The "Currently Playing..." Topic

2015-11-18 08:53:23 pm

Dood Trigger™

Joe 2 is done!

Damn... that final level is one endless gauntlet. Very cool stage, though. They make you use all the powers again in puzzle-y ways and the enemies here are far from mindless fodder. Final boss crushed me... had to use my Take 2s before I sort of figured him out. Not a big fan of all the chasing in this fight, but at least the music is awesome.

I love the little story behind the boss refights. A shapeshifting bot (who turns out has feelings! Aww <3) created by the local mad scientist makes more sense than simply reviving bosses à la Mega Man. And they have Miss Bloody Rachel's golden look. Pretty sweet.

That was great. As I said, VJ1 is better, but the sequel is super creative and enjoyable. The only part of the game that I truly dislike is 5-2 with the Six Marine. I must be missing something obvious because it's like the difficulty goes way up out of nowhere. This part is slow as hell and enemies come from literally all sides. I know you can switch to the drill machine, but that doesn't seem to help with the cluster.

Next up, from Clover to Platinum Games: MadWorld.

Joe 2 is done!

Damn... that final level is one endless gauntlet. Very cool stage, though. They make you use all the powers again in puzzle-y ways and the enemies here are far from mindless fodder. Final boss crushed me... had to use my Take 2s before I sort of figured him out. Not a big fan of all the chasing in this fight, but at least the music is awesome.

I love the little story behind the boss refights. A shapeshifting bot (who turns out has feelings! Aww <3) created by the local mad scientist makes more sense than simply reviving bosses à la Mega Man. And they have Miss Bloody Rachel's golden look. Pretty sweet.

That was great. As I said, VJ1 is better, but the sequel is super creative and enjoyable. The only part of the game that I truly dislike is 5-2 with the Six Marine. I must be missing something obvious because it's like the difficulty goes way up out of nowhere. This part is slow as hell and enemies come from literally all sides. I know you can switch to the drill machine, but that doesn't seem to help with the cluster.

Next up, from Clover to Platinum Games: MadWorld.

Toozin

2015-11-18 09:50:25 pm

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

I loved MadWorld the first time through, but weirdly every time I try to go back to it, no matter how much time has passed, I get bored very quickly. I dunno why, it's designed to be replayed a lot. It has been a while though, maybe i should give it one more try sometime.

The soundtrack and commentary are easily the best parts of the game though. Top shelf stuff.

arkarian

2015-11-18 09:52:19 pm

red chamber dream

i got bored of it after a few hours, but yeah the commentary was funny and the art was cool. but it also made it hard to fucking see lol

Da Dood

2015-11-19 05:49:32 am

Dood Trigger™

I can see why people get bored with it. Even though there are tons of ways to kill enemies, usually the more efficient way is the basic combo, and then you have to get a high score to fight the boss. I remember I enjoyed this a lot back in the day because I combed the whole level for interesting kills, but I imagine it won't be as interesting without the novelty. We'll see!

Turtle

2015-11-19 11:47:37 am

I like turtles.

Finally got around to playing Tomb Raider (the 2013 one) over the last couple days. For how much of a ripoff it was of every single one of Naughty Dog's titles of the past decade, it was still really fun and it got a lot of little things right.

It also did a far better job at the whole "make the traditionally ruthless protagonist more vulnerable" thing than Other M. Palpable character development, expression of emotion that didn't amount to whining, the little "journals" here and there, being stuck in brutal circumstances but also ready to fight back... there was this nice sense of Lara as a human being without being disrespectful of Lara as a longstanding video game icon. Basically a better Samus than Samus.

Toozin

2015-11-19 03:42:06 pm

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

It also helps that Tomb Raider is literally Lara's origin whereas Other M was years into Samus's career.

Da Dood

2015-11-19 04:12:26 pm

Dood Trigger™

"The words these guys so obviously chose... 'Other M is a piece of crap at this one thing too'... pierced my heart"

Turtle

2015-11-19 10:15:09 pm

I like turtles.

Quote from Toozin:

It also helps that Tomb Raider is literally Lara's origin whereas Other M was years into Samus's career.

True, and that's another thought I had while playing. It works much better when trying to present a different version of a character when there's at least an implicit justification for it. Lara's "vulnerable" portrayal wasn't annoying to me regardless, but the fact that it's ultimately a stepping stone toward the Lara everyone knows makes it "good" instead of "tolerable." Vice versa with Samus, who seemed to regress into 14-year-old manga!self in and only in the penultimate game in the timeline.

Da Dood

2015-11-20 05:37:01 am

Dood Trigger™

MadWorld begins. Only did the first 2 levels + world boss.

I still like it, but it takes a while to pick up, for sure. The controls aren't intuitive (especially coming from Metroid Prime 3 where certain functions are similar but assigned to different commands), there is a lot of waggle, and the arcade-y design requires a good deal of commitment if you don't want to be bored doing the same kills over and over. I still remember the coolest kills and the stage layouts, so at least I haven't had a problem with repetition thus far. We'll see how well I do in later stages.

The design is a double-edged sword IMO. While it is cool having this big-ish playground to run around and do whatever you want, they don't give you a lot of incentive for trying different stuff. It would be nice if there were actual gameplay-related prizes for doing things creatively. As is, the score system rewards the basic combo (drum + pole + rose bush) better than the truly crazy kills that you can find inside the levels. Bloodbath Challenges are really cool, though. That said, this is like an old-school beat-'em-up where you either bore yourself to death with the same repeated combo or you go out of your way to see more varied kills. I can dig it, but I do get the criticism.

I love both the commentary and the music, but you gotta pick either/or because it's just too much talking on top of a rap soundtrack. I'm going with louder commentary this time (mainly 'cause this is my first run since I found out who Greg Proops is... I'm a recent Whose Line fan), but I'll switch when my favorite tracks play.

MadWorld begins. Only did the first 2 levels + world boss.

I still like it, but it takes a while to pick up, for sure. The controls aren't intuitive (especially coming from Metroid Prime 3 where certain functions are similar but assigned to different commands), there is a lot of waggle, and the arcade-y design requires a good deal of commitment if you don't want to be bored doing the same kills over and over. I still remember the coolest kills and the stage layouts, so at least I haven't had a problem with repetition thus far. We'll see how well I do in later stages.

The design is a double-edged sword IMO. While it is cool having this big-ish playground to run around and do whatever you want, they don't give you a lot of incentive for trying different stuff. It would be nice if there were actual gameplay-related prizes for doing things creatively. As is, the score system rewards the basic combo (drum + pole + rose bush) better than the truly crazy kills that you can find inside the levels. Bloodbath Challenges are really cool, though. That said, this is like an old-school beat-'em-up where you either bore yourself to death with the same repeated combo or you go out of your way to see more varied kills. I can dig it, but I do get the criticism.

I love both the commentary and the music, but you gotta pick either/or because it's just too much talking on top of a rap soundtrack. I'm going with louder commentary this time (mainly 'cause this is my first run since I found out who Greg Proops is... I'm a recent Whose Line fan), but I'll switch when my favorite tracks play.

ryu

2015-11-21 05:37:12 am

Played some Mario Tennis Ultra Smash with friends. As a casual multiplayer game, it's great with 4 people. The way the game plays semi-automatically weirds me out though. Not sure if I could enjoy it as much in single player mode.

The feature with the super mushrooms sucks though. The mushrooms show up all the time, and whenever a character obtains one, the camera cuts away from the court overview to a close-up of the character getting big, and shows the transformation for a few seconds before switching back the normal view. So it interrupts gameplay constantly and you'll have to memorize the game's state from right before the animation sequence started. It's super dumb. But you can just play classic mode that doesn't have that feature, so all's well!

Toozin

2015-11-21 05:59:54 am

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

I love me some Mario Tennis, and everything about Ultra Smash looks gawdawful. It has less features than Mario Tennis 64 (including not having any career mode), and the few things they did add actively make the game worse. The only plus is online play, but even that is extremely limited by the fact that you can't set up matches with friends. It's clearly rushed out the door to fill the Star Fox gap.

Da Dood

2015-11-22 04:19:31 am

Dood Trigger™

Finished MadWorld in 2:40 (probably longer in real time... the timer in this game has got to be the most strictly gameplay clock ever).

It was fun! Like I said, at least I knew where the better traps were, so the levels never felt repetitive. By the time I was done with all the main traps + Bloodbath + mini-boss(es), usually the boss fight was ready. The Area 66 level with all the space traps is so fun. I love the gravity gun, it should've been a perma unlockable.

I think the levels get better in general as the game progresses, with more and more interesting kills and at least some challenge in the combat (though the combat is never quite good). I like how most bosses and mini-bosses have a QTE sequence that you can trigger for crazy damage, despite the waggle being a pain.

Overall, had a great time. Still love the music, commentary and presentation. This game is super stylish.

Loaded my 100% file... no idea how I got some of my old high scores. 10+ million and such. I never ran out of time in this run, but in some late game levels I had to really sweep the whole place to check out all the traps before I had the required points. Maybe I just didn't do very well, though.

Finished MadWorld in 2:40 (probably longer in real time... the timer in this game has got to be the most strictly gameplay clock ever).

It was fun! Like I said, at least I knew where the better traps were, so the levels never felt repetitive. By the time I was done with all the main traps + Bloodbath + mini-boss(es), usually the boss fight was ready. The Area 66 level with all the space traps is so fun. I love the gravity gun, it should've been a perma unlockable.

I think the levels get better in general as the game progresses, with more and more interesting kills and at least some challenge in the combat (though the combat is never quite good). I like how most bosses and mini-bosses have a QTE sequence that you can trigger for crazy damage, despite the waggle being a pain.

Overall, had a great time. Still love the music, commentary and presentation. This game is super stylish.

Loaded my 100% file... no idea how I got some of my old high scores. 10+ million and such. I never ran out of time in this run, but in some late game levels I had to really sweep the whole place to check out all the traps before I had the required points. Maybe I just didn't do very well, though.

Opium

2015-11-23 01:03:40 pm

Playing Super Metroid on Wii U. Just died for the first time since 1992. After years of playing the game on ZSNES with my gamepad configured exactly to my liking, my brain stubbornly refuses to accept the original controller configuration. It's really kind of scary. Even when I concentrate and clearly think to press a certain button, my fingers don't listen, as if they can't.

Da Dood

2015-11-23 01:13:32 pm

Dood Trigger™

Can't you customize the controls, though? Or are you using the original configuration on purpose?

Opium

2015-11-23 01:17:55 pm

You can customize them, and I've played around with it but the options aren't comparable to my gamepad config.

Opium

Edit history:

Opium: 2015-11-23 01:23:55 pm

2015-11-23 01:23:45 pm

oh snap, fuck the in-game customization. I can customize the wiiu gamepad.

Opium

2015-11-24 12:13:48 pm

Finished the Prime Trilogy. Had a blast playing it this time. Missed one scan on MP1 and one scan on MP3, but got all scans on MP2. I absolutely love these games and think the trilogy disc is the best thing that was released on the wii. I played the wiiu ver this time. The loading times were gone from mp1 and mp2, but there were some loading times on mp3, although they were a lot shorter than the wii ver. I had forgotten about the special ending in mp3 that shows Sylux's ship following samus. I wonder if anything will ever come of that. I heard retro was considering mp4 for the NX. One can only dream.

Tried to get into Super but it clearly needs to go back on the shelf and age some more. I just couldn't get into it.

Started playing Darksiders on xbox last night. I got about 30% through it a long time ago and then put it down, but it seems to make a lot more sense this time. I'd much prefer to play it on PS3 but every time I go into the gaming stores they don't have it. I'll settle for the xbox ver I guess. If I end up finishing it this time, I will get Darksiders 2 on wiiu.

Finished the Prime Trilogy.  Had a blast playing it this time.  Missed one scan on MP1 and one scan on MP3, but got all scans on MP2.  I absolutely love these games and think the trilogy disc is the best thing that was released on the wii.  I played the wiiu ver this time.  The loading times were gone from mp1 and mp2, but there were some loading times on mp3, although they were a lot shorter than the wii ver.  I had forgotten about the special ending in mp3 that shows Sylux's ship following samus.  I wonder if anything will ever come of that.  I heard retro was considering mp4 for the NX.  One can only dream.

Tried to get into Super but it clearly needs to go back on the shelf and age some more.  I just couldn't get into it.

Started playing Darksiders on xbox last night.  I got about 30% through it a long time ago and then put it down, but it seems to make a lot more sense this time.  I'd much prefer to play it on PS3 but every time I go into the gaming stores they don't have it.  I'll settle for the xbox ver I guess.   If I end up finishing it this time, I will get Darksiders 2 on wiiu.

Opium

2015-11-26 12:45:11 pm

Still playing Darksiders. Just killed Tiamat. This game is pretty good.

Da Dood

2015-11-26 07:22:08 pm

Dood Trigger™

No More Heroes rank 5.

This game is so much better in NG+ where you don't have to do the stupid chores. I'm always beelining to the next level on the Schpeltiger. Some of the missions are still pretty repetitive, but I'm doing them fast enough, at least, with the OP sword.

The combat is enjoyable when there are a bunch of enemies to fight at once, not so much 1v1 (except bosses). Watching all the heads explode from one finisher is rewarding, but having to do the motion 15 consecutive times vs. solo enemies isn't nearly as exciting. The boss fights are generally really good, though. Looking forward to Bad Girl.

Still love it. It's a game that has equal amounts of brilliant and dumb, but being in NG+ the dumb stuff is severely toned down. And of course, style and WTF everywhere. Can't say NMH doesn't try to be creative. Travis is a great character, voice acting and cutscenes are top notch, presentation is sweet (all the transitions and 8-bit screens, plus the look of the game in general), combat is fun (in moderate doses), and they do interesting things with the levels when they want to.

Will finish tomorrow and jump right into NMH2. \o/

No More Heroes rank 5.

This game is so much better in NG+ where you don't have to do the stupid chores. I'm always beelining to the next level on the Schpeltiger. Some of the missions are still pretty repetitive, but I'm doing them fast enough, at least, with the OP sword.

The combat is enjoyable when there are a bunch of enemies to fight at once, not so much 1v1 (except bosses). Watching all the heads explode from one finisher is rewarding, but having to do the motion 15 consecutive times vs. solo enemies isn't nearly as exciting. The boss fights are generally really good, though. Looking forward to Bad Girl.

Still love it. It's a game that has equal amounts of brilliant and dumb, but being in NG+ the dumb stuff is severely toned down. And of course, style and WTF everywhere. Can't say NMH doesn't try to be creative. Travis is a great character, voice acting and cutscenes are top notch, presentation is sweet (all the transitions and 8-bit screens, plus the look of the game in general), combat is fun (in moderate doses), and they do interesting things with the levels when they want to.

Will finish tomorrow and jump right into NMH2. \o/

Opium

2015-11-27 10:21:05 am

I was having the same thought about the combat in darksiders. Weaker enemies that attack you by themselves are like swatting a fly, but it's totally fun when you're surrounded by them. The combos and spells you can unlock are made for situations like those, since you really don't need anything xtra to deal with single enemies.

Turtle

2015-11-27 11:06:53 pm

I like turtles.

So I'm trying really hard to play through AC:S, but everything from game crashes to malfunctioning gamepad interaction are trying equally as hard to make sure I never get very far. Even Arkham Knight wasn't this bad for me.

Toozin

2015-11-28 01:20:21 am

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

Are you playing on PC? It seems like this was the year of fucked up PC editions.

Turtle

2015-11-28 01:59:38 am

I like turtles.

Yup, no money for new consoles and my GPU is good for quite a while yet. The fact that my GPU is part of the reason I have no money for new consoles is beside the point.

Toozin

2015-11-28 02:17:46 am

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

Well it's not like it's your fault because you focused on PC instead of consoles. If you pay money for something it should be expected to work within a reasonable margin. This shit is ridiculous.

Turtle

2015-11-28 06:06:05 pm

I like turtles.

This one might be a more unique problem to me, since I'm not seeing the main issue I'm having being brought up a whole lot.