Games You Played Today IV: Quest of the Avatar

[Polygonzo]

So you can drive off the edge? I don’t remember if there’s an invisible wall or not in that segment though I do remember thinking to myself “I’m in the Kid A album art right now!” with those mountains.

Also, I spent so much time flipping through the channels on that TV you can find, that old cartoon with the chorus of birds that flock around the little kid bird that dies (but not really) whoa (here is where I have to admit that I was a little stoned for the whole thing so this game was…super effective).

[slime]

mario 200cc is completely insane, the fact that i have to brake while accelerating is completely counterintuitive. i instinctively lift during corners but no, lifting drops your speed almost instantly, you have to hold both throttle and brakes

my only goal is to just not finish last

[Tulpa]

A problem I had with Dusk in particular but this whole generation of retro nostalgia shooters as well, is that they’re all strictly worse than just downloading more maps for quake and doom. Any given czg, tronyn, or tim elek quake map is far more exciting, original, inventive, etc than anything in the new nostalgia shooters

Like, Dusk is fine, and Amid Evil is fun as well (better than Dusk overall) but they’re just indistinct experiences trading on nostalgia rather than novelty.

[Sykel]

I can’t say I agree with this, for the most part.

For one thing, I thought Dusk was way better than Amid Evil, but also I felt the latter was trying to riff on Painkiller more than anything else and I wasn’t a fan of that game (though I did like Amid Evil a lot more than Painkiller).

And though I also agree that the first episode of Dusk is weaker than a lot of high quality Quake maps, I felt the game really developed its own personality in the second and third episodes and I haven’t felt anything as cool as it in a Quake map in a long time. Granted, I’m pretty behind in Quake stuff, but I still feel like saying it’s just riding on nostalgia is doing it a disservice.

[smbhax]

Thinking about the upcoming Capcom Fighting Collection got me messing around in Darkstalkers games on PS1, PS2, and PS3.

The PS1 port of Vampire Savior–Darkstalkers 3–feels pretty much just like the PS2 and PS3 versions. Fantastic port. Doesn’t have red screen flashes on KO, so it’s the one Arcade mode of Savior my eyeballs can play.

The Japan-only Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection on PS2 has a weird blur filter–blurrier in the center than at the corners–even in 480p, which is too bad, but otherwise, super collection. Played through the first game, Night Warriors–which never has red flash–and found the unforgiving CPU and rough controls a bit frustrating.

Found that I can just play Training mode in any of the games: no KOs in that mode, so no red flashes; I set the training dummy to “COM” and just grooved out in long running battles. Actually really fun.

That got me thinking maybe I could do that, without a blur filter, in the version of Vampire Savior in the PS3’s Darkstalkers Resurrection collection…

Yep! And that got me to reinstall PS3 3rd Strike, made by Iron Galaxy, the same company that did Darkstalkers Resurrection; I never got into 3rd Strike’s Arcade mode, but if I can just chill vs COM in Training…

Neat, now I can have fun with these games. : ) Might not have much use for Capcom Fighting Collection then–unless it has input delay at least comparable to Iron Galaxy’s ridiculously low 2-frame delay, which is unlikely. Heck, Capcom’s last fighting collection, SF 30th Anniversary, doesn’t even have a COM option for the mere four games in the collection that HAVE a training mode–and it has a 4-frame delay. That was by Digital Eclipse though (they’re handling TMNT Cowabunga Collection, which I’ve been looking forward to–ah well), and CFC isn’t, so who knows, maybe it could be close to Iron Galaxy’s stuff, only in 1080 instead of 720–that would be keen.

[slime]

there’s no input lag if you emulate CPS2

the primary draw for the PS3 versions of 3S/VSAV was GGPO on consoles but they’re basically inferior versions of just playing them via GGPO, unless you really like the parry training challenges

though the PS2 versions have the best training modes by far

[smbhax]

I’m more into original hardware or retail versions than emulation.

The PS3 Training mode seemed largely to copy its options from the PS2 version; I thought it looked more or less the same but I didn’t look at all the options too closely, the vs CPU setting was pretty much all I wanted. Hm and in that regard, in the PS3 version you can change the difficulty on the fly, which is really handy, whereas on the PS2 you have to quit out and go to the game’s option screen to change difficulty.

[Mikey]

I’m completely inexperienced with Quake fan maps etc so I don’t have this basis for comparison but, at least compared to vanilla Quake which I’ve just recently replayed, I think Dusk does more than enough to set itself apart, even just on the basis of ~vibes~. I was very ready to write this game off a few levels in and I’m glad I didn’t because some of the later levels are super cool, imho.

Now if you want to tell me that Quake and Doom fan projects are doing all this and more, well, don’t threaten me with a good time! I may just have to go back to that well and check things out.

[notbov]

@slime

you have to hold both throttle and brakes

I know

isn’t it the greatest

[MintyJuffowup]

On one hand, it doesn’t make any sense. On the other, it feels pretty good on the controller, like a second level of drift.

[slime]

absolutely disagree, i’m already holding the right trigger, having to grip two face buttons as well is gonna make my joints buckle. nintendo is so adamant about never letting anybody change their control schemes ever

[Sakurina]

@slime

nintendo is so adamant about never letting anybody change their control schemes ever

I’m using tilt controls!

[extrabastardformula]

went back to hollow knight for some vania fun and it’s amazing how unplayable joycon drift makes this. I wish there was a way to turn off the stick input entirely instead of pad and stick both working. It was still enjoyable up until the white palace when it switched from combat action boss rush to air dashing through tiny gaps between buzzsaws.

I wonder if my patience for things shifting gears entirely to that kind of bullshit was greater because of the novelty the first time I played it or if that sort of game is just not for me. anyway, I think I’m puttig it down now, because I don’t want another meat boy tribute precision platforming gauntlet. It actually made me not want to play silksong when it comes out.

Love letters to spikes are not my thing these days, maybe I’m just not damaged like that anymore

[Broco]

I think they were OK making white palace kinda bad because it’s optional to complete the game (albeit bad end). Same logic for Nightmare King Grimm.

(I’m not saying it’s sound logic)

[problyfine]

@slime

i’m already holding the right trigger, having to grip two face buttons as well is gonna make my joints buckle.

Have you tried turning on auto-accelerate?

[slime]

no but i will

[extrabastardformula]

nightmare king grimm was least horrible of the big four optional bastard challenges since fighting is what the rest of the game pretty much is

[notbov]

well actually if you’re on Switch, you can do up custom mappings for controllers on a system level

do it and don’t tell anyone, it’ll be funny

[slime]

I’ve only ever done that to get my 8bitdo working with my preferred six button layout. this is my roommate’s switch and i’m not gonna fuck with it

[hellojed]

after some fiddling with my home network and dragging a switch i finally got to see if downloading xbox games from the internet would work, lo and behold, the sequel to “wreckless: the yakuza missions”