The "What Are You Playing Now?" Thread

[Silke]

I've also been playing the iOS port of Final Fantasy IV (as mentioned somewhere, it has a ridiculous Square/Enix premium price but I've got quite a bit of credit on iTunes from Christmas left over).

I've played FF4 quite a few times so I jumped right into hard difficulty. I won't say that was a mistake but... Regular enemies are tuned fine. They tend to spam high damage abilities quite a bit but it's not too bad to deal with them and grind out experience and money. But the bosses can be frustratingly difficult. If you are even slightly under-leveled, you will get one-shot repeatedly. They also seemed to have tuned bosses a bit so that you can't simply attack/heal with your eyes closed. A lot of the bosses have gimmicks that have to be obeyed. The "counter' rate on bosses is set ridiculously high so you never want to attack willy nilly or you're likely to be seeing the game over screen after you attack 3 times and get countered with "alpha strike" 3 times.

With that being said though I'm making progress. My only real complaint is that this is the DS port and doesn't include the After Years expansion content. I've never had the chance to play through that.

[Yaxa]

I've also been playing the iOS port of Final Fantasy IV (as mentioned somewhere, it has a ridiculous Square/Enix premium price but I've got quite a bit of credit on iTunes from Christmas left over).

Which device are you playing on? The stutter is almost unbearable on my third gen iPod touch.

With that being said though I'm making progress. My only real complaint is that this is the DS port and doesn't include the After Years expansion content. I've never had the chance to play through that.

They've never 3D-fied The After Years, afaik. The Japanese cell phone, Wii and PSP releases all use GBA-style 2D graphics. Lazy port, as usual.

Oh I don't know about that. I'm sure I'm not the only cheap bastard that waits until they go on sale.

I still buy the occasional new release at full price (console games more so than PC), but Steam has pretty much conditioned me to wait for sales on anything I don't need to have/play right away. They (and other download stores) have sales so frequently, the "games are being devalued" people may actually have a point.

[Silke]

Which device are you playing on? The stutter is almost unbearable on my third gen iPod touch.

3rd Generation iPad. Final Fantasy 3 was much smoother during battles but, on the iPad, 4 runs pretty well. Battles are just much more graphic in 4 with lots of animations, more detailed characters and larger group sizes.

I understand why After Years wasn't included (due to the port that they chose), I'm just disappointed is all. I'd rather have had the 2D PSP port with the After Years included personally (I never bought the PSP version).

[Yaxa]

3rd Generation iPad. Final Fantasy 3 was much smoother during battles but, on the iPad, 4 runs pretty well. Battles are just much more graphic in 4 with lots of animations, more detailed characters and larger group sizes.

I'll have to dust off mine to give it a try. I rarely play on the iPad. But there's no reason why it shouldn't be running smoothly on current hardware. If it doesn't, it's a worse port than I initially thought.

I understand why After Years wasn't included (due to the port that they chose), I'm just disappointed is all. I'd rather have had the 2D PSP port with the After Years included personally (I never bought the PSP version).

I prefer the 2D versions in general, so I would rather have that, too. And the voice acting is more of a distraction than a welcome addition, imo. FWIW, The After Years isn't anything to write home about. You're not missing much.

Square teased that V and/or VI might be coming to iOS. Maybe they'll go back to the 2D GBA versions for those ports. I honestly can't see them putting in the work to create new 3D ports.

[Yttrium]

there's something out called Final Fantasy Dimensions ($20) - anyone try it, yet?

[Yaxa]

Only briefly. It's basically a "new" Final Fantasy using old school graphics. On iOS, the first chapter is free. The Android version took half a dozen re-downloads before it would even start on my phone.

[Yaxa]

Accidentally finished Fallout 3. Damn, that main quest is short. Will have to go back to an earlier save for more exploration.

[Lysandor]

Guess?

My Custom AR Build: the "NRA Fanboy"

[Naean]

I finally got around to playing skyward sword. It's overally good so far but really the motion controls of the wii should not have been so integrated into the game. It often feels forced and the controls suffer and just piss me off sometimes.


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[Thwick]

I finally got around to playing skyward sword. It's overally good so far but really the motion controls of the wii should not have been so integrated into the game. It often feels forced and the controls suffer and just piss me off sometimes.

I enjoyed the game, but just wait til you face some of the monsters who have to be hit with sword swipe in a certain direction. My wiimote would sometimes not recognize the direction i swung it in, and then i'd get the auto-riposte from the enemy.

[Wool]

I'm playing Dishonored. It makes me think of Deus Ex meets Bioshock. My only gripe so far is that the game keeps giving you all these toys and then encourages you not to use them. Some of these powers are pretty demented, and obviously not something you would want to use if you want the "good" end. Which is another problem. The game doesn't motivate you well enough to want revenge, and gives you too much hope early on. Without this to motivate you, there is no reason to simply not sneak past all the enemies.

I also just finished Mark of the Ninja. It's one of the best ninja games I have ever played, I think. It's hard to explain everything that was great about this game. It's a 2D stealth game, you can knock out lights, use smoke to get past lasers, hide bodies, etc. Each stage is a puzzle with multiple solutions and anyone who likes being sneaky should try it.

I also played Spec Ops: The Line last week. It's sort of Heart of Darkness the game. The developers set out to make a gritty war story as a counterpoint to the action movie vibe most military shooters have. In many ways they suceeded, the story is very dark and far more mature than you will find in most games of it's type. My only complaint is that the generic gameplay hurts the narrative, it lessens the weight of what you are doing in some cases and makes the plot feel as forced as it is in others. This is a game with no right choices, and is very much the opposite of a glorification of war. The game will even taunt you in loading screens "Do you feel like a hero yet"? If you can handle being made depressed it's well worth experiencing.

P.S. I think there was only one enemy in Skyward Sword in which the motion controls really pissed me off. Hint: It involved a narrow fighting area.

[Thwick]

I also just finished Mark of the Ninja.

P.S. I think there was only one enemy in Skyward Sword in which the motion controls really pissed me off. Hint: It involved a narrow fighting area.

Just finished Mark of the Ninja as well, loved the art and the puzzle like way the levels were set up. Great use of stealth, lighting, and sound mechanics. I felt the story was kind of weak, but loved the animated cut scenes.

I was thinking of the lizard guys with the shield arms. I think I ended up using bombs on them after a while.

[Yttrium]

I finished Legend of Grimrock (2 human warrios, 2 minotaur rogues), and I'm trying out some of the mods. The seamless integration with the Steam Workshop is AWESOME and effortless to take advantage of. Some of these custom dungeons are cool!

I'm ramping up my Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning playtime, as much as I can. It's a fun game

[Silke]

I finished Radiata Stories (including all the bonus content) and really enjoyed it. It's a 6 year old game but it was a lot of fun. I really like Tri-Ace games though which are generally Active Combat JRPGs (they also made Valkyrie Profile and the Star Ocean games).

It's an interesting game. About three fourths of the way through the game you have a split where you are required to choose a side (Humans or Non-Humans). So basically you're going to want to play through the game twice to see everything. The Non-Human side has the better story and ending. Neither side is "good" exactly but they make the Non-Human side seem like the canon way to go since that's the side your love interest and other major characters end up. However, they are the weaker side and the recruitable characters aren't nearly as good. The Human side story is very weak and it left me wondering why I'd be sticking around with these bunch of losers. From the beginning your character is the stereotypical hot-headed fighter who has no common sense and isn't all that bright. Going Human makes you seem even more stupid. But the recruitable characters are much stronger and if you plan to do the post-game dungeons, this is really the way to go.

Speaking of recruiting characters, this is a major part of the game. 95% of the NPCs you meet in the city and surroundings can be recruited. Some are easy (speak to them and they join you) while others are much tougher where you have to go do stuff for them. You spend a large chunk of time recruiting characters since the most powerful ones require you to have recruited all of their underlings first.

The game wasn't all that challenging though. It does have the crappy gameplay element where if your main character dies, it's automatic "game over" which I'm not a fan of. This is especially true at the post-game stuff where your main character has half the hit-points of your other characters (or 1/4 the hitpoints of my most powerful ally). The only bosses that gave me trouble where the final story boss and the Ethereal Queen. The final story boss is tough but is quickly out-leveled and then he's a push over.

One thing that Tri-Ace does is they have a common universe. Each game exists alongside the others and has quite a few recurring characters. Radiata Stories continues this tradition with Lenneth from Valkyrie Profile being a boss and recruitable character, Lezard Valeth as a boss, Gabriel Celeste and the Ethereal Queen. EQ was rough but not as bad as in some games (The Star Ocean 4 one was simply brutal).

Well I wasted enough time reviewing a 6 year old game here...

Edit: Oh year, there's something refreshing about playing older games without Trophies or Achievements and not feel like I have to care about them.

[Wool]

Nothing wrong with talking about old games, there is always something you've missed over the years. I would be more likely to play that one now, if it weren't for the fact I already have dozens of other old games I already bought and haven't played. (Valkyrie Profile for example)

I just played through the Dead Space games. Dead Space 3 is about to come out, and even though I don't plan on getting it at release, I figured I would play the old ones in anticipation of it. They were pretty good, and about what I expected. Resident Evil 4 in space.

I'm not sure which I prefer though. People said Dead Space 2 is more of an action game, but I'm not sure I agree. Aside from functionality improvements, the biggest change seems to be having completely linear level design instead of having a few areas that you constantly return to over the course of the story. Dead Space 1 was no Metroid, but at least I knew what the hell I was doing in that game. Enemies also seem ridiculously fast in Dead Space 2. So fast that using stasis is mandatory if I don't want my face to get eaten off before I can even line up a shot. So fast I wonder if my increased frame rate isn't causing problems with enemy behavior (it caused glitches for me in Dead Space 1).

I have to say though, the one big downside to these games is the story. I assumed there wouldn't be much of one, that it was going to be a simple "disaster in space" plot. I would have preferred this because what I got instead was surprisingly terrible. Full of obvious twists, unbelievably moronic antagonists, and glaring plot contrivances. I would be more insulted if I cared, but it's not like I expected much anyway, and the game itself is still fun.

Although one minor disappointment was that the dismemberment aspect of the game wasn't quite as involved as I thought it would be. Although I have to say, the No Gravity rooms in Dead Space 2 are pretty sweet.

Edit: Oh right, and I also played Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light as an intermission between these two games. I originally got it to play co-op with a friend, but he insists he was drunk when he originally agreed to get and play it with me and has refused to play it ever since. I got tired of such a short game sitting there unplayed so went through it on my own.

Anyway it was pretty good, maybe the best of it's type that I've played.

Edit edit: Okay I lied, when I made that previous post I hadn't beaten Dead Space 2 yet. I have now. Story got a little better, combat got extremely irritating. Enemies constantly spawn behind you while you are fighting something else, and they take more punishment than in the first game. Dismemberment is almost completely irrelevant, just freeze everything and spam whatever causes the biggest bang. Bleh.

[Silke]

Still on an old game kick.

I'm replaying Lunar: Eternal Blue on my PS3. Great game and it's a damn shame that it hasn't been ported over to more recent systems lately. The first one (Silver Star Story) has like 20 different ports and keeps getting new ones. I just saw that it was ported to iOS late last year as the most recent one. But Eternal Blue remains elusive. Last time I played Eternal Blue was back around 2001 or 2002 so it's been awhile and I forgot what a good game it is. It's very grindy and it's not all that complex but it's still a lot of fun and has a fantastic story. Needless to say the graphics are dated but that's not why you play a game like Lunar.

I'm also playing through Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth on my PSP when my wife controls the TV. This is, easily, one of my top 10 games of all time. To this day I regret not getting a PSX version when it was still around but I didn't discover the game until well into the PS2's life cycle. The main story focuses on norse mythology and upcoming Ragnarok. But it's a very depressing game. You go around collecting the souls of the recently departed. So each time you recruit a new character you visit him/her during their last moments of life. Some of the back stories are extremely tragic. There is also two major endings (and a third "you lose" ending) which completely change how the game is presented. The basic ending is simply you fighting against the Vanir Giants but the real ending (which is extremely complicated to achieve) goes into a lot more detail of who Lenneth is and the real cause of the war between the Aesir and Vanir (spoiler alert for those not familiar with norse mythology, it's Loki). The sequel, Valkyrie Profile: Silmaria is also really good. It takes place before and after Lenneth (simultaneously). At first you think you're playing a prequel to Lenneth but with the wonders of Time Travel you realize that the whole time the game takes place after the events of Lenneth.

[Thwick]

Still going through Torchlight 2 with a friend, we're at the final part of Act 3, so i think we're close to finished with the first playthrough. I have Dishonored waiting for me, but I've kind of gotten roped in by DOTA2. I haven't played a MOBA type game before and have only been playing against bots for about 6 or 7 matches, but I find it to be oddly enjoyable even though I've heard terrible things about the community. The amount of heroes is a bit overwhelming. I am never going to have the time to try out every hero to see who i'd like or be good as so I've ended up doing random pick.

[Yttrium]

I finished the single-player campaign for Battlefield 3 last night. I have mixed feelings about the quality and the story. Unlike Modern Warfare (1/2/3 or Black Ops), the storyline was choppy and forced, especially for the jet fighter and tank sequences. The ending was dumb. However, the AI was decent, and the weapons felt okay to use, though it was difficult to know what I had.

I'd give it a "Rent - play MW for the campaigns/single player, instead". I cannot comment on online play, I can't try that.

Back to Kingdoms of Amalur! Such a fun game

[Ronaan]

Finished XCOM on classic non-ironman. Started a classic ironman immediately after.
And then, 20 minutes later I started a classic ironman... again.

Having great fun, got my money's worth and then some.

[Wool]

I finished the single-player campaign for Battlefield 3 last night. I have mixed feelings about the quality and the story. Unlike Modern Warfare (1/2/3 or Black Ops), the storyline was choppy and forced, especially for the jet fighter and tank sequences. The ending was dumb. However, the AI was decent, and the weapons felt okay to use, though it was difficult to know what I had.

I'd give it a "Rent - play MW for the campaigns/single player, instead". I cannot comment on online play, I can't try that.

I was also pretty disappointed with Battlefield 3's campaign, although I haven't liked the newer Call of Duty games any better. I was impressed with CoD4, but every one since has irritated me. It doesn't help that they feel like a step back in gameplay after having played games with newer, better engines.

I don't think I would recommend BF3 on consoles at all though. It's one of the few games that justify being clearly better on PCs.

Anyway, I think Bad Company 2 still has my favorite campaign for a game of this genre (although even it fell short). Spec Ops: The Line is a close second for having a big boy story, but falls a little in its execution.