I love how close these polls get. I think it’s pretty rare that there’s ever an option that only gets a single vote. It’s been especially fun to look at users’ votes and get a window into their tastes. Honestly, the polls are as exciting to me as playing the games.
6 Likes
I know I’m asking the question everyone will be mad at but how playable is this? I tried one of the Ps1 King’s Field and pre-standardize FPS controls are asking a lot of me and having watched Bachelor play this same one a while back the game is a bit much.
Because the movement speed in 4 is one of the slowest in the series, I think King’s Field 2 is a lot easier to get into. As far as I remember they have the same control scheme all the way through (look up/down on L1/R1, strafe on shoulder buttons). And of course, being stubbornly traditionalist, there’s absolutely no recognition of what an analog stick is for or can do.
On an emulator, I like to map the controls to something more standard - strafe on main stick, turn and look up/down on right stick.
3 Likes
KF4 has the slowest movement but it’s also the one that clicked with me. The visuals are fully realized into that Fromsoft Berserk style, the game holds 60fps while the PS1 KFs chug horrendously, and the level design feels more deliberate. Amazing atmosphere. Every KF is slow as molasses so whether I’m walking at 4km or 6km it doesn’t matter to me.
6 Likes
king’s field games are for depressed people
7 Likes
That classic Souls posture, even the dog is bent by despair. A symmetry of sadness with the broken bridge. I had a dream about the room with the tombstones and the skeletons a few weeks ago, potent game. Wish I hadn’t had to sell it a while back…
(assumes Souls posture)
10 Likes
Compared to the PS1 games, nothing significant has changed. The least comfortable aspect of controlling things is looking up and down. I’m not bothered with the slow pace because environments are purposefully constructed and arranged.
BTW, I’m not mad that you asked the question!
1 Like
MetropolisMania
When I started putting down roads in MetropolisMania, my manager warned me that things could quickly get out of control as more people start to move in. I trusted his warning but could not fathom the intensity of what he meant.
We are in a time where more and more people cannot talk to each other and rely solely on electronic communication. There may be no hero that can reverse this trend. For two hours, I tried to be that hero. I put on my yellow tuxedo and “went to town.”
You might think that the main action in MetropolisMania is town construction. You would be wrong. That is only the secondary means towards greater communication. Your main action is gossip. Over my time with MetropolisMania, I learned two new topics I could gossip about “surfing” and a specific woman who started dating another guy. Most of the time, when I brought up either of these topics, I was met with befuddlement. “I don’t know who that is.” people would say. “I hate the beach” said someone else. More and more often, the towns people would remark that I looked “incredibly yellow.” I still do not know if they meant the obvious, that I was wearing yellow clothes, or rather suggesting I was coming down with jaundice.
I love the people in my town, but I cannot provide for them. I was so happy when I constructed a spa on top of a remote hill, but the owner quickly complained that there was no local supermarket and I was unable to scramble up a contact. He left and the spa will never return.
Every time I talk with a resident, my popularity has a chance to increase. Sometimes that means talking to babies who ask me “Mama?” and I can say “Yes Yes” or “No No” and the baby decides whether they liked my response. Usually it means gossiping and trying not to talk to the same person I talked to five minutes ago. If my popularity boosts up to %120, then there is a migration frenzy. Everybody wants to come to my island all of a sudden and my phone rings off the hook.
But I can’t bring myself to stake their claims. When I answer the phone, I have a slight hope that the spa owner will call me back and ask to live with me again. But this hope is false. He knows me too well. These other people who want so desperately to move in don’t know me at all. I feel like I will only disappoint them in the end.
I think I’m going to take a walk to forget some bad things in my life. See you again.
18 Likes
SpyHunter
Believe it or not, this is only the second American game to be written about in this thread. It is much much better than Oni. In fact, SpyHunter rules.
This is one of those games that I owned back when it was something new, something to be amazed by. I remember being so transfixed by the way this car can transform into a boat or eject into a motorcycle. There is a beautiful jank to it. There are so many explosions. It has so much arcade spirit that I cannot say an ill word against it.
My car wants to go forward and never in reverse. However, I can bend the car to my will. And I often did, because there are baubles delicately hanging above ramps that I cannot afford to overlook. Before every mission, I’m given a task list where each task gives me points so I can move on. In my current, real-life job, I’m given a task list as well, and the more I do gives me money so I can move on. Were the developers of this game inspired by productivity strategies or was my manager inspired by SpyHunter? It’s indeterminable.
There are a lot of great touches to the streets I drive. In one mission, I’m in pursuit of a clone of my supercar. We race through the mountains the same time that cyclists are racing. The first time I tried this mission, my car veered around a ridge and took out maybe 10 Lance Armstrongs. I lost a point, but if I really wanted to, I could have let that be the reality. After all, I still destroyed my rival, demolished the enemy radio towers, and collected the shiny blue baubles. What’s one point lost after all that?
I’m going to be honest, there’s no way I’m beating this game. The task list design demands perfect mastery a track. Granted, it’s not that hard. I could grind the levels, learn their bumps and grooves, but my brain is itching for something new.
15 Likes
Autumn 2001 part 2
- Dynasty Warriors 3
- Frequency
- Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland
- Silent Hill 2
- Skygunner
- World Rally Championship
0 voters
1 Like
I don’t know skygunner but the cover rules
1 Like
Same
1 Like
this is tough…
so many good games. i want you to play dw3 but how can i neglect frequency, sh2, and skygunner
3 Likes
oh shit WRC also looks good and harvest moon is usually enjoyable so this is a total fuck for me
3 Likes
Skygunner on my radar after finishing Crimson Skies a while ago and hungry for more 3D guns on wings, looking forward to hearing about that one.
2 Likes
Skygunner rules if you can get used to the control scheme.
4 Likes
I think you and I have very similar tastes. If it makes it easier to live with your vote for DW3, I was an Amplitude maven bitd, I’ve played through SH2 once before, and Skygunner is easily the number one game people want me to play. I am hungry for more Musou! I am prepared and excited for the possibility that Dynasty Warriors will make the cut!
3 Likes
Every one of these is worth a vote. Usually the majority of your lists are all worth checking out for twenty minutes but this is one where each game could potentially be worth checking into for a lot more than that and only 28 people have voted. Maybe 50 more or so will vote in the next 10 days and skew something into being competitive with skygunner.
5 Likes
Skygunner is incredible but the control/camera are really really bad. Gotta have steel nerves to make thatA Game You Like.
It is one of those I get cranky at people saying they love it because I think they love the concept of it (which is great) but I tried 4 times and gave up within 15 minutes of each because it was like trying to give a cat oral medicine.
3 Likes
Even with the simplified control scheme? From HG101:
The only other fault besides the slowdown (which can be disabled via a secret menu, added to the US localization), and again this too is optional, is the default controller settings. Immediately set your controls to Novice. This will take care of auto-levelling your plane and will offer a much more natural style of arcade-like control. Although the Expert setting claims to offer a greater degree of control, with things like buttons for left and right yaw, all it actually does is distract you from the task of score-chaining, and has little to no benefit. By all means try it if you’re curious, but sticking with Novice will make finding and targeting enemies much easier, in addition to controlling your plane with utmost precision. SkyGunner is best enjoyed as an arcade-style 3D shooter, not a realistic flight-sim.
Also…disabling slowdown via a secret menu??? My curiosity about this game continues to grow.
EDIT: Oh I see it’s a mechanic, not a performance issue lol
3 Likes