What are you currently playing?

[Johnny Novgorod]

Make sure to try out Strider (2014). I think it's still on sale on both digital stores

Have it already, haven't played it yet. I'm sitting on that, Axiom Verge and Salt & Sanctuary.

 

[Dalisclock]

@Dalisclock, thanks for the thumbs up. I did not know you are a No More Heroes fan. Either that, or the like was for Arhkam City.

I actually haven't played either but I will give props to posts which I feel are informative, entertaining or well argued.

 

[Worgen]

And once again it sounds like you're making excuses for crappy controls. It's like that argument of saying how Resident Evil was better because of the tank controls and the camera angles are they hide enemies. Tank controls were a compromise, because full 3d movement hadn't been perfected yet. It took until the late 6th gen an early 7th gen to finally get 3D working right.

Yes, it was better with tank controls. Given the tech at the time they were the best option to have high detail backgrounds and maintaining a tense atmospheric survival horror game. If it was a third person game then it would be like Silent Hill, but 3 years before Silent Hill and before people started figuring out how the camera worked so it would be shit.

And once again, all I'm asking is for a better lock on. I'm not asking for enemies to be juggled in the air and shot with bullets over 50 times.

It still seems to work fine, or do you mean DS1 compared to DS3, cause I just went back into DS3 to test and it works fine, it can be a bit awkward but its fine. If you want to see a bad lockon system then look at Warthunder. Its really easy to accidently lock onto a target when you are trying to keep track of it and then the game will automatically turn the camera to it whenever you zoom in, and unlocking a target is kinda hard to do unless you go into the key config to find the specific command to do it.

I don't know what type of answer that is, I'm going to go with wrong and a nonanswer response. The correct answer is Shenmue, Beatdown, and Final Fight: StreetWise. The first aged horribly and the original creator has not done anything to improve its game design from over the past 20 years with its recent new installment. The latter two are just really bad games that try too hard to be edgy, "ghetto/hood" and are crappy GTA knockoffs.

Good night. I won't be responding till I get up later in the morning.

The only good ones there are part of the yakuza series and you only get that from dedicated teams who manage to overcome executive meddling. You know what other sega series that sega of america probably liked buy japan didn't? Golden Axe, we saw that one go into a 3rd person brawler and it was kinda shit.

I didn't even mention Devil May Cry, dude. Capcom is simply good at making games that have hefty gameplay (like Souls games) that still have very tight controls. They've even made an action-rpg that like Dark Souls gives you a variety of builds and it plays like a dream.

The camera and lock-on in Souls games are just bad. And you might say that's part of the appeal, that the mechanics are screwy, but that doesn't make it good gameplay design. And it certainly doesn't mean people who complain about it are in the wrong. People are allowed to complain about whatever the hell the want in videogames, and that goes double for legitimately bad mechanics. Difficulty does not necessitate bad controls. I would think we'd grown out of that mindset with the end of the PS2 era. Heck, even the PS2 had hard games that controlled better than Fromsoft games.

I'll only git gud at a game if I'm having fun playing it, and I typically don't enjoy expending a large majority of my brain fighting a game's mechanics. Games like Hollow Knight have already shown that you can be as "hard" as a Souls game AND have silky smooth controls.

Capcom has 2 types of 3rd person action games. DMC and Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter for most of its life was just as if not more akward to play then the Souls series, it really wasn't till world that they went more straight up action. If you are talking about them making the souls series better then you have to chose one of those 2 types and it sounds like you were talking more about them making it like DMC then MH:W.

If you don't have fun playing it then don't play it. Also I LOVE Hollow Knight, but its really not comparable to Dark Souls aside from losing your monies after death and the healing mechanic. If you want a 2d game that plays more like it then look at Lost Ruins. It has the same long deliberate weapon strikes that the Souls series has but its 2d.

 

[BrawlMan]

Yes, it was better with tank controls.

No, that is your childhood and nostalgia goggles doing the talking for you. Tank controls were perfected with REMake. Shinji and Capcom both knew this. I have fond memories, but I rather not go back to that again. Like I said before, they were compromise for limited camera movement.

It still seems to work fine, or do you mean DS1 compared to DS3, cause I just went back into DS3 to test and it works fine, it can be a bit awkward but its fine. If you want to see a bad lockon system then look at Warthunder. Its really easy to accidently lock onto a target when you are trying to keep track of it and then the game will automatically turn the camera to it whenever you zoom in, and unlocking a target is kinda hard to do unless you go into the key config to find the specific command to do it.

I don't know. I barely ever played DS1. Like I mentioned, not exactly a fan of this series. So I never bothered with the sequels. I played some Bloodborne with my bro and his friends. I never heard of Warthunder, nor plan on playing it. I never said the Souls game had the worst lock-on, but they ain't flawless nor "good" either. Even in comparison, that change the fact they have a habit of screwing up a times.

You know what other sega series that sega of america probably liked buy japan didn't? Golden Axe, we saw that one go into a 3rd person brawler and it was kinda shit

Don't remind me. Funny enough Sega did make a proper 3D Streets of Rage and Golden Axe before back in the early 2000s with Spike Out and Slash Out respectively. They weren't open world though, and actual arcade games. Which makes their official attempts, all the infuriating when they screwed up.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Capcom has 2 types of 3rd person action games. DMC and Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter for most of its life was just as if not more akward to play then the Souls series, it really wasn't till world that they went more straight up action. If you are talking about them making the souls series better then you have to chose one of those 2 types and it sounds like you were talking more about them making it like DMC then MH:W.

I'm actually refering to Resident Evil, the third type of 3rd person action game.

And I never said Souls games should just be DMC, I'm saying Fromsoft could benefit from someone over at Capcom teaching them how to tighten up their mechanics. Not designing the mechanics, advising on how to optimize them. If only just fixing the camera... that'd be one hell of a load off.

If you don't have fun playing it then don't play it.

I don't -- Sekiro was their last shot, for them to prove that they could make proper action controls if they made a dedicated action game. And they failed at that. That won't stop me from complaining about it on occasion though. Heck, it probably won't stop me from checking out Elden Ring to see if they finally suceeded, and complaining about that if they haven't.

Also I LOVE Hollow Knight, but its really not comparable to Dark Souls aside from losing your monies after death and the healing mechanic. If you want a 2d game that plays more like it then look at Lost Ruins. It has the same long deliberate weapon strikes that the Souls series has but its 2d.

How is it not comparable? It's basically 2D Souls with faster action (and WAAAAY better controls).

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Also I LOVE Hollow Knight, but its really not comparable to Dark Souls aside from losing your monies after death and the healing mechanic.

I mean it's about guiding a nameless voiceless chosen one through a dying kingdom and picking from a variety of sacrifices to begin the cycle anew. There's the money/bloodstain thing. Resting at checkpoints respawns enemies. And at its core both are Metroidvanias with interconnected labyrinthine areas that gate your progress but also encourage exploration.
The crucial difference between the two is stamina management. No such thing in Hollow Knight, but gameplay in Dark Souls pivots entirely around it.

 

[Dalisclock]

I mean it's about guiding a nameless voiceless chosen one through a dying kingdom and picking from a variety of sacrifices to begin the cycle anew. There's the money/bloodstain thing. Resting at checkpoints respawns enemies. And at its core both are Metroidvanias with interconnected labyrinthine areas that gate your progress but also encourage exploration.
The crucial difference between the two is stamina management. No such thing in Hollow Knight, but gameplay in Dark Souls pivots entirely around it.

There's also an Abyss that plays a notable role the plot and there's a boss with a Giant ass hammer who might as well be Smough.

That's off the top of my head. I really liked Dark Souls and Hollow Knight and the fact HK seemed to be paying Homage to Dark Souls was just icing on the cake.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

There's also an Abyss that plays a notable role the plot and there's a boss with a Giant ass hammer who might as well be Smough.

That's off the top of my head. I really liked Dark Souls and Hollow Knight and the fact HK seemed to be paying Homage to Dark Souls was just icing on the cake.

There's also the running motif of olden civilizations being doomed by their pride and lost to ancient history.
Come think of it technically you collect souls in both games. Dark Souls uses them as currency. Hollow Knight fills up a Soul meter.
And I guess both games play up the fact that your character is going through just another cycle. There's an argument that every run in Dark Souls is canon. I don't know about Hollow Knight, but if nothing else you're playing the last of thousands of runs. Both Hollow Knight and Blasphemous do the thing of having you wake up on a pile of corpses that are all basically clones of your character.
I forget if any of the Souls games do the thing where an NPC lets you bypass collecting your bloodstain for a price/special item. Hollow Knight and Blasphemous do it.

 

[Worgen]

No, that is your childhood and nostalgia goggles doing the talking for you. Tank controls were perfected with REMake. Shinji and Capcom both knew this. I have fond memories, but I rather not go back to that again. Like I said before, they were compromise for limited camera movement.

No, I didn't say they were perfect, I said they were better then any alternative at the time and they really served to make the game much more tense then it would have been with more action type controls.

I don't know. I barely ever played DS1. Like I mentioned, not exactly a fan of this series. So I never bothered with the sequels. I played some Bloodborne with my bro and his friends. I never heard of Warthunder, nor plan on playing it. I never said the Souls game had the worst lock-on, but they ain't flawless nor "good" either. Even in comparison, that change the fact they have a habit of screwing up a times.

I didn't say they were flawless, I specifically said they were clunky, but that they worked fine.

Don't remind me. Funny enough Sega did make a proper 3D Streets of Rage and Golden Axe before back in the early 2000s with Spike Out and Slash Out respectively. They weren't open world though, and actual arcade games. Which makes their official attempts, all the infuriating when they screwed up.

I'm actually refering to Resident Evil, the third type of 3rd person action game.

And I never said Souls games should just be DMC, I'm saying Fromsoft could benefit from someone over at Capcom teaching them how to tighten up their mechanics. Not designing the mechanics, advising on how to optimize them. If only just fixing the camera... that'd be one hell of a load off.

Capcom is such a weird choice for camera of all things. They have a long history of getting it really really wrong, just look at Dino Crisis 3.

How is it not comparable? It's basically 2D Souls with faster action (and WAAAAY better controls).

It is not 2d Darksouls. It has some aesthetic trappings and mechanics of a souls like, but the combat isn't deliberate enough to really be a souls like. Its much more of a metroidvania.

 

[Worgen]

I mean it's about guiding a nameless voiceless chosen one through a dying kingdom and picking from a variety of sacrifices to begin the cycle anew. There's the money/bloodstain thing. Resting at checkpoints respawns enemies. And at its core both are Metroidvanias with interconnected labyrinthine areas that gate your progress but also encourage exploration.
The crucial difference between the two is stamina management. No such thing in Hollow Knight, but gameplay in Dark Souls pivots entirely around it.

Those are minor mechanical and aesthetic similarities. There isn't as much mastery of your character as there is in the souls series, even something more actiony like Sekiro has a good amount of that. Its the instant actions and quick movements of your character in Hollow Knight that make it more of an action game.

 

[BrawlMan]

I didn't say they were flawless, I specifically said they were clunky, but that they worked fine.

And they need to be better than clunky. We're in the 2020s for Christ's sake! Just because something was clunky doesn't make it fine you're good. Clunky is still clunky. We shouldn't even have clunky lock on anymore, yet games in the AAA Space still do. Youu have games all the way back from 2005 or 2008 that already had this issue solved to a science.

Capcom is such a weird choice for camera of all things. They have a long history of getting it really really wrong, just look at Dino Crisis 3.

Despite all their screw-ups, they set out to at least improve or learn from a majority of their mistakes. It's better than not learning anything. Even if they went backwards a couple times

 

[Casual Shinji]

Capcom is such a weird choice for camera of all things. They have a long history of getting it really really wrong, just look at Dino Crisis 3.

Oh come on man, Dino Crisis 3? That's hardly the Capcom standard, now is it. You pick almost any other third-person game they made and the camera is rock solid. And no, I'm obviously not refering to the time when Capcom shipped its franchises off to C tier developers.

It is not 2d Darksouls. It has some aesthetic trappings and mechanics of a souls like, but the combat isn't deliberate enough to really be a souls like. Its much more of a metroidvania.

So that would mean any close to-Souls like can't be a Souls like if it has more responsive controls and faster combat? That's a bit of a weirdly strict parameter.

 

[Chupathingy]

This compass mechanic in Grandia is great. Whenever you're in a dungeon the compass will point towards the end of the dungeon/your objective. That means you can avoid that annoying problem where you come to a fork in the road, choose one side and then get booted into some boss fight or story event that then kicks you out of the dungeon with no way to go back and find out what was in the other path. Now you can safely explore and look for treasure without having to worry about being forced forward.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Again (might’ve mentioned it in another thread, but), the SoulsBorne and Sekiro games have all been beaten with no death or even no hit runs; a lot of people even say the games are rather easy with enough practice. Speed runs and insane controller options are also common. None of which would really be possible if the clunkiness of the mechanics posed a significant impediment to actually playing the games.

Now, is there room for improvement? Certainly, as there has been over the course of the games as it is, but there comparing a game series notorious for things like environmental hazards to a game series where combat essentially takes place in fighting arenas isn’t really doing either any favors. There isn’t really a one size fits all approach to gameplay mechanics any more than game genres themselves.

 

[BrawlMan]

I finished playing Vampire Killer (Japanese version of Bloodlines) as Eric this time. You get the full ending on Normal mode instead of having to play on Expert mode in the Western counterparts. Fuck you Konami of America, UK, and Europe. @Dalisclock, did you know you can twirl Eric's spear? You press the attack button, then hold it, and then press the D-pad in the opposite direction. This doubles as a back attack with some much range.

 

[Dalisclock]

I finished playing Vampire Killer (Japanese version of Bloodlines) as Eric this time. You get the full ending on Normal mode instead of having to play on Expert mode in the Western counterparts. Fuck you Konami of America, UK, and Europe. @Dalisclock, did you know you can twirl Eric's spear? You press the attack button, then hold it, and then press the D-pad in the opposite direction. This doubles as a back attack with some much range.

I played as John my first time through(just because I was used to the whip gameplay) but I plan to play as Eric on my next go through. I kinda of knew about some of the fun spear stuff he can do.

 

[BrawlMan]

I played as John my first time through(just because I was used to the whip gameplay) but I plan to play as Eric on my next go through. I kinda of knew about some of the fun spear stuff he can do.

Eric is definitely unique and more powerful. His drawback is that he can't diagonally while jumping. Which only a flaw for like one or two bosses and almost nothing else. He can't swing ledges either, but had that hyper jump.

 

[Dalisclock]

Ace Combat 6: The Fires of Liberation(XBOX)-

Ace Combat is apparently the series I can't quit, despite how cheesy and bombastic it is. I wrote this particular one off because it was the only XBOX exclusive game in the series and my first exposure to it was Unskippable making fun of the opening cutscenes. But the gameplay has been highly praised among fans, I realized my wifes XBOX 360 still works so I grabbed a used copy.

It's much as I was led to expect. The actual gameplay is Ace Combat Pew Pew Explosion Airplane bombast while story is.....well, it's pretty awful. I know what it's trying to do. It's very clearly trying to channel the "Civilian affected by war raging around them" storyline from AC4 and it's trying really hard to tug at my heartstrings, but the dialogue is so overwritten and the voice acting has almost no urgency. The lady looking for her lost child acts like she's either in shock or on valium pretty much the entire time and this is even before the shooting starts, so it's not PTSD or something like that. There's also a subplot about an enemy officer in the occupied capital and the tank crew that are apparently gonna pull a Kelly's Heros by robbing a bank behind enemy lines while it's still enemy occupied which are much less painful to sit through.

The overall story is fairly grounded right now but I'm only like 5 missions in so maybe it goes off the rails as I get further along, based on other games in the series. For anyone who is somehow wondering about the plot of an Ace Combat game, it's much the same as the others. Bad County has invaded your good country for reasons that aren't really explained but it doesn't seem to matter much but mostly because they're dicks. You start out in the corner of the map and must fight your way back to reclaim your nation by getting increasingly better planes and such. You play a faceless sociopathic mute who is one of 3 kinds of aces...oh, sorry.....will win the war with the help of a buddy in a plane. Also something something absurdly large ungody expensive superweapon something something belka did nothing wrong but will totally fuck you over by proxy anyway. Everyone caught up now?

The series does look really good on the Xbox and the game shows off the consoles increased processing power by throwing you into a battle right off the bat with dozens of planes on each side going at each other in a huge furball, which is a notable advance over the PS2 games(4,5,Zero). There's also a cool new feature called the operation system, where early on you're introduced to multiple operations taking place on the map, where different allied units are tasked to different missions on the battlefield, labeled A, B, C, etc. Accomplishing the objective for the operation will lead to it being considered completed and filling up a bar on the bottom of the HUD. When the bar fills up enough, you can call in allies to attack targets in the area or help protect you, with the justification of the units who were previous tasked to the completed operation are now freed up to help you accomplish other objectives. So it becomes kind of a snowball effect where you complete an objective, gain allied support because allies are now freed to help you complete other other objectives, and so on, so the missions become easier as they go on. Though this seems to be somewhat balanced by the fact the game throws a lot more enemies at you early on, so having more firepower on your side helps, though in some cases you might have to jump back and forth between operations to defend allied forces before they get overrun.

But so far pretty fun. Looking forward to playing more of it.

 

[AnxietyProne]

-Faith Chapter 1 and 2
I was late to the party on this, but now that I've arrived, I can't stop talking or thinking about it. Not just the story, which is what the Exorcist sequels should have been, it perfectly nostalgia tickles my very first computer game experiences on the old TRS CoCo, especially an ancient blocky horror game just known as "The Trip." Chapter 3's trailer featuring a bit crushed version of my favorite song by The Police just seals the deal.

-STALKER: Anomaly
About as good a STALKER game as we'll get until the official sequel comes out (and isn't a let down). I like seeing elements from several CoC mods but without the baggage that, say, Misery carried with it. Currently torturing myself with a Military run and finding out just what it's like when the Loners are NOT your friends.

 

[meiam]

Ace Combat 6: The Fires of Liberation(XBOX)-

Ace Combat is apparently the series I can't quit, despite how cheesy and bombastic it is. I wrote this particular one off because it was the only XBOX exclusive game in the series and my first exposure to it was Unskippable making fun of the opening cutscenes. But the gameplay has been highly praised among fans, I realized my wifes XBOX 360 still works so I grabbed a used copy.

It's much as I was led to expect. The actual gameplay is Ace Combat Pew Pew Explosion Airplane bombast while story is.....well, it's pretty awful. I know what it's trying to do. It's very clearly trying to channel the "Civilian affected by war raging around them" storyline from AC4 and it's trying really hard to tug at my heartstrings, but the dialogue is so overwritten and the voice acting has almost no urgency. The lady looking for her lost child acts like she's either in shock or on valium pretty much the entire time and this is even before the shooting starts, so it's not PTSD or something like that. There's also a subplot about an enemy officer in the occupied capital and the tank crew that are apparently gonna pull a Kelly's Heros by robbing a bank behind enemy lines while it's still enemy occupied which are much less painful to sit through.

To me the magic ingredient in an Ace combat story is just how campy it all is, it feel like I'm watching a Micheal Bay movie trough the lens of Japanese dev. AC6 turn down the camp and tried to make more serious, but the writer just don't have the necessary chops for it. Instead of it being all about how freaking awesome your character is at flying plane it's about some kid stuck in a castle and teh event happening in the mission you do almost don't matter.

You're running out of AC game, if you have a PSP ace combat X was decent. Otherwise you can get a fan translation of AC3 to run on an emulator, it's really cool since its almost all future plane, would love for them to remake it.