What are you currently playing?

[BrawlMan]

$77 (Australia).

Christ!

US$42.99 on the first currency converter I checked comes out to about AU$65.

Damn. That's only twelve dollars cheaper in Australian money.

as a long-term Yakuza series fan, I don't mind paying that much for a new entry.

if you're happy, then I'm happy. I admit that I couldn't get into these games much.But my older brother loves the shit out of them. He started with the remakes and 0. I think he's played all of them now, except the newest one.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Which matters because... why, exactly?

Because I thought it was funny. Guess I was wrong.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Because I thought it was funny. Guess I was wrong.

Right, okay. I guess I did misread your intent. Sorry about that.

Anyway, back on topic: Made more progress through Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Had to do a fair bit of Chapter 2 to get to Anaconda Mall where the arcade is, but I managed to put in a first look at Spikeout. It's a classic arcade beat-em-up, alright. Got wasted by the first boss. I'll probably have to try and track down at least a control guide on GameFAQs or somewhere to get a better feel for it, if I don't want to drop a hundred (virtual) dollars to just button mash my way through it.

Probably take a stab at the other games in the arcade before moving on too. I at least looked up what the VF3 AI is weak to (Pai's jab combo is the impression I got). And the task list doesn't even actually require you to beat Dural this time unlike previous Yakuza games with Virtua Fighter, only get up to her. And I have played Daytona in real life, but never actually won the race, so that's going to take some research and practice too.

 

[BrawlMan]

c: Made more progress through Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Had to do a fair bit of Chapter 2 to get to Anaconda Mall where the arcade is, but I managed to put in a first look at Spikeout. It's a classic arcade beat-em-up, alright. Got wasted by the first boss. I'll probably have to try and track down at least a control guide on GameFAQs or somewhere to get a better feel for it, if I don't want to drop a hundred (virtual) dollars to just button mash my way through it.

I have not started the main game yet, but thank you for letting me know about that multiplayer short cut for the arcade games. I am alive with Spike Out Final Edition right now! I have not touched this game since freaking 2002! Still an excellent 3D brawler.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Things I think are neat in Death's Door:

Healing is a two step process of finding a seed and planting it in a special pot that provides one full heal every time you reload or respawn in the area. You're basically creating healing spots, which is a nice reward for exploring thoroughly.

There's a very satisfying hitstop effect whenever you land an attack.

You hold a funeral for a boss every time you defeat one, which is funny but also kinda sad.

You can retry challenge rooms on the spot, thank goodness.

Some of the collectibles you find actually have a secret function beyond mere 100%, if you take the time to inspect them. Well at least one did. Now I comb over the inventory just in case.

Things I don't like very much:

You never get much of a sense of empowerment from your upgrades, and man they're expensive.

It's a while before you get to upgrade your health or MP. Four shrines per upgrade, and each meter gets only eight shrines total. I was 50% done with the game by the time I finally got an extra hit point.

 

[Worgen]

Grabbed among other games, Serious Sam 2 and Ender Magnolia.

So far I'm enjoying Serious Sam 2 more then I expected considering I got it back when it came out and it annoyed the crap out of me. The gameplay is pretty good, enemies pop pretty nicely, weapons feel decent, vehicles are powerful and rather plentiful, and rather then finding the humor annoying like I did back in the day, now its more... bemusing and quaint. You do feel like you move slower then in other SS games so dodging can be annoying, also I remember Serious Sam 3 getting shit for having a few more hit scan enemies. SS 2 has so many hit scanners and they do more damage with shotguns.

Ender Magnolia is a really cool metoidvania type game, huantingly beautiful graphics and music, good gameplay revolving about summing allies to do attacks for you and good if standard traversal. It feels like it will have fewer allies then Ender Lilies but more dialog and character given to them. Also, I don't remember there being much dialog in Ender Lilies, there is a lot more (but not an overwhelming amount or anything) of dialog in Magnolia. So its quite cool and good, but so far isn't quite grabbing me the same way as Lilies did and I'm not sure why, I don't really think its the game, I think its something else, but I'm not sure what. maybe I'm getting a bit burned out on metroidvanias or maybe I'm looking forward to Silksong a bit too much despite the devs kinda really fucking with fans.

 

[Ezekiel]

Wow. I think the best showcase of just how much better the music in the original RE4 is is the battle opening of the island. The music in the original is like something right out of John William's The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The new version repeats the same three notes over and over and sounds like the cheapest straight to video action movie you can imagine. Haven't used the original music feature because I still want to hear what they did and don't know if the original game even had all the music needed for the new scenes. Will try it on a second playthrough.

Thought Ada's voice actress was bad until I heard Krauser.

 

[BrawlMan]

Thought Ada's voice actress was bad until I heard Krauser.

Ada is fine, i do prefer the voice actress from RE2R, they're wondering why Capcom didn't get her back. Lily Gao does better in the Separate Ways DLC. Remake Krauser i find a much better character and voice, than the original. They give him actual depth and not some guy you're just supposed assume Leon knows that they happened to meet off screen, before the events of OG RE4. Where do you make the crowds or have that Gary Busey vibes I love.

 

[Ezekiel]

That battle is also much smaller in scale than in the original. It's narrower and they all come down one route as you tear through them. Don't know why they dropped the minigun. Replaced it with a smaller guy with a smaller gun. It was cool seeing him obliterate his own men in the original. Didn't happen here because the space is small and the path narrow.

Gave the enemy RPGs laser sights because it wasn't easy enough.

 

[BrawlMan]

I finished my 1cc run of Rushing Beat on Normal with both characters.

 

[Ezekiel]

The last parts of the castle and the island sure are boring. The mines and castle seemed better connected in the original. This scruffier Luis was carried much farther into the story because walking and talking is routine after The Last of Us. I preferred the solitude. In the original game, the first regenerator had to be left until later, unless one really wanted to waste ammo. Here, they made the weak points easier to uncover even before getting the thermal sight. Makes them less intimidating. As did the manner in which you meet the first. In the original you knew that when you turned off the cold the thing would begin to move. In this version, it's already moving around the halls when you enter the area.

Leon is bland. Even his (lamer) one-liners are said with a sad face and no attitude. He also comments to himself too much on the status of the world and enemies, including about things that are so routine by this point.

 

[Worgen]

The last parts of the castle and the island sure are boring. The mines and castle seemed better connected in the original. This scruffier Luis was carried much farther into the story because walking and talking is routine after The Last of Us. I preferred the solitude. In the original game, the first regenerator had to be left until later, unless one really wanted to waste ammo. Here, they made the weak points easier to uncover even before getting the thermal sight. Makes them less intimidating. As did the manner in which you meet the first. In the original you knew that when you turned off the cold the thing would begin to move. In this version, it's already moving around the halls when you enter the area.

Leon is bland. Even his (lamer) one-liners are said with a sad face and no attitude. He also comments to himself too much on the status of the world and enemies, including about things that are so routine by this point.

Do you ever make a post that doesn't include complaining? Even you screen shots seem to have you whining about something.

 

[Ezekiel]

Yes.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Do you ever make a post that doesn't include complaining? Even you screen shots seem to have you whining about something.

He used to post Max Payne 3 no scope vids in v1. Maybe there was a % of whining, I forget.

Dude probably looks at a rainbow in the sky and is like the dominant wavelength on that red is too low.

 

[BrawlMan]

I have been playing Gun Star Heroes and Gun Star Superheroes back to back. My God these games are still fun as fuck. I do favorite the second game a bit more. But that's because I spent so much time with it back in the day as a teenager in high school. The only thing I hate about it is that second level with the helicopter. Because on hard mode, the damage that you get hit with is ridiculous and almost impossible to complete.

 

[Worgen]

I'm probably half way through Serious Sam 2, maybe a lil less depending on how long the remaining levels are. Anyway, gameplay is still fun, movement still feels slow, humor is getting worse. Just finished Chinese land and its kinda full of stereotypes, which is to be expected but they aren't just Chinese stereotypes they are general Asian stereotypes which is weirder and more annoying. The lack of comedic timing is also getting worse.

 

[BrawlMan]

I'm probably half way through Serious Sam 2, maybe a lil less depending on how long the remaining levels are. Anyway, gameplay is still fun, movement still feels slow, humor is getting worse. Just finished Chinese land and its kinda full of stereotypes, which is to be expected but they aren't just Chinese stereotypes they are general Asian stereotypes which is weirder and more annoying. The lack of comedic timing is also getting worse.

It is the major flaw of SS2. It'll get to the point where you're just going to start skipping cut scenes and move on. It's why it's the other Serious Sam game, I go back to the least. Give me SS4 and it stand alone expansion, any day of the week.

 

[meiam]

Been playing void crew with my regular group, fun spaceship roguelike game where everyone has to actually move around the ship and use console/object in the ship to fix it and fight alien. Its nice that everyone can have a different role, but all participate in the battle, good concept. Unfortunately it has a crippling lack of content, after maybe 5 hours we'd already seen pretty much everything on offer. The main game mode as no end point, no big boss battle or anything, you just try to survive as long as possible.

Hopefully they'll expand the game with more variety

 

[Worgen]

It is the major flaw of SS2. It'll get to the point where you're just going to start getting cut scenes and move on. It's why it's the other Serious Sam game, I go back to the least. Give me SS4 and it stand alone expansion, any day of the week.

Seems kinda unfair to compare it to the best or second best SS game. But it does feel like its on the lower end of the Serious Spectrum.

 

[BrawlMan]

Seems kinda unfair to compare it to the best or second best SS game

That's more than fair enough. Just so we're clear: Croteam hates Serious Sam 2. It's one of the few SS games they don't port in a compilation. Notice how it's only 1st Enc, 2nd Enc, and BFE are usually the only ones put in those compilation or HD collections.