The "What Are You Playing Now?" Thread

I picked up Ni no Kuni where I left off. Wasn't sure I'd be able to, since I hadn't played it since before Tomb Raider (and Bioshock, and some FNV DLC, and probably some other stuff I forgot about). I can really only take this ultra-cutesy stuff in small doses.

Anyway, the style belies the game's true nature. I can actually be pretty damn hard.

The combat system reminds me a little of Final Fantasy XIII's Paradigm Shift. You can switch between your character and his familars to get different abilities, but all of them share one pool of HP and Mana. Also, everyone who isn't active at the time just stands idly by. Switching takes time, so particularly during boss fights, you often only have a second's notice to switch between a character that can damage your enemy and one that can evade its' special attacks (and hope you can time the evade just right). And if that wasn't enough, you can also move your characters around on the battlefield. So you may find yourself scrambling between good positioning for attack, running around for health and mana orbs that enemies randomly drop, and keeping an eye out for special attacks, because those will hit you no matter where you stand. The end result can only be described as chaotic.

Still, I'm hoping it might get more intuitive as I progress. I'm still "only" six or so hours into the story.

I finally began Ni no Kuni myself. It's extremely well made, one of the most well made rpgs I've played in a very long time. Everything from the menus, to the music, to the sidequest system and that in-game encyclopedia of knowledge are all fantastically done. I don't find the story terribly engaging, but as a story made with children in mind it's pretty good, and not terribly annoying as these sorts of things so often are. I laugh at the absurdity sometimes, but it never really gets boring like rpgs tend to do.

The combat is interesting and unique, but I still think it could be better. I find a few aspects of it to be cumbersome and irritating.

I'm not surprised at how good the game is, but I am a little surprised at how well the whole package is holding up personally. Normally with rpgs I need a break after a single dungeon/town cycle, but there is always so much other stuff to do that I haven't gotten bored. I was originally planning on playing Far Cry 2 on the side in order to change things up, but that has proven to be unnecessary.


I also played Luigi's Mansion and Rage recently. Luigi's Mansion was wonderful. Cute/charming, good exploration and secrets, interesting environments and unique gameplay. My only complaint was that I would have liked to be able to explore the mansions at my own pace, but the mission structure of the game cuts it up into 30 minute segments and doesn't let you go too far off that mission's path. Rooms also change slightly from mission to mission so you feel like you are exploring the same thing all over again.

Rage was okay. It was probably the best id game I've ever played, seeing as how they invented corridor shooters and monster closets. Decent fun, a little disappointing, I liked Bulletstorm a lot more but it's worth playing. Not as good as I thought it would be, but better than people on the internet said it would be. :D

I finished Tomb Raider (2012). I never played any of the original series of games, with the huge tits and pistols akimbo, so I only know what I've seen in pop culture. The new game plays like Uncharted, but with better weather/water/visual effects. Also, the weapons all handle differently and nicely, and the jumping puzzles/challenges are easy to control but tricky to figure out. I like the game, and I rate it highly. I played on easy and still almost found all the trophies on the way through the game! The storyline is coherent and enjoyable, and the combat is flexible and fun (and punishing if you're dumb). Very well done, and I hope they make more in this line with the same actress doing Lara Croft (she did the body modeling and the voice).

I'm also playing through Torchlight II somewhat, playing as an engineer/big 2h weapon smashy, but only for solo play. It's what I do on my PC for fun when I'm babysitting :D

On the phone/tablet, it's Pixel Dungeon. Good game, still in Beta, continues to advance in complexity and bug fixing. It's a great interpretation of Rogue/Nethack-esque types, of which there aren't enough quality experiences.

My next console game will likely be Fallout:New Vegas or maybe finishing Kingdoms of Amalur (getting a bit yawn after 70 hours of the same thing).

Someone recommended The Lost Odyssey to me, but I think it was a joke? That game started off like crap. Holy cow, FF7 is back again, wander around the town and pick up crap with super uber can't die guy? WTF? Or am I missing the point?

Wow, I think Ni no Kuni is by far the punniest game I have ever played. My favorite so far: there is a breed of creature designed after a yeti/sasquatch called a sasquish. When you tame a creature, you are able to either name it yourself, or pick a name from a short list of pre-generated names, usually puns or references to something else. Anyway, I tamed a sasquish, and one of the naming choices was "squishmael". I don't know why, but I found it to be hilarious.

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Originally Posted by Yttrium

Someone recommended The Lost Odyssey to me, but I think it was a joke? That game started off like crap. Holy cow, FF7 is back again, wander around the town and pick up crap with super uber can't die guy? WTF? Or am I missing the point?

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I haven't played it, but you've got to remember that Lost Odyssey was one of the first rpgs of the current console cycle, and with how long it took Japanese developers to get used to making HD games, jrpgs were one of the rarest genres of games for several years on the then new platforms. Additionally, around that time old school rpg nostalgia had kicked in so there was a greater emphasis on traditional rpg design.

Anyway, from what I remember I think the story and/or writing were what people liked so much about that game. I remember people raving about how good the side stories were, despite being presented as nothing but text.

P.S. I actually saw rumors awhile back that some of the old guard at Square Enix wanted to cut Eidos loose. I'm actually wondering if their entire management structure is just out of touch with reality. Tomb Raider sold 3.5 million units in the first month. They expected 5-6 million. Which is just crazy. Very few games do that well, that quickly.

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Originally Posted by Wool

Wow, I think Ni no Kuni is by far the punniest game I have ever played. My favorite so far: there is a breed of creature designed after a yeti/sasquatch called a sasquish. When you tame a creature, you are able to either name it yourself, or pick a name from a short list of pre-generated names, usually puns or references to something else. Anyway, I tamed a sasquish, and one of the naming choices was "squishmael". I don't know why, but I found it to be hilarious.

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I'm well past the 30-hour mark and the constant puns are really getting on my nerves. There's hardly anything in this game that isn't a bad pun one way or another.

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Originally Posted by Wool

P.S. I actually saw rumors awhile back that some of the old guard at Square Enix wanted to cut Eidos loose. I'm actually wondering if their entire management structure is just out of touch with reality. Tomb Raider sold 3.5 million units in the first month. They expected 5-6 million. Which is just crazy. Very few games do that well, that quickly.

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It's frustrating, particularly as it led to the game being discounted as much as 50% just weeks after release. It's sad to see a great game treated like, well, Colonial Marines.

So I finished Ni no Kuni last night.

The good news is that the combat system gets a lot more manageable once your party size increases. The AI-controlled characters are actually fairly smart as long as you give them a good choice of familiars. I rarely had to mess with the Tactics panel (where you can give them basic instructions on how to act in combat) or directly control another character.

I tried to do every errand and bounty hunt before moving on with the respective story quest, which occasionally had me fighting trash mobs for hours (sometimes in vain, as it turned out I already had the rare drop I was looking for), but also ensured that I was well prepared for the next dungeons. In this regard, Ni no Kuni is a very typical JRPG, where grinding makes for a smoother ride.

Spoiler for exceptions:

Trash in the final dungeon dished out some pretty heavy damage and boss fights were still marathons

However, I found that the side quests lacked creativity. Healing brokenhearted people in particular got very old very quickly, especially when you had to keep treating the same people for different "heart conditions" in different acts.

Spoiler for story, no specifics:

Some of the threads come together nicely towards the end, but overall I'd still consider it a bit of a mess.

Spoiler for progression, completion:

I actually wasn't able to finish the merit rewards before the final battle. There simply weren't any more errands or bounty hunts available. It's quite possible that I missed something (unmarked towns), and I never spent much time in the casino. But the game does inform you that extra content gets unlocked when you load a complete save (it takes you back to just before the final battle), so maybe you're not supposed to be able to get everything in one go.

Spoiler for I really, really hate...:

fake endings.

Spoiler for I really, really, really hate...:

stacked boss fights. Stupid JRPG convention.

I hated the AI. It was dumb and would spam all it's mana away. The tactics system was incredibly awkward, and micromanaging other party members in normal battles is a waste of time, as when you do so Oliver just starts spamming all his mana away instead. The alternatives to this actually seemed worse. Either don't give them good abilities or tell them not to use them. Just not good. The vast majority of the game was easy enough that I just treated them as extra damage and did all the heavy lifting myself, but they were a huge hindrance on the final battle. It was ridiculous. I have never been so angry on a fight I didn't lose before. I couldn't even count on them being meatshields, they were just completely useless.

Spoiler for things you hate:

I don't mind fake endings. I wish they weren't so obvious 99% of the time though. There was an antagonist you never encounter and a continent you never go to, I didn't believe it was the end for one second. The games that have done it well were pretty kickass, but it's hard to talk about them without spoiling that they have fake endings!

I usually liked stacked boss fights, but admit it got pretty annoying in this one.

Spoiler for completion:

Yes, there is actually quite a bit of post-game content. It's practically a staple of jrpgs now to give people who want to keep playing a reason to do so.

Spoiler for story:

I was lukewarm on the story, but I think if I was still twelve I would have found it to be amazingly good. It's a generally good story that won't surprise anyone who has played an rpg before. I can't remember if I found it amusing or annoying (perhaps both) how the characters constantly acted surprised at incredibly obvious things.

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Originally Posted by Wool

I hated the AI. It was dumb and would spam all it's mana away.

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That was never really an issue for me. During outdoor grinds, an inn was always just a Travel away, in dungeons I'd just stay close to a recovery stone. For crawls and boss fights I was always well-equipped with coffee.

So, I have been working on finishing off my unplayed PS3 games so that I can justify getting a PS4. I wasn't going to post about each one, or this one in particular, but I need to gripe. Luckily for anyone reading this, I tired myself out ranting to anyone who would listen a few days ago. :p

I just got done playing Eternal Sonata, and I think I hate it. There are a lot of good things about it, but there are a lot of really bad things about it too. I find this to be incredibly frustrating. I find myself wanting to like it and being unable to.

The combat has a really cool light and dark mechanic, but battles tend to drag on, with annoyingly laid out dungeons and constant battles. The enemies are not hard at all, but will screw you over if you make a single mistake. The difficulty discrepancy is actually a little bewildering. It almost seems like they want you to grind. Being good at blocking means being good at the game, and yet certain bosses get an extra move for the express purpose of flanking your characters and thus preventing you from blocking their attacks. This almost always end up in the character dying, and me getting incredibly angry. The item wheel is incredibly awkward and you have limited space, so you can only rez a few times. Rezzing wastes a turn that then allows the boss to do the same exact thing again. It's infuriating.

But it's the writing that really bother me. I think the premise is okay, but the plot ends up being pretty terrible in a thousand different ways. The game also tries to be a lot smarter than it actually is, and its take on philosophy ends up sounding like a child mimicking their parents. It isn't subtle about it either. But even that is better than the times characters just start spouting inane bullshit (example: the doctor by Chopin's death bed).

Spoiler for worst scene in game with dozens of terrible scenes:

I think the worst moment was the (apparently infamous) scene where one character you don't really care about has a 15 minute death soliloquy complete with flash backs to things that just happened two minutes ago. It doesn't help that I was already irritated that moments before this, a guy is told that one of the two people working for him is a spy, and he decides to tell the second person he thinks the first is the spy. Of course the second person ends up actually being the spy, which was obvious to the player at the time. Excruciating.

Spoiler for ending spoiler:

And you know, I never did figure out why the hell Polka thought jumping off a cliff was going to save the world. Other than her mother telling her she needed to jump into the ocean when she was a little girl (which she seemed hilariously excited about doing at the time "I'll do it!"), why would anyone think that would solve anything? There is no indication it was necessary at all. It was just bad, and just because something tries to be intelligent it doesn't mean I'm going to give it a pass.

On the bright side, the voice actor for Chopin was pretty good, if you listened to him talk without thinking about the actual worlds you could probably get through it alright. The art was good, the music was good.

Anyway, while I'm at it, I also played Armored Core 4 Answer. Basically a mech game where you build your own mechs. It was pretty bad. Terrible even. It didn't do the fast paced action of Zone of the Enders very well, and didn't try to be a battle simulator where loadout is vital to finishing missions as much as I expected. I've also never seen slowdown that bad in a console game before, if it wasn't so easy it would have been unplayable (certain missions only). I didn't have as high hopes for this as I did Eternal Sonata though, so hating this makes me feel guilty more than anything else.

I got 2/3 through Eternal Sonata and stopped. Partially because my PS3 fried, but also because it was painful, for all the reasons you listed. Interesting concept, and a relatively pretty game, but unpleasant to play.

I started up the Walking Dead. I bought it a couple months back when all 5 episodes were on sale and I'm nearly done with Episode 1 now. So far I'm really enjoying it. I can see a lot of replayability with all of the choices and decisions you get to make through the game.

Spoiler for decisions:

So far I've saved the kid at the farm, helped the girl shoot herself at the hotel and saved Carly when escaping the drugstore

I finished Kingdoms of Amalur, finally. I had built the character I wanted, figured out how to super-craft (craft, breakdown into enhanced components, recraft, etc), and made some awesome gear prior to reaching the final continent, aka the last 1/3 of the game.

I *literally* ran through every zone straight to the required quest milestones to advance the main storyline. I ran across the whole continent, only stopping to fight the cutscene battles that were required. The ending was... okay. The storyline playout had a variety of holes. Good game, interesting way to sink hours and hours. Plus, you get to keep playing once you beat it :D

I finished my Torchlight II playthrough as an Engineer. I started a second playthrough on Hardcore (perma-death), and made it into Act II with my Embermage before a trapped chest killed me, of all things. I restarted the Embermage on the hardest difficulty, but without Hardcore, and I'm enjoying the challenge. Occasionally, I'll farm some helpful items with my Engineer.

I tried The Walking Dead adventure game, but I couldn't get into it. The quality of the game was definitely there, and it was thorough and well-voiced / story-boarded. Maybe I'm not in the right spot to enjoy it, yet. I'm keeping it around, though.

Silke - I really enjoyed playing The Walking Dead. I thought it was a really well-put together game and story. I didn't replay it at all because I wanted my decisions to be "final". I guess that's a weird way of putting it, but i felt that in my version of the playthrough it would cheapen the emotional impact of the choices i made to then go back and see what the other choice would net me, even though that option is there. It probably would be worth it to hear more dialogue as I thought it was superbly voice-acted.

I've been struggling through Antichamber. The game is a trippy puzzler with great use of colors. Much of the game is vague and obscure, you kind of feel like you are stumbling along sometimes.

I just finished Episode 2 and I'm really loving the game. I like how it shows you your actions in relation to how everyone else choose to act. I truly feel like I'm deciding how an episode of the television show plays out.

Amalur terrifies me. I bought it for $10 awhile back because the demo was pretty dang fun, but haven't started it yet because I have severe completionist tendancies, and I just know I will never finish it from what people have said. Running straight past 1/3rd of the world because there is simply too much content sounds like a nightmare to me. :grinno:

After Eternal Sonata I took a stab at Cross Edge, one of the few games I wish I did not buy, especially not at the asking price. It was basically grindy farmathon 2000, and isn't worth talking about. Combat was okay, but otherwise pretty annoying to play through.

I was burned a bit on video games, and took a break for about a week before jumping right back into my jrpg backlog. I've started Tales of Graces f, and I'm enjoying it much more than I thought I would.

I wasn't sure I would like it partly because of it's art style, and bought it on a whim when what I really wanted comes out later this year. It also has one of those corny "the power of friendship" jrpg plots, complete with saccharine theme song. Despite all this, I'm really enjoying it. The rpg mechanics are generally interesting, and the characters are very amusing. Tales games are notorious for having silly dialogue sequences both after combat, and during optional "skits" that expand the characterization without bogging down the main quest for people who don't care about that stuff. I've been enjoying them very much though.

So, the combat is like the other Tales games, in that it's a traditional jrpg in which you control a single character in real time once combat has started, albiet with a few interesting twists. Additionally, each character seems to have a different playstyle. The only one I've become comfortable with is the main character, but there is enough variety that you could switch until you find one you like.

While you do gain levels and experience like a normal rpg, it takes back seat to the ability system. In Tales games, you get "titles" for doing certain things, such as getting to a specific part in the plot, killing a certain number of enemies, doing certain sidequests, etc. It was sort of a basic achievement system, sometimes rewarding you with a costume change for the character. In this game, it's the basis for growing your character. Once you have unlocked a title and equip it, any SP you earn in battle goes towards leveling it up. These titles grant you abilities, stat increases, passive enchancements, and a unique bonus for as long as you have the title equipped.

This title system is pretty addicting, and while I barely notice leveling up, I'm constantly managing my titles to learn as many abilities as I can. There are other similar systems for crafting, including a system in which you equip a food item that you crafted, and if certain conditions are met in combat, the food item is used and it's effects activated. Sort of like a gambit system from FF12. If your life drops below 60%, use a healing item and buff your defense.

My main problem with this game is that it's a little too complicated. There are so many items you can make and titles you can unlock, that I find myself making as much as possible without ever adjusting my combat strategy accordingly. When you have 50 food items and no decent sorting mechanism, you stick with whatever you are currently using. Likewise, I never equip titles specifically for the bonus in a hard fight. The gear crafting mechanic is even worse, as while it's very cool that you can continually upgrade equipment with unique effects, the system of assigning nebulous and randomly worded qualities to gear is needlessly complicated. Which is better, a cute rapier or an oily rapier? A wicked leather guard or a dignified leather guard? What's wrong with linear progression? Brittle -> hard -> fine -> exquisite makes far more sense.

The plot itself isn't terrible, but isn't great either. It has decent ideas and manages to not be completely trite, but it also feels kind of half-assed. The graphics are really bad, as this is basically just an HD port of a Wii exclusive game in Japan. The environments are pretty bland (particularly the backgrounds), but the characters have a good bit of charm and animation.

Man that was long, I might as well post crap like that in a "what game are you amateur reviewing" thread. I guess I can't really recommend it with better options available, but if you are like me and simply had it sitting around because you are dumb and buy rpgs without thinking, it's worth playing.

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Originally Posted by Silke

I started up the Walking Dead. I bought it a couple months back when all 5 episodes were on sale and I'm nearly done with Episode 1 now. So far I'm really enjoying it. I can see a lot of replayability with all of the choices and decisions you get to make through the game.

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Okay, I'm going to talk about the way choices work in this game. I am not going to spoil any specific plot points, but I'm going to put it into a spoiler tag because it spoils the experience of making the choices itself by explaining how they work. I'm going to leave it up to you to decide if that is something you want to know. If nothing else, read it when you either beat the game, or when you start to become dissatisfied, if you start to become dissatisfied.

I very much enjoyed my time with the Walking Dead, Clementine is one of the only examples of a child character in video games that was not annoying. They do a great job of making you care about her. One of my favorite parts was is in Episode 2, when they talk about the salt lick in the barn. So cute. :D

Spoiler for choices:

So, it isn't like Mass Effect, or Infamous, or anything with a branching plot structure. The game does not dramatically change based on your actions. The same story plays out. Some people handle this fact better than others, I guess it depends on what they were expecting from the experience. It almost seems like at times that it must be massively different based on what you decide, but it isn't.

What the choices do is add a bit of agency and personalization to the experience. While the plot does not change, the way your character is treated does. This makes you feel involved even if you are following a linear narrative, and makes you feel connected to the story and the characters in interesting ways. People are hungry for someone to finally make a game with diverging plot points in a significant way (many have tried and fallen short), but I still think the Walking Dead was effective in it's own way.

I thought I would want to replay it to see the different choices, but I think it ended up being more like Heavy Rain, in which you simply accept that your version is the right version. While in Mass Effect, I might reload to watch a different version of the scene, I ended up just accepting my choices as they were in TWD.

I'm a good way into Episode 3 right now and I have to say that The Walking Dead game is fantastic as a story device (not so much as a game though). I really don't care that it's not much of a game because the story is SO good. And it stays true to the television series and the comic book series where nobody is safe.

I also started The Walking Dead recently. I mostly like the story, although some of the "choose who gets eaten" choices could be a little less blatant.

But the controls are horrible. It's like someone deliberately took the worst parts of point & click and direct character control and mashed them together.

Also, it bugs me that the art style is so inconsistent. The game runs the full gamut from crude drawing to highly detailed.

I totally played all the way through the storyline of Injustice: Gods Among Us. Holy crap, how did this game fly under the radar? It's the same awesomeness as the Mortal Kombat game (storyline, character chapters, video cutscenes for the story, etc), but with the DC Hero/Villian universe. Decent storyline, too. Combat is pretty fun, as well - neat things going on. The ending was fun :)

I highly recommend this game if you like fighting games.

I think the next game will be either Metro: Last Light or Skyrim? I don't know. I want something a bit shorter than Skyrim/FO:New Vegas/FF13-2.

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Originally Posted by Yttrium

I totally played all the way through the storyline of Injustice: Gods Among Us. Holy crap, how did this game fly under the radar?

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Do you mean on this forum, or in general? It did get a fair amount of attention on various gaming sites when it came out, being one of the only things that came out at the time, but fighting games serve a pretty small audience, so no amount of hype would penetrate the mass market bubble the same way something like Red Dead Redemption did during a similar gaming lull.

As for around here, I think most of the people that would have liked it either post less, or play games less.

I used to be into fighting games, but that was back when Mortal Kombat II was cutting edge. I played some since, but never to the extent of getting good at them.

The last ones I bought were for the 3DS, but that was mostly so I had something to play on the thing.

Burned through the remainder of The Walking Dead. Great story, but ultimately I never got the feeling that my choices mattered much. Sure, they affected the way Lee is seen by the rest of the group. But as far as the story goes, I can't help but feel that even if I did the exact opposite, only details would change.

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Originally Posted by Yaxa

Burned through the remainder of The Walking Dead. Great story, but ultimately I never got the feeling that my choices mattered much. Sure, they affected the way Lee is seen by the rest of the group. But as far as the story goes, I can't help but feel that even if I did the exact opposite, only details would change.

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That's the main criticism with that game. While it feels like a a choose-your-own-adventure, it's really not. Still, I immensely enjoyed the game and really thought they captured the feel of the series and comic very well. Every episode had situations where there was no "good" choice to make.

I don't play the fighting games to get good at them; same with FPS - I play for the main storyline. That means I get to enjoy them on the most reasonable difficulty setting, without worrying about honing 'l33t skillz and shit.

It's a fun way to see the gains and enjoy the play, without online vitriol :D

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Originally Posted by Yaxa

Burned through the remainder of The Walking Dead. Great story, but ultimately I never got the feeling that my choices mattered much. Sure, they affected the way Lee is seen by the rest of the group. But as far as the story goes, I can't help but feel that even if I did the exact opposite, only details would change.

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Spoiler for spoiler:

None of the choices matter from the point of view we are conditioned to expect from games. Their only real purpose is to make you feel involved in the story. Big events are the same, small events change slightly in ways that personalize your story. I think the distinction does matter, but it will leave you disappointed if you expected Mass Effect or something.

Spoiler for what I expected:

I didn't expect the game to change in massive ways, or my choices to have a significant effect on the ending. But I didn't expect that none of my choices mattered at all.

There were opportunities for branching paths. You could have temporarily landed in a different location depending on choice. That's never an option, the game always forces you one way.

Saving people doesn't matter. None of them can make it to the end anyway. You can only choose in which order and in which way they die. So it's not even a matter of deciding whom you want it to make it through.

I guess I expected that at least some of the choices would have a permanent impact on the story.

I decided to cross another Telltale title off my backlog and play Jurassic Park: The Game.

Now, I used to be a huge fan of the movie, so I'm very probably biased. I even enjoyed the Sega CD adventure.

After playing through the first two episodes (i.e. half the game), I don't think the product as a whole is as bad as the reviews suggested. The main problem is that the "game" portion consists mostly of quicktime events, with all the (lack of) fun that entails, broken up by brief segments of very light adventure gaming that are not only lacking in challenge, but also often feel like they don't belong in a "serious" setting.

I'd call it a badly implemented interactive story rather than a terrible video game.

I'm terribly disappointed. Gamestop had Injustice as a flash sale for $10. I knew about it ahead of time, but their website couldn't take the load and crapped out. Jerked me around for thirty minutes before finally informing me that they actually had sold out 29 minutes ago before the price was even updated on the site to reflect the sale.

Pretty sure the entire thing was just a way to trick people into buying Collector's Editions that had been lying around.

Doing a little STO to wind down at the end of the day. The Romulan missions are decent.
Also some Terraria (there'll be a new patch mid-summer for PC) a smidgen of Mech Warrior Online and some Minecraft.

And when I get more than 30 minutes to play, I'm on WoW.

This probably won't change for another two weeks :(

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Originally Posted by Mileron

Doing a little STO to wind down at the end of the day. The Romulan missions are decent.
Also some Terraria (there'll be a new patch mid-summer for PC) a smidgen of Mech Warrior Online and some Minecraft.

And when I get more than 30 minutes to play, I'm on WoW.

This probably won't change for another two weeks :(

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Been playing ST:O myself. Throughly enjoyed the Romulan story (KDF side)

Sent from beyond time and space - because that's how I roll.

I'm still playing DOTA2 off and on.

I picked up the Humblebundle 8 and have been playing through Thomas was Alone. It's so simple, yet quite enjoyable.

My friends and I picked up Killing Floor a while back when it was on sale because it's playable on mac and pc (one of my friends has a mac), and we were not really impressed. It was okay, but reminded me of a predecessor to the horde mode that takes place in Gears of War.

I also want to get to playing all of the Borderlands 2 DLC which i haven't had a chance to tear into yet, i've heard great things.

I just finished The Walking Dead myself.

Spoiler for My Thoughts:

I guess I was spoiled with Mass Effect where the choices do matter but in some ways it doesn't bother me that the choices don't really matter. I really don't feel the need to go back and play it again knowing that I really can't change the outcomes.

With that being said, I thought the story was excellent. I really liked how they tied that abandoned care at the end of episode 1 into the whole story. I chose not to steal the supplies since Clem thought it was a bad idea and I always wondered what the heck was going on with it.

For the most part I was fine with the ending. After I saw Lee get bit, I knew he wasn't going to make it out of Savannah. I really like how they put it all together. The ending was very emotional and I had Clem leave Lee behind. After everything she had just gone through I really couldn't ask her to shoot Lee in the head on top of everything else. I know the last scene is meant to be a bit vague but I choose to believe that the two figures in the distance were Omid and Christa and that Clem was going to go off with them. It makes sense in the context of the game I played and choices that I made.

Overall I was very happy with the game but I'm glad I didn't spend too much on it (I bought it a few months ago when it was on sale really cheap on Microsoft Live). It had an extremely satisfying and well thought out story. As a game, it wasn't all that much but I give it a pass. I don't really see it as a game so much as a medium to tell a story and it succeeds in that.

Spoiler for The Walking Dead:

The abandoned car thing actually pissed me off. I also chose not to loot it, but the hotel room guy still went off as if I did. The same is apparently true for all of the choices he refers to. Whether you take Clem on that trip or not, etc. No matter what choices you make. I get that he's supposed to be completely deranged at that point (he does carry his dead wife's head in a handbag, after all), but I think that scene is taking the whole "there's no right choice" thing a bit too far.

"Choice is an illusion."

Considering that the "game" part of the product is built almost entirely around choice, the fact that not a single one means anything is beyond frustrating.

I went into the story completely without spoilers and with the resolve not to look up where alternate paths would have taken me. It actually took me quite a while to realize how on-rails the whole thing really was. I'm not sure whether to credit the game's convincing smokescreen during the first half or to blame my predictable choices.

As for the final scene, I think it's meant to be as ambiguous as the rest of the game. I'd told Christa and Omid to go North, to find a boat, and to take care of Clem or find her a family (the topic came up twice). I'd told Clem to find Christa and Omid, and to stay on the move. I also thought the figures in the distance were Christa and Omid, but that "my" Clem didn't want to join up with them. Basically another example of the game not reflecting my choices. Although that one is undoubtedly up for interpretation.

Final thoughts on Jurassic Park: The Game...

After finishing the final episodes, I maintain my position that the reviews were overly harsh. I think part of it is that the original movie is old enough that the people who reviewed the game were kids when they first watched the movie, and thus have romanticized memories of it. The movie never had a great story, and it was extremely dumbed down compared to the book.

I'm not saying that Jurassic Park: The Game is a masterpiece. Far from it. But if The Walking Dead can be a "Game of the Year" based solely on narrative, even though it has little gameplay value, I don't think it's fair to summarily dismiss Jurassic Park as a failure.


Now, in keeping with my "episodic adventure backlog" theme, I played through the first two episodes of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games. I didn't really expect anything from it. Tie-in games are always iffy. And even though the BBC is behind this one, Doctor Who is no different.

On the plus side, the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond are both voiced by their respective actors from the TV series, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. Also (not always a given) there's nothing so far that outright contradicts series canon.

Episodes are short (maybe an hour, hour and a half play time for each of the first two), self-contained and require virtually no knowledge of the TV series. Though obviously there's little point in playing a tie-in game unless you're a fan.

Gameplay-wise there's nothing to write home about. You get to explore a handful of locations per episode, find and combine items, the stereotypical box-pushing, etc. In the first two episodes there was an awful lot of sneaking (avoiding enemies' scanner cones) and some supremely un-challenging mini-games. Exploration areas are more or less filled with items that reveal factoids about the series as well as collectible cards.

The question of whether or not these games are worth playing pretty much hinges on two things: Firstly, you need to be a fan of the series. While these games don't require intimate knowledge of the series, they do not serve as an introduction into the Whoniverse. Like most tie-ins, the context is part of the charm.

And secondly, while the games are free to download and play for people in the UK (the project was financed by the BBC and is covered by the UK's TV license), people in other regions have to shell out between $4 and $9 per installment. A price which I find hard to justify, even as a fan.

The ambiguity of the final scene makes more sense when you realize it isn't meant to be an ending, but a tease for another season.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wool

The ambiguity of the final scene makes more sense when you realize it isn't meant to be an ending, but a tease for another season.

---

That actually does make sense. And if they do release another season I will, happily, buy it even with the flaws. In the end, it's a damn good story even if it's a weak game.

Rumor has it there's a DLC called 400 Days coming soon. Season 2 won't be out until next year.

Safe bet that the DLC will be a promotional link to hype up interest for the sequel.

If you guys like their style of games the next one up for release is based on a comic book and titled Wolf Among Us, or something.

I wish they'd make a fourth season of Sam & Max already.

I started Metro: Last Light. Talk about throwing you into the world without an explanation... Even after an hour, it was still tough to follow what was going on. I was reduced to "follow the guy in front of you, shoot anything that moves." Apparently, there's some sort of "Help others & nonviolent solution" options. Sneak up on a guy, have the choice to kill him or knock him out.

I might spend another 30-45 minutes on it. If it doesn't grab me, it's toast.

Maybe they assume you've played the first one? I've had Metro 2033 for a while and never got around to it. Maybe I'll give it a shot when I'm done with Doctor Who.

Finished Doctor Who, so I thought I'd post my thoughts on the remaining episodes.

Episode 3, TARDIS, is a joke. There's virtually no content to speak of. There are two areas of the TARDIS to explore, the control room and the Doctor's private drawing room, the latter of which is filled with Doctor Who trivia. Which you are later quizzed on in order to progress.

Episode 4, Shadows of the Vashta Nerada, is where I think the designers may have finally "got it". Environments in a PC game don't have to adhere to the production restrictions of a TV series. The whole thing takes place in an underwater city. Sneaking and mini-games are reduced to a minimum in favor of dialog, story and exploration.

Episode 5, The Gunpowder Plot, was supposed to be the beginning of a second series of games. I went into it wondering why they would let the game take on a historic setting like that rather than keeping it for the TV series. I was surprised. The story is exactly what you'd expect -- London 1605, Guy Fawkes and aliens -- and for the first time, the game actually manages to keep up with the show. I'm not saying it's up there with the best of episodes, but with a bit of editing, it certainly wouldn't have felt out of place on TV. The addition of "combat" (the ability to disable certain enemies rather than having to sneak around them) is an at times welcome addition, as is the ability to combine items in your inventory. Along with improved dialog (both in writing and delivery), the end result, while still not a particularly good game, is nevertheless one that's worth being played by fans of Doctor Who.

Borderlands 2 kick. Up to 54 in Ultimate Vault Hunter. Presents a pretty good challenge.

Finished Bioshock Infinite. I didn't see the ending coming, very nice. The gameplay was consistent and decent, but the railroading was a bit strong. I was tickled with the AI for both the baddies and Elizabeth. I started off going "Great, a jackass toon I don't want around" - but when I *spoiler* lost her *spoiler* I was frustrated by her absence. Any game that makes you long for the dinky mechanic when it's gone - that's a well-designed game.

Also, she fetched coins for me, which was helpful.

Next up - either Metro: Last Light (which seems to be a boring run & gun) or maybe... Skyrim? Hm.

For those of you guys playing Borderlands, Tiny Tina's Fortress (or something like that) comes out this month, I believe. It's basically a silly Borderlands take on Dungeons and Dragons, with Tiny Tina as the dungeon master.

The Last of Us was great, but it's also a bit draining so I didn't feel like playing it again, but I also didn't want to take the disc out, so I took a break from my PS3 this weekend and played through Max Payne 3, which I had gotten for $5 a week or so ago, but it took so long to download that I didn't have time for it before TLOU arrived. (hurray for run on sentences)

It was much better than I thought it would be. It's been awhile, but I have the impression that people hated on it more than it deserved. It was pretty much everything I could want from a Max Payne game. It "modernized" the combat without giving up what made it unique, and even made it better in many ways. It had crazy cheesy dialogue that you couldn't help but laugh at, and the action set pieces were great. Sure it lacked the silly comic book cutscenes, but the cinematics we got instead were unique and interesting. I think it was a good trade-off. The story was even comprehensible, which is not something I expect from action movie style games. Overall I had way more fun with this than I have with any of the recent Call of Duty games I've played.

Wool Approved Box Quote: Max Payne 3 is like Bastion, except the narrator is a drunk lunatic that shoots bad people in the face.

Also picked up Kirby's Epic Yarn for $10 from Walmart, playing with my sister on weekends. It's a very good kid's game that I get the impression not enough kids or people with kids knew about. You basically can't die in this game, but there is challenge in finishing levels well. Generally a good platformer, it has good variety, but still can get a little old. It's very charming and cute, with a unique visual style.


Not sure what I'm going to start next. I picked up Catherine and Persona 4 Arena as part of my quest to finish every PS3 game I still care about before the PS4 launches, so maybe one of those.

I bought FTL when it was on sale a couple days ago for 2.49. The game is fun as hell and I can easily lose an hour or so playing it. I'm starting to get a better idea of what to do but so far my best is stage 2 of the final boss. One tactic I haven't used yet is teleporting boarding parties onto enemy ships to seize them for better scrap rewards but I've read that it's supposed to be extremely effective.

I finally beat FTL. Game is very addictive and I'm still having a ton of fun with it. I know people who have been playing awhile and have mastered the game will say otherwise, but I'm still at the point where a lot of the game comes down to sheer luck. The game I won I finally had a lot of things line up for me where I got a full crew, cloaking device and the augment that lets weapons fire without breaking cloak, a teleporter and 2 drone defense units. With all of that the final boss wasn't that bad. Phase 1 was easy, just cloak and knock out the weapons as fast as possible with volley fire and teleports to the weapon rooms. Phase 2, cloak again and focus on the Drone control room. Once the drones are shut down, the rest is easy. Last phase was easy. Only 1 enemy crew was still alive so I forced him out of the pilots seat (reducing their evade to zero) and cloak before each weapon power surge weapon burst. Then it's just a matter of taking the ship apart.

Finally had a chance to pick up The Last of Us. Unfortunately my regular place was out, so I had to resort to GameStop, which not only charged €70 for the standard edition but also tried to sell me insurance for it. WTF?

I've never had it happen to me, but I've heard about them trying to get you to buy insurance. Just adds insult to injury with some of the other things I've heard they sometimes do. "Would you like to pay extra for insurance for this game we already opened but are still selling to you as new, you know, just in case we scratched it when we put it in the demo kiosk?"

Still working slowly through last of us. Also xcom enemy unknown came out for iOS. I'm enjoying that but I like the strategy gameplay and the base management is overly complicated and to me not fun.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wool

I've never had it happen to me, but I've heard about them trying to get you to buy insurance. Just adds insult to injury with some of the other things I've heard they sometimes do. "Would you like to pay extra for insurance for this game we already opened but are still selling to you as new, you know, just in case we scratched it when we put it in the demo kiosk?"

---

I insisted on a sealed copy. If I'm paying for a new game, I will accept no less.

But what really bugs me about GameStop is that they talk to people like everyone's their buddy. Do that with the kids if you must, but as an adult customer I expect some courtesy. Being a gamer doesn't mean we're all in some super secret club.

Trying to avoid the launch thread in case of spoilers...

Does anyone else's PS3 fan get insanely loud during The Last of Us? The only time I've heard it go so high is in fan test mode.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yaxa

Trying to avoid the launch thread in case of spoilers...

Does anyone else's PS3 fan get insanely loud during The Last of Us? The only time I've heard it go so high is in fan test mode.

---

I've got an original PS3 (bulky with full backwards compatibility). Mine tends to get very loud after awhile. It's, definitely, a heat issue. One trick I learned was to raise it off the ground a bit (I saw one person recommend cans of fancy feast since they raise the PS3 up and don't have a lot of surface area themselves). This has helped me quite a bit by increasing air flow but it still gets loud. Oddly enough, older games (PSX and PS2 games) seem to heat up my PS3 more than PS3 games.

As for The Last of Us, I finally bought it the other day with $25 in gift certificates. I plan to start soon (maybe tonight if I have time). I just finished my second playthrough of Valkyrie Profile 2 so this is next on my list.

I've had my fan get loud before, although not while playing The Last of Us. I would agree it's probably a heat issue. I used to vacuum the side vents to get dust out, not sure if that helps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yaxa

But what really bugs me about GameStop is that they talk to people like everyone's their buddy. Do that with the kids if you must, but as an adult customer I expect some courtesy. Being a gamer doesn't mean we're all in some super secret club.

---

This hasn't bothered me as much. I don't think it's a store policy as much as it's a product of the fact that the type of person that would want to work at a GameStop is the type of person that likes to play and talk about video games. Having a couple people have five minute conversations about a game while in line is kind of entertaining. It's better than the smug and amused looks you get whenever you buy a game at Best Buy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wool

I've had my fan get loud before, although not while playing The Last of Us. I would agree it's probably a heat issue. I used to vacuum the side vents to get dust out, not sure if that helps.

---

I clean mine fairly regularly (compressed air) and it's literally never done this during a game before. It wasn't even a particularly warm day, either.

My PS3 is in a kind of cramped position, upright but with the right side against a shelf board. None of the vents are covered. But during The Last of Us, this thing got louder than my first 360.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wool

This hasn't bothered me as much. I don't think it's a store policy as much as it's a product of the fact that the type of person that would want to work at a GameStop is the type of person that likes to play and talk about video games. Having a couple people have five minute conversations about a game while in line is kind of entertaining. It's better than the smug and amused looks you get whenever you buy a game at Best Buy.

---

I wasn't waiting in line. The store was mostly empty. I went in and asked for a sealed copy of The Last of Us.

But I do get your point. When I was young, I had this small video/tabletop game store nearby and the familiarity was actually nice. They would let you try out anything you wanted. I spent hours (and tons of money) in that place.

The nearest GameStop, hover, is a glorified closet full of overpriced games that I don't enter unless I absolutely have to.

It might be because you haven't used the thing in awhile. I haven't had this happen to me recently, but I've been on a PS3 kick lately, and I wouldn't be surprised if when I first noticed this was a few months ago when I started beating my unplayed PS3 games.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wool

It might be because you haven't used the thing in awhile. I haven't had this happen to me recently, but I've been on a PS3 kick lately, and I wouldn't be surprised if when I first noticed this was a few months ago when I started beating my unplayed PS3 games.

---

My Ni no Kuni binge wasn't that long ago. I'd just given the PS3 a ridiculously thorough cleaning before installing the 1TB hard drive and I was pulling 8+ hour sessions then. I use it as a Blu-ray player regularly, too. But I suppose The Last of Us is a far more technically demanding game than anything I've played on the PS3 since Uncharted 3.

I guess I'm just worried that it might finally be crapping out. It's a fat model (CECHL) after all.

So I picked up Magic 2014 extremely excited about the inclusion of Sealed play, which is proven to be the most awesome way to play. Somehow they managed to completely screw it up. You get two slots to play the campaign mode, and play against the same decks as normal. If you want to do it more than twice you have to pay. The cards you get are pre-determined by your profile so you can't even delete it and start over. It broke my heart to see this all.

Fortunately the rest of the game is as fun as ever. Some really fun deck concepts. I am sold on the new green Eldrazi deck. I haven't really had time to play around with all the decks yet so I might find another favorite still. Slivers are moderately fun if a little limited in how the game plays out.

SWTOR + a little GW2.

I finished Metro: Last Light. Surprisingly good game! I didn't even know it came from a Ukrainian studio until after I finished it. It's a linear FPS story, but with a pretty decent plot and reasonable characterization / world development - perhaps more than Bioshock Infinite?

On a whim, I picked up the new Deadpool game.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
This is a badass, hilarious game. The play control is very responsive - almost too tight, in fact - and it all flows very easily. This game is a RIOT. I had no idea they could capture so much humor...
./pant pant pant
I have to take breaks because I'm laughing so hard. Whew.

Playing through the games I got during the Steam Sale, I actually only have three left, so I'll be done with them by the time I buy anything new.

While waiting for the Steam Sale I played Crysis 2, Dead Space 3, and Catherine.

Catherine was a bit disappointing from a narrative point of view. The puzzles were actually a lot more challenging than I expected and fairly decent, the graphics were good enough that I would really like to see Persona 5 on PS3, but the story wasn't as interesting as people made it out to be. It was supposed to be a mature take on real problems that people encounter during their daily lives, concerning relationships, trust, and honesty with a bit of a gothic horror twist. I don't remember my exact complaints, but I just wasn't very impressed with it.


Crysis 2 was better than people say it is, but not as good as I was hoping it would be. The gunplay was extremely fun, it reminded me of the original Fear, which is a good thing. The environments themselves were smaller than Crysis 1 (hence people's complaints) but they were still large enough to allow for you to approach the situation however you wanted. The problem with the game was that aside from the combat, everything about it was generic. There is only so many times you can see the same dramatic set pieces and still be impressed. All I could think while playing the game was how many times I had seen it all before.


Dead Space 3 was the best of the bunch, and much better than people on the internet say it is. I think it was probably the best game in the Dead Space series, despite the fact that there are many things the original still does better. Everything about it is just so well crafted, the things I didn't like were generally fairly minor. I think my biggest complaint was an attempt to force a really crappy love triangle sub-plot into the game. Luckily all it does is make you hate the characters during the very brief moments when you interact with them, it doesn't interfere with most of what you are doing.

The fact that the game is made for co-op does not detract from the experience in the way that people thought it would. The only time the thought even occurred to me was in boss battles when it becomes obvious that you were supposed to do one job while your partner performs another. The "horror" is not lost, although the first game still does the feeling of isolation and tension far better. Of course, in the first game you just sit in a corner and kill stuff shambling towards you, in this game (much like the second) you are constantly under direct attack at all times and will use far more health kits.

The micro-transaction system is completely irrelevant, even ignoring the glitch everyone assumed would get patched (it didn't). There is just no reason to use it unless you are impatient and want to build a gun right this second. You get so many resources just playing the game normally. You even get fake money to spend on one of the micro-transaction packs!

That reminds me, crafting guns is pretty neat, but the way your loadout works seriously detracts from trying new things. You can only carry two weapons at a time, and the process of building and rebuilding and storing weapons is a pain in the ass. I eventually got to a point where I had things that worked okay and just stuck with them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yttrium

On a whim, I picked up the new Deadpool game.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
This is a badass, hilarious game. The play control is very responsive - almost too tight, in fact - and it all flows very easily. This game is a RIOT. I had no idea they could capture so much humor...
./pant pant pant
I have to take breaks because I'm laughing so hard. Whew.

---

If you haven't seen them, they did some youtube videos to promote the game, with a guy (Ask a Ninja guy maybe? dunno) cosplaying as Deadpool and being a nuisance in the Marvel offices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjNttk_vcmw

I've had more game time in the last two weeks than I have in the last ~4 months. And that's with two new kittens.

Spending maybe a day or two on each game, I've played some Lego Indiana Jones (360, picked up for 7 bucks at a yard sale), a little Fable 3 (360, free with Gold), some Terraria (prepping for the 1.2 patch, getting used to it again), a tiny bit of Minecraft (just enough to log in and see Dale's new world, then Java crashes like a bitch), a smidgen of DC Online (the controls still suck, but I'll have to dig out my wired 360 controller and see if it makes a difference), a bit of Skyrim (the Mage's Guild storyline rocked), Civ 5 (I was doing okay with Alexander until both Gandhi and Caesar decided they didn't like me) and a smattering of other Steam games. And a bunch of FFXIV, which was an early birthday present to myself.

I patched WoW for 5.4 but cannot get enthused for "yet another long slog-like grind".

I keep wanting to push a few bucks towards Star Citizen but due to the fact I need a new video card (my GTX260 won't cut it) I might have to pass for a while. Even X:Rebirth will require a better card.

I haven't posted here for awhile, I've been playing Xenoblade for the past two months. I always put it off because I never had time for it, and it occurred to me that at that rate I never would have time for it, so I went ahead and started it.

It's very good, but it also isn't meeting the expectations that all the hype set it up for. I think it took me awhile to get into it as a result. So many things that people hyped up ended up being simple and not really that big a deal.

It's also got a lot of interesting systems and almost every one of them is in need of refinement to some degree. Some of the rpg mechanics themselves feel like a chore with the way they are handled. Gear for example, is an absolute pain to sort through.

The music is excellent, and while most of the fights are pretty dull, the few that are tough enough to require you use Shulk's visions to form a counter strategy are quite fun.

This thread hasn't been updated in ages...

Anyway, I finally finished Assassins Creed IV. This is, easily, the best in the series. The story is extremely good and there is just so much to do. If you decide to power through the main campaign, you're looking at 20 to 30 hours I'd say. If you want to do all the side stuff, excluding multiplayer which I never got into for AC games, there's several hundred hours of content. I was being pretty OCD of hitting a new part of the game and stopping to collect everything I could but towards the end I just powered through the remainder.

Fantastic game though.

Hmm, I played Odin Sphere and those games I got during the Steam Sale.

Odin Sphere held up pretty well. The art and the story were really good. The gameplay was interesting but a little awkward, not very fluid. The game mechanics were interesting but incredibly time consuming. You level up attack strength by absorbing souls from fallen enemies, and you level up your hitpoints by growing food with those souls and eating it. You also make potions that if you go through the trouble of leveling up too, gives you more souls in return. All of this sounds interesting at first, but quickly grows old and makes the game two times longer than it really ought to be.

You have limited inventory and little money, so you end up farming to buy bags, then farming to buy HP upgrades. And because you start over with each character, when you finally get decked out you have to do it all over again. The good news is that if you bothered to do this, the final ending chapter becomes much easier. I had to go back and farm again for the very first character though, because I had not yet learned what you needed to do and she was under-powered and unprepared for the final boss.

Overall good, but patience is required, and you will get sick of it. I like it more now that I'm not playing it anymore.


Also played Antichamber, really weird puzzle game. My joke to friends was that you don't play Antichamber, Antichamber plays you, because it seldom feels like you are solving puzzles as much as you are accidentally discovering the next thing to do. I enjoyed it a good bit, much more than something like Fez where the puzzles all felt like homework.

Papers, Please is a game for pseudo intellectuals without a demanding job, and their form of escapism involves feeling what it's like to have to do tedious bullshit for a living. You play a border crossing agent and have to make sure everyone's paperwork is correctly filled out. You get paid per person serviced, but get fined for incorrect actions. This is important because you also have a family you have to take care of, and you don't get paid enough to afford food, rent, and heating.

It's an interesting game, but not a very fun one. Half joking with the pseudo intellectual stuff. It's just funny to me remembering back when I first heard people start hyping the game and the kinds of things people said.


Going to play Gone Home later today, then get back to the PS2 backlog.

I'm playing Adventure Town, a nonsense, waste-of-time freemium. It's fun and well-done, and, after a week and a half, still hasn't required any $RL to progress. If you pick it up, don't spend gems until you're ready to make a badass weapon.

I played through the single player of Modern Warfare: Ghosts, and it was quite enjoyable. The storyline was a bit surprising, the play control was pretty good, and I enjoyed *not* playing the dog 90% of the time. I tried the campaign for Battlefield 4, and I hated it instantly. Del-Taco'd.

I tried GTA V, but it just didn't "snag" me. Given the volume of games available, I skipped it. Baleted.

I have a backlog of LOTS of XBLA games, and I've been spending 10-15 minutes on each one, then deciding if I want to keep it. It's a long slog. Lots of d3l3t3.

Batman: Arkham Origins is fun, and it's my go-to. I also recently picked up Recettear, which is quite fun. Between the 3, I have something to play on every platform :D

I have Assassin's Creed *. I played ~80% of 1, just a bit of 2, and the first hour of 3. I didn't really enjoy 2 that much, and 3 was an interesting change of pace, but still very more-of-the-same. I'll give 4 a spin. I could use a long game to sink my teeth into.

I've been spending alot of time with Kerbal space program.

It's a pre-release, which I very rarely do - but an amazing sandbox game. It's kind of like Orbiter, except there's these adorable green guys who go riding on rockets, that... well, they sometimes (most of the time) blow up. Ok, maybe that's just my rockets. The stuff some people make is absolutely amazing. It's actually taught me a lot about orbital mechanics. Like what a Hohmann transfer orbit is and that I am the worlds worst rocket scientist.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wool

...

Papers, Please is a game for pseudo intellectuals without a demanding job, and their form of escapism involves feeling what it's like to have to do tedious bullshit for a living. You play a border crossing agent and have to make sure everyone's paperwork is correctly filled out. You get paid per person serviced, but get fined for incorrect actions. This is important because you also have a family you have to take care of, and you don't get paid enough to afford food, rent, and heating.

It's an interesting game, but not a very fun one. Half joking with the pseudo intellectual stuff. It's just funny to me remembering back when I first heard people start hyping the game and the kinds of things people said.

---

It's funny how I thought pretty much the same, when I bought it based on the rave reviews, and experienced not much else than a "crappy bureaucrat job simulator". It was fairly depressing rather than fun, even though I tried to continue onwards to see more of the storyline.
I only managed to play 2-3 hours I think, before I decided to go spend my time on something else, and the thought of spending time on a "second job" doesn't help draw me back in.
I like the idea of the game, and I like how its possible for indie games to get alot of exposure, though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Milton Finkelstein

It's funny how I thought pretty much the same, when I bought it based on the rave reviews, and experienced not much else than a "crappy bureaucrat job simulator". It was fairly depressing rather than fun, even though I tried to continue onwards to see more of the storyline.
I only managed to play 2-3 hours I think, before I decided to go spend my time on something else, and the thought of spending time on a "second job" doesn't help draw me back in.
I like the idea of the game, and I like how its possible for indie games to get alot of exposure, though.

---

I sort of think that this is the type of game that would appeal to people who like the idea of something as much as the reality of it, and aren't necessarily concerned with "finishing" the game. People who derive amusement from the scenario as much as the gameplay. The type that can ignore the fact that you are doing mindless paperwork in a video game because "wow, it's such an interesting take on fascism and personal privacy". It's the sort of thing Graffe's OT might like. The guy who made it should do one about being a US republican in Congress next and get similar results.

Personally, I did manage to finish it, but the final couple days I was so sick of it that my performance dropped dramatically and I just stopped letting anyone and everyone in. Doubled the amount of citations I had received over the entire game, but I already had two possible endings lined up and had enough money to keep my family alive so wasn't worried about it. Screw bureaucracy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Melcar

I've been spending alot of time with Kerbal space program.

It's a pre-release, which I very rarely do - but an amazing sandbox game.

---

Wait, what? This is still pre-release? People have been playing it for years! It's come so far I just assumed it was technically "done" by now.

Quote:

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Wait, what? This is still pre-release? People have been playing it for years! It's come so far I just assumed it was technically "done" by now.

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They just released version 0.23

The main focus of development right now seems to be a career mode. (that was just released with version 0.22 basically) - In the career mode you earn science points by conducting research, which can then be used to unlock the tech tree. (sandbox mode has all the parts unlocked).

So yeah, it's very playable - but far from "done".

Episode 1 of Broken Sword 5 took me around 8 hours to complete, which I guess is decent enough for half a point & click adventure. Stylistically, both in terms of art as well as storytelling, BS5 does a good job at mimicking the first two games of the series. The 3D-rendered characters blend well into the traditional 2D hand-painted backgrounds. Animations, unfortunately, are very stiff. I don't know whether that's indicative of budget constraints of a conscious, stylistic choice, but it sticks out.

Apart from the characters there's no direct connection to the story of the previous games. The only indication of a timeline comes in the form of modern smartphones and computers. (The game actually pokes fun at how much easier things are with internet access on the go.) Travel is limited to a handful of locations in Paris and a short trip to London. There is some, but not excessive, backtracking. Compared to the first two games, there are very few incidentals for the characters to comment on.

Gameplay feels very much like an old-school point & click adventure. Veteran players can choose between modern and classic interfaces while newer players get help in the form of a tutorial and a well-integrated hint system. The latter nudges players by having the characters tell you what they think needs to be done ("I should find something to..."). The overall difficulty of the puzzles is low. Inventory combinations are rare, dialogue puzzles do not exist, and solutions are never more than one screen away. The lack of a hotspot system may be a downside for new players, but interactive elements are never found in unexpected places. Sliding puzzles as found in the Nintendo, iOS and Android remakes of the first game make a cameo appearance.

As this is only half of an adventure game, BS5 unsurprisingly ends on a cliffhanger. Episode 2 is expected in January.

Been a busy work and life couple of months, but starting in December during "off nights" I started on Starbound. On "hiatus" right now while waiting for the next major beta patch.

Since then, I've gotten a few hours for the following:
Euro Truck Sim 2 (Steam Holiday Sale). Glad this one doesn't make me physically ill (like the first one did). Quite enjoying it but wish the American version would come out sooner. The trucks in ETS2 are just so... boring.

Diablo 3. Got my demon hunter to 60 (with Dale and his wife's legit group help) and into Inferno (and most of the way through Act 1 solo).

Borderlands 2. I know Steam doesn't do returns, however I cannot play this game more than 30 minutes before I get a migraine and get nauseous. If, after a third try, the issue still occurs, I hope I'll be successful getting a refund.

Evoland. Only played the first half hour or so. Enjoying it though.

Torchlight 2. I never finished the second act. I didn't remember what the hell I was doing so I grabbed a couple mods and started over.

Castle Crashers. Enjoyable little game. Reminds me a lot of TMNT:Arcade.

I bought the Metal Gear HD Collection awhile back and have been playing through them. I've been playing them in chronological order for the most part:

I know that these were among the first "stealth" games out there but it annoys the heck out of me how difficult stealth kills are to pull off.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Decent game. I never played it before so wanted to see the story

Metal Gear: The original was much better than the NES port that we all remember. The differences are subtle but it's a stronger game.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake: Never played this one either since it wasn't released in the U.S. until a few years back (unless you emulated it with a translator). Had a surprisingly deep and good plot for an old NES era game.

Metal Gear Solid: The pack comes with a download for the game. Not sure what has changed but it seemed a LOT harder than the original PSX version that we all remember. Bosses that I remember breezing through gave me lots of problems this time around (in particular REX and Liquid were brutal for me and I never had problems with them in the past).

Metal Gear Solid 2: Just started it.

Good games overall. Just part of my backlog that I'm getting around to while I wait for the early year releases (FF XIII-3 and Dark Souls 2 in particular).

As I'm nearing the end of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, I find myself backtracking to try to find the remaining items. I went through most of the game without the dash boots, so I hadn't rescued a lot of maimais even though they were in plain sight. Oddly enough the only other use for those boots seems to be a lone, optional dungeon with nothing but rupees as a reward.

Spoiler for spoilery specifics:

After finding all 100 maimais and upgrading most items and the spin attack (which I rarely use), I'm still missing three heart pieces. At first I thought the Lorule castle boss might drop another heart and the game would continue after beating him. But then I ran into another piece in Hyrule. I suspect the remaining pieces might be rewards from some of the nonsensical mini-games. Each of the others seemed to reward you with a heart piece if you got a high enough score. EDIT: Got two more heart pieces from mini-games. Unfortunately the 100-second cuckoo challenge only rewarded rupees.

And I'm also still looking for the fourth piece of Master Ore to get the second Master Sword upgrade. I was hoping that would be the reward for the 50-level challenge at the Treacherous Tower, but I only got a lamp upgrade for that. The hint to bring a net to get a special reward for repeating that challenge suggests that it might be a golden bee (which is obtainable through far easier means).

I'm a bit disappointed that the wall-merging mechanic never escapes its gimmick status. The maimai weapon upgrades are a nice touch. But unlike other Zelda games, unless you're a completionist, you don't really need to bother with them. The Lorule castle dungeon has item-specific challenges seemingly just to remind you that you have those items. No other dungeon in the game requires more than two items to complete.

Despite its shortcomings, it's probably my favorite original Zelda since Ocarina of Time.

I haven't had as much time for stuff lately. When things get like this I always end up trying an ios game to pass the time, and I remember someone talking about Tiny Death Star, so I tried it. Decided it was cute but not for me.

I also started The Last Story for the Wii, which I got for Christmas. The story isn't very interesting, the controls are awkward, and it's rough around the edges in general, but overall I'm pretty impressed with it. It sort of seems like there are two socially acceptable paths for jrpg combat: either it needs to harken back to classic jrpg combat, or it needs to be some kind of mmo hybrid. This is the first jrpg I can think of that has tried to modernize the genre in new ways, taking inspiration from western games without soullessly copying them without understanding for the mechanics at play.

So for example. Combat is real time and you control a single character. There is cover, which you use to flank the enemy or for surprise attacks. If a meter fills up, you can pause combat to issue more specific orders. Allies create fields you can interact with abilities of your own to produce unique effects. It's very cool, although the controls and camera need a lot of work.

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Originally Posted by Mileron

Borderlands 2. I know Steam doesn't do returns, however I cannot play this game more than 30 minutes before I get a migraine and get nauseous. If, after a third try, the issue still occurs, I hope I'll be successful getting a refund.

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Think it's a fov issue? A lot of console ports aren't adjusted for how much closer a person sits to a monitor. It's an annoying oversight that I will never understand.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Silke

I know that these were among the first "stealth" games out there but it annoys the heck out of me how difficult stealth kills are to pull off.

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You mean like stealth melee kills? I always just use silenced pistols in those games.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yaxa

Despite its shortcomings, it's probably my favorite original Zelda since Ocarina of Time.

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I think I feel the same way. I can't remember how much I liked Majora's Mask, but I assume it was a lot (other than the final boss, which I never "got").

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wool

Think it's a fov issue? A lot of console ports aren't adjusted for how much closer a person sits to a monitor. It's an annoying oversight that I will never understand.

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Oh, I know it is, but even with the console settings and some playing around, it just doesn't help with this game.
(Actually I have the same problem with Battlefield and COD games. FOV sliders don't help.)

Having finally found the last piece of heart and the final Master Ore (and without using spoilers), I went ahead and finished A Link Between Worlds. Having the Master Sword at full power made the boss fight slightly quicker, but not easier.

Now, it's a great game in its own right, but it won't change my opinion regarding my game of the year choices. A good chunk of the mileage I got out of it was backtracking, and I really didn't like the mini-games.

As far as the non-linear dungeons go, my initial impression was that Nintendo intentionally implemented that feature in the most obnoxious way imaginable just so that players would praise them for going back to the traditional item progression with the next game. I'm still not convinced that there isn't some truth to it. With almost all items being available right from the start, there was a great potential for more interesting dungeons. Instead, items played a supporting role to a wall merging mechanic that, in my opinion, was never sufficiently fleshed out. Which is a shame, because it's one of those things we probably won't see again anytime soon.

Hopefully the Wii U will come down in price before the next original Zelda hits.

My flatmate and I both picked up 3DS's with Mario Kart & Pokemon plus got the free download of Mario 3D World.

Going to make an effort not to go all out on game buying for the 3DS until I've actually finished those three games.

I resubscribed to Gamefly as a part of my quest to finish all the PS3 games I still care about before I get a PS4. Been trying to get Beyond, but they really seem to want me to play all the Suda 51 games.

Killer is Dead - Not as bad as people said it was, but I still didn't like it that much. Feels a lot like No More Heroes, and I assume Killer 7. Kind of interesting, kind of weird, kind of janky. Probably didn't help that I played the far superior Metal Gear Rising at about the same time.

Shadows of the Damned - Better than I was expecting. It doesn't play as much like his other games, probably because it was a collaboration from the guy credited with creating Resident Evil 4, which this feels a lot like. Still nothing to get too excited about though. Most of the jokes aren't really that funny (to me).

Lollipop Chainsaw - I liked this one the most. It's probably the only one I genuinely liked as anything more than an interesting diversion (as in, the only one I would have been happy with purchasing), and the only one I found to be particularly funny.

The vast majority of the games I've rented have been 6-8 hours long, so it's been really easy to binge two a week in the current rental plan. I've also played Asura's Wrath (makes a better anime than game), Puppeteer, and am currently playing the 4th Ace Attorney game. They also finally sent me Beyond, so I'll be able to talk about that next.

I finished Lightning Returns. The game received some pretty harsh criticism but, overall, it's a decent game. It's not the best Final Fantasy but it's not the worst either. The story is a bit convoluted by this point (Final Fantasy games tend to be a bit on the convoluted side to begin with and this game has 2 previous confusing plots to draw upon and wrap up). But it does a good job of wrapping the series up. I'm looking forward to Final Fantasy XV but I'm also sick of the whole Fabula Nova Crystallis setting. XV is set in the same universe and shares the same mythology but takes place "elsewhere" (on another world) so you won't be running into Lightning or her friends.

Anyway, the clock system is REALLY annoying at first and necessitates the use of a guide if you want to beat the game on your first play through. If you go without a guide, you will, almost definitely, run out of time somewhere and have to start all over (but you will keep all stat increases and items you gained). However, once you figure things out it's pretty easy to freeze time and keep frozen pretty much permanently.

I still think that it was asking a LOT for Lightning to carry the game entirely on her shoulders. She doesn't have a lot of personality (grim stoicism only goes so far) and she's not particularly likable. You only get party members for a few areas and they don't really add much. Finally the world isn't terribly large but there is a TON of running around and backtracking.

I think my least favorite part of the game combined the Time Limit that I've complained about and having certain parts of the game inaccessible except for specific times during the day. For example, there are two main cities in the game. One city has an area with a ton of quests in it (including the need to go there for the main quest) but it's only accessible from Midnight to 6:00 am. It's just annoying being very careful to manipulate time properly and then be forced to waste an entire day just to open that area up.

Anyway... I'm not quite done with the game. I beat the last boss but I have 6 trophies left to complete (can only be completed on a NG+ after beating the final boss). The worst part is they are really stupid ones that simply involve upgrading equipment (which cannot be done on the first play through). But that shouldn't take me too long for the Platinum Trophy.

1 more trophy to go and I'll have Platinumed Lightning Returns. Trophies aren't too bad in this game but they do require you to do a partial 2nd play through. While none of the 3 13's have been difficult to platinum, the first is, by far, the most time consuming and difficult. It's also the only one that you can screw up and be forced to play the whole game over if you mess up (it involves selling some items that must be upgraded). XIII-2 wasn't too bad and this one isn't terrible. Most of the trophies you'll get along the way and the optional stuff isn't too difficult with the right strategies.

At any rate, I should have the platinum in the next day or so which means I'll be "done" with Lightning Returns just in time for Dark Souls 2.

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Originally Posted by Ronaan

and in the end I bought Cataclysm and Pandaria and hopped straight back into WoW.

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Almost a year since I posted this... still having fun in WoW, haven't bought a single game since.

Playing South Park: The Stick of Truth and LOVING it. It's like playing an interactive episode cross-bred with final fantasy.

Story is classic SP (should be, since it was written by Stone and Parker who also did the voices).

Cut scenes ARE SP. To. A. T.

The combat is turn-based with a few twitch aspects and mini QTE's stuck in for a little extra flair.

The game is EXTREMELY nsfw with copious uncensored f-bombs, nudity and potty humor. Truthfully, I almost wish there was an option to sensor the profanity with TV beeps to make the game seen MORE like the show. I don't typically watch SP uncensored, so the beeps I get with cable TV are part of its charm.

The jokes aren't stale, very few recycled episode jokes, but there are constant nods to the episodes as well as Obsidian's tongue-in-cheek jokes about RPGs and LARPing.

The game doesn't take itself seriously, and isn't exactly revolutionary (other than being the model for how licensed products SHOULD be done).

There are very few technical issues I've come across. The 2 most noticeable are some stuttering when sprinting around the world map after loading and a few textures not loading properly. Both issues resolved themselves by walking in/out a door to reload. I DID lose background music in 1 boss fight, but the SFX and banters worked 100% so I don't really know if it was a bug or intentional.

I'm playing on PS3, which has several censored "anal probe" related scenes if you're from EU or Australia. The PC version is apparently unaltered for those regions.

I would rate is a 4/5. So far (12hrs in) no game-breaking bugs, but the textures/stuttering issues, almost excessive profanity, checkpoint saves instead of saves on-demand and a few plot pieces (looking at you stealth levels) detract from the overall experience for me.

Playable in 30 minute chunks, I recommend it if you are a South Park fan, or want a "beer and pizza" RPG.

I finished my Lightning Returns platinum trophy. It wasn't hard to get, it just took awhile and some grinding. The way the trophies are designed is that you can't get them all until after beating the game (which isn't unusual by itself). But the last trophies that require a New Game+ to finish are pretty lame and all involve upgrading equipment. The trophies to upgrade your Sword and Shield (30 times each) can be done really fast. But the trophy to upgrade 30 accessories is a grind. It's not a hard grind it's just annoying.

I've mentioned it before but the game got some really harsh criticism. Personally I don't think the game was that bad. But the whole Final Fantasy 13 plot line is really tired and, as I've said, it was asking an awful lot for Lightning to carry an entire game by herself. Like I said before, it sucks that we only had Final Fantasy 13 and it's spin offs for an entire generation (despite really liking 14, because it's an MMO I don't really count it as a true Final Fantasy game).

I'm hoping 15 is better but I'm not really sure what I want out of a Final Fantasy game these days. I think that the first thing is to get rid of the futuristic technology stuff. Put the fantasy back into Final Fantasy. I also don't have a problem with a more traditional battle system (Attack, Magic, Item, Run). I realize that it's an antiquated system in the ADHD environment caused by COD stlye games. But, in my opinion, it works.

At any rate, my goal was to finish before Dark Souls 2 comes out and I've managed that.

I'm surprised more of you guys didn't get South Park. I thought it was one of the more highly anticipated games around here.

Finally got to play Beyond: Two Souls. It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, but it still left me strangely unsatisfied. I don't mind that it was barely a game but something was still missing. When all is said and done, I can't say I liked it.

This past month was the month of the fighting games for me with Gamefly. I rented three, nearly back to back.

Injustice: Gods Among Us - It was pretty decent. I didn't like the story as much as I thought I would, but it was nice they put effort into it. The gameplay itself was pretty cool too, although a bit too technical for me to get any good at in the short time I played it. Amused they made Aquaman, the character everyone hates, one of the strongest characters. 3/5.

Mortal Kombat - I thought it was going to end up playing like Injustice, but it actually feels nearly identical to the old school Mortal Kombat games. As a reboot I'm pretty impressed, but it got old fast, and I never finished it because it kept locking up during one of the final chapters of the game. Honestly the difficulty was getting pretty irritating anyway. Overall didn't like it as much as I thought I would. 2/5.

Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 - With no story mode, I played it the least, but enjoyed it the most. By far. The flow of combat was just so much better in this game. The characters were cooler too. If I was more into fighting games I would play this one more. Definitely my favorite of the bunch. Couldn't beat the boss of Arcade mode though. 4/5.

I was also sent God of War: Ascension at one point. It was an okay game. Not really a good one. I sort of think the franchise is played out. I swear some of its combat was rebalanced thanks to it being a multiplayer game, and overall just wasn't that fun. Last boss was pretty awesome looking though. I also got NeverDead and Twisted Metal, which I didn't bother playing for more than a couple of hours.

Almost done with my PS3 renting spree. I've just got a couple rpgs left. Will probably rent some 3DS games I never picked up too.

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Originally Posted by Wool

I'm surprised more of you guys didn't get South Park. I thought it was one of the more highly anticipated games around here.

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If it wasn't 60 bucks, I'd have considered it.
Given that a lot of games that have simultaneous Console/PC releases often have the PC priced a bit lower (except a lot of the high-profile games like COD etc) I was shocked to see it on Steam for $60.

Yeah, the bigger publishers started charging the console platform tax a few years ago. I'm more surprised (and grateful) lately when they do not. It's usually only smaller publishers that don't charge the tax. I would say that this was fairly high profile though. On the bright side, the price will end up deeply discounted within the year.


Anyway, I've got one more game to talk about real quick. I've been skipping a lot of PC games lately while on my console binge, but I got around to playing one the other day. Broken Age, the point and click adventure game by Tim Schafer, funded through Kickstarter. It was really good.

It features two character stories you can switch between, and following some advice from impressions when it came out, I played through the boy's story first. It was kind of cute, but nowhere near as good as the girl's story. Hers seemed longer, with better puzzles, funnier jokes, and just felt better all around. The boy's story does become interesting in retrospect though, as you start to piece together how the two completely unrelated stories fit together.

It's pretty short and pretty easy, but it's worth playing if you are the least bit interested. The story is pretty good and stands well on its own, with just enough mystery left at the end making you want more. This was Part 1, I don't know when Part 2 comes out.

Spoiler for my favorite scene:

You harvest special sap from a talking tree by showing it a (wooden) stool until it vomits. Hilarious. Twisted.

I also enjoyed the beauty pageant in which all the girls competed to be eaten by a giant monster. The perfect amount of dark humor.

I played through Injustice, when it came out, and I really liked the storyline. This was before I learned how the DC universe(s) work. Now, it's slightly more underwhelming. I loved the bits with Joker and Harley Quinn.

I am a HUGE fan of the Mortal Kombat reboot. I played through the main game (on normal) on the PS3, then played through it all again on Hard on the 360. The storyline is much more contrived than Injustice, but I like the play control in MK much more. The Tower was a lot of fun. Weird stuff in there.

I'm not a fan of the Marvel/Capcom games. Maybe my reflexes aren't what they used to be.

I have the South Park game, but I have to update my 360, which is a huge PITA (and a bit risky). So, I'll wait until I have more games stacked up before I give it a try. I might play some Fuel or Culdcept Saga, though :D

I just finally finished Bravely Default after months of struggling to find the motivation to play it. I would play for a day, get bored, then start anything else. Was going to post about it in its own dedicated thread but it's been awhile since I've posted here anyway. That game got seriously dull even before the filler crap (Press X to go insane) but the ending was pretty good.

So last time I posted here I was just finishing up with GameFly and was going to rent a bunch of rpgs. I didn't get far with this.

Resonance of Fate: It seemed really interesting, but it demanded an obscene level of dedication and I quickly decided I didn't have the patience for it. Not discounting trying it again someday.
Star Ocean 4: Didn't even end up trying it.
Mana Khemia 2: Would not run on my PS3, so I shelved it.
Ar Tonelico 2: Ran on my PS3, was better than I thought it would be. Extremely janky low budget but decent story and music. About halfway through I got hit by a save bug that ERASED my save file and would not let me create a new one without quitting. Shelved it.

Edit: I completely forgot about Nier! This was the last game I rented and liked well enough to actually finish. It wasn't even originally on my PS3 bucket list but I had heard someone talking about it on a podcast so figured I would give it a shot. It felt like a game whose ambitions far outweighed it's actual budget. It felt rushed and unfinished in several areas, and yet, there was something inherently interesting and worthwhile about it. While the story sort of faltered in my opinion, it was nevertheless a very interesting experience. If you are like me and dismissed it because of the character designs, you might want to give it a shot anyway. The music was also pretty dang good.

Sometime a month ago PSN had a Flash Sale where I picked up a bunch of stuff for $1 each.

Jurassic Park: The Game: Runs terribly on console. I would fail button prompts because the game was still loading/freezing between scenes. Story and characters were unbearable. I heard it was bad but figured it would still be worth some simple fun since I liked the source material, but it was only barely worth it.
Crash Bandicoot 2/3: I wanted to see what fans were always raving about. I think I mentioned this in another thread? I wasn't that impressed. The platforming isn't that good and it's dated in many ways. The third one was pretty decent though.
Toyko Jungle: Intensely fun for a day, then it got a bit old. This is a game where you pick an animal and see how long you can survive in a post-apocalyptic city. Kind of arcadey, would have liked it to be more simmy.

I also played several PS+ games:

Castle of Illusion: I found this to be a competent and well made platformer. It was only a couple hours long, which is good because I didn't feel like playing it much longer.
Remember Me: Much better than it's given credit for. It was panned and ignored on release, but I wasn't that bothered by its problems and found it to be generally enjoyable.
Binary Domain: A game that got so little attention I didn't even know what it was until it went on sale for $2.50 on Amazon and CAG started raving about it. It's a third person shooter where you fight robot armies in Japan. The robots all have locational damage. The story and characters are fairly fun, although there is a part near the end that is incredibly dumb.
Thomas Was Alone: A really cool indie minimalist platformer game. You basically play as simple shapes with their own distinct personalities as told by a narrator. It's fantastic, with my only complaint being that it was a little too long. The final section isn't as interesting as the one that preceded it.

Finally, I played The Bureau: XCOM Declassified a couple months ago. Like Remember Me, I was surprised to find it better than I was led to believe. I was expecting an unpolished and unfinished mess, but it's only real problem was that it wasn't as ultimately interesting as it's original concept. I thought the idea of being a government man who operated in the shadows and covered up alien conspiracies was really cool, but what we actually got was a Mass Effect game that takes place in the 60s, complete with insane alien invasion setpieces. It made the story hard to take seriously honestly. There is no way that level of invasion could have been covered up. Still, when you judge it by its own merits it's pretty decent.

So that's what I've played (and not played) the past two months. The next two should be just as ridiculous. I've got a ton of short Vita games to get to, and I'm going to try and finish off my remaining PS3 games. With nothing coming out until August, the Steam Sale will be my only distraction.

Edit: I don't know why I started treating this like the "games you have played recently" game review thread instead of "what are you playing now", but this week I'm going to play Crysis 3 and start Tales of Xillia.

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Originally Posted by Yttrium

I'm not a fan of the Marvel/Capcom games. Maybe my reflexes aren't what they used to be.

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My reflexes aren't that great either. Not in fighting games at least. The more demanding combos are absolutely ridiculous and seem to rely 100% on muscle memory and spazzing out faster than you can think. I just like the general speed and pacing of that type of game more.

I picked up Red Dead Redemption during a PSN sale a few weeks back and I've got say the game is damn good and lives up to all of the hype it's received.

I have finally discovered minecraft.
When i absolutely cannot play Minecraft, I'm playing stupid games like Adventure Town and Hay Day.

Minecraft is Awesome, and almost infinitely moddable. Very impressive tool.

Finally finished Tales of Xillia. I remember people complaining it was too short so wasn't expecting to be playing it so long. I guess it's short if you play on the default difficulty and run straight through the main quest without doing the sub-events, but the skits are half the fun in a Tales game.

Anyway, I think I would describe it as "jrpg comfort food". It doesn't do anything particularly amazing, but it's extremely solid in every way that counts if you like jrpgs. While I wouldn't compare it to the greatest jrpgs of all time, it's easily one of the best I've played on the PS3. Apologies for repeating things those of you who played it earlier this year may have already said, I really dragged my feet on this one. (I blame Bravely Default)

My one big concern with it was that since it has a direct sequel, I was worried the story would be half-finished and end on a cliffhanger, but no, it's a complete experience and despite some oddly paced story-telling wraps up it's story completely. Now that I've finished it, I finally watched the trailers for the sequel, and it's definitely an all new story.


I also mentioned playing Crysis 3 at the beginning of the month. It was pretty good. I liked it a lot more than the previous game, but something did feel kind of off about it. Stealth, and even combat in general, didn't feel quite as fun. The pacing and design of the overall game was much better though.


Next up is Persona 4 Arena, my last disc based PS3 game. I also mentioned in the Steam thread that I'm going to play the latest Hitman in order to free up some space on my hard drive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Silke

I picked up Red Dead Redemption during a PSN sale a few weeks back and I've got say the game is damn good and lives up to all of the hype it's received.

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It has its flaws, but I loved Red Dead Redemption. I think the cliche I would use would be "breath of fresh air". Something different while still complex enough to be compelling. It does drag a bit, but nowhere near as badly as GTA 4 did.

MINECRAFT.

OMG, I should have played this game years ago.

What convinced you to finally try it?

Dale.

I've been playing Persona 4 Arena. It's my new favorite fighting game. Earlier when talking about Mortal Kombat I mentioned liking the fast pace of something like Marvel vs Capcom more, but the assists in that series make it a little chaotic and unfollowable. The previous fighting game I had played with good pacing was Blazblue, made by Arc System Works, who made Persona 4 Arena with Atlus.

Anyway, the mobility is the best I've seen in a fighting game. In addition to the snappy speed, air dashes, and ground dashes, you also have a special dash that acts as a dodge. I love it so much. It's also manages to be easy to get into while still maintaining the depth and variety Arc Sys is known for. There is an auto combo you can perform just by hitting the main attack, and most special moves are simply quarter circle motions. The timing on advanced combos is still beyond ridiculous though, but luckily you don't need to be able to do any of that to play the basic game. I'll try my best to refrain from ranting about that stuff, just be sure to stay as far away from score attack as possible to maintain your sanity.

And it's not just a good fighting game though, it's got the character and personality of Persona through and through. From the way the characters are presented, to how your personas are attacks in battle, and even the stages themselves. The term "fan service" has a negative connotation with me, but this game is a different kind of fan service. The nicknames given to characters before a fight begins even references (sometimes obscure) scenes from previous games. For example, Yosuke is Captain Ressentiment, a reference to a question a teachers asks during the school sim portion of Persona 4 and doubles as an allusion to the feelings that give rise to his shadow. Mitsuro is the Imperious Queen of Executions, referencing her arcana (empress) and the hot springs scene from Persona 3.

Single player comes in two forms. Arcade mode consists of 90% gameplay and 10% snippets of vague conversation between battles. Story mode actually takes the form of a "visual novel" and is 90% dialogue and 10% of token gameplay, with a few animated cutscenes and still images for good measure. It actually does a pretty good job of representing each character's personality, but can be extremely repetitive as it basically just repeats the same story over and over through the lens of a different character. And the base story itself isn't really that complex either.

It's worth playing if you liked Persona 4 and want to see more of the characters, but keep in mind a sequel is about to come out with more P3 characters and (hopefully) a better story mode.



A few weeks ago I also mentioned I was going to play Hitman Absolution before the Steam sale started. It was really good. Way better than I was expecting. When I started I kept thinking it was good but probably wouldn't match Blood Money. I kept expecting it to get stupid and become a full on action game, and it never did. One of the great things about Blood Money and my only disappointment in Dishonored (for not having the same level of) was the variety you had in accomplishing objectives and the ability to perform assassinations that looked like accidents. This game follows that tradition very well.


Once I finish P4A, all my disc based PS3 games will have been complated. All I've got left is a few downloadables. Going to start with FF13-2, probably sometime next week.

Man what did they do to the crystarium (skill upgrade tree system) in FF13-2? It's awful! Who thought this was a good idea?

Finally got a PS4. Infamous is fantastic. New powers are super rad.

Since my VPS has been down for the past few weeks (growing pains), I've been back to playing xcom: apocalypse.

This month I played Tales of Symphonia. I thought it held up pretty well. I'm now playing through it's sequel, which I don't particularly like. It isn't bad, but it is probably the worst Tales game I have played. The two new characters are insufferable. Luckily it is extremely short, so I won't be playing it long.

Not sure what I'm going to play next. The only two things left on my PS3 bucket list are Lightning Returns, which I don't own yet (I'm being cheap and don't really want to pay much for it), and Dragon's Dogma. I'm still trying to decide if I am going to get Destiny at release, and that will probably determine if I have time for Dragon's Dogma.

I went ahead tried Dragon's Dogma, just as a test run. It's freaking amazing, and I haven't been able to put it down since.