What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Spent the entire weekend sick, missed a dinner party, drugged up on meds while stumbling through some Quake 2 player-made maps. "Premonition of Angron" is really cool, good difficulty balance on monsters, the level building looks like there's even more eye candy than the standard game (it's only 4 levels, so obviously not as many levels to focus on), but my only complaint is that he uses red lasers as both instadeath lasers, and as just non-fatal damage lasers (30 damage or so per tick). This is a bit inconsistent, as the main Quake 2 game makes red always = death, yellow always = death (yellow's used to block corridors and means you have to find a switch), with blue being the weak damage but won't instakill you colour.

Since lasers are used for both fatal and non-fatal traps, it's hard to tell what traps will instantly kill you. And he likes to use a lot of instakill traps later on it seems.

[spadgy]

Because my PlayStation 4 was off since release, and I had a pile of unplayed games for it, I thought I'd give triple-A another go an cracked open Assassin's Creed Black Flag. It's alright, but it just reminded me that I've felt the same about such triple-A fodder for a while now.

It did, at least, mean a powered-up PS4, and thus finally trying Resogun. Very good fun; perhaps the best from Housemarque yet.

[Mischief Maker]

Serious Sam: The First Encounter (Using no quicksaves, only autosave checkpoints, to retain challenge)

Why on Earth would anyone think this game needed an HD remake? The barest tweak is necessary to get it running at 1080p. While I've had to resign myself to never again playing classics like Sacrifice or Die by the Sword on my 64 bit windows 7 machine, Croteam's serious engine keeps chugging away without the slightest hiccup. What's more I've dipped into the spooky advanced options screen and turned everything to max (except filtering, which I've turned off because it causes weird distortions in the distance in HD. No noticeable decrease in graphical quality).

I just cleared "the stampede" in memphis (If you've played the game, you know what I'm talking about) and realize quite clearly why Painkiller and Shadow Warrior were such disappointments. Compared to Serious Sam, those games are like playing in a broom closet, and while the enemy count grand total may be high, you're only facing them in a dribble of 5 or so at a time. Serious Sam has you opening up with a minigun against ARMIES!

I've also confirmed a suspicion I had 10 years ago. Playing an FPS of Serious Sam's scale at super high resolution DOES give you a gameplay advantage. I can't tell you how many times way back when I played this game in 640x480 I would find myself getting picked apart by unseen scorpions because my only clue to their existence is their sound, and a tiny blob of 5 undulating pixels in the distance. Now I can turn and pick them out of the background perfectly.

However, there is one huge disadvantage to playing Serious Sam on a modern PC. Once upon a time I had an Aureal 3D sound card and if a screaming kamikaze was running toward me, I could pinpoint its exact position before I got a visual. Unfortunately thanks to lawsuit scumbaggery on behalf of their competitors at Creative, Aureal went out of business and here we are in the future with onboard sound that's SHIT compared to the sound cards people were rocking 10 years ago.

Also, don't bother playing the Thief games without an A3D soundcard. You're missing the entire experience.

[Ed Oscuro]

I tried God Eaters Burst on PSP, didn't care for it. At least I figured out how to switch between the fire modes. Damn obtuse tutorial levels - throwing everything at you but the critical piece which is that it's a toggle, not a hold. Did well in the stages until the 4 + 1 fight (same enemies as seen in the intro movie) and got incapacitated repeatedly. Ehh...I think it's telling that at the game's English Wiki the first words under the "Gameplay" section heading are "The game possesses a large storyline which can be experienced fully with names and voice actors in single-player mode."

[Obiwanshinobi]

Pretty sure Thief 2 supports EAX (called "EAX" in the menu). Nothing was wrong with the experience using even semi-decent headphones.
Speaking of which, not surprising in a Star Wars game, but vintage EAX 2.0 (using MIGHTY decent headphones this time around) friggin' ROARS in Republic Commando (some positioning is nonsense, but I think it's just the developer's cutting corners).
When all is said and done, Omega Boost through good soundsystem puts most hardware-accelerated endeavours to shame.

[trap15]

Just finished Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies [3DS]
Goddamn it was so good. And the ending was fucking sweet. Definitely recommended.

[soprano1]

Just finished Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies [3DS]
Goddamn it was so good. And the ending was fucking sweet. Definitely recommended.

I really liked the DS games, guess i'll try the eshop demo then.
Taking a break from Pokemon X (i'm burning out...), and played a few levels of Super Mario 3D Land. While not being a huge fan of Mario games, the way they designed levels with 3D in mind feels really cool.

[null1024]

Ys: Memories of Celceta [Vita].

'S pretty good so far -- it's like a mechanically improved Ys Seven [and Ys Seven is one of my favorite PSP games]. I'm digging this.
I think I know what's been bugging me about the graphics the most now [same with Gravity Rush], and I didn't understand until I installed Wipeout 2048: 3d is rendered at PSP resolution. Blurry PSP resolution. It's not terribly noticeable in the thick of combat [phew], but the game has quite a few patterns on textures that show horrible blurry jaggies.


Wipeout 2048 [Vita].

It's gorgeous, it's fun, although I'm kind of bothered that turning off pilot assist made it that much harder, especially coming off of Pure/Pulse where I can disable it [at least in Pulse, since I think Pure doesn't even have the option] and be fine. It cuts the resolution when there's loads of shit on screen, but only then [and when there's loads of shit on screen, it's probably also drowning in shader effects, so you don't notice].

I wish it could at least attempt for 60fps [probably my favorite thing about Pure on PSP is that when running at 333MHz, it mostly runs at 60], but the framerate is quite solid at least.

I'm currently getting brickwalled by the 2049 season final race. Bleh. I think I've come in not-8th once on it.

Having a good analog stick is the best though. I think I like actually using the Vita sticks more than the 3DS's -- the 3DS's stick is comfier, but the Vita's sticks seem better for fine movement.

oh, and damn is Zone mode pretty this time around, wonderfully stylish

Gravity Rush [Vita].

Quite stylish, but not sure how it's going to stack up as a game the more I play it. Flying through the air is loads of fun while combat seems kind of meh. I'm glad I'm playing it [yay PS+ instant game collection, why is your Vita selection so much damn better than your PS3 offerings], but I dunno if I'd have been happy with getting this retail. At least not for more than $15.

It's at least a good tech-demo, using the accelerometer to adjust your aim is great.

also, PSP res, but it looks nicer and keeps a better framerate than Ys, so I guess that's okay
I do wish the damn thing didn't disable network so I could d/l stuff in the background.


[edit]

Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed [Vita].

I downloaded this only because I have PS+. I"m probably just going to play this on my laptop instead.
The colors are hyper-saturated on the Vita screen, dunno if that's because it looks like there isn't much [if any] dynamic lighting anymore or if that's just the display being fed the game's normal palette.


On an unrelated note, I really need to play through Pokemon Black 2 -- I bought it, and still haven't finished it. And it's hard to go back after playing Pokemon Y, damnit!
...also unrelated: why the fuck did Pokemon Showdown get rid of Gen 5 random battle? I like Gen 6's mechanics, but I still want to play Gen 5 random battle...

[spadgy]

Because my PlayStation 4 was off since release, and I had a pile of unplayed games for it, I thought I'd give triple-A another go an cracked open Assassin's Creed Black Flag. It's alright, but it just reminded me that I've felt the same about such triple-A fodder for a while now.

It did, at least, mean a powered-up PS4, and thus finally trying Resogun. Very good fun; perhaps the best from Housemarque yet.

I seem to keep going back to Black Flag. It seems there's a part of me that thoroughly enjoys such games, that confidently contradicts the part the is autopilot snobby about such releases. That said, I play such games so rarely. Perhaps that's the secret to me getting enjoyment out of such blockbusters; unlike shmups, I need to play them in moderation.

[P_HAT]

MGR:RE

Thanks to good PC port i spend like 20 hours in it. Not counting restarts and so.
Not sure if i wanna spend more.
VR missions are too hard or too boring to enjoy.
Maybe i should try clear-save very-hard run, not sure.


Warframe

Beacuse grind is good. Playing it from time it was released on steam. Fun in small doses. If you like grind. Because there is nothing more *for now* than cool design, juicy combat and grind.

DOTA 2

Only tried it because...free and popular and so... after 19 hours in it i feel ashamed for myself. Even my friends who got 500~1000 hours in it can't make this game very fun for me. Even if we winning.

[Astraea FGA Mk. I]

Bravely Default.

If you have a 3DS get the demo as it is the best demo of a game I have encountered. It has content that is not in the full game and rewards for progressing in it that transfer over to the full game. It took me 5 hours to complete 100%. As for the game itself it has backgrounds that remind me of Legend of Mana and Saga Frontier 2 which are the most beautiful games with their water color style.
The combat system is highly evolved, taking the good from the past and innovating it in a logical and clever way. If you like classic RPGs and the Final Fantasy job system you will feel right at home, the game is most comparable to FFV.

[replayme]

Resistance 3: finally completed the game last night. My initial complaints are still valid, and I think the game's enemies are its undoing. It also doesn't help that most of the game borrows from Half Life 2's Ravenholme level, and is quite creepy as a consequence. But the game's more liberal borrowing of Half Life 2's sci fi theme and narrative is fun, and later on (in New York), its Halo inspired combat definitely does make up for a far more wholesome package.

Yeah, I don't really like scary games. And to think I went ahead and ordered The Last of Us...

[Mischief Maker]

Pretty sure Thief 2 supports EAX (called "EAX" in the menu). Nothing was wrong with the experience using even semi-decent headphones.
Speaking of which, not surprising in a Star Wars game, but vintage EAX 2.0 (using MIGHTY decent headphones this time around) friggin' ROARS in Republic Commando (some positioning is nonsense, but I think it's just the developer's cutting corners).
When all is said and done, Omega Boost through good soundsystem puts most hardware-accelerated endeavours to shame.

Did you ever play thief with an A3D card? EAX was a step up from regular stereo, sure, but EAX was the VHS to A3D's Betamax. Betamax is such a good format they still film TV on it to this day. But thanks to lawsuit scumbaggery on behalf of its creators, the inferior VHS became the standard.

EVERYTHING was wrong with playing Thief 2 with EAX. A3D was based on NASA simulator technology. Using the tech demos that came bundled with, you could close your eyes, have someone else move a sound source somewhere in 3D space, and you could accurately pinpoint horizontally AND vertically where the sound was located. This is why no stealth game has matched the Thief experience since, because crouching in a featureless black shadow you could pinpoint the patrol patterns of guards and monsters from behind a wall.

EAX just made games sound like you were playing in a bathroom. It was such an incredible letdown when I finally retired my A3D card and switched to a Soundblaster. Playing Thief 2 with EAX necessitated exposing yourself to get a visual on guard position and movement.

I also have a friend who said people accused him of wallhacking in Counterstrike because he played with an A3D card.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Finished maingame on Star Ocean: Last Hope International. Will either start postgame or Universe soon.

Though, how is it possible to miss Reimi's ending? I thought that was pretty much impossible unless you pickpocketed a lot, and I didn't do any of that even for quest stuff yet. Also missed Crowe's ending despite I'm pretty sure I did all 4 required PAs(at least I think I did), and I had every ending other than Reimi's.

[Bananamatic]

Finished maingame on Star Ocean: Last Hope International. Will either start postgame or Universe soon.

Though, how is it possible to miss Reimi's ending? I thought that was pretty much impossible unless you pickpocketed a lot, and I didn't do any of that even for quest stuff yet. Also missed Crowe's ending despite I'm pretty sure I did all 4 required PAs(at least I think I did), and I had every ending other than Reimi's.

Was it actually any more difficult than the 360 version?

[Chaos Phoenixma]

I was only on Galaxy obviously, so it was obviously still easy enough for me. Maybe when I get to doing Universe and Chaos. Though I'll be doing postgame on Galaxy, even if I do Universe/Chaos playthroughs first. I've done Seven Star on Chaos on the 360 anyway and everything in Wandering Dungeon on Chaos on the 360 outside of Ethereal Queen.

Though if anything postgame would be more difficult since you can't get Dragon Roar and some other skills before you get to Gabe's floor since they're now in fire chests instead of light chests. Also the fact that factors for certain synthesis had the orders switched, so you can't overflow as much +experience/+fol onto gear, but that just makes things a bit longer, though I'm sure this might apply to some more useful equip factors too.

You do need more experience to level on the PS3, but the bosses and some enemies seem to give more experience, so the leveling is about the same, from battle at least. That does nerf the experience gain from harvesting/chests indirectly since the values gained don't seem to change from that.

[Ed Oscuro]

Because my PlayStation 4 was off since release, and I had a pile of unplayed games for it, I thought I'd give triple-A another go an cracked open Assassin's Creed Black Flag. It's alright, but it just reminded me that I've felt the same about such triple-A fodder for a while now.

It did, at least, mean a powered-up PS4, and thus finally trying Resogun. Very good fun; perhaps the best from Housemarque yet.

I seem to keep going back to Black Flag. It seems there's a part of me that thoroughly enjoys such games, that confidently contradicts the part the is autopilot snobby about such releases. That said, I play such games so rarely. Perhaps that's the secret to me getting enjoyment out of such blockbusters; unlike shmups, I need to play them in moderation.

Yeah, I hear you there. There are definitely genres that I can play pretty much anything from, but others that I have to take in doses.

ALL TRIPLE A AND NO PLAY MAKES SPADGY A DULL BOY

[ColonelFatso]

So I found a copy of the Zone of the Enders 360 collection for cheap the other day, figured 'why the hell not?' and started playing.

I knew from seeing the gameplay beforehand that I would enjoy the mechanics, but I wasn't prepared for the whiny bitch of a player character. By the end of the game I wanted to smack him across the face.

[null1024]

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z Demo [Vita].

Mostly downloaded this to see how well the Vita deals with swapping memory cards [downloaded this to the 4GB one that came with my system, since the 8GB card I bought is already nearly full, bleh].

I found myself enjoying it a bit. It's extremely good looking too. Not sure if I'd buy it, but I did have fun.

[edit]
Legend of Mana [PS1].

Been a while since I've played this. Bought it off of PSN so I could play it on my Vita, and damn. What a pretty game -- awesome painted backgrounds, cool PS1 special effects, and the wonderfully exaggerated animations are neato. The game has a cute sense of humor too.
The game feels really damn slow though [after having played a bit of SoM and a lot more of SD3]. Everything seems to take half a second to happen [only in battle, it's not like inputs in general are lagged].

---

So I found a copy of the Zone of the Enders 360 collection for cheap the other day, figured 'why the hell not?' and started playing.

I knew from seeing the gameplay beforehand that I would enjoy the mechanics, but I wasn't prepared for the whiny bitch of a player character. By the end of the game I wanted to smack him across the face.

hello, Shinji!
Yeah, that bugged the crap out of me in ZoE. Speaking of which, I really should finish the first one, I honestly forgot I bought it [for the PS2].

[Hagane]

1CC'd Denjin Makai II with Tulks yesterday. Got to the last boss on my last life and thought I wasn't gonna make it but realized I got the 1 million point extend and managed to dropkick the last boss to death Mustapha style.

[replayme]

The Last of Us didn't pop through my letterbox last night, so I decided to check out the campaign of CoD: Black Ops instead. Man, that game is derivative and uninspiring as hell. Played it for around an hour before giving up, and am looking to trade it in already.

I think I realised that I like my games to have a more soulful and humanistic element. It's why I carried on playing Homefront despite its middling reviews. In fact, I'd argue that Homefront (despite its dated graphics) serves up an infinitely more intriguing campaign.

[Mero]

Got the bad ending on Atelier Totori. I failed on the final adventurer rank, I was over 800 points short. I knew there was no way in hell I was going to do it so I just spent the final few months pissing about. C'est la vie.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Never had a problem recognising vertical positioning in Thief 2 using EAX with headphones and SB Live!

[null1024]

Gravity Rush [Vita].

Hitting bosses is annoying -- first find boss, then realize where you are oriented, look at your gravity meter, try to kick the bastard, either a: he runs or b: you run out of meter and fall for ages.

throw vita onto bed because you know enough not to throw it at the ground

I'm on the bit where your meter gets reduced as fuck and you need actual platforming [which is kind of nice].

[Neptas]

Loadout [F2P PC]

Pretty fun multiplayer Third Person Shooter, where you can create your own weapon based on many different weapon parts (and where you can do impossible weapon like a bolt-action gatling).

The game just came out like 2 weeks ago, so there is unfortunally some balance issues, and only 5 maps or so, but given time, I'm pretty those both problems will slowly disapear. Very good point though, no bugs (for a new released game on PC, I find it almost impressive actually...), and the servers are pretty robust, I have like 30ms of ping in NA server, and 50 in Europe (where I normaly have at least 100 in many other games).

Really have fun explosing head with bolt-action sniper and burning people with my beam gun.

Oh yeah, also, true F2P, not P2W, only things you can buy with real money is visual elements for your character

[replayme]

Gravity Rush [Vita].

Hitting bosses is annoying -- first find boss, then realize where you are oriented, look at your gravity meter, try to kick the bastard, either a: he runs or b: you run out of meter and fall for ages.

throw vita onto bed because you know enough not to throw it at the ground

I'm on the bit where your meter gets reduced as fuck and you need actual platforming [which is kind of nice].

The combat does get annoying. Hopefully the sequel rectifies the problems of the first game.

That level? Is that where the cat gets poisoned, and you can't fly any more? That's actually a pretty good level.

[null1024]

Yes on all points -- that's the level, it is a good level, and I hope the sequel fixes some of the crappier things about combat.

fighting is often with the camera more than anything else...

[BulletMagnet]

Took a whack at Lightning Returns the other day, still trying to figure out exactly what I've got here: very weird hodgepodge of a game, it's gonna take me some time to wrap my head around.

The timer isn't quite as big a deal as you may think (it really only decreases as you move around, since fighting/talking/opening a menu stops it), and functions mainly to make sure you're always doing something productive (you don't "level up" from battles [though you do earn money and "super meter" from them], your stats are increased by equipping different outfits and completing quests); running and jumping in the field generally works fine, though the camera can be a bit of a pain in certain spots. Haven't bothered with the silly social media integration thing.

I still haven't completely figured out the battle system; zooming the camera out is helpful (didn't know you could do that in the demo), but moving Lightning manually is very slow, and I've only been able to make any use of it in specialized situations. Most of the time I end up holding down the button for whichever attack I want to use (she automatically dashes to enemies to smack them around) and switching to a different outfit when the AP runs out, though you do have to be careful against stronger enemies, since you also need AP to block. There is a standard but fun "block right before you get hit" system to further decrease damage (fairly crucial, since healing is pretty limited), and supposedly you can also time certain attacks to be more effective, but it's poorly explained in-game, so I still haven't figured out how it works.

Seems an odd coincidence that I picked this and Bravely Default up a few days apart, since the two games might as well represent the Two Faces of Square(tm), from its tried-and-true "classic" formula to the "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" philosophy that seems to have taken hold for the XIII series. I'm one of those odd ducks that holds some affection for both, but again, this latest one's gonna take me some to judge.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Lightning Returns sounds a bit like BoFV: Dragon Quarter to me, where walking around, special-attacking and dashing increases D-Counter (when it reaches 100%, it's Game Over).

[BulletMagnet]

I guess there's sort of a parallel there in terms of a "don't fill that meter" which follows you throughout the game (and an emphasis on replaying the game to have another go at it), but here it's really more a matter of juggling a handful of resources (HP, EP, money, time) and making wise decisions about which to exchange for the other on various occasions. For example, you don't really "die" in battle in the traditional sense, but if you get KOed you do have to decide whether to revive yourself with a special technique (which costs EP, which you must battle, and likely lose HP, to regain), an item (which costs money), or "escape" from battle (which resets your stats and item stock to how they were before the battle, but costs you time; if you run short on that, there's an EP technique which can extend your current time limit a bit, or fast-travel you around).

Also, in case anyone needed to hear it, the story is still an eye-rolling mess: stuff happens for heaven knows what reason, NPCs still walk around spouting stuff nobody but an NPC would ever say, and no matter whether or not you played the previous games you'll probably be lost trying to figure out what's going on. In short, if the narrative nonsense of the first two FFXIII entries was enough to make you say "the heck with this" then there's no reason for you to spend one second thinking about this latest one; if you're willing to take the FFX-2 perspective of "eh, whatever, I get to go to weird places (IMO this one's got the most striking art direction of the XIII titles) and wreck lots of critters, who cares why" then you're more likely to enjoy yourself.