The "What Are You Playing Now?" Thread

[Ronaan]

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

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

[Diluvian]

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.

[Silke]

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.

[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.

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.

[Mileron]

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.

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.

[Wool]

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.

[Yttrium]

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

[Wool]

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.

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

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.

[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.

[Yttrium]

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

[Dawlin]

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

[Wool]

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.

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.

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.

[Yttrium]

MINECRAFT.

OMG, I should have played this game years ago.

[Wool]

What convinced you to finally try it?

[Yttrium]

Dale.

[Wool]

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.

[Wool]

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.

[Delaregar]

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

[Wool]

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.

[Wool]

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.