What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Vexorg]

I managed to get a key for the Destiny Beta (360 version), and spent a fair bit of time playing that last night. Overall, the gameplay seems very Halo-like (not particularly surprising) and if I had to describe it I'd probably go for something of a combination between Halo and Borderlands, with maybe just a little bit of Diablo thrown in. If there's one complaint I'd have about it, it would be that I'm not a big fan of the controls (then again, I prefer keyboard and mouse for FPS games anyway.) I haven't seen this on a next-gen system so I can't speak for the difference between the previous-gen and next-gen versions, but the 360 version seems pretty reasonable anyway. I'll probably end up picking this up when it comes out, although I don't know how much I'll be playing it.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I've been banging on about it since I'd got it, but the GB port of NES Bomberman (one of Atomic Punk/Bomber Boy/Dynablaster modes) keeps me amazed by the mayhem on bonus stages. For a GB game, it's vehement (admirably easy on the eye too - GBA SP screen makes all the flickering bearable).
Did Gunstar Heroes appear this bonkers when it was new (so little on home platforms came anywhere near)?

[Jonathan Ingram]

Doom 3 + Sikkmod 1.2 + Wulfen Texture Pack + Chromatic Dispersion FX + Ungibbable = best Doom after Doom 64EX. The experience is visceral!

[Stevens]

Red Dead Redemption 360
Lodoss War DC

Waiting patiently for Pier Solar DC

[Khan]

Replaying Baldurs gate 2 currently 100hrs in I forgot just how amazing this game was during my college days.

As usual picking a Mage character and ive just opened up lvl 7 spells at chapter 3 running with Minsc, Korgan, Jaheira (for the romance), Yoshimo and Edwin. I think having 2 powerful mages is always a great idea late game will be a doddle with dual classing my main character so some timestop and tensers transformation = Plenty of Ouch!

Had a minor issue with Minsc and Edwin deciding to start fighting and I ended up helping Minsc to kill Edwin but rather than lose one of the best (albeit evil) mages in the game I thought id reload from the last save point kick Edwin out the party then rest at the copper coronet and re-invite him back touch wood no conflicts yet ;p

So yea taking my time but getting stronger with each fight, never did try Throne of Bhaal so will be giving it a run through once im done with vanilla.

[mastermx]

Spelunky, Dark Souls 2, Metal Slug 3, Volgarr the Viking, and Ni No Kuni. There's more games on my to finish list. But they have to contend with my shmupping library, which takes precedent. Got Shadow of the Colossus lined up next. My friends sing praise of this game, so I'm hyped up for it.

[broken harbour]

I didn't 'get' Shadow of the Colossus... it seemed very overrated to me. I would compare it to Ikaruga in that it's a puzzle game masquerading under a different genre. And, like Ikaruga, it has near universal praise.

Maybe I should try it again.

[KindGrind]

I didn't 'get' Shadow of the Colossus... it seemed very overrated to me. I would compare it to Ikaruga in that it's a puzzle game masquerading under a different genre. And, like Ikaruga, it has near universal praise.

Maybe I should try it again.

Shadow of the Colossus is an epic game that has withstood the test of time. I played it when it came out and when I was done I thought it was the best game of the PS2/Xbox/Cube era. I still think so today. I replayed it on PSN when it was free at some point. Every time I play I get very intense feelings and emotions, but nothing like my first time. The music alone gives me goosebumps.

You should give it another go.

I'm debating whether I buy the Dark Souls 2 DLC now or wait. I'm playing a few things these days, but mostly Tetris Attack.

[SuperGrafx]

Wario Land II

My Club Nintendo free game selection

[Mischief Maker]

I didn't 'get' Shadow of the Colossus... it seemed very overrated to me. I would compare it to Ikaruga in that it's a puzzle game masquerading under a different genre. And, like Ikaruga, it has near universal praise.

Maybe I should try it again.

First, it pushed the PS2 to the absolute limit for graphics.

Second, it was the first game to attempt to render the struggle of trying to be a gnat crawling across a giant to reach its one weak spot. It has had many, many imitators since, so it's effect may be diminished for you coming in later.

Third, horsies!

[Formless God]

I didn't 'get' Shadow of the Colossus... it seemed very overrated to me. I would compare it to Ikaruga in that it's a puzzle game masquerading under a different genre. And, like Ikaruga, it has near universal praise.

I wouldn't call it a puzzle game, just an extremely pretentious piece of shit.
Let's put these bosses a couple miles apart from each other with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING between them so that the player can "immerse". What a joke.

First, it pushed the PS2 to the absolute limit for graphics.

Bad move, because it drove the framerate to the ground at the same time.

[drauch]

I wouldn't call it a puzzle game, just an extremely pretentious piece of shit.
Let's put these bosses a couple miles apart from each other with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING between them so that the player can "immerse". What a joke.

It's not like they're just out in the middle of a field. There's quite a bit of platforming and searching in between, especially later in the game.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I wouldn't call it a puzzle game, just an extremely pretentious piece of shit.
Let's put these bosses a couple miles apart from each other with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING between them so that the player can "immerse". What a joke.

It's not like they're just out in the middle of a field. There's quite a bit of platforming and searching in between, especially later in the game.

This. It's true that lot of the game is meant to feel immersive and build up the feeling of being alone and I think the immersion element is actually well done (though I agree the game would have been better without its framerate issues), but there's more to it than simply running from colossus to colossus and stabbing them. Not to mention there's also the fruits and the lizards you can collect to boost your max health and grip meter, so exploration is not useless from a gameplay perspective.

If you're looking for more difficulty from the combat itself, there's a harder difficulty mode after and time trials for the bosses that let you unlock some fun toys to play around with.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Replaying Baldurs gate 2 currently 100hrs in I forgot just how amazing this game was during my college days.

The unfortunate thing is that we'll probably never get another CRPG that's as large and full of quality content as BDII ever again. The genre has declined so much that at this point it almost seems inconceivable that BDII even exists. I still consider Ultima VII to be the more innovative and daring of the two as it attempted things that haven't been replicated since(BDII can't even begin to match the living and breathing world of UVII), but it's brought down by the clunky and outdated interface and a battle system that was barely adequate even when the game came out, so BDII is definitely the better(and meatier) game.

I was thinking of starting another playthrough of BDII recently, but then I felt that I was more in the mood for just battling than exploring, conversing and battling, so I re-installed Icewind Dale II instead.

[CMoon]

I'm debating whether I buy the Dark Souls 2 DLC now or wait. I'm playing a few things these days, but mostly Tetris Attack.

The DLC has great level design...sort of a throwback to Dark Souls/Demon's Souls. All the issues I'm having the DS2's artificial difficulty are still there. All the enemies are damage sponges and can't be staggered. Lots of mob attacks with both melee and ranged coming at you at the same time. Definitely worth it for $10, but my love affair with DS2 is definitely over.

[null1024]

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker [PSP].

Just started, did two missions so far.
First proper MGS game I've played since starting MGS1 on the PS1.

really could do with some better controls on the PSP
it would be so nice if I could stick another stick in there
and I'm pretty sure there's room for it in the case too, last time I opened up a PSP

why the actual fuck didn't Sony put in another stick if the PSP was getting a fuckton of console-style games [and the answer is that they didn't think they'd need it, blah]

I ended up using the MH style controls because they were the ones I was most used to.

First, it pushed the PS2 to the absolute limit for graphics.

Bad move, because it drove the framerate to the ground at the same time.

gah, this

The worst bit is, the graphics don't even look that great. They're impressive, but there are just nicer looking, smoother games on the PS2.
it's kind of hard to accept the praise this game gets when it is doing sub-20fps when anything is actually happening

There's style over substance, and then there's "where's the style in watching a slideshow?"

[Khan]

Replaying Baldurs gate 2 currently 100hrs in I forgot just how amazing this game was during my college days.

The unfortunate thing is that we'll probably never get another CRPG that's as large and full of quality content as BDII ever again. The genre has declined so much that at this point it almost seems inconceivable that BDII even exists. I still consider Ultima VII to be the more innovative and daring of the two as it attempted things that haven't been replicated since(BDII can't even begin to match the living and breathing world of UVII), but it's brought down by the clunky and outdated interface and a battle system that was barely adequate even when the game came out, so BDII is definitely the better(and meatier) game.

I was thinking of starting another playthrough of BDII recently, but then I felt that I was more in the mood for just battling than exploring, conversing and battling, so I re-installed Icewind Dale II instead.

Sadly I never did try any of the Ultima games I didnt know much about them to be honest aside from looking at a few screenshots they just seemed very ugly. If theres one thing the icewind dale series had over the bg series its the fact the story is almost non existant and theres just so much more focus on battling I thoroughly enjoyed both icewind dales (even if part 1 was full of TONS of undead) but just for the battles i always loved the story in the bg universe and the wacky characters! with that said most likely since i bought the d&d anthology i will be revisiting the other classics such as Planescape torment, Temple of elemental evil ect. heck just going through a few old cds I still have other games in my little collection i never got around to trying (Throne of darkness comes to mind)

GO FOR THE EYES BOO GO FOR THE EYES!!...SQEEEEEK!

[Weak Boson]

I keep meaning to play Baldur's Gate II. I first came across the first one when I was a wee lad but it was only recently that I actually got round to finishing it. It was gratifying to see the whole thing through after so long but mostly it just felt like I was playing the game certain younger RPGs are trying to be. And am I hearing the second one is better? Well, then!

[Ed Oscuro]

Is there any game in this list as bad as Morrowind?

Coming off of Skyrim - itself hardly my idea of the ideal game - Morrowind's most well-known flaws seem completely intolerable. With a few new tweaks (the EXE optimizer, a 4GB RAM patch I didn't bother with, and the nice MGE XE graphical patch, which finally gives the game a draw distance better than Urban Chaos, and some other nice things (surprisingly there's fewer graphical anomalies, i.e. when going underwater, than in Skyrim), but it's still not much of a game underneath.

I was already noticing that Skyrim has a fair number of terrible typos in its books, and clunky stuff - but so does Morrowind. Everybody remembers the few good characters and questlines in Morrowind, but there's so much more that's just "cute" or underdeveloped. As much as I think the "legendary skill" system in Skyrim was the wrong design, it's far better than the Morrowind SUPERHARD <<>> SUPEREASY difficulty curve. I can't think of any other game that asks you to click your mouse button / pull your Xbox trigger hundreds of times just to take down that first tiny enemy outside the stronghold. There's no difficulty in it, just boredom.

I also reacquainted myself with the joys of NPC babysitting (Reeh-Jah's quest). Even though I accidentally killed my charge (while looking straight upwards at a foe - Reeh-Jah managed to say "be careful where you point that thing, friend" as he collapsed dead) and had to start over from nearly the beginning, it didn't actually take that long, by the clock. But it was somewhat agonizing all the same. Not as agonizing as it was back in the day when I didn't know about permanent attribute fortification and stuff, but still bad.

Skyrim is kind of funny in that it wants you to take note of the poor and of orphans, but manages to make you hate these characters anyway. I used to laugh about the repeated lines in Morrowind's NPC dialogue (especially dismissive lines from Ordinators, or lines from angry Ashlands bandits) but they're not really funny anymore. Skyrim's lines, though better-written overall, never made an impression other than provoking some small annoyance. I can't find "I took an arrow in the knee" funny.

That said, I did appreciate Morrowind's attempt to create a largely alien world (and still do), and for all its potentially fatal flaws, oversights, and boneheaded scripting bugs (you can even buy and sell your gold to get rid of all a trader's inventory, Fallout-style), it also felt much better at making you consider ethical problems as such. Skyrim might have more serious-looking furry and scaly creatures, and doesn't throw Life of Brian-esque punny Roman names, but it also often forces you to make bad choices for no apparent reason. Morrowind often allowed you to be more subtle or to find a third way (from Fallout 3 on out certainly - probably from Oblivion - Bethesda's games seem to have a more macabre touch about them).

[DestroyTheCore]

I just finished Papo & Yo on the PS3. The puzzles were simple and the gameplay was full of bugs, but the story and the music were emotionally deep. I really enjoyed this 4-hour experience.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The worst bit is, the graphics don't even look that great. They're impressive, but there are just nicer looking, smoother games on the PS2.
it's kind of hard to accept the praise this game gets when it is doing sub-20fps when anything is actually happening

There's style over substance, and then there's "where's the style in watching a slideshow?"

Yep, looks and runs like a tech demo, not even pretty one too. I can understand how it did for some what the first Silent Hill did for me, framerate & all, but neither was any technical crowning achievement on their systems.

I suspect people who praise SotC for its tech had an N64 at some point and "the scars left by the war have not yet healed".

[Jonathan Ingram]

Sadly I never did try any of the Ultima games I didnt know much about them to be honest aside from looking at a few screenshots they just seemed very ugly.

A sentiment that's unfortunately all too common these days. Between the main Ultima games, the Ultima Underworld duo and Ultima Online, this franchise likely has influenced gaming as we know it in a more significant way than any other, but as it's been 22 years since the last great mainline Ultima(makes me feel old!), I guess it's understandable that it has, for the most part, fallen into obscurity with very few people outside of the circle of CRPG faithful taking an interest in it anymore. I'd argue that Ultima VII still absolutely holds up and surpasses most...no...ALL modern RPGs in ambition and execution(especially Bethesda's recent productions), and it's far from what I'd call ugly. Ultima VI is good too if you don't mind having to write down important words on a piece of paper and type them in in conversations with NPCs(because dialogue trees are for the functionally illiterate!).

On a related note, Greg Kasavin took an interview with Richard Garriot, the creator of Ultima, at this year's E3 expo which I found to be very insightful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHZCYck4Gb0

[Ed Oscuro]

Thinking about that reply, I had to ponder what has been happening to Bethesda productions. Morrowind certainly doesn't lack ambition - vast amounts of content (including lots of things to read - going over a few again, I have to walk back my criticism of Morrowind's books a bit; the crazy/poetic/nomadic Tribunal style of writing is perfect for the material) and systems to explore in there. Unfortunately, Bethesda seems to have learned mostly the wrong lessons since then (though it is interesting to note that most of the areas that did need more sensible restrictions or expansion have gone mostly unremarked). Fallout 3 and the Elder Scrolls games seem to have split loyalties - is it a serious action game? or an experience? or a flexible "do anything" type adventure? While they inch closer to the cutting edge in areas of programming and art production with every release (though my impression of the games as being built from legos doesn't diminish, despite the number of polygons and pixels afforded each building block), they still fail to give players adequate means to truly make their own way out of the vast amount of choices possible.

Morrowind, developed before they really put the clamps on, is the bitterest example of this: There is all kinds of stuff in there that should allow you to tackle any situation as you please - magic, melee, and ranged combat options galore, a sheer variety that would seem to overwhelm System Shock 2. But not only is most of it undifferentiated, most of it is also useless - the tons of low-level weapons, spells, trinkets, and other junk that give less benefit than simply continuing to flail away with whatever you currently have. Explorers in Morrowind have to be content to explore alone. Furthermore, the need to scout and collect is highly undermined by the very high reliance on simple grinding for attributes to make up your hit chance, and the ability to easily get loot superior to anything you could find in the far corners of the game means you don't have to work hard to pair high stats with a powerful weapon. And many other systems are simply vestigal - like the ability to execute different attacks based on movement (which the developers themselves admit are useless by offering the prominent "always use best attack" option).

In terms of the actual content, I think that it's hard to make an argument that Bethesda has to care about doing something new and different. They know there are going to be long-time die-hards, and there not being any competition to give players a better choice - at the same time that maybe players aren't being vocal enough about what ought to change, and at the same time that many players are simply content to play the game. $60 and a couple weeks of enjoyment - good enough, right? The changes in the world's lore from game to game - significant in Morrowind, not so much in Oblivion, but very significant again in Skyrim - are all ultimately superficial. There will still be Dwemer ruins to explore, and there will still be Orcs and Elves. The chances that Bethesda is going to shake up their routine by doing something really different - like designing a game from the ground up for combat (or "an experience?") and changing the world of Elder Scrolls substantially, like doing a cyberpunk version of it, seem slim for now. I doubt that change in this area will come from an established, entrenched developer like Bethesda, unless something comes along to shake that confidence. Heck, even if their own developers get bored, they can just do something else. Richard Garriot, being at the helm of his series, could sense when something new was needed (to stave off his own boredom, at least), as any author cares about the diversity of their own work.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Agreed on all points. With superficiality and the lack of cohesion being the hallmarks of The Elder Scrolls at this point, you have to wonder whether any meaningful attempt to renovate the series and give a semblance of substance to many of its underlying systems wouldn't antagonize much of its target audience. If there's still demand for it to be more than a medieval-themed sandbox where you can mindlessly hack away at orcs and dragons in a relaxed manner and foam at just how big and pretty the world is(until you realize it's all cut-and-paste), it's likely not very substantial anymore.

[Mischief Maker]

Those of you who are disappointed with the Elder Scrolls games, I'd suggest checking out Sacred 2 Gold (with the community patch).

It's billed as a Diablo clone, but that's not strictly correct. The game does have a Diablo-esque character building system that's way more fun than the Elder Scrolls games, randomly generated equipment with prefixes and sockets, and multiple difficluties that you can replay the game using your high level character.

However, instead of a series of randomly generated dungeons, it takes place in a massive world equivalent in size to an Elder Scrolls game, and a setting that's maybe not as alien as Morrowind, but still a change from the bog-standard samurai-tolkien. It takes place during the fall of the golden age of the Elves and its world is best described as the Roman empire with scattered Stargate-esque high tech ruins everywhere. It doesn't have a skybox like Morrowind, but in exchange the world is bright and colorful instead of red-brown everywhere. Enemies scale to your level with the Wizardry 8 system, where every region has a level minimum and a level cap.

I'd also say the character system is superior to Diablo 2 and Torchlight because the skill tree is flat, so you don't have to sit on your skill points for 30 levels until the skills you actually wanted become available. Not that the game doesn't dangle carrots, it's just the carrots are modifiers to the skills, not the skills themselves. This makes combat tactically interesting from the start. LMB autoattack is something you're really only going to use if your recharge times aren't balanced. It also helps that you move around with WASD and pressing the button Q creates a circle that yoinks up any items in your vicinity, so it's less of a mouse-intensive pain to navigate.

Also, unlike the vast majority of heterosexual male video gamers it seems, it doesn't pain my soul when a videogame suggests there's something sexual about the female body, so I love how my Seraphim's armor gets skimpier and skimpier the higher quality I find, instead of wearing armor that makes you look like some kind of crab monster.

If you do decide to check it out, the Sacred 2 wiki is mandatory. You could lose a life in this game.

Sadly, Sacred 3 seems to be dumbed down to the point of a latter-day (read: much easier) Golden Axe.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Well, that's an unusual suggestion. The Elder Scrolls, for all its deficiencies and shallowness, is still a traditional cRPG much like Ultima and Baldur's Gate and has very little in common with, let's call them loot games, Diablo and Sacred. The player bases may overlap to a certain degree, but the intent of the developers and the targeted demographics are definitely different.

Coincidentally, Sacred Gold(the first one) was the last Diablo clone that I played to completion. Certainly a fun game. Liked: big world with diverse environment. Didn't like: how weightless the combat felt compared to Diablo II. Can't say that I'm up for more of this type of gameplay unless something tasteful like Divine Divinity comes along. Monster Hunter pretty much killed my interest in loot games that don't require skill to progress.

Anyhow, since the topic of alien worlds has been brought up in the context of the Elder Scrolls discussion, I think it's worth a mention that there's a fairly obscure German sci-fi cRPG by Blue Byte(the developer of the long-running Settlers series of city-builders and the unfinished Amberstar/Ambermoon RPG trilogy for Amiga) called Albion which features a lush and well-realized alien world of the same name which also happens to be wrapped in a very good game. I don't remember the finer details of the story, but the gist of it is that a spaceship carrying a scientific expedition from Earth crashes on the planet of Albion populated by sentient half-naked cat people and two of the surviving crew members consequently end up getting involved in local politics. It does bear an uncanny resemblance to Avatar which makes you wonder if at some point James Cameron actually played it(lol).

The game is pretty unorthodox in the visual department in that it mixes up overhead and first-person views for exploration(Daggerfall-style pixelated NPCs in your face!). IIRC, the story of Albion is strictly linear, but the world is fairly big and interactive with plenty of places to visit and lore to uncover.

Screenshotz:

[Some-Mist]

been replaying The Last Express and I might consider it one of my top 5 point + click adventures of all time. ended up getting the gold version from steam last month for a little over $1.

fantastic writing, over 30 complex characters that change their behavior per your interactions (avoiding a conversation can render that character useless, completely change the story arc, and put you in a situation where you can never experience that conversation in a playthrough) functioning in real-time, surprising plot twists... it's crazy how it was a 90s game and by the guy who originally made prince of persia and later went on to make prince of persia: the sands of time.

I guess the game's script is 800 pages long? which would make sense with how non-linear it is.
I would love to play through it a few times times this month if it weren't some damn long.




also working on a new hidden: source avi with all the demo footage I've been compiling due to having to record... or otherwise being banned for "hacking" lol

[broken harbour]

Well I lost my FF7 save right at the final battle a few weeks back, so I bought another memory card and just grinded my way through it again, this time doing the bare minimum of stuff to get to the end. Was able to get to the end in 40 hours, really enjoyed this one, I really liked the end. Too bad I missed it back in the day.

Next RPG on the list will probably be FFX/X-2 remaster, but for now I want a gaming experience that's not a huge time suck, so I started Mario Kart Double Dash (awesome) and I'm also thinking of giving Super Mario Galaxy 2 a playthrough as well.

[Ruldra]

Next RPG on the list will probably be FFX/X-2 remaster

FFX is pretty good, I think you'll like it. X-2 on the other hand...I couldn't play it for 5 minutes.

[ACSeraph]

Next RPG on the list will probably be FFX/X-2 remaster

FFX is pretty good, I think you'll like it. X-2 on the other hand...I couldn't play it for 5 minutes.

Totally the opposite for me, X-2, while incredibly stupid, had pretty compelling gameplay. Actually aside from maybe 12 I thought it was the best post-PS1 FF game gameplay wise. X on the other hand had a decent plot, but was mind numbingly simplistic and easy. Felt like I was just holding down the X button until the credits rolled. (It was still infinitely better than 13 though)