What are you playing right now?

>X360CE

Noted. Thanks.

Though it is far from my prefered controller, there are a lot of players that play DMC4 and up with the keyboard for Dante since it offers the easiest way of controlling him (or so I've heard). But yeah I'd honestly say if you can, any form of analogue input is prefered compared to M&K.

Bad news, all I can get with this PC is 25 FPS for God Hand (an additional 10 FPS compared to my last attempt at emulating it with my own PC).

On the bright side, both KH1 and KH2 get a solid 60 FPS. Been attempting a new low level run of KH1 (since Lv 1 runs aren't a thing in the PS2 version), and I've been having fun so far.

I don't know if I should test DMC and other games, as something tells me KH1 and 2 might be the most lightweight games of the bunch.

It all depends on how well they are emulated, DMC is a lot more mainstream than God Hand so it probably got more attention from the emulation community to run smoothly. Just give it a go I'd say.

God Hand runs at 30fps doesn't it? There may be some tweaks you could make to squeeze that last 5fps out...

Yeah GH is a 30fps title. I've seen it being played at 60fps and it just looks weird to me haha.

God Hand at 60fps basically makes your hits lose all impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJmM8mA_O2k

>mainstream

Makes sense. I'll give it a try.

>30 FPS

Maybe FPS is the wrong term for this context? The emulator says the game is running at 50% speed, and I assumed the numbers inside the parentheses were FPS.

Changing the subject real quick, @Infinity_Divide , have you ever tried any of the good Mega Man fangames?

> Emulation

Do you know what PC specs you're running? PS2 emulation is a mixed bag at the best of times, but your hardware is quite important. From my experience, Urban Reign is quite easy to emulate, if you could be tempted to try it...  

I'm not too experienced with the workings of PCSX2 (I've used it a lot but not really gotten into tweaking the settings much). It looks like you're using the hardware encoder (along the top of your window you can see D3D11 HW). I think this is the encoder that allows you to upscale the game to HD resolutions if you've got a good enough graphics card to support it. I'd maybe try using the software encoder instead - you'll be playing in native PS2 resolution, but it might give you a performance increase.

As for the framerate being the number in the parentheses, that's a good point - I would have assumed the same. It's reporting a speed of 55%, and let's assume it is reporting a frame rate of 27fps. That would suggest it considers 50fps to be full speed. Are you using the PAL version of the game? I couldn't say for certain but it might be the case that the PAL version is less compatible with the emulator than the NTSC version.

>specs

Sure. I think these are the relevant ones for emulation:

-CPU: Intel Pentium G620
-GPU: Intel HD Graphics
-Ram: 2GB

>Urban Reign

Noted. I'll try that one and get back to you.

>encoders

I just tried this, and unfortunately it's still running at the same speed as before.

However, I haven't touched PCSX2's settings at all, besides changing the encoders. So there might be some settings that might give me an additional speed increase... as minimal as it may be.

>PAL vs NTSC

This ISO lets me select any of the two when starting the game, actually. I changed it to NTSC, and the game is still running at 50-55% speed, but the framerate now indicates 30-33FPS respectively.

> Specs

Unfortunately, I think this is your issue. The processor is the most important component for emulation as it does the bulk of the work. Your processor is a dual-core, which meets the requirements of PCSX2, but only has a passmark of 1,244 on the below chart for single thread performance. PCSX2 recommends 1,600 or greater.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

PCSX2 recommends 4GB of RAM, which doubles what you currently have. This is probably necessary for 3D games, but you should be able to get away with less for 2D games.

Having a dedicated graphics card isn't necessary, depending on what you're emulating. PCSX2 recommends a video card with at least 2GB of Video RAM (or VRAM). It looks like you're using the on-board graphics built in to your motherboard, which likely won't be enough for most 3D games. You might find it's enough for 2D titles, though. I used to emulate Fire Pro Wrestling Returns on a PC using on-board graphics, which used 2D character sprites on 3D backgrounds. Performance will vary by game.

You can find a bit more info on the requirements here: https://pcsx2.net/getting-started.html

It does mention that the minimum spec suggestions are based on the requirements needed to run the more intensive PS2 titles. My processor exeeds the recommended 2100 pass mark, but I still find some games don't want to run full speed. The PS2 is a tough system to emulate, much more so than the Wii/Gamecube.

Here is a forum post that notes some of the less CPU intensive games. As you found out, Kingdom Hearts is regarded as easy to emulate: https://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-LIST-Games-that-don-t-need-a-strong-CPU-to-emulate

> Encoders

Damn, I was quietly optimistic about this one helping you out. You could always try looking on YouTube for low spec PCSX2 settings. I've followed quite a few different tutorials on it for increased performance and never found anything that drastically helped, but it might be worth a try.

> PAL vs NTSC

In that case, I'd recommend you use 60hz mode on any PAL games that support it, or if not, the NTSC versions of any games you plan on playing. If the performance is the same and you're getting more FPS, then it's not taxing your system any harder, so you may as well.

>links

Well, damn. Looks like I won't be playing any of these games anytime soon... well, except Shinobi, as it is listed on that list of games you linked. I just tested DMC3, and it's getting just about the same results as God Hand's.

Also, I noticed that my own PC (an E2200) has a score of 842. No wonder God Hand was super slow when I tried it.

For a long time, I wanted to buy either a Pentium G3258 or an i7-4790K. The former was cheaper, but I'm seeing that it's barely above the 1600 mark, whereas the latter is in the 2400s.

But now that I think about it, I think it would be cheaper to just buy a new PS2 with an HDD configuration to reduce loading speeds, as I noticed someone is selling theirs for 80$, including the HDD (but it's a 40GB one). I'm seeing another offer for 20$, which is just the PS2 network adapter alone, but the person is also offering a 250GB HDD for an additional 20$, although they don't specify what kind of HDD they're offering. If I want to go for the latter, I'd have to wait 'til all this lockdown stuff ends, which will be who knows when. Maybe a year or so.

>60Hz

I see. I'll keep this in mind.

> Shinobi

I tried that game and it ran great, except there's a bug where the UI doesn't display correctly and the menus are messed up. I looked at gameplay on YouTube and nobody else seemed to have the issue. I never got it fixed...

> CPU

I'd always recommend going for the stronger one, even if you have to save up a bit longer to buy it. I semi-recently upgraded from an i5-3570k to a Ryzen 7 2700X and it was a big performance jump, both in emulated games and native PC titles.

> PS2

Native hardware is great if you have a setup that can accomdate it. I still have my PS2 and a good few games, but my TV introduces a lot of lag, so I rely on PC emulation for anything pre-360/PS3. I went back and played Urban Reign on my PS2 last year and it was just an awful experience compared to emulation because of the input latency. Sometimes I consider looking for an old CRT online, but I don't really have the room for it.

>Shinobi

I see... I went to look at the wiki's page for that game, and sure enough, no one mentions that particular issue when testing that game. Which is concerning, if I run into that issue, the wiki won't have any info on how to fix it. Haven't looked if the forums have anything addressing that, I'd have to do a little more research.

>emulation and original hardware

I mostly use emulation if I don't have any other means to play a certain game I want to play. I used to have a Wii, but after selling it, I suddenly wanted to replay Mario Kart Wii once again, and try NSMB Wii, and Mega Man 9 & 10 for the first time, so I had to use Dolphin to play these games. I have the setup to start playing on native hardware, all I have to do is find a new PS2.

Suffice to say your specs are really falling behind, shame I actually had some RAM left over but gave it away last week. That said you'd really need a new CPU, and probably because of that a new motherboard to work with it iirc (depends on which one you have now). If you're looking for a new build I can always check your budget with a mate of mine who is an IT-specialist, I'll gladly send your setup to him and he can take a look how to make the best build within a budget if you're looking to expand.

That said, if you just want to play PS2 games, I'd say just get a console yeah. Otherwise what you can also look into is Shadow if your connection is decent enough. I tried the demo at a friend's house and we used it to play DMCV and I didn't notice any lag despite playing it on an ancient macbook through bootcamp. Here's the link: https://shadow.tech/int
You can basically use Shadow for emulation if you wish.

>CRT TV
Have the same thing, really want a good one. Would be fantastic.

> that website of CPU power
I love how the whole meta of PC-gaming is comparing stats haha. It's strangely addicting.

>Sometimes I consider looking for an old CRT online

Here in Denver, people just give them away on Craigslist. Beautiful sets too. I was going to pick one up but corona happened. It is so worth it IMO. The games just weren't meant to be seen on a LCD.

Yeah same here, sadly with Corona I'm also not going to do it. What's Craigslist though? Heard about that from time to time, some sort of used-sales site?

>new build

Currently, I can't spend money on a new computer, but I will definitely let you know when I save enough money to purchase a new build. Thanks a lot for the offer.

>Shadow

Sounds interesting, but unfortunately, it says that it isn't available on my country.

Playing Blue Revolver ,an indie shmup. I'm really close to a 1CC in normal mode and I'm loving it. It has some really excellent patterns and bosses and it's all around well designed. Scoring is also interesting, based on chains that you cash in with the secondary weapon and you are encouraged to do it even in a normal run as the extends are tied to scoring.
It does have a rank system tho, and I'm not a big fun of that, but it's purely personal preference.

I also replayed a bit more of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, mainly working on unlocking the remaining deviants when I have some time to kill. I have to say, now that I restarted after a break I'm loving it even more. It's pretty much on par with Freedom unite, if FU is better in general design, I love what they did with the gameplay in GU. The style system really elevates it and most of the new monsters are great. It's funny how all the problems with it stems from 4U really makes you realize how different the 2 teams are (or how incompetent the main team is, but that is me being a bit of an asshole )

Finally I also kinda got into Tetris, want to become at least decent at it so I started practicing it and it's a ton of fun especially on pvp (even if finding people at my skill level is really rare, so I usually just get destroyed)

>Craigslist

Yep. That's exactly what it is. For Canadians, we use Kijiji.

Still continuing Fist Of The North Star Lost Paradise. I'm at Chapter 10 and I am level 99. I also have the entire map to travel now. Does anybody ever get the feeling that the game just gives you the treasure maps like no tomorrow?

Yeah the treasure maps are absolutely nuts. Surprised to hear you're already level99, you really are doing everything damn.

Overgrowth. The bunny kung fu game. I don't know if it warrants it's own thread but its good fun.
Good simple mechanics and difficulty. Reminds me of the efficiency based strats I would come up with in GOW games. All the gameplay on youtube sucks because the people suck though.

Has anyone played Shadow of Rome? Did you like it?

I own the game and quite enjoyed what little I played of it, which granted wasn't much as I was still playing other titles. So I cannot comment, but it looks solid.

Got inspired from JTB's and Bigalski's videos and bought Ninja Gaiden Black. Cleared it on normal and hard. Honestly I don't know anymore which NG I prefer. Also noticed a sweet deal for PS4 Pro bundled with physical copy of Nioh 2 and pulled the trigger finally.

RedShot wrote:Has anyone played Shadow of Rome? Did you like it?

Yeah. It's SALVO. If you like Onimusha you're bound to be interrested in it. Tweaks it a lot.
Oh, and there are mandatory stealth, uh, -interruptions. If you are on a picky side, you might dislike that.
"What's doing that in my arena-brawler?!!"
When you clear the game, all missions can be played separately on the diff you conquered.
And it gets stiffer.

>mandatory stealth, uh, -interruptions.

Loved the combat, stopped playing after the second stealth section. They are strict, slow, and getting caught restarts the whole damn thing. Luckily Dead Rising has like the exact same combat so really no need to play SoR.

Thanks for the answers! I like the setting so I'll probably play it but I have to be in the right mood to tolerate those stealth sections.

After the carnage, stealth is a nice way to wash the sins off the player. Pretty amusing game eating that big cheese, the tug-of-war stuff, and all. Really made you savor the weaponry-use. Add another person to the 'Didn't finish it' list. Think I left off at the horse-racing part.

NiceNinja wrote:Got inspired from JTB's and Bigalski's videos and bought Ninja Gaiden Black. Cleared it on normal and hard. Honestly I don't know anymore which NG I prefer. Also noticed a sweet deal for PS4 Pro bundled with physical copy of Nioh 2 and pulled the trigger finally.

Black is fantastic, their runs together are really fun to watch too! Have fun with Nioh2, you're the first one on this board to buy it I think (we were all deep into Doom Eternal haha).

Royta/Raeng wrote:
Black is fantastic, their runs together are really fun to watch too! Have fun with Nioh2, you're the first one on this board to buy it I think (we were all deep into Doom Eternal haha).

Ha, I just can't resist anything that has ninjas, samurais or cherry blossoms. I am planning to do a very patient run using Kusarigama and long range Ninjutsu.

The Kusarigama is next on my solo-weapon list as well. Just finished Dragon Sword, and working on Claws now though I admit to not really enjoying the weapon that much.

Oh sorry I was talking about the Nioh's Kusarigama and Ninjutsu skills. There is no way that I am skilled enough to use only one weapon in either of Ninja Gaiden games. Think I am hitting my personal skill cap In Very Hard and Mentor, which is fine. I can still optimize my runs in lower difficulty levels and maybe someday return to the harder modes.

Aaaah, gotcha! Sorry haha, was way too much in the Gaiden mood haha. But yeah Nioh, fun game man. Ninjutsu + Kusari is great. I think there's even a skin for the Kusari that makes it look like the one from NGII.

While I am playing Nioh from time to time, my main priority is Project Warlock and Malicious. While at this moment I have to go to sleep, I am making the topic of Project Warlock. Please standby.

How is project warlock? I’ve been eyeing it for a while.

I’m still running RE3 remake and I’ve been playing Persona 5 Royal with the wife. I’m extremely pissed though because apparently the 20 hours of new content is missable and I didn’t meet the requirements to see any of it. Makes no sense.

I also have been playing NGS2(sorry Roy!) and I love the scythe. I recall reading it was nerfed but it still seems to just wreck fools. I can see why so many people don’t like this as much as NG2 but I’m having a lot of fun.

Been struggling with some life stuff and it all just got me down, so I went and splurged some money on stuff. One of them was almost Kingdom Hearts, but in the end I just wanted something weird and different. So I bought Death Stranding. Let's see what its like.

> NGS2
Hey, it's the first game in the series I played and up until last year I felt it was the best game in the series. I still hold it in high regard, I just like NGII more. Why the sudden jump to that version?

Sorry to hear that man. Well Death Stranding is a very strange game and maybe it’s what you’re looking for. I was initially not happy with the game but I grew to like it quite a bit, it’s really unlike anything else out there.

As for NGS2, I went with it just because I don’t have a 360 that works. I was playing some stuff on my PS3 and randomly popped it in and just kept going with it.

>splurged some money on stuff.
I do that sometimes.

I swear I should be banned from game stores. I walk in, black out, and when I come to I'm standing at the entrance of the mall with a bag of games. Sometimes I have a creaming soda thick shake.

This has gotten worse since I recently got back into RPGs. There's so many and I just grab them. I don't know what happened. I still love action games but these days my mind leans towards systems that I can customize and play how I want. I don't feel action games offer this 'player expresshun' people are always talking about.

Finally got around to doing something I should've done a long time ago; do a challenge run of my favorite game, KH2FM!

Just finished the main campaign. I've yet to do the extra cups, the Cavern of Remembrance in all of its entirety, and of course, the postgame superbosses. Looking forward to face them, but I fear I won't be able to do so for 1 week, at least.

This run made me appreciate this game a hundred times more than before. I even enjoyed some of the optional bosses way more than anything I've done on a leveled run.

I saw your thread on the KH board. What's up with that one guy who can't shut up about how he 'doesn't get' lv1 runs? Total stealth jealous casual trying to veil downplaying others' accomplishments. Sorry but this shit is too good. I can't help it.

I feel like I'm missing something HUGE on level 1 runs. I don't understand how dying so easily can be so much fun. I guess I'm just not good enough. =/

Misses the point then answers own question. That should be the end of it but...

I'm not trying to say that people love dying; I'm just saying that on level 1, dying is so easy and I don't understand why people enjoy a run that can cause you to die so easily.

Yet acknowledges challenge more than once.

I get that people want to use all of their tools and such, but without any sort of safety net, how is it really possible to learn good techniques?

It's like, there are so many ways to die that level 1 doesn't allow you to glean much information from it since you can't take a hit, you don't have your safety nets to even try to recover.

Loves speaking for others doesn't he?

And I just don't understand how people are supposed to enjoy that.

I know, I know... Challenge. But still... =/
So he DOES understand.

Either way, I guess if you like spending 6 or 7 hours on a single Data battle... more power to you? =/
The breakdown begins.

I tried to do exactly what you said and learn from each experience, but after being stuck for THAT long, how was I supposed to get enjoyment out of it? There were so many ways to be killed that I couldn't remember every counter to every situation I could end up in.

How is that anyone else's or the the game's problem?

And further, what pleasure could I glean from it? It's not like I can just go up to someone and say "Hey, look at me! I beat KH2FM at level 1! Aren't I awesome?!"

Really showing true colors now desperately trying to shit on those who have done this run better.

Nobody cares. And I sure as heck don't feel particularly happy that after all that time trying to learn the fight, I actually won. It's meaningless to me.

Cares enough to constantly cry in the topic instead of just fucking off and playing something else (easier). But truth is he's furious over this run and it means EVERYTHING.

The above two parts were his double post too. He must have been super mad.

Then on the next page massively starts backpedaling. WTF?

Yeah so far it really is what I was looking for. Just a weird game to play on and off. The attention to detail is fantastic. Really enjoy optimizing my cargo-load, thinking what tools I might need etc. Combat with BTs has so far been tense and enjoyable, same with MULEs.

Do feel the game would be a lot better without the typical Kojima over-explanation. A lot of the mystery is kind of gone as a result.

> birdman shopping
Very recognizable.

> players not understanding the joy of overcoming a challenge
Not surprising. That said, generally these people would like them, they're just scared. Little motivation to do an easy challenge run in a game they like is generally all they need to get the addiction started.

>That KH3 board user

I'm just extremely tired of his... gimmick. I believe he has been doing that for... what, 5-7 years now? Anyway, everytime he does it, it's just a way to downplay his own skill as a player, but the next two weeks or so he takes back his claim and attempts to beat a boss without using magic, or any other mechanic. If someone praises him for it, he goes ''nah... it took me 9999 tries to accomplish this. I'm just not a good player at all.'' And the cycle repeats itself... for years, and years, and years. He once felt sad because no one posted on his topic. He basically wants to surpass the World Record speedrun of KH2FM so he can begin to call himself a 'good player'. Not a hardcore or expert player, just a good player.

It's just an endless cycle, and you'll get tired just from seeing his username in a while. If he says he won't ever come back to post on the forum, he will do so the following week. Some people even suggested him to go to Reddit for a slightly more positive site to discuss stuff, and he refused. I just don't know anymore. Maybe he finds pleasure baiting people into calling him out so he can get the attention he wants, maybe he's being genuine about it, I don't know. What I do know is that I'm tired of seeing the same stuff for years.

>It's like, there are so many ways to die that level 1 doesn't allow you to glean much information from it since you can't take a hit

This is just not true. As I said on my own topic, you don't die in one hit to every single attack, just very specific ones. You can definitely take a hit or two with the right gear and keep fighting. Now, you can't survive attacks that hit you multiple times, but my point still stands.

He's a liar and extremely insecure.

He knows exactly why people do challenge runs. He knows everything we know. He just sucks ass and wants to downplay the concept. If he can normalize the idea that challenge runs are just grinding and luck or some shit, he can remove player skill and learning. Then everyone will be on the same level as him. Useless.

I saw he made his own topic on this run. I'll read that later for some laughs.

Well, now that you mention it, you may not be far from the truth. You reminded me of this:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/718920-kingdom-hearts-iii/78192239

Post 7 and 8.

Sounds like one of those types that love a series and thought they were skilled, then the challenge runners appeared and exposed his complete inability. He's butthurt as fuck over this.

hedfone wrote:Luckily Dead Rising has like the exact same combat so really no need to play SoR.

I just can't second this.

Yes, I read too, that Dead Rising began production as the sequel to Shadow of Rome. But what came out of it is, to me at the least, different enough to not putting in it in the same sentence about combat.
DR original is a slog (evidence in the "aiming"), and true to what I hold against RPG's in general all is locked behind the lv system. Starting as a snail to become a mighty tiger is no fun. No fun. Rome starts you off equal, as a novice and vet of the arena.

So, my variation of "no need to play SoR" would be "Think Dead Rising combat sucks? You will be surprised by Shadow of Rome"!

The first DR is fantastic.

It has some similarities to SoR. SoR had a similar stepping system to Onimusha if I'm remembering correctly.