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ExedExes
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by ExedExes Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:37 pm

BoneSnapDeez wrote:The Xbox version is PAL-only.

For some bizarre reason, not all versions on Taito Legends 2 contain the exact same game line-up, so you'll need at least two copies to get the full experience. The most significant blow is the fact that the most-common version (PS2) lacks Cadash and RayForce.

You brought the same issue up last August and I provided the answer for it right here, but I'll post it again, this was from Empire Interactive, the developers of TL2.

Apologies guys,

Honestly it wasn't an attempt to rip anyone off. The explanation is somewhat complex but I'll try and lay it out below.

Taito Japan produced Taito Memories for the Japanese market only and hence only developed it on PS2 - it was released in Japan a bit before Taito Legends 1 was released by Empire in EU/US (on PC/PS2/XBox). It didn't include Bubble Symphony. Some of the later games are beyond the power of the PS2 to emulate (Eg. G Darius/Raystorm which use PS1 level hardware), however Taito still had the source code for these and so made proper ports of them, they also spent some time getting the F3 system games running on PS2 which involved removing the F3 sound CPU and replacing sound generation with very long pre-canned sound streams.

Empire had licensed Bubble Symphony for Legends 1 however Taito didn't provide us with any source for any of the games or the rewritten sound cpus, all the Empire versions are true emulations of the original hardware. Consequently despite our best efforts we couldn't get the F3 games running at 60fps on a PS2 under emulation. So we cut Bubble Symph, Darius, Dungeon Magic, Pop N Pop and Rayforce from Legends 1 - despite having them working acceptably on XBox/PC.

For Legends 2 it was decided that as Taito were unwilling to provide the source for these games but they had already done the work of porting them, they would do the PS2 version and Empire would do the PC/XBox versions.

A compilation was constructed that made the most sense as a follow on to Legends 1 and Taito took their Memories 1 and 2 code and made us a new version (Legends 2 PS2) - they also translated it for Europe/US.

Meanwhile Empire got on with the XBox/PC versions - G-Darius/Raystorm (and a couple of others that weren't included in Legends) were software ports on PS2 and would have been impossible to have running on an XBox as emulations and so we substituted other games. On the flip side of the coin Taito Japan had never got Bubble Symphony, Cadash, Rayforce and Pop N Pop working on PS2 so including these wasn't an option for them.

Thats it really - to sum up. Taito Japan did the PS2 version and had a ported version of G-Darius/Raystorm, Empire didn't and wouldn't have been able to get it running emulated on an XBox. Empire had a working version of Bubble Symphony (and others) on XBox/PC and Taito Japan didn't.

Again I'll also say it was unfortunate that the PC version of TL2 was saddled with that evil StarForce DRM.

BUT, Dungeon Magic is a must play!
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by BoneSnapDeez Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:33 pm

Interesting! Sounds like quite the cluster.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by PartridgeSenpai Fri Mar 10, 2017 6:16 pm

Partridge Senpai's 2017 Beaten Games:

1. Tales of Hearts R (Vita)
2. UPPERS (Vita)
3. Volume (Vita)
4. Overlord: Minions (DS)
5. Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS)
6. Overlord II (PS3)
7. Overlord: Dark Legend (Wii)
8. La-Mulana (Remake) (PC)
9. Infamous: Second Son (PS4)
10. htol#NiQ: The Firefly Diary (Vita)
11. Blood Bowl (360)
12. Dead to Rights: Retribution (360)
13. Bioshock Infinite (360)

14. Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea Part 1 (360)

Howlongtobeat put this at about two hours, and it took me 4 while I really looked hard for stuff, as a reference. I was pretty excited to get to this, as a return to the Rapture I love so much, but they've really Bioshock Infinite'd it up so much that I didn't really care for it. If anything, it just made me wanna replay Bioshock 1 and 2 even more than normal Bioshock Infinite did Xp

The gameplay is really nothing special. It's just more Bioshock Infinite for the most part. It even has sky-rails in it (but to be fair, it does make sense in the narrative in the game for things to be different, like Plasmids being drinkable now just like Vigors were). I thought the story was pretty awful though. Really unsatisfying and mostly just all in the ending. Minerva's Den this most certainly is not.

Verdict: Not Bad. Most of the value here is more fairly good first person FPS like Infinite was and the novelty of seeing a pre-fall Rapture (which I didn't find significantly interesting, tbh). The story is really forgettable and feels really rushed and slap-dash. A desperate attempt to link the two games universes in some way that really just should've ended more ambiguously and left it up to the audience to decide an ultimate motive for certain characters, rather than ham-fisting it like they did into some kind of bow.

Here's hoping Part 2 is better!
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by ElkinFencer10 Fri Mar 10, 2017 7:01 pm

Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 24

January (10 Games Beaten)
1. Persona 4 Arena - Playstation 3 - January 1
2. Chrono Trigger - SNES - January 7
3. Ys: The Vanished Omens - Master System - January 8
4. MUSHA - Genesis - January 10
5. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below - PlayStation 4 - January 11
6. Ys I - TurboGrafx-CD - January 13
7. Ys II - TurboGrafx-CD - January 14
8. Dragon Quest Builders - PlayStation 4 - January 23
9. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - PlayStation 4 - January 26
10. School Girl/Zombie Hunter - PlayStation 4 - January 29


February (12 Games Beaten)
11. Fire Emblem Heroes - Android - February 3
12. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD - Wii U - February 5
13. Dante's Inferno - PlayStation 3 - February 7
14. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - DS - February 11
15. Persona 4: Dancing All Night - Vita - February 12
16. Sniper Elite 4 - PlayStation 4 - February 17
17. Pony Quest - NES - February 19
18. Halo Wars 2 - Xbox One - February 22
19. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions - PlayStation Portable - February 24
20. Hotline Miami - PlayStation 4 - February 26
21. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light - Famicom - February 27
22. Bad Dudes - NES - February 28


March (2 Games Beaten)
23. Root Letter - PlayStation 4 - March 2
24. Vroom in the Night Sky - Switch - March 10


24. Vroom in the Night Sky - Switch - March 10

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When I first saw something online about Vroom in the Night Sky, I was excited. "Cool!" I thought, "A kart racer with cute magical girls!" Unfortunately for me, it was not cool, it was not a kart racer, and the magical girls aren't all that cute. I mean, they're okay, but the polygons are really rudimentary for a system with the Switch's strength. This was, without a doubt, the worst €8 I've ever spent (I downloaded it on my French account).

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The game is broken into eight levels, each as boring as the last. You can access the first five levels just by clearing the previous levels. The last three levels require the purchase of specific bikes in the shop with Stardust that's exceptionally boring and annoying to gather, and these magical bikes cost way more stardust than they're worth. Each level plays like the ring levels in Superman 64 except easy with no difficulty whatsoever. You have to fly through a series of star rings to unlock the exit. That's it. That's the whole objective. Halfway through the level, a rival magical girl will appear. This doesn't really add anything to gameplay, however, as your rival does nothing to interfere with your completion of the level. All she does is fly around and steal stardust, but that's not really a threat because it keeps respawning. You have finite fuel, but it drains EXTREMELY slowly (I've never gotten below 90%), and you can always fly to the middle of the map to refuel. The whole game is just extraordinarily boring.

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But the visuals are redeeming, right? No. No they're not. It honestly looks like it's an upscaled WiiWare game. The textures are so basic that they're almost not textured at all, and the polygon models are extraordinarily bland. "Uninspired" might be the most appropriate word for the game's visual style. The worst part, however, other than the boring gameplay, is the translation. You see crap like "Are you the first time to play this game?" "Attention to Drowsy Riding! OK?" "It is a sky. It is a completely sky." I know that the developer is a small studio with an extremely limited budget, but surely there was a better option than Google Translate. This reads like a C student's high school project. It's a minor gripe, I realize, as it doesn't actually affect gameplay (what little there is), but it's just sloppy work.

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Vroom in the Night Sky is the epitome of disappointing Switch launch games. Even Red Steel back on the Wii was a better, more robust, and more enjoyable launch experience than this. The gameplay feels more like a pre-alpha demo than a full release game, and the visuals look like a Unity tutorial. The sound design is bare minimum, and the translation is on par with that of a high school foreign language class. Avoid this game. Truthfully, I enjoyed this game less than I enjoyed The Letter on Wii U, and that's saying something.
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by BoneSnapDeez Fri Mar 10, 2017 8:18 pm

Oh dear lord there's a "Switch eShop" now. How many shops does Nintendo have???

Looks like the pro critics didn't care for that game much either.
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by MrPopo Fri Mar 10, 2017 9:08 pm

PartridgeSenpai wrote:Here's hoping Part 2 is better!

Part 2 plays pretty different, and it does a lot more with the "right before the fall" story idea than Part 1 did. I think it was much stronger than Part 1.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by PartridgeSenpai Sat Mar 11, 2017 1:54 am

MrPopo wrote:
PartridgeSenpai wrote:Here's hoping Part 2 is better!

Part 2 plays pretty different, and it does a lot more with the "right before the fall" story idea than Part 1 did. I think it was much stronger than Part 1.


I took a little under an hour tonight to peak into Part 2, and I'd have to say already that you're most certainly correct. I'm really digging the more stealth-focused gameplay so far. Giving you a brand new weapon right off the bat as well as the new plasmid and not gating them for more than half of the adventure was a very smart choice. You also meet a really interesting character from the original Bioshock, right off the bat. I'm getting a much more System Shock 2 meets Bioshock 1 vibe rather than the "Infinite kinda sorta goes "meh" in the direction of Bioshack (whatever that game was)" that Part 1 gave me.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by PartridgeSenpai Sat Mar 11, 2017 6:07 pm

Partridge Senpai's 2017 Beaten Games:

1. Tales of Hearts R (Vita)
2. UPPERS (Vita)
3. Volume (Vita)
4. Overlord: Minions (DS)
5. Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS)
6. Overlord II (PS3)
7. Overlord: Dark Legend (Wii)
8. La-Mulana (Remake) (PC)
9. Infamous: Second Son (PS4)
10. htol#NiQ: The Firefly Diary (Vita)
11. Blood Bowl (360)
12. Dead to Rights: Retribution (360)
13. Bioshock Infinite (360)
14. Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea Part 1 (360)

15. Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Part 2 (360)

Got through this in more like 6 or 7 hours, which is more along the lines of Howlongtobeat. It was promised to be better than Part 1, and it certainly was!

This DLC focuses highly on stealth, for the most part. You can now do stealth takedowns, you can take down enemies non-lethally, and you even get a plasmid that's akin to Dark Vision from Dishonored that lets you see some loot and enemies through walls, and even lets you cloak (given this came out some year and a half after Dishonored, the influence is obvious). Your new weapon is crossbow, but it's fairly stealth focused. This ain't the crossbow from Bioshock 1, as it uses tranq-darts, KO-gas explosion darts, and noisemaking darts. All of this is introduced to you very quickly, so there's no beating around the bush with the new, fun toys.

The level design is pretty big, and it took me a while to explore it all, despite how small it actually is. I thought I explored way more than I needed to, but clearly not nearly enough as I missed five audio logs (compared to one a piece in the main game and BaS Part 1)! The Big Daddy wandering around is also a constant threat as well, as he's impossible to take down. Given how this is so stealth focused compared to the main game and the first 2 DLC's, which are far more action-games, this reminded me a lot of the Dead Money DLC for Fallout New Vegas (as a reference). At the very least the stealth emphasis makes plasmid/vigor traps worth a hell of a lot more than how worthless they were in the main game.

The story is head-and-shoulders above Part 1's. It felt far more relevant to the greater story that a crossover game between the two universes tried to tell, and it even goes to explain one of the more iconic scenes you come across in Bioshock 1. The twist is pretty easy to see coming, but I thought it was clever, and my journey didn't feel like a total waste of time like Part 1's did.

Verdict: Recommended. If the main game didn't quite do it for you, this is a very good add on to add a bit more closure to that experience. Unless you're really dying to know what leads up to it first-hand (they relate it to you well enough) in Part 1, I'd say that's totally worth skipping for this. This is as close to a Minerva's Den experience as Infinite gets, though I wouldn't say it's quite that good.
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Juan Aguacate Sat Mar 11, 2017 6:32 pm

dsheinem wrote:
Juan Aguacate wrote:
Every year there's that one average game that every one gushes over. This year it's Horizon Zero Dawn


On what basis do you craft your bizarre world view concerning what makes for quality games and/or good game reviews? You were similarly coming out of left field in this other thread in ways I articulated here. iirc, in that thread you argued that reviewers don't really know very much about the genres/companies/series they review....and that absence of knowledge was the problem with some of their reviews.


I was talking about reviews on retro style games, where most reviewers aren't that knowledgible about them. The average person reviewing a game like Mother Russia Bleeds hasn't actually grown up playing beat 'em ups in a late 80s, early 90s arcade.

But whatever, I have nothing else to say about Horizon Zero Dawn. If people love that generic, derivative and mediocre game, more power to them. I'm just glad there's a few people out there who haven't drunk the kool aid

https://gamecritics.com/brad-gallaway/h ... wn-review/

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/horizon ... awn-review

That's 2 of the very few reviews actually giving the game scores it deserves among the sea of ridiculous 9s and 10s its been getting.

Destructoid gave it a 7.5, which I'm okay with. At least there's acknowledgement there that it's not this flawless masterpiece that others are calling it

https://www.destructoid.com/review-hori ... 6881.phtml
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Sarge Sat Mar 11, 2017 6:37 pm

January:
1) The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PC) (8.5) (1/1) (~5.5 hours)
2) ActRaiser (SNES) (8.0) (1/2) (~4 hours)
3) Bonk's Revenge (GB) (6.0) (1/3) (~1 hour)
4) Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break (GB) (6.5) (1/3) (~1 hour)
5) Blackwell Legacy (PC) (7.0) (1/5) (2.6 hours)
6) Blackwell Unbound (PC) (7.5) (1/7) (2.2 hours)
7) Blackwell Convergence (PC) (8.0) (1/7) (2.4 hours)
8) Blackwell Deception (PC) (8.0) (1/8) (4.7 hours)
9) Blackwell Epiphany (PC) (9.0) (1/9) (6.5 hours)
10) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4) (8.0) (1/22) (~55 hours)
11) Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (360) (8.0) (1/28) (~.5 hours)
12) Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck (SMS) (6.5) (1/31) (~1 hour)


February:
13) Quackshot Starring Donald Duck (GEN) (7.5) (2/7) (~2 hours)
14) Fire Emblem Heroes (Android) (8.0) (2/9) (~10 hours)
15) Super C (NES) (9.5) (2/20) (~0.5 hours)
16) Contra (NES) (10.0) (2/20) (~0.5 hours)
17) Mickey's Dangerous Chase (GB) (6.5) (2/24) (~1 hour)
18) My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (3DS) (8.5) (2/25) (~19 hours)
19) Mega Man 2 (NES) (10.0) (2/28) (~0.8 hours)

March:
20) Final Fantasy XV (PS4) (8.0) (3/2) (~33 hours)
21) Blaster Master Zero (NS) (9.0) (3/10) (~6.5 hours)

Yeah, the first thing I finished on the Switch wasn't Zelda! If you're looking for a great game to go with that must-play game, Blaster Master Zero is the right choice.

Effectively, the game is a sort of combination remake/reimagining. Several areas are similar or the same as the first game in the overworld, but there are also new areas and layouts as well.

Much like the original game, you pilot SOPHIA III, an awesome battletank that you gradually upgrade over the course of the game. There are both old and new powers to grab. Some come in the form of optional weapons, some are movement-related, and some are charge-shot items. They are all powered by your weapons bar, which takes the place of your ammo as well as your hover bar from the original. And while you find weapon recharges, the bar also recharges on its own.

You can also find life upgrades, eventually doubling your health. And the gun powerup system is still in place here, with some tweaks. A hit will still drop you a level, but now you can actually select which level of gun you want to use. So it ranges from everything between a longer-range shot to a shotgun to a flamethrower to the ultimate level, which pretty much crushes everything. Seriously, we're talking Gradius-level shenanigans if you can hold on to it. In another nice move, gun powerups are plentiful, and can also be dropped by enemies, so you can keep powered up pretty easily for most of the game.

The unfortunate part (or fortunate, depending on your point of view) is that being able to keep such a powerful gun more easily means that you'll make mincemeat of most bosses. And there is also an optional pickup that will protect your gun level from one hit. It will recharge relatively quickly to defend it again, but suffice it to say it makes things even easier.

That's not saying there won't be some challenge, though. Towards the end, things ramp up a bit, although I hesitate to say it ever gets truly "Nintendo hard". The game is far too forgiving for that, with multiple save points, generous respawn spots, and the blissful ability to stop playing and start again unlike the original.

Graphically, the game looks very good. It's somewhere between an 8-bit and 16-bit style. The color scheme is bright, with areas having lots of pop, and it definitely fits the overall mood of the game. It's also got a splendid soundtrack, some of which sounds like some vintage Konami (some NES, but even more so MSX, with Area 2 reminding me a lot of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake), and of course, some cool-sounding Sunsoft-ish basslines.

Really, my only other gripe with the game is that on the Switch, you can currently only use the Joy-Cons. This means that you don't get a real d-pad, which takes some getting used to, whether using the buttons (sometimes passable, sometimes too easy to hit way more buttons than needed) or the analog stick (which works in most instances because of the decreased throw distance in the analogs, but still more imprecise than I'd like).

Oh, and the story is totally patterned after the ridiculous US version, and not the serious-ish Japanese version. It's somehow both silly and actually works. I should go dig out my Worlds of Power book for the original. ;)

TL;DR version: If you like Blaster Master at all, buy this game.
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