So What Are YOU Playing?

[KuroTsuki]

Finally started playing DMC HD Collection this week. Platinum'd 1. Almost done with 2's platinum...

I can't believe I actually went into 2 with even a little bit of optimism. "It's been like 4 years since I last beat it. Maybe it's not as bad as I remember." Good thing the cheats don't disable any trophies, saving you from doing about 2-3 more playthroughs.

[AvidLoki]

Finally started playing DMC HD Collection this week. Platinum'd 1. Almost done with 2's platinum...

I can't believe I actually went into 2 with even a little bit of optimism. "It's been like 4 years since I last beat it. Maybe it's not as bad as I remember." Good thing the cheats don't disable any trophies, saving you from doing about 2-3 more playthroughs.

Was thinking about getting this at one point. What kind of cheats does the game have? (anything to make Dante must die mode more bearable)

[Corrderio]

Did you have to tweak Bully at all to get it working fine on PC? Last time I tried (back when it had a $3 sale about....8 months ago?), the framerate was all over the place, and the volume of everything in the 3d space was fucked up. Made it hard to enjoy outside of the cutscenes, which ran perfectly for some reason.

I never really had nay issues with it. I heard the initial release sucked, but Rockstar made a patch for it. Game ran fairly well for me, though on my old PC it was pretty laggy. Probably due to poor porting.

Fun game though, just took out the lead jock. Classes are fun, though English gets annoying since I was never good with the scrabble.

[KuroTsuki]

Was thinking about getting this at one point. What kind of cheats does the game have? (anything to make Dante must die mode more bearable)

Well, cheats disable trophies for 1 and 3 from what I heard, so I'm not sure about those. 2 has 3 cheats; mission select, unlock Trish, and unlock your DMD costume. If done on both Dante and Lucia's disc, it unlocks Hard, DMD, and Bloody Palace as well. If you're playing the PAL version, you can also do some Infinite DT trick. So yeah, nothing too great for the US, but whatever gets me through DMC2 faster.

Also, there's a really good red orb farming spot in 2 that allows you to max out everything(including items) in about 24 minutes, so that makes getting the DMD and Bloody Palace trophies a joke(not that they weren't already in 2).

[AvidLoki]

Ah cool, I'll just do standard play through then instead of platinum runs. Capcom is the absolute worst at making trophies/achievements.

[Kaisha]

Ah cool, I'll just do standard play through then instead of platinum runs. Capcom is the absolute worst at making trophies/achievements.

No worse than Ubisoft who has a reputation of games with bugged achievements/trophies.

Nothing worse than putting 30+ hours into something and not having it appear, even though you met all the conditions.

Spoiler: show

This may be the trophy whore in me speaking, but if they're keeping those in next-gen consoles, they need to implement a system-level means of tracking progress so you can tell if your current data is still 'active' for achieving certain objectives, rather than hoping it is and then beating the game to find out it isn't. DJ Hero 2 had a pretty awesome built-in menu for that.

[Corrderio]

Got to the final boss in Bully, but I didn't get to beat him since when I was on the final platform he clipped through the wall and I couldn't do shit. Thankfully other than the optional warehouse vandalism/townie fight I don't have to do much to get back there.

Game is pretty damn good. The final mission is amazing. Sucks I didn't get to finish all my classes (Fuck you Geography/English).

[Ayn]

Recently finished Baten Kaitos. Started on BK: O. Got sidetracked into Atelier Totori, which I'm enjoying quite a bit.

Regarding the first Baten Kaitos:

Spoiler: show

I know it's silly, but I'm a little miffed Kalas ended up with Xelha. Once you got the back story, I thought he and Melodia made for a more sensible pairing, honestly. It would've made for a less.. storybook ending or whatnot, if he and Melodia had ended up together, and Xelha's sacrifice was forever remembered, or something.

But damn fun game.

[Corrderio]

Bully: Doing endless summer for a 100%. So far trying to get my geography up to get the G&G cards.

Ys Seven: 3/5 dragonstones acquired...

Spoiler: show

Holy shit at the Altago City event. I would have never suspected Scias and Tia of all people to be the main villains.

[Insanecyclone]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxBS...8&feature=plcp
Apparently [video] isn't working?

[Corrderio]

Beat Ys Seven. Probably one of the most epic and hardest final boss fights ever. First phase was just flat out brutal.

Spoiler: show

I lost it during the end when Maya seen Tia during her final moments and begged her not to go. Can't get much sadder than that considering until that point, Maya was a mute.

[Yuri-G]

since this is pretty much my personal Suikoden journal now, I'd like to state that I'm at the end of III, and it has moved down my list significantly. it used to vie with II for favorite; now it's behind V and possibly I. I still love it, and I still think the main plot is unique among RPGs and worth experiencing, but now that I'm a bit more cynical there are some elements I overlooked in my youth:

- the Sindar spell that captures True Runes seems out of left field and excessively overpowered, and made no sense except as a plot device
- Luc did not need a friggin' mask. the mask was for the player's sake, pure and simple. cute plot point, but come on.
- jesus christ does this game have balance issues. some chapters are a cakewalk, some parts are nightmarish unless you know exactly what you're doing (Water Dragon, Geddoe chapter 1 boss)
- paired party set-up and party-damaging spells (Fire Rune) were a failed experiment and I, for one, am glad they only lasted one game.

although, good points:
+ the birth of the skill system in Suikoden
+ strategy battles that actually take your levels and equipment into account
+ like I said, I like the main plot, even if the execution is clumsy at points. Luc is one of the most ambiguously evil villains of all-time. some might even say he's a failed hero... guess we'll see if the future he dreaded comes true. or not, because there won't be any more Suikoden games.
+ Koroku never used him in battle, but his PoV is sooooooo cute
+ Juan and Emily, overpowered godly freaks of nature that they are

onto V... I think. I might be Suikodened out for the moment.

[Kaisha]

Beat Splinter Cell HD on PS3. Shit port; my save file corrupted on me three times, good thing I read up on the game first and made regular backups. Gameplay still fun though even though the game hasn't aged too well in the polygon count in the levels, probably a limitation of both it being an Xbox1 game, and the devs keeping things simple for the lighting engine they employed.

Made it hard on myself since I decided to aim for some trophies. Did a playthrough where I couldn't set off any alarms, could not use a single medkit, could not die more than 5 times through the game (had to reload a save backup since reloading via game doesnt reset that), and cannot kill more than 3 enemies per level where you're allowed to even use lethal force.

Outside of no deaths, that's usually how a Splinter Cell game should be played anyway, so I didn't mind doing that one bit. Looking forward to Pandora Tomorrow next, I feel bad for never completing any of the three original SC games even though my brother owned them all. Mostly wasted my time in Pandora/Chaos Theory playing the multiplayer online which was crazy fun.

A shame the multiplayer got stripped out for obvious reasons in this port. I'd still kill for a dedicated Spies vs. Mercs XBLA/PSN release though based around the pacing/rule-set of Chaos Theory. None of that Double Agent fast-paced actiony bullshit.

[Julian]

since this is pretty much my personal Suikoden journal now, I'd like to state that I'm at the end of III, and it has moved down my list significantly. it used to vie with II for favorite; now it's behind V and possibly I. I still love it, and I still think the main plot is unique among RPGs and worth experiencing, but now that I'm a bit more cynical there are some elements I overlooked in my youth:

- the Sindar spell that captures True Runes seems out of left field and excessively overpowered, and made no sense except as a plot device
- Luc did not need a friggin' mask. the mask was for the player's sake, pure and simple. cute plot point, but come on.
- jesus christ does this game have balance issues. some chapters are a cakewalk, some parts are nightmarish unless you know exactly what you're doing (Water Dragon, Geddoe chapter 1 boss)
- paired party set-up and party-damaging spells (Fire Rune) were a failed experiment and I, for one, am glad they only lasted one game.

although, good points:
+ the birth of the skill system in Suikoden
+ strategy battles that actually take your levels and equipment into account
+ like I said, I like the main plot, even if the execution is clumsy at points. Luc is one of the most ambiguously evil villains of all-time. some might even say he's a failed hero... guess we'll see if the future he dreaded comes true. or not, because there won't be any more Suikoden games.
+ Koroku never used him in battle, but his PoV is sooooooo cute
+ Juan and Emily, overpowered godly freaks of nature that they are

onto V... I think. I might be Suikodened out for the moment.

Juan and Emily are fucking ridiculous lol

Also, I really liked the theater in suiko3 >.> at least when I was younger, it really entertained me. Do a play with all 5 dogs acting, lololol.

[Aero]

Nash, albeit you dont get to use him for most the game, was easily my best damage dealer. I also loved using Augustine because of his ridiculous parry chance(During thomas' castle defense he soloed their entire army because of parry and counter) and his ability to wear 3 brooches for amazing attacks/round.

[Charismatic]

Played the SHIT out of Dragon's Dogma, got to post game and now I have almost no urge to play it even though it isn't like it got unfun after I hit post-game or anything.

It is just... I dunno.

[Yuri-G]

Juan and Emily are fucking ridiculous lol

Also, I really liked the theater in suiko3 >.> at least when I was younger, it really entertained me. Do a play with all 5 dogs acting, lololol.

they are insane. pretty much the only two characters you need, they can solo the game. although they can be a bit squishy.

didn't do the theater this time, I'll have to check that out when I get home. I never do all the little things in Suikoden games, I need to make time for just messing around.

Nash, albeit you dont get to use him for most the game, was easily my best damage dealer. I also loved using Augustine because of his ridiculous parry chance(During thomas' castle defense he soloed their entire army because of parry and counter) and his ability to wear 3 brooches for amazing attacks/round.

really? I like Nash as a character, but he never seemed that good to me.

Augustine is underrated though. the flowery characters usually suck, but his brooches do make him amazing.

[Aero]

For sure he is; just popped the game in and he has
A+ Heavy damage
A Continual Attack
B+ Accuracy
B+ Swing
B+ Damage

But most importantly he has 2 open rune slots for Warrior and Double-strike. He crits so often for ridiculous damage. Just have to make sure someone is running firefly in the team because he will get one shotted quite often.

[Corrderio]

Beat Ys Origin with both Yunica and Hugo, now for the secret character.

My two cents on the story:

Spoiler: show

Got to admit Yunica's story was bland as hell when compared to Hugo's. Orders to kill his brother, lust for power that eventually leads him to accepting demonic power and in the end nearly losing complete control of himself, and his redemption. Things that Yunica didn't have much of. All she pretty much boiled down to was acknowledging and accepting her weaknesses to make herself stronger while Hugo's story was mostly about him finding his own path even if it meant being a disgrace to his family's name.

Hopefully after I beat the game with Hugo's brother (the secret character) I'll unlock Adol.

[Eticket]

Been playing a ton of Kingdoms of Amalur

Shame about 38 and BHG, this series had promise.

I just downloaded all 12 PSN+ titles from this month for when I get done with that one.