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.
It’s a beautiful day outside, I’ve got the patio furniture set up and I’m playing some Sagaia on Game Boy.
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.
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.
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.
On the final course, Pro car, Hard difficulty, I was 15 secs ahead of 2nd place. I’m using the GC controller.
Using the wheel, well, it’s a different game. 45 secs behind 1st place.
I’ll attempt to use the wheel exclusively on Richard Burns Rally.
Still got one set of cars to unlock on this though.
The only issue is that this wheel supports vibration but Richard Burns Rally only supports Force Feedback. I’m not sure if there’s a way to mao FFB to vibration? I just want some rumble!
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I’m playing The Italian Job (2003, GC/PS2/Xbox) through Dolphin with GC controllers. It’s great and looks great 2X superscaled down to my 480p LCD.
It’s easy enough, ramps up near the end, but getting A-rank on everything is a real challenge. Fun!
The NES and SNES Switch Online apps got updated today so I’m hoping to play a couple of lesser-known games I missed out on (Journey to Silius, Operation Logic Bomb), alongside Panel de Pon. I can never have enough Panel de Pon.
There’s also some popular games on the service which I’ve never played before, like Donkey Kong 3, Kirby Super Star and VS ExciteBike, looking forward to checking those out too!
My TV dying recently interrupted me playing PS4 games like Sekiro and Death Stranding but at least I have my Switch in portable mode to play modern games. Panzer Dragoon remake has been nice with the patch improving performance and Streets of Rage 4 kicks ass. I have started the single player mode of Splatoon 2 as well.
As posted on the completion thread, I had a blast with Vs Excitebike, Operation Logic Bomb and Vice: Project Doom. All very tightly designed games, with just enough content such that they command your mastery to see them through to the end.
I’m also playing Zelda II for the first time, which has so far been a treat. I love how vague the world is - it suits the game’s biting difficulty to a tee, you go everywhere expecting to be tested, yet the game, for the most part, also serves up a fair challenge. I haven’t come across anything that feels unfair yet. Just cleared the first palace and have travelled through the western caves to the next region.
Castlevania III: Never got round to playing this properly, but this game is blowing my mind. The presentation and audio (on FDS, at least), is gobsmacking, and the level design is extremely varied, I wasn’t expecting things like acid melting away blocks to jump on.
I struggled a lot with stage 7 last night, so I had a look at the video above (timeskips) and wow, that really does confirm you can experiment to success. I didn’t use Alucard at all throughout the entire level even though he’s in my party, but it’s interesting how his transformation makes short work of a lot of the segments that had me tearing my hair out at.
I’m also amazed that player makes short work of the segment afterward with the flipping platforms. I lost so many lives there that I resorted to making quick saves on the Anniversary Collection at the start of each area - something I try to avoid. But it seems if you don’t jump on the spiked platforms they don’t rotate - which I never figured out. I thought only every other platform rotated, but that was really just a reflection of me jump-attacking the bats…
I’m hoping I’ll finish this one, but it’s not looking good. Of all the pre-SoTN Castlevanias, only Rondo of Blood I cleared, back on Wii Virtual Console. I keep either getting to the final stage, or the final boss, of all the other games (SCIV, Bloodlines, The Adventure, Belmont’s Revenue) that I’ve played.
Castlevania The Adventure: As mentioned in the Anniversary Edition thread, this game doesn’t deserve the hate it gets. Sure, it’s slow-paced, but adjust to the speed after five minutes and you’ll find some good level design, the designers were thinking ahead despite running into programming difficulties with an early GB game. I got to the final boss, but like, erm, almost every 2D Castlevania, I’m not good enough to beat it.
Pop’n Twinbee: Finished a round of this, the final stage 6 was a lot harder than I anticipated it to be. The game’s beautiful as well, I think it was stage 4, there is a beautiful river you fly up with reflection effects on the water and the cute pig enemies swimming about. Impressive stuff.
Wild Guns: Posted more in the remaster thread, but the SNES original is really fun despite the high difficulty level. Every new go presents an opportunity to get better.
Zelda II: Beat the second palace last night, still loving exploring this vague world.
Tower of Druaga (Arcade, Namco Museum): After reading more about this game and its influences on later titles like Zelda, I decided to give it a proper go via Namco Museum on Switch. There’s a cool hint system that nudges you in the right direction to compensate for the lack of arcade secret sharing. While the first couple of floors are quite literally a chore, the game’s strategic possibilities really open up once you get those first few items. The first item, the Pickaxe, is probably the most important so far, since it can be used to carefully plan shortcuts around enemies.
I cleared floor 5 yesterday and found it an engaging challenge, you were meant to deflect magic five times while making it to the end, making the game almost feel like a stealth title as you hide inside the little gaps in the maze on your way to the key and door.
I had a complete in box copy of the first Mega Man Battle Network game that I never played. This is my first time experiencing the Battle Network series and… I really like what I’ve played so far. At first I wasn’t sure if it would be a cakewalk since the beginning of the game was so easy, but I’m about 5 hours into it and I’m amazed at how well all the elements have come together to make it an addictive and challenging game.
It’s a very cool hybrid between a card game RPG with an action oriented combat system. I’ve never quite seen anything like it. Your “cards” determine what sort of moves you can pull off and balancing the deck is part of the fun. I imagine this game would be extremely fun in multiplayer and I can already see how there could be some advanced PvP strategies. It’s a really great game and the in-battle sprite work is excellent.
Environmental design in this game is the only weak point. The overworld areas are very small and not fun to navigate, and the mazes on the “net” (aka the game’s dungeons) suffer from repetitive corridor symptoms with a severe lack of landmarks to denote where you are. It leads to a lot of getting lost at times. It kind of shows that the game was either made on a limit budget or needed to hit a tight deadline. But I don’t care - it has heart where it counts.
The battle system is where most of the focus is, and it really is a great one. I love Mega Man games in general, and this one represents the same quality I’ve come to expect from them. The animation quality is perfect too.
And when the music is good (and sometimes it’s really not), it can hit some of the best audio highs possible on GBA. At least the mix on headphones is of extraordinarily high quality for the hardware compared to other games on the system.
Nice one! 
I’ve always wondered about the Battle network series.
It’s also from a time when Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokemon cards were very popular.
They did make 4 of them, so I imagine the series had some depth to it.
It does. The actual quest design is very subpar though. The game has a habit of not really giving you enough clues of where to go next and who to talk to or what to interact with to trigger the next part of the story.
It a lot of running around and trying everything to advance things. I really wish they’d put less emphasis on this style of quest design.
And I also wish there were more boss battles in general since they’re the best part of the game so far.
Sounds very interesting, I never checked out any of the GBA and DS MegaMan titles but I can do with a new approach specifically via the GBA games.
If you like the card based battle system you might dig the GBA Kingdom Hearts game, developed by Jupiter. It too had a pretty compelling battle system which revolved around utilising a deck of cards, each card being a particular move.
