Play:

Mr. Driller Drill Land (PS4) - cleared level 2 on Classic (using items
on a couple) but level 3 was looking somewhat on the impossible side,
as well as needing really excessive amounts of grinding to unlock
items, so I switched to the filthy^WCasual difficulty. Where I found
that both difficulty modes are kept entirely separate - while this
meant I wouldn't lose my Classic progress, it also meant I had to
replay the game from scratch.

So on Casual I replayed levels 1 and 2 then finally cleared level 3.
The most severely nerfed mode is probably the Druaga mode, which gives
you 50% more initial HP, bumps up all health pickups to 20 HP, and
IIRC adds an extra "here's an explanation of how the boss works
because apparently you lot are just too stupid to understand it"
screen before the game starts. To be fair, you can only attack the
boss with magic, which probably isn't unprecedented but does seem a
bit strange.

I think generally, the grind for items is the biggest change - it
seems to literally give you five times as many points as Classic
would. That may sound ridiculous but honestly, that's about what it
needed... certainly for level 3 at least. To give some perspective, I
think unlocking a certain level 3 item took 14000 points, which on
Classic would take *28* 500m runs (or 14 1000m runs, but the higher
risk of failing with no additional reward makes 500m the more sensible
option). And there are multiple items per mode, and five modes, and
everything has to be unlocked for each level you want it for.

Overall it's quite a good Mr. Driller game I think, with a good range
of modes. I just find myself vaguely disappointed at enjoying it more
with the nerfed difficulty.

Flatout: Head On (PSP) - played a bit of this. As impressive a port as
this is, it does remain oddly muddy and indistinct somehow.

Want:

Nothing.

Bin:

Having apparently managed to lose my previous PSP Flatout save - I had
to resort to a backup from 2014.

MDDL's "Special" level events (which are endless modes unlocked by
clearing level 3) having inexplicably-unspecified stamp-clearing
requirements.

-Rus.

In article <mLj5K.1971158$391.76160@usenetxs.com>,
Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:
>Play:
>

Yakuza Kiwami (PC) - All I did was get 65 seconds of first-person footage
in the rain for another MS Teams background. That barely counts as
playing. The rest of the weekend was spent playtesting new board game
concepts with dear friends I hadn't seen since the pandemic started, so
forgive me for not going on at length about video games I didn't get to
play.

>Bin:
>
>Having apparently managed to lose my previous PSP Flatout save - I had
>to resort to a backup from 2014.
>

I thought I was the only one keeping all his old PSP save data around. :)
Never know when those Monster Hunter Freedom saves will come in handy.

-KKC, who somehow has a very clean house now.
--
-- "People with happy families don't become spies. A bad | kendrick
childhood is the perfect background for covert ops. You | @
don't trust anyone. You're used to getting smacked around, | io-nyc
and you never get homesick." - Michael Westen, /Burn Notice/ | .com

On 12/04/2022 19:43, Russell Marks wrote:
> Play:
>
> Mr. Driller Drill Land (PS4) - cleared level 2 on Classic (using items
> on a couple) but level 3 was looking somewhat on the impossible side,
> as well as needing really excessive amounts of grinding to unlock
> items, so I switched to the filthy^WCasual difficulty. Where I found
> that both difficulty modes are kept entirely separate - while this
> meant I wouldn't lose my Classic progress, it also meant I had to
> replay the game from scratch.
>
> So on Casual I replayed levels 1 and 2 then finally cleared level 3.
> The most severely nerfed mode is probably the Druaga mode, which gives
> you 50% more initial HP, bumps up all health pickups to 20 HP, and
> IIRC adds an extra "here's an explanation of how the boss works
> because apparently you lot are just too stupid to understand it"
> screen before the game starts. To be fair, you can only attack the
> boss with magic, which probably isn't unprecedented but does seem a
> bit strange.
>
> I think generally, the grind for items is the biggest change - it
> seems to literally give you five times as many points as Classic
> would. That may sound ridiculous but honestly, that's about what it
> needed... certainly for level 3 at least. To give some perspective, I
> think unlocking a certain level 3 item took 14000 points, which on
> Classic would take *28* 500m runs (or 14 1000m runs, but the higher
> risk of failing with no additional reward makes 500m the more sensible
> option). And there are multiple items per mode, and five modes, and
> everything has to be unlocked for each level you want it for.
>
> Overall it's quite a good Mr. Driller game I think, with a good range
> of modes. I just find myself vaguely disappointed at enjoying it more
> with the nerfed difficulty.
>

I appreciate the review. Haven't played it on Playstation (yet), but
with my brother's extending "borrowment" of my Switch, I feel a possible
purchase coming on. I bought this game on Gamecube many years ago and it
was the main reason I honed my soldering skills to adapt the GC to
"multi-region".

It was only after I purchased the Switch version a couple of years ago
(?) that I successfully completed the third-level Final Boss. I'm not
certain the difficulty level (or PAL/ NTSC sound/speed conversion) is
the same, but overall I really like the Switch's conversion.

I did still play the Switch version, from time to time, but now I'm
thinking PS5 Mr. Driller sounds good. :)

-Kevin.