So What Are YOU Playing?

[Mayareira]

Doing yet another campaign in Civilization IV. Fun game, as always.

[Sol-Blackguy]

Taking a break from Diablo II and going back to Baldur's Gate II to finish the unfinished business/endgame mods. I might pick up where I left off on Rogue Galaxy, but still up in the air since I'm slowly getting sick of Japanese RPGs. Does anyone else get like that sometimes?

[Kaisha]

Been playing some Phantasy Star IV after having grinded all the trophies in Sonic's Ultimate Sega Collection (by far the easiest Platinum trophy I've earned so far).

Forgot how much level designers loved to be dicks in old-school RPGs, with all the big bosses having large towers with dead-ends, one-way drops (that typically lead to an exit *outside* of the tower, requiring you to run back in and start all over), and high-encouter rates. Thank god the battle mode is quick and straight to the point in this game. Grinding isn't much of an issue at all thanks to how quickly I can end fights by doing some spell combos.

Just a pain in the ass when i prep myself to go fight a boss on the 3rd/4th/5th floor of a dungeon/tower, just to have a member get one-shotted along the way up, requiring me to warp out and revive him/her at an inn since I've yet to find any means of reviving players in the game so far. Reminded me of FF3 on DS, where phoenix downs were rare, so you always had to play it careful until you have a WHM learn Raise halfway through the damn game.

[BRP]

Replaying Astro Boy for the GBA. Damn such a good title.

[Yuri-G]

I need to play PSIV sometime, I've heard it's the best of the PS games. I've played mostly through PSI but got bored towards the end, and II seemed too grind-heavy for me at the time. III is just... strange. But I hear it's not bad.

I do own the GBA PS collection, I should pop that in sometime. Although it doesn't have IV on it, lame.

[Atreides]

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for 360/ps3 is pretty awesome, since it allows save states and all sorts of nerdy bells & whistles. Sega genesis collection for ps2/psp is almost as good but I don't know if it includes all the PS games, it lacks streets of rage which is a cardinal sin in my book.

edit: and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection is only $29.99!

[Brill Weave]

I bought it just for Shining Force 1 & 2. I've been playing Prototype off and on, I think I'm on day six now? But I'm not sure, I haven't played it in a few days. Other than that I've been throwing in Fallout 3 sporadically and Yakuza 2.

[Eticket]

Started into the Last Remnant. Once I get past the issues with the load screens every 5 seconds and the typical SE annoying as hell main character, it seems like it could be a fun game.

[Atreides]

I'm currently 94 hours into Shadow Hearts: Covenant with about 5-10% of the game left, maybe. Fucking amazing game, I haven't laughed so hard at a game in a long time.

Not sure what to play next, I'd post my choices but chances are I'm just gonna listen to Yuri anyway so I might as well PM him instead and maybe we could cyber or something, too.

[Yuri-G]

hahaha, nice... I'm glad you're liking Shadow Hearts: Covenant. now you see what I mean about it being really touching while still maintaining this totally irreverant attitude. some of the best humour I've seen in an RPG that wasn't localized by Working Designs.

[Insanecyclone]

Runes of Magic Osha server. I forgot I played this a week when it started open launch and quit but I've started back up on it War14/rouge 12.

[Kaisha]

SH: Covenant was the 2nd in the series right?

I only ever got around to renting the 3rd one (A New World or something like that) and enjoyed its different take on your typical RPG setting (complete with gay biker duo).

I'm surprised they never released a trilogy pack for the series, figured theyd at least have sold well enough to warrant one, but I guess not. Kinda blows since I never saw *any* of them at all in store to purchase.
(not sure how my local video store managed the 3rd one though)


Still grinding in Phantasy Star IV here, and starting to wonder why I can't stand the previous 3 in the series, yet I enjoy IV to an extent.
(the town/item-shop music makes me want to rip my hair out though)

[Atreides]

yea covenant is the 2nd one, the order is:
1)Shadow Hearts
2)Shadow Hearts: Covenant
3)Shadow Hearts: From the New World.
(and apparently Koudelka for PS1 is a prequel to all 3, but yea)

The first one is good (although a bit dated), with a spooky atomsphere and a gritty realistic setting with some horror-ish elements thrown in and a little humor.

The second one really focuses a lot on the characters and the humor, it feels like the spookiness factor was abandoned to an extent but it's widely accepted as the best in the series and a fantastic game.

From what I understand #3 continues in the same direction, but a lot of people don't feel it's as good as #2.

Unfortunately you will miss out on a lot of the story for #2 unless you play #1 first, or you could always read spoilers online I guess.

[Null]

Just downloaded FFVII on PSN. It was never my top FF but decent enough that I felt I should go through and play again. Other then that I'm playing Fight Night Round 4 on the side.

[Palom]

Just downloaded FFVII on PSN. It was never my top FF but decent enough that I felt I should go through and play again.

FF7 wasn't really one of my favorites, either. But I got an itch to play through it again after I played Crisis Core last winter, and it really stands out as a better game now than what I remembered when I was 18. The story in FF7 ranks as one of my favorites.

Spoiler: show

The scene when Cloud and Tifa get sucked into the lifestream and Cloud finally recalls his past was the most amazing moment in that game to me. Not just with you, the player, finally seeing the true Zack/Cloud difference, but then Tifa finding out Cloud was really there in Nibelheim and she didn't know.

The mini games, on the other hand.... ugh. I suck so bad at them now that they weren't even close to fun. I wanted to chuck my controller across the room playing that awful roller-coaster-shooter in the Gold Saucer.

[Null]

At the moment I seem to be in the same boat. I only played it once and that was as a teenager. Now that I'm going back I am thoroughly enjoying it. Problem is I rented a movie and wanted to watch that as well so I put the T.V on split screen so I could watch the movie and I just wandered around leveling up for a few hours. Now I'm at the part where I just meat up with Aeris and I'm already level 30 with a hundred grand.

Its amazing to think about but this is the first time I've played another FF game since I quit XI in the summer of 05.

[Wintermute]

The mini games, on the other hand.... ugh. I suck so bad at them now that they weren't even close to fun. I wanted to chuck my controller across the room playing that awful roller-coaster-shooter in the Gold Saucer.

Chocobo Racing is the only minigame that matters.

There's the Battle Square to get Omnislash but the fact you can't leave the area or you lose all your BP makes it a bastard.


I'm still sinking all my time into Disgaea on the PSP...50+ hours in and I still have to fight the Adell+Roz combo, Zetta, and Prinny Baal but I need to get the Rogue to lv5000+ so I can steal all their cool gear and I've not even botheres levelling any Legendary items...

Don't know what's come over me, I sank about 1/2 the time into the PS2 version and the second is coming out on PSP soon.

[Beckwin]

I'm playing Rogue Galaxy now, but I can't seem to really get into it. I guess it's fairly polished and the combat is semi-interesting (maybe less than semi...) but nothing so far is really grabbing me. narrative is ho-hum, characters are ho-hum, weapon fusion/ability acquisition/levelling/etc is all pretty ho-hum. Seems like you can just cheese through battles when needed by eating lots of recharge and spamming special abilities. There's also quite a lot of encounters running around, for my tastes.

I also feel no incentive to main anyone but Jaster. is there ever a point?

[Atreides]

characters like simon/steve/lilika eventually get party attack or defense boosts, kisala gets one that protects against (and cures? i forget) status effects, eventually some of the boss/mimic encounters are difficult enough that the buffs are the key to winning the battles quickly enough that you don't die.

The only real downside to the game is having to stop the action to cure and use abilities, interrupting the battle flow, but yea if you're just looking to grind you can just run around near a save point and spam desert wind etc until you level up.

I usually ended up using 2 characters with attack/defense boosts, like Lilika + Steve, picking someone like Lilika/Simon lets you have one person hang back in boss encounters as well since their main weapons are long range. The only character who's shitty enough to not use is Jupis (the last char you get I think), and that's only because his voice is so annoying you'll never want to use him.

I thought the revelation flow was one of the best parts of the game, kinda like FF12's license board meets item farming, but I'm nerdy like that.

[ArchDizzle]

FF7 wasn't really one of my favorites, either. But I got an itch to play through it again after I played Crisis Core last winter, and it really stands out as a better game now than what I remembered when I was 18. The story in FF7 ranks as one of my favorites.

Spoiler: show

The scene when Cloud and Tifa get sucked into the lifestream and Cloud finally recalls his past was the most amazing moment in that game to me. Not just with you, the player, finally seeing the true Zack/Cloud difference, but then Tifa finding out Cloud was really there in Nibelheim and she didn't know.

The mini games, on the other hand.... ugh. I suck so bad at them now that they weren't even close to fun. I wanted to chuck my controller across the room playing that awful roller-coaster-shooter in the Gold Saucer.

Same thing here, I beat VII when it first came out and although it always ranked in my top 3 of FF games it was never on top. Replaying it after dl'ing it from PSN and I just got the Tiny Bronco and have to say other then some control issues (Running around in towns and having occasionl issues trying to get up a ladder, etc) and the lol translation the game is amazing. I have put almost 40hrs in and have completed all the side stuff I can and haven't got off "disc 1" yet and I am having a blast.