I agree, Respawn should do a loving recreation of the sewer/canal level from Dark Forces
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Also the soundtrack, which is a banger! (warning: loud)
One of my all-time favorites. Introduced me to Sonic Mayhem, which I have generally kept up with since then (not that he’s had too much of a career). My favorite of his new work is probably Doomsday.
I see him as a direct progenitor of Mick Gordon’s work in nu-Doom, which is one of the only bits I like about those games. What can I say: I’m a sucker for slick instrumental metal riffs, polyrhythm, and heavy synth work.
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I beat Trombone Champ yesterday. Very reliable laughter elicitor; the most qwop-like rhythm game currently in existence. It was a little disappointing that the final hidden track was just a third version of eine kliene nachtmusik.
I’m continuing to work my way through G-String. It exhibits a bug on my install that disables the console; apparently this is unintentional. As a result, I’m not immediately smoothing over every speedbump with god mode and noclip as was my habit with singleplayer half-life mods. I hadn’t played for two weeks because I couldn’t figure out how to progress, but on returning immediately figured out the puzzle where you have to set an oil puddle on fire, so that the fire travels up a pipe and blows up the sniper blocking your progress.
The jank of the broken console is of a piece with the environments and the general tone. I’m hoping for some more variety after this canal segment, maybe some environments that are still inhabited? Regardless, it’s a joy to traverse these spaces. Messier and more confusing than the norm but with familiar signposting.
Also qwop-like: I’m using Pleco to translate some of the signage by drawing the characters with my giant ham fingers. My inability to make straight lines leads to translations like “KEEP THE RIVER FLATTERING”
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remembering Mick playing Decent Into Cerberon live with Sascha (Sonic Mayhem) on synths at the Game Awards
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What can I say about metal gear solid that hasn’t been said? It’s very good. Better than a lot of AAA games that have come out in the past 20 years. It’s good enough that if it came out in 2023 with nothing changed it would still probably be a GOTY contender. When was the last time I really felt like I beat a game until the end, instead of just waiting for it to be over? I can’t say, probably Cave Story or Undertale.
I don’t think it’s nostalgia either, I never had a PSX and didn’t really know about MGS except through memes and videogame magazines (which spoiled some stuff, but not most of it).
The metal gear fight was interesting to figure out. Much less frustrating than the other boss fights since I figured this would be the final one. I thought about using the chaff grenades in between missiles but there isn’t a pause between missile volleys and machine guns to really get very many shots in. Somehow I managed it. and I was like “phew I’m done”
AND THEN YOU GOTTA DO IT AGAIN. But after a few dozen tries I discovered you can run between the legs of the mech and shoot the cockpit from behind it. Liquid loses sight of you and tries to reposition himself, that’s when I fired a rocket. The final boss was pretty easy. Figuring this out really felt like I had outsmarted the game, and it almost felt like I exploited a bug.
BUT THEN
I feel like Liquid was meant to be a David Bowie stand in and maybe Kojima tried to get him for the role but he had too many bad memories of being in Omnicrom The Nomad Soul so he passed on it.
Anyway, the shirtless fight on the top of the mech was harder than the Metal Gear fight because it’s all about figuring out how to beat the guy and what his tells are. I tried feeling him out and trying to bait him into attacking, but after a dozen or so tries I settled on being very aggressive and trying to hit first. But when he was at zero health he wouldn’t die! I had to kick him off the top of the mech! oyyyy!!!
Then the Final Final For Real This Time section, which I expected to transition into a 15 hour road trip. Turns out aiming a gun with a fixed camera sucks, and it turns out you can hold the triangle button during this section to aim and fire which makes it a whole lot easier.
I do like that the game ends in the morning, with the sun finally breaking. I think Tim Rogers said that every Kojima game he ends up beating as the sun rises. This is why I stopped playing at 1:30 last night!
I hope these two lovebirds make it! Who am I kidding? Something horrible is going to happen on the Playstation 2
And that’s the game. Bonus Doggies.
Now onto my other games: The Mega Man Legends series!!!
23 Likes
Found a seemingly unknown glitch or something in Double Dragon II: The Revenge on my PC Engine Duo-R: hammer on the I, II, and Run buttons all at once for a while in 1P Play mode, and the 2P character, Jimmy appears; the game acts like it is now in 2P Play B mode, except that both characters are controlled simultaneously using just the 1P controller.
Sometimes Jimmy appears within seconds of starting to mash the buttons, but other times it has taken 3-5 minutes of button pressing.
I WAS able to reproduce it using a standard Duo-R pad (as well as with a Hori Real Arcade Pro 5 PS4 (v2017) arcade stick through a Brook Super Converter).
I was NOT able to reproduce this emulating via Mednafen. Maybe it’s a quirk of my repaired controller port?
If you’ve got your own console and can try it out, lemme know what happens!
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Double Dragon II: The Revenge for PC Engine came out in 1993. Its boss looks like Wolfgang Krauser, from SNK’s 1992 game Fatal Fury 2.
Double Dragon II for NES, upon which the PCE game is based, came out in 1989. Its boss does not look like Wolfgang Krauser.
But this is about the PC Engine one. The jump-kick arc is weird; it’s NOT Technos Japan’s jump-kick arc from NES Double Dragon II–I checked. This one rockets diagonally upward, slows in midair, and drops vertically to the ground; it’s hard to use, and easy to get hit by. Its impact sound is out of sync with the animation, which looks goofy. The AI has been trained to use it a LOT, and from just the right distance to catch you just as you thought you were going to be able to do something; they are incessant about flanking you (as they are in the arcade version), but holding them off by alternating the left and right attack buttons invariably breaks down quickly because an enemy re-approaching after having been knocked back will simply jump-kick you instantly from just out of your attack range, pretty much every time.
Technos’ DDI&II got their grit from the close-quarters, hotly contested fist-to-fist fighting, but here it’s a simple binary equation: your fists dominate at close range and are dominated by anything with a longer range. The last two large bosses, who do not jump-kick, and who maybe are composed of too many sprites to have a partner who could flank you, are shockingly easy once you learn their simple attack pattern.
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Sakamoto Ryoma passes under a gate at night. A drunk man walking opposite Ryoma shouts, “Im a drinking legend! History will tell my tale!”
Moments ago Ryoma gave a Vegetable Loving Boy valuable ginseng. The child knows not how precious this plant is, and would be just as happy with common daikon but still their bond grows and Ryoma becomes more a part of Kyo.
Before that he was raiding cave networks cutting down bandits by the dozen.
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dang you found Sweary
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Leaning towards robot cowboy hat
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I was figuring the master chief guy because he has a chest rig
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that’s correct. it’s also a chest rig that constantly reloads my rifle and machine gun at all times. sorry rudie I can’t get any cowboy hats because although I have the THE WITCH QUEEN expansion I do not have the THE WITCH QUEEN DUNGEON KEY for 20 dollars in the bungie store. I did make it to the secret area of the season pass dungeon though where I could pet a dog which unlocked an offer to buy a stuffed animal of the dog for 20 dollars in the bungie store.
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i did not predict you would pick titan aka the best class
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I know hunters have a gunslinger subclass but my sister told me titan would be what I want cause they’re the supersoldiers who can punch things to death. also the more weird and alien everyone else looks in an online game the more I want to look like a generic nobody soldier and that seemed easiest done with titan
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dude the (lack of) crowd energy is so sad i would cry 
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late to the party on vampire survivors but wow is this silly game so good. i never really got into it on pc or console but it really clicks with me as a phone game. all the little characters and weapons are so fun to experiment with which makes the “try everything once” unlock system actually fun to engage with instead of a chore
this game really nails the mindless joy of diablo endgame where you’re clearing screens worth of dudes that were killing you dead 40 hours ago and crunches it into 30 min. no notes, perfect
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PLAY WITH MEEEEE
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I’m coming back for Lightfall too 
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