Gabriel

I wish Sorcerer was one of the tables in Pinball Arcade. Then I could retire my game disc.

My credit card is whimpering in pain because I bought Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate and some DLC over the weekend. Yeah, I know Last Round will be here next month, but I'm not planning on buying a PS4 anytime soon, if at all. It's pretty bad that I don't see anything compelling about the next gen of consoles considering how low my bar for compelling often is. Other than that, I spent time this weekend killing thousands of people in Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate.

The ones I've spent the most time with are: Cross Edge Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection XCom: Enemy Unknown Warriors Orochi 3 / Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F / Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd Akiba's Trip: Undead and Undressed Class of Heroes 2G Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory Macross 30: The Voice That Connects the Galaxy Honorable Mention Civilization Revolution = Played the hell out of it on the 360, but probably not as much time on the PS3. Soul Calibur IV = same as Civ Rev. Valkyria Chronicles = spent about 30 to 40 hours with it. It was great until the mid/late game where the level design and gameplay completely fell apart. Record of Agarest War = I've played through the first generation multiple times on the 360 and PS3 both. Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls = I played a lot of this when it came out, but I think Macross 30 barely edged it out for play time.

Hmmm. Sports games. They're not my thing, but I've liked a handful over the years. Activision Hockey (2600) Golf (INTV) Football (5200) Baseball (5200) Blades of Steel (NES) Joe Montana Sports Talk II Football (Genesis) Mutant League Football (Genesis) I used to really like Winter Games on the C64. I don't really see racing games as sports titles, but Sega released Virtua Racing (Genesis and 32X) under it's sports banner, so there is that. I like Tekken Bowl on Tekken Tag Tournament (PS2). Should that count? Oh, and there was Tekken Ball on the Tekken 3 disc (PS1) which was kind of like a netless volleyball game. What about that? For the most part, I feel sports games lost their way sometime in the 16-bit era and quit being enjoyable. In any event, any sports games Dreamcast or later are things I don't even want to bother myself with attempting to play.

I'm close to the same milestone.

I'm still waiting for the Bandai Gundam version of this particular marketing scheme.

I particularly like the maze editor. I don't think I ever played with the maze editor on the Odyssey 2, but I have on this version. I made something kinda, sorta like the maze in 2600 Pac-Man.

I enjoyed it. It's fairly story oriented. Be prepared to listen to characters talk a lot. However, the voice acting is good. The combat system works like this: Everyone has high (hats), mid (shirts), and low (pants) clothing (armor) they wear. Your objective is to wear it down and strip it off. You attack at these levels with triangle, circle, and X. When the clothing part is ready to be stripped it will flash red. To strip it you hold down the appropriate level attack button. It's very intuitive, and the game is a fun button masher. It's a lot like the Dynasty Warriors style games in that regard. It lets you save anywhere unless a battle is going on. Gameplay focuses mostly on collecting things. You collect clothes and other things. For example you get items which give your character a different walk animation. Some items change the way your character strips his targets. Beating the game once unlocks the ability to choose different models for your character. Don't go into it expecting a deep and technical game. Just go in expecting a button masher that let's you bask in the otakuness of it all.

Thanks to the Flash Sale and the luck to get into the PS Store right before the DDOS hit, I've added Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate to my swelling list of currently playing games.

I managed to get my Sears Tele Games cart of Pac-Man the weekend before the formal release date. It had the 3D Pac Man. Later I started noticing the 2D Pac Man and always wondered why they changed it. I don't recall which I liked better as a kid. Now I find the 3D image not only more nostalgic, but just a better and more attention grabbing image.

I had it pre-ordered from Amazon since May. I had forgotten I got a code to DL those items. I noticed the Americana Module is up and $1.99 even to people like me who paid for the costume pass. That's not a surprise. I won't be buying that one. Last night I got my first perfect on I'll Miku Miku You. Yeah, it was on Easy, but it still felt good to finally get a flawless victory on one.

So you won't be running around with a T-Shirt saying "Pac ate first!"?

Namco did put something they called Jr Pac Man on the Pac Man 2 The New Adventures cart. I think the Genesis version has that particular minigame. It's not actually Jr Pac Man, but that's what they called it. I love Super Pac Man, but Ms Pac and Jr Pac feel much more like proper sequels building upon the original. In some ways, Super Pac feels like a step back or a copycat game, which is ironic because the facts are the other way around. And Jr Pac definitely feels more like a proper entry into the franchise compared to Pac N Pal. Sorry. Nothing against Pac N Pal, but it's so different it just doesn't feel like a Pac Man game to me.

So far you're not missing anything on the costume front. A couple of the Christmas costumes are OK, but nothing I would have purchased had I not impulsively paid for the costume pass (maybe Luka's Christmas outfit, but maybe not). The only new DLC song so far is Baby, which is OK, but definitely not one of my favorites, although finally seeing a translation of it was amusing. I'm wishing they'd hurry and put Sekiranun Graffiti and Miku's Dragoon 2020 costume up. On the Class of Heroes 2 front, I've been taking a break for a few days. I plan to get back on track with it (hopefully tomorrow). I've found an odd sort of personal problem with it. When I''m just grinding around in places, I get bored and start thinking that maybe it's time to call it quits with the game and move on to another title. I dread to take the Quests, because so many are stepinfetchit quests, and there's no way to see what I'm getting into before I accept them. On top of it, the rewards universally suck. The rewards are completely irrelevant and useless to starting characters at 5th level, much less to prestige classes at 20th level like mine are. Yet, when I take a new quest that unlocks a new area, then I'm absolutely enthralled and having a fantastic time.

Yay! Mine was in my mailbox when I went home for lunch. My 30+ year desire to play this on a home Atari console is finally fulfilled. Thanks Bob! Thanks Albert!

Yeah. It's fine. Whever I would save I would listen carefully to the music, because I heard the save bug occurs when you save as the music starts to loop. I can't really compare it in that much detail to the original. For one because I've never played the original game on the original hardware. I have played it on the PS3 via the Genesis Collection. I've also played it via my Mega Everdrive on a Genesis. I do think those options are a bit higher resolution. I don't think the GBA version is reprogrammed. I think I remember seeing that it's emulated, so it's probably running through some kind of resolution scaler.

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I don't know. I'm getting the feeling that y'all are thinking I'm saying Phantasy Star 1 sucks. I'm not. Even when I played it for the first time in the mid 00s, I was blown away by how far beyond it was anything on the NES, and how well it compared to RPGs on the 16 bit systems. Indeed, the thing which caused me to set it down (and not get back to it) was a section in the above-world game. There's a point where there's some lava, and you need to get to the other side in order to continue the game. Since it was lava, I thought I needed some kind of special item to cross it. My gamer logic said "It's lava. It's gonna instant kill you. Look for Hot Shoes or whatever." I was so convinced ot this I backtracked to every previous spot in the game, and never found anything. I was convinced I had missed something. Of course, I hadn't. It turns out I just needed to hotfoot it across the lava field and heal up my guys. In the CRPG terms I normally think in, the lava wasn't so much lava as it was a red colored swamp. Most dungeons I didn't even map. I just used the right hand on the wall trick, and that was serving me well. I did wish there was an automap though. Grinding in the dungeons was monotonous because of how homogenous they all were, but it wasn't bad by any stretch. I had planned to go to Suikoden after I finish Class of Heroes 2G, but this thread has me thinking if I'm still in a dungeon crawly mood, I may just start up a new game of Phantasy Star either on my PS3 or my Mega Everdrive.

Blasphemy? No, just practicality. I love games like Wizardry, Bard's Tale, and Phantasy Star, but that manual mapping requirements adds a tedious barrier to sitting down to play. Sometimes I just don't feel like that. You can still have a good game of the style with automap. But ideally, maybe there could be an options switch: Automap on or off. That way the people who see manual mapping as part of the challenge wouldn't be tempted to use the automap, and those who don't want that extra layer of work could enjoy things too. And yes, the 3D dungeons were impressive in the late 80s/early 90s for the SMS, but they look more than a bit plain and boring now. The repetitive dungeon looks combined with having to manually map everything really sapped my will to continue when I finally got to play the game via the GBA compilation cart (but on a big screen via the Game Boy Player). The rest of the game still looks vibrant, but those damn walls... ugh. That part hasn't aged gracefully.

I'm playing Class of Heroes 2G on my PS3 right now, and as I've been playing it I've been thinking about how I miss the mix of third person overworld exploring and the first person dungeon crawling of Phantasy Star 1. If Phantasy Star 1 had an automap and some spiffier graphics for the dungeon walls, it would be perfect. I'm pretty sure the PS2 remake had the spiffier dungeon walls part covered.

From my perspective, the Advent Children movie was great. However, the games which came out (Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerebus) were not very good. What I've played of Crisis Core has story bits which give me the warm fuzzies and remind me of those fun days experiencing VII for the first time. Sadly, I don't like the game those story bits are wrapped around, and find it not worth spending my time on. Without playing the game I'll never develop the attachment to the story and characters like I did with VII. If Crisis Core had been a prequel movie, I probably would have loved it as much as Advent Children. Unfortunately, it has this less than interesting game in the way. That's why I couldn't get too excited.

Yes. I don't keep it hooked up, though. I don't play the NES much, so it's typically in a space conserving hookup state with only one dogbone controller attached. To me the control with the NES Advantage is better, but it's still a bit iffy. Plus, there are just minor things about the port's look which irrationally bug me. So, it's not a version I readily reach to for Pac-entertainment with so many other options.

For my 7800 I typically keep a CX-40 style controller hooked to it. If I don't have that hooked to it, I have a Pro-Line style stick hooked up, which I like just fine for playing Pac-Man. Regardless, it's pretty easy to swap out controllers on my 7800. On the Colecovision, I've found it best to keep the stock controllers hooked up to it because some games are simply unplayable otherwise. The 2600 controller in port one and the CV controller in port 2 just doesn't work for some games. In addition, the controller ports on the CV are in an inconvenient spot and hooded in such a way that I find it a pain in the ass to swap out controllers. Even though I have some of Yurkie's fantastic controller mods for the CV, I just find my 7800 controller options preferable. Even if the above considerations didn't matter to me, I still find playing with a CX-40 or ProLine more nostalgic, so that's why it's a factor for me.

Pac Man Collection for the 7800 easily wins my vote. The poll is missing a couple of very good ones. There's a Pac Man Arcade for the 5200. There's also Hack 'em for the 2600. I've probably played the 2600 version the most. I don't have anything against it. I spent many a lazy afternoon with it, and I still play from time to time even with all the other options available. I very much enjoy Pac Man Arcade, and it's probably the Pac Man port we deserved back in 1982. I prefer the Pac Man Arcade Enhanced version though. Pac Man 4K is also excellent. Personally, I have a hard time getting excited about it, though. It feels like Pac Man Arcade part 2. I don't play it often, preferring to just play Arcade Enhanced when I'm in that kind of mood. I definitely would have been happy with the 5200 version back in the day, but I never owned it then. I don't play it much now, as other versions scratch my itch more effectively. As I've already stated Pac Man Collection on the 7800 is my favorite and my go to Pac Man cart. Pac Man Collection on the Colecovision is amazing, but I'd just rather play the 7800 version. Plus, Colecovision controllers just inherently suck. I don't recall ever having played the C64 version of Pac Man. I probably have, but I don't remember it and therefore have no opinion. I've never played the INTV version of Pac-Man. Until about 2000, I never had any idea there was a INTV version of Pac-Man. I don't particularly like the NES version of Pac-Man. It's OK, but the controls don't feel right. I'd rather play just about any other version of Pac-Man than the NES port. Hack 'em is fantastic on the 2600, and would be my go to VCS Pac game, BUT the game rolls like crazy on the TV I currently have my 7800 hooked up to, so I don't play it anymore. Pac Man Arcade is the version I play when I want to play Pac Man on my 5200.

That ShadowElite08 guy I mentioned does EXACTLY this.