Long weekend, lots of gaming ahead!
Bit Trip Runner (Wii and Steam):
Finishing up on Wii, i think i only have four levels left. These last levels
are hard. First part of Gauntlet with small cubes moving in a sine shaped formation is already the hardest game ever been.
Also tried PC version again, it's still unplayable laggy mess. I really should look into what is the source of the lag on my setup on timing sensitive games like Bit Trip and Super Hexagon (i use the same plasma TV for PC and all consoles, Wii included, why PC has such a big input lag?).
Desktop Dungeons (Steam and web version):
My problem with new commercial DD release compared to
free version is that new Desktop Dungeons has so much content it completely underwhelms going from somewhat barebones freeware.
Free version was perfect for lunch breaks where you didn't want to mess around you just hit "Adventure!" and played the game. It was simple and it was fine.
Commercial release added a behemoth of new options, systems, new metagames, new levels, new quests -- ridiculous amounts of content.
And levels demand mastery of these new systems from you, so you can't cheese levels on "Hard" anymore, you have to actively use all tricks in the book to even get to the boss, only to discover he has 1000 health and 200 attack (while you rarely reach 100hp even at level 9).
My favorite dumb strategy of using orc assassin (sacrificing spells you find in the dungeons to get experience + assassin kills anyone with lower level instantly no matter their HP) now fails most of the times.
Tutorials are great for learning these systems. I just finished tutorials on slowing down enemies and it was very enlightening. And there are about 20 more tutorials to finish.
Of course you can just play the game, but eventually you will face impenetrable wall and will have to learn.
Fantasy Zone (MAME):
Finally got to
boss 3.
It's quite tricky because the order your destroy his cannons matters, it's also the first boss where bombs become viable.
In his final phase he starts moving like crazy, and that's why i haven't killed him yet even he only had one cannon left.
Devil May Cry 3 (Xbox360):
Beat the game on normal.
Cube room with lots of platforming wasn't that bad, i guess practice with 3d Mario games helps (even if DMC camera is honestly awful by comparison to Mario's).
Killing 8 bosses in a row took me entire evening. The main trick was to sparingly use health refills and alternate between hard bosses (Beowulf, Agni&Rudra, Geryon, Cerberus) and easy bosses (Gigapede, Nevan, Doppelganger, Leviathan's Heart). Or you can cheat a bit and buy blue orb to refill health in the middle of a mission.
Also before all bosses there is chess board where you fight all pieces.
It might get challenging at first (Queen is especially dangerous as is expected from chess queen). And in general i really liked how that level actually follows real chess rules, like when you try to attack the King he does
castling and exchanges positions with a rook to protect himself. And when you kill the king all other chess pieces fall apart.
Fighting against the entire chess board is a really good practice to get in a rhythm with combat system.
DMC3 is much harder to keep combo going because moves get "stale" and you can't repeat them. And dodging is a bigger problem than in 1. Probably because it's hard for me to judge positional controls on 3d plane instead of sideways rolls i too often do backwards roll. In 3, it is much slower that sideways roll and that messes me up a lot. That's why simple neutral jump is almost always safer option of defense.
Penultimate boss was pretty awful, but it was saved somewhat by story importance because
we had two brothers fighting together taking down the main villain. From the start to the end it was very HYPE, even if the boss was lacking from gameplay perspective.
And the final mission which is a last showdown between sons of Sparda was the perfect culmination for the game. Again as it's always with Vergil, Beowulf and it's divekick saves the day in that fight.
After that i completed last remaining secret missions. Secret mission 4 was a nightmare: your only option is either to
use a glitch or to
use a weapon that you don't get until way later in the game. I did it glitch way, because i simply didn't think to use bazooka there.
Also i started Vergil campaign on hard and started S-ranking mission on normal. Hitting enough combo and getting no damage in entire level is pretty hard, but i feel like i am getting better with each attempt.
These kind of action games (DMC, Bayonetta, Ninja Gaiden, Wonderful 101) usually take way more 100+ of hours to truly master and i am fully willing to commit to that, because it stays fun all the way. And they never really "end", in some sense these aren't really games but musical instruments of sorts. You can never stop getting better at playing guitar or piano -- there is
always room for improvement. It's the same with character action games. Even open-world games with their mind numbing collectathon can't reach that many hours of playthrough.
I am still playing DMC1 (finishing Dante must die run), still playing Bayonetta 1 (Platinum run on Hard), still playing Wonderful 101 (getting Platinums for the rest of the board). I guess i am now adding DMC3 to this rotation.
Devil May Cry 4 (Steam):
I just couldn't help myself. Right after finishing DMC3 on normal i turned my PC on, downloaded the game and started it right away.
So beautiful... One of the most gorgeous games i played so far. Runs great (it was hitting 500+ fps on highest settings until i limited fps to 59 because my TV can't handle more anyway). It tends to crash with DirectX10, but runs completely fine with 9.
Game itself... It's DMC -- we have a new character, so combat system is refreshed a bit, he has new grappling moves and hookshot functionality (from what i remember from the demo, reboot DMC had it too and overall that new game took the most from 4 than from any other games in the series). Getting high combo ranks feels easier here than in 3.
My big problem with DMC3 was that Dante always had to do that breakdancing move when he got up after hit by enemies. So recovery was taking more time than i liked. In DMC4 Nero never falls down on his back and recovery is shorter (almost like Bayonetta who always lands on her feet), so that's a welcome improvement.
One thing that bothers me so far is that these first mission have a lot of platforming. DMC as a series was never good at platforming and this game is no exception. It's pretty bad, why they thought it was a good idea to add these elements i don't know. It's fourth game in the series already, and jumping still sucks as much as it did in DMC1.
Another baffling element is how empty the game feels, sure i appreciate that areas are now much more spacious because it's easier to control camera that way, but i don't like when i have to run around in empty corridors back and forth that much.
Topic: What are you playing? (Read 695030 times)
