So What Are YOU Playing?

[Melchoir]

Got the Pokemon itch again so tried to download Pokemon Black with the intent to buy it if I liked it. Spent 1.5 hours on trying to get it to work, no dice. fffffffff-
Was at Target and decided to just pick it up. Got home, couldn't find my DS. Spent 45 minutes looking for it, no dice. ffffffffff-
Brain decides to kick in and say "Hey, when you had it two weeks ago you put it in a Gamestop bag with the rest of your stuff." Thanks brain, I appreciate the help.

[Levin]

Just started playing Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky (lol TitS), as it went up on PSN today. Been waiting for this day to come, as when playing the JP PC version I missed out on a lot of story. It's very text heavy. Now that I got Dissidia 012 and Trails in the Sky, I think I'm good for awhile.

[Atreides]

Finally finished Dragon Age 2 (meh) and the Mass Effect 2 DLC (yay), after having to replay half of the DA:O DLC and Awakenings in order to get my choices to matter. Still have to do the ME2 DLC on my other characters as well, but that's pretty quick stuff. I still have Dead Rising 2 and Alpha Protocol sitting on my shelf basically unplayed, but I think I might play some Lego Harry Potter next since I finally got it as a bday gift after months of wanting it.

Also been playing around like crazy with my new iPad, already gone through Dead Space for iPad like 3 times with 2 more playthroughs to go to finish up all the achievements. It really feels like just another entry in the Dead Space franchise, I was really impressed by it.

Other than that it's been too much to count for iPad: CastleCraft (farmville-like boring fantasy kingdom simulator, which I refuse to spend real money on), Sword and Sworcery (holy fuck), Helsing's Fire (amazing puzzle game), and some random minigame-type game called Albert. I have been trying to clear out my ipad backlog so I can finally spend the 6 bucks on Infinity Blade and go nuts with it, but I keep buying apps on sale or finding them for free instead.

Oh, and Minecraft. Anyone ever make a scale model of their house/room/apartment? Mine is surprisingly functional, yet stylish. Of course I embellished a little, as my living room doesn't have a glassed-in column of molten lava where the dining room table should be in real life.

[Souj]

Soooo... why do people like Batman AA again?
Probably one of the most repetitive games I've ever played. Only reason I'm probably still playing it is because it's Batman.

[Atreides]

I think because (this isn't saying much) it's one of the better comic book adaptations out there, with all the voice actors from the comic series. I think people really liked the open world aspects and the metroid-ish progression but I definitely think other games have improved upon parts of the formula already. I really enjoyed the game but part of me wonders if it'll stand the test of time, or if it'll be something that is really hard to play in 10 years.

[Souj]

Well, the repetitiveness of it is really really getting to me, especially right now as I start my 10th or so time attempting the small circle room with the titan boss and wave after wave after wave of henchmen keep coming in.

Blue filter is annoying to have to have on all the time too. yeahyeah, I know I can just turn it off, but I don't see how it's possible to get through this game on Hard during stealth sections and whenever someone with a gun is present without it.



oh hey look at that! next boss is just as repetitive! Though I don't mind watching Ivy's Game Over screen

I just got Demon Soul from Gamefly today, so I'll be starting that up once I finish up Batman.

[Olo401]

Playing thru Bioshock for the first time this past weekend.. the stuff you miss when you're too absorbed in FFXI lol

Anyways, I can't believe I didn't check out this game sooner, because it's fantastic. Not to mention the overt Randian political/philosophical overtones built into the story are taken to the extremes.. Kinda surprised with all the political shit I do irl I hadn't heard about this before now.

[chikalin]

it's amazing how many of us have missed so many games due to our ffxi obsession. i still haven't caught up with all the games i've wanted to play and i quit about a year ago.
currently playing hyperdimension neptunia - it's actually a lot of fun, although it seems to be fairly unpopular. amazon's not even stocking it anymore, and it only came out about a month ago!

tobi, how is ATQ3? i'm playing that one next, i think.

[Atreides]

Playing thru Bioshock for the first time this past weekend.. the stuff you miss when you're too absorbed in FFXI lol

Anyways, I can't believe I didn't check out this game sooner, because it's fantastic. Not to mention the overt Randian political/philosophical overtones built into the story are taken to the extremes.. Kinda surprised with all the political shit I do irl I hadn't heard about this before now.

That's pretty much the reason I liked Bioshock so much as well. Bioshock 2 is pretty damn fantastic too, as is the Minerva's Den DLC for it.

[Isiolia]

I just got Demon Soul from Gamefly today, so I'll be starting that up once I finish up Batman.

Just think of it as AA preparing you for the repetition in Demon's Souls.

[Souj]

Just think of it as AA preparing you for the repetition in Demon's Souls.

yeah...
This game is hard as fuck.
I've replayed the first section of the game like 12 times so far. Every time I get a little bit further and then die again

[Kiarax]

It's not that hard. Learn to have some patience. Get enough STR or unequip enough shit to have less than 50% burden so you can move and roll quickly too and combat isn't difficult aside from bosses.

[Souj]

I don't even really know what I'm doing lol I died to some big boss guy with an axe in the beginning, got sent to the nexus place and have been running around ever since.

And I'm running out of healing items fast cause I keep hitting the damned square button to attack. Damn you Batman!

[Hiryo]

Try doing "runs" of 1-1 a couple of times before you go for the boss/next area. As in, head left, explore a bit, then run back to Nexus to save and sleep/eat irl. Once you feel confident enough to getting through those beginner monsters, then you can try going deeper into the castle or a different "world".

[Souj]

I beat the 1st world's boss, Phalanx pretty easily. I've tried 3/4 of the next areas and have gotten my ass kicked in the 1st sections of each one lol

[Charismatic]

It's not that hard. Learn to have some patience. Get enough STR or unequip enough shit to have less than 50% burden so you can move and roll quickly too and combat isn't difficult aside from bosses.

Clearly it is that hard, that's why everyone says it is, you don't seem to realize that you are better at games than a lot of people.

[Yuri-G]

playing a little Phantasy Star IV. first time through, good stuff. I hear Alys dies though

[Kiarax]

Clearly it is that hard, that's why everyone says it is, you don't seem to realize that you are better at games than a lot of people.

I guess I should have put some emphasis on "that". It's a damn sight harder than most games these days but people jump in and get the complete wrong initial impression because they're not used to having to take their time and if you happen to be overburdened you are slow as fuck and extremely disadvantaged. If you run down a hallway you've never been in before chances are shit is gonna pop out on you and kill your ass instantly, because that's how the game works. The hardest part of the game is working out where the hell to go next and the retarded weapon upgrade system that isn't explained in the slightest. After 1-2 it's hard to work out what the hell you should be doing.

[Doombear]

I think it is just such a different "feeling" game than what most people expect when they first get it going? Does that make sense? I know it took a few to really get into the swing of how the game moved, how the character moved, the slowness of the attacking, etc. I loaned my copy to a friend of mine that is no stranger to difficult games. When I tried to explain to him that the game was evil hard at times, he said "Like Ninja Gaiden Black?" I couldn't really express that it was a whole different kind of beast.

He hated it at first, could NOT kill a damn thing and basically felt like there was never going to be any kind of corner he would turn where he got better, and well just got it. He did, and he played it pretty much for the next 24 hours straight at that point. XD

[Kaisha]

My copy of Prey finally arrived after nearly 3 weeks of snail mail. If 2K Games weren't incompetent I would have purchased it directly from Steam, but Steam doesn't have the licensing rights to do that now. At least it still accepted the retail key so I have a digital copy on there regardless.

The news of Prey2 reminded me that I played the demo of the first game nearly 5 years ago and thought it was kinda cool. Looked it up on Amazon, saw it for $5, and ordered it alongside a couple PS3 games. Bloody game seems to be a fan of getting me motion sick for sure. Portal effect a heck of a lot more impressive (still) than Portal was, and this game predates it by over a year. Granted they're not dealing with full fledged physics when it comes to them so that probably gave then some leeway in how they approached the system. The gimmicks are fun though, still liking the concept of fucked up gravity where you'll have instances of enemies running on the walls/ceilings while you're passing through on another.

idTech4 (aka the Doom3 engine, powering Quake 4 & Prey also) seems to hold up somewhat. I am a bit curious what a modern game using the engine would look like, as every title I've seen for it so far takes it easy on the polycount in favour of very detailed normal maps, which works amazingly well for everything but organic objects, which unfortunately includes humans. At least it runs a solid 60fps, and still holds up well visually in quite a few aspects, especially the lighting.



I also picked up Darksiders for cheap for the PS3 (was thinking of getting it during on PC the Steam sale, but it didn't look like something I'd want to play on mouse/keyboard), but haven't had a chance to go through with it since I've been in the groove of FFXI again lately.