IC Forum Archive

Moogs · Posts: 928

So I got the games I ordered from Play-Asia's summer blowout whatever sale.

The Zombie vs. Ambulance is... well hey. It's like Crazy Taxi, except you can actually run people over. I mean, you can run zombies over. And the music is kinda nice.

Sengoku Ace and Sengoku Blade are typical Psikyo shooters, which means I love them very much. This also reminds me that I never got around to getting Sengoku Cannon.

Akumajou Dracula, aka: Haunted Castle, is uh... odd? So far the most interesting things about this are hearing "Bloody Tears" (I thought it debuted in Simon's Quest), and seeing those weird enemies that pop out of tree trunks that reappeared in Super Castlevania IV. Game is pretty ugly, though.

I also got Contra. I haven't played the arcade version of this in what seems like forever, so I don't remember much about it. I have to say I prefer the waterfall level boss in the NES version, but, other than that, it's all good. Major distortion in yoko mode, though. I had forgotten that this was originally on a vertical monitor.

I'm pretty satisifed with my purchases!

Monthenor · Posts: 455

After Joystiq showed me the Portal trailer, I tracked down Narbacular Drop. I think I hit a bug, though...a lava turtle didn't appear to help me across a lava pit. But...portals! Whoo!

Clash! · Posts: 631

Kuru Kururin Paradise is grabbing me by the balls and throwing me down stair case after stair case.

ReroRero · Posts: 2148

Monthenor wrote:

After Joystiq showed me the Portal trailer, I tracked down Narbacular Drop. I think I hit a bug, though...a lava turtle didn't appear to help me across a lava pit.

That's happened to me. Killing yourself fixes it.

Balzac · Posts: 361

Dragon Quarter beats me like a redneck housewife but I love it anyway. Got to the second Bosch encounter on my first playthrough before realizing all my characters are 5-7 levels too low to do any real damage. Fucker generates 1/4 of his health every turn and I doubt I could beat him without rasiing my D-counter by like 20%.

I'll be starting a second loop tommorow.

taidan · Posts: 493

Rounding out all the bonus missions in LCS I was bitching about last time. Getting better at them, but I'm not done yet.

I need to get back to Alpha Anthology sometime soon.

Krabjuice · Posts: 114

Balders Gate 2. What the fuck, I'm hating it.

Gideon Zhi · Posts: 118

I played a bunch of Majora's Mask today. The Zora mask is kickass fun.

Diplocephalus · Posts: 863

I need to get back to Majora's Mask. I quit about a month ago when I got to the fourth temple.
Recently finished the Spirit Temple in Ocarina. There's a terrible "switch" glitch at one point.

I didn't really play anything today. My friend ordered Rez out of the blue, though, and I saw him play a couple levels when I came over.
It certainly held my attention, which is saying something. I usually can't stand to watch games.

If I can get it for relatively cheap, I'll probably do so - I'm just not sure what there is to it beyond aesthetics. It's utterly beautiful: the geometry and progressive feel are amazing, as is the link between the aural and visual features. But will the gameplay endure? Maybe it'll turn into the ultimate therapeutic game.

Cycle · Posts: 1574

it's like $10 over at play-asia.

Lurky · Posts: 293

Diplocephalus wrote:

I'm just not sure what there is to it beyond aesthetics. It's utterly beautiful: the geometry and progressive feel are amazing, as is the link between the aural and visual features. But will the gameplay endure?

MY BED HAS PAINT ON IT!! (is it soft enough?)
Sorry, I was reading Danto's The Artistic Enfranchisement of Real Objects: The Artworld

To answer your question; No, the gameplay will not endure.

aesthetics in Rez is akin to aesthetics in art, not aesthetics in the paint on your car. Saying a car doesn't go beyond aesthetics is a criticism. Saying a painting doesn't go beyond aesthetics, is confusing.

Krabjuice · Posts: 114

Don't forget the trance vibrator. It'll make Rez your weekend special for years to come.

zak · Posts: 42

Krabjuice wrote:

Balders Gate 2. What the fuck, I'm hating it.

What? Why?!

I was up until 5 in the morning playing Mario Kart and drinking beer. I recently got Ibara and Mushihime-sama on my PS2 but I was in no condition to play them.

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

Holy shit, did Stalin have his way with this thread?

Anyway, I've been checking out Gundam Battle Assault. The first one. It was free, so I only lost time. Animation is actually excellent IMO, and the combat seems appropiate: Slow and clumsy, as big giant robots tend to be. Story mode is laughable ("Mobile Suit incoming!" "Heero, I must fight you!"), and the ending is the most abrupt I've ever seen. Blast from the Past.

LegatoB · Posts: 1546

GcDiaz, if you enjoyed it, you should track down the US-only "Gundam Battle Assault 2" which adds a shitload more robots and vaguely more sensical story modes (plural). For once the US got the better deal, as the game was chopped up into several Gundam-series-specific budget games for Japanese release. Plus, it looks pretty nice on the PS2 with the system's smoothing option, and the robots that went strangely missing from the Japanese version of GBA1 and between GBA1 and GBA2 are accessible using a gameshark if you're interested in seeing the robot design TOO HOT FOR US CONSUMERS.

Wish I knew what happened to my copy of the game, though.

Brock · Posts: 421

It's been almost four years since I sat in front of my TV and muttered an endless stream of profanities, shaking in my seat and trying my best to pull off parries and combos in Soul Calibur.

I think I might really like Soul Calibur III after all.

EDIT: Seconding Legatob's recommendation of GBA2. It's a lot of fun, and for a 2D fighter, it loads a lot faster than it has any right to on an old PSOne. I might play it today as part of a PSOne fighter revival thing I've had planned (gotta give Evil Zone a shot again, not to mention try the quest mode in Tobal 2).

Moogs · Posts: 928

Okay, Akumajou Dracula (Haunted Castle) is fucking strange.

What the hell was that in the third level? All of a sudden, Simon walks thru a portal and gets zapped into a single screen that looks like a photo negative... to fight a few harpy-looking things while some creepy "music" plays. After you kill them, you go back to the level like nothing happened.

Seriously.

What the hell?

Krabjuice · Posts: 114

Balders Gate 2, again. I'm starting to like it a bit more once I've started thinking about my actions.

zak · Posts: 42

There you go.
The game really picks up after you get out of the first dungeon and get to wander arround doing whatever quests you like.

The main thing is picking the class that works best for you and sticking with it. I restarted the game many times until I finished it with a swashbuckler.
The way your party grows and starts fighting like a well oiled machine towards the end is really great.

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

I beat Viewtiful Joe today. On the easiest difficulty setting! Next stop: something that might actually demonstrate skill!

I also played Illegal Communication. It's a very interesting concept of a game, but the execution is pretty awful.

Scratchmonkey · Posts: 2229

Still playing Football Manager and Escape Velocity: Nova. Trying to figure out how to do the Rebel missions in that game, with little success. On the other hand, I had a crazy series of results in Champions League in FM:

First round of the knockouts: Dusseldorf (me) vs. Sevilla

During the home leg, I went up 3-0 and foolishly subbed in some youngsters for experience and didn't switch to defensive tactics. Sevilla winds up coming back to tie the game 3-3 in stoppage time, which, if you weren't aware, is a horrible result for the home team.

Then I beat them 0-4 on the away leg.

Quarterfinals: Dusseldorf vs. Valencia

This time the away leg was first and I won 1-3.

Then, 3 out of my 4 first-choice defenders got hurt and I had to put out a lineup consisting of 36-year-olds and 20-year-olds at the back. I figured that with a 3-1 away result, I would probably be okay. Well, Valenca immediately ripped me apart for a 0-2 first-half lead. At least I was going through on away goals. I made it 1-2 shortly after the break and then they scored again to make it 1-3 and even on aggregate. I threw caution to the wind at this point and went to an attacking strategy with no offside trap and immediately pulled back 2 goals to make it 3-3. They scored again with 10 minutes to go to give me a huge scare; however, it finished 3-4 with Dusseldorf going thorugh 6-5 on aggregate.

And I think the old version of this thread and the News thread are in Thread Fighter, or they should be.

Maztorre · Posts: 1175

Hey, Scratch, how up-to-date is the current version of FM? Should I just wait for a new one after the transfer window ends or do Sega provide support patches to keep it current for new owners?

Scratchmonkey · Posts: 2229

Maztorre wrote:

Hey, Scratch, how up-to-date is the current version of FM? Should I just wait for a new one after the transfer window ends or do Sega provide support patches to keep it current for new owners?

The most current one I believe is if you have FM 2006 then get a patch, it would update you through the end of the January 2006 transfer window.

I don't think that they'll release an official patch for the summer transfers, instead relying on that being a major selling point of FM 2007, which should come out in December.

However, I imagine that there are people who will release unofficial patches for the summer transfers after the current transfer window has closed, I don't know exactly where that would be, since The Dugout doesn't have anything since last December; I do know people who will probably be able to find out.

Maztorre · Posts: 1175

Hmm. Worth picking up now do you think, or shall I wait for FM2007?

I'm kind of tempted to get it before the Premiership starts.

Scratchmonkey · Posts: 2229

I don't really mind playing with FM 2006 too much, since things are going to go differently from the way that they do in the real world, unless you're really married to stuff like Gudjohnsen at Barcelona and such, it's just as fun to see if you can change the way things happened last year.

winkerwanker · Posts: 2414

Man fuck you Alchemy Pot.

Moogs · Posts: 928

I'm not exactly sure why I just played The Zombie vs. Ambulance for nearly two hours.

Really, am I just supposed to run over zombies, pick up citizens, run over zombies, and return the citizens to the hospital? I figured out that I can upgrade the ambulance by finding mechanics, and now I have a "rocket engine" and "highway tires." Took me a while to figure out how to shake a zombie off the roof of the ambulance; I really didn't think to wiggle the analog like I was in some kind of wrestling hold or something.

The game also feels appropriately desolate, even if it really wasn't all that intentional. The streets are empty aside from scattered clusters of the undead and a few citizens. No traffic or anything. The occasional stray-paper-blowing-in-the-wind that I first saw in GTAIII. No music during gameplay.

It's entertaining! And I don't know why!

Also, I think I only play the Psyvariar games because they have nice music; even on the hardest difficulty levels these games are ridiculously easy.

Scratchmonkey · Posts: 2229

winkerwanker wrote:

Man fuck you Alchemy Pot.

The reason I stopped playing DQ8 was because I had just started to figure out the Alchemy pot and I hit the portion of the game where it gets taken away and you have go on a series of quests to get it back.

winkerwanker · Posts: 2414

Spoilers

dessgeega · Posts: 3317

i fused my final planet in meteos today.

(globin.)

Deets · Posts: 605

Moogs wrote:

Also, I think I only play the Psyvariar games because they have nice music; even on the hardest difficulty levels these games are ridiculously easy.

I remember hearing that Psyvariar as a series is easy to finish but difficult to score well on. That would explain why you're finding them so easy, at any rate!

Koji · Posts: 571

dessgeega wrote:

meteos

Speaking of which, I recently (two days ago) opened my copy of it that I bought a few months ago. It's pretty great, though it's not quite how I had imagined it. It's not a hardcore puzzler like Panel de Pon (I have no idea how some people can say this is a sideways PdP,) it's more in the freeform side of the spectrum. The fact that every planet behaves differently makes it all the looser. It's mindless fun most of the time, it's like Smash Bros.! Very much like Smash Bros., in that you collect play points, and have all these modes that you can tweak to your liking, and the stats saving... Even the music reminds me of Smash. Bros. The game reminds me a bit of Star Fox 64, too, for some reason (maybe the space theme and the branching paths in Story mode and all that, even the music at times.)

Wait, did Sakurai direct Smash Bros.? *checks* Yes he did, it makes so much sense.

Crazy Bacon Lips · Posts: 783

Scratchmonkey wrote:

winkerwanker wrote:

Man fuck you Alchemy Pot.

The reason I stopped playing DQ8 was because I had just started to figure out the Alchemy pot and I hit the portion of the game where it gets taken away and you have go on a series of quests to get it back.

I quit after having some trouble with the alchemy pot as well, although it had more to do with me being poor, it being my only source of income, and me not wanting to waste time, running around the wilderness fighting mechanical birds and shit until my goddamn Scholar's Hats were done. I feel like if I started it again, put all my points into boomerangs and courage, and actually knew that the alchemy pot was integral to financial success from the get-go, that I'd actually like it. It sucks to be poor in DQ, although I guess it makes you appreciate what you're given; Angelo had the same damn bronze helmet all the way from Pickham, to where I quit in some snowland.

Fuck me, now I want that game back.

Cycle · Posts: 1574

i bought a ds and mario kart

someone play me

Mr. Mechanical · Posts: 1890

Crazy Bacon Lips wrote:

Scratchmonkey wrote:

winkerwanker wrote:

Man fuck you Alchemy Pot.

The reason I stopped playing DQ8 was because I had just started to figure out the Alchemy pot and I hit the portion of the game where it gets taken away and you have go on a series of quests to get it back.

I quit after having some trouble with the alchemy pot as well, although it had more to do with me being poor, it being my only source of income, and me not wanting to waste time, running around the wilderness fighting mechanical birds and shit until my goddamn Scholar's Hats were done. I feel like if I started it again, put all my points into boomerangs and courage, and actually knew that the alchemy pot was integral to financial success from the get-go, that I'd actually like it. It sucks to be poor in DQ, although I guess it makes you appreciate what you're given; Angelo had the same damn bronze helmet all the way from Pickham, to where I quit in some snowland.

Fuck me, now I want that game back.

Alchemy Pot? I barely use the thing. I get most of the money I need from fighting Gold Golems on the island of Neos.

Crazy Bacon Lips · Posts: 783

Mr. Mechanical wrote:

Crazy Bacon Lips wrote:

Scratchmonkey wrote:

winkerwanker wrote:

Man fuck you Alchemy Pot.

The reason I stopped playing DQ8 was because I had just started to figure out the Alchemy pot and I hit the portion of the game where it gets taken away and you have go on a series of quests to get it back.

I quit after having some trouble with the alchemy pot as well, although it had more to do with me being poor, it being my only source of income, and me not wanting to waste time, running around the wilderness fighting mechanical birds and shit until my goddamn Scholar's Hats were done. I feel like if I started it again, put all my points into boomerangs and courage, and actually knew that the alchemy pot was integral to financial success from the get-go, that I'd actually like it. It sucks to be poor in DQ, although I guess it makes you appreciate what you're given; Angelo had the same damn bronze helmet all the way from Pickham, to where I quit in some snowland.

Fuck me, now I want that game back.

Alchemy Pot? I barely use the thing. I get most of the money I need from fighting Gold Golems on the island of Neos.

Yeah, I knew about that. But I don't like grinding for gold; I'd rather acquire it passively. It sucks how, once you get the boat, the price of goods inflates drastically, while the amount of money you receive from monsters barely creeps upward.

vision · Posts: 472

the key to wealth is the roulette wheel and the reset/restart button.

slime bingo, however, remains my favorite masochistic pastime.

LegatoB · Posts: 1546

I played some of Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked today. Pretty fun, in a mindless sort of way. Quite stylish. Too bad the guy doing Mugen's voice in the game is attempting a poor mimicing of Steven Blum's poor performance in the anime's dub. They got the other major characters' dub voice actors back, so I wonder what the deal is here with the half-assed copycat.

Pijaibros · Posts: 968

In Dragon Quest 8...

I managed to have some money by constantly making expensive hot/cold cheeses when not making useful equipment. Thankfully the ingredients for them were always plentiful. I also liked to just wander the world, admiring it very much.

I couldn't afford everything, but it kept most of my party members well prepared.

I never fought gold golems, except for the one needed for my monster party.

Rud13 · Posts: 3277

LegatoB wrote:

I played some of Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked today. Pretty fun, in a mindless sort of way. Quite stylish. Too bad the guy doing Mugen's voice in the game is attempting a poor mimicing of Steven Blum's poor performance in the anime's dub. They got the other major characters' dub voice actors back, so I wonder what the deal is here with the half-assed copycat.

Yeah. the game is pretty there. the soundtrack is awesome though!

Crazy Bacon Lips · Posts: 783

vision wrote:

the key to wealth is the roulette wheel and the reset/restart button.

slime bingo, however, remains my favorite masochistic pastime.

Fuck, I forgot about gambling. Which is good, because I really love this game and I wanted to play it more, but the destitution was making it difficult to enjoy. I don't know if "destitution" is a word, but "destitute" is, and it sounds right. And I need more money than some quality cheese can muster. I need, like, 30,000-50,000, just to get my equipment up-to-date.

nocturnedelight · Posts: 430

I beat Drill Dozer. I fell asleep during the end credits. Did I miss anything?

Clash! · Posts: 631

nocturnedelight wrote:

I beat Drill Dozer. I fell asleep during the end credits. Did I miss anything?

No, but those credits were too long and not entertaining like they tried to make them. Shouldn't it be a rule that all 2D games credits include a parade of the enemies with there names ala Super Mario World?

Also, I beat this game just the other day and played the first new level today. They really ramp up the difficulty for these levels, its pretty awesome.

Toto · Posts: 498

Discovered the Metroid series.
Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime: Hunters are getting played. It's cool that I have them in once console at the same time. One in the GBA slot and the other in the DS slot. Nice.
Metroid Hunters controls really suprisingly naturally. I really thought it would be an awkward piece of shit, but it's good.
Metroid Fusion is excellent. I'm new to the genre so I don't get this whole Incredibly easy thing. It's kind of challenging, but not really. I like it how level design makes it so that once you have a new ability everything suddenly falls into place and you can get new abilities and such.

taidan · Posts: 493

I signed up for Gametap last night, to give it a whirl. I'm sure there are all sorts of complaints people could throw at the service, but so far I'm impressed. Quite a smorgasbaord of games, and they all work well so far, even the newer stuff like Splinter Cell. I'm surprised such a big, powerful company run by a bunch of dinosaurs would be able to create a service like this that actually seems to be trying.

Anyway, I got my groove on with some Zork trilogy and Pandora Tomorrow. Tonight I think I'll try out the Ultimas.

mechanori · Posts: 623

King Kong should be interesting. But it's not. At all. It's painfully not interesting. I don't think I'm going to play any more of it.

It tries to do something "NEW," but what it's doing has already been done by Half Life 2. And, see, what Half Life does makes significantly more sense. Here's the deal: if you're going to try something different with narrative, steal everything you can from a genre. Then, build off of it. Half Life 2 is a first person shooter. A fun one with variety and weapons and physics. It's allowed to execute its narrative vision. ICO is a decent adventure game. Shadow of the Colossus is a great third person action game. MGS3 is a really fun stealth action game. King Kong is an incredibly stupid first person something in which you throw sticks and burn things and sometimes you have a gun. It has its moments, but its just not good enough on its own to be able to do the narrative junk its trying so hard to accomplish.

RobotRocker · Posts: 297

I picked up Rallisport Challenge 2 for a score yesterday. Pretty spiffy and still being supported well by XSN. Its probably the best Rally game since Colin McRae 2.0.

I am also in awe of how the Skoda Octavia RS is a goddamn beast in the game. Not too fast but drifts like an asian kid on speed.

Moogs · Posts: 928

King Kong is a five hour Universal Studios rail ride. Especially the parts where Kong is moving around and not fighting; I never really felt like I was in control in those parts.

Gouki · Posts: 212

Under the Skin. A charming, fun, universally panned game that I picked up for 10 bucks today. Attacking innocent people and stealing their skin is far too enjoyable to hate. Although why these innocent people carry weapons, I do not know.

dessgeega · Posts: 3317

i bought falcom classics for 5 usd immediately after reading jiji's review. not for ys (i'm halfway through the pce version) but for xanadu. it is not disappointing me! it is all kinds of an engrossing adventure, and super charming (the town you start in has little horse and dove non-enemies fluttering around) though i think i seem to have gotten myself stuck between a locked door and a bridge (can only move down). dragon slayer is interesting in a "this is interesting" sort of way. the dragon fried me in three hits.

my copy of the sega ages remake of alien syndrome also arrived today. i like it!