I don't know what you've heard about the STX that claims it's bad for gaming. It has fantastic Dolby Headphone and Virtual Surround; it even has a billion options to toggle depth of soundfield and even room material if you're into that kind of thing. It can set different profiles depending on...

Wow this is like an impossible task.   1. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (or Afternoon of Darkness) 2. All of the other Disgaea games 3. Dark Cloud II 4. Xenosaga (series. Second game is a ****pile, but the third more than makes up for it) 5. Tales of Symphonia    Honorable mentions...

NO. You do not want 'gaming surround' headphones or anything like that. These are usually, if not always, massive gimmicks designed to take advantage of people who don't know about virtual surround and Dolby Headphone. Basically you want two things: A decoder of some sort that will interpret...

I rarely play PS3 titles anymore (actually to be totally honest I rarely play anything that isn't a shmup anymore), but I remember really enjoying the immersive aspects of the sound design in MGS4. It has a brilliant soundtrack, some of the best dubbing work (in both languages) of any game I've...

When you say 'sound design,' are you referring to overall sound quality (OST, sfx, pacing, etc.) or are you referring to surround sound and positional audio? Or do you mean both?   Also, if you're looking for recommendations, it'd be helpful to know what system(s) you play on.   For...

Apologies for wall of text here...   I'm going to buck the trend a little bit and say Dishonored is an 8-ish out of 10. It's a phenomenal concept that is executed almost perfectly, but in my opinion it really, really, really loses impact toward the end. Some of the setpieces in and near the...

Oh hey, things happened. And I missed them, lol.   Regarding joysticks, I stand by the LS-58 as my current favorite. I've tried out the LS-32 and like it a lot, but not enough to warrant switching. JLFs are still too loose for my liking given the amount of shmupping I do, but they're not as...

Well apparently this thread has sort of died. q.q   My stuff arrived, and I am loving it. Ketsui is beyond fantastic, and totally deserves all the praise it gets. It and DaiOuJou are probably my current favorite CAVE shmups-- something about the absolutely brutal difficulty keeps me coming...

So I just placed an order for an NTSC/J X360 and two of CAVE's ports-- the upcoming Mushihime-sama HD release and the Daifukkatsu double pack.   It was quite pricey. Like something I might expect from this hobby. Only not.   Suffice to say I'm very excited. I'll also need to buy a...

Quote:   Yeah, it is. The final section and boss killed me I don't know how many times before I learned their patterns-- not really looking forward to doing that again, lol. Really fun though.   In Mushihime-sama, my favorite stages are 3 (which is a huge PITA on Maniac and Ultra) and...

Quote:   The reason I like the LS58 is because of the levered microswitches (levers are those metal plates you mentioned). They decrease the effective deadzone and the throw/actuation point of the switches by using the actuator of the microswitch as the fulcrum for the movement of the...

Quote:   Mecha themed? Ikaruga certainly has mecha influences, but I'm not sure that's what you're referring to. Looking up 'dreamcast shmup' and 'mecha' on google gets some hits for a game called 'Mars Matrix' -- is that what you mean?   Other news, tried playing Perfect Cherry...

Quote:   I understand that the spring has been improved. Your comment made it sound like you had changed the throw on the switches, which is why I was curious. My apologies for the misunderstanding.   Sorry to hear you're having trouble. As I've said before, it works fine for me on...

Quote:   Your JLF has a smaller neutral zone than the 58!? HOW??   Otherwise, sounds good. I'm a fan of the brushed metal look myself. I'd need to machine a custom plate to do it on my stick, though-- I'm more than willing to do so, but it's extra work either way, and if I make a...

NEWS!!!!!!!!!   Mushihime-sama Futari (AKA "Bug Princess 2") is now available for iOS download! It just went on sale this evening. I'm picking it up sometime tonight or tomorrow. Wheee!   Excited. Quote:   This is very true. I wasn't saying that the issue was with the console...