about the game's beauty...and the art direction never falters throughout.

Ataru · Posts: 295

i have the standard sword, the raipier, the axe, and the crossbow.

so far I use the sword on humans, and the raipier on undead and i think I used it on the empty armor boss.

I could do with any tips you'd like to share; I feel like this could become one of my favorite games if I could just get further over the learning curve. Nice mix of action and classic tabletop rpg number crunching.

smallmouth · Posts: 8

Ataru wrote:

i have the standard sword, the raipier, the axe, and the crossbow.

so far I use the sword on humans, and the raipier on undead and i think I used it on the empty armor boss.

I could do with any tips you'd like to share; I feel like this could become one of my favorite games if I could just get further over the learning curve. Nice mix of action and classic tabletop rpg number crunching.

Using the Workshop FAQ (at the bottom of the page) takes the guessing out of weapons and armor creation. Vagrant Story is a neat game.

Victor · Posts: 125

Went to the beach, twice actually, beaches who's accomodations had access to exactly zero internets. So, well.....sweltering heat and seaweed or airconditioning and videogames. One of these came out on top. Also, there was some ping pong, which is a better game than any of the ones I am about to list.

Played some Katamari 2, at the second beach. The new version of Overture that plays on the second title screen, with.....the title, and the baloons, and the birds - that's a damn fine song. You'll know, when you see it; know if you've seen it. There's not much to say about the game, that hasn't already been said, or been said about the first. The flower collecting level was nice. You collect flowers. Red ones, pink ones, white ones. In the buildup to release, I had hoped for some kind of control revision from the first. Not in scheme, so much, I guess Ball Physics would be the term to use if you were using terms. The feel in the first wasn't bad, perse, it would have just been nice to have a real tangible hands-on reason to re-explore these things you've already done. Didn't expect it, and I guess they delivered on that, but hoped.

Played some Genji, as well. It's a nice game to look at, to actually play. To see your little buddy, or slightly less-little buddy stomping around on fellows and slashing and flipping and whatnot. I had remarked, to myself - perhaps also to others, on seing some pre-release footage that Yoshiwhobewhich's attack animations seemed a little stiff. The Notakebacksies rule, she has been broken. The enviroments certainly are splendidly detailed and rendered, a commendable effort if nothing else, in that regard. You kill people, in this game, with slashes. I'm going to go ahead and say that it's not worth $50. $30, sure.

I purchased Sky Odyssey, a while back, for $8. Played that, some. Namely the mission where you have to locate, fly through, land within, and exit a cave. A cave which is disintegrating all around you, which all caves obviously do upon detecting humans with missions to carry out. I'm not very good at this game, the control is sort of difficult to wrangle on the full manual mode - but that makes the experience perhaps a little more enjoyable. It wouldn't have been half as rewarding coming out of that cave if it hadn't been, oh, let's say, my 14th attempt; which is a position I try not to take, but am forced to here. Sky Odyssey is a good game, you should all get it. It is an early PS2 game, and it shows, but that's something certainly worth looking past. I'd like to see another game, in the same mold - these semi explorative flying games. Flight sims with purpose, with fun. I really liked everything in Crimson Skies that wasn't the shooting. Also, the music that plays during the mission directions preceding each flight, it is good.

I played a little Sengoku Basara this morning as well. I wish it was wackier. Seriously, the wacky potential is seriously untapped. Seriously.

Why haven't we seen a modern Jumping Flash, would that not be the hoozy's floozy? Guys?

The PS2 MOTW CPU AI is ICAN'TTHINKOFANACRONYMORABBREVIATIONFORPRETTYHARD at LVL8

Someone was talking about playing Otocky in #ic, the other day. I was going to indulge, but my illegal attempts to pirate the commercial rom were thwarted. The person, who I'm not remembering, should talk about that, here.

I think I'm done, here, now.

Ataru · Posts: 295

did someone babelfish that workshop faq into existence?

smallmouth · Posts: 8

Ataru wrote:

did someone babelfish that workshop faq into existence?

Through understanding and knowing the damage system can do it may improve your offense and defense in the game. More likely getting to know more a friend from a foe?

what?

Heh, I just used it for the creation tables. Ignore any attempts at sentences.

coin approved · Posts: 20

Riviera- Brandon lied about no skin in this game. English voice acting for the most part sucks (the portraits of Cierra don't match her voice), but everything else in the game so makes up for it . The artwork is great, the music is catchy, the dating sim aspects feel seamless, and the way they streamlined the exploration and your limitations on how much you can do is neat. I was pleasantly surprised that I had to write down information for a certain puzzle and then restructure that information in order to make a particular part of the dungeon easy for me to navigate through without randomly guessing the correct answer. Oh, and for some reason, I prefer the US title text over the Japanese one.

Ys: The Oath in Felghana- Ys VII with an Ys III storyline. And rocking music. That is all.

Tales of Symphonia- I do not ever want to touch this game again unless I'm playing with other people, since the only redeeming quality of this game is the improved combat system and the lack of random encounters. Although they tried to make it feel like Tales of Phantasia, it does so while making you cringe in pain trying to finish this game's story that doesn't seem to know when it should stop. Neither the music nor the characters were really memorable either, not to mention puzzles that seem to revolve around the Sorcerer's Ring and moving crates/solid blocks takes the reasoning behind the dungeon design completely out of context from the game's world. The English voice acting (except for Zelos and once in a while, Presea) makes me want to turn off the game speech, except I've grown up listening to voices in the Tales series, so I can't really do that.

東方萃夢想 ~Immaterial and Missing Power.~- One of the most refreshing fighting games in a long while yet it still feels like a Touhou game. Artwork (OMG parallax scrolling backgrounds) and music is top-notch for a doujin title, and playing it with a PC Virtua Stick feels great. I need some people to play against though, since playing against the AI gets boring after awhile.

World of Warcraft- is a feeling

Balzac · Posts: 361

Been flip flopping between a bunch of games.

Lumines: good for short burts, but a little simplistic once you get over the WHOA GRAPHICS phase.

Wipeout Pure: It seems like every time I catch up on completeing everything in venom/vector, a new donwload pack comes out. I'll be an old man by the time I get every medal.

Compile's PC Engine back catalogue: I don't think anyone makes shooters quite like them. Every game is a long, drawn out experience that isn't necessarily that diffuclt until the later stages. Fun, I guess, but all it does is make me want to replay MUSHA Aleste

Naruto Narutiment Hero 2: They got smash bros in my budokai! (or maybe budokai in my smash bros?). Either way, its everything an anime fighting game should be. Bringing this to my college's anime club yields spectators that have just as much fun watching the game as they do playing it.

Espgaluda: The only shooter I've ever plonked down 70$ for. It was worth every penny. Manages to strike a nice balance in difficulty such that while you won't be 1CCing it on your first try, its not near impossible like say, Dodonpachi: Dai Ou Jou. Plus its always fun to play in front of non shooter fans. Many exclamations of "HOW THE FUCK DID YOU DODGE THAT?" and "I THINK I'M ABOUT TO HAVE A SEIZURE" were heard yesterday.

Tales of Rebirth: My first import RPG. While my kanji skills aren't nearly good enough to understand what's going on, the translation guides on Gamefaqs tend to help a great deal. Graphically, this game is 2d heaven. Clear, well animated sprites along with anime cutscenes. In fact the only 3d in the game is the battle backgrounds, and even those are well done. Too bad Tales of Legendia is getting a domestic release rather than this game.

surume · Posts: 8

Never got past Threed on Earthbound as a chap. So I'm determined to play it through now.
Busted out the Saturn recently for some shmup love (as detailed in the Saturn thread).
Discovered the joy of Tennis videogames with Tennis 2K (or 2K2...can't remember) for the DC.
Played the hell out of Meteos.

Dark Age Iron Savior · Posts: 3148

Various obscurities of the GBA kind.

Sengoku Kakumei Gaiden - Basic Japanese Daimyos'n'Death soldier-slaughtering with lovely Ys-style action. Low on depth, but pretty fun. I'm having fun exploiting the lightning spell to rack up insane combos - I can average around 300 hits in a good run, and I once got nearly all the way to 999 (I got 970).

TTA: Buster's Bad Day - Yeah, it's pretty bad, but something about the combat keeps pulling me back. I honestly think it's better executed than Astro Boy (which is, of course, far superior in every other aspect), with the different partner attacks requiring different strategies to handle the swarms of enemies. I hope that once Treasure is done with GSH and the Treasure Box, they seriously consider another game using the partner system.

Marheaven: Knocking on Heaven's Door - Intersting midpoint between KH: Chain of Memories and MM Battle Network. Unfortunately, they apparently had to release the game early, as it feels roughly 25% complete.

Brock · Posts: 421

I've been working a lot this summer, so when I do have time to play, I'm often too pooped to take any effort. However:

Cave Story - Yeah, I'm late on this one, but I've only really gotten into it recently. It was fun the first few times I messed with it, but I'll be damned if it doesn't keep getting better.

Killer 7 - I just got this about an hour ago. It's rather overwhelming, at first. Con Smith is fun to play as. That's all I've got.

My plans to play Metal Gear Solid 3 and Silent Hill seem to have gone up in smoke. It's more of a dedication thing than the will to play them; the same reason why I'm still at the start of Disc Two on Shenmue II after two years.

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

dessgeega · Posts: 3317

my copy of tempest 2000 just arrived. unfortunately, my jaguar hasn't yet. i bought one just to play this game.

in the meantime, voidrunner is my back-up particle-effect-trippy llamasoft shooter.

Bozar · Posts: 5

Been playing Graffiti Kingdom, a rather stereotypical platformer, except that you can model your own characters. A rather enjoyable experience.

edwardappleby · Posts: 129

Meteos. I like it, yet I can't really get into it. I'm not sure why but it definately disappoints me.

Dragon Quest 5. Trying to get to the know the series. I like it so far, the way the story plays with you as a kid. You're kind of left out, the focus is not on you, you're doing kid stuff.

yellowlightman · Posts: 359

I haven't played anything, but I have been watching my friend play The Bouncer for the past couple of hours. It doesn't look quite as bad as I expected, I must admit.

mechanori · Posts: 623

I am on a role this summer. I almost never finish games, ever. I start a lot of them, and I buy a lot of them (used and cheap), but finishing them requires a lot of effort and time. It's not something I often do.

Now, I usually have a list of games that I should complete, but I never actually write them down. This year, I pulled out one of those two-tone "Composition" notebooks, and scribed a list of games that I must (I.E. should) complete this summer. I've only finished a couple, but I have new faith in endings.

MGS3: ZOMG. I cannot think of a game that I liked more than this one. I had played through the Twin Snakes and MGS2 recently, and had gained an obsessive tendency towards the whole series. I started MGS3, and it was good. Good because it was absolutely beautiful, and fun, and interesting. The story was nostalgic (well, not so much for me, but for other people) and exciting and... not that Kojima-y. It had a lot going for it, but it didn't throw me into a storm like the other two had. It grew, but it didn't HAPPEN. I wasn't disappointed, exactly. I couldn't be. But something was missing from the whole charade. Then THE fight happens. And then THE cinema starts up, and you FEEL BAD. But when the camera pulled back, and the little black cinema bars stopped babying me, I realized how perfect the moment was, and later, how great the game was because of it. And when the real truth is revealed, it's all that much better. Better in that it's worse. For the player. Anyway, BEST GAME EVER. At least, that's how I'd rate it.

ICO: I started this immediately after MGS3, and beat it in two sittings. Ico's story doesn't have the same appeal of MGS3's. It's not a Hollywood blockbuster. There's maybe 6 story sequences in the whole game, and they're all short and to the point. The gameplay is supposed to be the narrative, your relationship with Yorda (or Bird, or Oompa, or whatever) building as you guide her through the environment. This was not a good idea, because even though the puzzles are quite good, they are game puzzles. They are block moving puzzles. They are killing-a-lot-of-monsters puzzles. They are not saving-Yorda puzzles, even though that's always the final goal. When the gates finally open, and you're out there on the bridge, the one I cared about more was the boy. This was not supposed to happen. Or maybe it was. But there was only one moment in the whole game where I actually felt for Yorda. The ending was quite good though. I could have done without the final sequence. I think Mr. Mechanical (I think) said that it was the afterlife, and if that's true, then I could have done without it even more. Still good, though.

I think the best thing about ICO was the controls. Unlike controlling Mario, or CJ, or any other video game character, controlling the boy felt so human. He would stumble when I pulled him the other way. Actually, that's the only instance that I can think of to prove my point. But. Yeah. He moved like a little, weak kid. Maybe that's why I cared about him.

I'm close to beating FF6, and I already beat Cave Story. They're both good, except FF6 has too many random battles. I'm starting to like it, though, which is unfortunate because I'm almost done. Oh well.

deepblue · Posts: 358

edwardappleby wrote:

Meteos. I like it, yet I can't really get into it. I'm not sure why but it definately disappoints me.

Dragon Quest 5. Trying to get to the know the series. I like it so far, the way the story plays with you as a kid. You're kind of left out, the focus is not on you, you're doing kid stuff.

Stick with it. I'd say it's the most rewarding game ever to finish.

With that, let's see...I've played a hell-load of Outrun 2 and F-Zero GX...I started to play some Mario Kard DD, and put it back on the shelf after about a half hour.

I've played around with Gradius V, once again getting further than ever before, and not yet completing it.

Played through Guardian Heroes with a friend a couple weekends ago. What a phenomenal game. It hasn't aged a day.

I've beaten Shenmue and am playing through Shenmue II right now...I never want it to end!

I think that covers the hiatus.

dessgeega · Posts: 3317

i need to track down my copy of shenmue 2. i'm eager to see the rough bits of the original smoothed down a bit (and to play afterburner II!) but i havn't yet decided i'm ready to invest the time the game will need.

shnozlak · Posts: 704

Ive Restarted DQ5 twice, and Earthbound for the third time. What’s wrong with me? I just cant finish some games and once it has sat to long due to what ever has happened recently I just don’t feel right playing it from where I stopped. It dosne matter if I love the game or not I just cant start from halfway in after too long of a break. I did finish the wonderful though easy HalfLife 2 (once on easy/once on hard) and played through a bit of Vagrant story and restarted ChronoTrigger and FinalFantasy Tactics.

I love and hate this ‘Vagrant Story’; It just seems overly repetitive, the bosses most of all. I just get in close so they can’t strike me too hard and slash and whack their knees/tail/whatever until they fall. I tried to keep my distance on a boss but all that dose is give him space enough to whip out the big attacks and nail me to the ground. Also it seems I have to spend a little too much time grinding to get to the point where some enemies are even beatable. Though I will say that the weapons are really fun to customize and name! The atmosphere is also quite pleasant and the battle mechanics make the game tense yet somehow relaxing.

My big love right now is Crystalis, which I bought for like 12 dollars at a used store. Oh my wow, what a game! It makes me feel like a little kid again; I’m just so excited to play it. Really. I could go gush about that but Ill spare you. Just go play it, if you enjoy Secret of Manna and/or Legend of Zelda I gar-un-tee you will love this game. It has a good wilderness feel to it and I like that; reminds me of my experience backpacking somehow.

surume · Posts: 8

dessgeega wrote:

my copy of tempest 2000 just arrived. unfortunately, my jaguar hasn't yet. i bought one just to play this game.

this was released on Saturn as well...just a fyi.

dessgeega · Posts: 3317

i'm not ready for the saturn yet.

someday i will be. but not today.

Panoptic · Posts: 291

Of the few games for that system, Iron Soldier, Raiden, Flip Out, Dragon's Lair, AvP, Doom, BattleSphere, and Zero 5 may be worth checking out.

the blueberry hill · Posts: 458

Intentionally Wrong wrote:

I'm suffering some pain from the name of this topic.

Don't worry babe, it's temporary. Feel free to suggest a decent one.

jiji wrote:

Lately I've got myself onto a moderate pinball kick with the release of Flipnic. Flipnic's first table is uncompelling and frustrating to me, especially since I have to jump through a series of very small, widely-spaced hoops on it in order to unlock the next table. The other tables are much more interesting to me, but you can't play for more than five minutes on them without unlocking them (never mind that every other pinball game with multiple tables lets you play any of them from the start araghga).

I was really ready to love that game. [I could have bought PSX Real Bout and PS2 Half Life 2 togaher for cheaper] It's that unlocking thing that bugs me too.I managed to clear the first stage, a boss stage, and now I'm stuck on another one with some really unamusing targets. I really just want a proper go on that CGA looking table.

Victor wrote:

Someone was talking about playing Otocky in #ic, the other day. I was going to indulge, but my illegal attempts to pirate the commercial rom were thwarted. The person, who I'm not remembering, should talk about that, here.

I too, had trouble finding a ROM for that game, I did see it on one of those Dreamcast ROM discs.

Sawtooth · Posts: 2350

I found Mischief Makers in a local video game rental place (he had n64 games for rental, for reals), and I offered to buy it from the owner. Then I did, and I have been playing it on and off for the past few days. The old game I had on there, when I rented it about 4 years ago, was still on the cart. There is no love for Mischief Makers in the town of Hortonville, no sirree. Except from me, apparently.

Sosage · Posts: 3

I recently put Advanced Guardian Heroes back on the shelf and filled my GBA slot with Advance Wars 2 (never got around to playing it...mine as well start now). On the PC I've been swapping between Gunroar, Ele Paper Action, and White Chamber (which I didn't know about until I lurked into this thread...thanks for the heads up).

veen · Posts: 131

Killer7! the second playthrough, on deadly, was completed a few hours ago, and a game of bloodbath was begun. I adore it. so strange and wonderful, so inspired. so full of soul, wrapped delicately in chaos, vanishing like a phantom if you try to grasp it. and the score is just too good.

bloodbath is a challenge, which is very welcome, as the normal difficulties are pretty easy, save for a few extremely tricky bosses and sub-bosses. having to either guess at the weakpoint or just start blowing off limbs for blood is a pain. but that's exactly what I want, some impediments mixed in with all the gorgeousness. I haven't been hit yet, but I suspect the one hit kills will become horrible once the flyers and rollers are introduced. the color scheme seems to be different from the normal game, but that might be my memory playing tricks. a game like this should have different color schemes, like Rez did.

TU · Posts: 12

Sawtooth wrote:

There is no love for Mischief Makers in the town of Hortonville, no sirree. Except from me, apparently.

Man, I haven't played that since it was new. I remember really liking it. I can hardly remember it now. One thing I liked was the style/mood of the game. I remember it being bright and happy. Lately I've had an urge to find a bright, colorful, fun game to play, preferably something I can download for the PC. Any suggestions as to something like that, something that I can play for fun while on the phone for instance, without heavy concentration?

dark steve · Posts: 3002

Like maybe tetris and some polyphonic spree mp3s?

ManekiNeko · Posts: 989

What games have I played in the forum's absence? Too many to count. These include...

Burnout 3 (wickedly awesome arcade racing with an ultraviolent twist)

Need for Speed Underground 2 (nifty racing title with responsive control but a little too much product placement)

MDK 2 Armageddon (somehow I remember the Dreamcast version being better than this...)

Jade Empire (not bad, but definitely not 9.9 material. It didn't hold my attention for long)

Ape Escape 2 (fun, fun, fun despite the spartan graphics. You gotta love the English translation!)

Guilty Gear X2 # Reload (my first XBox fighting game, if memory serves, and one of the best in my collection)

Gradius V (someone asked earlier how this played with a PS2 Saturn pad. The answer? Very awesomely)

R-Type Final (the weak sister next to Gradius V, but still a decent shooter in its own right)

Paper Mario (cute RPG, but not as good as the first. Baby Yoshi suffers from Scrappy Doo syndrome)

Alien Hominid (overrated, but nevertheless entertaining. Very imaginative characters and scenes)

Kirby Canvas Curse (I liked Yoshi a lot, but I must admit, there's just more game here)

Crimson Skies (bitchin' period piece flight game with tight control and fab graphics)

Kakuto Chojin (supposedly rare fighting game. The whole Koran controversy is its only notable quality)

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (between this and Hot Shots Open Tee, I've realized how much golf games PISS ME OFF)

Star Ocean: Till The End of Time (zzz...)

Capcom vs. SNK 2 Easy Operation (still endlessly fun after all these years. Shin Akuma's still an ass, too)

Armored Core 3 (same as all the other ones, despite the designers' [fradulent] claims of improved control)

Midway Arcade Treasures (Roadblasters plays pretty well with an MC2 steering wheel)

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix (got it for cheap, and I do loves the T-Hawk series)

Dance Dance Revolution something or other (stopped playing after I thought I was going to have a heart attack)

Spiderman 2 (kind of fun, if Grand Thefty. Spidey cracks jokes here, a delightful surprise after the serious movie)

Eye Toy: Anti-Grav (what's with all these peripherals I buy and don't use, anyway?)

The King of Fighters 02/03 (might as well throw out the first disc... 2003's all I ever play)

Def Jam Vendetta (somewhere, Ice T's walking around with an imprint of my face on his fist)

JR

Lasa Kon · Posts: 245

Started playing Notrium again, I didn't kill the hermit this time either, I built the hoverbike and finally beat it with the subspace radio ending.

dessgeega · Posts: 3317

mischief makers happens to be a delightful game. i picked up my used copy some months ago. it's very inventive.

while the forums were down i unlocked every option in rez. one night i played a game of trancemission that lasted hours.

GrimSweeper · Posts: 530

My problem is remembering when the forums went down as my gaming hadn't changed because of it. So I'll try to remember some of the more recent ones

The demo for the new Zun shoot 'em up (somebody mentioned it earlier) - Story mode feels empty, but that's probably due to it being only 3 stages long. It also isn't as difficult as trying to beat the damnable AI in Hard/Lunatic. I come very close in Hard, but my endurance isn't up to machine precision. Nice change from his other games; this would be my first Twinkle Star-type game I've played.

Gunroar first version - As always, Kenta Cho delivers a simplistic yet fun game. And by the sounds of the newer versions, he keeps on delivering! Sadly, I have only a keyboard to use. Things explode to great satisfaction on my part and the flame/smoke particles is a nice touch. Closest comparison of his past games would be Parsec47, it feels like.

Tetris Attack - If anyone can remember some time back, I remarked on finally beating in Hard and found out that there is another difficulty to it. Well, recently I managed to one credit all the way to Bowser and like what others have said in that previous topic, he's a total bastard. He hands out the 5x or 6x garbage blocks like they were candy. Totally decimated all my characters down to Yoshi, where I shut it off in utter disgust.

Lumines - On a brother's PSP. Interesting take on a block-puzzle system, but I find the sound effects based on combos and other willy-nilly things rather random. I could not make it rhythmic. Still a bit addicting if I see the PSP lying around.

Startopia - It's like playing Theme Hospital combined with Dungeon Keeper...in space! Underdogs had it downloadable, so I took the liberty of getting it (relatively small too). It's easy, but it's charming. One comment, those furry little creatures totally surprised me when I found out that one had attacked a visitor and used their corpse to change into a huge beetle thing. They looked so innocent before-hand and I was going to use them to eat garbage for me.

Majesty - Had played this before (never mentioned it, though). I was attempting to finish both the Northern Expansion and the Normal Campaign missions, but my interest waned. Only had 2 left of Normal and about 5 or 6 in the North. Building for economy has the most advantages over all.

HoMM IV - Only Novice, and mostly only the campaigns. I managed to gain interest in their stories, so that's about the only thing motivating me. Just finished the Order Campaign just a few days ago, so I'm giving it a rest for about a week before continuing on another one.

Megaman games for the SNES - Don't know why, closest I figure it is that I want them done and over with. Just a matter of finding the boss that falls to the basic weapon first, then trying the other enemies until Bad Guy's fortress. Haven't finished them yet, but I haven't touched in a few weeks.

Assorted translated SNES roms that Aeon Genesis worked on - Do have a look at the site; most have a decent quality to them.

Mario 1, 2, 3 and World - Trying to speed run them. My quality does not approach those who hold that title, but it was enough to impress my classmates after a number of groups' presentations over several days. Also dabbled in trying to 1-life Mario World, but Tubular and one of the others after it (dark forest one with jumping flames and bullet bills) do me in time after time.

Gunz - Got up to level 6 and then realized that quite possibly my skill was being over-rated. Don't know how they managed it, but the creators went in a strange direction. Instead of getting hurt when other people see you getting hurt, you only are when you see yourself getting hurt. Therefore lag helps instead of hinders. I dropped it out of disgust.

Star Sonata - small, online MMO that simulates space in 2D. Been playing on subscription for quite some time. Community is better than say Runescape, but not by much. Majority of the time I tend to my bases instead of going around killing things and getting loot.

I think I'll stop there. This took long enough to write.

Baines · Posts: 906

nICO wrote:

SoA was good. Great even. It restored my faith in RPGs.

I don't understand the praise for SoA. I tried playing Legends, and it fairly quickly bored me to tears. It was just a dead average console RPG, and too much a chore to slog through.

Haven't played much of anything in the IC downtime, just haven't been caring about games at all lately. VF4, Dynasty Warriors 5, a little Riviera, dug out Bloody Roar Primal Fury for some unknown reason, and just randomly tried a few available GBA games. (The GBA Dynasty Warriors game? Ugh. I'd expect better design in a SNES era game made during the SNES era.)

dessgeega · Posts: 3317

gunroar is one of my favorite aba games of all (so is wok, incidentally). i've been saving tons of movies.

i havn't tried out the new version, though i have it on my computer. at some point i'll have to hook up a ps2 controller and attempt twin sticks mode.

dhex · Posts: 2963

morrowind, far cry, doom 3. i tried halo but that didn't work out. (anyone want it?)