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Re: What are you currently playing?

Currently alternating between a bunch of stuff, which is generally unusual for me; I usually try to focus on one at a time.

Bought a game called Ruiner on the recent Steam sale. My current avatar is from it. And actually, the avatar sums up the game pretty well: cool aesthetics and a whole lotta killing. I'm not usually interested in twin-stick isometric shooters, but this one has enough personality and enough of a sense of cool to genuinely keep my interest. The fact that it's cyberpunk (not just futuristic, but genuine cyberpunk) helps too, since I'm a nut for that shit. It's fecking hard though.

(EDIT: May as well spread some love while I'm talking about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg2uB60DFS0 )

Also started a game called Scrap Mechanic. I think it's still in early access. There's no story or anything, but the whole game is all about building whatever the hell you want using a huge variety of scrap. My first attempt at a car failed pretty hard, but I'm still learning. And that's really the bottom line with it: there's a lot to learn. The potential for amazing things is high though, so it's been keeping my interest.

Found out The Saboteur was on gog.com, so I grabbed that too, fitting in with my recent groove of trying to play old PS3 favorites on PC. Game is just as fun as ever for me. Only disappointment being that there isn't a whole lot in the way of graphics options. No anti-aliasing, no option to remove motion blur, and the draw distance remains relatively short for characters and cars (even though my computer could totally handle it if the option were there to change this stuff). Still, getting to play with mouse aiming is great, and everything else functions really well with a "wasd" setup. And it looks better than the PS3 release regardless, so it's all good.
by OL
Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:24 am
 
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Re: Official Gaming Music Topic

Was just looking through my PS3 games, trying to look for ones that might have also been released on PC. On kind of a kick lately, getting games from that era and seeing how well they run on my system.
Well one game I ran across that wasn't released on PC was Asura's Wrath, and just seeing it made me start thinking about how goddamn much I always loved it back in the day. Only about five years ago now, but it strangely feels older, probably because of how quickly it built up nostalgia for me.
Being a game all about an angry god punching things, it very easily could have been just a flat, goofy actioner, but I always remember the soundtrack really giving it such a great emotional backbone.
This is basically just the theme, but man... every time I hear it, it's friggin magic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ5mhzi9kKQ

Gimme a damn remaster already. The graphical work was insane in that game. Would be amazing to see it running on all cylinders on current tech.
by OL
Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:51 pm
 
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Re: Anyone else sick of multiplayer?

If you don't like them, don't play them. What's tiring about something you don't have to play?
by OL
Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:18 am
 
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Re: Riku not posting what's important! (SoulCalibur VI)

Sonikku wrote: Would you just LOOK at Soul Calibur 4 Sophitia?!


I already am.
And I can't stop.

Someone help.
by OL
Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:39 am
 
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Re: Random Gaming Thoughts (Read OP Before Posting)

Suddenly I'm thinking of all kinds of classic sitcoms that ought to have their own old-school point n clicks.
I'd totally play the hell out of a Frasier one.
by OL
Wed Dec 20, 2017 12:23 am
 
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Re: Games similar to Shenmue or Yakuza?

Like Mitts said, there's really nothing out there that's going to scratch that itch in any kind of precise manner; Shenmue is unique, and though it gets compared to it very often, so is Yakuza.

The best mention I've seen in this topic so far is Kenka Bancho. It definitely has a few things down pat; brawler mechanics (and customizable combos, which is a treat), an open-ish world to trounce around in, a uniquely-Japanese aesthetic and atmosphere. Takes a little while to level up though. At first, the combat seems really slow, but as you improve, so does your speed. It also has lots of options for customizing your clothes and hair. I'm a bit of a sucker for Japanes gang genre stuff, so it's got that appeal as well. In short, it ain't exactly Shenmue or Yakuza (and being a PSP release, you may have to excuse its slight clunkiness), but it's a really fun game to dive into regardless, and totally deserves to be played.

A much less-obvious one that people often forget is Bully.
No, it's not Japanese. And yes, it is by Rockstar, which means it lacks in subtlety, and has plenty of infantile jokes and gags. Not the most Shenmue-esque qualities in the world.
But it does have a prominent hand-to-hand combat system, which lacks much depth, but is still a lot of fun. It runs on a strict clock for every day as well, giving you a limited amount of time to do things during the day before you have to get back to bed (or collapse from exhaustion). Though it isn't Japanese, it does have a really good small-town atmosphere too, as well as a ton of side-activities to waste time with, including a riding mower minigame (may as well be comparable to forklift driving), newspaper delivery, and many others.
Not the most obvious game to recommend to a Shenmue/Yakuza fan, but when it comes right down to it, it still check more boxes than most other games would.
by OL
Thu Jan 04, 2018 1:26 am
 
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Re: What are you currently playing?

Hadn't seen that cover til now. With Yakuza 2 being my favorite in the series, I gotta say... that boxart is pretty perfect.
by OL
Sat Jan 06, 2018 12:38 am
 
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Re: Random Shenmue III Thoughts

Damn, it's gotta be pretty bad if even Kenshin is speaking up. :lol:
Dude's always struck me as one of the most upbeat and positive people on here.
by OL
Sat Jan 06, 2018 12:36 am
 
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Re: How did they F the Xbox port so badly?

the storyline is anything but 70s martial arts, so it's incredibly unfitting.

"Anything but"?
Eh... I wouldn't say that.
The story is basically "martial arts badass killed my father, now I seek revenge." That's literally about 90% of 70s kung fu plots.

(I know I'm way late in replying to that, but I haven't looked at this topic in a while)
by OL
Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:26 pm
 
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Re: Random Thoughts

I do agree though, the board buttons are total gatbage.
Other adjectives I'd use are "ctappy" and "tettible."
I'm gonna go watch some potn. Give my hands something to do.
by OL
Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:59 am
 
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Re: Does Anyone Here actually like Simulation Games?

Based on this topic so far, I don't think I even understand what qualifies a game as being a "sim."
Previously I would have assumed a sim would primarily be a game that handles its subject matter realistically, in a realistic setting; most flight sims, for example, or something like the Gran Turismo series.
But now I'm seeing mentions of The Sims (which, despite the name, obviously isn't a realistic life simulator), Stardew Valley, Actraiser, Persona, Deadly Premonition, and Harvest Moon.
So uh... yeah. I'll just mention the Styx games as being my favorite murderous robbing goblin simulations. And Asura's Wrath is easily my favorite angry god on a quest for revenge sim.
I friggin love sims.
by OL
Tue Jan 16, 2018 2:20 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

^^I've only ordered from Play Asia once or twice, years ago, and that was pretty much my only experience with them: shit took waaaaay too long to ship and arrive. I don't think I've bothered with them since.
I tend to go with CDJapan for any import needs.
by OL
Mon Jan 22, 2018 2:21 pm
 
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Dark Souls Remastered

It's a thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yVOMHz9luo

Haven't seen any screens or gameplay yet, but I think we know what to expect. It'll probably look a lot like Dark Souls. But remastered.
Honestly, I might be a little more hyped if they were doing Demon's Souls Remastered; not that it's the better game necessarily, but updating it would probably make the bigger difference. All the same, Dark Souls was a damn masterpiece regardless, so gimme 60fps in Blight Town and I'll be happy anyway. Plus, it'll probably include all the Artorias DLC as well, which I never got to play. So whatever, I'll be buying.
by OL
Thu Jan 11, 2018 8:08 pm
 
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Re: Random Thoughts

Over here they kept trying to talk up the American team, but there just wasn't a ton to talk about after almost all of them flubbed a few things here and there (not to take anything away from them; it's a hard-as-fuck sport to begin with, so they're all talented as hell anyway, even if they were to finish last).
I know it's probably irritating when the "trendy" thing of the moment keeps getting airtime, but I have to say I'd have gladly taken more talk about Hanyu on tv here; at least the guy totally deserves it. Absolutely everything I saw of him (and have watched online) was downright exceptional. Dude's an artist through and through, rather than just someone grabbing at points.
It was kind of funny, it almost seemed like they were trying to talk him down on tv here ("Oh yeah, he's great, but Nathan Chen can do 15 quads in a single program, yadda yadda") , but once he actually performed, they had to shut the hell up and just recognize that he was better than anything the US had to offer. :lol:

Totally agree about Uno, though. He's been downplayed far too much. I've rewatched his free skate a few times online now, and I have to say it might have been my single favorite thing in the entire Olympics.
He falls once in the first 25 seconds, gets up like nothing happened, and continues on totally unfazed. When I mentioned how certain performances can become just so mesmerizing and absorbing, this is exactly what I was talking about; the second half of that program was obviously better than most of the guys, but I'd say it even put to shame most of the stuff done by the gold- and silver-winning Russian girls (who had a ton of hype surrounding them, and definitely delivered).
I'm not sure how things were portrayed in other countries, but watching it here, it was like Uno came out of absolutely nowhere. No talk about him beforehand, no hype. Total underdog kind of thing, and I loved watching it. It was like seeing Memento for the first time without knowing anything about it beforehand; mindblowing.

Sorry, I don't know how to be concise about anything anymore. :lol:
by OL
Sun Feb 25, 2018 2:26 am
 
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Re: Resident Evil VII

Is it just me, or have the Biohazard dev teams never really figured out how to animate mouths properly for some reason?
The lip syncing always looked weird to me in earlier games, but I always figured it was some kind of quirk of the graphics engine or something. But I just watched a bit of the opening for this one (seriously, just go take a peek on youtube or something), and it's still just as present as ever. Possibly stranger than before, too, since the graphics are generally more realistic, yet still have that problem anyway.
It's like they never figured out how lips, teeth, and tongues actually work in conjunction with each other. The mouths always look like the person should have a speech impediment of some kind, like a lisp or something, and yet the voices coming out of them are totally normal.
It's just weird to me because this isn't some common videogame problem, or even a Capcom problem; it's just something I've always noticed in the Resident Evil series specifically. Graphics engines change, entire dev teams change... and yet the problem is always there.
Did somebody put a really weird curse on the series or something? I can't imagine they just have the same confused guy doing mouth animation across every game for over a decade...
by OL
Tue Jan 24, 2017 4:56 am
 
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Re: Random Gaming Thoughts (Read OP Before Posting)

Well this is new.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtX05ZJ95jA
3D remake? HD remaster? Shitty iOS version?
No idea yet, but I'm getting the urge to go back and finally get through that PSP version. Been on backlog forever. Damn near the top of the backlog, but it's just been sitting there regardless.
Also nice to see Square going back into the old Enix properties. More of that, thanks.
by OL
Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:27 pm
 
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Re: Favorite Alternate Costumes/Outfits

No, that's not what... I didn't mean...

Man, this place is dead. :lol:
by OL
Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:28 pm
 
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Favorite Alternate Costumes/Outfits

Place seems a bit dead at the moment, so hey, why not a new "favorites" topic? Maybe help pick this shit up. Obviously, just post some of your favorite alternate outfits in gaming. There are tons of them in fighting games, and superhero stuff tends to go nuts with it. Plenty of other places. Anything that isn't the default look applies.

I've just been playing through Spider-Man: Edge of Time, and was pretty delighted to see that the 90s Ben Reilly costume was unlockable. This was the costume being used in the comics when I first seriously started reading them way back when, and it's remained just about my favorite Spidey costume for all these years, even more than the classic look.
Only bummer is that it's only playable with Spider-Man 2099. Which, don't get me wrong, ain't horrible (I actually like Miguel O'Hara a helluva lot more than Peter Parker, honestly), it's just that the moves and powers aren't really a match for Ben Reilly.
Still, great costume. And a tasty chunk o' nostalgia for me.

http://oi63.tinypic.com/2hh17gw.jpg
by OL
Sat Mar 03, 2018 3:52 am
 
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Re: Recent Gaming Purchases

Spiritual successor to what is, in all likelihood (hard to be concrete about this stuff), my overall favorite game of the 16-bit era?
Fuck yes I'm preordering that.

http://oi64.tinypic.com/29nymiu.jpg

Feels like it's been in development for freaking forever , and even September feels far off. But at least it's actually in sight now.
by OL
Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:15 am
 
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and Spider-Man: Edge of Time
http://oi66.tinypic.com/2cgjvqb.jpg http://oi65.tinypic.com/2ppgcxs.jpg

Within the past couple months I finally started reading the old Spider-Man 2099 comics from the early-90s. Never got to when I was a kid, yet the image of him has always remained ingrained in my head as an iconic reminder of the 90s; always gives me a warm, squishy feeling, the same way Genesis games, the X-Files, and Batman the Animated Series do. Low and behold I'm loving the hell out of the comics, so what better time than now to try out Miguel O'Hara's only legitimate appearances in gaming?

Shattered Dimensions actually features four versions of Spidey: Amazing (regular ol' modern-day Peter Parker), Ultimate (teenage, wearing the symbiotic black suit), Noir (an angsty 1930s version fighting gangsters), and of course 2099. The game is essentially split up into episodic levels (unlike the usual open-world mold that most Spidey games aim for), with only a loose shell of a story linking them together. And while the story is nothing particularly engaging, the dialogue is, on occasion, genuinely funny and entertaining. Weak story or not, it's still enjoyable hearing all the well-written chatter left and right. It's a good sign to me that the writer of this one, Dan Slott, is apparently also the writer of the new Insomniac-developed Spider-Man game coming to PS4, so I'm looking forward to that a little more now.

http://oi68.tinypic.com/1535s8o.jpg

Gameplay remains relatively the same between the characters (run around levels, beat up badguys, move on), with the one really notable exception being the Noir version. Instead of being all-out action, his levels are generally stealth-based. It's not the greatest stealth in the world, but the extra spice is always welcome when it pops up. And, if anything, I am really surprised by how much I liked this version of the character. I'm not particularly jazzed about reading the comics he's from (they're a byproduct of Marvel's post-2000 "cash in on whatever's hip" mentality, and apparently Sin City was on the brain when they did this), but his setup is still surprisingly engaging.
Regardless, I still had the most fun playing as Spidey 2099, since he was the whole reason I started this to begin with. He does have an occasional mechanic that pops up from time to time which is really cool, in which he'll go into free-fall and have to dodge objects and fight a boss, but it's used very, very sparingly; too sparingly, if I'm entirely honest.
And while the idea behind the voice casting for the different Spideys is great (they basically cast all the actors who have played him in old cartoons and whatnot), I think the 2099 version is horribly miscast. He's too jokey/goofy, and sounds like an old white guy making jokes to his grandkids. Kind of strange for a character who's supposed to be a half-Mexican 20-something.
Last note, Shattered Dimensions is also the first place where Nolan North got to voice Deadpool, which he would later do in the official Deadpool game itself. Perfect casting. Can't wait to play the Deadpool game now, if only to hear more of that.

Edge of Time carries over most of the same gameplay from Shattered Dimensions, though now it's no longer necessarily level-based. Or rather, the levels aren't split up and accessed from a menu this time. One scene organically flows into the next, and it feels much more cohesive, less disjointed. It's just one genuinely exciting action scene and race against death after another, and it doesn't let up for hours. It's pretty great.
This time around, rather than jumping between dimensions, we instead see Spider-Man 2099 communicating with modern-day Spidey through time, usually with one getting into a jam and the other having to take measures to affect the future and change things in some way. It's a fun dynamic, though it's all very, very scripted; this ain't no sandbox.
Speaking of scripting, this one is written by Peter David, original creator of Spidey 2099, so everything feels really, really spot-on in that regard. Miguel O'Hara was also recast, so he sounds a helluva lot more like I've been imagining him as I read the comics.

http://oi66.tinypic.com/io3pj6.jpg

Overall, even more than Shattered Dimensions, this was the game I really needed to scratch that itch I had. It's hard to imagine there'll ever be much more in the way of Miguel O'Hara as a main protagonist in a videogame, so this was a helluva lot of fun, and a real treat for a comics dork like me, who actually thinks stuff from the 90s was pretty rad.
If only we could get a genuine open-world Spidey 2099 game; man, the freakin possibilities.
by OL
Fri Mar 09, 2018 3:50 pm
 
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Re: Random Shenmue III Thoughts

Totally random thing here, but it just occurred to me: I really, really hope the dub for Shenmue III doesn't include a ton of "wink to the audience" nods to the old dubs. With as long as Shenmue has been around, it's had plenty of time to gain a reputation on phrases like "let's get sweaty," Ryo asking about sailors and whatnot, that kind of shit. I just really hope the English voice actors don't feel the need to call back to that stuff, like they think they're being clever or something. I hope the dub is played totally straight, just like the first two games were.

I'll probably opt for the Japanese track anyway (long as it's included), but I'd still prefer not to have anything groan-inducing like that from the English one.
by OL
Wed Mar 21, 2018 1:25 pm
 
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Re: Recent Gaming Purchases

Don't buy a ton of games anymore. Typically not newer ones, anyway; mostly just stuff on Steam, outside of Rocksmith which I got earlier this month.
Saw that Natsume was bringing over yet another River City/Kunio-kun game though, so I preordered that and finally picked up the last one they put out. Natsume's a nice little company, but they don't advertise for shit. Hard to find out that they have anything new without looking directly at their site, or stumbling upon something on Amazon.

http://oi64.tinypic.com/atohat.jpg
http://oi64.tinypic.com/8wbm1i.jpg
by OL
Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:27 pm
 
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Re: Re-do English dub for Shenmue II

Kinda funny, I always actually liked the sound of the compressed dialogue; made it feel even more like a dubbed-over movie from the 80s to me. Not that better quality would hurt anything necessarily, I just always thought of it as an extra atmosphere-contributor, even if the effect was unintentional.
by OL
Tue Apr 10, 2018 12:38 am
 
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Re: What are the chances of Silent Hill PT being made?

It was pretty specifically a Kojima/Del Toro project, so with Kojima having separated himself from Konami... I'd say chances are close to zero. No doubt there will be another Silent Hill one day, but it won't be whatever they'd been putting together before.

There are some conspiracy theories to take a bit of solace in though. Some believe that Kojima's next game, Death Stranding, is pretty much taking up the reigns of his intentions with Silent Hills as it is. So whatever we would have seen in SH (conceptually, at least) may still be making an appearance in that (EDIT: Mr357 beat me to mentioning it).
Still others (myself included) believe that Kojima never actually intended to make Silent Hills a full game to begin with; rather, PT itself was made as a kind of artistic "resignation letter" from him to Konami. There's some really interesting, interpretive proof out there if you look it up.

Besides, I think PT stands pretty well on its own regardless, doesn't it? PT had its own horror gimmick of traversing the same hallways over and over as things slowly change and warp around you; a full game of that would be absolutely ludicrous (not in a good way). And if it wasn't going to be like that anyway, and was going to open up into a more traditional Silent Hill game... then why would PT hype us up for that? It'd be a completely different experience from what the "demo" showed us, and it was the "demo" that made us excited to begin with. So what would even be the point?
PT is pretty much its own game, and can fully be appreciated as such. Pining after a full on "Silent Hills" is kind of meaningless at this point.
by OL
Mon Apr 16, 2018 12:54 pm
 
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Re: Will the audio be improved in the HD version?

I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it being improved upon, but like Kiba and I mentioned in another thread, the compressed audio actually contributed pretty well to the atmosphere back when we first played the games. They are, after all, based in the 80s and take place across Asia; the compressed audio mimics the feel of an old 70s/80s karate/kung fu dub.
Much like putting intentional film grain into something to make it feel older, the compressed audio helps to plant you firmly in the 80s. Decompressing the audio wouldn't kill the games or anything, but it would detract a bit from the Shenmue I know and love. As it is, nothing else in gaming really sounds like Shenmue; you can hear an uncredited voice clip from it elsewhere and know immediately that, yes, that's Shenmue. I personally kind of like that it's so identifiable that way, and "improving" the audio would only serve to remove that aspect.
by OL
Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:17 pm
 
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Re: Will the audio be improved in the HD version?

I’m going to guess they didn’t intend to make the voice tracks sound like that at all. It was a necessary evil due to hardware constraints.

Well yeah, of course it wasn't intentional. But then, you could kind of say the same thing about scan lines, or the curved screen edges of old TVs in retro sprite-based games. These weren't things that were planned for when devs made games back then, and yet they remain elements that some people actually prefer to see when playing them nowadays (hence their optional inclusion in a great number of retro re-releases). The compressed audio is really no different; it's a technical restraint/imperfection that some people nowadays actually prefer as an atmospheric element. Call it a nostalgia thing, but then... why shouldn't we feel some level of nostalgia for Shenmue's many quirks?
by OL
Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:57 pm
 
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Re: What Song Are You Listening To Now?

Well, you're not the first to get that impression:
viewtopic.php?t=46578
by OL
Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:49 pm
 
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Re: PS4 & X1 Physical Preorders?

(although I gotta say, it is nice for the UK to get preferential treatment with games for once! :D Even if this is only a preorder I'll take any win i can get :) )

Heeeeeey now, you guys actually got S2 on Dreamcast with full Japanese audio back in the day, while the US got shafted. Don'tchu be talkin about no "for once."
I'ma fight you.
by OL
Thu Apr 19, 2018 4:05 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

lol I still don't find Haruka's parts cringeworthty...

Not to beat a dead horse (I've rambled before on it), but it's mainly the bits where Haruka's manager is explaining to her that being a pop idol is some kind of noble pursuit, that she gives people something to love, so she needs to work extra hard at it or whatever. Meanwhile there's touching music playing in the background, as if the developers themselves actually believe this crap.
Because yeah, being a little girl in a skimpy outfit singing squeaky baby songs mainly for the pleasure of lonely 20- and 30-something-year-old men (which the game totally acknowledges during the "meet and greet" minigames) is super noble.
I'm not sure if the series can make me cringe any harder than that stuff does. That stuff actually hurt Haruka's character for me; I see her on the cover of 6, and all I can think is "ugh." Never used to be the case before Yakuza 5. She seemed like a really strong character until then.
But yeah, rant over. Just had to specify.
I wouldn't mind Haruka's section so much if it were, say, poking fun at the idol scene, or if it were about some kind of corruption or crime going on within. But instead they go the "follow your dreams and be an inspiration by becoming a child sex symbol!" route, and I just can't really dig on that so much.

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway , I've finally played into Yakuza Zero a pretty good deal now.
Weren't people making Mr. Shakedown out to be some kind of super-difficult fight before? I've beaten him about ten times now (damn good payout for it, so I've been hunting him down), and all you have to do is run around and hit him as he comes out of his charge. Takes a long time, but it seems easy enough. Not a big deal, long as you catch him in an open enough area.
And the 80s atmosphere is pretty great (love how the sidequests draw directly from that stuff, like helping a yanki band seem tough, or tracking down a kid's stolen videogame cartridge), but I am a little disappointed at certain visual elements. Like... why are all these posters of hosts and hostesses clearly made with modern styles? The hairstyles and shit are nowhere even close to what would have been common in Japan in '88. Takes me out of it a bit, having to see guys who look like they're in a modern boy band or something. I just wish I could say the atmosphere is completely on-point, but it's a bit of a mixed bag here and there.
by OL
Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:49 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

^^Hey now, careful on spoilers. That wasn't too revealing, necessarily, but still.

But yeah, I played a bit of the opening while skipping cutscenes (since I'm not up to 6 yet; just wanted to try it for the gameplay), and yeah, the scale of Kamurocho itself seems to have been expanded. Streets are definitely wider, and I wouldn't doubt if buildings in general were made a bit taller. Makes it all feels a little more realistic now, so that's nice. I'm playing Zero now, and the environments are starting to feel a little "videogame-y" at this point (after 5 games covering the same streets), so that upgrade in 6 is definitely very, very noticeable.

Also, just have to say it; it feels good when you finally throw your first enemy off of a building. I lured a pack of guys up an entire stairwell just to try that out. :lol:
by OL
Tue Apr 24, 2018 3:52 pm
 
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Re: Favorite Alternate Costumes/Outfits

Any time I play a Ninja Gaiden game, I tend to go with this by default. Never been a huge fan of Ryu's all-black look, and at least this way he looks a little more like a ninja and less like a superhero. Faithfulness to the NES games is a plus.
Image
by OL
Thu Mar 08, 2018 8:01 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

I was about to say that Kiwami would be the place to start, since it's a remake of the first, but Harry makes a good point on starting with Zero. I'm about halfway through the story of Zero now, and it occurs to me that playing Kiwami after this is really going to make everything between Kazuma and Nishiki resonate a helluva lot more than it ever did in the original game, really make it "pop" in ways it never had the time to in the original PS2 version.
Only drawback is that, from what I hear, the sidequests and whatnot are pretty much all exactly the same in Kiwami as they were in the original Yakuza 1. That is to say... they aren't going to be quite as fun and charming as the ones in Zero.
But all the same, for main story purposes, Zero's definitely the best starting point.

And then, as luck would have it, Kiwami 2 releases in August.
Zero, then Kiwami, then Kiwami 2; it really is a pretty perfect time for people to jump on board with the series now. I've been following it since the beginning, so it's not the kind of thing I have to think about much, but just like what a lot of people are saying about Shenmue HD, I'm almost jealous of anyone getting to start the Yakuza series right now. The devs have the series down to a science by this point, and it's all pretty great (long as you don't burn yourself out, like I did a while back; only just recently got the spark back).
by OL
Sat Apr 28, 2018 5:21 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

Personally I think it'd be kind of a moot effort to actually remake 3-5. Maybe port them to PS4, sure, but full-on Kiwami-style remakes seem pointless. I understand they started a new graphics engine with 5 (that's the one Kiwami and Zero run on, right?), but the visual differences are minuscule; the change was done mainly for performance purposes, not visual ones. More people in crowds, less slow-down, faster loading, etc.
Releasing "Yakuza 3 Remastered" or something might make sense (just a bump into 4K or whatever). "Yakuza 5 Remastered" would work even better, since it's already in the right engine, and we never got a physical release in the west.
But full-on "Kiwami"-style remakes for any of them?
Sounds like a bad business decision to me.
Not that I wouldn't buy it ('course I would) I just wouldn't bother making it if I were with Sega.

On the subject of 3, I still think the omissions made in the western release are small enough that they, by themselves, definitely don't justify a re-release. Without knowing beforehand that they made any omissions, absolutely nothing seems out of the ordinary when you play it anyway, and the stuff missing is absolutely minor at best.
by OL
Sun Apr 29, 2018 6:09 pm
 
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Re: Recent Gaming Purchases

http://oi68.tinypic.com/ou1moz.jpg http://oi65.tinypic.com/168bjm8.jpg
http://oi68.tinypic.com/nyco4g.jpg http://oi67.tinypic.com/ac76tl.jpg
http://oi68.tinypic.com/2hdznfb.jpg http://oi65.tinypic.com/33m6f10.jpg

So I guess I'm officially over my years-long aversion to modern anime-style Japanese games. Maybe. For the moment at least. I'm a total fucking flake. It turns on and off.
Originally wasn't super interested in Nights of Azure 2, because the whole focus is on tits. But now I'm like, hey... tits. Still need to beat the first game though.
Blue Reflection is the kind of thing that usually repels me completely, but I randomly watched a small bit of gameplay, and the visuals and music are just so... weirdly fucking pleasant . It's modern Sailor Moon, but relaxing. The fuck is that all about?
Utawarerumono, I'm still a bit iffy about, because I'm not usually a big visual novel fan. But the interspersed SRPG gameplay looks nice, and apparently the world and lore are really well-realized. So I'll try it.
Alliance Alive is from the same devs as Legend of Legacy, and that was pretty cool. Very Saga-esque, but apparently AA has a much better story (written by the creator of Suikoden, so maybe that'll appeal to some here).
And Nobunaga's Ambition ain't anime-style, but I always preorder this series as soon as they're announced. I like that KoeiTecmo takes the risk of releasing niche stuff like this so often, so they've got my support.

So yeah, mostly a weird batch of games for me. But, excluding Nobunaga and Alliance which are both Amazon, they were all surprisingly cheap on Gamestop's site, which is rare. Been a while since I've just grabbed up a big haul of games.
by OL
Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:25 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

Just finished Yakuza Zero.
Got about halfway through the game doing side-activities as much as possible, then just fast-tracked it to the end once the story got too intriguing to put aside. And god damn.
I knew it was going to be good, and I fully expected a lot of badass posturing and a return to legit yakuza politics and whatnot (which was very, very welcome after the weird sidetracking done by Yakuza 5), but I definitely didn't expect it to be genuinely touching on top of it all. Some of the final scenes -- particularly stuff with Majima and Makoto -- actually managed to choke me up just a bit. Really, really good storytelling.
I was also thinking the whole game, as things ramped up and got more and more serious... how the fuck is any of this going to segue properly into the story of the original game/Kiwami? Seemed so much like bridges were being burned and original plot points were being overwritten. And yet... it all works out. Perfectly. In ways that prequels rarely ever seem to get right.
Not to mention that the final fight playing as Kazuma is easily one of, if not the absolute greatest one-on-one brawl in the series (and remember that I haven't finished 5 or played through 6, so I can't count those). And the final scene, when the intro music for the original Yakuza on PS2 starts playing? Goddamn, what a great feeling that was.

I'm often late to the party on playing certain games, and so often people will tell me "Once you play it, you'll be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner."
That never happens. I'm usually completely content in just waiting for the mood to strike me, and I never mind that I waited.
But this is probably the first time I actually am kicking myself.
I got burnt out on the Yakuza series by playing 50-something hours into Y5 and then getting such a bad taste in my mouth with the Haruka stuff that I just had to put it down and leave it for a while.
But man, if I'd actually just worked my way into Zero back when it was first released, it would have brought my taste for the series back almost immediately. Should have done it sooner, without a doubt.

I think now I will go back to Yakuza 5 and finish that. I remember just where I was (right around the point of starting Akiyama's story), so it'll be no problem jumping back in. Shouldn't be long before I finish that, and I'll figure out if I want Y6 immediately after, or if I should give Kiwami a go first.
But yeah, mood's back. So much that I might just go watch one of the Battles Without Honor and Humanity movies tonight.
by OL
Mon Apr 30, 2018 8:21 pm
 
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Re: Shenmue HD announced for PS4 / XBOX ONE / PC

So a quick question about the game graphics. Are they remastered in HD or is this a port upscaled? I keep seeing conflicting reports.
I'm not sure how you define "remastering in HD" versus "upscaling a port"?

I've always figured "upscaling" is simply what, for example, the old "fat" PS3s did with PS1 and PS2 games; it output them into a higher resolution, and nothing else. Nothing was changed about how they function or appear; any aliasing or blurriness in textures and edges is still going to be apparent. The only difference is that they're being output into 720 or 1080p, which only serves to make them a bit clearer on modern screens (whereas something output in the original 480p would need to be stretched to fit a modern screen, and therefore would come out a bit blurrier).

A "remaster" takes the original game files and actually puts work into smoothing out edges, decompressing textures to make them less pixelated, opening the edges of the screen up to allow for true widescreen format, etc. Essentially, a remaster takes the original archival material and spruces it up a bit to take advantage of the fact that it's now running on stronger hardware. Occasionally they may also alter mechanics in some slight way to make them more "playable" for modern times (such as in the case of the Final Fantasy XII one, which allowed you to literally speed up combat at the press of a button).

There are also "gradations" between the two, I guess you could say. The "PS2 on PS4" line on the Playstation store, for example, takes old PS2 games and basically runs them on an emulator to make edges smoother and output them into higher resolutions, but it does nothing to change aspect ratios or decompress textures or anything like that. They work with the material that would be on the game disc, but they don't actually mess around with the original archival data from during the games' development, and they have no way of fundamentally altering things like gameplay or display aspects. So in that respect, they lie somewhere between being "upscaled" and "remastered."

I'd say these Shenmue ones do count as genuine remasters. Smoother graphics and widescreen capability, sure, but they're also updating button prompts to match whatever system they're played on, they're including alternate control methods, dual-language options, hopefully including the time-skip in Shenmue 1 (fingers crossed), etc. They're taking the original development materials and creating a new package out of it.
So yeah, genuine remaster.
by OL
Sun Apr 15, 2018 12:39 am
 
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Re: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Although I don’t think there’s really a boring character...

...save for Scarlet Witch, I'd say, who's still just as dull as a wooden spoon. Funny how her accent just disappeared though. It was always pretty horrid in Age of Ultron.
I'd agree on Thor though, they've certainly managed to make him pretty great by this point (I still haven't seen Ragnarok unfortunately, but it's a priority now).
Yeah, movie was okay. I get what they were trying to do with the ending, but to be entirely honest, it fell pretty flat for me.
(anyone who hasn't seen the movie, really, don't look in the spoiler tags unless you give exactly zero shits. In which case... why are you looking in the spoiler tags?)
If there were actually anything at stake, I'd say it was all extremely well-done and shocking. But it's a Marvel movie. It's part of a cash-cow franchise that Disney assuredly won't allow to slow down.
Meaning, they didn't really kill Spider-Man. They didn't really kill Dr. Strange. They didn't really kill off the Guardians. And they definitely didn't kill Black Panther. There's still too much money to be made off of all these characters, and therefore... none of it means anything. Without even thinking hard about it, I already know what happens in the next movie. Everyone (or at least everyone that still matters) gets brought back by the infinity stones. Or Captain Marvel does something wacky and galactic-y to bring everyone back. Whatever the case, everyone will come back.
There, I just wrote the next movie for Marvel.
That aside though, I do have to say the movie definitely suffers from "convenient powers" syndrome. Just like so many of these movies (and tv shows; comicbook stuff is all guilty) powers only seem to work when they're convenient, and they only seem to be used in ways that are convenient. If Thanos can literally alter reality with the reality stone... why not fucking do that ? He literally turns Bruce Banner's Hulkbuster armor incorporeal when he shows up at the end. Why not do that to everyone ? Wouldn't that save you a shit ton of trouble? Why didn't he do this to Tony Stark et al. when he was fighting them?
Shit like that always gets under my skin.
Plus, I haven't seen Black Panther... but why is it that, in literally the most technologically-advanced country on Earth , the king has his troops carrying sticks and spears? They make it so the spears shoot lasers or some dumb bullshit, but still... why spears? Is Marvel aware that we'll still be able to tell it's Africa even if you don't go all stereotypical with it? I mean, I get it if they have a general tribal motif going on, but making everyone literal spearchuckers ? In a property originally created by a bunch of white dudes? That shit's just racist.

So yeah, I get that it's a big impressive spectacle movie, and yeah, it was entertaining and all. But there are still all kinds of issues I find with it. And I don't even consider any of it nitpicky.
by OL
Tue May 01, 2018 11:30 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

^^Funny, just today I can across one, got a prompt to activate it, and all it said was "(fire extinguisher)."
Figured it was something that would come into play later on, but it's good to know I should remember them.
by OL
Fri May 18, 2018 4:07 am
 
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Re: Random Gaming Thoughts (Read OP Before Posting)

Me neither, but apparently people were whining about... framerate drops or something?
I dunno. Whatever it was, they cleared it up later with patches, but supposedly there were some small graphical sacrifices made in order to get it running smoothly. But there was a big hooplah about it for a while. Ya know how gamers can be.
by OL
Fri May 18, 2018 4:03 am
 
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Re: Random Thoughts

They make me think specifically of Pizza Hut.

Got a model kit for the first time in ages.

https://i.imgur.com/VUa6b1Y.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/MbRBzvh.jpg

I bet it'll look great when finished. :D


Kudos for getting Heavyarms. Always struck me as the most underrated of Gundam Wing's mecha (my friends in highschool all seemed to prefer the rest of them), but always remained my favorite.
Wish I had more time for model kit stuff. Dorky as hell hobby, but it's always fun and satisfying. Just takes freakin forever if you plan on going all out (with paint and glue and sanding and all that).
by OL
Sat May 19, 2018 10:07 am
 
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Re: Fun With Screenshots (Post Yours)

^^Merged the new topic with the old one. Changed the title to your new one, just so it's clear I'm not favoring "my" topic or anything silly like that. It's a good idea to resurrect either way. I'll pop back in with some later.
by OL
Mon May 21, 2018 12:59 am
 
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Re: Yakuza series

So I started watching Rurouni Kenshin earlier (seen a few episodes years ago, but never got far), and it got me to thinking about Hokuto ga Gotoku... like, how great would it be if Sega started doing more of these games in the Yakuza mold, but with a variety of other anime franchises?
They've got Fist of the North Star covered, but Rurouni Kenshin is another that would work brilliantly, and I could probably sit here and make a whole list of others that could totally fit the bill. Seems like such a simple idea, but the basic Yakuza setup could be really multi-functional if they licensed a bunch of other stuff.
KoeiTecmo does it with their Warriors line (they've done Fist of the North Star, Berserk, and Arslan so far), so why not Yakuza? At the very least the Yakuza formula is far more conducive toward storytelling than Warriors ever has been.
Would be nice if that kind of thing happens. Just a random thought.
by OL
Sat May 19, 2018 10:01 am
 
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Re: Random Gaming Thoughts (Read OP Before Posting)

Holy balls! After the excellent Wild Guns Reloaded remake they are hinting at another remake and some ERA users pointing out the logo is similar to Ninja Warriors! My god I hope it's true. The arcade game I hope and not the SNES sequel.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/wild-guns-reloaded-team-working-on-a-new-remake.43467/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=296&v=OFjv6_p7qRE
Seems like it probably will be Ninja Warriors Again, since apparently the devs of Wild Guns Reloaded actually made that back in the day (their site doesn't mention the original Ninja Warriors, but it does show the SNES game).
Always liked it just for graphics and concept's sake, but yeah, it wasn't the greatest of games. The good thing is though, they've already shown they can outright improve on old games like this what with Wild Guns being the way it is. I look forward to seeing what they do with Ninja Warriors.
by OL
Mon May 21, 2018 1:16 am
 
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Re: Your captured video game screenshots (merged)

Few new shots. As before, spoiler tags are just there to keep the post from taking up too much space. No spoilers present, really.

The ones from Atelier Sophie might not seem like much, but I made a little game for myself; there's usually dialogue on-screen at all times, so I've been trying to time my presses of the share button just right so I catch the images in the split-second between when a dialogue box disappears and the next appears. Tough getting it right, but they look great when you do. I like how the characters in Gust's games really "pop" against the backgrounds. They certainly aren't triple-A, but they tend to look nice anyway.

http://oi68.tinypic.com/296hpvp.jpg

http://oi64.tinypic.com/2ev97vm.jpg

Some Dishonored 2 ones. Like my ones for the first Dishonored, none of this is from cutscenes or anything; It's all in-game angles with the HUD dropped. I like how they turned out.

http://oi65.tinypic.com/x4hzrc.jpg
http://oi67.tinypic.com/2yzkj83.jpg

http://oi68.tinypic.com/35lf312.jpg

Kazuma never killed nobody. No sir.

http://oi66.tinypic.com/34o2c5f.jpg

I just liked the setting for this one.
http://oi66.tinypic.com/egrdc2.jpg

This is just from a cutscene in Nioh, but I liked how it looked anyway. Wallpaper-worthy. Still absolutely love that Yuki-Onna was a boss in this.

http://oi63.tinypic.com/5kf6t3.jpg
by OL
Mon May 21, 2018 9:05 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

I beat Kiwami 2 Wednesday afternoon and man, I still don't see how people love the game's plot so much; for those that can't stand Haruka's part in 5, I don't know how ANYONE can stand the blubbering, wailing mess of Kaoru, at the end of 2 (especially for a, "tough woman," who, "fights and brings down Yakuza)."

Well, the two issues are inherently pretty different.
The main problem with Haruka's section in 5 is that it just doesn't fit, in any way, with the general groove of the rest of the series. You spend round about 5 games (I'm counting Dead Souls here) playing as tough guys and badasses roaming the streets, getting into scraps, and just generally being the kinds of manly men that all aspiring manly men should look up to.
Then in Y5, for some reason they decided it would be a good idea to play as a little girl with dreams of going to the city and being a big star by dancing like a monkey on tv.
Uh?
It's like trying to fit a Hatsune Miku-shaped peg into a Bunta Sugawara-shaped hole. It's one of the weirdest (and in my mind, least-welcome) sidesteps I've ever seen a long-running videogame series take.

In the case of Kaoru's blubbering and so on, it might have been a while since I've played Y2, but in my multiple playthroughs of it I don't think it ever came across all that annoying; if anything, it fits right in with the usual "melodramatic-yet-chauvinistic" groove the series usually takes on. And yeah, the series is typically chauvinistic as hell. It's part of its Japanese charm. Women are there to be saved, or to serve as Macguffins in the plot. Nobody honestly plays these games for their strong female characters, so Kaoru being the stereotypical crying girl is just par for the course.
At least they don't force you to play as her with a series of timed button presses during her crying sessions. Then it might actually be comparable to the Haruka sections of 5.
by OL
Fri May 18, 2018 11:24 pm
 
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