What Are You Playing? - August 2008

Tried plodding through Sword of the Berserk DC, hasn't aged well at all.

Otherwise Thunderforce III Genny while waiting for VI and Metal Slug, Last Resort, and Magician Lord on the SNK Arcade Classics comp.

Virtua Fighter 5 - I play this weekly but am trying to finally unlock all costumes. I'll be playing this until VF5R comes out.

http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/f...-fighter-5.jpg

The Last Blade 2 - My Hori/Sanwa stick is growing on me; I rotate among 2D fighters on close to a monthly basis. Just a beautiful game, just like LB1.

http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/ff331/mook41/lb2.png

The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match - this really is a great game, well done, probably my favorite KoF game now.

http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/f...98ultimate.jpg

Ninja Gaiden 2 - I really love this game but took a recent break from it. I'm not sure if I like it better than Black/Sigma, but I can see myself replaying this one more. I'd like to beat it and move on to MGS4.

http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/f...-gaiden-ii.jpg

Gears of War - have been trying to online co-op this with a buddy but the scheduling is tough. Restarted a single player campaign in the interim. Still probably my favorite 360 game, with NG2 up there as well.

http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/ff331/mook41/gow.jpg

Metriod Prime 2

this game has some of the most god awfully annoying bosses EVER. The spiderball guardian is such a piece of shit boss.

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Originally Posted by Tain

Maybe we should have one of these each month, with people posting thoughts on whatever they play as they play it. I wouldn't mind it.

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Soul Calibur 4 - stretchin' that rental. Seems like a step up from 2 so far. And it doesn't seem busted yet, which is always good. There's a lot of single player oriented shit I don't know if I'll get around to. Gorgeous. Kinda shitty online.

http://users.zoominternet.net/~tain/...try_wars_2.png

Geometry Wars 2 - It's much better than the first, but I'm not sure how long it will keep me interested. The new modes are good, the audio is great. Everything starts up quicker. It's a good game, but I'm glad it was ten dollars.

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Thunder Force V - It's broke as a joke. Free Range is so absurd. I'm about to get a 1CC, I think, and I've only played it for less than four hours. And I'm not very good. It's been an enjoyable four hours, though, and between the buttrock and oddly appealing visuals (I know not everybody likes them), Technosoft knows how to make a spectacle.

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Rhythm Tengoku Gold - The DS controls work well enough for this. I was worried about touch screen controls, but the original mostly used a single button anyway. Better production values this time around (and the original was really charming anyway), so this is great. I doubt there's anything as cool as the drum set in the original, but I have yet to finish it.

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Kuru Kuru Kururin - This game is starting to get challenging. Basing an entire game around rotation like this is such a good idea. Levels are clearly well thought-out.

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Great idea -- might even look into also using the community version go gon the front page alongside the usual editor column. That should be going live again later this month.

Currently I am playing the following on the 360:

Soul Calibur 4 - Awesome graphics (duh) and I love the character creation mode. Seems there's mixed feelings about the online play which has me convinced to just stick with TNL players only

The Bourne Conspiracy - Waited a bit to jump on this, but it's a decent action title that feels blends a few elements from Killswitch, Stranglehold and Tekken (ok, that last one isn't totally accurate)

SSF2T HD Remix - *yawn* Why can't Capcom give us some additional characters to enjoy besides Ryu and Ken? Bring on the full version already.

Guitar Hero: On Tour - Guitar Hero on the DS... 'Nuff said.

Having finally completed Shining Force III at well over 50 hours, I've now got the time to knock another serious game off my pile of shame.
So Yakuza is a serious time sink currently.
After all the buzz on the board back when Yakuza was released, I gave it a try but didn't click at all with it, the swearing put me off, and I wasn't jiving with learning the button combinations and controls.
Don't know what the problem was, as the controls are developing at a fair pace where it is always easy to practice newly acquired moves in some petty street fights before bringing the full array of button combinations to a boss fight. And the swearing isn't as overdone as I'd previously perceived.


Been getting my reflex fix from Trizeal lately, and while the TV is on it's side will throw in Donpachi on the PSX, or Battle Garrega, Strikers 1945 Part II, Game Paradise or some other vert shooter on the Saturn.


And my gaming holy grail of late Gurulogi Champ has been delighting and confounding me on the GBA-SP. The character designs and simple story segments are pure genius, and I suppose the same should be said for the gameplay. You have a limited number of blocks and must fill in the voids of pixelated images of real world objects. The shoulder buttons rotate the image 90 degrees, while one button fires a block, and the other retracts placed blocks.
The first set of 10 images were each completed in less than 10sec first try, now into the 3rd set of images and the clock ticks by passing 5 minutes and I'm dumbfounded as to how to fill a hole, then all of a sudden you see how to build up a retaining wall to "catch" the block, and then go back and remove the support blocks and place em where they need to be. Addicting.

And the DS has had Namco Museum DS stuck in it for a few weeks, meanwhile completely neglecting Contra 4 and Mario vs DK 2.
With a handful of ports of Galaga, Xevious and Mappy for various consoles and handhelds it is surprising I never tire of playing them.

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Originally Posted by A Robot Bit Me

Phantasy Star 1 (Sega Ages : Phantasy Star Complete Collection). Frame skip and run help, but it's painful.

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painful in what way, boring and tedious?
Having just purchased that collection, I'm entertaining thoughts of trying to play through all 4 back to back.

Halo 2

Team SWAT is a nice time killer.

The King of Fighters Ultimate Match.

Soulcalibur IV is my main squeeze right now. I've been working my way through the episodes in N+ and I'm trying to wrap up the achievements in Rez HD-- got a pretty solid score on the first stage in the process.

1942 Joint Strike (PS3): It's decent, though nothing in the series beats 19XX. The control seems slightly worse than 19XX, and I'm not too much into the Silpheed:TLP style proximity scoring system. Still, it's worth getting from PSN/XBLA.

Heboris Unofficial Expansion (doujin): Got past level 500 on Master-G4 using the TI-World rotation (which thankfully doesn't have that infinite spin problem from TGM Ace). To keep playing past 500, you need to get there in less than 7 minutes.

EDIT 8/10: Got up to 917/999 on Master-Extra mode (mode in Heboris UE Mini, this one simulates TGM3 a bit more accurately). The blocks are going to be coming down FAST when you get there. Watch out- if your stack is fairly high, you're probably a goner already at this point. If you finish this, you will be playing with disappearing blocks in 20G during the credits.

BTW: Tetris TGM Ace does have something like TGM3 Shirase, called "Another" mode- but you need Xbox Live Gold to unlock it somehow.



KOF '98 Ultimate Match (PS2): This has to be my favorite out of all KOFs, esp. considering it's a truly complete version that has everyone from '94-'97. It's nice seeing some new moves added. Using Goenitz and his "Shinbatsu desu!" DM is fun once in awhile, but he's a tad overpowered as a playable character. This will be plenty until KOF XII hits PS3.

I played Ms. Pac-man today. I got the cherry.
Oh, but i kid. I'm not very good, i was happy to get to the third maze (the blood one). I need a cabinet of my own, fitty cents a play is not my idea of wonderful, nor is playing it on a not special console.