Random Video Game Crap

GasBandit

Staff member
This weekend I've been watching a lot of NES speedruns by Arcus87 on youtube. I don't know how I got started watching it, but this man is everything I wanted to be when I was 6. He's a cowboy who plays NES games all day and is jaw-droppingly, impossibly good at them. He even plays with the original NES controller - no tool assists, not even any turbo buttons. His finger speed is unreal. I can't stop watching him.

He is the world record holder for Ninja Gaiden, having beaten it in a tiny fraction over 11 minutes and 38 seconds.
 
I've watched some video clips of Resident Evil Village, RE7, RE 2 Remake, etc, and keep seeing players unloading on an enemy with headshot after headshot and it does jack squat.

What's even the point of aiming for a harder to hit area like the head if you need to unlock 10+ bullets before it even accomplishes anything?

Back in MY day, a headshot meant sometime. A headshot meant an instant kill.
 
I've watched some video clips of Resident Evil Village, RE7, RE 2 Remake, etc, and keep seeing players unloading on an enemy with headshot after headshot and it does jack squat.

What's even the point of aiming for a harder to hit area like the head if you need to unlock 10+ bullets before it even accomplishes anything?

Back in MY day, a headshot meant sometime. A headshot meant an instant kill.
You might be watching videos on Hardcore and Village of Shadows difficulty. Hardcore is 10 bullets for a kill, Village of Shadows is like 30 (but VoS was designed to be run with NG+ weapons with infinite ammo). A lot of people are acting like these are the "normal" modes and next the extra difficulties.

On normal, a shotgun to the face will generally kill normal enemies as long as all the pellets connect. Pistols? Ehh... Resident Evil's never really done "one shot, one kill" for pistols outside of Magnums even in the old school games. Pistol headshots DO interrupt normal enemy attacks though.
 
You might be watching videos on Hardcore and Village of Shadows difficulty. Hardcore is 10 bullets for a kill, Village of Shadows is like 30 (but VoS was designed to be run with NG+ weapons with infinite ammo). A lot of people are acting like these are the "normal" modes and next the extra difficulties.

On normal, a shotgun to the face will generally kill normal enemies as long as all the pellets connect. Pistols? Ehh... Resident Evil's never really done "one shot, one kill" for pistols outside of Magnums even in the old school games. Pistol headshots DO interrupt normal enemy attacks though.
Most of the videos are just clips from, say, Jim Sterling's recent review. Not so much let's play videos specifically, so I'm not sure which game mode. Even 10 shots seems ridiculous to me. Hell, even 5. But that's just me. Especially if it's actually zombies like RE2. A zombie headshot should be a zombie headshot.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
The guy I've been watching play REV has been shooting enemies in the leg, which causes them to fall over (sometimes, at least) and then using the knife to slash them while they're down. I think the reasoning is that they wanted to reward aimed shots, but not in a way that just dramatically shortens fights.
 
The guy I've been watching play REV has been shooting enemies in the leg, which causes them to fall over (sometimes, at least) and then using the knife to slash them while they're down. I think the reasoning is that they wanted to reward aimed shots, but not in a way that just dramatically shortens fights.
I noticed that in Jim Sterling's video, with the leg shot takedown. I appreciate seeing stuff like that in games, where there's actual physics - and by extension, some STRATEGY - behind something like that. Then it's not just a endless glorified whac-a-mole.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I remember when I started playing Killing Floor and... well let's just say it's a rite of passage when you discover for the first time that blowing an enemy's head completely off does not necessarily immediately kill it... and it might continue to stumble toward you slashing blindly for 5-10 seconds before it keels over.
 
I noticed that in Jim Sterling's video, with the leg shot takedown. I appreciate seeing stuff like that in games, where there's actual physics - and by extension, some STRATEGY - behind something like that. Then it's not just a endless glorified whac-a-mole.
This is definitely part of it too. In RE2 Remake, one of the best strategies for dealing with zombies it to just straight up blow out their knees and run by or whip out the knife to finish them off. RE8 does a lot of the same, except you can also do stuff like knock weapons out of their hands to make them less dangerous.
 
I've watched some video clips of Resident Evil Village, RE7, RE 2 Remake, etc, and keep seeing players unloading on an enemy with headshot after headshot and it does jack squat.

What's even the point of aiming for a harder to hit area like the head if you need to unlock 10+ bullets before it even accomplishes anything?

Back in MY day, a headshot meant sometime. A headshot meant an instant kill.
As someone who has played all of those games (still working through 8) I can say it's because you are really not meant to fight if you can help it. Also the pistol sucks. However, shooting an enemy in the head does have the very useful effect of staggering the molded/zombie/lycan, and while it's staggered you can run past it
 
Gaby is playing Pokemon Sapphire. I like that she doesn't want any of her pokemon hurt and returns to a town immediately any time one of hers is down. Any advice I could give her? I don't know anything about these games.
 
Gaby is playing Pokemon Sapphire. I like that she doesn't want any of her pokemon hurt and returns to a town immediately any time one of hers is down. Any advice I could give her? I don't know anything about these games.
If she's just playing the in-game storyline, she should be fine. Just try to learn each type's advantages and disadvantages, have a well-balanced team, and don't be afraid to grind a bit to out-level your opponents and gym leaders.
 
If she's just playing the in-game storyline, she should be fine. Just try to learn each type's advantages and disadvantages, have a well-balanced team, and don't be afraid to grind a bit to out-level your opponents and gym leaders.
Also, she only catch "cute" pokemons. She only has dogs, bunnies and she is looking for a kitty.
 
Top