What Are You Playing? (May)

[Dyne]

Grab the guy and press strong attack, when his hand flashes, press it again. You'll have it down pat in no time.

Right before the Sentinel fight the game told me how to do it again.

So in the past 2 days I started up Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Condemned 2, Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness. None of which I wanted to play after ten minutes. MUA is ugly. I mean really.....it looks like a PS2 game. Condemned and CoR are a game type that I always have trouble with. For some reason the first person fighters (?) always pose a timing challenge for me with parrying. And fuck being completely crouched and hidden in Riddick with the screen blue only to have somebody magically spot you or your come from behind instant kill end up being a regular attack because you were a pixel off. And finally The Darkness is just a reeeeeeeeealy slow game.

[YellerDog]

After spending some time with it this morning, I Do Not understand you crazy fools who prefer the arcade Contra.

Is it the washed out graphics? The floppy jumping? The lack of exploding bridges or a proper waterfall level boss? The shitty Amiga synth soundtrack? The crap weapons? The tiny turrents?

Please explain. In what category is the NES game not 100% better? I mean, all those things are great, but what's the key here?

[Dyne]

Tried to play a little more of Condemned 2. Who is the fucktard that decided it was good to make black enemies, black backgrounds and sonic emitters that fuck up your vision even more?

[NeoZeedeater]

After spending some time with it this morning, I Do Not understand you crazy fools who prefer the arcade Contra.

Is it the washed out graphics? The floppy jumping? The lack of exploding bridges or a proper waterfall level boss? The shitty Amiga synth soundtrack? The crap weapons? The tiny turrents?

Please explain. In what category is the NES game not 100% better? I mean, all those things are great, but what's the key here?

You know, I have been wondering if emulation has somehow made the game look more washed out as I don't remember it looking quite like that on the real thing. Still, the NES game may have more contrast but it's far less detailed and it's not exactly impressive for colour either. As for the soundtrack, it depends on the track for me (and using "Amiga" as an insult for game music is a crime). There are exploding bridges in the arcade version or did you just mean there are less of them? I do prefer the NES version overall for the gameplay but I don't think it's a better game in every aspect.

[RoleTroll]

What Are You Playing? (May)

Over-rated Western Games

[YellerDog]

I haaaaate 90% of Amiga music. It's the "Greatful Dead" of videogame sound. Jammy nonsense, zero appeal or structure. Oh hay let's have a solo right here. NICE. How about another?

ALL OF IT sounds like goddamn LJN NES games.

The smaller color pallate does the NES Contra many favors, I think. Same with the lower detail. They're forced to make compromises that give it a more iconic/cleaner look, IMO.

Maybe the floppy jumping made me forget the bridge? It is hard to say. Your guy looks like he's falling out of an airplane every time he jumps.

[Uriel]

I'm trying to finish up KZ2. I'm in the room in the palace where Vadek (or whatever his name is) sends waves of dudes at you and your buddy. Its pissin me off. Its not that I can't shoot them, its that when I start to take a reasonable amount of damage my vision blurs to the point that I cant see anything.

[NeoZeedeater]

I haaaaate 90% of Amiga music. It's the "Greatful Dead" of videogame sound. Jammy nonsense, zero appeal or structure. Oh hay let's have a solo right here. NICE. How about another?

You may not like classic Euro game tunes but it's wrong to generalize that they lack structure.

They're forced to make compromises that give it a more iconic

'80s Konami arcade gaming has such a distinct style. I think it's as iconic as anything from that era.

[Frogacuda]

YellerDog is full of crazy today and it makes me sad.

[Low]

The smaller color pallate does the NES Contra many favors, I think. Same with the lower detail. They're forced to make compromises that give it a more iconic/cleaner look, IMO.

Agreed. Liked arcade Contra when I was a kid because it looked like a mashup of Predator and Aliens, not so impressive now (fucking gray tones). Gradius II, Thundercross, Aliens, etc aged much better.


Lunar Knights (DS)- Typical Kojima blah blah blah in a sluggish overhead action game. Played it for a hour not sure it's worth going on.

Trackmania DS-Same pros and cons of N+ and Bangaio Spirits. Much better portable racer than Grid or Race Driver.

The Terminator (Sega CD)- Pulled this out after seeing Salvation. It's not the Genny's best action game but I give Virgin credit for doing more than slapping a CD soundtrack on it and shipping.