What are you playing right now?

SOTC Remake.

I loved the SOTC remake. Some purists hated the new engine but meh.

Do you mean the graphics? I saw some complaints over the lack of fog which was really draw distance.

Yeah, the graphics. I’ve seen complaints that the remake lacks the atmosphere, but I can’t agree. I think everything is conveyed well in the remake.

I ironically have that with RE4. I've been watching some comparisons and for whatever reason each iteration that isn't Gamecube just looks..."off" to me. Not sure what.

I’m so used to the new shiny versions of RE4 at this point that they look normal to me.

Now Rondo of Blood...THAT is an ugly remake. Dear god.

Regarding RE4, I think one issue is that the lack of details from a lot of the original assets is being exposed when put under the HD microscope.

I don't have any hard data on this, but I could also swear that they either removed or added a graphical filter of sorts when transitioning from the Wii version over to the PS3 / 360 version. Especially objects and characters in the distance seem to look a bit differently.

An even more importantly, the higher resolution versions kinda... make the models and other interactive elements pop out from the environmental textures in a slightly artificial fashion. Difficult to describe. The GameCube version feels somewhat more organic and lived-in as a result, despite the lower resolution. The best example I can think of are the bird's nests in the village. On GameCube, they don't really stand out from the rest of the foliage all that much. On the HD versions, they are extremely noticeable, like a big "SHOOT HERE PLS" sign.

For the record, I still like the look of the newer versions and don't consider these elements to be a deal-breaker. But it is noticeable.


PS: Put me on Team "SotC remaster looks great and conveys everything perfectly well", btw.

I think that's mostly it, there's a 'soul' missing in some respects. It felt more like a whole and a filter really seems missing, same with some fog effects I feel. Watched some PS4 footage and things like the crates, but also the nests, might as well be bright pink for how badly they stand out.

I decided to try Chains of Olympus for my first God of War Very Hard mode run, and I'm just starting to get to the point where it's really kicking my butt (Temple of Helios). One thing I'm annoyed by is the fact that they cute orb values in half-including Green orbs. That just seems a little cruel to me. Are the other games in the series like this?

The change to orbs is unique to that game I think, I don't recall it being present in GoW1 to 3, though those games did increase upgrade costs per difficulty.

Started on Valkyria Chronicles.

I don’t really know what to play. I’m done with TEW for now, I tried Ultra Nightmare on Doom Eternal and I simply don’t have the patience or skill for it, so I’ll probably put that aside for now as well. Don’t know if I should spend the money on an X1X right now to play NG or not.

Anyone have recommendations? Like short/unique games I could play quickly?

Hm. If you want short you can give Knack II a try, think that's a few hours for a regular run (experimentation not withstanding of course). Or do a ZoE2 run. If you're up for a nice adventure, Beyond Good and Evil is a very charming game and not too long either.

EDIT: if you have the cash, you can give RE3make a shot.

I actually do own Knack 2, only played it for about an hour. That’s something I could do.

>ZoE2 run

I’ve been practicing, about to record a run starting tomorrow actually. Should be fun times.

>Beyond Good and Evil

Is there a way to play it on modern consoles? I played it for a bit back on release but don’t remember anything about it. I still have my PS2 hooked up so I could grab another copy if I need to.

>REmake3

Yeah I was thinking about this. I don’t think anyone here has played it yet, was curious about impressions.

Or you know, something about a series of excellent games that are at the forfront of the genre. Think there was a ninja in there somewhere.

> Beyond Good and Evil
PC has a good version. Otherwise the PS3 and X360 have it as well. Also works on the Xbox One.

I'm with you on that one - I have so many games I still need to play...

I think I'm on Chapter 4-4 of RE4, so I'm not sure how much I have left. I'd imagine I'm at least 2/3 of the way through?

I feel like going on a bit of a Capcom binge. I've come to realise that, for me personally, they're probably the most important development house of all time. Across all of their IPs, they've had so many fantastic and interesting looking games, and it's honestly amazing how many of those were less commercially successful than they would have hoped. I only found out a couple of days ago that Hideaki Itsuno (DMC3/4/5 director) also directed a bunch of fighting games including Rival Schools and Capcom vs SNK 2 (incredible game for anybody who hasn't played it) and even a cel shaded racing game - Auto Modellista.

There's a stupid amount of Capcom games I still need to play (so prepare for blasphemy). I haven't played RE (or any of the remakes/remasters), RE3, a Mega Man game, a Monster Hunter game, an Onimusha game, a Dino Crisis game, God Hand, Chaos Legion, a Viewtiful Joe game, Okami, P.N.03, Gotcha Force, Shadow of Rome, Dragon's Dogma, a Dead Rising game, Ghost Trick, Killer7...I don't know where to start!

>series with a ninja

Shinobi? Jokes aside, yeah, I’m about to either play the Sigmas or try to borrow my friend’s 360. I have all the games on both consoles, just no functioning Xbox.

>RE4

I’d say about 70-75% of the way through, yeah. How are you liking it?

>Capcom

I’ve been saying for years that between the mid 90s and mid 00’s, no developer even came close to the sheer number of quality and innovative titles that Capcom put out. They were seriously on another level, with the only developers even coming close being Nintendo and Konami(lol).

>games you haven’t played

Man, there’s so much amazing stuff in there you have yet to experience, you could be occupied for years! Since you’re a fan of Urban Reign I can’t recommend God Hand enough. Amazing game. All of the Mega Man games are available on modern consoles and MM11 is phenomenal, one of my favorite 2D games ever. Hell, even Ghost Trick is amazing, one of the most creative games I’ve ever played. You could basically just close your eyes and pick a Capcom game from certain eras in it’ll be worth playing.

>RE4
I highly recommend a Professional difficulty run after, also to experiment with the other weapons.





Been playing Shadow Hearts. Heard great things of the series, it has been on my backlog for a while. I figure if I don't play one JRPG on my backlog during this quarantine, it was a waste. If you don't know anything about shadow hearts, the battles use the judgement ring mechanic, which is basically a three click system from old golfing games. You have to tap the button as the line goes over the hit zone, usually three times for three total hits.

The cool aspect is critical hits are a small colored area at the end of the strike zones, so if you want a critical hit you have to risk completely missing. This applies to spells and items too. Let's say you have a character about to die, that needs a heal item. You can go for a critical hit on the item to heal them more, but since its at the end of the strike zone, your timing has to be spot on, or you fail to use the item.
Tons of risk/reward in the system. It keeps you awake and engaged in every battle.
The game has a dark comedy kind of style to it. It feels like survival horror most of the time, but out of no where it will just be wacky as hell.
To put water element on her attacks, one character calls in for help, a rope comes from the sky. and she pulls it and gets water showered on her.
Things like this are happening while you're in a village of cannibals, definitely unique to say the least.

The first shadow hearts? I played the second game right around 10ish years ago and loved it. One of the only JRPGs I played all the way through post PS1-era.

Yes the first. Gonna shoot for all three games if I have it in me, I hear 2 is most peoples favorite.

There's a lot of cool gear you can equip to change up the judgement ring. There is one item that gives you a ton of extra agility, which can allow you to take two turns in a row, but the judgment ring spins twice as fast. You could equip items to slow it down, but at the expense of other good items like damage ups. It's a fun system so far.

Infinity_Divide wrote:I don’t really know what to play. [...] Anyone have recommendations? Like short/unique games I could play quickly?

Do you like puzzle games? Those are always a great palate cleanser for me in-between two intense action games and you can usually find a few decent ones on most platforms.

>I actually do own Knack 2, only played it for about an hour. That’s something I will do.

Just corrected that little mistake there Infinity. Great choice. I look forward to hearing your views.

>RE3, a Mega Man game, a Monster Hunter game, an Onimusha game, a Dino Crisis game, God Hand, Chaos Legion, a Viewtiful Joe game, Okami, P.N.03, Gotcha Force, Shadow of Rome, Dragon's Dogma, a Dead Rising game, Ghost Trick, Killer7...I don't know where to start!

Sure you do.

>Shadow Hearts
I loved the 2nd game.

> RE4
Really enjoying it - it's making me wonder what took me so long to get around to it. I've just done the knife QTE cutscene with Krauser and beaten the monster in the hanging cages.

> Nintendo & Konami
Nintendo is a developer I've not properly sampled. I've never really been invested in their IPs other than Smash Bros, although I did enjoy Super Mario Odyssey for Switch. Any recommendations for must-play Nintendo titles? Other than MGS and the classic Pro Evolution Soccer games, I've not really gotten into Konami's games either. I had the 360 XBLA version of SOTN in my teens but never really got into it - I should give that another go at some point.

> Chaos Legion
I cheated a little bit with my list - some of those games I do remember playing when I was younger (but I never owned them so I must have rented them). Chaos Legion was one of them, and while I do vaguely remember playing it, I don't remember much about what it was like. When I do play it, it'll feel like a new experience for me.

>Nintendo
Such an odd company. They are so frigging good when they feel like it. Other times I feel like they have either no grasp of the market or are weirdly obsessed to "surprise" everybody. Like that time when they released the Gamecube with the Luigi's Mansion - the game not about mr. Videogame himself in a finely crafted platforming adventure but instead his brother vacuuming evil ghosts, wtf? However with the Wii I think that they hitted a homerun. I love the Wii Sports and how it took away the barrier of playing videogames for so many people. Shame that everybody tought it was just about the motion controls.

Obviously Marios, Zeldas and Metroids are all pretty good. If you like puzzles just play the 3D Zeldas - The Windwaker having the best combat. If you prefer more freedom just play The Breath of the Wild etc. Overall these three series contains quality products for 2D or 3D itch and fun spin offs to impress the ladies in the parties.

Outside of the obvious ones I would highly recommend the F-Zero X and F-Zero GX (Actually not sure if that is more a Sega game). Easily the best racing series at least to me.

Peak Nintendo.

Nintendo's games tend to be very simplistic mechanically in my opinion, but just their overall packages are beyond any standard set by the industry imo. Think in terms of polish, level design variation, experimentation within the genre. Everything they touch is new and refreshing in some way, well, nearly everything.

In terms of their must play titles:

- Super Mario World: I know a lot of people prefer SMB3, but personally World blows it away. Best platformer I have ever played in my life and I don't think I'll ever play one that's better. The only one that comes close is:

- Super Mario 3d World: very underloved title due to WiiU exclusivity, fantastic 2.5d platformer. Fun powerups, insanely creative level design where most concepts are only around for 1 or 2 levels before being dropped for something completely new, and a lot of hidden worlds that combine all the ideas in some of the best levels I've seen. Mario Galaxy is also fan-fucking tastic. Not a fan of Odyssey imo.

- Metroid Prime. Super and Fusion are great too, but Prime really is just fantastic. Great usage of world building, exploration, sound design, bosses, enemies, by god it's great.

- Zelda. Can't think of a bad title and everyone tends to have a favourite, mine is The Wind Waker.

- Splatoon 2: probably the best shooter I've played for multiplayer combat and co-op shooting. Really took the genre in new directions imo.

- Fire Emblem is absolutely fantastic if you love strategy games. The one Ksub linked is FE6 (with exception of the last gif, that's FE7). Personally I think Path of Radiance is the best in terms of map design, but that game will cost you a fortune depending on where you live. The GBA games are fantastic though, especially thanks to their amazing sprite-work.

- Golden Sun: best jRPG ever made and I'm totally not biased in this matter. Not at all.

- Pokemon, I know it's a bit of a no brainer but these games really shook the world and for good reason. I haven't played the newer ones, but Silver/Gold and the classic Blue/Red are still really good adventure games.

- F-Zero GX: though more a SEGA game honestly, this is what you get if an action-game was a racer. Great single-player game too, unlike most in the genre imo.

A lot of people also apparently adore games like Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing and Arms. But I haven't touched those. Smash Brothers is great too.

It's true that Nintendo games tend to be mechanically simple and easy to pick up, but I wouldn't call them simplistic. As a general rule, I prefer a straightforward control scheme (one button = one function) and easily understandable fundamentals with a load of quality content built around them as opposed to needlessly convoluted controls and a bunch of filler and/or pointless content. Super Mario Galaxy > Nioh.

I'll co-sign Roy's excellent list. I'll also mention Metroid Prime 2 (my favorite Metroid game, although you really need to have played MP1 first in order to enjoy this one), Paper Mario TTYD (one-of-a-kind RPG with great writing) and Pikmin (probably the most accessible real-time-strategy game ever created, with a lot of personality to boot).

Nintendo have their flaws, but the industry as a whole would be a lot worse without them.

Thanks for the Nintendo recommendations - I've always been curious about Fire Emblem, that's a series I'd like to get in to. I've not played a Zelda title save for 10 minutes of Ocarina of Time 3D, I can't say there was anything wrong with it but I took it out my 3DS to play something else and I just never felt like putting it back in. There are a lot of games I haven't given a fair chance to, though.

I imported the complete edition of Nioh a while back (I like having physical copies where possible, and the Hong Kong release comes in English with all the DLC on disc). I hoped it'd get me in to Soulslike games, with the combat having more complexity, and it just didn't really click with me. I think I just have a thing where I can't enjoy action games with stamina meters (I know Vanquish would technically fall under this, but it's not a convential stamina system).

Simple, simplistic, tomato tomáto imo. They aren't complicated I guess you could say, very accessible but have a ton of depth in tiny little nuances. It's why I love Fire Emblem, everyone can pick it up and understand it in seconds. But once you want to get good, there's just so many little nuances. Fantastic series. What's your take on its Post-Awakening era?

Prime 2 honestly took me a while to warm up to, as in years. It might actually be the better game of the two, but the first game is just a lot more accesible and all 'round if that makes any lick of sense. Cannot believe I forgot the TTYD, amazing experience. Never played Pikmin but I've heard great things.

If Nintendo were to ever quit, the industry would just come to a halt I fear. Every piece of innovation, be it technical or mechanical, comes from them most of the time. They really drive it all forward.

> Nioh
It's a lot more fun when you play it akin to Ninja Gaiden i.e. going ham. It is a (very) slow burn but once William is more decked out the combat is absolutely fantastic, especially since the stamina bar is basically non-existant in that game once you get good.

> Zelda
They are long games that you really need to sit down for and take your time, especially considering how slow they are to start. The only one that's really easy to access and start of the classical ones is Link Between Worlds imo, and Link to the Past to some extent. Masterful game imo.

>SMB3 vs SMBW
I think both are timeless, but SMB3 is the one for me - I am a NES-kid. Also the shorter level design without collectibles is just the greatest thing. Overall I think mostly the debate between these two is about which one did the person grow up.

I think that's completely fair. I grew up with SMBW and played 3 shortly after, I love both and the secrets and all that that's around. I still remember seeing the Star World for the first time in SMBW..blew me away.

Royta/Raeng wrote:[...] very accessible but have a ton of depth in tiny little nuances. It's why I love Fire Emblem, everyone can pick it up and understand it in seconds. But once you want to get good, there's just so many little nuances.

Agreed, and I think that "easy to learn, hard to master" is the hallmark of a great game. This type of design elegance is something that seems to have gotten lost over time. Most AAA games these days have way too many functions and yet remain frustratingly shallow. I'll take the signature Nintendo style any day.

Royta/Raeng wrote:
What's your take on its Post-Awakening era?

Oh, boy.

Awakening - If I'm being super kind to it, I'd say it's probably a decent game for players unfamiliar with the classic series. So I get why so many newcomers love it so much. For me though, it devalues pretty much every single part of the established formula I care about and I find it impossible to enjoy. One of those cases where I just can't look past my love for the series.

Fates: Birthright - Bad gameplay, bad story. Avoid.

Fates: Conquest - Map design is very good overall, albeit a tad gimmicky. Systems are needlessly complicated. Story is aggressively bad and even worse than Birthright's. It's like they wanted to make a game for the purists but without really understanding all the intricacies of their own material. I appreciate the effort but... meh.

Shadows of Valentia - By far the best of the 3DS games for me. Map design is very poor, almost staggeringly so at times, but everything else is great. I love most of its unique gameplay systems and the story is surprisingly solid. Fantastic localization, too.

Three Houses - Haven't played it yet! I hear it's good, though.

Agree with a lot of these recommendations, personally think Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 and Mario 3D World are the best Nintendo games of all time, absolute gold. New Super Mario Bros U is great too, probably my favorite 2D Mario(blasphemy, I know). I also can’t recommend Twilight Princess enough if you want a good Zelda, excellent combat and dungeon design. I’ll second Paper Mario TTYD too, really unique game that’s pretty hilarious at times.

> oh boy
Haha! This is exactly the reaction I was hoping for. Share it 100% though. I bought into the excitement of Awakening and its excellent soundtrack, but once I got into the higher settings the game just fell apart. Even on replays I noticed just how dull the maps and objectives were, don't think there's a single mission that isn't just "route the enemy". PoR just blows it out of the water in that regard alone. Heard decent things about Shadows as you note, but never touched it after the poison of Awakening. Also disliked the departure in art-style. It was sort of coming, but I prefer the more 'medival' anime aesthetic they had before than the fanservice they have now.

> easy to learn, hard to master
Agreed. I once had a talk with my editor about this whose a game designer (mostly for boardgames these days though, check his latest out here: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/261525/untamed-feral-factions) and he had a pretty cool note about this. Good game design isn't about having a few layers of complexity, but a lot of layers of simplicity. So instead of making a really complicated mechanic, you add some simple ones. I think that's also why I like Ninja Gaiden so much. The combat is simple, just dial combos, not a lot of fancy cancels. Enemies are simple too, they have only two modes (ranged and close up) and one to three attacks. Ninpo is very simple, just an orb to spend and there you go, nuke something. But when it all comes together, it's nuts. Felt that was pretty cool how he explained that.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Awakening and its excellent soundtrack

See now, I'm so bitter I don't even like the soundtrack. Most tracks are way too lighthearted in tone for my liking, just like the goofy dialogue and hyper-stylized aesthetics. The look and feel of this game is way too jocular and sugary for its subject matter, makes it difficult to take any of the narrative beats seriously.

Everybody praises that soundtrack, but it just sounds really kitschy to me.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Also disliked the departure in art-style. It was sort of coming, but I prefer the more 'medival' anime aesthetic they had before than the fanservice they have now.

Completely agree when it comes to Awakening and Fates, although I found SoV to be significantly more in line with the Elibe and Tellius games in that regard. Less fanservice, more... "medievalism", especially the character art.

When I saw the character art for Three Houses and the increased focus on the waifu-simulator aspect I noped out pretty fast. I just love the more traditional artwork they had. I drew a lot of Fire Emblem characters when I was young, downloading artwork from the web, printing it out and copying it. Still have some old ones lying around here somewhere. Ike will always be my favourite due to me maining him in all his Smash entries and doing tournaments with him.

But yeah, not a fan of the newer style at all. But sadly it sells (soooooo) much better.

> soundtrack
I liked the main theme that played during the final stage, I still remember that one. Otherwise, I forgot. Can't beat these tracks imo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VSwmzxFHZQ

Loved most of the GBA ost too. Fantastic stuff. Would still love to give the old SNES games a go, never did since they weren't ported over here.

I don’t know much about FE(all I’ve played is Awakening and TH...sorry guys) but I really emjoyed TH. It was pretty easy(I played on normal though) and had a lot of downtime but I enjoyed the variety and use of terrain/special effects on the maps.

Definitely playing a lot more games these days! Silver linings I guess...

My continuing go-to games I am constantly playing are Warframe and messing around in NG2/NG3RE.

Beyond that, I just beat and enjoyed Doom Eternal and will soon be starting Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I also have PS4 Zone of the Enders on tap too!

@Khayyaam says 5th generation of Pokemon is a must-play RPG.

Gen 5 is the Black and White titles, right?

That was the second gen of Pokémon I tried. I played hours and hours of Sapphire as a kid and loved it, and decided to pick up Black 2 a few years ago after having a Pokémon itch that needed scratching. I couldn't get in to it for what will probably seem the pettiest reason ever.

I was so used to the game running at 60fps on the GBA (or will it have been 50 for PAL regions? I don't know). The thing I most got used to was the controls being super responsive outside of combat, so I got used to sprinting round everywhere with the running shoes and turning on a dime whenever I needed to. When I got Black 2 and saw it ran at 30fps, I was a little disappointed, but I thought it's only a "turn-based RPG, no big deal". That was until I got the running shoes and discovered that the controls were nowhere near as responsive as they were at 30fps on the 2D engine. The game just never clicked with me, and that's the thing I remember about it.

I've gone back to accessory building in DQH1 which is like my 'break' inbetween games. I want to play Valkyria 4 next but I think I need wait a little more having only just finished with VC1.

100%ed SpiderMan PS4. Didn't love it as much as I thought I would, as a Marvel fan I thought the storytelling was just okay and the combat was pretty solid, even if they make you do too much of it like every open world game. I think making it so similar to the Batman Arkham games just made it feel too familiar and also made it kind of obvious where the game is worse, but it's still a really good game. I'm also almost done with RE Revelations, the HD port to PS4. Really impressive for a 3DS game but it's definitely a backstep mechanically from RE5. Raid Mode is especially worse than I remember, the "no damage" condition is a pain in the neck to hit because enemies are a lot faster compared to RE4 and 5 and you have an unbelievably inconsistent dodge move as your only defensive mechanic. Rev 2 was for sure a step up. The single player mode is a decent little gaiden though, and the atmosphere is great

Hey there Wu! Still, if you went for 100% it must've brought you some enjoyment I'd reckon. Never played REV1 (only the second one), I do admit I'm still curious about the title though. Is the single player campaign worth it you'd reckon?

Yeah like I said, SM is a great game, I'm just brain poisoned from playing all 200 other Spider Man and Batman games. Rev1 is only like 4-5 hours long so if you're interested it's not a steep investment, but I'd say it's skippable unless you're as starved for Resi style shooters as I am

I started testing a relatively old PC from a relative to see if I could run some games at full speed. So far, KH1 runs very smoothly. However, I know that's a pretty lightweight game, as my own PC could run it at 70% speed at most.

However, I am not sure if playing all of those Action games I've missed on an emulator might be the best way to start playing them (reminder that the only good ones I've played so far are RE4, KH1 and KH2), but I have no other way to try them. What are your thoughts? I think I might start with either God Hand, DMC1 or 3, if I find it comfortable to play those games with a keyboard.

EDIT: I'm tempted to do a Lv 1 Crit run of KH2 as well, since I've never done one. To all of those who have, do you recommend it?

Games that were originally developed for console are generally much better with a controller, preferably the one they were designed around.

Really weird for me to imagine playing God Hand or DMC3 with a keyboard and mouse interface.

I also have a PS3 controller, but I don't know if just plugging an USB cable to the PC will do the trick. One of my relatives used to have another PC that apparently supported Bluetooth controllers, I loaned him said PS3 controller, and he said it worked. Unfortunately, that PC can't even boot up anymore, although they said they were going to send it for repairs today.

Phoenix Wright wrote:I also have a PS3 controller, but I don't know if just plugging an USB cable to the PC will do the trick.

Yeah, all the PC tinkering and constant compatibility issues are a real headache, which is why I try to stay away from that sort of thing as much as possible. I assume it would require some sort of driver.

Are consoles really not an option for you? The DMC HD collection available on either PS3, PS4, 360 or XBO is really solid and probably a much more comfortable way of playing these amazing games.

KSubzero1000 wrote:Are consoles really not an option for you? The DMC HD collection available on either PS3, PS4, 360 or XBO is really solid and probably a much more comfortable way of playing these amazing games.

Nope. Before the lockdown stuff started, I moved away to my hometown and left my PS2 at my residence. I regret doing that, but I was kinda in a hurry at the moment. And the only non-portable console I own is a PS2.

I don't doubt playing DMC on a controller would be infinitely more comfortable than playing it on a keyboard, just pointing out that my options really are that limited.

You could try using a piece of software called X360CE. It allows you to connect a direct input controller (in this case, your PS3 pad) and convert it in to an xinput (360) controller to use with games that support the 360 pads. It doesn't take very long to get set up, and then once you open your game it should automatically recognise your PS3 controller as a 360 pad. Your on-screen button prompts will still come up as Xbox inputs, so bear that in mind. I haven't used it for quite a while, but I remember it worked well.

https://www.x360ce.com/


EDIT: Not related to the above, but this game looks amazing and I'm going to have to play it. I didn't know Data East made Uncharted 17 years before Naughty Dog!