What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Kakizaki]

MH3 Ultimate, Red Alert, and Parasol Stars.

I really want to find some type of faq detailing the scoring mechanics in Parasol Stars. I've figured out a decent amount of stuff on my own, not that it is difficult, but I know there are some other things I am missing. I've come across a ton of such faqs for Bubble Bobble, but have never seen anything for PS.

[R-Gray 1]

finally i finished Mega man Zero.

[Moniker]

Took the plunge and got NES Remix 2 [WiiU].

Even if the execution isn't amazing, the concept is great and I've been having a blast. I'd echo all the reviews I've read and say I wish the entire game were remix stages, but the regular challenge stages are a lot of fun, too. It's basically speedrunning different bits of all those great NES games. Some can be pretty challenging, especially if, like me, you like to juggle around a lot and play stages from different games. The different platformer physics, etc., tend to throw me off. Favorite remix stage so far is the Zero Suit Samus autorunner. Can't take any damage, but you have screw attack. Another neat one was Samus collecting coins where the regular blocks regenerate. Figuring out the right path to take was pretty interesting. Kind of like those Smash Bros target practice stages. Tons more, there's just so much stuff here.

Anyway, not a must-play, but solid. Something you marathon for awhile and pick up again every now and then.

finally i finished Mega man Zero.

Good on ya. Now go after the next 3. They're all great in their own way.

[BrianC]

Good on ya. Now go after the next 3. They're all great in their own way.

I like how all four are on a single DS cart.

[Lord Satori]

I just finished Kirby Triple Deluxe (except for the true arena but whatever) and it's awesome! I have mixed feelings about the main villain, but whatever.

[Moniker]

Pretty well hooked on Path of Exile.

My main character is a Duelist who specializes in one-handed combat and shields. Lots of cool skills like Flicker Strike, which teleports you to a given enemy and dishes out extra damage, and Whirling Blades that is basically a dash that penetrates through enemies, dealing reduced damage, and works as a great escape skill. Just beat Normal with this guy. Have to take a break from him coz I've gotten a little weary of his skills, but I'll reactivate him soon enough.

My hardcore (permadeath) character, a Ranger (D2 equivalent is Amazon) just bought it in the early stages of Act 2. Kinda bummed, since the bow+arrow shoot & scoot playstyle is my favorite. And it just doesn't seem right to play a shoot+scoot in softcore.

Started up a softcore Marauder (D2=Barbarian). Much more versatile and interesting than I expected! Decided to specialize in 2-handed maces, which are slow but take out most enemies with one strike. He also looks freaking badass. Area of effect skills include ground slam, which does a cone of physical damage at a short distance in front of you, and Whirl (or something like that) which has you spin in a circle dealing physical damage. Most interesting is the Infernal Hammer (or something along those lines) which causes explosion damage on the enemy in front of you, and has a chance to chain to other enemies caught in the blast.

The hardcore Invasion league is the most fun, giving lots of out-of-depth monsters which give you better loot and experience early, so the whole thing advances quickly.

The softcore Ambush league is almost as good, placing special chests around that open under the condition that you kill all of the special monsters you spawn by activating it.

[gbaplayer]

i started Bahamut Lagoon a few days ago, after finishing Treasure Hunter G.
also a really great strategy rpg from the best gaming generation ever- the snes.

[iconoclast]

I've been going through my Wii U backlog over the last couple weeks, completing the main stories of Pikmin 3, New Super Mario Bros. U and NSLU 100%. All great games, though I probably should have held off on the Luigi DLC since I started getting bored well before I finished. Looking forward to getting MK8 tomorrow.

[Moniker]

Mario Kart 8

Really freaking fantastic. Great sense of speed, excellent track design, drop-dead gorgeous visuals. Ninty definitely took some lessons from Sega All Stars Racing in terms of pace. Feels like a proper arcade racer. Apart from stuff you'll read in any review: the horn isn't a game changer w/r/t the blue shell. It's rare as hell, so if you get it, you'll probably use it on a regular red or green shell. Blue shells are more rare, though. They appear in maybe 60% of races, almost always only once, as opposed to several per race in previous installments. They'll also hit other racers on the way to 1st place, but they don't home in on them or anything.

All that doesn't really matter, because in multiplayer or single player vs. mode you can turn shells off completely. After I gold all the Grand Prix, I'll probably switch to mushrooms-only single player events. Lotta customization you can do there too, including speed class, enemy difficulty, number of tracks, and so forth. Time trials ought to be pretty interesting, too. Might have to start a HS table over at Rolling-Start.

It's definitely a game that rewards skill. Even in GP, whenever I take 2nd or 3rd, it's almost always because I fucked up. Don't know the extent of rubberbanding since I haven't played multiplayer yet, but when I do fuck up in GP, there's always someone right there to sneak ahead.

Best MK ever? Yeah I'd say so. A system seller? Maybe not quite, but the WiiU library is certainly getting more and more compelling.

[ryu]

^
I just played that game with my little brother, didn't find it to be very exciting. A few years back I really enjoyed playing Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii, but lost my enjoyment in playing these games at some point. It seems MK8 won't get me back on track.

[Doctor Butler]

I've had Skullgirls Encore for a while, but only just started really trying to learn it. It's all rushdown, lol

[Moniker]

Pikmin 3 (WiiU)

Got this as my MK8 freebie. Fucking gorgeous game. I mean really. The atmosphere, mood, and aesthetic remind me more of Pixar's Wall-E than any video game. Gameplay is soothing but challenging, and always a bit poignant and sad. I'll have to play the GCN games after doing this one. I was really caught off guard by this game. Beautiful beautiful. What a true creative mind can come up with. Hopefully Ninty is able to repeat this kind of all-around effort. Judging by this, they really could become the Pixar of videogaming if they go in the right direction.

[EmperorIng]

I picked up Breath of Fire 3 (PS1) on a whim, and I'm not really enjoying it. I've made it to the first major dungeon (mansion), but there isn't much to compel me to go forward.

Does the game get more exciting?

If not, does a more RPG-minded person want a complete copy?

[Moniker]

I played BoF3 back when it first came out. It was the first jrpg I played after I fell in love with FF7. Loved every minute of it, but don't know how much I'd love it today. IIRC it's full of familiar JRPG tropes, you end up killing God and all that.

[EmperorIng]

I don't necessarily (or rather, didn't) dislike it - it's full of nice music, nice graphics, etc. But I guess I am spoiled on Persona 3, which is my recent frame of reference for RPGs. I expect to be doing something a bit more grand after 4 hours into the game besides scrounging for food and stealing from the evil rich lord guy.

[gbaplayer]

Bahamut Lagoon (SNES).

[Jonathan Ingram]

Ultima VI: The False Prophet

My third time through the game and probably the last(at least for a good few years). I think I'm growing less tolerant of the CRPGs of yore. It's still a wonderful, whimsical game with a great sense of adventure, witty dialogue and unprecedented(for the time) interactivity as it ever was, but the incredibly primitive and schematic battle system begins to grate on your nerves really fast - half the time it's hard to tell if you're even hitting things. It also doesn't help that the sense of progression just isn't there. Your characters top out at level 8(and that's if you grind excessively) and much of the best equipment can be procured early on provided you know where to look. And I'll be damned if Ultimas aren't some of the most cryptic games out there. Unless you've played it many times and explored every nook and cranny, good luck finding all the runes and mantras without having a map and a cluebook handy.

I haven't done this before, but this time around I think I'll try killing that pest Lord British(the secret true goal of every Ultima!), either with powder kegs or the poison trap. That'll teach the chattering bastard! Should prove at least amusing.


Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

A convergence of turn-based and real-time 4X strategy games(think Master of Orion II meets Homeworld). It's been a while since I played SoaSE, so I'm not quite sure if the Rebellion expansion brings anything new to the table other than two rival factions for every race, a new class of spaceships called Titans and the expanded tech tree. Either way, these new additions are welcome. Building a galactic empire planet by planet while fending off pirate attacks and negotiating favorable deals with other races is still as exciting as ever and the introduction of Titans really helps to spice things up on the military front - one of these things can single-handedly grind into stardust a large enemy fleet comprising capital ships and dozens of smaller vessels. The ability to zoom in on your spaceship armada and view every unit from up close gives the game a very cinematic angle. Although for the purpose of practicality, it's best to leave things zoomed out.

As much as I love the game, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed by the dearth of options in SoaSE`s arsenal when it comes to planetary warfare. Orbital bombardment and cultural takeover are pretty much the only means of subjugating a planet, whereas Master of Orion II also gave you the options to launch a ground invasion, mind control the population(provided the race you played as possessed that ability) and most of all - blow the planet to smithereens with a stellar converter(after minimizing this technology to the point where you could outfit your spaceships with it).

Word on the street is that Distant Worlds dwarfs every other space Civ-like on the market in depth and flexibility and may easily overwhelm even seasoned strategy game players, so I'm definitely trying that one next.


Deus EX: Human Revolution Director's Cut

I had no idea The Missing Link DLC was made part of the main story. A surprise, for sure, and not necessarily one that I welcome. I loved The Missing Link as an extra scenario, not so much as part of the main story - it seriously messes up the pacing and the difficulty spike is sure to catch unsuspecting players off-guard. The ending(s) still completely disregards your playstyle and the choices you make throughout the adventure(so, basically, it's like the first Deus EX), not that I expected them to change it for the Director's Cut. Still a wonderful game, though. Right up there with Demon's Souls and The Last of Us as one of the generation's best.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

That bridge in Metal Slug's stage 6 is just nightmarish. It's brutal to make it through the rest of the game without a single death only to get obliterated there.

[Khan]

Decided to bash out some hours in Dark Souls im 113hrs in and my sorcerer is soul level 115 i can still die from most bosses with a few hits but goddamn some of the spells can do some crazy damage I got invaded last night and I 1 shot the guy with homing crystal soulmass I kinda felt bad for the other guy.

[Xan]

Crash Bandicoot 1. Compared to the later installments it's really tough. The whole thing with only being able to save in bonus stages is quite annoying, but it's still a good one

[Lord Satori]

Just got Mario Kart 8 earlier today. I already got most of the characters unlocked (unless there's another secret row hidden below the other one)

[Marc]

Wow, how the fuck did Silent Hill: Shattered Memories get such good reviews? It's an utter fucking mess, there's no tension at all because of the lack of enemies, the otherworld sections are more Benny Hill than Silent Hill and annoying to boot, and the whole thing just feels like a limp imitation with no real point. Gutted.

Started Bad Company 2. Games like this aren't really my bag but this is OK as they go.

Some Mad World on Wii which was fun for an hour but I can see it grating pretty quickly.

Gone back to Sega Rally to finally mop up the modified cup. It's getting fucking hard now. Adore the feel of it though, nothing quite getting the perfect line through a corner, feeling the wheels dig in to an existing tyre track and exiting out at full pelt.

[XoPachi]

Battlefield 3 was free on Origin up until the 3rd, so I got that a few days ago. It's not bad. It's really hard, but that's the case with all competitive games when first starting out I guess.

Aside from that, I've been playing a lot of Titanfall and Catherine.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow, how the fuck did Silent Hill: Shattered Memories get such good reviews? It's an utter fucking mess, there's no tension at all because of the lack of enemies, the otherworld sections are more Benny Hill than Silent Hill and annoying to boot, and the whole thing just feels like a limp imitation with no real point. Gutted.

Now I forget where I read it, but one of the early previews summed up the game as spending too much time on running away, so basically this. Have had my enthusiasm well tempered since.

[Marc]

Pretty much, yes. I guess the point was to make the player feel defenceless but it's just really annoying, each chapter ratchets up the tension really slowly - and the Wiimote is used in a few genuinely wonderful ways - but it ends with the same limp playground chase to a poorly signposted exit every time.

[mastermx]

Everytime I see any reference to survival horror games, I feel nostalgic, just thinking about how awesome the genre used to be. The pain of what they did to resident evil is too much to handle.

[Hagane]

Been playing a lot of Mount and Blade: Warband. It's easily become my favourite non-arcade game ever. Never played anything like it before; it's a great mix of strategy, action, medieval simulation and RPG. And, unlike almost every single game with leveling up systems, levels are there for character specialization rather than to help people with lots of time and little wits to make things easier. Even if you have really high levels, a couple of hits will kill you, so you have to play smartly. The combat is very deep (you can control attack and parrying directions with the mouse, you have to block exactly where the attacks come from), every weapon behaves very differently, every faction in the game has troops that work very differently, and playing without a strategy will get you slaughtered but a good strat can beat staggering odds.

It has some issues, mostly that there are no real siege weapons (no catapults, trebuchets, rams, etc) so defenders have a HUGE advantage since you only have ranged weapons as a means of sieging. Being able to set predetermined formations would be nice, too. Also, the graphics are crap, though that has the benefit of letting you have epic battles with hundreds of troops.

Such a deep game, made by a small Turkish developer. Anyone who wants a game with a solid battle system and likes strategy should definitely check it out.

[Ed Oscuro]

I used to know a guy who was absorbed with the original Mount and Blade years back. Still haven't ever checked it out.

So RE6 is now $8 on Amazon (add 1/2 to the price for shipping within CONUS of course), $10 at GameStop.

Still expensive on PC though!

Eh, this game...I'm not so worried about the geometry complaints I had from the demo (Leon's section) but this is really taking some getting used to. Claustrophobic perspective, especially on PC, and I have no idea what they were thinking in the gameplay. First Ustanak battle on Vet (because everybody's gotta play Jake's chapter first, right?) is just strange and withered-feeling. There is a lot more attention to detail here than I was expecting, but some of it is in strange places. Like there's the stairway area to that battle...which doesn't seem to do anything but provide a straight road to a couple explosive barrels, and a place to "hide" an item. Er ok. Even stranger was some of the platforming on the cliffside before this area...I jumped over ledges, boosted Sherry, went back around and then knocked down a ladder...why? None of that was necessary at all. So strange.

[rapoon]

Been playing a lot of Mount and Blade: Warband. It's easily become my favourite non-arcade game ever. Never played anything like it before; it's a great mix of strategy, action, medieval simulation and RPG. And, unlike almost every single game with leveling up systems, levels are there for character specialization rather than to help people with lots of time and little wits to make things easier. Even if you have really high levels, a couple of hits will kill you, so you have to play smartly. The combat is very deep (you can control attack and parrying directions with the mouse, you have to block exactly where the attacks come from), every weapon behaves very differently, every faction in the game has troops that work very differently, and playing without a strategy will get you slaughtered but a good strat can beat staggering odds.

It has some issues, mostly that there are no real siege weapons (no catapults, trebuchets, rams, etc) so defenders have a HUGE advantage since you only have ranged weapons as a means of sieging. Being able to set predetermined formations would be nice, too. Also, the graphics are crap, though that has the benefit of letting you have epic battles with hundreds of troops.

Such a deep game, made by a small Turkish developer. Anyone who wants a game with a solid battle system and likes strategy should definitely check it out.

looking forward to bannerlord. are you using free movement with your shield? the game is hard as shit. i think anyone who enjoys the technical aspect of the souls games should check our warband; they share many similarities.

[SuperGrafx]

Mostly just Temple Run 2 on my Windows Phone.
Been traveling a lot for work, so little time for proper console/handheld gaming these last few weeks.