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Specter Von Baren

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I played more Viewtiful Joe and I forgot how much I hate the water stage. It is not too bad, but I find it annoying. Stage 2 and 3 are done. I did half of stage 4 and stopped for now.

I played the Gamecube version of Soul Calibur II. I am used to the PS2 version, but the control layout works and is easy use. I did an arcade run with my man, Maxi! I forgot this game has a mission mode. I appreciate trying to extend replay value, and is a fun mode, by tying unlockable characters to this mode is dumb. It should have been the standard, beat arcade mode with X character to unlock Y character of the first game and the Tekken series. You start with 15, and can unlock 5 more. I will commend Namco for trying to give all these modes out to get your bang for your buck and keep playing. Something a lot of Japanese fighting game developers are lacking. Including the Namco of today. SC II is still fun after all these years, and is my favorite of the sequels.
I don't have memories but I do have feelings about Bruce. He's no problem once you understand the mechanics of the game and are competent enough to take advantage of them but holy crap, the first few attempts I had with him were a nightmare.
 
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BrawlMan

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He's no problem once you understand the mechanics of the game and are competent enough to take advantage of them but holy crap, the first few attempts I had with him were a nightmare.
I can relate big time on my first playthrough. After several playthroughs back then, I was able to beat him with little problems. Replaying recently, I died once to him, but then remembered his weakness and some exploits you can do on top of that. Zoom in uppercut for the win! That tactic works on a lot of heavy enemies that can't be launched and their weak point is behind their back.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Might depend on play style... I don't use tech specialists much. For me she messes with my preferred squad mix and talks too much.
I find them very useful, although I tend to go more medic with them, but I always have at least one high level one that does damage and hacking, very useful against the tech enemies and if there is some jerk who is low on hp but hard to hit.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
That's what incendiary grenades are for.
Waste of a nade, plus you end up with a fire area that you dont want to move your guys. You are also depending on them being hard to hit but close, drone can do damage from any range that the engineer can see.
 

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Finished Episode 4, 5, & 6 on VJ. I am at the final episode now. Stopping for tonight. Keep in mind, I am doing this run on an old save on V-Rated (Hard) difficulty. Where everything does double the damage. The boss rush is the least interesting part of this game on E6. You could tell they were running out of steam on creative levels. The level should have just been Fire Leo himself and that's it, on to the next stage. The game is only 5-6 hours long, and it's padding. Giving these bosses more health does not add any extra challenge, and makes it a battle of attrition.
 

NerfedFalcon

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I played more Viewtiful Joe and I forgot how much I hate the water stage. It is not too bad, but I find it annoying. Stage 2 and 3 are done. I did half of stage 4 and stopped for now.

I played the Gamecube version of Soul Calibur II. I am used to the PS2 version, but the control layout works and is easy use. I did an arcade run with my man, Maxi! I forgot this game has a mission mode. I appreciate trying to extend replay value, and is a fun mode, by tying unlockable characters to this mode is dumb. It should have been the standard, beat arcade mode with X character to unlock Y character of the first game and the Tekken series. You start with 15, and can unlock 5 more. I will commend Namco for trying to give all these modes out to get your bang for your buck and keep playing. Something a lot of Japanese fighting game developers are lacking. Including the Namco of today. SC II is still fun after all these years, and is my favorite of the sequels.
I've tried Viewtiful Joe before, but I just couldn't get into it. The controls seem fairly simple at first, but I feel like there's a lot more nuances to remember about them that I don't know than in Devil May Cry, which I prefer playing a lot more.

Soul Calibur 2 is the only 3D fighting game I feel like I've ever been able to play at all. I only played it on PS3, which has the PS2 and Xbox guest characters (Heihachi and Spawn) but not Link from the Gamecube. Never played as either of them though, I was a Mitsurugi main. What I like about Soul Calibur 2 in particular is that it feels like while cool combos are a thing you can do, they aren't mandatory if you want to win like they are in every Tekken and the later SCs. That's always been one of my major stumbling blocks in fighting games.

OT: Dug out my 3DS, put in Project X Zone 2, ran through the first few missions. The plot is mostly an excuse for character interactions, but they're fun to watch, and while the strategy isn't exactly deep, figuring out which attacks to use, learning the timing on critical hits, trying to squeeze out every single point of damage that you can - there's a major appeal to the fighting system. I never did finish the sequel like I did the original, even though I thought 2 was better designed, so maybe this time I'll end up getting through it.
 
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Kyrian007

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Also I've just met an enemy that gets a free turn EVERY TIME I DO ANYTHING! Man, screw you Fireaxis, it's my bloody turn! What am I supposed to do?! They also have a ludicrous amount of hitpoints. It's not fair and it's not fun, as if activating a pod wasn't bad enough, now you have to worry about activating a pod that's playing the game in real time while you are stuck in turn based!
That is coming up in the game I'm working through right now, Weird West. Because it is XCOM gameplay in real time. And that is why it just isn't working for me. Every time I get something right and move on and start to enjoy the game... I get yanked back by everything reminding me how much more fun I'd be having if they had just made it turn based. For every encounter I get right and feel good about... there are about 3 or 4 that went so shitstorm I had to reload, or I just had to cheese with a choke point or corner conga line of death via point blank shotgun.

It's other problem (so far, I haven't gotten to even the halfway point so this could work out better) I NEED MORE WEAPON VARIETY. Right now there is the unupgradable starting revolver, the upgradable (everything else is upgradable) enemy revolver, the gatling revolver (basically steampunk burst fire,) 2 rifles (one so much worse in every category than the other... I'm surprised they even bothered,) a single and double barreled shotgun (and it is weird; the single is lever action and holds 8 rounds... but the double does more damage, even though you have to spend a PERK point to be able to fire both barrels... none of that makes sense,) a handful of melee weapons that are completely useless considering you get the only machete you will ever use in the 2nd encounter in the game, and 2 bows... one clearly better than the other (see rifles.) And the upgrades are (apparently) plating the weapon with bronze, silver, or gold. Somehow casting an iron weapon in bronze makes it better? Silver better than bronze!? GOLD better than SILVER!!? You can find gold, silver, or bronze in ingot or nugget form... and even that makes no sense. Ingots you can sell to the bank, but it takes nuggets to upgrade weapons... how the hell does that work? Why does it work. Why can I just freely convert ingots to nuggets or vice versa at the same forge that I use to upgrade the guns, what is the freaking point of that?

I guess that's a little petty, wanting better weapon variety (or at least variety enough that I have choices to make) while streamlining currency variety. But still, why does every game these days need multiple types of currency? I should stop. It is making it sound like I hate this game. I don't, it is interesting. Story good enough I want to see what is next, but still... I still keep running into the realization of how much better it could have been, turn based. I think that every time an encounter ends with "all right guys, orderly fashion. Come around that corner and take a shotgun blast, one at a time please... ignore the growing pile of corpses."
 
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BrawlMan

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I've tried Viewtiful Joe before, but I just couldn't get into it. The controls seem fairly simple at first, but I feel like there's a lot more nuances to remember about them that I don't know than in Devil May Cry, which I prefer playing a lot more.
Once you know how the gimmick works and the exploits, the game gets easier to handle. That said, the harder difficulties will still murder you, if you are not careful. The main strategy is Zoom-In + Slow + Red Hot 100 on bosses and most enemies. It is usually the most optimal strategy and does the most damage all the time. Something that was never fixed in the sequel. VJ2 is a fun game, but it is not as fun as the original. I still have not done an Ultra V Rated playthrough on 2. 2 does have better checkpoints and more mid level saves. Along with level select. The original has a few lousy checkpoints, if you die often. This is a 6th gen game, with old-school difficulty.

There is is more technical depth in VJ than DMC1 and DMC2. It helps that Joe has a bigger move set than either versions of Dante, and powers that are just as useful for the combat as are the puzzles and the platforming. The game definitely has better platforming than all of the DMC games. Not hard when you're a 2.5D game.

Soul Calibur 2 is the only 3D fighting game I feel like I've ever been able to play at all. I only played it on PS3, which has the PS2 and Xbox guest characters (Heihachi and Spawn) but not Link from the Gamecube. Never played as either of them though, I was a Mitsurugi main. What I like about Soul Calibur 2 in particular is that it feels like while cool combos are a thing you can do, they aren't mandatory if you want to win like they are in every Tekken and the later SCs. That's always been one of my major stumbling blocks in fighting games.
Heiachi plays like you would expect. I never played the HD versions, nor the XBOX version so no I idea on how Spawn plays. I never played Link either, but I will give him a shot later.

OT: Dug out my 3DS, put in Project X Zone 2, ran through the first few missions. The plot is mostly an excuse for character interactions, but they're fun to watch, and while the strategy isn't exactly deep, figuring out which attacks to use, learning the timing on critical hits, trying to squeeze out every single point of damage that you can - there's a major appeal to the fighting system. I never did finish the sequel like I did the original, even though I thought 2 was better designed, so maybe this time I'll end up getting through it.
I could never get in those games. They drag on for way too long, and the games always felt too padded. I YouTube the character interactions.
 

NerfedFalcon

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Once you know how the gimmick works and the exploits, the game gets easier to handle. That said, the harder difficulties will still murder you, if you are not careful. The main strategy is Zoom-In + Slow + Red Hot 100 on bosses and most enemies. It is usually the most optimal strategy and does the most damage all the time. Something that was never fixed in the sequel. VJ2 is a fun game, but it is not as fun as the original. I still have not done an Ultra V Rated playthrough on 2. 2 does have better checkpoints and more mid level saves. Along with level select. The original has a few lousy checkpoints, if you die often. This is a 6th gen game, with old-school difficulty.

There is is more technical depth in VJ than DMC1 and DMC2. It helps that Joe has a bigger move set than either versions of Dante, and powers that are just as useful for the combat as are the puzzles and the platforming. The game definitely has better platforming than all of the DMC games. Not hard when you're a 2.5D game.
I mean stuff like the helicopter in the first level where you have to slow time to hit its bullets, but then hit them specifically with a crouching punch to make them go up towards the helicopter instead of just into the stairs. And if you don't time it right, then Joe will dodge the bullets instead, which doesn't do much except waste a lot of your SFX time. And I could never figure out what Zoom actually did, even with the setpieces in Chapter 2. Even though there's more tech involved in a game like Devil May Cry 5, it's a lot easier to figure out your actual moveset and what it does, in my experience, than it was in Viewtiful Joe.

I could never get in those games. They drag on for way too long, and the games always felt too padded. I YouTube the character interactions.
I get that, and I actually like the series. Though to be honest I tended to play them while commuting when I was still going to college. I'm not sure I'd want to play it for extended periods just sitting around.
 

BrawlMan

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mean stuff like the helicopter in the first level where you have to slow time to hit its bullets, but then hit them specifically with a crouching punch to make them go up towards the helicopter instead of just into the stairs. And if you don't time it right, then Joe will dodge the bullets instead, which doesn't do much except waste a lot of your SFX time. And I could never figure out what Zoom actually did, even with the setpieces in Chapter 2. Even though there's more tech involved in a game like Devil May Cry 5, it's a lot easier to figure out your actual moveset and what it does, in my experience, than it was in Viewtiful Joe.
On a first playthrough it's difficult. But once you figure out the gimmick of the helicopters, they are super easy. You don't get zoom until chapter 2 on a fresh playthrough. On new game plus, everything is unlocked from your previous playthrough, so the helicopter fights become super easy. They even give you a tutorial on your first playthrough on how it works. The rest you have to figure out yourself. Like I said, once you know how zoom works, it is super easy to abuse and exploit on most things.
 

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My copy of the Double Dragon & Kunio-Kun came in today. This collection has its own achievement system. Most of it boils down to beating stages or beating the games themselves on certain difficulties. Hopefully those achievements stack when playing the harder difficulties. All the achievements do is unlock avatars you can show off in the online mode. They could have done more with that by unlocking artwork and old advertisements.

There's save states, and quality updates on all games. Meaning no slowdown and crisp clear, screen. You can turn on the original quality at your own leisure. All these collection titles are putting the Nintendo Online to shame with the slow rate they release everything at barely standard quality or sub-standard at best.

I decided to play Double Dragon I (NES). While still fun on its own, the "rpg elements" are so broken and easily abusable to get the better moves, that they might as well not exist. If you know a certain glitch or do kick exploits without killing enemies, you'll grind to the best moves easily, Platforming still sucks and was at its worst in this game. Abuse the shit out of those save states, if you don't remember the precise jumping. No one has the right to judge. I'd say out of the NES/Famicom Trilogy, DDII is still king and the best.
 

Specter Von Baren

Annoying Green Gadfly
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I'm enjoying myself but I really REALLY wish John wasn't a silent protagonist. So much of the story would flow better if he wasn't an unresponsive plank of wood and I'd like to see dialogue between him and Sam. They aren't even being funny with it like in Mario RPG games. Maybe there's going to be a plot reason given for it later that'll be a big twist or something, but for now I'd like it if I could trim 10% of the dialogue from all NPC's in the game (Particularly the frootloop) and give that to John.
 
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Viewtiful Joe is done! It was fun going back to a game I had not played in a long time. The final boss is tough. But once you know the strategy, he's mostly easy. That message screen at the end is still beautiful it brings a tear to your eye.

IMG_20220404_230218074.jpg

IMG_20220404_230228835.jpg

IMG_20220404_230354090.jpg

This is my results screen. That Adults section you see on the right side of the screen, is my very first playthrough back from 2007. I never went back to that difficulty and only played on hard and hardest mode. Great times.
 
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Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
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I'm enjoying myself but I really REALLY wish John wasn't a silent protagonist. So much of the story would flow better if he wasn't an unresponsive plank of wood and I'd like to see dialogue between him and Sam. They aren't even being funny with it like in Mario RPG games. Maybe there's going to be a plot reason given for it later that'll be a big twist or something, but for now I'd like it if I could trim 10% of the dialogue from all NPC's in the game (Particularly the frootloop) and give that to John.
No, John never speaks and you never find out why. And I love Sam but there's a bit later in the game where you have to do a bunch of stuff because Sam just kind of volunteers them for...well, several things, actually, and John says nothing, so they go along with Sam. It feels like a running joke on the Dev's part where John is Silent just so Sam can prolong the game with her childish innocence.

And don't get me wrong, I rather liked the game, but there's a section in the middle(Don't worry, you'll know when you get there) where it drags...just a bit and all because Sam was pretty much running the show while John said nothing.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Finished Bloodstained, started Hyper Light Drifter. Gorgeous looking game, and a lot of fun so far. Feels like a pixel-art glam version of a Team Ico game.
 
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Specter Von Baren

Annoying Green Gadfly
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No, John never speaks and you never find out why. And I love Sam but there's a bit later in the game where you have to do a bunch of stuff because Sam just kind of volunteers them for...well, several things, actually, and John says nothing, so they go along with Sam. It feels like a running joke on the Dev's part where John is Silent just so Sam can prolong the game with her childish innocence.

And don't get me wrong, I rather liked the game, but there's a section in the middle(Don't worry, you'll know when you get there) where it drags...just a bit and all because Sam was pretty much running the show while John said nothing.
It's like... It doesn't even have to be a lot, they could have had him respond in short sentences and not talk much, but scenes like when Sam is talking about going to school or having a woman clearly trying to ask him out would be so much better if he said something, anything! And I have a soft spot for non-blood related family situations so Im frustrated from not getting all I want from that.
 
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laggyteabag

Scrolling through forums, instead of playing games
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Im playing a city builder by the name of Timberborn, which my girlfriend bought me out of the blue, because she thought it looked cute (everybody is a beaver).

And it is one of those really punishing city builders, where one wrong move can just wipe your entire village.

Im having fun, though. It is in Early Access, so there is a lot more stuff on the way (hopefully). The last content update was just over a month ago, so its definitely not dead.

Im looking forward to playing some more of it, and hopefully not accidentally committing beaver genocide again.
 

XsjadoBlayde

~it ends here~
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Guardians of the Galaxy

Consider this the last data entry of a barely sane mind: I state for the court that I do not willingly love non-stop talkers and would never attempt praise of them consensually. Plz investigate further if this appears to change. Ta!
*Takes almost endlessly deep breath*

Well this is awkward.

Ok, it may have finally broken me.

I don't hate them.

Also.

...

*Ahem*



The psychic communist Russian pupper may have tipped the scales a little too far, I cannot be objective with this anymore.
 
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Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
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*Takes almost endlessly deep breath*

Well this is awkward.

Ok, it may have finally broken me.

I don't hate them.

Also.

...

*Ahem*



The psychic communist Russian pupper may have tipped the scales a little too far, I cannot be objective with this anymore.
Is that laika? Did she survive in the marvelverse and become psychic? Is she known as comrade pupper?
 
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