The "What Are You Playing Now?" Thread

[Yaxa]

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.

[Wool]

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.

[Yttrium]

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

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?

[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.

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?

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.

[Yaxa]

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Yaxa]

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.

[Wool]

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.

[Yaxa]

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

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.

[Wool]

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.

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.

[Yttrium]

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.

[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.

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

[Yttrium]

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

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.

[Thwick]

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.

[Silke]

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.

[Wool]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Silke]

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.

[Yaxa]

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.

[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? 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.

[Wool]

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

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.

[Yaxa]

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.