The Whatever The Heck You're Playing At The Moment Thread

[FortNinety]

Just installed Tekken 6 onto the HDD and the load times is now on par with the 360 version. Which still isn't good enough imho; you'd think stuff would be pulled up in an instant, though I don't know how much was actually installed either (guess you can't check for such info while in mid-game).

As for graphic quality, I actually prefer the slightly softer look on the 360. I'll have more to say later tonight on the blog.

[dmauro]

Soul Calibur, at least the original, has an option to continue with the same character so it doesn't have to reload.

[FortNinety]

Yeah. I'm seriously pissed that this wasn't carried over.

It's been a while, but I believe that option was dropped as of part 4, but I could be wrong. I still remember there being no way to just jump right back in, perhaps for other reasons.

Back to Tekken: part 6 reminds me of why I'm more in love with the idea of the series than playing the games themselves; the AI is just annoyingly cheap.

[drozdal]

Last Friday I finally got Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection on 360 and then I played it for better part of the weekend. I have to say if you like pinball machines from late 70's and early 80's you'll really dig it. This game is miles better than Pinball FX available on XBLA marketplace and Zen Pinball on PSN and has near flawless hit detection, HD visuals with a lot of viewing angles available to chose from, all the controls - customizable.

Three out of 12 (or 13) available tables have with dot matrix displays and really advanced scoring schemes, but older ones have certain charm to them (like Taxi for example where you can pick up Dracula, Santa or Gorbachev and drive them to the airport). There are two offline modes - classic single player mode and Williams challenge (where you have get certain score on each table to move to the next and when you beat last one  [about 1-2 hours of play] the only locked table is made available for play). Few tables require credits to play that you earn by beating missions / high scores and getting achievements, but honestly I never felt like I was short on them. Some older tables have clearly broken extra ball features (Space Shuttle) that allow skilled player to play forever (or in my instance till I get really bored), others (Arabian Nights) have really frustrating non-register glitches on some ramps (that will hopefully get corrected in a update). I have to add that each table has excellent instructions that break down scoring and all the features in a really approachable matter. 

As a plus older tables share a lot of sound effects with golden age era arcade games made by Williams (like Joust for example). Well worth $29.50 I've paid for it (on Amazon).

[FortNinety]

On a side note drozdal, have you seen this yet?

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2008/04/column_cinema_pixeldiso_tilt_t.php

[FortNinety]

Okay, I'm pretty sick of Tekken 6 already.

The last boss is the cheapest in the history of Tekken, which is saying A LOT. But worst of all is how when I finally beat the fucking thing, I didn't get an ending, which has always been the feature attraction of the series. Apparently I have to beat the lame ass Tekken Force mode to unlock the ability to unlock them in the arcade mode. FFFUUUCCCKKK...

As neat as Tekken Force was in part 3, when you make it the primary focal point this time around but don't actually make it any better than it was in 1998, it becomes hell on earth.

Another stupid thing is how the one legitimately cool background is not manually selectable and only pops up when choosing random. Why?

Oh, and online is the absolute worst. I've never experienced online bouts with so much lag. It's insane, and pretty much everyone at message boards are up in arms, and for good reasons.

Plus Joe, apparently the 360 version looks much better in high def. I'll bring over both for you to see for yourself next time.

[dhex]

if you wanted a colorful, lewt-filled version of diablo 2, torchlight will treat you right.

[isfet]

man, computers always give me a reminder of why i love them so much.

so i downloaded the Torchlight demo via Steam a little while ago and whenever i try to load it, the screen turns black and my monitor greets me with "frequency out of range."  i'm at a loss of what the hell i'm supposed to do.  the internet tells me vague things about the resolution and refresh rates (don't understand that).  if it's that the game is starting off in a resolution that's too high for my monitor, wouldn't it be nice if i could change that setting ahead of time?  but no, of course i can't do that.  and when i try to change the "launch options" of the demo through Steam, i'm told it's for advanced users only, but with no explanation of what that actually means.

so uhh...yea, no Torchlight for me.

Matt:  that would be awesome; i'd love a side by side comparison of the games.

[drozdal]

On a side note drozdal, have you seen this yet?

I didn't knew this documentary existed, after reading your review I ordered it without thinking twice about it.

Speaking of pinballs did you guys heard of Pinball Parlour? They are located about 2-2,5 drive from the city - about 30 minutes outside of Philly - their machine list is amazing.

[dhex]

isfet: that's not a resolution problem but a refresh issue.* depending on your screen it should be 60hz or 75 hz.

* probably. it might also be an overheating thing. who made your vid card and monitor?

[dmauro]

It is also a resolution problem. If you try feeding through a resolution that your monitor can't handle it will give that same message. It doesn't necessarily have to be too big, it could simply be a resolution it doesn't know how to handle. That seems a little weird though unless your monitor is very old or cheap.

Try right clicking on the demo in Steam, go to Properties, General Tab, Set Launch Options button and add "-width 800 -height 600", if that doesn't work try "-w 800 -h 600".

If that's the button you're referring to that won't let you use, that's pretty weird since demos should allow access to that as well (L4D2 does), then there is a workaround. Go into C:/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/torchlight demo and make a shortcut to the exe, right click on the options of the shortcut and add the h/w hash after the link to the exe in the shortcut's properties.

[FortNinety]

Because I've become bored with Tekken 6, decided to try out the PS3's PSone compatibility with PSone games with Tekken 2 and 3. And after a few minutes with one, I'd try the arcade version on Tekken 5 via the PS2.

Man, I remember the final boss in 3 being so massive, so impressive. My how things have changed!

I then decided to pop up Virtua Fighter 2, the not so shabby PS2 port. Christ, that game is still amazing, but still be my fave all time fighting game come to think of it. So, SO fucking tight.

[FortNinety]

Right this very moment, everyone's yelling and screaming outside for the Yankees, who I guess just won the World Series, but I could give two shits because I JUST GOT THE HIGHEST SCORE IN PAC MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION ACROSS ALL MY FRIENDS!!!

[B coma]

I still marvel at how Namco pulled off Tekken 3 on PS1 hardware.

http://i.neoseeker.com/p/Games/Playstation/Action/Fighting/tekken3_profilelarge.jpg

that and R4 have some of the cleanest looking visuals on the system.

[FortNinety]

I actually neglected to mention that I also popped in R4 along with all the Tekkens, simply because it wasn't part of the topic at hand, which was fighters.

But yeah, seriously the most brilliant use of color in any game. Still totally beautiful. And the best soundtrack, which is saying a lot, since each installment has had amazing tunes.