PS2 Gunbird, and shooters in General!

[Yeton]

I thought you shoot em up fanatics here would be interested to know I accidentally stumbled upon PS2 Gunbird Spcecial Edition for a snip at £9.99 in Gamestation (I think it was only released recently in the UK, in fact). Looking at Gamefaqs, I don't think this game has even been released in the US of A yet, which is a shame. Anyway, they seem to be perfect conversions of the Arcade verions (both 1 and 2), with fully customisable practice modes (including the option to switch on very distracting hit boxes), 3 screen modes (normal vertical with borders; wide which stretches the visuals to fill the screen; and a horizontal that doesn't alter the d-pad directions accordingly, sadly. There's no proper widescreen mode either), and 7 difficulty levels (with infinite continues, which is a bit poopy if you have no self control!) and NO slowdown as far as I can see! The downside? Get this: as far as I can tell, there's NO SAVE FUNCTION. Doh! I can't believe they missed that out of an otherwise awesome package, I mean, what games in this day and age DON'T have save functions? It's still waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than R-Type Final, which I picked up a few weeks back, and bored me witless after having only played it for less than an hour (stuck it up for sale on Amazon). Is it me or are the vast majority of 2D shooters with 3D visuals still inferior to their purely 2D counterparts? I reckon even all the previous R-Types were better than Final! I got Ray Crisis a few years back, and that also seemed to suffer the same problems as R-Type: they just seem obsessed with flash 3D gimmicks and setpieces, but the gameplay seems to lack the breakneck blood & guts pace and style of the top 2D blasters. Worse still, their graphics also seem really choppy and dated considering they're 3D anyway! I haven't played all the recent shooters, so someone please tell me I'm wrong! There are exceptions to the rule of course, like Mars Matrix and Treasure's mighty Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun (still not played this yet. Grrr). Shooters I'd like to have a go on: PS2 Silpheed, Psyvariar 2 and Gradius V (though I've never been a fan of the Gradius/Parodius series). Anyone any other suggestions?

[flan_man]

Any other suggestions? Check out Border Down and Chaos Field on Dreamcast. And the upcoming Trizeal looks interesting too.

If you think R-Type Final is boring, then don't even bother with Silpheed on the ps2.

[LaParka]

Just ordered this from Play.com. Couldn't find it in game (liverpool) and got some funny looks from the shop assistant when he couldn't find it on his 'list', he asked if I was making it up

[Kazuya_UK]

Nice find man... if I see that for £9.99 in my local gamestation I will probably pick it up

Laparka: Game assistants don't know what they are talking about 90% of the time, believe me

Kaz

[Yeton]

Dumb shop assistants (even though I was one once ...). On the other hand, the folks I bought it off commended me for my old school taste! ;D

[Kazuya_UK]

Yeton said:

Dumb shop assistants (even though I was one once ...). On the other hand, the folks I bought it off commended me for my old school taste! ;D

Hehe I still work part time as a shop assistant, but as I'm only there 2 days a week I spend most of my time doing the web stuff for them now, then the rest of the week I spend at my main job. Working in retail though I guess I can be overly critical of employees at certain stores sometimes

Kaz

[LaParka]

I hate going into GAME, the whole experience is cringeworthy. Overheard an assistant telling a customer that FIFA is better than Pro Evo simply because FIFA has all the real names and Pro Evo doesn't.

[Kazuya_UK]

LaParka said:

I hate going into GAME, the whole experience is cringeworthy. Overheard an assistant telling a customer that FIFA is better than Pro Evo simply because FIFA has all the real names and Pro Evo doesn't.

Hah, that's about as bad as the people I hear all the time saying "yeah but Fifa is better than Pro Evo cos the gfx are better innit mate?". I really do wonder about some people

In fact, for the record... I think Pro Evo has better gfx anyway!

Kaz

ps Laparka - you from Liverpool then? Blue side or Red side? ;D

[LaParka]

ooh i'm in the middle - white!!! haven't been though for ages to Prenton Park. And i'll apologise in advance because i'm married to a man u fan

[Kazuya_UK]

nooo not a Man Utd fan ;D

j/k

Kaz

[LaParka]

yup, and if i want to watch an arsenal or liverpool game (being a neutral is fun) I have to go upstairs to watch it

[Kazuya_UK]

Hehe that does kinda suck

Anyway maybe we should stop messing up Yetons thread with footy talk, I guess we kinda went off topic... I'll stop now, it's all my fault

Kaz

[Yeton]

Nah, do carry on! I was just about to start a thread reflecting on the 04/05 season anyway ... and how Jose Mourinho has slowly but surely won my respect as the coolest man in football (anyone who can wind up Wenger, Fergie AND Europe's elite must be good). I still don't like Chelsea much though! ;D

[sepiasongs]

Kazuya_UK said:

if I see that for �9.99 in my local gamestation I will probably pick it up

Laparka: Game assistants don't know what they are talking about 90% of the time, believe me

gamestation's secondhand shelves = win

i even saw an aes bundle consisting of the console (obviously) with one old skool joystick, an adaptor for you to plug a ps2 controller in, kof '95, aof2, fatal fury special, a memory card, step down convertor and all the leads and cables in my local one when i was back home over easter. however the price tag of 300 pounds made me wonder whether that was a good deal at the time.. what do you think kaz?

i'm hoping by the time i clear off my overdraft in the summer it'll still be there and that the price will drop on account of 99% of the fuckwits who see it in the window not realising its majesty.

though i only live in hope mind...

[LaParka]

i'm getting a bit wary of the second hand shelves in game, gamestation etc. Getting too many discs that look like they've had a brillo pad rubbed on them.

Anyway, Gunbird arrived today going to go and give it a blast !!