Weekly Roundup
- Thread starter Ralfakick
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2002
- Posts
- 17,094
FFXV is very underrated.
It's just you and your heterosexual bros doing bro shit and FF shit.
Totally chill game.
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2013
- Posts
- 1,630
Got a San Francisco Rush the Rock Alcatraz Edition sit down cabinet recently. Been enjoyin the shit outta it. And it's really making me wanna pick up a Hydro Thunder sit down but I'd hafta ship in one as there's none in the area.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2003
- Posts
- 8,337
Been playing the first Star Ocean for PSP - solid
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2002
- Posts
- 17,094
Steam
RE:Village
GBA
Final Fantasy 1
RE:Village
GBA
Final Fantasy 1
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2004
- Posts
- 4,110
Mega Man?PC Engine
Bonk’s Adventure
Lords of Thunder
Made it to the final boss on both games.
Also…fuck whoever first came up with the idea of a boss rush on the final stage of a game.
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2000
- Posts
- 19,257
I'm consumed by Wizardry Variants Daphne again. They brought back the Blade and Bastard crossover event with a new character from the manga and light novels and introduced a branching path to a different story (or you can do the original story if you weren't able to last year.)
My characters are so much stronger now than they were a year ago that I'm enjoying it without as much stress. The boss still scales but its manageable now. And farmable. Such a good game.
My characters are so much stronger now than they were a year ago that I'm enjoying it without as much stress. The boss still scales but its manageable now. And farmable. Such a good game.
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2003
- Posts
- 7,580
I was playing Super Mario Bros. 1 over the past few days.
Up until recently, I had no idea about the small fire Mario glitch. I finally pulled it off after multiple attempts and it did feel a little surreal.
Up until recently, I had no idea about the small fire Mario glitch. I finally pulled it off after multiple attempts and it did feel a little surreal.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2003
- Posts
- 8,337
Spent much money? I've been tempted to jump in on this one.
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2000
- Posts
- 19,257
Early on, I was dropping mad monies on the game because of FOMO. But now that I understand the gatcha loop for it WAAAY better, I'm not really spending all that much on it. Maybe like 10 bucks a month.
A few things to know if you want to spend your IRL money on this game:
- Save your gems of Org unless you absolutely have to spend them on something really important, such as resurrection resets when you die too many times in a dungeon. The chances will eventually recharge, but later on the exploration gets really dangerous and you can get pretty deep into a zone before finding a rest stop or a fast travel point. The gems of Org are the currency you will spend on mats for pulls so it's important to save them, if at all possible, for whenever they introduce a new character. You CAN buy gems of Org at the jeweler but that's usually a last resort OR if they are having a deal too good to pass up.
- Buy the cheaper passes at the jeweler. They usually run 5 bucks a piece and except in rare cases, they only ever add one top coincide with new events. There was a 12 dollar pass available every 30 days (mostly worth it for the rewards) but I haven't seen it pop in a while so maybe it's no longer being deployed by Drecom. The rewards for completing events with the passes are well worth the cost, especially since you will get more gems of Org by doing this. Right now, there are three separate passes for the Blade and Bastard event but that is extremely rare (I haven't seen anything like it until this week) and is a good way for players just getting started to get caught up on the event, since the event specific characters can't be pulled once the event ends (unless they bring it back again at some point.)
- Whenever you spend gems of Org on the mats for the event/new character pulls, you not only get a bunch of chances to pull the character you're going for, but you also get a form of event specific currency with every pull. For example, 2000 gems of Org gets you 11 pulls for the event you want to draw for. You not only get 11 characters (many of which you'll end up using to buff your existing roster, since there's going to be a lot of dupes) but you get 11 units of the event currency. When you get enough of the event currency (cost varies from character to character, but it's usually 100 units), you can actually BUY the character mat with a 100 percent success chance.
- The new character events usually last 2 weeks so don't rush too quickly to get the character in question. If time is running short and you absolutely HAVE to have the new character, you can decide in the waning hours whether or not it's worth it to you. And keep in mind that you will get that character at level one so you will have to send them on dispatches or construct a party of simlarly leveled characters and grind to catch them up to your progress. If you already have the character, you can still do pulls to get dupes of them and buff them and the event currency can go towards their special weapons and armor anyway. The weapons aren't as important as the character, however. Unless you really can't imagine the character without their unique gear. That DOES, however, become a money pit so take care.
- Spending IRL money doesn't have any instant ROI for abyss (dungeon) progression. There aren't any weapons or armor that give you that much of an advantage that the in game treasure doesn't already grant. Your party will go stronger more through buffing your roster with dupes that provide good abilities and bumps, weapon smithing and just grinding levels. There are items you can buy for massive XP boosts but they just aren't worth the cost, in my opinion. Especially considering that after level 20, you have to take an exam (a difficult dungeon) to allow advancement to level 30, then at level 40, etc, etc. You can have the best gear in the game but if you are capped at level 20, it doesn't really matter.
- Check the jeweler for any IRL transactions that are bargain priced. The game gives GREAT pricing on some deceptively hidden items. For example, you can spend 8 bucks right now and get 10 pulls with a bonus, a bunch of gems of Org and some of the XP tomes. That, to me, is a better value if you're running short on time for the event and you need to quicken your chances of getting what you want.
- Don't panic. Most of the characters come back around again in time. They're already on the third go around for some of them, so it's a nice mix of new and old characters popping up.
Percentages for pulling the special characters are low but fair. I usually try to pull them within the first 24 hours of their introduction (provided I have the gems saved up, which is my biggest priority as I progress) and my pull rates are always better early on. Don't know if that's by design or if I'm just extremely lucky but it seems like it's not a coincidence.
And with the game getting frequent updates and new content at no cost to the player, there is a ton of fun to be had. It is a bit of a time sink, but so far I've really enjoyed it. Has a pretty great story with multiple branching paths and the ability to reset events and go back and try a different path, with selection options to preserve previous choices if you don't want to redo PITA quests again.
This game should NOT be this fun or this good. If you like dungeon crawlers and you AREN'T playing this game, you're missing out. Drecom has a wonderful little game on their hands, challenging to the players and very fair to their wallets.
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- Joined
- Jan 17, 2002
- Posts
- 3,691
GBA: Final Fantasy 1 will always be one of my favorites. I had this on a long plane ride and then continued to just grind grind grind. The graphics were good and the rebalance makes it just easy AF to play. I recall that even the nice treatment couldn't save Final Fantasy II on the Dawn of Souls collection. I recently played the Pixel Remaster and found it every bit as painful as the GBA remake.
@Taiso You're making me want to try the Wizardry Gatcha again. I played it when it first came out and I see that it's on Steam now as well. I don't really play anything on my cell phone and I'm still really obsessed with The Five Ordeals. I should probably give it a go and see if I like it again.
My weekend was consumed by...
Xbox One Final Fantasy XIII: The backwards compatibility has some upgraded textures and this was always a game I had meant to check out. At/around 10 hours in so far and the story has kicked into high gear and the battle system is really fun. So far I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. The first 2.5 hours is lame, but it picks up after that.
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2000
- Posts
- 19,257
Oh, I also tried the demo for 1348: Ex Voto over the weekend, derisively being referred to as 'the lesbian knight game'. It was a short demo and established just enough of the premise and gameplay to give me a good idea of what this is going to be.
I wasn't very impressed with it, if I'm being honest. The gameplay the demo offered was very basic, slow paced and uninspiring. I can most readily compare it to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice in terms of mechanics minus Ninja Theory's flare for dramatic combat combined with the atmosphere of A Plague Tale: innocence minus Asobo Studio's ability to present an otherwise boiler plate medieval setting with something that differentiates it from the pack.
The game is set during one of the outbreaks of the Black Death and I wonder if the demo shouldn't have just dropped the character into a plague infested village somewhere in the middle of the storyline without any spoilers so that we could see what it will be like to be a 'knight' travelling across a dangerous land filled with suffering and sickness to be reunited with her lover. My guess is that they wanted to start the demo at the beginning of the story because Jennifer English is the lgbtq+ 'it girl' in video games (currently) and they want to market her to potential buyers but I can't really say I know the answer.
There are upgrade systems for the character that you acquire as you go which increase combat capabilities, health, etc. All standard stuff but the combat in the demo, which begins at the start of the start of the game from what I can tell, doesn't inspire me in any way. Giving us the potential to see what lays ahead may have been the better way to go here.
As for the 'controversies' surrounding this game, they seem to stem from the following:
LGBTQ 'agenda'-the character you play is a female who looks like a skinny boy in the mid 14th century who is in a relationship with a 'pretty' (I guess) blonde who is being sent to a convent, which will definitely get in the way of their intentioned romance. The criticisms range as you might imagine, from Aeta (the protagonist) being a girl raised as a boy (because that CLEARLY never happened in human history) to gay people apparently never existing in medieval times (false) or were persecuted (true) and killed on sight (false). The problem I have with the criticisms is that we don't know the context in which any of these narratives are taking place. Why is BIanca being sent to a convent? Why is Aeta's training permitted by her father despite being frowned upon by her mother? We have no idea whether or not these storytelling devices are being handled with any degree of verisimilitude that an intelligent audience can respect or if it is, indeed, another dose of lectureslop waiting to ambush us. We simply don't know how these things will be handled yet.
Character design/art direction that seems intentionally uglified or homely-The game is perfectly fine in terms of graphic quality, if nothing spectacular. You can tell this is going to be a budget title based on the experience the demo provides, similar to A Plague Tale, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. The game's characters ARE homely, in my opinion, but we're talkikng about a 'realistic' take on medieval Italy and not some idealized fantasy setting. It would be very strange to be playing in a time period where everyone was sick, dirty and malnourished but somehow, amazingly, these characters are concerned about living up to 21st century beauty standards. They seem to focus, particularly, on Bianca's gross facial blemishes a bit too much, however. In the opening scene, they spend an incredible amount of time showing you just how unattractive she is to the modern eye. It't not enough to put me off giving this game a try, but it's definitely enough to put me off my lunch.
The studio jumping into the culture war as a marketing tool-I'm not going to beat this drum too much. They had a chance, in modern gaming culture, to simply say 'We are making our game and we hope you enjoy it. We hope Knight's Path is greatly successful and that you will try both games out and enjoy them both.' It's literally the easiest thing in the world to say in these times. This game is going to fail no matter what, and I think a large part of it has to do with how angry they've made a very vocal contingent of online gamers with an unnecessary tweet. This is not a triple a game and the access media isn't going to save it. I believe they've already written their own epitaph.
But all the same, I'd probably throw 30 bucks at this at some point, or at the very least buy it during a sale. If for no other reason than because it takes place during a time period I am endlessly fascinated with and I have no reason, as of yet, to assume the worst of the product itself. And I'm not sure that any voices out there will give it an honest review. People are either going to prop it up no matter how awful it is or they're going to shit on it no matter how much it exceeds reasonable expectations.
So far, the only thing I hate is the bowl cut. It was a popular mens' hair style in the 14th century as I understand such things in a historical context so that's fine. But it's also a popular hair style in Colorado, especially among certain overly angry bisexual statisticians.
I wasn't very impressed with it, if I'm being honest. The gameplay the demo offered was very basic, slow paced and uninspiring. I can most readily compare it to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice in terms of mechanics minus Ninja Theory's flare for dramatic combat combined with the atmosphere of A Plague Tale: innocence minus Asobo Studio's ability to present an otherwise boiler plate medieval setting with something that differentiates it from the pack.
The game is set during one of the outbreaks of the Black Death and I wonder if the demo shouldn't have just dropped the character into a plague infested village somewhere in the middle of the storyline without any spoilers so that we could see what it will be like to be a 'knight' travelling across a dangerous land filled with suffering and sickness to be reunited with her lover. My guess is that they wanted to start the demo at the beginning of the story because Jennifer English is the lgbtq+ 'it girl' in video games (currently) and they want to market her to potential buyers but I can't really say I know the answer.
There are upgrade systems for the character that you acquire as you go which increase combat capabilities, health, etc. All standard stuff but the combat in the demo, which begins at the start of the start of the game from what I can tell, doesn't inspire me in any way. Giving us the potential to see what lays ahead may have been the better way to go here.
As for the 'controversies' surrounding this game, they seem to stem from the following:
- LGBTGQ 'agenda'
- Character designs/art direction that seems intentionally uglified or homely
- The studio jumping into the culture war as a marketing tool in opposition to a low fantasy knight simulator called Knight's Path which has a release date not any time soon.
LGBTQ 'agenda'-the character you play is a female who looks like a skinny boy in the mid 14th century who is in a relationship with a 'pretty' (I guess) blonde who is being sent to a convent, which will definitely get in the way of their intentioned romance. The criticisms range as you might imagine, from Aeta (the protagonist) being a girl raised as a boy (because that CLEARLY never happened in human history) to gay people apparently never existing in medieval times (false) or were persecuted (true) and killed on sight (false). The problem I have with the criticisms is that we don't know the context in which any of these narratives are taking place. Why is BIanca being sent to a convent? Why is Aeta's training permitted by her father despite being frowned upon by her mother? We have no idea whether or not these storytelling devices are being handled with any degree of verisimilitude that an intelligent audience can respect or if it is, indeed, another dose of lectureslop waiting to ambush us. We simply don't know how these things will be handled yet.
Character design/art direction that seems intentionally uglified or homely-The game is perfectly fine in terms of graphic quality, if nothing spectacular. You can tell this is going to be a budget title based on the experience the demo provides, similar to A Plague Tale, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. The game's characters ARE homely, in my opinion, but we're talkikng about a 'realistic' take on medieval Italy and not some idealized fantasy setting. It would be very strange to be playing in a time period where everyone was sick, dirty and malnourished but somehow, amazingly, these characters are concerned about living up to 21st century beauty standards. They seem to focus, particularly, on Bianca's gross facial blemishes a bit too much, however. In the opening scene, they spend an incredible amount of time showing you just how unattractive she is to the modern eye. It't not enough to put me off giving this game a try, but it's definitely enough to put me off my lunch.
The studio jumping into the culture war as a marketing tool-I'm not going to beat this drum too much. They had a chance, in modern gaming culture, to simply say 'We are making our game and we hope you enjoy it. We hope Knight's Path is greatly successful and that you will try both games out and enjoy them both.' It's literally the easiest thing in the world to say in these times. This game is going to fail no matter what, and I think a large part of it has to do with how angry they've made a very vocal contingent of online gamers with an unnecessary tweet. This is not a triple a game and the access media isn't going to save it. I believe they've already written their own epitaph.
But all the same, I'd probably throw 30 bucks at this at some point, or at the very least buy it during a sale. If for no other reason than because it takes place during a time period I am endlessly fascinated with and I have no reason, as of yet, to assume the worst of the product itself. And I'm not sure that any voices out there will give it an honest review. People are either going to prop it up no matter how awful it is or they're going to shit on it no matter how much it exceeds reasonable expectations.
So far, the only thing I hate is the bowl cut. It was a popular mens' hair style in the 14th century as I understand such things in a historical context so that's fine. But it's also a popular hair style in Colorado, especially among certain overly angry bisexual statisticians.
Blazing Angels 360 great game I love me some WW2 arcade style flight sim games. First time playing this old title. I've played lots of these games & pretty decent at them but one mission had me infuriated. Haven't got that pissed in years at a damn game. Mission 12 Rabul Raid what a damn nightmare very first part is just bullshit. Got it done after like 10 attempts ugh.
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2002
- Posts
- 17,094
Steam
RE: Village
VF5 REVO (haven't played any of these since the Saturn days)
VR
Beat Saber
Synth Riderz
RE: Village
VF5 REVO (haven't played any of these since the Saturn days)
VR
Beat Saber
Synth Riderz
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2001
- Posts
- 38,169
What in aspergyssius
Uhm. Re9 obviously
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2001
- Posts
- 5,030
2/28/26
Switch
ACA Road Fighter
Triggerheart Excelica
Advanced VG
PS5
Sonic Racing Crossworlds - Not sure about this one yet, it seems slow on normal, I seem to like these Sonic racer sequels less and less as they go along.
Switch
ACA Road Fighter
Triggerheart Excelica
Advanced VG
PS5
Sonic Racing Crossworlds - Not sure about this one yet, it seems slow on normal, I seem to like these Sonic racer sequels less and less as they go along.
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2001
- Posts
- 20,271
Cyber-Lip (homecart) - Simple game but fun to play, some nice graphics here and there. Not much else to say except that I wish you could fire diagonally, controls feel a bit stiff at times.
Castlevania SMS version - Plays great, still quite rough but definitely promising, hope they will continue working on it. CV is one of my fav games ever, it's cool to see it running on SMS.
Ikari Warriors (7800) - One of the best 8-bit home versions of the game I know, maybe not visually but gameplay is tops, lock-on by holding the fire button works very well, it's just mad fun to plow through flocks of enemies. Essential 7800 vert gunny game together with Commando.
Pac-Man: Double Feature (7800) - A new release of a Bob Decrescenzo game that was released a few years ago before the new Atari bought Atariage and 2600 Pac-Man. The main game is a flawless port of the original, it's all there and plays like a dream. Speed option very welcome, you can rack up loads of points with it since the ghosts aren't sped up that much, really fun for half an hour or so, eat some pills, chase some ghosts, kill some time. The addition of 2600 Pac-Man is debatable as I've already mentioned, but hey, it's there, let's play it. For what it's worth, I did and ended up with some 15,000+ pts. Ba-dum Dush.
Castlevania SMS version - Plays great, still quite rough but definitely promising, hope they will continue working on it. CV is one of my fav games ever, it's cool to see it running on SMS.
Ikari Warriors (7800) - One of the best 8-bit home versions of the game I know, maybe not visually but gameplay is tops, lock-on by holding the fire button works very well, it's just mad fun to plow through flocks of enemies. Essential 7800 vert gunny game together with Commando.
Pac-Man: Double Feature (7800) - A new release of a Bob Decrescenzo game that was released a few years ago before the new Atari bought Atariage and 2600 Pac-Man. The main game is a flawless port of the original, it's all there and plays like a dream. Speed option very welcome, you can rack up loads of points with it since the ghosts aren't sped up that much, really fun for half an hour or so, eat some pills, chase some ghosts, kill some time. The addition of 2600 Pac-Man is debatable as I've already mentioned, but hey, it's there, let's play it. For what it's worth, I did and ended up with some 15,000+ pts. Ba-dum Dush.
On a big WW2 flight sim kick lately. Just finished both Blazing Angels 1 & 2 on 360. Started up IL-2 Sturmovik last night. Haven't played it in very long time. Probably play Heroes over Europe. Damage Inc & Birds of Steel next.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2003
- Posts
- 8,337
I wish Ikari and Commando weren't so dang expensive.
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2001
- Posts
- 20,271
Yah, both got crazy expensive.
Quite ironic, considering noone gave a flying fart on the 7800 and games only 10 years ago, then the usual 21st century goobism happened, you know, price jackers, "retro" peddlers, collectors, clueless n00bs, the lot. That and the efforts of the new Atari gave the 7800 a new life, which is cool but of course has its dark side.
To add insult to injury, there are people who sac Commando carts for the POKEY soundchip inside and repair some other old crap with it or just sell the ICs piece-by-piece for loads.
There's a wee bit of hope some of the og 3rd-party heavy hitters like Commando, Ikari, Robotron, Ballblazer and Xenophobe will see a re-release under the new Atari management. In case of Robotron, it would be awesome to get a PAL-60 version, that would be a first after the original release which was only released in the US.
The thing which made me look up and take notice was the re-release of Xevious which also was a 3rd-party (Namco) title, maybe they can work something out for the other stuff as well.