What are you playing these days?

Yeah, I think I know why I wasn’t massively keen on it now, there is too much in there that I’d never want to play again, which, combined with the glacial pacing between combat segments, squanders the appeal of replaying the game for better ranks.

I’m really glad it exists, since Platinum has become a bit of a one-trick pony lately with the amount of work-for-hire it’s had to take on, but the game really could have done with some editing.

I recently got my Saturn out of storage, been playing a burned CD of Radiant Silvergun.

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I’ve been really into Pokemon randomizers and fan games lately. Been playing a Fire red romhack called Fire red Omega. It’s based around actually giving you a challenge. I actually had to fight Brock at least 5 times to beat him. It’s been a long time since I had actually had to think about my team to beat an opponent.

He had rock types plus and Omanyte and Kabuto. I also had it on set mode which means once you defeat a pokemon the next one automatically comes out so you can’t just switch to a different type without taking a hit.

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Currently playing: Phantasy Star II

Doing this with the PS2 Sega Ages version on a PS3 hooked up to a CRT via component cables. Pretty damn happy with it.

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Is that 240P ? It’s that possible with a PS3 ?

After playing Pro Rally I was still hungry for more Rallying.

So I’ve been playing Rally Championship (Warthog developed GameCube game) in 480p using Wii+Nintendont.

I bought this game back in the day, but didn’t get on with it at the time as it was too straight.

But today, it’s really very good. I had no idea it was the prequel to much-lauded Richard Burns Rally.

Absolutely beautiful to look at, especially compared to the low poly PS2 port Pro Rally. Real true variation in theme and courses that seem to have been created as whole huge maps. Weather that changes mid-stage. Activity in the environment. Great physics. Long-ish draw distance. 60fps.

It’s 100% more simulation than Pro Rally was. To that end, it’s not as fun immediately. No driving school equivalent, so you’re stuck with low end cars whilst you earn some money to buy better cars that go faster and handle better and are much more fun.

The menu system is not great, making it unclear how to proceed or unlock various locked stages. Audio defaults are just plain wrong and the controller sensitivity default I would argue is suboptimal. Time spent correcting these is well spent.

Difficulty curve is too step early on and too easy later on with Pro cars.

But I’m trying to buy a wheel (tricky during lockdown!) before I get too much further in this. One of the internal views has simulated head movement, which should be great with a wheel.

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There’s nothing like a good pokemon challenge.
I didn’t play that exact one, but I have played one with a very hard Brock fight (Aerodactyl, Omanyte, and Kabuto, all level 15/16 I think). It was pretty satisfying to finally push through those tough fights.

Pokemon Pyrite is probably my favourite challenge rom hacks which is still fair.
It’s a Crystal hack, with no changes to gen 2 mechanics. I found myself consulting the gen 2 smogon competitive strategy guides to find out what was actually good, to beat some gyms.

The main gimmicks are that there’s a hard level cap at each gym badge held, gyms lock you inside until your team feints or you beat it, and no healing items during battle.
Hence the need for actual strategy.

Good luck with the rest of the run.

Small rant> Main series games got a bit to silly for me around White/Black. Although the competitive scene was quite dynamic, without too much of the power creep of gen 6 and 7.
Hidden abilities are cool, mega stones kinda are, but probably are not.
No idea about sword and shield.

And honestly my all time favourite pokemon thing is random battles on Pokemon Showdown. All fully evolved mon’s, at various levels based on overall strength. Everything is viable, sort of.

Curmudgeonly '99 NO$GB geriatric out!

I had no idea it was the prequel to RBR either ! I dismissed this game back in the day as inferior to the CMR series due to taking notice of magazine reviews, doh how silly of me. Thanks for bringing this one to my attention as well, added to the list.

I love driving games, I’m currently playing Grid Autosport on XB1X backward compatibility. It’s one of my favourite car games of all time, not sim or arcade, simcade somewhere in the middle but leaning more toward SIM imo. It’s such a challenging game the AI is supreme they really challenge you on the harder difficultly, I find myself on the edge fighting for every corner with them breathing down your neck, intense is the word. I like it how they make their own mistakes too often out braking each other or smashing themselves to bits… just to beat each other let alone you. The sound is true codemasters, ie excellent.
Then there’s the tracks, a mix of real world & fictional street circuits, there’s something for everyone. A highly overlooked, underrated gem due to being a very late gen release.

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I tried Autosport on Switch, very nice - extremely impressive port - but at the end of the day I prefer rally to road racing. All the way back to Lombard RAC on the Atari ST

Anyway, I figure I am probably going to finish Rally Championship before I manage to get hold of a wheel, so I am planning ahead and have just installed Richard Burns Rally on my little Asus PC. It’s just old enough a game to run very well on the integrated GPU. Crazy amount of mods for that game.

I am running SSAA through my Extron at 1600x1200 down to 640x480 on my VGA LCD and it looks so great. The game supports native 640x480, with some small UI quirks, but I decided to get rid of the pixels in this case.

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Cheers, it’s so damn good…although I haven’t played it in years. Last time I did the FFB wasn’t working with my Driving Force GT wheel. My laptop that could run the game died too.

Lombard RAC Rally looks really good for the time. I need to play more new to me rally games. I always fall back to the goat: RalliSport Challenge 2 (we’ve talked about this before).

Any rally recommendations for new rally games to check out (outside Rally Championship mentioned above)? I have most consoles up to ps3; don’t have a gaming PC though so no Dirt Rally for me. I’ve played the Dirt and Colin McRae games. I have an old WRC game on PSP. The PS3 ones got ok but not great reviews so I never jumped in.

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I enjoyed the first Dirt Rally PS4 but no longer have the console or game. That’s the only vaguely recent one I’ve played. It wasn’t mind blowing because it was missing so much stuff. But it was fun.

I want to try the Sumo-made Dirt (2?) on Wii.

I recently got a 360 again so need to see if there’s anything Rally I missed there. But I’m a 60fps snob so I doubt I’ll find much.

I really enjoyed sword and shield but like most modern pokemon games it’s on the easy side unless you do personal challenges. And oh my god is the beginning slow. So many unskippable forced cutscenes. I wanted to do a second playthrough but making it challenging but it takes like 2 hours just to really get into the game.

The PS3 is running at 480i, but the emulation options in the game allow me to set a 240p output mode. There’s a bit of shimmering effect going on, but I hardly notice it after playing for a few minutes.

Going to play PSIII this way, too (using the xp and money boosts), then switch over to real Genesis hardware for a PSIV run.

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It’s a beautiful day outside, I’ve got the patio furniture set up and I’m playing some Sagaia on Game Boy.

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Revisiting Crisis Core FF7. I’ve played it a couple times but never beaten it, planning to try to remedy that.

I generally prefer og hardware but I’m emulating this time. PPSSPP plus the HD texture pack and a dual shock 3 is really good. I output my laptop to my tv and it still looked really good.

After finishing Dead Rising I started Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, which I’ve been meaning to play for years.

Loving it so far, I played the PSP port of Breath of Fire III when I was a teenager and I found it made barely an impression on me compared with other RPGs at the time, so this daring reinvention is everything I wanted.

The game is very well designed, it’s as successful as Majora’s Mask at blending together scenario and game design together. The emphasis on limited time and resources are also a great match for the game’s rather high difficulty level, like Dead Rising after it you can restart the entire game with skills intact. But I’m also hoping it’s possible to clear it on your first run.

Almost done with this. I’m racing at Pro level on Hard and it’s actually too easy. At the starter classes on Easy it was too difficult. So I guess the difficulty curve is not ideal.

I’ve just finished the International Manx Rally: for long stages around the coast of the Isle of Man. Breathtaking vistas: cliffs, gorges, fields, golf courses, harbours, yachts, seaplanes, hot air balloons, shipwrecks, birds, gravel, tarmac, sand. Phenomenal. Will drive them again when my wheel arrives.

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I always wanted the whole Isle of Man (I thought it was Mann?) loop to be a track in racing games. I like the old E30 M3’s so Patrick Snijers thrashing on the Manx is chef’s kiss.

Does RC have the whole loop? I know there was a Suzuki bike game on ps2 that had the whole loop…and nothing else, lol. Gran Turismo 6’s Circuito de la Sierra was a pretty close Spanish equivalent.

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What wheel did you get in the end ?

Thrustmaster Universal Challenge 5-in-1 (PS1/PS2, Xbox, GC/Wii)

With a GC/USB adapter it supports WiiU/Switch/PC/Mac. Vibration too. It’s a small size, diameter about the size of a Mario Kart Wii wheel.

There are a couple of models, a newer model replaces Xbox with USB. I went with whatever I could find cheapest. £18 delivered from Gumtree.

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