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Post by Imperial Khador on Oct 22, 2021 16:17:08 GMT
Ace Combat 7 (for PS4) - PS5 (still) Dragon Quest VII - 3DS (still so very slowly) Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition - Switch (still)
The Mummy Demastered (for PS4) - PS5
I don't want to buy Metroid Dread at full price, but felt like a Metroidvania, and remembered hearing that The Mummy Demastered was unexpectedly good (and by far the best thing associated with Universal's Tom Cruise reboot of The Mummy, and its aborted Dark Universe). So far, I'm enjoying it. Nothing groundbreaking, but really good soundtrack.
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Oct 22, 2021 16:29:57 GMT
The Mummy Demastered was made by WayForward. I live close to their studio, and they have been doing a lot of solid work during the last years.
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dschult3
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The true heir to the Monado.
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Post by dschult3 on Oct 22, 2021 23:59:18 GMT
One of my brothers and I really wanted to get into PC gaming in the 90s, and we put our funds together to buy Panzer General 2, since our friend told us that SSI games were awesome. I still have the copy, but modern Windows systems cannot play it. Fast forward to yesterday, and I found this website: Panzer General IIIf anybody here is interested in these types of games, welcome back to 1997 and enjoy turn based combat!
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Cervantes
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A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
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Post by Cervantes on Nov 12, 2021 23:46:00 GMT
I haven't updated this for some time, so here are the three games that I've played through late September and October:
Tenchu Z (X360) has a lot of problems. It seems the game was originally being made for the PS2, so the graphics look a full generation behind almost anything on the 360; it only has a few levels (less than 10) for its 50 missions, which delve into repetition quickly; lastly, it's a stealth game that's just too basic, with an AI that is even more dumb and robotic than even the first Metal Gear Solid game and very few items or different moves to use (the game even penalizes the player for using items). Do you know how in even the first MGS (or MG2 before that) you could tap on walls to attract the guards' attention and prepare ambushes or go around them? In Tenchu Z, there's no option to do that, and when a guard hear a sound, instead of going to investigate it, he just stops where he is and keep looking around, so you can't even create ambushes. Only much later I could buy an ability to call the guards, but it was so badly implemented that I found it to be useless.
Yet, despite all those flaws, I still found it to be a very addictive little game. It's bad looking, yes, it doesn't have 1/10th of the complexity of any Metal Gear entry, but it's still enjoyable to jump on rooftops, stalk unsuspecting guards and then drop over them with a sword. Instead of carefully sneaking around, the game is all about running towards the guards when they are turning their backs and quickly killing them - unlike other stealth games, walking carefully is useless and pacifism is heavily discouraged. Jumping, running, using the grapple hook to get on the roof, outside the guards' field of view, is surprisingly the most fun way to play the game: it's less about stealth and more about being fast and efficient. The game is too basic and repetitive to say it's good, but there's some fun to find in it. I'll only complain about the 2 missions that have obligatory fights, as the combat system is trash and the most annoying part of the experience.
Deep Fear (Saturn) is, technically, a very competent Resident Evil clone; I would even say that it might be the second best one (I'll give that honor to Dino Crisis, while I think Parasite Eve is in another category altogether). Despite that, it's still a RE clone, so while it succeeds in every technical aspect, like great graphics and enemy designs, very responsive controls, a large campaign with many CG scenes and voice acting etc., it simply fails to grasp what was great about RE. See, Deep Fear leans more towards action, so much that I can see it as an early precursor to Dead Space, but that sucks out all the tension that was in RE: there's rechargeable ammo, rechargeable health (no cost for either) and the enemies respawn, but the combat system is so simple that fighting them with infinite ammo is never fun. In RE, the tension was in knowing that not every enemy could be killed, so you had to risk letting some zombies alive while running too close to them on the hallways. That's also why backtracking in RE worked: because it was tense knowing that you had to go back to some corridor still full of zombies, now that the ammo would be even more scarce; in Deep Fear, backtracking is just boring, because it's a matter of killing again the same creatures. The backtracking itself felt more natural in RE, because it was connected to the puzzles: you needed an item to complete a puzzle, found it in another room, went back to solve it; Deep Fear lacks even the simple RE puzzles, so the backtracking, when it starts, amounts to a bunch of literal fetch quests given by other characters, feeling more contrived and tedious. Deep Fear has high production values, with graphics better than RE1, but the setting itself, an underwater base, lacks variation, having too many metallic corridors; even the camera angles are not quite right: RE used well thought-out angles in some scenes, but Deep Fear goes almost always for a "security camera" angle, usually not showing where the character is heading to or giving any interesting view of the creatures. The CGI scenes are plenty and look good, but have all the limitations from 1998's CGI coupled with one of the most ridiculous voice acting I've ever heard.
I know it seems I'm being too hard on the game, but I still thought it looked really good for its time, had an interesting story and one mechanic that set it apart, which was the constantly dwindling supply of air, which sadly was also too easy to recharge most of the time (with limited health and ammo, this could give the game a real sense of urgency). The first few hours contained in Disc 1 are really damn good and almost set it as a spiritual successor to RE1, but then the flaws keep pilling up as Disc 2 is almost entirely made of backtracking and fetch quests.
Dragon Force (Saturn) - I've just replayed it with the samurai clan. It's a very enjoyable strategy/RPG/board game with solid mechanics, one of the best and most replayable on the Saturn: as soon as I was done with it, I immediatelly wanted to start again with a new clan. The only flaws I can think of are a few "unwinnable" enemies that, if you attack their castle, they keep coming back again and again and repeating fights until you just give up and retreat, and a few story events that take too much time to figure out by yourself (for example, which monarchs go into each temple, since it takes forever to send a monarch from one temple to the other if you get the clues wrong). Besides that, the game is not only one of the most fun in that generation, but also a showpiece of what the Saturn could do with 2d graphics, as later battles usually involve 202 characters/sprites, besides other sprites used for the scenery without any slowdown.
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centipede
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It was just one soy latte, I swear!
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Post by centipede on Nov 20, 2021 4:58:28 GMT
X-Com: Enemy Unknown. It's been kicking my ass! Worse if your squad gets dropped off in an area where your only cover is COMBUSTIBLE cars!
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dschult3
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The true heir to the Monado.
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Post by dschult3 on Nov 21, 2021 20:10:40 GMT
I've started up a game of Kirby Star Allies on the Switch, because I want my son to play through some of the games he has, yet has never given them the time of day to beat them. He is happy that we are playing together, but I really don't like this game. I've come to dislike 4 player platforming games. There's just too much going on screen. I find it difficult to train my eye on the correct position of my guy, so I end up taking damage randomly. We'll see how it goes though.
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Nov 21, 2021 21:57:18 GMT
I actually liked that game, I beat the whole thing, but I was playing it by myself. I haven't found a Kirby game I don't like so far, but it is definitely not for everybody. There's just too much going on screen. I find it difficult to train my eye on the correct position of my guy, so I end up taking damage randomly. Playing bullet heaven games helps with that. Although I don't think I would ever be as good as this guy is in Mushihimisama:
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dschult3
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The true heir to the Monado.
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Post by dschult3 on Dec 14, 2021 22:29:36 GMT
Yesterday, scipioafricanus and I tried to play through Streets of Rage 2 on the Genesis Mini. Our run ended at Shiva. I was done during the boss rush before it. Even though I was annoyed as hell to lose at the second to last boss, I really love that game.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Dec 15, 2021 0:30:12 GMT
Persona 5 Strikers - PS4 (on PS5) GRIS - PS4 (on PS5) Panzer Paladin - Switch Dragon Quest VII - 3DS (Yes, still)
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dschult3
CGR Undertow Groupie
The true heir to the Monado.
Posts: 2,767
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Post by dschult3 on Dec 16, 2021 14:53:52 GMT
I started playing The Secret of Mana on the Collection of Mana collection. I started playing it in 2019, and for some reason or another, I stopped. I had no idea as to where I was at, so I started from scratch. I'm already further than that save file, so I don't know why I quit.
I'm enjoying it so far. I can see how Squaresoft started developing their ideas for their future games in this one. It is too early to say, but I think I may enjoy Secret of Evermore a bit better, even though people panned it since it wasn't the 3rd in the series. I feel like a few things are rough around the edges. (Like the magic spells and the baddies directly off the screen just before the screen scrolls.) I'm not letting these things annoy me too much though, because I feel like this is a chance to see how Square's game development progressed to the amazing Chronotrigger. I really do like the three player option, and I like the feel of the combat overall. I know some people don't like the ring menu system, but for some reason, I love it. I'm hoping I beat it before Christmas. If I get another game, then I may have to come back to this one again in the future.
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Cervantes
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Post by Cervantes on Dec 21, 2021 1:21:36 GMT
I'm having a mid-2000s' Capcom appreciation moment:
Onimusha: Warlords HD (PC) is really, as most reviews would tell, a samurai-themed Resident Evil that leans a bit more on the action side of things. It comes with good and bad results: on the good side, it has gorgeous pre-rendered graphics for its time (though not on par with REmake) and a tried-and-true level design that has a proper balance between exploration and backtracking, with the caveat that the map feels smaller than RE 1-3. There are some fun, albeit simple puzzles, and two characters to play.
On the bad side, the mix of pre-rendered backgrounds with melee combat means it's not good survival horror, like RE, nor a good action game, like Devil May Cry: it stays in the middle and compares unfavourably to both. Most areas are tight corridors where you fight 2-3 enemies at a time and have constantly shifting fixed camera angles, which makes fighting a bit awkward most of the time - so much that neither the tank controls on the d-pad nor the direct controls with the analog were ever completely satisfying as I was playing it. Because of this, Capcom kept the combat on the simple side of things: a 3-hit combo, a forward attack, a kick, a magic attack, a block and a parry/reversal; there's no jumping, aerial attacks, juggling, crowd control moves or more complex combos, which would all go against the fixed cameras, and the only difference between the four weapons is their speeds and magic attacks. There's also a second character for a few scenes (like Rebecca Chambers in RE1), which adds some variety, but she plays mostly the same, just without any magic and an added jump-over-enemy move. It was all probably fine on release, but consider that DMC would be released just a few months down the line with a dynamic camera and much faster and varied combat, with distinct weapons that all played differently. Onimusha probably felt immediatelly outdated once DMC appeared.
That said, the game is a fun 5-6 hours adventure in an interesting setting (Medieval Japan) and a few secrets to discover. It's very enjoyable if you're looking for a more straight-forward game, a melee-focused Resident Evil experience. I liked it and will maybe replay it someday to get the few secrets I missed.
As it was such a short game, I also started Okami HD (PC). I'm very early on, having played just the first hour, but it already clicked with me: the story initially felt too exposition heavy, but everything else, like the plot itself, the art and gameplay are all spot on. It's easy and fun to control Amaterasu, the world looks gorgeous and the characters are endearing. Having already played the DS sequel, Okamiden, I know more or less what to expect from the gameplay, so I think I'll probably enjoy my time with it.
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Dec 21, 2021 1:34:31 GMT
I'm playing through Uncharted Lost Legacy, considering I already beat all the other four Uncharted games this is the last one I was missing from finishing. I'm on Chapter 5, so I still have a long way to go.
I recently finished Uncharted 4, and the other 3 games I finished years ago, I really like the platforming in these games, they are very fun to play through.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Dec 21, 2021 18:40:42 GMT
I'm playing through Uncharted Lost Legacy, considering I already beat all the other four Uncharted games this is the last one I was missing from finishing. I'm on Chapter 5, so I still have a long way to go. I recently finished Uncharted 4, and the other 3 games I finished years ago, I really like the platforming in these games, they are very fun to play through. What, not grabbing Golden Abyss on the Vita for the "Direct-to-Video" Uncharted experience?
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Dec 21, 2021 23:40:27 GMT
I totally forgot about that one, I doubt there is any chance that one would be ported to consoles like Gravity Rush was. I actually play these games with friends. I have a few friends that just like to watch without playing, and just have conversations throughout the campaign, so having it on consoles would be a good thing, or maybe there is a way to stream it to the big screen like what I thought PlayStation TV did.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Dec 22, 2021 2:13:38 GMT
I totally forgot about that one, I doubt there is any chance that one would be ported to consoles like Gravity Rush was. I actually play these games with friends. I have a few friends that just like to watch without playing, and just have conversations throughout the campaign, so having it on consoles would be a good thing, or maybe there is a way to stream it to the big screen like what I thought PlayStation TV did. I don't think there is a way to fully play Golden Abyss on even a modded PSTV. Some of the controls, like the touch screen and back touch pad could be replicated, but it even uses the camera for functionality.
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