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

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    5 hours into Seal of Evil. The game doesn't explain any of its mechanics in-game so you have to read the help menu/manual and kind of figure it out as you go.

    Essentially, everything from attack to defence to individual enemies comes down to being one of five elemental types: Metal, Wood, Earth, Water and Fire, with each element being stronger than the element after it and weaker than the element before it. Mixing and matching equipment and skills/spells helps you take on different enemies in each area.

    I'll be honest, I was fumbling at the start; combat felt boring and slow initially and it was the artwork, music and wuxia setting that kept me going. Then I had to fight two giant spider bosses with two health bars each, who spawned smaller enemies in an enclosed, blocked space and found myself woefully unprepared.

    I did a little bit of levelling and looked into the crafting screen, which is just labelled "Creation". By mixing and matching different items you find in each area or pick up from enemies, you can craft some excellent armour and weapons. I also started to get used to swapping between my party members, casting various buffs, summon spells and the like. An hour later I went back to the spider bosses and mopped the floor with them.

    The voice acting is terrible, almost Chaos Wars bad and the translation isn't great either, but games in this setting, in English no less, are quite rare and I'm enjoying the change, especially now that I'm feeling the combat.

    The music is really, really good.

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      Played some more Vulcan Venture on Switch on the Konami Collection.
      Probably the best Gradius on there, tbh.

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        Tried to play some more Jedi Knight 3 (PC), but after 7 seconds, I couldn't remember what I was doing and my daughter wanted to sit on my knee and watch me play, but dismembering Sandpeople, probably isn't for the best, so I tried to download Roller Coaster Tycoon from GoG, but had a nightmare, ending in me rebooting the router.

        Three paintings later (beautiful flower, a dog and a family) in Paint and we were building a theme park together, which she really liked.

        Aced the first mission as I still remember all the tactics I used to use back in 1999.
        Rides checked every 10 minutes.
        Engineer locked near ride exit.
        Build ride exits close to each other so one engineer can fix several rides.
        Hire maintenance staff, but never mow the lawn or they'll be off in the corner of the map mowing, rather than clearing the mountain of sick at the exit of a ride.
        Bump up the price of new rides.
        Maximise funding on thrill rides first.
        Advertise the park and new rides.
        Loads of food, drinks and toilets.
        Loads of benches.

        All this micromanaging means 17 hours have elapsed without you realising.

        Absolutely love this game and it's still a joy to play.
        Only downside is it's not very often you get to build a roller coaster and when you're doing that, you're not doing the zillion other things like checking balloon prices aren't too high or somebody is stuck after demolishing a path.

        Just looking on Chris Sawyer's website (http://www.chrissawyergames.com/) and there's a mobile version of the first two games!
        Is that what you were looking at, @Brad? It's the first two games for mobile! H'amaze!

        Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic:


        DO NOT BUY Roller Coaster Tycoon 4 Mobile! (Eurogamer 1/10!)

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          Originally posted by QualityChimp View Post
          Played some more Vulcan Venture on Switch on the Konami Collection.
          Probably the best Gradius on there, tbh.
          Someday I hope Konami will port Gradius V to modern systems. It's such a great game, and one of the last things Treasure would do of any note. Sadly it has remained locked away on the PS2 since launch.

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            Originally posted by QualityChimp View Post
            Played some more Vulcan Venture on Switch on the Konami Collection.
            Probably the best Gradius on there, tbh.


            I remember this amazed me back in the day.

            Originally posted by Kotatsu Neko View Post
            Someday I hope Konami will port Gradius V to modern systems.
            It definitely needs a nice HD remaster. It's sad that Konami haven't put it on Steam etc.. because it would sell well.

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              Still not sure if this counts as retro, more retro style I think but I've been replaying Metal Blob Solid original Xbox Homebrew port.

              It is a 'simple' 2D platformer/shooter but it is a very well made old school style game with lots of charm and enough challenge to keep it fun but not too frustrating (ice levels can stretch your patience).

              I've not played it in 4 years, last time was on PC but I thought I'd go back to the Xbox port I'd originally played just to see if I was looking back with rose tinted glasses. I wasn't, I've found myself getting into it all over again.

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                Originally posted by fallenangle View Post
                Still not sure if this counts as retro, more retro style I think but I've been replaying Metal Blob Solid original Xbox Homebrew port.
                Looks like an Amiga PD game. I'll give it a go.

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                  If you look at the link in my ^^ post you'll see there is a more recent sequel game too: Blob Wars: Attrition. Originally made for Android in 2014 it was ported to PC in 2018.

                  You have to pay for it but I'm seriously thinking of doing that - a few US $ isn't going to break the bank.

                  Ignore the horrible 3D sequel though - big, ugly mistake.
                  Last edited by fallenangle; 24-02-2020, 13:41.

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                    Originally posted by fallenangle View Post

                    You have to pay for it but I'm seriously thinking of doing that - a few US $ isn't going to break the bank.
                    As that guy from RoboCop said "I'd buy that for a dollar!" And this game is actually only $1.

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                      I'm now on the third level of the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

                      I've gotten use to the bonkers control set-up but the respawning enemies are really annoying me. The game expects you to revisit stages if you miss the keys (which are needed to unlock later levels) but it doesn't appear to reset items in them, meaning you end up struggling with little to no ammo.

                      I am enjoying the level design and how gory it is, but it's probably the first N64 game I've played since diving back into the system that is really showing its age. I'm half-tempted to just use the Key code cheat so I can just concentrate on enjoying the levels.

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                        Picked up a Virtual Boy and been playing some of the games for it.

                        V Tetris
                        Its tetris in red and black. Has some nice music and plays well, although controls are a bit unresponsive at higher levels. Hard to play this after getting used to Tetris 99 or Tetris Effect.

                        Galactic Pinball
                        Played a couple of tables and its a pretty good little pinball game although its a bit basic for todays standards. Had a huge grin on my face when I saw Samus’ ship appear on a bonus screen.

                        Vertical Force
                        Shooter by Hudson Soft, looks great and is quite challenging. Really good use of the 3D effect as well, shame this never got ported to the 3DS.

                        Teleroboxer
                        My favourite game that ive played so far. Basically a futuristic styled sequel to super punch out featuring boxing robots. Graphics are fantastic with really nice character designs and fun gameplay which expands on punch out with a more complex blocking system.

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                          Played some more Seal of Evil and booted up the PS3 Super Slim for the first time in a while. Saw there was an update to 4.85 and decided it was time to hack it if I could. Turns out you can, and while it doesn't get you full CFW functionality, it does allow you to play ripped games and watch Blu-Rays from any region so I've gone for it.

                          Not done too much yet, just got multiMAN installed and ripped Child of Eden from disc. I'll probably mess around with it more later in the week and then offload the last of my PS3 games.

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                            I’ve been playing my MegaDrive Mini all week, mainly:

                            Road Rash II - qualified on all the tracks on the first level, but getting a decent enough bike to finish high enough up the pack on the second level was just out of reach. I was finishing 10th - 12th using the bike you start the game with, and buying a bike for £6k - £7k just wasn’t giving me a good enough return to go back to winning races. Ended up starting over on the first level again and adopted the philosophy of finishing first or, if there was a risk I mightn’t, finishing fourth, to maximise prize money. Managed to snag me an entry nitro bike going back into the second level and saved it for later. As an aside, thank God for save states on the Mini. Having just purchased my new bike, I managed to get nicked during my first race on it, and as I had almost no cash in the bank to pay the fine, was treated to an instant Game Over. What an abrupt and unfair end to the game if I hadn’t had a save.

                            Dyna Brothers 2 - this cross-breed of RTS and god game is rather addictive, and its pictorial icon system means the language barrier is of little hindrance. That is of course until I made it up to level 9, and didn’t have a clue how to get around my herbivores dying as quickly as I could produce them. I’ve searched the ‘net for a guide but to no avail. If anyone has any tips (for example, what all the weather conditions can do) then it’d be greatly appreciated.

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                              I think I'm done with Turok now. The respawning enemies are just making it not a lot of fun to play. I've unlocked the infinite ammo cheat to combat it but now you're not using the weapons effectively and just stick with the same one. It's the first game out of all the titles I've dabbled with on the N64 that's really showing it's age. Someone suggested sticking with it, even though it's a bit of a slog, but life's too short.

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                                I didn't play very much, however I did clean out almost 24 years worth of gunk from inside my PVM. It's squeaky clean now. Finally sorted out a slight tilt with a yoke adjustment, too. Perfect geometry.

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