Games Beat - 2024 - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Imp Zone > Games Beat - 2024

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Ground floor!!!!!!

1. Dragon Quest XI (platinum) - 1/9
2. Metal Gear Solid 4 (Inchworm) - 1/14
3. Dusk (Normal difficulty) - 1/15
4. Mega Man Zero 2 (B rank) - 1/17
5. Yakuza 6 - 2/2
*. Unlimited SaGa (Judy Playthrough) - 2/6
6. Final Fantasy VII Remake - 2/12
6a. Final Fantasy VII Remake INTERmission - 2/15
6b. Final Fantasy VII Remake INTERmission 100% trophies - 2/23
7. Eviternity (2018 megawad) - 2/27
8. WADs

El Viaje de Diciembre (5 levels for Doom II, 2023) - 3/2
The Troopers' Playground (9 levels for Doom II, 1996) - 4/26

9. Plutonia (HMP, continuous) - 4/20

In Training fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Apr 26, 2024

# ¿ Jan 1, 2024 17:49

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 16:16

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

That Little Demon posted:

PM me, 100 dollars

Lol

# ¿ Jan 2, 2024 03:41

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

his levels are actually fairly sick in d2 except for the Waste Tunnels. the problems are all the sandy Peterson maps in the back half that he had to make in like 3 hours each.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2024 21:32

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

I've played them all for at least an hour. I recommend checking out 6 7 8 just because they're insane. Don't spend money on that trash though.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2024 02:31

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

1. Dragon Quest XI - Platinum. Only draconian quest active was no xp for weaker monsters which I turned off before the final super boss so i could grind to Lvl 99.

Basically a perfect game. I played it on PC when it first came out and absolutely adored it, but dropped it after the Act 2 credits. I still think the act 3 story is weak BUT it still wound up being my favorite part of the game. I loved the free form nature of that enormous finale, where you just get your own memories of the world to guide what you do next.

Amazing squad. Amazing power curve, I think until literally the final grind of the game I was always thinking "oh nice just like 2 more levels until I unlock XX panel, which means I can move to" etc. the towns are all gorgeous and never feel like a chore to hang out in no matter how many tiems the story has you revisiting previous locations.

I jumped between a wide variety of party comps throughout the game, but by the end my absolute boss killer squad was Hero/Jade/Eight/Serena. Erik sometimes subbed for Jade if I could.keep him alive on the harder fights.

This caps off a pretty powerful series run. I started replaying the entire series with my GF a few years ago, who is a mega completionist and made us do every super boss and collect every mini medal etc. in every entry sans X (the nadir was grinding 1000+ battles on Slime Island in PSX DW7 to unlock Hero job for other party members to defeat God fast enough to unlock the spirits battle). now she's my wife and I'm ecstatic at finally seeing every square inch of XI, and the entire series, but really huge hole in my heart now that we've wrapped everything up...here's to continuing to wait for XII. DQ forever. Emotional evening.

5 > 11 > 8 > 3 > 7 > 4 > 1 > 2 > 6. But I even still like 6 it's just meh.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2024 04:07

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Oh yeah

Hero - great swords
Erik - Boomerangs
Veronica - heavy wands
Serena - wands
Sylvando - knives
Jade - spears
Rab - claws
Eight - axes

# ¿ Jan 10, 2024 04:22

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Nutmeg posted:

your minds eye exploding when you see the yassified amygdalas when their invisiblity breaks would be a top teir moment

Lmao

# ¿ Jan 10, 2024 21:20

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

P-Mack posted:

Did you just forget about 9? Powerful indictment if so lol

oops O_o

Uhhh I guess it would be above 6 but I guess maybe it should be at the bottom based on forgetting completely that I even played it lmao

# ¿ Jan 10, 2024 21:21

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

herculon posted:

Sekiro (Dragon's Homecoming)

Ftw

# ¿ Jan 13, 2024 20:15

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

2. MGS4. Inchworm title. Meh.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2024 06:58

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Wormskull posted:

Kojima drove up to my house in a 1989 Bentley and called me a small-dick shrimp for my performance in MGS4. 4/5.

lmfao

# ¿ Jan 15, 2024 07:02

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

3. Dusk (normal mode). Episode 1 of this starts kinda slow - simple level design, a little too many open arenas where you just serious sam around and light up dogs. But ep2 & ep3 really kick rear end, better enemy variety & placement, excellent level design that elegantly jumps between cramped castle dives and open air sprawls. theres also a handful of cleverly crafted gimmick levels sprinkled throughout. great enemy design, i hated the drat dog go carts lmfao. what an insane idea for a hyper pinkie type. its cool that they wait until the last like 6 levels to add Cacodemons but theyre real bastards once they do. it was probably too easy on Normal but im glad i played through it to check it all out, i may just pick at random levels now on Hard from level select and try to find all the secrets etc. the only weapon i never really liked is the grenade launcher, i never got a handle on the firing arc really. the hunting rifle felt sick, and i really loved the Riveter. fun game.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2024 19:11

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

oh yeah i hugely appreciated, after playing many many doom wads, that no level ever outstays its welcome. this guy made 33 maps that are all like 5-15 minutes long. i know im gonna replay it and theres basically not a single level that i will dread to revisit or anything. theyre all snappy and clean.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2024 19:13

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Wormskull posted:

Dude where the gently caress do you find the time for this poo poo.

It's like a 6 hour game that I've been playing for like a week and a half.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2024 19:28

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Wormskull posted:

You named like a dozen games you started this week dude. Show me your time machine/chronomantic artifact or else.

I wish...I used to game way more. My GG is here, I think I judt been finishing multiple longer games this month since I had the holiday break to nolife my balls off on DQ. https://ggapp.io/InTraining

# ¿ Jan 15, 2024 20:43

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

I have Amongst Evil in my steam library as well and will give it a whirl. I think there must have been a boomer shooter humble bundle or something for me to have all these keys.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2024 15:45

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

bees x1000 posted:

Ultrakill is neat but I don't understand why its fans are so weird about it.

it's more popular than the rest of the genre combined with an order of magnitude on top of that. The fans aren't weird the fans are....*shudder* normies.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2024 16:20

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

4. Mega Man Zero 2 - B rank. Generally for Wounded Warrior. Good bosses in this, level design on the whole is more interesting than 1 but it's also got some real bullshit. Hate the grappling hook feel. Lots of off blind jump spike pits. I'll play zero 3 eventually.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2024 04:41

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Good soup! posted:

3. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PC), 1/18

I'm still surprised they haven't remastered or even just rereleased the PS2 games

Theres a release of AC5 that was only ever made available as a preorder bonus for AC7, they never put it up for separate sale or download lol

# ¿ Jan 18, 2024 23:36

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

It was also console exclusive. PS4 got AC5 and Xbox got AC6.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2024 00:38

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Spoderman posted:

ore no ryouri

Gesundheit

# ¿ Jan 19, 2024 23:25

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Yeah definitely..smb3 pales in comparison to 2. I'm going to pulverize you.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2024 22:12

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

That's too much dungeon crawling. By july you'll only be making turns at 90 degree angles

# ¿ Feb 1, 2024 18:22

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Roth posted:

I do think the levels towards the end with the like Bowser tanks are badass in 3, but the Special world is cool, and I like the Ghost Houses. I like World's Bowser fight more than 3's too.

Also:

1-20: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=4050853&perpage=40&pagenumber=17#post537514857

21. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
22. Sonic the Hedgehog
23. Sonic CD

I was going to do Sunshine next since that was the next Mario game I haven't beaten yet, but seemed like a bad idea with Persona 3 Reload launching tonight. So I turned on the Genesis Sonic. Sonic 1 is very rough and has some very annoying stages. Labyrinth Zone just plains sucks, and a lot of the level design seems to have not been made to take Sonic's speed into consideration. Sonic CD is way better. It's got the cool opening movie, levels are more designed to take advantage of Sonic's speed, and the music is so good.

Now for Persona 3 Reload to take like four months.

this mfer has beaten 23 games this year and it's February 1sf.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2024 07:24

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

5. Yakuza 6. Did all the substories except the hostess ones. Excellent yakuza game, the combat was a little simple compared to recent entries but I think this was the first one on their new engine so I can forgive them. Had basically my favorite story since 2, loved the new-look kamurocho & sleepy seatown vibes of onomichi. amazing substories too, both the regular walking around hijinks and the longer form story based ones like baseball and the bar bros. drat the netchat was hilarious as well, the soap opera main story was tight, loved the new knuckleheads in the onomichi family (reminded me of the guys from 3 in okinawa) plus beat takeshi was great. cool ending too - would have been fully sick as just a regular finale when this game came out, but also knowing now that they've kept making yak games, i cant wait to see the twists and turns from here in 7/gaiden/IW.

yakuza ftw.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2024 18:08

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

*. Unlimited SaGa. Judy Playthrough. not really a game beaten per se, i completed the story of Judy but then i guess every character squares off against some moon dwelling ultra demon. I was fighting it for like 35 minutes and it died. then started a phase 2. so i checked and theres 4 phases total and i died very quickly. classic bullshit. I watched judy's ending cutscene on youtube. Not counting this as a game beat, but I wanted to log it somehow.

Glad to have checked out a full character playthrough of this game. its kind of bad, I think. its got a wild verve, making everything so goddamn random. you roll dice to open chests. you roll dice to level up. you roll dice to attack! but underneath all of this its kind of shockingly simple. every single random encounter in the game ends in like 1 - 2 actions, except bsoses are 15 - 20 minute slogs. theres no real status effects, or elemental countering, or healing etc. Every single fight, from the first one to the ultra final boss phase 4, is just you hitting attack adn trying to spin good reels. dumb as gently caress, for a game with so many options on its surface. its ugly as sin outside of battle. the voice acting is bad, the story i kind of enjoyed. at least judy's, just a simple adventure getting your family back together to save grandpa. wonderful music, and a good crafting system. its also crazy short, it took me about 6 - 8 hours to reach the final boss (but i think part of the reason I struggled so hard on Chaos is that I guess once you unlock the final dungeon you're supposed to go around and do hours and hours and hours of side quests to roll for better stats and new sparks. Really fun.)

I think you could make something really special out of the building blocks of this - I'm curious about the remaster, if it ever comes out. If they just port this thing with sped up battles and uprez'd menu text it would be a drat shame.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2024 23:28

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

i just found out that my characters regen HP every turn. and presumably enemies do too. cool.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2024 00:32

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

I haven't played it, or heard of it before right now. But it's cringe.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2024 23:44

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

fadam posted:

1) A Plague Tale: Innocence
2) Dragon Quest 1 (GBC)
3) HI-Fi Rush
4) A Plague Tale: Requiem

Lol

# ¿ Feb 11, 2024 07:06

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

6. Final Fantasy VII Remake. Replay this before rebirth and had a blast. midgar is amazing...i think the only thing i really did differently this time was using barrett's melee weapons which surprisingly kicked rear end, especially his Deadly Dodge with the wrecking ball. since this game originally cmae out ive played like 2/3rds of the kingdom hearts franchise and WOW the whispers and sephiroth are some big time KH poo poo.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2024 16:18

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Oh yeah.

6a. The yuffie DLC. She and Sonon were very fun to play, her moveset really kicks rear end + adding a timed block element was a great idea and something I hope is included in Rebirth. The tone was really all over the place, obviously utilized a lot of reused assets but it was a fun romp. Dumb rear end 2000s spin off character I assume at the end there for the final boss just chilling in the Basement of Shinra HQ which is apparently some kind of lawless hell on earth for some reason. But you can just take a normal elevator to it. Fort Condor was simple but rly fun and I started doing the Hard mode fights, they're a good time.

Can't friggin wait for Rebirth!!!!! Is there a thread yet.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2024 17:55

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Kongming posted:

The perfect block is in the Rebirth demo so yeah it's a universal mechanic that all characters can do now. Makes no damage boss kills a reality besides cheesing them with -aga spells.

Oh poo poo. Feel like hard mode is going to be way more punishing if it's now a universal mechanic. Cool.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2024 18:52

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Wormskull posted:

Objectively speaking, all gaming is a waste of time. Now STFU and buy it. You don’t have to play more than an hour, but it would mean a lot to the devs and the community.

This. And if you don't comply. We have ways of changing your mind

# ¿ Feb 18, 2024 20:12

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

absolutely anything posted:

19) super mario 64 (n64, 120 stars)

anyone ever heard of this

Nice...sm64 win.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2024 06:36

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

6b. Yuffie DLC 100% trophies. The hard mode fort Condor battles, the hard mode fights w/ scarlet, the final boss and the VR super boss challenge were all tight. I think Weiss was the only overtuned post game challenge, I just used cheese strats. Although I probably would have had more patience to try different strategies if I had my PS4 save w/ tons of maxed out materia from my plat grinding. No time for that with rebirth just five days away!!!!! Let's loving gooooooo

# ¿ Feb 23, 2024 21:06

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Just in time for pocket card jockey.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2024 23:46

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Daikatana Ritsu posted:

I saw that on switch today. Is it a new game or just a port?

It seems slightly different. But it's been a while since I played 3DS jockey. Like the lifetime map for the branching paths for winning or losing races seems to new to me. And I don't remember picking up cards off the race track to get Boosts.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2024 08:51

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

ArfJason posted:

doom 3. lots of words incoming:

pretty slow to start, but once it gets on a rhythm its *ok* but frustrating; theres so many little design decisions that hold it back every step of the way.
i was thinking that the flashlight poo poo was gonna be more of an issue but turns out not really, and in fact, i think letting the games moody dark lighting do its thing did a lot. i dont think ive seen games commit to this kind of darkness, and i think in its own way its kinda neat. i remember crawling through some vents saturated in red light then turning a corner into pure darkness and at the end of the vent see what i assume was the silhouette of a monster's limbs and those kinds of moments are really cool.

sadly, what this game gains in atmosphere due to the lighting or rather distinct lack of, it simply loses completely by not being scary at all. monsters announce their presence with loud rear end noises and big incandescent flashes that might as well be a firetruck's siren light. most of them also have glowy red eyes or in the imps' case they light up the room when using their fireballs, which the supposed tradeoff of using the flashlight to see vs having a weapon to defend yourself is nonexisten cause its always better to have a weapon out. i even adjusted the brightness settings to the often maligned and ignored Recommended Settings where a logo becomes barely visible.

the combat *can* be fun once you get some weapons and fight more than 2 imps at a time, which sadly is half the game, and the game is obnoxious in its predictability. oh hey a monster spawned in front of you, time to turn 180 degrees after murking it to kill the one they spawned behind you. you wont expect it the fifty hundredth time!!! when its not doing that its spawning endless waves of spider or baby monsters while you sit there plinking at them with the worlds shittiest shotgun or with an anemic assault rifle.

theres only a couple areas where they let loose with a lot of enemy combinations (and more than 4 monsters in the same room) and it kinda feels like doom for a split second, but then once the dust settles it all goes back to the doom 3 rhythm of spawning two guys, you killing them, then 2 more spawn, etc, all while walking back and forth the same hallways while accruing Data Logs and Emails with the worst parody of corporate speak and spam emails the mid 00s could muster. not to mention after a fight you'll spend time reloading guns like a loving dipshit, and those datalogs become a fuckin drag and break the pace, so after a while i just skimmed them for any 3 number codes for the possibility of ammo stashes that i really didnt need after the halfway point cause i was always fully stocked.

sound design is a disaster, with monster death sounds being loud hisses and snarls which sound similar to spawning imps, so youre constantly turning around after killing a dude to make sure nothing spawned (youll be right more often than not though), and a lot of mosnters dont sound distinct enough to recognize them quickly enough, something doom 1 and 2 nailed. not to mention these are possibly the ugliest incarnation of these monsters, with the cacos and pinkies being unbelievably lovely looking. audio logs can be mercifully listened to while playing but the dialogue (as well voice acted as it can be sometimes) WILL be drowned out by combat, and they often give you some right before you meet an npc or Dr Evil Badguy threatens you with evil laughter.

possibly one of the most infuriating things about the game is that you cant interrupt reloads by switching weapons, so if youre stuck reloading the assault rifle or plasma gun, youre gonna tank some damage, and this game's aimpunch, the way your camera shakes when hit, is one of the most obnoxious ive ever seen in any fps. it makes lost souls even worse than they were, which is an impressive feat.

the game does have its moments, once you incorporate how much you can hold m1 on a weapon before reloading to switch to somethig else, there is a bit of a flow to it. One of the greatest qol features ive ever seen is when you have say half a magazine spent and full reserves for a weapons ammo, you can pick up ammo and itll add whatever the magazine is missing over the regular limit of the reserves, so it means youre never wasting time by finding ammo, reloading the gun, THEN picking the ammo up. just excellent. Also the shotgun loads shells by 2, which makes it have utility even in the later sections of the game.
Hell is a really cool but short segment that gives you infinite stamina (god i forgot to mention the stamina bar in a doom game lmfao), and i wish it maintained that wild and out there vibe through most of the game. The game also can sometimes look very cool, theres lots of geometric detail, and the big chunky tech base look is cool even if its exhausting after the hundredth metal corridor.

so far, this is the weakest doom ive played, and the one with the least charisma. doom 1, 2 and '16 had this weird irreverence (even if 16 takes itself more seriously), and idk about eternal since i havent played it, but this one just lacks that. no amount of Epic Spam emails about clone porn and enhancement pills can save a total lack of personality. evil cackling doctor, endless metal corridors and corporate speak about evil things. easily the least charming doom game, and a bit of a drag, but it has its moments. shame there werent more of them.

e: some quick things i forgot to mention.
-normal is a snoozefest, i never felt threatened at all and only died to falls or exploding barrels. hard is insanely tedious and punishing, especially the hitscanners. there is no middle ground.
-the screens that you control with the mouse are cool but they take away your gun so if you happen to move your mose over one when flciking to an enemy you wont fire and thats insanely frustrating.
-there are slow moving crane puzzles in this doom game. loving what.

Agreed. The hell levels were great and it's an extra shame they're so barely in the game bc you can see they could have made something way cooler w/ the engine they had and decided to go for something slow and lame instead. Sad.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 15:53

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

elf help book posted:

Finished that Yuffie DLC

I loved the music in the chase part under Sector 7. all the different variations on the saxaphone riff the further in you get then it goes gloves off for the boss fight. good poo poo.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 16:13

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 16:16

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Daikatana Ritsu posted:

Tetris. Some kind of puzzle roguelike?

Lol

# ¿ Feb 28, 2024 04:02

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