Rayman Pirate-Community

lllllllloving mount and blade warband!

Playing some Old School Runescape. Found a medium clue scroll, from mining, and got a shit-tier haul

Nice to know and I am eternally grateful for these 200 tings.

Completed the Switch version of Sonic Mania with both Sonic/Tails, and Knuckles.

If you ever thought Generations was a good "love letter" to the classic Sonic series, this game blows that out of the water. Mania has proven that a small team that has created what is essentially a fangame, is more competent than Sonic Team is with their own franchise. I'm not always one for fanservice purely for fanservice, but in Mania, the fanservice is sort of just a side thing for you to gush over while the levels are arguably some of the best in the classic Sonic series. Very comparable to Sonic 3 and Knuckles, there are many alternate routes for you to take that makes replayability super fun. Each of the 12 zones is packed to the brim with detail. Although I am a little upset that majority of the zones are just remixes of older zones from the classic sonic games, a lot of them do enough to differentiate themselves (aside from Oil Ocean, that was the only zone that I just didn't enjoy.) However, the original new exclusive zones are some of the best in Sonic history, which makes me wonder why there are only 4 new zones, and 8 remixed zones, it's a little disappointing if you ask me, I'd like to see a more of a balance between the two.

I feel bad for PC users who aren't able to experience the game just yet, I'm glad the console versions were a backup for me. I hope the success of Mania leads to more Mania-like sequels, with more remixed levels, and more new levels. Yeah that's right, I want to see more of this, I believe so much more can be done with this new classic Sonic.

I, I play games!

I played 007 Nightfire (console version), it was alright. Shooting things wasn't nearly as fun as it should be and the level design varies in quality, but overall it's a pretty gewd challenge and fun to blast through in a couple hours. The vehicle segments were pretty hit and miss, the underwater and helicopter stages were tedious but driving was always really sweet and I liked that they made it so over-the-top. I loved the whole snowy fortress area: Sneaking in, hanging out at the party, and then escaping with a final helicopter/rocket launcher fight was a really tight level and pretty much how any James Bond game should aim to play out.

IIIIIIIIII also played the Zelda: Breath of the Winko DLC pack. The trials of the sword were awesome and the most fun I've had with the game, I think it goes to show how the combat is really at its best when you're given limited resources. I liked that it also wasn't just straightforward battling but they threw in some interesting hazards too and even mixed up the scenery occasionally.

Unfortunately most of that didn't stretch out onto the Master Mode which is just kind of lazy and should've come with the game in the first place. I like that every enemy has been upgraded because it does successfully delay the point at which you begin to overpower them, but the regenerating health is pretty fucked. It turns a lot of enemies into damage sponges as opposed to making them genuinely more difficult. I feel like what they really should've done here is nerfed the main game - decrease the number of times you can use the champion powers, no meals granting bonus health, higher shop prices, etc.

Playing Super smash bros on an n64 emulator. Unlocked all characters. Just playing through; beating Level 9 CPUs for fun.

Spent most of yesterday and today playing DUSK, or at least its first episode since that's all there is right now. It's a throwback shooter, a love letter to Quake 1 in particular, and its fucking excellent.
There aren't many throwback shooters that end up actually coming out. Strafe was probably the last one to come out before this, and thats a stretch because despite advertising itself as an old school shooter, it was more accurately a roguelike, and it wasn't very good at either genre. Dusk on the other hand doesn't just feel like an old school shooter, it feels like it is one of those old school shooters, Levels are lovingly hand crafted, laiden with secrets, enemy ambushes via monster closets, mazes were progression is locked by coloured keys hidden within those mazes, secrets behind fake walls, hard to reach areas or hidden by other parts of the environments that contain much needed supplies, or secrets within those secrets, or in one instance an entrance to a completely missable secret level. And thats just the level design.
The movement of the game feels fantastic, if I didn't know going in that the game was running on Unity, you could have fooled me that the devs had actually licensed the Quake 1 engine to make it. Your movement speed is fast, and it only gets faster if you begin bunnyhopping or strafe jumping. You also have a crouch slide, which is good for dodging faster moving enemy projectiles, and whilst your in the air, your y-axis is unlocked, meaning your character, the Dusk Dude, can do flips and shit in air, totally pointless, but it doesn't really impact anything else in the gameplay and is an optional manoeuvre anyway. Your Character also has a flashlight ripped straight from half-life 1, and there are physics props, a strange addition for an old school shooter but it does make sense when you think about it from a gameplay perspective, you can stack crates on top of each other to make makeshift platforms to higher up secrets without needing to rocket jump, they also have some comedic value to them mainly from how Overpowered they are, throwing them from even relatively short distances at most lower tier enemies will gib them instantly.
And yes, all enemies in the game that have ranged attacks are projectile based, there's not a hitscan in sight outside of your own arsenal, there are enemies with faster moving projectiles, most notably the enemies that actually do wield guns, but they can still be dodged if your fast enough. There's also a good reason the enemies are all projectile based, the games hardest difficulty, Duskmare, has you die in one hit, no matter what your health and armor is, obviously this is more of a joke difficulty much in the same vein as doom's nightmare difficulty, which informs you before you start it that it knows its unfairly hard. But there are 4 more serious difficulty options, i've beaten episode 1 on 'Cero Miedo' and 'I can take it' difficulties, to compare it to doom again, 'Ultra-Violence' and 'Hurt me plenty' respectively. I did play the harder one first, and it felt suitabley hard, but then playing the normal mode after it felt like too far of a jump back in terms of difficulty, but the devs have said that difficulty balancing is still a WIP.
Weapons are pretty excelent too, fairly standard line-up, some even feel directly lifted from other games, but all are viable and useful. you actually have 2 melee weapons, a pair of sickles, which is all you start with initially, and theres also an option to automatically remove all your weapons and start each level with sickles only, they're fast firing and low damge, theres a much more powerful sword thats hidden in a later level, slower firing but more powerful and can be charged up to hit even harder.
Then theres the pistol and the shotgun, which can both be wielded akimbo, The super Shotgun which feels almost exactly like Doom 2's Super Shotgun, an assault rifle, fast firing medium damage pretty accurate, hunting rifle, hard hitting but slow firing and low max ammo, The ethereal Crossbow which basically just is the ethereal crossbow from Heretic.

and rounding off the arsenal is the mortar, a sticky grenade launcher, and the riveter, a rocket launcher. Theres also cigar but its mostly there as a joke.

I understand this post is getting ridiculously long but theres so much I love about this game so far. I'll sum up the rest in a few short points.
- The music is by Andrew Hulshult, probably most famous for his metal covers of Doom 1 and 2's OST's that Brutal Doom uses as its OST. Dusk's OSt is a mix of quake style ambience, and heavy metal industrial that begins playing during larger battles.
- The game is chock full of references to older games in the genre, I'm not going to spoil them all,but IDKFA works, there are also a few memes in here but they're pretty out of the way and inconsequential.
- The game has actual boss battles, 3 of them in Episode 1 alone, sadly they're not great, but at least it has boss fights, Quake 1 only had 2, and realy they were more like really shitty puzzles than actual tests of skill.
-I can't comment on it now, but the full game will have proper deathmatch multiuplayer, as well as modding tools, interestingly, the game has adopted TrenchBroom, a quake Mapping program to use for its own maps. It makes me wonder if it would at all be possible for pre-existing custom Quake maps to be easily ported over to Dusk, it would definitely help, giving the game a bunch of custom content from day 1.

TL;DR Dusk is fucking great, I can't wait for the full game to come out, a date of October 31st has been given but the devs have admitted thats more of a guesstimate.
If anyones interested I streamed my second playthrough of Episode 1 on Twitch a few hours ago and uploaded the VOD to youtube.

I've been playing Miitopia lately on my 3DS. The game is very fun despite of some points turning repetitive. From time to time I've been also playing Sly Racoon on the PS2.

Do you like Sly Racoon so far, Haruka?

I was playing Aoe with Lovy last night.

I played Rayman Adventures a lot lately but now that the summer marathon is over I think I'll just leave it gradually for a while.

Besides, I'm back to work and football season is starting. This year I made a commitment to practice as much as humanly possible so I will have very little time for video games.

Bzzit wrote:Do you like Sly Racoon so far, Haruka?

I actually decided to put in on sale (it is still available for purchase if anyone here is interested in buying it). I only did 20% of the game and during that I had motion sickness around 4 or 5 times already. And from what I heard from safe sources there are more levels ahead that can trigger these symptoms to me again, so I will have to vote for my health. I am hoping the sequels are more playable for me.

Good to know. Better to be safe than sorry.
I am Playing Rayman DS on a DS emulator on my phone.(DraStic)
Controls are so dodgy.
Feels so weird to be playing this game with just a D-Pad.

Rayman 2 on ps1.

Haruka wrote:

Bzzit wrote:Do you like Sly Racoon so far, Haruka?

I actually decided to put in on sale (it is still available for purchase if anyone here is interested in buying it). I only did 20% of the game and during that I had motion sickness around 4 or 5 times already. And from what I heard from safe sources there are more levels ahead that can trigger these symptoms to me again, so I will have to vote for my health. I am hoping the sequels are more playable for me.

That's unfortunate , you made the right decision though
Hopefully the sequels are better experiences for your health, as they're great games

I started Silent Hill 2 yesterday and I'm really liking it so far. Amazing atmosphere, it's a bit like the old Resident Evil games only more creepy and fantastic and even less combat-oriented. I've been wanting to give the series a try for a long time and that was a good idea. Looks like I'm about halfway through the game, I'll most likely finish it tonight or tomorrow and I'll post a more elaborate commentary then.

Any of you wondering what happened to Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, well I just haven't felt like giving it another try since I last talked about it. If I recall correctly the best thing to do would be to replay a few easier levels to collect ammo and make sure to save a healing item for when I need it, but I found that final boss so frustrating that I'd rather play other games for now. It's a shame, cause there are a few extra stages that are only unlocked after beating that ugly bastard. And then there's The Darkside Chronicles too.

I've been playing on my DS recently, including a game of Advance Wars: Dual Strike with my brothers and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. I recently got a copy of Castlevania Order of Ecclesia which I'm looking forward to playing.

buildersith wrote:Spent most of yesterday and today playing DUSK, or at least its first episode since that's all there is right now.

Woah, I hadn't heard about this game but it really looks like my cup of tea, I'll be sure to get a copy when the full thing comes out

I beat Resident Evil 7 about two months ago, and it was awesome. I won't write a big thing about it since everyone already knows the deal, but yeah, excellent.

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I'm currently playing through Destiny, and wow, I'm actually blown away by how fun this game is. The inventory system, the bounties, the missions, everything is super addictive and you feel yourself progressing quickly at all times, and I'm only playing it by myself. Every time I get a new weapon I'm stoked to check it out, because everything makes a noticeable difference. The game isn't very grindy and it does away with a lot of the repetitive, useless archaic stuff a lot of RPG-MMOs have, allowing it to really focus on their pretty original take on the whole system. I mean, it's not revolutionary, but it's so intuitive, flowy and exciting the way they've done it. It's infinitely better than Borderlands and has some of the best, most refined, balanced and fun gunplay I've ever felt in a shooter.

I've gotta say too, the graphics are really gorgeous in places. The amount of effort they put into the environment and the technical prowess of it all (even texture resolution) is pretty stunning. Venus is something else.

The main issue with the game is the story: it's kind of sucky and nonexistent, which is really tragic since the original concept for it was enthralling and inspired. There was apparently a huge disagreement during development.

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I am/was playing through Yooka-Laylee, and it sucks. Rare's devs had made a number of advancements since the original Banjo-Kazooie, and of course none of those are present here since the entire point of YK was to just do Banjo again. Funnily, the only thing it decided to take from anything after BK was arguably the only bad thing: Tooie's worlds being too large for their own good, and boy are YK's worlds stupidly huge for no reason whatsoever. Not only that, the missions are unbearably dull (every other mission is "go find these 5 things randomly scattered around the level", aka fuck off), and even the elements borrowed directly from Banjo like the transformations blow ass. Who wants to transform into a flower that hops the speed of an actual flower and just sprays other flowers with flower cum? These don't require any skill, it's more comparable to being in a traffic jam than anything that fits the criteria for a "game".

Additionally, consider this: after spending three hours in the first level, I'd only found 6/25 pagies. Every level has this problem (I've spent a lot of time in four of the meagre five levels).

The graphics range from awkward to terrible depending on where you look. At worst, you'll be looking at a complete garbage dump of completely disjunct texture and model work (resolutions are all over the map, normal maps are mediocre, stuff like grass they have no idea how to do properly) with asset placement comparable to a 14-year-old's first map in a level editor with bloom taking the main stage. At best you have a sort of passable-looking scene, but with very bland lighting.

This next thing really kinda pisses me off - Rextro.... Rextro is a dinosaur who gives you access to a bunch of arcade minigames, supposed "retro throwbacks". Rextro's model is supposed to look like a retro low-poly model, evocative of the Banjo/N64 era, and just bear in mind that this whole thing was designed by the same people who worked in that time, on Banjo-Kazooie. Let's get this out in point form, because every single thing they did is wrong, and some of it is getting technical:

• Rextro's model looks nothing like an actual N64 model; it's closer to a my-first-console-was-a-Wii kid's interpretation of a 90's model.
• Rextro's model uses flat shading, which makes no sense since the N64 used smoothing groups.
• Rextro's texture uses no filtering (to give it a gay "retro-pixelated" look), which makes no sense since one of the N64's huge, innovative graphical features was its usage of trilinear filtering. If anything, it's solely representative of the PS1 or Saturn.
• The music is 8-bit chiptune
• The games are closer to something you'd see in 70's arcades
• The more obvious point: Rextro's arcade games don't even incorporate a retro graphical style, they just reuse normal levele4 assets. The games themselves are also glitchy, shet and impossible to control.

Again, the reason this being unfathomably stupid to me being that these very same devs developed models for the N64 back in the day, and yet never have I seen such a poor, mismatched joke of an attempt at coming off "retro". It might not seem like a big deal to a lot of people, but this is exactly where Playtonic had their chance to shine in light of everything else, and instead they can't even offer respect to themselves and their own golden-age work.

Almost every single design choice in this game is inherently terrible, and I'd give this a 4/10 at most. Why so high? Simply because - and this is really the only thing worthy of praise in the game - Yooka and Laylee themselves are fun to control, much moreso than Banjo and Kazooie. Oh yeah, the soundtrack (except for the snow world which actually had good music) was incredibly mediocre.

The fact they used Unity is quite telling, and leads me to this theory: they haven't made a game in over 15 years, and they have next to no concept of or training in the workflow of modern game development. Back in the 90's, you could wip up a basic OpenGL engine in a day or two (the N64 API basically being OpenGL), whereas now you'd have to spend millions to make something that even grazes the AAA-realm of quality and performance. Unity is a very bad engine for making graphically intense 3D games, and yet Playtonic chose to use it, likely due to the fact it was easy to use, and they're so out of the field at this point that they either weren't able to figure out something like Unreal, or didn't have the patience to train themselves in it. It's embarrassing.

Hunchman801 wrote:I started Silent Hill 2 yesterday and I'm really liking it so far. Amazing atmosphere, it's a bit like the old Resident Evil games only more creepy and fantastic and even less combat-oriented. I've been wanting to give the series a try for a long time and that was a good idea. Looks like I'm about halfway through the game, I'll most likely finish it tonight or tomorrow and I'll post a more elaborate commentary then.

You should definitely play the original Silent Hill. To me it has the most chilling atmosphere and sound design - part of that is due to it being on PS1, but the way they made use of the graphics and sound capabilities is so phenomenally creative. It also, despite the bad voice acting (which still comes off as genuine despite being bad), feels less cheesy to me since it has fewer dumb/cringey Japanese tropes Jap devs can never resist sticking in everything they do (including SH2 to some extent). I also like the father-daughter storyline and how disturbingly screwy that theme becomes as you progress.

Adsolution wrote:I beat Resident Evil 7 about two months ago, and it was awesome. I won't write a big thing about it since everyone already knows the deal, but yeah, excellent.

Man, I feel like playing that one again!

Adsolution wrote:You should definitely play the original Silent Hill. To me it has the most chilling atmosphere and sound design - part of that is due to it being on PS1, but the way they made use of the graphics and sound capabilities is so phenomenally creative. It also, despite the bad voice acting (which still comes off as genuine despite being bad), feels less cheesy to me since it has fewer dumb/cringey Japanese tropes Jap devs can never resist sticking in everything they do (including SH2 to some extent). I also like the father-daughter storyline and how disturbingly screwy that theme becomes as you progress.

I can't quite remember why I chose to start with Silent Hill 2, though I do remember there was a reason. Not that it matters now, as I'll most likely buy it too. Also, what tropes are you thinking of?

Been playing some Yakuza Kiwami lately, another really awesome PS4 exclusive we've got within this year.

It's been years since I've played the original Yakuza, but I remember it not aging well at all so this remake was very well needed. And god damn the amount of depth and newly added cutscenes they've given to characters is excellent. The character Nishiki was never given much depth in the original other than being Kiryu's best bud and eventually rival after Kiryu's imprisonment. Seeing these new cutscenes that shows how he rose to the top to become a power hungry villain, was much well needed. The newly added gameplay elements carried from Zero are excellent too, giving the gameplay far more depth than the original. I'd definitely like to say more after finishing the game, excellent title for PS4 owners.