What are you playing?

[tiesto]

How do you find the story so far in DQ11?

Also does it seem to be going at a brisk pace for you? My coworker had only put in 12 hours but is already at lv 19 and about to get the ship. Which tends to be 1/4 to 1/3 the way through a traditional DQ.

[Bebpo]

I only played like 2 hours last night Don't think I'll have time to play it tonight. I have heard that XI isn't ridiculously long like VII though. So probably a 40-60 hour game + extra time for post-game, which sounds great to me.

tbh, I have a tough time juggling multiple rpgs so I'm gonna focus on finishing Ys8 first since I'm over halfway through that. Will probably get to DQXI in earnest in a week or two afterwards. Cold Steel 3 comes out end of September, so I've got 2 months to get through Ys8/DQXI and Bravely Default which seems pretty doable.

[bork]

Am a bit surprised you imported DQXI, Bebpo.  Thought you might have held off to see what happens with any additional content/updates or to see what happens with the Switch version down the road, kind of like with FFXV in regards to content.

Your thought on DQ7 make me a bit happy-- I tried playing it but got bored and turned off by it after 6-8 hours in.  I don't think I'm going to bother with the older games at this point, since I'm not all that big on RPGs to begin with (and I have Persona 5 to play), but I definitely want to check out XI.   

[Bebpo]

Hahahahaha, considering how this game runs on PS4 Pro, I am not holding out much hope for the Switch version.

[Bebpo]

Man, the graphics are so good in DQXI PS4. I wish we could just get a Final Fantasy game like this (meaning just a straightfoward PS1/PS2-ish FF with really good modern graphics and that's it). It's basically DQVIII but in modern sharp texturing and modeling. The only graphic issue is the PS4 version has this crazy ass motion blur that's some of the worst I've ever seen. Feels like something went wrong in the rendering that they should be able to patch. But if you can look past that the game looks incredible. There's no way the 3ds version can do this justice, the graphics add so much.

[Freyj]

VII does have some of the best vignettes in the series, but I haven't been able to get to the Dharma Temple in VII since the early 2000s.

[Lothar]

My favorite part of VII was the first 20 hours before you were able to switch jobs.  Those were the most memorable vignettes in the game for me.  The different stories of rain turning people to stone, the war between humans and robots, animals and people in a town switching bodies, tragic love story between Linda and Pepe, the evil religious cult sending you to prison town.  I also loved the slow open because it was so different.    Most of what I remember being good were packed in those 20 hours.  Considering that the game took me 120 hours, I would say that the game started to drag quite a bit after that. 

I wasn't a big fan of the job system, I thought it made the game start to feel grindy as soon as you got access to it.  It required a huge amount of battles to get decent skills.  I can remember that the gamefaq I was using for the job system even described the job system as terrible.

[benjipwns]

No mention of that game is complete without laughing at Steven Garrett, video game reviewer extraordinaire!

The game's control setup is its most terrifying element. The left analog stick moves you forward, back, and strafes right and left, while the right analog stick turns you and can be used to look up and down. Too often, you'll turn to face a foe and find that your weapon is aimed at the floor or ceiling while the alien gleefully hacks away at your midsection. Add to the mix a few other head scratchers - such as how the triangle button controls item and health use - and you'll be wondering how Sony let this get by without requesting a few different control configuration options.

 

Weren't there already plenty of games out that used analog sticks for movement and face buttons for aiming (or vice versa) around that time?  WTF? 

Looking at its contemporaries, I did notice that Time Splitters came out about two weeks after.
http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/2000/action/shooter/1st-person/

I bet he was a nintard who just looooooved the N64's C-button and how great they worked in Mario 64

I remember Turok got shit on this for this by some reviewers. Especially because the demo version at kiosks was an earlier build where you moved with the analog stick, so preview versions were the same, and the game didn't include an option to change it. (I think 2 does.)

I even remember Dreamcast FPSes getting blasted for putting movement on the buttons and look on the analog stick. Even though there's literally no other way to do it unless you're only going to use one side of the controller. Or make people reach across it.

I would reconfigure certain PS2 games to work like that if I could rather than use both analogs, I've never liked the analogs being centered and at the same level, I prefer the offset analogs of the Xbox/360.

It is kinda weird going back to some of those that have massive auto-aim across a whole axis.

I once tried to configure Dolphin so Metroid Prime would work more like a normal FPS. Was not really a great idea. Even with the three extra buttons on the 360 controller. You spend almost all your time holding down L anyway.

[Himu]

Tekken 7 - working on movement and offense, prepping for tournament on Saturday

Super Street Fighter II Turbo - being taught by vets, amazing game.

Paper Mario - first time playing it. Was scared off of Mario RPGs after the first Mario and Luigi, which I hated but I really am loving this game. Full of personality without necessarily trying too hard to be quirky like M&L. Would love to play this on my 3ds.

Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age - owns.

[Himu]

Will after this.

[Bebpo]

You should check out Thousand Year Door when you have the chance. It's my favorite Mario RPG by a long shot.

Yeah I really liked that one. I still need to play the original at some point.

[Positive Touch]

the original is the only paper mario i played, but i remember liking it a lot. there were a few filler chapters that could've got cut but overall it was a lot of fun with a great battle system and a funny script. i think it was the origin of the whole "luigi is a sad loser" thing.

[demi]

Dream Team is probably the biggest love letter to Luigi, the saving grace for that boring game

There's a couple scenes that are just ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh feels

[CatsCatsCats]

SNES and Thousand Year Door are the best ones, N64 was pretty good, didn't fuck with the rest

[Himu]

What ive played of Mario RPG isn't good. I'll always remember the first time I saw it though. First rpg I ever encountered. My friend got it for his bday and we had no idea what an rpg even was.

[tiesto]

I'm actually liking the single player of Splatoon 2, some OK puzzle solving elements there, and the levels aren't too long. Gravity Rush 2, now there's a game that took a great, yet unpolished experience and just added stuff, then more stuff, then even more stuff without fixing the core issues with the first game. A bit of a slog to get through, even though I'm nearing the end.

[MMaRsu]

Currently playing through Shadow Warrior 2 on ps4. Its awesome.

[benjipwns]

Trivial post-script to the Alien: Resurrection discussion, I was reminded that it originally started as, and spent some number of years in development as a third-person game along the lines of Resident Evil with fixed cameras (security cameras on the ship) that would switch between five character from the movie. Perhaps as late as a year before release it was still in this form.

Also from that Steve Garrett review:

Fans of console first-person shooters or the Alien film series will probably be better off waiting for Fox's recently announced Aliens: Colonial Marines for the PlayStation 2. While no concrete details have been announced for the game yet, this is one instance where the unknown is preferable to the devil you know.

[Rufus]

 

[Himu]

Can't play Paper Mario without the game freezing or have emulation bugs. Good Lord.

[Rufus]

Which emulator are you using?

[Himu]

Project 64.

Googling, the game has a lot of problems with emulation. Glide helps, but I still got an error that made me lose progress.

[Rufus]

Shame, that's one of the best.

For Mupen64Plus, you'd have to use Retroarch.
http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Nintendo_64_emulators

[Himu]

holy fuck

dolphin it is

[benjipwns]

What version? There's 2.3.2-202 on the site from January, but there's been a build from the Git this week: http://www.emucr.com/2017/07/project64-git-20170731.html

A lot of the plugins are outdated because zilmar came back to try and do LLE instead of HLE and most of the plugin guys are all long gone.

You could try MupenPlus, especially one of the dev versions, since that's the core RetroArch is using.

edit: ishiiruka isn't from the main developers, it's a fork, so it's not on the dolphin website: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-ishiiruka-dolphin-custom-version
edit2: build from this week http://www.emucr.com/2017/08/ishiiruka-dolphin-custom-version.html

[Himu]

Mupen64 is that different from Mupen Plus?

[Himu]

What version? There's 2.3.2-202 on the site from January, but there's been a build from the Git this week: http://www.emucr.com/2017/07/project64-git-20170731.html

A lot of the plugins are outdated because zilmar came back to try and do LLE instead of HLE and most of the plugin guys are all long gone.

You could try MupenPlus, especially one of the dev versions, since that's the core RetroArch is using.

edit: ishiiruka isn't from the main developers, it's a fork, so it's not on the dolphin website: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-ishiiruka-dolphin-custom-version
edit2: build from this week http://www.emucr.com/2017/08/ishiiruka-dolphin-custom-version.html

Having trouble finding out where to get Paper Mario 64 rom for Dolphin. PM?

[benjipwns]

speaking of emulators, there's a new Dreamcast one after years of nobody messing with them: http://redream.io/posts/progress-report-july-2017

[benjipwns]

Having trouble finding out where to get Paper Mario 64 rom for Dolphin. PM?

It's not a ROM exactly, they're emulating the Wii's virtual console version of Paper Mario 64.

It's a nice way to get filtering/smoothing along with more proper resolution support for those N64 games that did show up on the VC. Because the emulator Nintendo made for it ran all those off the Wii and at 640x480.

[Himu]

Having trouble finding out where to get Paper Mario 64 rom for Dolphin. PM?

It's not a ROM exactly, they're emulating the Wii's virtual console version of Paper Mario 64.

How do I do that?

[demi]

game works great on my nintendo 64

[Himu]

game works great on my nintendo 64

Yeah I wish I had that option. Nintendo 64 also doesn't support HD.

[benjipwns]

The Thousand Year Door and Super Paper Mario look really fancy in HD and with AA on them.

[Himu]

I'm in Dolphin now Benji. How to Paper Mario?!

[Himu]

Thanks Benji! It works but my cpu isn't the best. Looks like I'm out of options for now.

[Positive Touch]

game works great on my nintendo 64

nothing works great with a n64 controller

[benjipwns]

Thanks Benji! It works but my cpu isn't the best. Looks like I'm out of options for now.

Remember that even at something like 1280x720 you're running the game at three times the pixels as the 640x480 VC which itself is probably like twice the vertical resolution (at least) of the N64 original.

Slicing down the resolution speeds Dolphin up more than most anything else except AA.

edit: another thing to check, keep the internal resolution low (i think there's a setting where it will lock the game at its original resolution) and just let your GPU upscale it to fit the larger fullscreen/window (which isn't anywhere as taxing), this can be pretty ugly with certain games and introduce gobs of jaggies/blurring/etc. but does make things much more playable than upping the internal resolution would

[Himu]

Mupen worked. Paper Mario go!

[Himu]

I'm really trying to understand why I love Paper Mario but HATED Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga when it came out.

I just went to the boss fight that made me drop M&L.



I still think it fucking sucks. The fight itself wasn't bad, but the dialogue is SO AWFUL and the scenario in general is forced. I had to turn my GBA off after finishing that boss fight. So bad.

[benjipwns]

game is a treasure

that's not very far into the game either, there's really seven bosses before that?

[Himu]

I hated it and thought it was corny. Fighting a 1000 year old soda was fucking stupid to me then and it's stupid to me now. I'm down for lighthearted RPGs but M&L just always seemed so try hard.

[Positive Touch]

it had a corny translation but the game was still a lot of fun. fantastic gameplay

[Himu]

Oh definitely

[tiesto]

I'm really trying to understand why I love Paper Mario but HATED Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga when it came out.

I just went to the boss fight that made me drop M&L.



I still think it fucking sucks. The fight itself wasn't bad, but the dialogue is SO AWFUL and the scenario in general is forced. I had to turn my GBA off after finishing that boss fight. So bad.

The only Mario RPGs I played were the original SMRPG (great game) and Bowser's Inside Story... had to force myself through Bowser's due to its localization. It was WAY too overdone, Treehouse taken to the extreme. Not to mention the gameplay was super repetitive, fight the same 2 enemies over and over with the same attack patterns, battles that dragged on for way too long, and terrible music.

[Bebpo]

On the other hand, Paper Mario 2 sucks in Japanese. It's dry and boring. Treehouse is entirely why Paper Mario 2 is a great game due to all the humor they put into the English version. Sure sometimes they go overboard, but without the humor Mario rpgs are pretty whatever.

[Himu]

Paper Mario so far hasn't had much humor and it's been a blast. Fuck forced jokes.

[benjipwns]

i don't remember Paper Mario as really trying to be funny, it was Thousand Year Door and Super Paper Mario where they went in for the humor from the start almost

i don't even think Superstar Saga tries to be funny outside of Fawful and the running Luigi joke

[tiesto]

I went to this amazing  arcade that opened up in Hicksville called Round 1 - it's basically like a weeaboo Dave and Busters. So many great Japanese arcade games there, my favorite being one from Square-Enix (!!!) called Gunslinger. You dual wield pistols and can attach them or stack them because they both have magnets on them. The tutorial is more complicated than most console games and actually costs money just to play through! Game overall is really fun though, it's an arena battler type game.

They also had a bunch of great rhythm games (Theatrhythm, Project Diva, some Capcom rhythm game), some fighters, a really old Namco game where you play as some undead samurai and fight youkai in 3 modes (platformer, side scrolling beat em up, and overhead hack and slash). They had the new Daytona, which just seemed to be a graphic overhaul of all the Daytona 1 and 2 courses, the new Cruisin which is simplistic fun. And they had Music Gun Gun 2, my favorite light gun/rhythm hybrid from Taito. Plus there were so many hot Asian girls walking around which made things even better.

[Positive Touch]

hold up there's a real town called Hicksville

[Beezy]

Long Island as a whole is hicksville.

[Positive Touch]

i was under the impression that it was more douchebags than hicks

[bork]

I went to this amazing  arcade that opened up in Hicksville called Round 1 - it's basically like a weeaboo Dave and Busters.

Makes sense...because Round 1 is a Japanese arcade/amusement chain.   They've been expanding a bit in the U.S. recently.  There's a location that opened up here in Georgia a little while ago but I haven't bothered driving down there.

[tiesto]

i was under the impression that it was more douchebags than hicks

It's more rich douchebags than hicks (of course, Beezy's from the city so anything out in the burbs is automatically hick for them). The actual town of Hicksville, LI is basically little India, though. Tons of Indian grocers, clothing shops, restaurants, etc.

[Himu]

Holy crap, Paper Mario might be in the top 5 best rpgs of its generation. Wow. Really missed out until now. This game is everything. It truly takes everything great about Mario and puts it in an RPG blender. When you go to a castle, it's treated like a big deal like in actual Mario games and made into a full dungeon for instance, with puzzle solving and everything. I am really loving it.

[fistfulofmetal]

I played through Tacoma recently. I was very interested going in because I loved Gone Home and the idea of a Gone Home like game set in space sounded super cool. But... Tacoma didn't really do much for me.

I found it to be super barebones - even compared to Gone Home. The story they tell is very by the numbers, but doesn't do much to dig deep into any aspect they bring up. You play a character sent by a corporation to a space station where something has gone wrong and your job is to essentially clean up the evidence. There's some future dystopian cyberpunk themes that are only really explored at a surface level. Specifically - they try to subvert some tropes commonly present in stories like this but then instead of doing something interesting with it, they simply replace the trope with a different trope and then just do that.

Then, in an attempt to expand the voyeuristic approach from Gone Home, Tacoma has you viewing AR recordings of the characters who existed in this space as colored silhouettes. They're basically little scenes that are fully voiced and you can walk around and focus on specific characters as they move around the environment. It's cool, but they don't do much with it. And, because they've increased the character count they don't spend nearly as much time with the characters so I never connected with them the way I did with the sister in Gone Home.

It felt like some cool ideas that needed to be fleshed out more.   

[etiolate]

Playing the Path of Fire demo. They animations for the raptor mount are  n i c e.

https://gfycat.com/AgonizingLiveFrenchbulldog

[Great Rumbler]

I bought Morrowind GOTY Edition on Xbox the past weekend at a retro game expo, been playing that quite a bit ever since. It's so archaic and slow and awkward, but I still love it.

[benjipwns]

What if I told you there's an easily purchasable version of the game that has a draw distance of more than 50 feet and can run at framerates higher than 20?

There's something I find oddly adorable yet also crazy about those later PC to Xbox hand me downs like that, Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 where they likely never even considered attempting a PS2 version despite the install base. Although I think other than the framerate busting up, resolution was the real big downgrade for Morrowind since it doesn't do things too crazy otherwise, PC version has the same "OMG lets put pixel shaders ON EVERYTHING" visual design that Xbox had an easy time dealing with. IIRC, HL2 has a part where you can not only tank the framerate into single digits but make the game basically seize up so the physics stop working. And those load times on Xbox.

[Great Rumbler]

What if I told you there's an easily purchasable version of the game that has a draw distance of more than 50 feet and can run at framerates higher than 20?

I put probably 100 hours into the PC version, breh.

Also, I played the Xbox version a ton back around the time it first came out.

[thisismyusername]

Doom 3's X-box port was crazy. A bunch of New Yorkers porting a Texas tech-demo engine to it and sizing areas down to where it didn't feel like a GIGANTIC downgrade.

Vicarious Visions.