What Are You Currently Playing? 6.65: Neighbor of the Beast

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I haven't played a TM game since the PS1 days, so I really don't have much of an opinion on it. I remember enjoying it, though.

[Rynnec]

It has a biker Grim Reaper, so that makes it awesome by default.

[talonmalon333]

I haven't played a TM game since the PS1 days, so I really don't have much of an opinion on it. I remember enjoying it, though.

"PS1 days" covers most of them.

It has a biker Grim Reaper, so that makes it awesome by default.

Mr. Grimm and Darkside were my favorites. Removing Darkside was certainly one of the few things I liked less about 2. His special was bad, but he more than made up for that by being so big and so able to take damage. As far as I was concerned, his true special was simply ramming into enemies at full speed to send them flying.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Twisted Metal 2's soundtrack is one of my favorites on the PS1. I wouldn't mind most rock soundtracks if they were as well done as that one.

It's one of Sony's best series.

[talonmalon333]

One of my favorite improvements in 2 was the levels. From what I remember, literally every level was very well designed and unique. A lot of the levels in the first Twisted Metal were smaller and kind of blended together.

[LumRanmaYasha]

So, me and Vlord have been playing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle recently, and while it's pretty fun one thing keeps bothering me...why the fuck is Shigekiyo in this game, over, say, Trish, Abbacchio, Foo Fighters, Weather Report, Diego Brando, etc.? I mean, I don't dislike the character or anything (though he's pretty terrible to play as), but he only appears in about two volumes in Part 4, and there are just SO many characters, way more important characters from other parts of the series, that deserve to be in this game more than him. Parts 7 and 8 in particular should have gotten another rep rather than including him, even if he is a DLC character.

I guess he must still be one of Araki's favorites or something. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just beat Halo Anniversary on Legendary difficulty. It's amazing how easy it was for me to get back into the game on the hardest difficulty after a 2 year hiatus. If this were a game like Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry, I'd get my ass kicked if I was that out of practice. Anyways, the last 2 levels were significantly easier than Two Betrayals thanks to there being no Rocket Launcher Flood to deal with. In addition to getting the Living Legend Achievement, I also got the This Side Up achievement for making it through the entire driving segment of the end of the game without flipping over my Warthog once, which surprised me because I hadn't even realized how perfect my run went, and I almost always flip the damn thing over thanks to this game's horrid vehicle physics. It would have been a cool segment if the damn thing wasn't as easy to turn over as a pancake, but instead it's one of the most frustrating segments of the game, especially on Legendary where you only have 5 minutes instead of 6 to get to the end (on my actual successful attempt, I reached the end with 27 seconds to spare).

I've also played a bit more of NG3RE. Admittedly, Ninja Trials and the playable female characters are this game's only saving grace. I'd still prefer Ryu to any of them, but only if it were the NG2 or NGB/S versions of Ryu. In this game he feels so much less responsive to play with, which really infuriates me on the boss fights. At any rate, Ninja Trials is just waves of enemies without any of the gimmicky bull-shit from the story mode (including the annoying boss fights, which in this mode are mostly from previous games). Kasumi and Ayane in particular are more fun to play with since they are both much faster than Ryu, and while their attacks are weak, they have a higher dismemberment rate which means that you can get the enemies into OT status quicker and finish them off fast if you know what moves to use. Don't mistake I for me liking this game, but I'm just saying that this mode is the only better than mediocre thing about this game, though I'll no doubt grow tired of this as well, eventually.

As for Bayonetta, I really want to go back to it and beat the final 2 chapters on Hard mode.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just beat Bayonetta on Hard mode. I'll be tackling NSIC mode next, though I'm also going to increase my studying time each day until I take my board exams, so I probably won't be playing the game that often.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm up to Chapter 3 of Bayonetta on NSIC mode. It's basically just Hard mode without Witch Time, and to be honest I'm not a fan of that being the game's hardest difficulty. I just don't agree with ever taking a mechanic away from the player, especially one as useful and as fun as Witch Time. It's actually not really that much harder, anyways; or at least not so far. There is an accessory you can equip called The Evil Harvest Rosary which disables Witch Time and instead replaces it with a devastating attack whenever you execute a successful last-second dodge. It's incredibly powerful and will hit multiple enemies and even blow them back or stagger them, making it particularly useful in the middle of a crowd. Since Witch Time is automatically disabled on this mode, anyways, there's really nothing to lose from equipping it, and it really makes the difficulty of this mode far more manageable (and it's not that hard to begin with if you get halfway decent with using the dodge offset technique). If you have that and the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa equipped, which itself can block or even counter enemy attacks (if timed correctly), you are pretty much set. Of course, I'm sure that there will be some tough spots where the lack of Witch Time will be really detrimental to making it through the fight, but for the most part it just seems that the main difficulty is just in trying to score well on this mode (if you're into that sort of thing, which I'm not, as the numerous Stone Awards that I have are a testament to). Of course, I have gotten some Pure Platinum medals on the fights that I'm good at, and even just got one on the Chapter 2 boss fight with that annoying QTE sequence, which made me feel awesome.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm up to Chapter 11 of Bayonetta on NSIC mode. While it still may be premature of me to say, I do honestly think that this is the easiest of the hardest difficulty modes that I've played in any hack n' slash game yet. This isn't a bad thing by any means, so don't mistake me, but I feel that if you can beat the game on Hard, you can do it on this mode as well without much more effort. While I still prefer the former difficulty because WT is a fun mechanic, it's also not an essential one, so outside of a few fights where it's particularly beneficial for powerful combos, most of the game is still very manageable as long as you are decent at dodging and parrying.

And for the record, even though NG and DMC have harder modes, I'm not a fan of those modes at all. In NG2, Master Ninja is ridiculous in how tedious it feels, and that's the portion where I feel that the unbalanced and cheap elements of this game come into play, whereas on any other difficulty I feel that the difficulty is mostly based on skill rather than luck. I much prefer that game's Mentor mode (which is also harder than Bayonetta, but Bayonetta is a better game, overall). That said I think NGB's Master Ninja mode is very fair and challenging, but I just slightly prefer Very Hard mode because it has my favorite enemy set-up. With DMC3, I feel that DMD mode is also ridiculously tedious because of how much health the enemies and bosses have. Even if you know what you are doing, and have a full life-bar, you can unleash dozens of hits on an enemy or boss and still have them standing, whereas you yourself can easily go down in just 4 or 5 strikes (unless you are using items, which is definitely had to do on this difficulty). Compared to that, Bayonetta at least still feels fun.

Overall, though, I think that Revengeance is the best of the hardest difficulty settings that I've ever played. It has it's own share of BS and unbalanced moments, but it's still mostly skill, and the fact that perfect parrying is a guaranteed one-hit-kill on most normal enemies (whereas it's not worth much on any other difficulty), and can take out more than half of a boss's health with just one stroke, makes it really rewarding to get decent at using that mechanic.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm up to chapter 15 of Bayonetta on NSIC mode. Chapter 14 was the only really hard chapter for me on that mode, and only because of that stupid rocket shooter segment. I don't anticipate having too much trouble from the rest of the game, but it don't want to be too presumptuous. Still, the only part that might give me some trouble from the lack of WT is the final boss. Other than that, I think that the rest of the game will be a breeze, for the most part. I'm not sure if I'm going to replay the game that much after I complete this difficulty, but if I do then Hard mode is definitely going to be my go-to difficulty setting on this game, since I just prefer the game with WT.

[gunswordfist]

i beat battleblock theater yesterday and hitman absolution a few days ago. now i am giving beyond good & evil more time. earlier i got past a pretty sad part in the game. i also tried to beat metal slug 3 and started another ultra-violence doom 2 file yesterday.

[gunswordfist]

i beat beyond good & evil about an hour. the last boss had an annoying pattern gimmick. i got to him last night/early this morning but gave up. overall, this game was decent but i wouldnt call it one of the greatest underrated 3d games, especially after all those terrible stealth sequences.

[Kiddington]

So...........I finally bought Yoshi's New Island, since none of y'all had the guts to do it yourselves. To be honest though, I only did it because this was pretty much one of the few 3DS games featured in Best Buy's "buy one get one free" deal from last month that I didn't already own. I ended up getting Mario Golf for free as part of the deal, but that's beside the point.

Anyway...........yeah, it's dull. I mean seriously, this game is fucking dull, probably even moreso than I was initially expecting. I can appreciate all the retro callbacks to the original, and the art-style is cute and really quite charming, but the levels thus far (I'm only up to World 2, I'm finding it very hard to get into) are incredibly uninspired. The transformations are underwhelming, and while I know Mario games are not much on story anyway, the plotline here is particularly ridiculous (and not at all canon to how the original Yoshi's Island ended, but I mean that's a minor nitpick at best). The biggest offense though, and lest I not forget; the music is absolute garbage. That I think is probably the biggest killer for me, and why I'm finding it so hard to play for more than 10 given minutes at a time; every song is just an assault on the ears. I could probably live with the unspectacular gameplay if the music was catchy, or at least mildly pleasant, but instead it's just atrociously bad.

All in all this is actually a step down from DS, and that really speaks volumes to how disappointing it is. So much wasted potential here, because it could've been great; the blueprint is there, and like I said, I do like the art-style a lot. Man, I just really REALLY hope they get Yarn Yoshi right; it's hard to believe the original is STILL the only game in the series worth owning.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I can't believe Nintendo keeps handing this series to this team. They cannot make a game as good as the original Yoshi's Island, we know this. Stop giving them the series!

Here's hoping Wooly World is the Yoshi game we've been waiting for. Not being made by Artoon/Azerest and their tone-deaf composer should be a step up.