The 360 Import Thread

[Misery]

You know me I'll blindly buy it no matter what!! It certainly looks more polished than Eschatos from the limited screenshots we've seen of it. I was really concerned when I saw the cover art that the game was going to be some stupid character driven shooter without space ships but I was releaved when I saw the first screen shots. I was puzzled a little by the VS screen could be just a player vs the level boss screen?

Eh, really?

It looks worse to me, graphically. Looks like alot of the same sorts of somewhat-generic backgrounds, and so far only seeing ONE enemy ship.

......not to mention that awful anime artstyle. Ugh. I've seen alot of anime art, both good and bad, and that definitely rates down in the lower rungs. Coulda done without that. Dont want story crap, just explosions.


Though I thought Eschatos looked pretty nice, myself, but then I tend to like that sort of look as opposed to basically everything else in most recent games these days.

[gmintyfresh]

A ton of information came out about Ginga Force today, looks like August the 30th is the release date.

It's up for preorder now on NCSX and Play-Asia - PA is a good bit cheaper!

And the official site launched today with some new screen shots:

http://gingaforce.qute.jp/

[gmintyfresh]

Come on there's no way that this can look as ropey - or unpolished as Eschatos!! Don't get me wrong I like the way it looks!! Its easy to fall into the trap of making too many assumptions isn't it before the final game is released?

Anyway prordered today from PA, also picked up one of the worst shmups of all time dirt cheap at the same time!!

You know me I'll blindly buy it no matter what!! It certainly looks more polished than Eschatos from the limited screenshots we've seen of it. I was really concerned when I saw the cover art that the game was going to be some stupid character driven shooter without space ships but I was releaved when I saw the first screen shots. I was puzzled a little by the VS screen could be just a player vs the level boss screen?

Eh, really?

It looks worse to me, graphically. Looks like alot of the same sorts of somewhat-generic backgrounds, and so far only seeing ONE enemy ship.

......not to mention that awful anime artstyle. Ugh. I've seen alot of anime art, both good and bad, and that definitely rates down in the lower rungs. Coulda done without that. Dont want story crap, just explosions.


Though I thought Eschatos looked pretty nice, myself, but then I tend to like that sort of look as opposed to basically everything else in most recent games these days.

[Misery]

Come on there's no way that this can look as ropey - or unpolished as Eschatos!! Don't get me wrong I like the way it looks!! Its easy to fall into the trap of making too many assumptions isn't it before the final game is released?

Eh, until I see some actual gameplay videos, I'll have to stick to the assumptions. So far, I havent seen anything at all that tells me that I should buy this one, which is rare with a shmup, and usually not a good sign. Even the new screenshots.... all 2 or 3 of them... seem to show either just "dramatic" camera angles of the playership, or the player fighting what looks like the same damn enemy ship shown in other screenshots.

Descriptions of how it works bother me as well; buy upgrades based on how well you score in each stage..... ehhh. I've seen one, and ONLY one, game do that without managing to be A: stupid, B: irritating, or C: unbalanced, which is Alpha Mission 2. Never been fond of shmups that have too many weapons for the player ships. Like Radiant Silvergun, absolutely cannot stand that game (or damn near anything else by Treasure, really). Screwy looking anime characters babbling in gibberish at each other the whole time doesnt make this sound any better. Eschatos had a certain quality that I tend to look for in games: An absolute lack of talky bits. This one though... likely to get on my nerves pretty fast. Anything involving "story" usually does.

Likely, I'll probably just ignore this one and instead possibly grab.... er... maybe grab.... .......cant think of anything. Definitely run out of things to buy here, console-wise.

[eastx]

EDIT: Also, as much as I like Cave, I'd like to PUNCH whoever came up with the decision to put these on the 360 instead of the PS3. Punch them HARD. This controller is as godawful as it always was.

If you don't like the standard Xbox 360 controller, you have plenty of options. The transforming d-pad controller (which comes in a few different colors these days, but mostly silver) has a much better d-pad than the original, though still not as good as Nintendo and Hori d-pads. There's also the Hori Pad EX 2, which is great for fighters too and has turbo. It's got the best d-pad of any 360 controller right now. There are also a number of fine arcade sticks from Madcatz or Hori that would provide excellent digital control. The Hori Fighting Stick Mini comes out later this year for ~$40 and is the size of a controller, which looks neat. The point of my post being, it's silly to complain about a default controller when there are so many other controllers available.

Also,interviewed CAVE a while back and they addressed their choice of supporting the Xbox 360 over Playstation 3. It's a good read.
http://www.wpcentral.com/xbox-live-developer-interview-cave-makers-dodonpachi-maximum

[Misery]

EDIT: Also, as much as I like Cave, I'd like to PUNCH whoever came up with the decision to put these on the 360 instead of the PS3. Punch them HARD. This controller is as godawful as it always was.

If you don't like the standard Xbox 360 controller, you have plenty of options. The transforming d-pad controller (which comes in a few different colors these days, but mostly silver) has a much better d-pad than the original, though still not as good as Nintendo and Hori d-pads. There's also the Hori Pad EX 2, which is great for fighters too and has turbo. It's got the best d-pad of any 360 controller right now. There are also a number of fine arcade sticks from Madcatz or Hori that would provide excellent digital control. The Hori Fighting Stick Mini comes out later this year for ~$40 and is the size of a controller, which looks neat. The point of my post being, it's silly to complain about a default controller when there are so many other controllers available.

Also,interviewed CAVE a while back and they addressed their choice of supporting the Xbox 360 over Playstation 3. It's a good read.
http://www.wpcentral.com/xbox-live-developer-interview-cave-makers-dodonpachi-maximum

Unfortunately I cannot currently use a stick (at all), so while I have one that I bought specifically for these, I gotta use the bloody nightmare controller instead.

Other than that..... I hate ordering things by default, and also somewhat just dont like buying controllers, period. It seems damn stupid to throw $50 at something just because the default controller is awful. Not to mention it's $50 or so for a controller that would literally ONLY be used for the shmups; my 360's entire reason for existing is to play those, and those alone, so aside from that, it doesnt get used (ever) and it's hard to justify that kind of purchase (the stick, I'd bought back before I started hating the damn console, so that made actual sense at the time).

[eastx]

Other than that..... I hate ordering things by default, and also somewhat just dont like buying controllers, period. It seems damn stupid to throw $50 at something just because the default controller is awful. Not to mention it's $50 or so for a controller that would literally ONLY be used for the shmups; my 360's entire reason for existing is to play those, and those alone, so aside from that, it doesnt get used (ever) and it's hard to justify that kind of purchase (the stick, I'd bought back before I started hating the damn console, so that made actual sense at the time).

You're not really thinking logically. When you have a problem and there is a solution that makes the problem go away, the smart thing to do is to act and solve the problem. Complaining about it and being unhappy for years on end is not a solution at all. If you're determined to own only one controller, you can always trade it your original to Game Stop for a small amount of credit or sell it somewhere else. Also, the Hori EX Pad 2 is only $35 shipped at Amazon, not $50. Surely you're comfortable enough ordering things if you own Japanese retail games and don't live in Japan.

Similarly, it makes little sense to get mad at your Xbox 360 and relegate it to some minor purpose instead of just playing whatever games you like for it. Maybe shmups are the only thing you like period, but there are plenty of great downloadable exclusives and some fair retail ones here and there in other genres.

[Dam]

But like the transforming pad, the hori EX 2 pad has still got the d-pad in the wrong place, so it doesn't matter how good it is.

I use a madcatz fightpad to play xbox shooters, its fine for me, except that the cave games don't let you configure the buttons so I can't use the auto rapid fire shot and have to keep tapping the fire button.

[gmintyfresh]

Looks like Ginga Force may have been bumped from it's end of August release date to December, more news when I can substantiate the story.

http://www.play-asia.com/Ginga_Force/pa ... -4yxt.html

[AmidstStorm]

Oh a delay... Well if the game ends up beig better then that's fine by me. Still waiting on sturnwind..

[eastx]

Speaking of Massive, I recently reviewed Radirgy Noa Massive for Co-Optimus:

http://www.co-optimus.com/editorial/1094/co-op-international-radirgy-noa-massive.html

It's written for a casual audience rather than hardcore fans, but hopefully you'll find it a good read.

[weakboson]

Nice review, eastx. I sure wish the Ultimate Shooting Collection had made it to Europe, I've always wanted to give Milestone's games a proper go. Does anyone know if the 360 version of Massive has anything the one in Milestone Shooting Collection 2 doesn't? I don't know why I'm asking, I probably won't get either.

[Misery]

You're not really thinking logically. When you have a problem and there is a solution that makes the problem go away, the smart thing to do is to act and solve the problem. Complaining about it and being unhappy for years on end is not a solution at all. If you're determined to own only one controller, you can always trade it your original to Game Stop for a small amount of credit or sell it somewhere else. Also, the Hori EX Pad 2 is only $35 shipped at Amazon, not $50. Surely you're comfortable enough ordering things if you own Japanese retail games and don't live in Japan.

Similarly, it makes little sense to get mad at your Xbox 360 and relegate it to some minor purpose instead of just playing whatever games you like for it. Maybe shmups are the only thing you like period, but there are plenty of great downloadable exclusives and some fair retail ones here and there in other genres.

Normally I agree about just jumping out and solving a problem when I can, regardless of cost, but in this case..... it really would be damn near useless. If I still had to use a 360 controller for the PC, now, THAT would be worth 50 or 35 or whatever, but I was able to (after alot of yelling and swearing) make the PS3 controller work, so that's not useful anymore.

As the console goes though, it really is just the shmups that I'm interested in. Hasnt been even one release on there otherwise (as disc-releases go, I mean) in..... er..... quite some time (at LEAST 2 years), so I gave the non-JP unit away. Havent missed it for even a second. Damn thing was a glorified doorstop. The PC is producing all the games I want that the consoles arent, so the consoles dont get used much.

And as for ordering things...... yeah, I just haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate doing it. I tolerate it for the shmups for one reason: They're shmups, and the genre is barely there (on consoles) outside of Japan. Also, Cave... it's the only non-hyper-irritating way to play their stuff. For ANY other genre (or any other type of product), I wont order for any reason.

[eastx]

Normally I agree about just jumping out and solving a problem when I can, regardless of cost, but in this case..... it really would be damn near useless. If I still had to use a 360 controller for the PC, now, THAT would be worth 50 or 35 or whatever, but I was able to (after alot of yelling and swearing) make the PS3 controller work, so that's not useful anymore.

As the console goes though, it really is just the shmups that I'm interested in. Hasnt been even one release on there otherwise (as disc-releases go, I mean) in..... er..... quite some time (at LEAST 2 years), so I gave the non-JP unit away. Havent missed it for even a second. Damn thing was a glorified doorstop. The PC is producing all the games I want that the consoles arent, so the consoles dont get used much.

And as for ordering things...... yeah, I just haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate doing it. I tolerate it for the shmups for one reason: They're shmups, and the genre is barely there (on consoles) outside of Japan. Also, Cave... it's the only non-hyper-irritating way to play their stuff. For ANY other genre (or any other type of product), I wont order for any reason.

Ah... While the aversion to ordering things doesn't make much sense to me, I do at least understand your perspective on the other points now.

[gmintyfresh]

News just dropped, Rising Star are releasing Under Defeat HD (360/PS3) in Palland (OCTOBER) - more news later