News #3 - Revolution

Alright, I'm officially back in business. Directly after my last blog post my old notebook broke irreparably. Well, rather it wouldn't have been worthwile to repair it, but anyway... I had few internet access in the meantime, but now it's time to get serious again. So get yourself prepared for some truly revolutionary news!

Revolution #1 - Wait, nobody cares, so jump right to #2 ;)

I have a new notebook. It's mainly for work and internet and won't run a game like Crimzon Clover without slowdown. But well, I have time, in 2 or 3 years I might care to buy a decent PC tower for newer games. For now there are enough console shooters where scores need to be exhausted. Plus I still need to finish a few PC classics and personal alltime favourites - especially Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age.

Revolution #2 - A first step into the deep strange cave

It took me quite some time, didn't it? In 2007 I started playing shmups, in 2008 bullet hell invaded my home and in 2009 playing seriously and for score became much more of a matter. Yet all this time I managed to mostly ignore today's most popular shmup developer: Cave. This mainly had one simple reason: I owned a Super Nintendo, a Mega Drive and a Dreamcast. And you all know how many Cave shooters were released for these systems. Besides Cave didn't seem to have the kind of appeal that Takumi, Psikyo and Technosoft shooters had on me. I had played a few credits in Donpachi, Dodonpachi, Dangun Feveron and Progear no Arashi and found all these games "okay". Yet there were certain shooters from Cave that I really got interested in and one of them just became the first Cave game in my collection: ESPGaluda. ESPecially its scoring system doesn't just seem to be one of Cave's better ones, but genuinely superb. Now I just need to get my hands on a modded Playstation 2 that allows import titles to be played.

Talking about revolution, it's kind of astounding what I got with ESPGaluda: my first Cave game, my first Japanese Playstation 2 game and my first superplay DVD that is included with the game. Hell yeah! Additionally, I bought my first pure superplay DVD, the Shikigami no Shiro II appreciate DVD.

Revolution #3 - A weekend in shmup heaven

Still not enough with my "first" thingies. After not being able in 2010, I could attend this year's shmupmeet at Robert garcia's in Northern Germany between June 10th and 12th. Finally I got to know some of the really cool German and Swedish shmuppers in person, I had only met Plasmo and thyseus before. Actually, it was my first time at an arcade cab and my first real time to use a stick, too. Robert garcia owns several cabs with tons of PCBs, not to forget the countless console shooters. After a nice night in Hamburg I played the shit out of a few games trying to get used to a stick and achieving half-decent results. The only considerable score would be 30 million in Ketsui. I also got to know Cave better which eventually led to the purchase of ESPGaluda. A few highlights for me were the battles in Windjammers, one of the most diverting games ever, the 4 player session in Giga Wing 2 including the ridiculous "Reflecto Fooorce" voices every second or so, and the small masochistic score battle with Plasmo in Sonic Wings. This game has some of the cheapest attacks ever.

It's a shame that a bunch of people who wanted to attend couldn't do so, like third_strike, Prometheus, DEL and abschüssig, but hopefully we will see you next year!

Revolution #4 - The Xylophone of Pain is back

It's back! Twice and now even with ultra extra content and enjoyment! ToastSoft recently released the greatly improved XOP Ultra and XOP Black Ultra providing a new challenge and a classy shmup experience to challenge experienced XOP players once again and also to attract new ones. Both games offer more enemies, more enemy types, more shots, more bullet patterns and tougher bosses than before, plus much improved level design, two different courses consisting of 5 stages each as well as tons of game modes and difficulty settings. Both XOP Ultra and XOP Black Ultra are freeware, so there is no reason not to check them out!

Revolution #5 - Coming soon for your home reading pleasure

More regular posts could be found here within the next time as the Shooting Game Tournament 2011 is about to start, on July 25th to be precise. Let's start the weeks of rage and torture again! And may "Team TCFC - Too Close for Comfort" be a worthy successor to the 3rd ranked "Fatloli Luftwaffe" from the 2010 tourney! We have five of the same people back and are ready to kick some butt. Now wouldn't one blog post per week be revolutionary for me? Let's just see if I can do it.