What are you currently playing? 4.0

[gunswordfist]

Yesterday, on Hard mode of Streets Of Rage 2, I finally got up the elevator on Stage 7. Easily defeated those sorry robots. Then I got through the floor and elevator on Stage 8 and finally finally got to Shiva on Hard mode. It's been awhile since I've seen the guy. Forgot how freaking tall he was. I commemorated our reunion by knocked his ass out in a minute. I had only one life left and one hit could kill me. I ran up to Mr. X and tried to attack him right out of the gate....ill-advised. One gun butt and Axel was down for the count. I've never lost a boss battle so fast. That was less than a second. They need some damn turkeys on that part.

[Kiddington]

Link's Awakening DX

Haven't played through this one in ages, so... yeah. And yes, it is the GBC version; I have no idea what happened to my original black and white copy. Haven't seen it in years.

[Commode]

I still have my original copy of Link's Awakening, and every once in a while replay it.  I just got the DX version of it on my 3DS not too long ago as well.

Anyways, I bought Catherine today, so I'll be playing that for a while.  Other than that, the only thing I've been playing lately is Mario Kart Wii, and me and a buddy were working through Super Metroid on my Virtual Console.

[gunswordfist]

Yesterday, I put in Bayonetta again and went to get the ice skates. I then started my Hard playthrough over and get demolished at the beginning of Chapter 1. I said, "Fuck this" and went to Easy mode. Calm down, I only went there tounlock a secret character. After it reminded me how much I hate Easy modes, I went back and blew through the first area in Chapter 1 of Hard mode and then beat the 2nd area in like a minute. I got either a Bronze or Silver medal and I don't think I even did that good on Normal. Nothing like reigniting the ol' competitive spirit and not using those damn ice skates helped. I also figured out how to use Accesories before I believe the first flashback scene. Heh heh I'm terrible. I'm now stuck on the Jeanne fight. It's so unfair.

Later today I'll be unlocking a bunch of stuff. I love the internet.

[Kiddington]

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

Time to finish her up. Well, again. Last time, I left off whilst inside the X-Naut Fortress, but decided to take a break for a while (I had already beaten it before obviously, so there was no urgency to complete it again at the time). Now, though, I think I'll finish up this file. Not much else on my plate right now, so it's as good a time as ever.

[Daxdiv]

Blocks That Matter. It's pretty fun game. A nice fun 2D platformer that I've been looking for and has some nice shout-outs to other game franchises in the collectibles that are appropriately enough blocks from other games, like the block from Mario series.

[Rynnec]

Played and finished Devil May Cry 4 over the last few days. Pretty good game, but despite some of the improvements over the last game, this games flaws are enought to make it inferior to 3 overall.

Freakin' boss rush level.  :/

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I have 2 main problems with DMC4. One was Nero's lack of multiple weapons (only 1 sword and gun compared to Dante having 3 melee weapons and 3 ranged weapons) and the overall limited feeling of his combat compared to Dante's. IMO, Dante should have been the main character in DMC4 in terms of gameplay with Nero being the side character who you play as for about a third of the game or so. Either that, or Capcom shouldn't have been so lazy and given him multiple weapons.

My other big problem with DMC4 is all of the padding, to artificially make the game feel longer. Sure, DMC3 was guilty of doing this to some extent as well, but at least in that game you had a lot more variety to the combat since you got to play as Dante all of the time. I disliked the puzzle and platforming sections in the game (though, to be fair, they didn't come up that often), and I was especially annoyed that almost all of Dante's levels just featured you backtracking through the same areas that you had already traversed as Nero (I think mission 17, my favorite mission in the game by far, was the only one with some new areas to fight enemies in). I know that Nero's Devil Bringer gives him some added combo potential, but IMO its not nearly enough to make up for his lack of extra weapons. I will say that one thing I love about Nero is his charge shot ability (at level 3). That thing is crucial to chaining high-score combos, and is even extremely effective against tougher enemies (especially those plant things with the razor leaves moving around their bodies) and bosses on the higher difficulty settings (speaking of which, I still need to beat the game on DMD mode, which I only got to mission 9 of before taking a break from the game to play some other stuff).

I also detested Mission 19. I just hate when games blatantly pad out the experience by making you re-fight bosses that you've already fought TWICE before (as in, you're fighting each of them for a 3rd time, which is pretty damn ridiculous). I didn't mind it so much in Mega Man X (that's the only time I'd let Capcom get away with that method of padding since the bosses were pretty cleverly designed and I didn't mind fighting them all again), but in a game like DMC the bosses aren't quite interesting enough for me to want to fight each of them 3 times in a row within the course of one single playthrough. On top of that, having to fight a string of each of them in one level while also being forced to play that obnoxious dice game to get to each one is really irritating. The game would have easily been much better off without that level (and its not like it made the game significantly longer, anyways).

At its core, its a great game, mechanically. Hell, even after playing Bayonetta I can say that DMC4's combat still holds up (seriously, I do think Bayonetta has the best combat, easily, but people overrate it too much by saying that it makes every other hack n' slash feel dated or obsolete in comparison, which is just plain untrue). Its very well polished and is still a great looking game, even after having aged a few years, but the main problems come in not from any rushed game design due to time constraints or anything of that sort (those sorts or problems are what plague Ninja Gaiden 2 from being even close to as good as the first game), but rather Capcom's obvious laziness in designing this game. They clearly weren't trying to make it a better game than DMC3, but just riding on the success of DMC3 and adding in some new elements without really fleshing them out to truly evolve the gameplay, and that really ticks me off since if they had put the same amount of passion and effort into DMC4 as they did with DMC3, it could have been something truly remarkable. Instead it just comes off as an above average hack n' slash but merely mediocre by DMC's standards as a series (at least going by 1 and 3).

Even though there is news of this new DmC reboot coming out, I sincerely hope that the actual DMC series is not dead. Even with a reboot coming out, there's no reason I see for why we can't get a DMC5. Ninja Theory can do their own thing and I won't really care about it as long as the DMC series that people actually care about can continue. I'd love to see that DMC prequel where you get to play as Sparta (that we were apparently originally supposed to get) really happen (once again, within the original DMC Universe).

[Rynnec]

I have 2 main problems with DMC4. One was Nero's lack of multiple weapons (only 1 sword and gun compared to Dante having 3 melee weapons and 3 ranged weapons) and the overall limited feeling of his combat compared to Dante's. IMO, Dante should have been the main character in DMC4 in terms of gameplay with Nero being the side character who you play as for about a third of the game or so. Either that, or Capcom shouldn't have been so lazy and given him multiple weapons.

Yeah, it's really hard to go back to playing as Nero after having such a blast with Dante. It doesn't help that Nero's damage output is so low, that you practically HAVE to rely on the Devil Bringer to defeat bosses. At least some of the sequences when you use DB against bosses while in Devil Trigger look pretty cool.

My other big problem with DMC4 is all of the padding, to artificially make the game feel longer. Sure, DMC3 was guilty of doing this to some extent as well, but at least in that game you had a lot more variety to the combat since you got to play as Dante all of the time. I disliked the puzzle and platforming sections in the game (though, to be fair, they didn't come up that often), and I was especially annoyed that almost all of Dante's levels just featured you backtracking through the same areas that you had already traversed as Nero (I think mission 17, my favorite mission in the game by far, was the only one with some new areas to fight enemies in).

I actually didn't mind backtracking through Nero's level's again as I thought I would, it definately helps that Dante's much more fun to play as, especially against bosses and the like. I didn't like how you could easily get lost though, they should have sealed off areas where you aren't supposed to go.

which, I still need to beat the game on DMD mode, which I only got to mission 9 of before taking a break from the game to play some other stuff).

Not sure if I'm going to try and beat the game on the other difficulties. I mean, when I beat 3 for the first time, I went back and played through it on hard mode almost immediately. This time around however, I actually wasn't sure if I wanted to go through Son of Sparda mode.

I also detested Mission 19. I just hate when games blatantly pad out the experience by making you re-fight bosses that you've already fought TWICE before (as in, you're fighting each of them for a 3rd time, which is pretty damn ridiculous). I didn't mind it so much in Mega Man X (that's the only time I'd let Capcom get away with that method of padding since the bosses were pretty cleverly designed and I didn't mind fighting them all again), but in a game like DMC the bosses aren't quite interesting enough for me to want to fight each of them 3 times in a row within the course of one single playthrough. On top of that, having to fight a string of each of them in one level while also being forced to play that obnoxious dice game to get to each one is really irritating. The game would have easily been much better off without that level (and its not like it made the game significantly longer, anyways).

For me I didn't mind the boss rush (because I find 4's bosses to be much funner than most of 3's. With the exception of Vergil obviously) as much as I minded having to do the dice game again. I hated doing that, especially since you're forced to fight enemies if you land on a red space, with limited green orbs to boot. I know there's a way to cheat by hitting the die with the Devil Bringer the moment your desired number is on top, but there's absolutely no reason why the dice minigame had to be in the level, none. Too make things worse; you don't even get to fight Credo again in the boss rush level (or as Dante for that matter, but at least there's a storyline reason for that), and he was by far the best boss in the game.
Speaking of bosses, I'll just state the obvious and say that Sanctus' final battle can't even hold a candle to Vergil's. Not surprising though, since I consider the final fight with Vergil to be one of the greatest videogame final battles of all time, everything about that battle was perfect, so it'd obviously be a tough act to follow.

At its core, its a great game, mechanically. Hell, even after playing Bayonetta I can say that DMC4's combat still holds up (seriously, I do think Bayonetta has the best combat, easily, but people overrate it too much by saying that it makes every other hack n' slash feel dated or obsolete in comparison, which is just plain untrue). Its very well polished and is still a great looking game, even after having aged a few years,

I still need to check out Bayonetta, the only reason I haven't is because I still live with my parents, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be too pleased if they saw me buy a game like that. n_n;. I'll probably play it eventually though.
The game definately looks beautiful, the enviroments are much better than 3's for sure.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, Credo and Dante were by far my favorite boss fights in the game and they are the only ones that you only get to fight once, whereas I would have loved another chance to go at them (I know you technically fight Dante twice, but I don't really count the first fight at the beginning of the game since its purposely made a lot easier than the 2nd fight, which I actually consider to be a true boss fight.

As for Bayonetta, I still don't own it yet myself, admittedly for similar reasons, but I have played good portions of the game whenever I go to my friend's house.

I still haven't beaten the game yet, though. I'd love to get it the first chance that I get, though, especially since its pretty cheap and easily much more affordable for me, at its current price.

[Foggle]

I still need to check out Bayonetta, the only reason I haven't is because I still live with my parents, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be too pleased if they saw me buy a game like that. n_n;. I'll probably play it eventually though.

It's really not as "adult" as the promotional material would lead you to believe. My mom walked in on me playing it a few times and said that it looked "hilarious."

[gunswordfist]

I still need to check out Bayonetta, the only reason I haven't is because I still live with my parents, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be too pleased if they saw me buy a game like that. n_n;. I'll probably play it eventually though.

It's really not as "adult" as the promotional material would lead you to believe. My mom walked in on me playing it a few times and said that it looked "hilarious."

So, I've been playing Bayonetta on Hard mode since the end of last week. Some parts, it's surprisingly easy for me, others make me go, "Why do I bother?!" Namely that God damn first Jeanne fight. That's just wrong.

Anyway, I am loving the the boss battles and level design more than ever. This game does giant bosses right. GoW can learn from this. The levels - the only time I've ever felt that a game couldn't be done with lesser graphics last gen out of the handful of games I've played this gen. So damn creative.

So far, I'm stuck on the part on the street before the motorcycle sequence. I'm fighting 3 fire/lightning claw angels who are now gold for some reason while getting hit by highspeed cars and trucks. This is hell.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The boss fights are actually the only part of Bayonetta that I find kind of boring. Some of them take way too long and I don't find to many of them to be that much fun to fight compared to the regular enemies in the game. That said I agree that they are far better than the ones in GoW. Those ones just revolve around mashing buttons until a QTE sequence comes up for you to further weaken the boss. This same process repeats a couple of times until you finally finish off the boss with a QTE. I know that Bayonetta has its own spin on QTEs, but at least it doesn't pad out fights with that mechanic.

[gunswordfist]

Also, last night I started another Streets Of Rage 2 Hard run. I did so great. I found a secret extra life on the arcade level and had 9 lives up until I died for the first time at the stadium. I didn't lose a single continue until right before the beach boss battle. I believe Stage 7 was when it all went to shit. I love that stage a little bit too much so I got carried away and believe I lost too many lives. Iirc, I died at that stupid robot boss fight and lost a continue while the last one was one hit away from blowing up. So then I go on to fight Shiva with a grand total of one life despite doing better than ever before Stage 7, at 9:27 PM I was wearing him down and thought it would be good to run after him and do Bare Knuckle. Right? WRONG! Axel dies at 9:28 PM. Cause of death? Final Crash. FML. Oh well, at least I got my highest score at 539330 after I lost the first continue. Making sure I killed all of Bourbon's and R. what'shisname's henchmen helped.

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

Galaga Legions DX is pretty and insane. I'ma get the full version once I finish paying off my books and Dark Precure.

3rd Strike Online Edition has a decent demo. But I'm gonna pass on the full version because I have the Anniversary Edition that didn't add ugly sidebars, pointless in-match achievements, even worse online netplay, and gutted in-game DLC. Why is it that SFxT looks good when all of Capcom's fighting game entries recently have been utter shit?