What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[mosey]

Fire Emblem Awakening - lunatic difficulty. So far it's a really nice challenge to no miss.

Lunatic plus classic mode? That's my definition of hardcore.

[professor ganson]

Yeah, I can't bring myself to turn off permadeath. Just doesn't seem like Fire Emblem without it. Awakening does give you some other cheats of sorts-- some powerful weapons suddenly emerged on the World Map, along with the option to buy characters from previous Fire Emblem games. It would be more hardcore without these., and some other nonsense on the World Map. But I like how the opportunities to milk bosses have so far been all but nonexistent. Shadow Dragon was terrible in this regard.

[SirVoe]

I've been playing Volgarr the Viking, but my copy of Crimzon Clover just arrived in the mail today ! Looks like I'll be shelving Volgarr for a bit. Amazing game though.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Kororinpa on split screen with my mom. Didn't play it by myself before and I was relieved to see how good it looks. Can't stop wincing at some reviewers who have dissed its visuals only to carry on pretending there was nothing wrong with the first party Wii games graphics.

[broken harbour]

Been Playing Starfox Adventures - GC

I skipped this game back when it was released due to the excessive amount of hate levied at it for not being a true sequel to Starfox 64.

It's actually quite enjoyable, it's basically a Legend of Zelda game, starring Starfox. I'm only about 6-7 hours in. Yes, it's basically Dinosaur Planet with the Starfox Cast pasted in, yes the Arwing sequences are a cruel tease of what could have been, yes it looks/feels kind of like an N64 game, yes the voice acting borders on grating, and yes, lack of dual stick controls hurt it somewhat. (C'mon even in 2002 dual stick controls were standard in this type of game...)

But it has that quality of "just another 20 minutes" when you're playing it, it's not that hard, but it is fun. Some of the particle and lighting effects still look good today. Great art design too.

There are a few section tho that I had to consult a guide as I just didn't clue in to how the 'puzzle' worked. But I could just be a moron too....

Basically - if you like Zelda style games, you'll probably like this.

Wow, ok, I was wrong.

This game is just garbage, it started off good, but about 14 hours in the game takes a dump and just becomes tedious bulls**t. The test of Fear makes me Rage. Rage more than any other game I've ever played. I'm done with this one, I wanted to see it through but I just can't play this stupid test of fear anymore. F**k this game. Not Rare's finest moment.

[ryu]

Wow, ok, I was wrong.

This game is just garbage, it started off good, but about 14 hours in the game takes a dump and just becomes tedious bulls**t. The test of Fear makes me Rage. Rage more than any other game I've ever played. I'm done with this one, I wanted to see it through but I just can't play this stupid test of fear anymore. F**k this game. Not Rare's finest moment.

what's the test of fear again?

[Mortificator]

Haha! I read your last post, broken harbour, and was going to say how terrible I thought Adventures was, but figured if you were having fun I wouldn't take a dump on that. Guess Rare had dino-dung to spare.

I don't remember the point I quit at, but I downloaded a save later just to fight the final boss, and it's only the saddest imitation of the confrontations in the previous games. On top of that, you never do get to fight General Scales. If a game's going to introduce an 11th hour true last boss, it could at least give you a chance to kick the front man's ass.

[null1024]

Tales of Xillia [PS3]
Beat whats-his-face in the Deepwood [after getting brutally murdered the first attempt, then I remembered that the Lillium Orb existed and spent a bit stat-boosting], and gained a 5th party member. I'm so damn happy that you can switch in party members mid-fight.

And jeez, what is up with Rowen's model? Why the hell is his facial hair textured on like that? It's creepy as hell. He's visibly low poly too.

edit
Aviator shades on everyone, yeaaaaaaaah.

[Moniker]

Started playing Rogue Legacy (PC).

Welp, it's a roguelike-like, and it has Castlevania-style combat. What's not to like? Only thing is, grinding is the name of the game, and you're pretty fucked until you get the basic upgrades. I guess we can blame Diablo-via-Angband-via-Moria for that. Or else I just suck complete monkey nuts at this game. The physics feel exactly like Awesomenauts (for better or worse), but the randomized Metroidvania element is hard to resist. Spelunky probably did it better than this, though I'm glad that Rogue Legacy is out there. Now to decide if it's worth playing. (Especially with my insanely out-of-control backlog. Good lord. I think I might be a VG junkie).

[Obiwanshinobi]

The Viewtiful Joe retrospective up on Eurogamer today made me suspect the writer couldn't figure out how to speed up certain bossfights. I didn't find out everything by myself to be fair (some of the stuff is cryptic). Reads like one wordy way around typing "QTE" at that, but it's flattering to read I'm not the only person likening VJ camera to Resident Evil.
Speaking of which, the camera in Kororinpa is ace. Super Monkey Ball to Kororinpa comparison would be a tale worth telling, but I don't feel adept enough at either game to go there soon.
Girl, how I missed such game engines. Didn't expect Diablo 3 to be great, but now I want to see the thing in motion.

[Ruldra]

Katawa Shoujo.

It's been like 6 months since I last played, so last night decided to give it another go. I'm not pursuing anyone in particular, I'm just choosing my options like I would if I was the protagonist...

...and I finish the game depressed, drunk and alone. And possibly dead. Wtf man? I'm kinda sad to see that being myself makes me end up like that. The game even rubs it in your face saying you had plenty of opportunities but you missed them all.

Feels bad man.

[Ed Oscuro]

I know that feels, bro! Game developers don't know shit, so just as evidence of their failure to appreciate the superior lifestyle. Shake it off.

[Hagane]

1CC'd Shadow Over Mystara with the Dwarf. With proper spacing and abuse of his quarter circle forward + A move, he more than makes up for his lack of defensive options. His extremely aggresive style and obscene damage output make him really satisfying to play... even though the Magic User is generally regarded as the best character in the game, it took me much less time to beat the game with the Dwarf since with the proper strategy, bosses go down in seconds, expecially with a powerful weapon like the Sword of Legend. Try doing qcf + A, down, up + A against the Ogre Bros or the Displacer Beast... it almost hurt me to see the lifebar drop like that haha. The down, up + A is sweet against the Shadow Warrior and the final boss too.

I'll go for the Thief next, and then move on to Armored Warriors.

[Leandro]

Katawa Shoujo.

It's been like 6 months since I last played, so last night decided to give it another go. I'm not pursuing anyone in particular, I'm just choosing my options like I would if I was the protagonist...

...and I finish the game depressed, drunk and alone. And possibly dead. Wtf man? I'm kinda sad to see that being myself makes me end up like that. The game even rubs it in your face saying you had plenty of opportunities but you missed them all.

Feels bad man.

This post got me curious about the game, I looked it up and apparently it's a hentai? I thought you were above those things Ruldra, after you started going to the gym!



Just kidding man, I "played" lots of True Love and Season of Sakura back in the day.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Never heard of any obscene (that the word "hentai" indicates) content in Katawa Shoujo.

[BulletMagnet]

There is apparently sexy-time content but it can be turned off in the Options menu.

[Ruldra]

This post got me curious about the game, I looked it up and apparently it's a hentai? I thought you were above those things Ruldra, after you started going to the gym!

Just kidding man, I "played" lots of True Love and Season of Sakura back in the day.

Katawa Shoujo isn't really a hentai game, even though it has some (mild) adult scenes. It's a genuinely good, well-written visual novel and it makes you see disabled people with newfound respect. Give it a try.

Visual Novels in general are a kind of game I've neglected for a long time, thinking they were all porn. But there are quite a lot of them with no sexual content and amazing stories. When I read the first episode of Umineko (available for free here), it completely blew my mind.

[broken harbour]

To scratch my Starfox itch I played Starfox Assault - GC.

Not nearly as bad as Adventures, still has some control issues, and some lame voice acting, but the game is super-fun. Even the ground missions aren't as bad as some have made them out to be. Yeah the game would have been best as all arwing missions but it was actually enjoyable. It's short tho, I finished it in a single 4 hour sitting.

[null1024]

Ys Seven [PSP].

Haven't played it in a few days. Just beat the Earth Dragon, which was a bit easy and boring.

[dcharlie]

hmmm - two horribly time-sync'y games at the same time!

FF14 - AAR (PC)

yeah, this is a massive improvement over v1.0 and it's well put together and fun. Usually playing this in the late evening.

Monster Hunter 4 (3DS)

new entry in one of my favourite gaming series? yeah - goodbye all other gaming time. Only around the 8 hour mark and still scratching around. The new undulating and vertical landscapes are pretty incredible and the traversal system is solid. Taking it nice and slow and soaking it all up - this is a 1000+ hour commitment so no need to try to see it all in one weekend. Fight against Dos Jaggi with low level equipment in HR1 was pretty intense - a really nice feel to it all. A lot of "de-clunking" of the game has happened - though at the moment the tutorial style pop ups and the mass of text is the only real negative to date.

<3 <3 <3

[professor ganson]

Ys Seven [PSP].

Haven't played it in a few days. Just beat the Earth Dragon, which was a bit easy and boring.

I started this and it seemed worth playing. Just didn't find the time yet. Easy is ok with me in this sort of game, but boring doesn't sound good. Hopefully it picks up.

[ACSeraph]

I spent the weekend doing a Dead or Alive 5 marathon trying to unlock everything in the game to transfer over to the Vita version and Ultimate. I don't even know how long I played, but basically 2 days straight, hundreds of online battles within those 2 days getting my Ayane from nothing to B rank. I finally finished my unlock crusade late last night, ready to start up Ultimate and enjoy all of the riches I had procured only to think to myself "Damn... I am fucking sick of DOA."

This is a lesson I never seem to learn about grinding unlocks in my games.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Taking it nice and slow and soaking it all up - this is a 1000+ hour commitment so no need to try to see it all in one weekend.

You`re exaggerating. These games are not that long. If you haven`t completed every single quest after 250 hours of play, you`re doing it wrong. And since MH4 doesn`t have G-level monsters, it`s going to take even less.

Getting good charms on the other hand... But that`s strictly for the OCD people who don`t mind spending months mining the same two spots in the volcano.

[null1024]

Ys Seven [PSP].

Haven't played it in a few days. Just beat the Earth Dragon, which was a bit easy and boring.

I started this and it seemed worth playing. Just didn't find the time yet. Easy is ok with me in this sort of game, but boring doesn't sound good. Hopefully it picks up.

Well, the boss was easy and boring considering how late in the game it was. Hopefully the next Dragon is a bit more interesting to fight.
There are a fair few fun fights to be had in the game. It's just that this boss had a boring pattern and disgustingly easy-to-avoid attacks.

The most fun boss so far was the Coliseum fight.


Tales of the Abyss [3DS].

Fought Dist [who's bitching about being weak despite throwing around Mystic Artes like candy], then did something to the innards of the planet that did something to Tear, now I have to go to somewhere near some river.
I like how there is an entire continent that I can't land on in the Albiore. [/sarcasm]
Why the hell do I have a VTOL if I can't land wherever the hell I want? It's not like the enemies outside of a dungeon are a challenge anymore.

[EmperorIng]

The only visual novels for me were the Kyle Hyde games and the Ace Attorney games. None else need apply.

-Metroid II: Return of Samus
Excellent game, dripping with atmosphere and claustrophobia. I begin to like how confusing the level layout is; it really is like getting lost in some dark cave with no way out. But maybe I just have bad taste.

[BIL]

it really is like getting lost in some dark cave with no way out.

That endgame, glimpsing an unreachable egg from a crawlspace and having the counter suddenly rocket back up to ten is pretty memorable. "This thing broken?" Despite the tiny screen I found that climactic setup way stronger than the first or third games'.

[CoolgyFurlough]

RuneScape

Recently I got back into RuneScape (I can never stay away for long, I mean I've been playing on and off for about ten years...) to check out the RuneScape 3 update, and since I quit before the (de)evolution of combat, I checked that out as well. While I hate EOC, it's not that bad, and there's a buff to allow the game to use abilities for you, so it makes it almost like the original combat. I somehow always forget how awesome the quests are though. Seriously, RuneScape still has some of the best quests out of any MMO I have ever played. They always feel like you've been thrust into the middle of a well written (in most cases) story and I love that. Plus they usually have you trek around the globe, which I love for some reason, so I was anxious to get back into them again. I'm still trying to get level 99 agility for no reason (well... roleplaying reasons), and it's going well with me going from level 56 to 63 in two days. I've also started doing divination and, I have no idea why, but I'm really enjoying it. Case in point I went from level 1 to 38 in less than a day.


Katawa Shoujo

I've also been playing some more Katawa Shoujo lately, and this time I decided to do the Emi route. I'm liking it quite a bit more than the Shizune route (worst route in my opinion), but I doubt anything will top the Rin route for me. I'm kind of stuck at the beginning of act 4 (or is it 3?) because, through savestates, I accidentally found out that it can begin in two incredibly different ways, so now I don't know which way to choose.

Also on the subject of Katawa, I hope you know that the game was created as a collaboration between a bunch of anons on the /v/ and /a/ boards of 4chan (hence the name of the dev studio being 4 Leaf Studios). It just goes to show that anonymous collaboration can spawn great things, and that the rest of 4chan isn't just like /b/...

[Obiwanshinobi]

I have played neither the Chihiro/Xbox HotD3, nor the PC port (which I read the Wii version is based on), but it must have been one of Sega's last technical battles for the glory. Even when the PC port came out, it was praised for its graphics (the year was 2005, mind you). So I don't like the playable characters models and animations, but it hardly matters. One area where the game surpasses RE4 graphically is the skybox.
More impressive than Ghost Squad for sure (if not quite as remarkable game).
Do the same people voiced HotD2&III and Ghost Squad in English? Guess I can just look up the manuals. Really distinctive kind of bad voice acting.

[ACSeraph]

I have played neither the Chihiro/Xbox HotD3, nor the PC port (which I read the Wii version is based on), but it must have been one of Sega's last technical battles for the glory. Even when the PC port came out, it was praised for its graphics (the year was 2005, mind you). So I don't like the playable characters models and animations, but it hardly matters. One area where the game surpasses RE4 graphically is the skybox.
More impressive than Ghost Squad for sure (if not quite as remarkable game).
Do the same people voiced HotD2&III and Ghost Squad in English? Guess I can just look up the manuals. Really distinctive kind of bad voice acting.

I always figured the voice acting in HotD2 in particular had to be intentional. NO ONE would say Goldman's lines the way he does unless they were specifically trolling the Japanese people who payed them to do the acting.

[shmuppyLove]

dear god it's bad

"DON'T COME! DON'T COME!"

http://youtu.be/aAWxw0wmeNQ

Just passed the 50 hour mark in Oblivion ... if it hadn't crashed on me I think I would be finished with the Shivering Isles expansion ... perhaps tomorrow night.