i have a week off, but i woke up at 6am today to get Soma ready for his ultrasound procedure at the vet.
finally managed to log into Helldivers 2 because literally no one else seemed to be playing lol
1 Like
I’ve read the reviews, doesn’t sound that compelling.
1 Like
OutRun 2: Coast 2 Coast
I wish I could purchase this on Steam.
I tried it on PC with FXT, but I’m having all sorts of issues I don’t want to be bothered with.
I’ve gone back to playing it on PS2. This is probably inferior to the Xbox version, but I seem to do best at this game with the Dualshock2.
It’s actually pretty hard to find the definitive version of OutRun 2! The releases are a complete mess. And any digital versions have been delisted thanks to the expired Ferrari license.
6 Likes
I wanted to try it in teknoparrot, the lindbergh emulator, but could never find any of the roms
2 Likes
There’s a native windows version around, but I couldn’t get saving to work at all even with FXT. And it didn’t want to persist my settings even when running as administrator. It also crashes when I quit.
It’s just easier to play it on PS2.
2 Likes
There’s also the Japanese PS2 version which came after the US version and added some improved things I read about and forgot because I didn’t care about them–music and stuff I think mostly. … Oh okay: “fixes bugs, adds force feedback support for certain steering wheels and adds some extra music.” - OutRun 2 SP (PlayStation 2)
I got the US version recently to rip, seems to run good in PCSX2, and can be made to look quite sharp in there of course.
3 Likes
It’s the xbox version of coast to coast which I finally found after over 10 years and haven’t played again yet
4 Likes
It’s probably NOT the PSP version, which is the one I had back in the day. ^ _^
Had a friend who worked for MS back then and was always trying to get me into 360, use the 360 version of C2C for some of that. Definitely a looker, that version.
3 Likes
I went on this journey before sticking to PS2:
https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/the-internet-is-wrong-outrun-2-edition.40061/
3 Likes
i had this issue recently with it on steamdeck, but just grabbed a 100% save file from googling
3 Likes
Mighty Final Fight (FC, in Mesen w/ infinite lives cheat)
Somehow the game is WAY more fun as Haggar. ^ ^^ Hm according to a FAQ https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/587459-mighty-final-fight/faqs/19498 I didn’t even see his piledriver, I don’t think (grab enemy, A to jump, then B); and didn’t really grok his head butt (grab enemy, then B–up to three times–without pressing a direction–that would do a suplex) also, I’d forgotten that unlike Guy and Cody, Haggar starts at character level 3–although I’m not sure exactly how much difference that makes, but maybe it means he’s a little more satisfying to use at the start.
Haggar can get a Mario-in-Donkey-Kong-style hammer! Or “mallet,” if you like. (Cody gets a knife and Guy gets shuriken, the FAQ says.) But you lose the hammer the first or second time you’re knocked down, so usually I picked it up and managed to get hit immediately before I even got to smack anyone with it. ;_ ;
The special move Haggar gets at level 4 is the same input as Cody’s–hit the attack button VERY soon after pressing left or right–with the same delayed execution speed, so again very tricky to use–but can catch an opponent and do a combo on them.
Figured out a bit of the spacing and timing for the repeated Sodom kill mode boss fight (ie get as far away as possible, jump and land on him as he dashes across), got a bit more bearable, I dare say even SORT of interesting.
Forgot what to do on the final boss, finally worked out you gotta be patient and wait for him to crack up. ; D
Mighty is so much more fun–and the graphics and sound are so much better done–than Final Fight 2 on the Super Famicom, which came out the month BEFORE. ^ D^
4 Likes
Final Halo thought of the day (for now):
I know I complained a lot about part of mission 9, but I want to restate that I thought the back half of that mission went rather well and I enjoyed it a good deal. Mission 10 kept up those good vibes, I don’t think I struggled with checkpoints or unreasonable enemy spawns at all, I let the enemies fight themselves and picked the bones after, I died a few times here or there but even that wasn’t too bad. It was basically Halo: best case scenario for over a whole composite mission in a row.
Got to what I guess is the game’s version of a boss fight with having to do stuff with the engine to open up vents to toss grenades into, they seemed a bit odd in that sometimes it didn’t seem to register the grenade going in and I had to repeat (yes I noticed they flaps were down sometimes) but even on the last one I got lucky and my last grenade snuck in and finished the job so the good vibes kept on as I made my escape.
…And the game ends on a timed Warthog obstacle course.
I want to say this very clearly and very deliberately: thank you Bungie for giving this a rather generous time limit. It’s insane to put this in at this point after not having you do any real heavy lifting with the warthog since mission 3 (I think it pops up in mission 5 or 6 briefly but that’s basically driving around a beach, if there were other opportunities I did not take them), but they had the common courtesy to give you more than enough time. My first attempt everything blew up with me 50 meters from the goal, and I had to restart from the beginning. My second attempt I failed on the “you can make this jump at top speed!” jump and by looking down accidentally dropped the warthog on my head, but I got a checkpoint at the mid point before that as I guess it only wanted to give it to me if there was a certain amount of time left. That third attempt I made it to the ship with a full minute to spare even though I smashed into the walls constantly in the curving hallways and got tossed from and had to flip over the warthog on multiple occasions. They set it to easy and I appreciate the hell out of it.
So now I’m done and… what a very uneven experience. When everything sorta worked and I was able to just get into a flow with things like I did at the very end and for chunks of the mid-game I can see why everyone loved it. Even at these points I maintain the game has occasional severe pacing issues brought on by re-using the same rooms and similar looking hallways repeatedly in the same missions IMO to pad things out (mission 5 and 7 I believe stick out the most). The Flood was an anchor around my personal experience and enjoyment though as… I don’t think i have much experience with FPSs with endlessly spawning hordes (I recall playing Modern Warfare and certain missions taking forever as I sat back waiting for enemies to stop running at me and getting frustrated with the “you gotta push forward, but only at the right times” design there as well) and this game is harsh on you if you aren’t. Add on how they often caused the checkpoint system to not work how it did in much of the rest of the game unless you did grasp these nuances and I legit did not like much of the final act of the game. I have no idea if they are in the rest of the series, if not that may mean things will break in my favor moving forward.
I have no idea when I’ll get around to Halo 2, it definitely won’t be this year. I know people here have a lower opinion of the second campaign but heck they also liked the Warthog, their opinion isn’t to be trusted 
17 Likes
just cleared fay’s final puzzle. maybe now my dad will be proud of me…
went in concerned about dragons naturally but the ultimate boss in there is definitely those fuckin radishes holy hell
13 Likes
2024 started by launching every rocket possible in the original Game Boy edition of Tetris. The sticker on my cartridge is effectively gone. My mothers handwriting in black marker from over thirty years ago reads ‘Tetris’ where the games logo had once been.
I don’t know if I’ve ever had a proper ‘toilet’ game. The kind where you play, and always make sure you play, when you have to go to toilet. Thank you Tetris for being, in all likelihood, the George Washington Mount Rushmore of toilet games.
Few games slot into most any life circumstance and give you something to enjoy. Watching those rockets take off from the screen of GBA SP just reinforced: I love Tetris and I think I always will.
I reached the ending of Deus Ex Game of the Year Edition just a week ago. A lot of games can rely on old clunky charm to butter you up and there’s a lot of that here.
And if the game had been about 20 hours shorter I might be feeling even more of that now. It was ultimately a bit too exhausting in moments but the end level and the different end choices all wrap it up in a satisfying way.
As someone who typically likes to explore every little corner of a game this one often punishes you hard for playing that way, depleting your resources and making you panic a bit about what you’ll have available to you to tackle the game going forward. In that way it’s more of a ‘trial-and-error’ game and it took me a bit to wire my brain for that sort of experience.
It’s got lots of brilliance from a design perspective in that way and plenty of old-school PC charm in it’s aesthetics and clunky, sometimes overbearing, dialogue (though I love reading the newspaper clippings and e-mails, some great stuff in there). Despite that I also think it’s overstuffed but maybe time will be kinder to the memories I have of it.
Currently I’m playing through Witcher 3 on PS5, WipEout Pure on PSP, and Flicky on PS2 via the Genesis Collection.
Some brief thoughts there:
Witcher 3 is my wife’s favorite game and was her request for me to finally tackle this year.
I am incredulous at this game. I’m 90 hours in and I think, maybe, at the halfway mark? It’s scale compared to W1 and 2, which I beat both over the past couple years, is honestly absolutely fucking gobsmacking and I teeter between enjoyment and overwhelm-ment quite frequently.
WipEout Pure has been solid, though my PSP battery is fucked so playing this plugged in all the time means no opportunity to be a toilet game. Ah well.
So far I’ve completed getting Gold medals on all the lowest difficulty races, individually and tournament play, and am pleasantly challenged by the difficulty ramp on ‘Venom’, which is their cool-kid way of calling Medium.
Oh also I’m playing this in Spanish, er, with the menus in Spanish at least. A lot of the past two years I have spent dedicating myself more fully to finally climbing the hurdle of ‘being bilingual’, however that may be defined, so now I can never forget that ‘pista’ means ‘track’ as in ‘racetrack’.
Flicky has been the hoped-for ‘short’ game of the moment. I’ve spent probably ten or so hours on it at this point. Have made it the 44th stage out of 48 a couple times as my high mark. It is proving quite a challenge.
It’s simple fun baby bird collecting and saving. And the enemy cats are the orange kind, like my cat. So that is just great.
I wish there was more than just the one song too but one can’t have it all.
Cheers, keep gamin’.
17 Likes
I’ve always heard the word used as “clue” but now I can assume there’s some possible connection with animal tracks. Neat!
5 Likes
Different countries probably have a lot of different uses for it; I’ve actually never heard it used as ‘clue’ before which is cool! Always used ‘clave’ for that.
I focus a lot on the Spanish of PR so I knew ‘pista’ as meaning ‘beat’ like a beat someone would rap or sing to. But the game was made by a studio in Liverpool so probably heavy European, ie. Spain-Spanish influence, so it could be another word would be better for racetrack for South/Central American, or Caribbean Spanish speakers.
6 Likes
Track as in racetrack, but also track as path, track as markings from animals or suchlike to be tracked by a tracker (thus the clue meaning, but the direct equivalent would be lead rather than clue), track as in disc track, track as in “you’re on the right track” and so on. There are a couple meanings it doesn’t share with english (train tracks, tracks as in treads) but all in all it’s pretty reliable that way.
10 Likes
very cool! did not know you could us it like ‘you’re on the right track’. always so much to learn.
1 Like
Poking at LSDJ at 12:45 am when I can’t sleep
also scrolling through random games but I found this again. Racing Gears Advance, a pretty good top down racing game.
5 Likes
Tears of the Kingdom won’t let me go. It’s been a while since I’ve been so keen to shoehorn in an hour of playing whenever I can.
10 Likes