So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

airmax87 · 02-05-2014 05:41PM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Incredible alright.
You playing via genuine hardware or emulation?

Nah, on GGPO with a few people from 4chan's retro board.
I'd love an MVS cab though.

Los Lobos · 02-05-2014 07:39PM

Lads seriously, sign up to highscore.com, great site for logging your highscores on old and new consoles, on real machines or emulated. Great spot for throwing up your highscores and makes ya wanna play more!

Doge · 04-05-2014 02:30AM

Thoroughly enjoying Die Hard from Die Hard Trilogy on the PS1 ATM!

Trying to save all the hostages adds extra depth and challenge to the game.

On Level 7 - Executive 1, some people on youtube thought you couldn't save the first hostage, but I managed to it.

You need to run and kill the assassin perfectly down to hundreds of a second, or you will fail!

Here's the aftermath of successfully saving that hostage, I think its the only successful video on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ2W58SoSiY

I love the other 2 games in the trilogy also, its the best bang for your buck action game on the PS1. More on the others to follow later.

Retr0gamer · 04-05-2014 02:26PM

I went back to it recently. The light gun shooter is great but the rest of the game just feels like typical early playstation fare and not great at all.

CiDeRmAn · 04-05-2014 03:26PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I went back to it recently. The light gun shooter is great but the rest of the game just feels like typical early playstation fare and not great at all.

I felt like that on release, I hated the Die Hard title and wasn't impressed with the first generation PS look and play of Die Hard with a Vengance.
Die Hard 2 though, that was a brilliant lightgun game and we could have done with a larger game based around just that.

o1s1n · 04-05-2014 03:31PM

I never did get Die Hard Trilogy, but played the hell out of the Die Hard 2 demo that came in an very early PS1 demo disc (actually I think I got it with the console)

Absolutely loved it. And that was with controlling the aiming cursor with a d pad too, no light gun to be had.

Doge · 05-05-2014 01:45AM

The Terminal level which is also featured in the demo of Die Hard 2 is gaming perfection for me.

There is a real sense of atmosphere with the amazing music, and hostages running for their dear life, its very intense.

The detail is amazing, they really went all out with that level.
You can shoot every tile and fire sprinkler in the ceiling, as well as every monitor.

The only con is that the last time I played it with a light gun, it felt very laggy when shooting.
So i think youre better off playing with the joypad, must give the light gun a go again with it.

I think Die Hard 1 is great too though, **** loads of levels with lots of variation, and lovely detail.
I like how more terrorists can come down the lifts at any stage, so you get waves of terrorists similar to waves of enemies in shmups.
Its a very simple but extremely addictive shooter and very challenging especially if you try to save every hostage.

I loved Die Hard 3, the car game when it was out at the time. But looking back on it now the controls are poor and you can get stuck behind obstacles easily.

The game is by far the best value game on the system, the less said about Die
Hard Trilogy 2: Vegas the better though. The game is just as ridiculously bad as the name!

Retr0gamer · 05-05-2014 06:20PM

Just finished Shadow Dancer on the mega drive. It's very short and not a bad game but not a great one either. The last few stages and final boss have unholy levels of bull****, near Ninja Gaiden levels.

johnny_ultimate · 05-05-2014 07:15PM

Started Xenoblade Chronicles last night. With so many JRPGs holding your hand for a dozen hours or more, or sending you down endless corridors, it is rather startling - in a good way - starting one and being thrown right into this massive, overwhelming landscape you can explore freely. There's too many random items scattered around (which ones are important? Which ones can I sell?) and an over reliance on fetch quests, but it is undoubtedly a brave and refreshing opening, setting expectations that I believe are lived up to throughout.

Catching up on Vita games too. TxK is great, although for a fast paced arcade shooter designed for a portable console it requires a hell of a lot of time for a proper session (lucky to get through one game in a bus journey)! Gravity Rush is excellent, if a little fidgety control wise at times and the city itself a bit repetitive. Still, mostly plays well, has no shortage of novel ideas, and the music is exemplary. Muramasa Rebirth isn't a major change from the Wii version, but really enjoying playing it again after the disappointing Dragons Crown. Muramasa is IMO far more involving in terms of gameplay, world design and presentation.

Retr0gamer · 05-05-2014 07:25PM

Stick with Xenoblade. It's extremely long (100 hours for a normal play through). The story is excellent and has an extremely satisfying conclusion. I want to hear your thoughts on how it deals with the relationships between characters. I found it very brave with nothing like it in games and only 1 cinematic equivalent that is anywhere near it.

Xenoblade has an awful lot of fetch quests but I like how it dealt with them unless its a rare quest with a narrative you can pretty much take up all the quests you want and then find yourself completing them as you go. There's no need to return to the quest giver unlike ,ost games and mmo's. they are worth doing as well since they give the best xp boosts, in fact combat might be the slowest way to level. Don't go selling anything until you find out what's important or not. You also have a little booklet hidden in one of the menus that you complete by collecting items and checking it. It gives good rewards but I didn't realise it was even there until late into the game.

CiDeRmAn · 05-05-2014 09:19PM

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Catching up on Vita games too. TxK is great, although for a fast paced arcade shooter designed for a portable console it requires a hell of a lot of time for a proper session (lucky to get through one game in a bus journey)!

You haven't played Tempest until you've played it on the original Atari Jaguar.
Any notion that there was an earlier game is simply the function of a fevered imagination, such things were like John the Baptist, clearing the way for the one true Christ, Tempest 2000!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNeq2Utm0nU

the disappointing Dragons Crown.

Now you tell me, after I've bought it!

o1s1n · 05-05-2014 09:24PM

Decided to give Super Hexagon a go for the first time.

My lord, I had to put the phone down after 30 min, would have gone on playing that all night.
What a fantastically addictive game!

The way the Chipzel music instantly kicks in at the start makes it extremely hard to stop playing.

Retr0gamer · 05-05-2014 09:47PM

I wonder how far you got in Dragons Crown johnny ultimate. I found it disappointing at first. However once you play through all the levels the first time the game turns into something a hell of a lot better. New areas open up with new more interesting bosses that actually pose a challenge and you can go on survival runs to try and get more gear gambling if you can survive the next stage with all your gear broken. It becomes a hell of a lot more fun.

One other thing might affect your enjoyment is the choice of character. Some characters like the magic users are only fun to play in multiplayer while the elf, which is the best character, has a very high barrier of entry to use properly. I found the dwarf the most fun to use in single player. His throw abilities never got old and you can do some really high damage moves with him.

johnny_ultimate · 05-05-2014 10:11PM

I cleared all the levels once with the main warrior class, and a few of the secondary routes. Honestly, the more complex the game grew the more it highlighted how severely limited the actual mechanics and level design were: in fact, I enjoyed the first few no nonsense hours more! There are attempts at setpieces like the magic carpet that are borderline broken. There's an insane amount of repetition, and none of the levels are interesting enough to support the multiple revisits. The forced AI companions just get in the way too (although I think there's an option to turn them off buried in some menu): I'll try it multiplayer one of these days, but it seems more chaotic then fun, and doesn't help that there's two other NPCs confusing things further.

And that's not even going into the puerile portrayal of female characters! I actually felt embarrassed playing it, especially when you encounter a farcically helpless girl in one dungeon, who just happens to be posing with legs well and truly akimbo. And I tried to avoid the item shop as much as possible just because of the gratituous jiggling physics that greet you every single time. Maybe I'm a prude, but games need to get over that kind of adolescent crap.

Retr0gamer · 05-05-2014 10:30PM

Well if you felt that way then it probably isn't for you.

I didn't mind the art style too much, Sera loved, it thought the boobs were hilarious. It's grossly over the top but then so are the male characters and its not really a million miles away from the over the top style of something like Conan. I can see how some people could be put off it but I'd tend to gloss over stuff like that and be more offended by negative protrayals of women by their actions and not by how they look especially when the males are getting the same treatment as the girls.

johnny_ultimate · 05-05-2014 11:08PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I can see how some people could be put off it but I'd tend to gloss over stuff like that and be more offended by negative protrayals of women by their actions and not by how they look especially when the males are getting the same treatment as the girls.

Actually I'd argue the males aren't treated the same way at all

Sure everything in the game is bumped up to absolute excess, but the women are represented in a more explicitly sexualised manner. They're usually in reluctant 'come hither' poses whereas the men never (or at least very rarely) are and are instead typically shown as dominant, powerful individuals. Worse again, there's a lot of weak, 'damsel in distress' type characters which sadly only compounds the game's representational issues, especially some of the outrageously porn-y NPCs you encounter in the dungeons. Even the camera angles, sprites and choice of framing expiclitly sexualise the female characters and emphasise certain characteristics in a completely different way to the men, and that extends to the player characters.

So yeah, there's very different ways the male and female characters are treated in the game: they're both exaggerated, but the tone and 'gaze' of the exaggerration is very and IMO regrettably different.

Retr0gamer · 05-05-2014 11:17PM

I don't think it's any different from the exaggerated look of a lot of fantasy art you'd see. Most of it has dominant males with ridiculous looking women in next to nothing. It was going for a pastiche on Frank Frazettas fantasy artwork and if you look some of his stuff up its a hell of a lot more restrained than some of his art.

I'm not defending frank Frazettas depiction of women but its a very iconic art style for the type of low fantasy depicted in dragons crown or Conan.

Maybe it's just me. I don't think there's anything at all wrong with the whole damsel in distress trope and think there's far more worrying trends that need to be addressed. I find something like the new tomb raider and other games of its ilk far more offensive since they seem to depict that a woman only becomes dominant or strong once she goes through a traumatic violent experience, a very worrying trend I'm seeing in games and film.

J_E · 06-05-2014 12:22AM

o1s1n wrote: »

Decided to give Super Hexagon a go for the first time.

My lord, I had to put the phone down after 30 min, would have gone on playing that all night.
What a fantastically addictive game!

The way the Chipzel music instantly kicks in at the start makes it extremely hard to stop playing.

Wait until you're tortured with a 50~ second clear time on Hexagonist.

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/703986338531931452/F69A458383AD634A23E4C7C258F515D011450D0F/

FML.

CiDeRmAn · 06-05-2014 01:16AM

Ruddy fecking No Mans Wharf!
Just lost 14000 Souls to a rush of undead brigand types!
Blast and buggery!
I will conquer this devious sneaky area, I will!
Those long armed thingys, right gits they are too.

o1s1n · 06-05-2014 10:49AM

Cydoniac wrote: »

Wait until you're tortured with a 50~ second clear time on Hexagonist.

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/703986338531931452/F69A458383AD634A23E4C7C258F515D011450D0F/

FML.

The best I could manage last night was a mere 30 seconds, and at that point my brain was mush!

J_E · 06-05-2014 12:03PM

o1s1n wrote: »

The best I could manage last night was a mere 30 seconds, and at that point my brain was mush!

It's a hyper precise game. Lots of fun though!

Retr0gamer · 06-05-2014 12:12PM

It's like sex, lots of fun and on average I last less than 30 seconds.

MrVestek · 06-05-2014 12:33PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It's like sex, lots of fun and on average I last less than 30 seconds.

You last 30 seconds? Wow... that beats my record...

Retr0gamer · 06-05-2014 12:38PM

MrVestek wrote: »

You last 30 seconds? Wow... that beats my record...

Less than...

janefisher · 06-05-2014 12:42PM

I have the ps1 back out and just started the oddworld games last night. These games will never get boring to me might move to the crash bandicoot or spyro after collections after them.

johnny_ultimate · 06-05-2014 01:30PM

I've managed to get past the first two 60 second levels in Super Hexagon. Then my eyes explode.

carlford959 · 06-05-2014 01:32PM

janefisher wrote: »

I have the ps1 back out and just started the oddworld games last night. These games will never get boring to me might move to the crash bandicoot or spyro after collections after them.

I Loved Abes oddysee and spyro back in the day thanks for reminding me about these i may have to root through the attic and get them

ghostchant · 06-05-2014 01:51PM

Hexagonest is pure hell, I've managed 47 seconds on it. Dabbled with the next level and got to 35 seconds without much effort, but not interested in pursuing it until I've conquered Hexagonest...or until it conquers me (i.e. when I hurl my iphone out the window)

CiDeRmAn · 06-05-2014 02:19PM

janefisher wrote: »

I have the ps1 back out and just started the oddworld games last night. These games will never get boring to me might move to the crash bandicoot or spyro after collections after them.

Find a copy of Castlevania Symphony of the Night!
Quick!
If you like the quirky platformy goodness of Oddworld look for the bizarre but cool Skullmonkeys, mental and brilliant.

Doge · 06-05-2014 08:34PM

janefisher wrote: »

I have the ps1 back out and just started the oddworld games last night. These games will never get boring to me might move to the crash bandicoot or spyro after collections after them.

carlford959 wrote: »

I Loved Abes oddysee and spyro back in the day thanks for reminding me about these i may have to root through the attic and get them

Welcomer to the Arcade & Retro forum!

I'm a lover of Crash Banidcoot and the oddworld games myself.

Both oddworld games will always have a special place in my heart, I'm like a child playing them!

So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

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