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

[gunswordfist]

i beat battlelord within this hour, making him the first boss i fought and beat this year. i forgot how fast he was. how quickly he moves is kind of scary.

[talonmalon333]

Been observing my brother replay MGS1. While the script is still very strong as a whole, I do think there are parts that don't hold up especially well. Some lines just feel a bit forced.

Now he's replaying MGS2. The Snake part at the beginning of the game is still great. And then...

Liquid's arm
Raiden
The Big Shell
Campbell talking non-stop
Vamp

All within the first hour of the Big Shell section.

[gunswordfist]

i didn't mind the wackiness due to it being my 1st mgs. i also didn't mind raiden. it was something about the structure of the game that felt underwhelming to me.

[talonmalon333]

I would have posted a picture of Vamp running on water, but couldn't find one. I just don't understand how nobody in the development team laughed at this stuff.

And Rose just gave her speech about Raiden's room. Why, Kojima?

[Nel_Annette]

Club Nintendo question: If I'm 180 coins from platinum status, and I spend 700 on those Smash Bros. posters, does that suddenly take me further away from platinum status, or is your status just how many coins you've earned in total, including the ones you've spent?

Oh, and Captain Toad came in the mail today, which is why I have the coins necessary for the posters, so I'm playing that.

EDIT: Nevermind, they don't subtract, so YAAAAAAY!

[Foggle]

Finally gotten around to playing Saints Row 4. Don't know why it took me so long, since I loved 2 & 3, but this one might just be my favorite. It's crazy how much the superpowers and always-on radio improve the game. With all the data clusters to find using your super jump and super speed, it actually feels more like a collectathon platformer than a GTA-esque sandbox shooter. The humor is really sharp, too, like the second game's was. Big improvement over 3 in a lot of ways.

[talonmalon333]

He finished his playthrough of MGS2, and I'm reminded that Ray is my favorite boss fight in the game (still not on par with some of the boss fights in 3, though).

But I have to say about MGS2 (and this goes double for MGS1), that I wish they didn't feel the need to make mini-games out of the final boss fights. In MGS1, we had a clunky fist fight and a clunky car chase. In MGS2, it's a clunky sword fight. None of these mechanics are relevant to the core gameplay. They feel like the products of other genres, and none of them feel as fine tuned as they would in those genres. MGS3's final boss fight is phenomenal, and one of the many reasons is that it allows you to utilize every ability you have gained in your journey, in order to succeed.

Ironically, the best mini-game final boss fight in the series was in the 8 bit Metal Gear 2.

But another thing I have to say about MGS2 is that the story had potential. I feel like the individual plot themes in this game are actually really cool. The problem is that, all together, it's too much to swallow. Perhaps this can be blamed on the presentation, in that the game deals with this information in extremely long winded cutscenes.

[gunswordfist]

mgs3 has the best boss fights in the genre, plus the greatest motorcycle sequence in video game history.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Bionic Commando Elite Forces was released on the VC and I picked it up. I've never played it before, but man is it good. Only problem is I'm stuck at a boss fight with a guy in a rocket pack because he takes way too many hits and has missiles that keep seeking me out.

[talonmalon333]

Hey Foggle, I remember a few months ago/a year ago/I forget how long ago, you said that the cost of upgrading PCs for future gaming is going to get so high that you might just abandon it, or something like that. Have there been any changes, or do you stand by that claim?

[Foggle]

Mmm, that was just me overreacting to how stupidly high the system requirements are for some games now. A lot of titles seem to "require" an i7 recently, which would be incredibly dumb, as - last time I checked - one of those processors costs about as much as a PS4 by itself. My processor is nowhere near the level of an i7, and yet, now that I have my new low/mid-range video card, my PC can once again run pretty much any game I throw at it on medium-high settings... including the ones where my computer *supposedly* isn't up to snuff.

What I'm trying to say is, the minimum requirements for PC games have been inflated a lot as of late. My system is by no means top of the line, and as far as gaming computers go, it's probably not even in the top 75%; however, I can run practically any game I want at my native resolution with graphics and frame rate roughly equivalent to current-gen consoles despite not meeting the minimum requirements on quite a few of them.

By the time video games actually require the bullshit minimum requirements publishers are telling us right now, I suspect that hardware will be cheap enough to afford. So, no, I've decided not to give up on PC gaming.

[talonmalon333]

Glad to hear. I'm planning on sticking with it, too.

What I'm wondering is if I'll ever get another Sony console.

[Foggle]

What I'm wondering is if I'll ever get another Sony console.

I need dat Ratchet & Clank, Yakuza, Bloodborne, etc., so I certainly will!

[talonmalon333]

Metal Gear is a concern for me. However, being that 5 won't be a Sony exclusive in the way that 4 was, I think I'm in alright shape with that series.

EDIT:

Another question, Foggle. I know you're not the biggest Code Veronica fan. However, have you played the HD port? If so, how is it?

[Foggle]

Another question, Foggle. I know you're not the biggest Code Veronica fan. However, have you played the HD port? If so, how is it?

I have only played the PS2 version.