(Retro) What have you been playing this week? Vol.2

[wakka]

Uh, good question. Despite having played it through a ton of times, I feel unsure. Pretty sure you can't though.

I don't think a guide will help you because the game is really about reaction time and memorisation. Just keep playing it and you will get better. The difficulty is pretty well tuned so it shouldn't take you too long to beat it. It's about 20 minutes long.

You can get additional points from shooting the guys dressed in yellow. There are a few scattered through the game - one that runs through the woods in the background of the early part of Stage 2, one that pops his head up on the train (don't think you actually ever see the latter is dressed in yellow because you only see his head, but you're granted the extra points regardless when he's killed), and some others.

I always play with my right hand (I'm right handed) as my 'trigger' hand, and my left hand cupping the barrel. I then use my middle finger rather than my index to pull the trigger. I find this allows me to be faster and this finger gets tired less easily.

Oh, and if you're playing using a Gun-Con 2, I would map pedal/'Duck' to up on the d-pad, and use your thumb to control it. I always found that much easier than using the buttons of the sides of the barrel of the gun.

I don't know if any of that is helpful!

[egparadigm]

Good tips, thank you, Wakka.

[Cepp]

Reached the final boss of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal and it's kicking my arse. Essentially spent over an hour on one specific section before giving up. I'm going to have to make some alterations to my setup and restart the fight.

[egparadigm]

Just got a G Con 2 so I can play Virtua Cop Rebirth on PS2. Calibration menu was totally counter intuitive and was struggling to get past it. Finally got my head around it. You have to shoot off screen at the point it tells you to press start, after you’ve calibrated one time. There is a message on screen to do this but it’s less prominent than “PRESS START” so you end up in a loop just calibrating endlessly!

Full steps for anyone else who gets confused by this:

Press Start the first time this appears
Shoot target to calibrate
Shoot off screen to bring up menu on left
Shoot “OK” to confirm calibration
When Press Start appears for a 2nd time, shoot off screen

[wakka]

Ha, I think I remember being confused by that many years ago. Yeah, not great design.

[egparadigm]

Glad it’s not just me!

[Cepp]

Finished Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. It was a bit of a slog, just constant combat with little story, and what story was there wasn't very good.

I'm glad to finally have it beat but I don't feel like I missed much by not playing it at release.

[egparadigm]

Finished Hulk Ultimate Destruction on PS2, which I started years ago. Luckily still had the save file on my memory card from 2011. Good game, feels slightly ahead of its time, but at the same time not quite so good as Prototype. A little hero/fantasy wish fulfilment for fans.

Incidentally, I feel like only a hulk game can get away with two shirtless men…

[wakka]

Well in that case you’ve clearly not played the Yakuza series.

[egparadigm]

Well in that case you’ve clearly not played the Yakuza series.

that’s on my to play list!

[Nu-Eclipse]

Currently two-thirds through SMB2/USA (playing original on 3DS Virtual Console).

It hasn't aged well at all. Definitely the worst 2D Mario game, though that is admittedly a high bar. It isn't making me want to rectify the fact that I've never actually played Doki Doki Panic.

[Hirst]

I've somehow become addicted to the original Saturn version of Daytona USA, which I missed out on back in the day. I did have a Saturn shortly after PAL launch and it was one of the games I planned to pick up, but it looked a bit dodgy in the video footage on demo discs and a mate who played it had mixed feelings about it so I didn't want to pay that much. But the price never dropped that far, then the CCE version appeared and I waited for that instead, which was a good game but not really Daytona - felt (and looked) different to play. In more recent times, I did have a few brief attempts at old Daytona but I don't really think I gave it a fair shake.

I'm glad I tried again. Thing is, in the cold light of day, you overlook the graphics and it really does feel like proper arcade Daytona. The framerate of 20fps or so seems awful on paper, but when you're playing it doesn't feel jerky and it is at least consistent bar one section of the Expert track. It's a fairly bare-bones port and the Saturn mode offers very little to extend play, but honestly if I'd had it back in the day I think I would have been pleased with it overall. I certainly don't think it deserves the bad reputation it has (and the comparisons to the Ridge Racer PS1 port, which I don't think were entirely fair as it was a much more basic game in the first place).

I think I've somehow sunk about 3 or 4 hours into it, even my missus has been playing it with me advising how to play it better. That said, it's blind leading the blind at the moment, I'm still a way from properly picking up the more advanced gear drift tricks and figuring out how the AI moves.

[dataDave]

I always preferred Saturn Daytona over PSX Ridge Racer. That said I’d take Saturn Daytona over arcade Ridge, purely because of the depth and replayability.

Daytona is also another reason I keep thinking about picking up a new Xbox.

I’ve also fallen in love with the new one that’s just a few years old. The Bury Arcade Club has one, for anyone interested.

[dataDave]

I've been playing Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX with the Redux ROM hack. It's been really nice so far.

[Yakumo]

With all th PC Engine love recently, it's gotten me in the mood to play mine. I haven't used it in a good 6 months. Was surprised to find out the Avenue Pad 3 cable had become sticky. Be sure to clean your cables guys

Anyway, today I'm playing a overhead run'n gun called Mystic Formula by Micro Cabin.



It looks great at 1440p on my LG.



I wonder which game influenced the design of this last boss


You can tell the game was programmed poorly (as to be expected by Micro Cabin) because there's alsorts of crap the appears in the overs an areas which you wouldn't normally see ona CRT.
In this case we have a double set of character specs.