What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Fallout 3: Orgy of Indifference

The moment I read Bethesda was at it, I knew the Fallout franchise had a trouble with its developer.
Morrowind was reason enough for me to avoid that developer's further endeavours, but what's aggravating is that to the masses Fallout 3 seems to be synonymous with the franchise nowadays. This is just wrong. DmC-wrong I would say.

[CMoon]

@CMoon - Persona 2: Innocent Sin is a Shin MegaTen "light" game done RIGHT. More of a typical jRPG than stark dungeon crawler (lots of dialogues and story), but pretty good at that (the dungeons are DESIGNED to boot) and not a dating sim at all.

Too bad Persona 1 & 2 are on PSP. I had the system then sold it long before those games started turning up. Personally, I think I have an upper cap on SMT games, and am trying to save my stamina for the load coming out on the 3DS. So why am I playing P3? Hell, I don't even know how far I'm gonna get with it. I just remember liking the style and wanted to check it out again. Don't know if I'll bother finishing. C'mon man, Tokyo Jungle is out in a couple weeks.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Quite a thing Persona 3 (especially FES) has going for it are the robot chicks (the only good character models in the game that are neither hostile nor - literally - dogs). I have a soft spot for mechanical girls (the one in Xenoblade Chronicles was also of note).
Makes me wonder why Japanese games with... lackluster 3D modelling can get this particular thing exceptionally right. Nopon characters in Xenoblade Chronicles were better modelled than humans too. I see a pattern here.

[Ed Oscuro]

Fallout 3: Orgy of Indifference

The moment I read Bethesda was at it, I knew the Fallout franchise had a trouble with its developer.
Morrowind was reason enough for me to avoid that developer's further endeavours, but what's aggravating is that to the masses Fallout 3 seems to be synonymous with the franchise nowadays. This is just wrong. DmC-wrong I would say.

I've found Wasteland rather so-so, but that's only because of how old it is. It definitely has its moments though, and many of them.

Morrowind was, and remains, one of my favorites of all time. But there's such a thing as stretching it past the point of believability - and plenty of times Fallout 2 rockets past that line with its emphasis on soap opera antics (I'm in the middle of the Family quest right now...gods) and hunting around nearly blacked-out buildings - not so dark that I can't see it, dark enough that I'm getting headaches. Of course other 360 games were doing that to me too, though...even Dead Rising 2.

I saw some character (actually Moira...of course!) talk about how I probably know more about the Wasteland than her. Yeah...that's probably true.

Thank goodness we're actually going to get a real Wasteland 2, with real fuckin' baked-in-the-tin SCORPITRON goodness, none of that pastel-colored "robo-scorpion" garbage...or people drawn with sausage fingers (man, I really can't get over that; some of the in-game posters are decent but others get worse the longer I look at them). It also probably won't be so ugly (the concept art is very nicely done), or force me to spend so much time in dusty, dark rooms, hunting around in piles of dirt so I can get My First Infirmary faster.

In other GOOD NEWS! Steam is having a sale on the Deus Ex franchise. Finally bagged 'em, all three (plus some DLC thingy for Human Revolution, and I think three minor addons as well) for $14.99 or so. Given how new Human Revolution and its DLC is, that's a steal, and puts the pricing of the average old-entry Call of Duty (wait...are any of those old before CoD3?) or Bethesda Product to shame. There are other things I'd rather get deals on, but I'm glad to show my support after all these years (although I still don't regret buying Looking Glass Studios software back then instead). I've got access to discs for both original games but this feels pretty good. Granted, the original Deus Ex shares some problems that I've outlined with FO3 above, but given what it is, it's aged very well and will age better than FO3...I SpeEel my DRINK!

[EmperorIng]

Fallout 1 is one of the best games I've ever played.

I never got my steam copy of Fallout 2 to work, though. I think I might just pirate and run a copy of Fallout 2 because apparently the steam version for Windows 7 hates any and all attempts to fix the fucking hi-res issue. Which is really fucking unacceptable to sell such a broken product on Steam.

[Ed Oscuro]

FO2 is pretty good too! I think it is a bit broken compared to FO, and it adds some incongruous fanservice stuff (lots of real-world weapons which don't really fit in with the classic FO set). Wow, that takes me back. You know, the original FO weapons - Colt 6520 despite the weird shotgun pump-like bump under the barrel - look better than their FO3 variants. Like the Combat shotgun, or the Colt Rangemaster, versus their FO3 varieties. That reminds me - Lucas Simms and Colin Moriarty are very close to a duo in Fallout, which would have been unquestionably more interesting except for the endgame consequences for siding for or against Gizmo were left out due to a bug FO3 doesn't really have much in the way of development for Moriarty, which is very strange, but this game doesn't think much of character development apparently.

If you do go on a FO1 / FO2 kick, look around the 'net for some fan patches to complete some quests and fix some bugs. FO2 in particular had tons of them through its release cycle and I think only fans got the last ones mopped up (lots of the typical problems with mission authors making coding mistakes).

[aaron]

just started playing Slender. it sucks. as in, it's an awesome game, but it is scaring the shit out of me, which sucks.

[drauch]

Yeah, it's depressing as hell that most people are so ignorant that even though a game named Fallout "3" had two games beforehand--superior games, at that. I enjoy the Bethesda outings, but they certainly cannot compare. Never did beat Fallout 2, something I need to correct in the near future. I remember it seemed a bit harder than the first, but that's mainly because I hated that goddamn plant at the beginning.

[sjewkestheloon]

Really enjoying Tales of Graces F with my wife. I find Tales games to be incredibly relaxing and not too taxing ways to spend a few hours. Although the stories are universally uninteresting I find that the skits endear me to the characters. I am fully aware that they are a bunch of anime cliches but they help to create the same sort of feeling that I get when watching Goonies and other coming of age popcorn stuff.

As an extra plus, the combat system is really fun and a perfect antidote to the SP management heavy games that I have been playing recently (looking at you SMT). By bringing the focus off constant combo spams and to guarding and evasion the game has a different pace to Vesperia and Symphonia.

I would be surprised if I don't end up with over 100 hours invested in it in the next few months.

Also just picked up Disgaea 4 for cheap and had an hour or two on it yesterday. As I am familiar with the first 2 but not the 3rd I was a little surprised at the whole mana for skills exchange but I am sure I can get used to it. It is also, thankfully, a lot more entertaining than 2 was in the story stakes as a first impression.

Took a look at the DLC and almost shat. Really NIS? Seems that the PS3 RPGs from NIS have DLC costing more than the games at full RRP. Nice work there, fuck nuts.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Slender's gotta be my favourite English word. I'm not crazy about the language, but this word is precious to me. There was that scrawny gal at my latest workplace, you know, and the Wilfred Owen's line "Your slender attitude trembles not..." always seemed to be about her to me (used to listen to Violent by Design a lot at work).
Man, do I miss those days.
As for the weaponry of Fallout, Tactics was the Gran Turismo of firearms. Everything seemed to be there. Not too shabby a game at that. Every bit as graphic as you'd expect.

[Moniker]

Had been playing Fallout: New Vegas. I bought it at launch, but every time I played I'd run into crash bugs, mission bugs, etc. Two years of patches later...

So I started it up again a week ago, and very few bugs! Then 20 hours or so in... crash bug, mission bug, crash bug. Fuck heads at Bethesda. Reach should equal grasp. I think this is the last Fallout/Elder Scroll game I'll ever get. Shame too. There's nothing all that remarkable about the game mechanics, but it really is immersive. Had all sorts of moral quandaries over factions, companions, etc. Oh well. Probably trade it in with Max Payne 3 and Dead Space: Extraction for Borderlands 2 on Tuesday.

Since then have been playing Just Cause 2. Really fun grapple mechanics and combat mechanics overall. Doesn't have that visceral kick, though, probably because you're always so far away from the things you kill.

[Aguraki]

hey I just checked out gog.com (I did vaguely look at it a while ago) and they give you 9 free games just for signing up.

the games are (i don´t know if everyone gets the same or they are randoms):
beneath a steal sky
tyrian 2000
dragonsphere
ultima 4
ultima the savage empire
ultima martian dreams
treasure adventure game
teen agent
lure of the temptress


haven´t tried to install them and no idea if they work on windows seven but thought it was worth mentionning this.

[Moniker]

Wow, so I already had a used copy NFS: Hot Pursuit I got for like $14. I play it quite a lot, and was getting annoyed at the constant reminders to get an online pass, so I figure, "Hey, get the Games on Demand copy for $20, sell back the used copy, and you've just paid a little extra for no-disc convenience!"

But it doesn't come with an online pass if you buy it over GoD. Wasn't the point of the pass to discourage buying used games?

I'm... fairly miffed right now...

[Ed Oscuro]

In the middle of the Arlington Public Library in FO3 I realized the game's developers were all like "you're not doing anything worthwhile, here's another repeatable junk fetch quest. Hope you didn't sell any pre-war books early on! Now have fun revisiting those shitholes from the early game." Yeah thanks Bethesda.

I started using the Shishkebab weapon, and even though my melee skill is still very low, it's allowing me to roll through most everything with ease. Speed, too, which is pretty important - VATS just takes too much time to miss something and wait for my criticals (when I created my character I pumped all 5 into Luck; now I know that was a mistake because you can get at least one more extra luck point from a bobblehead...oh well!

Big ant at the Corvega factory: The second time I went there it got itself underneath some stairs before I ever saw it, so I just walked up those stairs and shot downward into its face through the metal slats. lol this game

hey I just checked out gog.com (I did vaguely look at it a while ago) and they give you 9 free games just for signing up.

Whoa, pretty neat. Savage Empire and Martian Dreams are two I always wanted to try out. Lure of the Tempress...one of the SSI games I think.

Beneath a Steel Sky is already free though.

[null1024]

Wipeout Pulse [PSP]. Managed to install the DLC on a US version of the game, fuck that shit. If only I could get the Omega DLC for Pure working on the US version of that, I'd be really happy, especially since Pure seems like a better game, both in track design and weapon balance, not to mention style.

Every Extend Extra [PSP]. So gooood. Not a shmup, you don't shoot shit, even if whatever bullet patterns that come up are definitely shmup stuff.

Rez [DC]. Reached Area 5, got to the 4th form of the boss, and died. Near the beginning of each form, I dropped like, 2 levels or so, due to not knowing shit about what's dangerous and what's not. Also, brilliant song [for the stage, the boss music is less awesome]. Waaaay too long though, I considered trying again, but getting to the boss just takes too much time. The whole game should have been more like Area 5 though -- more shit fired at you. The whole one-hit and levels thing seems a bit silly for a rail shooter, it never ceases to bother me.

oh wow, I noticed I used the word shit in each paragraph, hahaha

[Shelcoof]

Fun Times on my day off. Biggest gaming session I've had in a very long long time

Socom 4 US Navy Seals: Really glad there are still tons of people playing this game. I was worried that most people would over look this but glad that I can find an alternative to Modern Warfare and Battlefield. This is a nice change from the normal FPS games. I'm going to get Starhawk in soon and I hope that the online there is still very active.

Vanquish: Hmm... I've played through a few levels and I'm enjoying myself but I was hoping I'd enjoy it even more. Playing on Normal mode right now and its alright. Good friend of mine recommended it and told me it was one of the best action games to be released this gen. Sort of not seeing that now but maybe the game will get better as I continue to play through. Going to play some more later tonight.

Persona 4 Arena: I have to say I do really like Arc System Fighters but for some reason I can't seem to dig it all that much at the moment. I really want to like it though, I guess like many other fighters out there you'll really need to put time into learning the game first before you start really enjoying it. I'm still going to give this a good go though before putting my foot down on how I feel about it.

Virtua Fighter 5 Final Shodown: Really got into this until the USP guy rang the door bell to deliver Tekken Tag 2 and Uncharted 3. My favourite fighter so far and I'm not half bad

Tekken Tag 2: First of all I opened it up to find that there is an online pass! Was the biggest bummer of my day to find that this game requires an online pass..... even though I bought it new and have the pass I don't like it one bit. Well onto the game.... visually it looks like a tweaked version of Tekken 6 which is fine by me. I like the new stage designs and graphics... it's weird though when I play this and see how some of the graphics look really grainy reminds me of the good old PS2 days. Game feels a bit tighter than Tekken 6 a bit more responsive but then again I'm not all that good at this game anyways. Enjoyable none the less....

That concluded my game session on my day off

[O. Van Bruce]

I'm trying to 1cc Metal Slug X right now... have gotten a 6 credits clear for now...

[Obiwanshinobi]

Finished the Adventure mode of Sky Odyssey. Verily it was one of those "now that's what videogames are all about" rides. There's some lamentabe injustice to the indifference this game met.
People who used to play flight sims passionately when they were the most "three dimensional" computer games around only to abandon the ship once Wolfenstein 3D, then Doom etc. came along should be all over Sky Odyssey.
People who play arcade games and not much else should be all over Sky Odyssey.
People enchanted with early aviation (the period shortly before aerodynes became tools of war) should be all over Sky Odyssey. This I would like to accentuate. I can't think of a single film to capture that spirit (Wings, The Great Waldo Pepper, Porco Rosso - all bear the post-war bitterness) and I know about just one book.

[null1024]

Tekken 6 [PSP].

Last Tekken game I've put any amount of time into was 3, why the hell can things be juggled so damn long now?

"hitting opponent whee, timing so the I hit right before opponent does"
"whoops, accidental misinput because game didn't realize that I pressed df instead of just d [actually, it's just the crap PSP-1000 pad, but there are also the times where you're doing another move, and instead of doing the move you think you're going to do for a given input, you actually end up doing a followup to the last move you did, and fuck up, even though it's been ages since your last button press]"
"get juggled for ages, lose half of health bar"
"quick-recover out of way on landing, 10 seconds later"
"get kicked out of getting up, juggled again"
"get stuck on wall and be pummeled"
"die"

The last two are the worst.
I'm used to having my moves get read and I get hit for it before I can hit, not getting juggled forever and being able to do jack shit for ages.

[Illyrian]

Tekken Tag II seems to make it easier to take up to 1/2 of your life, given the tag mechanic allowing for multiple tags in a combo, and the damage that comes from that.

[trap15]

I, for one, welcome our clown overlords.

No but seriously, I fucking love juggling because it feels a lot like chaining in Bakraid

[BIL]

Road Rash (PS1 port of the 3DO game) I hate the particular epoch of 90s pop culture this game is steeped in. However, once the ugly movies and loading screens are past, I can run over flanneled and goateed grunge assholes to my heart's content. Crunch! And the totally sweet licensed music from bands I don't give a shit about doesn't play in-game. I like this! Some of the pileups do make me LOL heartily. I had a guy's tumbling shadow following me for a good four seconds at 150kph after I booted him into a tree.

Kaze no Klonoa (PS1) Aww, Klonoa is soooo KYOOT! What an adorable little guy. Game's not bad either, I think I would've liked the similarly easy and cute Kirby 64 if it'd been this fast-paced. The grab and boost jump mechanics both feel great, adding a nice sense of execution to the otherwise mild difficulty, and the areas have a wonderful hand-made feel that takes the edge off the aged polygons. I actually like the look of the prettier PS1 games anyway. It's a shame the PS2 Castlevanias never experimented with this approach... lord knows they would've fared better restricted to a 2D plane instead of the "Dracula has had his house repossessed and all furniture removed by bailiffs this morning" void we got.

[evil_ash_xero]

Still playing Max Anarchy. The multi-player is pretty addictive, but the main game is so-so.

Just played through Viewtiful Joe(for the first time), working on God Hand(for the first time), and DMC 3(for the first time).

I'm backed up.

[trap15]

Been playing a significant amount of Strider and Strider 2 lately, working on a Neat Project (tm) (c) (r). First one is so very superior in pretty much every way...

[Obiwanshinobi]

I actually like the look of the prettier PS1 games anyway.

Ridge Racer is rather easy on the eye too. I'm not being nostalgic here as I neither played an awful lot on the PSX when it was all the rage, nor was I in love with the machine back in the day.
I'm under impression that Konami released the Silent Hill collection without 1 because in high resolutions with smudged textures it looks awful (tried it on ePSXe; it's THAT bad), whereas in 240p, with RGB colour and no texture filtering whatsoever it's something else...
I've developed a soft spot for the crispness RGB gives those fat pixels on a CRT. Few developers "get" it nowadays, unfortunately. Maybe only Jeff Minter does.

[BIL]

Ridge Racer Revolution still looks particularly great these days with its bright, flat-shaded colours and fantastic setting. It's the early 3D equivalent of the original OutRun. This article sums it up nicely.

Having said that I love Rage Racer's more ominous palette too. Namco really knew how to work that machine from day one, unsurprising with the System #xx connection I guess.

I'm under impression that Konami released the Silent Hill collection without 1 because in high resolutions with smudged textures it looks awful

Honestly, I doubt any decision made on that collection was in the interests of quality, visual or otherwise.

You're right though, SH1 loses a lot of its immense visual charm when it's indiscriminately scrubbed up. Had it appeared in the HDC I have no doubt it would've looked atrocious.

[Lordstar]

magic the gathering planewalkers 2013 on Steam/PC its hard but fun.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Ridge Racer Revolution still looks particularly great these days with its bright, flat-shaded colours and fantastic setting. It's the early 3D equivalent of the original OutRun. This article sums it up nicely.

Nicely put indeed. What the article says about "effectively riding a living creature" is about to make me mention Excite Truck yet again as it echoes my thoughts about that game. Not that it's like Ridge Racer for the Wii or anything along those lines (comparably cheerful presentation aside), but the drifting in Excite Truck does have something "digital" to it. With boost on you are golden, but overheated you're in for some "NICE CRASH!" consolation points.
Having said that, Excite Truck makes me think of Sega rather than Namco, and not just Sega racers but Gunvalkyrie as well (the way you are supposed to be mid-air whenever possible). Now when I think about it, "Flying Truck" sounds better (and just as silly).

[null1024]

Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast [PSP].

so goooooooooood
Seriously, I am having a total blast. Feels like a modern racer, with the heart of Outrun. Shame about the framerate though [yay PSP]. I need to get this on something more capable, it's really brilliant, although it works excellently as a handheld game, beautifully pick-up-and-play.

[Ed Oscuro]

It is a PC game! That reminds me, I need to pick that up too.