cj_robot

4 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

This may be considered heresy, but I'm not really a fan of the NES first-party lineup.  Obviously with almost 70 titles there's some great ones in there, but almost half are the black box games, few of which I'd consider being worth more than a cursory play (I'm not really into the late 70s/early 80s arcade games that comprised a good chunk of the black box lineup).  There's only around 10 games I genuinely consider to be above average or higher, and of those around half were developed by other companies.  And of those 10, only maybe 3 or 4 are games I'd play through for fun after beating them once.  So yeah, just not really my cup of tea. 

Same. Outside of Kirby's Adventure and the Mario games, there's nothing that I really ever want to go back to on the NES.

As for portables, doesn't it just have to be Virtual Boy?

I had to laugh at myself back in the day. There I was in 2001 with my Sega Dreamcast and the newest hyped-up AAA game, and all I'm doing with it is playing Hang-On and Space Harrier.

I never did get anywhere in the actual game

Completed Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere. One of my favorite PS1 games, though it had been over ten years since my last playthrough. Good times.

I hate the Propeller cap. For some reason I always lose control with that thing. I get too impatient floating in the air, but then I push down to rush back to the ground and usually end up drilling right down a pit or something stupid like that.

Beat Deception III: Dark Delusion.

This game was a pleasant surprise. First time playing a game from this franchise. The story is either poorly written or poorly translated and I couldn't really make sense of what all the characters were actually up to, but the game itself was quite fun. It's damn satisfying watching these badass villains come after you just to get blown up by a bomb in the floor, knocking them into poisoned spikes in the wall where a flaming boulder is ready to drop on their heads.

I've been thinking about this for two days now and I just can't pick a favorite. Every game has one or two tracks that, for me, are excellent and unforgettable. But I don't feel like any one game has a full soundtrack that's clearly above the rest. I will say that I'm probably alone in that the SMB3 soundtrack is my least favorite.

Beat Crusaders of Might and Magic. This game kind of surprised me. I was totally expecting it to be awful, but I ended up enjoying it a bit. I wouldn't necessarily call it good, but not bad.

It's an action-RPG, but really more action than RPG. You fight bad guys, earn experience, gain levels, learn magic, etc. But it's extremely linear and not a very long game, although that was totally fine by me in this case. It's got janky graphics, clunky controls, and a goofy script/story... and that's all I have to say about that.

18 hours ago, Sumez said:

So why or how is vsync a thing then?  

You could argue a game doesn't talk directly to the hardware, but it talks to a driver that does. Or it talks to an OS that talks to a driver that does. Or it talks to a framework that talks to the OS, etc. But the software absolutely knows if it's targeting a 60hz output or something else. It needs to know.

I think you're overestimating how much those things do for you.  Yes, video cards have video memory for flat textures and render surfaces that will help you buffer your frame for multiple subsequent outputs, but it's really up to the software how to use that.

Just to clarify here, there is no need for the software or hardware to do any "doubling" of frames. Basically, the frame data is located at some specific location in memory, and the hardware (computer, console or whatever) simply sends whatever data is in that spot to the display device. The display device projects that data onto the screen, and it's doing it constantly at 60hz or 75hz or whatever the refresh rate of the device is, whether the frame data is updated or not. All the programmers do is update the frame data. If they update it 30 times a second, then you get 30fps. If they don't ever update the data, then you get a static image, but the software does not have to tell the display device anything to keep displaying the same frame over and over again.

As for Vsync, it has nothing to do with the program outputting frames at a different rate than the monitor. It's about the frame updates not being in sync with the screen refresh. Each screen refresh is extremely fast, but not instantaneous. If you update the frame buffer in memory during the screen refresh, you will get tearing. So, having a vsync option means the program simply asks the hardware to check and make sure the screen refresh is complete before updating the frame buffer. Like you said, the program updating frames at a different rate than the display device could create the appearance of stuttering, but that is not what Vsync fixes.

Personally, I'm on the side of not caring. Obviously, the higher the better, but it's absolutely not a deal breaker for me, unless it was so bonkers low that it became unplayable. I grew up playing N64 games for goodness sakes.

I finished Fear Effect. I did not get a screenshot because the ending lasted literally a few seconds and I was not prepared for that. Kind of shocking, to be honest, since the rest of the game is chock full of video cutscenes. Oh well.

It's a pretty cool game. Plays like a Resident Evil clone that focuses a bit more on action than on survival. I remember it got a lot of hype back in the day, but I don't hear much about it anymore. Anyway, I liked it.

Yeah, I could never get into this one. Have tried a few times, but never got much farther than the first dungeon before I usually get bored and lose interest. I'm not sure what it is, because ALTTP had me hooked from beginning to end, but none of the 3D Zelda games have ever given me that feeling.

43 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

And having different difficulties was common back then. Even most Atari 2600 games have difficulty settings.

 

Ah yes, that is true. I remember now that almost every 7800 game had difficulty selection right on the title screen. Don't remember it very much on NES games (with some notable exceptions like DD2 as you mentioned), although I guess many games did do that thing where you beat the game and it just starts up a second loop with higher difficulty.

Definitely seemed like it become much more common again in the 16-bit era (and probably more NES games during this time period as well).

I definitely appreciate getting something extra when I beat a game on hard mode. Having different difficulty settings wasn't really a thing in the 8-bit era though, was it?

Also, YouTube may not have existed yet, but Game Genie was a thing. I saw whatever ending I wanted to LOL

Yes, the game is basically broken, but the songs are so damn catchy and I still genuinely have a good time whenever I do pop it in. 6/10

Konami was an elite developer for multiple decades. Yes, I miss good Konami.

I was always pretty impressed with the voice acting Lucas Arts adventure games in the early '90s (Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, etc.) I felt the voice work in Sierra's game's of the time seemed almost amateurish by comparison. It's almost like it took a few years for some developers to realize that you couldn't just grab people from the office and expect decent voice work.

Snatcher on the Sega CD was pretty good too. 

As for modern games, I feel Naughty Dog's stuff is the gold standard, although I don't play much modern stuff so there's probably plenty of stuff as good or better by now.

Finished Army Men.

Very meh game, but not too bad. Even still it's probably one of the better games in this awful franchise.

I wait until midnight, shut out all the lights, and pop in "Play With the Teletubbies" for the PS1. Creepy AF.

Haven't played this one. Played the first one and really did not like it much, but people really seem to like TTYD, so I'll probably give it a shot one day.

I will always prefer original hardware. Not just for authenticity, but experiencing the intricacies of each different console is itself pretty interesting.

That being said, for practicality's sake I have long since ditched all of my old hardware in favor of emulation.

I finished Top Gear Pocket 2. Nice looking game for the GBC, but super easy and ultimately not that exciting.

Blech! 2/10

I never understood the admiration people have for this game. I guess there's something there I just don't get, but yeah... definitely not for me. Maybe the arcade game is good? (never played it), but the NES port is sloppy doodoo. Go ahead and tell me to get gud, whatever. This game hates my guts, so why shouldn't I hate it back?

I know most (possibly all) of the R-Type games have a level where the entire stage is flying by a giant ship, taking out gun emplacements and the enemy fighters it releases, and ending with taking the whole thing down as the level boss.

As much as I love them, I've never been great at NES games. The ones that I've actually beaten that gave me the hardest time were probably Castlevania, Talespin and Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy is not even really that tough, but you really have to take advantage of some stuff that you are left to figure out on your own, like which armor/weapon items can be used in battle to cast magic spells, which spells are actually worth purchasing, and which spells actually work in the game and aren't bugged to be completely useless. 

Maybe the toughest recent achievements have been beating Uncharted on Brutal difficulty. It's actually damn challenging, as enemies pretty much can one-hit kill you throughout the entire game.

Another one is the PS4 version of Red Faction, which is essentially an upscaled port of the PS2 game. I got it last year and damn if I forgot how tough the game is. The enemies have mostly perfect aim, even from ridiculous distances. On Normal (or Easy) difficulty, it's no real problem because you can absorb a lot of hits, but there is an Impossible difficulty which I completed, and it was absolutely brutal. That one remains the rarest PS trophy I've earned.

20 hours ago, Sumez said:

...the terrible visibility is what really kills it.

You're not the only one saying this, but I just don't get it. Certainly there are plenty of N64 games plagued by blurry textures and overuse of fog, but MK64 was not one of them. The track geometry is pretty basic and the road is plenty wide everywhere... I never had any problem at all seeing where I was going in this game. (Actually, with split screen multiplayer you definitely have a point)

Now, did the sequels get better? Sure. But 64 is still great and super fun to play. 8/10 for me.