What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[drunkninja24]

Just finished Ys Seven, such a great game. Just picked up Valkyria Chronicles II (it's $25 at K-Mart this week btw) and am starting that up now. I've been kinda RPG-dry for the last couple years, but I seem to be getting back into them again. I plan on getting Birth By Sleep after I'm done with this, and then perhaps DQIX.

[ZOM]

Final Fantasy 9, first rpg (or non shmup) I've played in quite a few years. I like it a lot but usually burn out after 40 hours, hopefully it keeps me attached till the end.

Shouldn't take you much longer than that, speedrun takes less than 12hours and nets you a sword. Full runs without too much grinding are somewhere between 30-50. Although, admittedly I remember putting over 90 hours in that game on my first playthrough.

[gs68]

Final Fantasy for the NES

This is great; I can read during battles because it's so fucking slow

enjoy your attacking dead enemies and spells that don't work correctly

dat HEL2

[CStarFlare]

enjoy your attacking dead enemies and spells that don't work correctly

the spells probably just work fine you just don't know what they're supposed to do

[ZOM]

enjoy your attacking dead enemies and spells that don't work correctly

the spells probably just work fine you just don't know what they're supposed to do

It's all in the manual.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I finally got down to play through Final Fantasy X undub (Japanese voices, English captions) as I haven't finished any other version before and it's surprisingly good (not as vapid and souless as Square Enix games tend to be recently). Reminds me what I liked about Square and Final Fantasy in the first place (no, not the music by Nobuo Uematsu which I'm not that crazy about).
But man, is the major revelation (thus far) a moment of cheesyness, even by FF standards. I mean that sacrifice thing. I could tell almost from the start that Summoners are screwed either way, whether they defeat this thing or not. I'm probably supposed to feel smart at this point, but it's a wee bit too predictable for my liking. In Suikodens I never now for sure who's gonna die and who's gonna be the biggest troublemaker.

[Ed Oscuro]

Just finished up Darkened Skye for PC, not bad. Well, the combat isn't too good, and the ending didn't answer much. I really dug the art style for some levels - there is a "in the weeds" type level reminiscent of ones from American McGee's Alice (hey look, another game with a too-short ending...not to mention similar combat, though at least you didn't have to slowly drag skittles all over the place to change attacks), but better. I had an aversion to using the health and magic refill items (even those sitting around the world) which definitely made the game harder at points than it had to be, but I found the number of items you got to deal with problems to be sporadic - sitting and regenerating magic the slow way, and saving potions, seems to have helped considerably at a couple of the last boss fights. There is a sort of "haunted world" place near the end that I found pretty interesting and would have liked to spend a bit more time in that sort of atmosphere - well, until it went into corridors again. Unfortunately the game doesn't have a perfect mix of good outdoors levels with corridors (no corridors would have been nice) - heck, the beginning of the game is flat-out ugly, to the point people will wonder if it gets any better. It does. Some interesting tunes and the script and voice acting has a fair number of genius moments.

Overall, I found it worth playing through, though like Alice (and a lot of the other games I've been over lately...ugh Turok 2) I'm happy that I didn't buy this when I was younger. There's enough frustration in certain puzzles and gameplay moments that you need a walkthrough to save your sanity here and there (like the very first puzzle in the game - definitely a rough landing for me to figure out where I had to poke my nose). That being said, when it works the puzzle design is usually pretty gentle and sensible, at least compared to some games out there. There are some problems, such as dark vision not working (apparently people had this problem years back too, since a review mentioned it; thankfully it's not necessary - too bad it's a filler spell then) and some items being stealthily deposited in your inventory without any fanfare during cutscenes. On that note, the interface is clumsy - you can't re-order items in your inventory and I didn't notice hotkeys for health and mana items.

[ROBOTRON]

Field runners...its a tower defense game. PS3 minis have plenty of them that are pretty dam cool until you get to Savage Moon which is the ultimatum in Tower Defense.

[ED-057]

Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden

JPRG parody that is also a decent game...

[Vexorg]

I finished up DeathSpank this weekend. Ultimately it was pretty decent as a mindless hack-and-slash type game, but I actually found the writing to be a bit too contrived to be really funny (although it definitely has its moments) and it also started getting too easy by the time you got up in levels near the end. I'd probably still give it a 4 out of 5, but I definitely thought it could have been better. I'll probably still pick up the next one at some point though.

[Danza]

Record of Agarest War; I'm finding it quite enjoyable. I haven't been playing it as much as I'd like, owing to having a flu and not being bothered.

Amnesia - The Dark Descent; Pretty creepy, good atmosphere I suppose. Haven't made up my mind yet.

Minecraft; Perfect for wasting away countless hours when I should be doing assignments and such. Uhhg, it can consume you.

Tonight I am going to start the new Professor Layton on NDS. I love these games and am super keen to get into this.

Other than that, I've been playing/reading a few VNs. Saya no Uta, Swan Song and Ever17 for example. Also, Sengoku Rance.

[Skykid]

Halo: Reach - lots of fun, although not life changing.

Dead Rising 2 - better than the first, though still a little overcomplicated in structure.

[mesh control]

Finally found time to dust off the Fanatec wheel and get Richard Burns Rally set up.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Phew, just finished the first Yakuza. Either I came back to it after a break too long, or the combat blows even harder than I remembered, but man, was the final mission infuriating... Needless to say, it spoiled the melodrama somehow. I asked for it, though, as I took it on barely equipped. The majority of it all, however, was enjoyable enough for me to consider the sequel worth a go at some point. The combat doesn't get any more rotten in 2, does it?
Now I'm going to finish The Getaway (another old save vying for my attention), which I seem to be more fond of than most people out there. It's not as broken as it seems at the first glance, provided you do things the way developers apparently thought a TPP game should be played. Acquired taste it is and an ugly duckling, but I like it way better than quite a few allegedly "essential" PS2 games I could name.

[drunkninja24]

Just finished Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. Fantastic game, easily on par with, if not surpassing KH1. Playing on Proud Mode actually gives a fair bit of difficulty, unlike KH2 which was basically easy mode no matter what you picked. Now it's back to VC2, kinda got distracted by KH, lol. Of course, I also picked up Dragon Quest V on DS, so I'll be playing that too. So many games, so little time

[Slump]

As per the fps thread I'm playing through the original Stalker SoC and loving it. Also started new character in Dragon Age with some new mods and such so that should be fun as well.

[sjewkestheloon]

Phantasy Star Portable 2. Free online loot whoring all the way.

[professor ganson]

Phantasy Star Portable 2. Free online loot whoring all the way.

I haven't tried that. It's enough for me to sort through all the loot one picks up through the missions. I'm still really impressed by the graphics. I'm not sure I've played a better looking PSP game.

[Leader Bee]

EVE Online - Just a week more before I can fly my command ship i've bveen training to use for the past 3-4 months.

Also, Worms: Reloaded on steam and Starcraft II

[Elixir]

Steins;Gate and Bomberman Live, as usual, until Atelier Rorona shows up.

[sjewkestheloon]

Phantasy Star Portable 2. Free online loot whoring all the way.

I haven't tried that. It's enough for me to sort through all the loot one picks up through the missions. I'm still really impressed by the graphics. I'm not sure I've played a better looking PSP game.

I've actually found it a good experience so far. After I hosted a room it filled up in about five minutes and stayed that way for a few hours. As soon as anyone dropped out another joined in a minute or so so not too much time wasting. Lag isn't really an issue other than the occasional delay on chains if someone is having a bad time.

I've dropped the online while I clear the story which should happen some time tonight. Good fun game that I'm glad I got on release.

[mesh control]

F1 2010

Broken AI and terrible track accuracy.


I never knew Suzuka's first curve was so flat, same with degner.
Back to Championship Edition.

[BryanM]

enjoy your attacking dead enemies and spells that don't work correctly

the spells probably just work fine you just don't know what they're supposed to do

For more depth on that you can look at the sticky on its Faq Forum page.

Always loved the wacky buggy nature of that era. What the hell is this thing doing?! Is it supposed to do that?! So quirky and exciting.

[genecyst]

klonoa and gekido ps1.

[Lordstar]

dead rising 2. Im stuck at this one bit where im trying to beat these poker players so they will come back to the safe house with me. fucking can knock two of them out but when it comes to the last one they just take me to the cleaners as I tend to reley on a good hand when playing online poker as its rare you can bluff an AI

[dcharlie]

last battle in Persona 3 - great game.

[Square King]

I have not played ANYTHING in AGES. I've played DDP Resurrection on the iPhone on the toilet at work. That's all.



oops, guess that's a shmup. Wrong thread!

[Acid King]

I'm up to Chapter 9 on Ninja Gaiden 2 on Mentor, received Master Ninja rank on every one so far and have cleared all of the Tests of Valor. The first Test was by far the most difficult, which is somewhat disappointing but better for my sanity in the long run.

[Ruldra]

F1 2010

Broken AI and terrible track accuracy.


I never knew Suzuka's first curve was so flat, same with degner.
Back to Championship Edition.

I'm dying to play a F1 game and I was really hyped for F1 2010. Good thing I read a lot about it on forums before buying, the game is VERY broken. I really doubt a patch will fix everything.

My PC sucks and I don't see CE anywhere to buy, so I guess I'll have to wait for F1 2011

Field runners...its a tower defense game. PS3 minis have plenty of them that are pretty dam cool until you get to Savage Moon which is the ultimatum in Tower Defense.

Did you try Crystal Defenders? That one is probably the best game in the genre I've seen.

[Aquas]

Shenmue... just finished it today. Amazing attention to detail and breadth to the world that made it a unique gaming experience. A classic. I wasn't ready for it to end, though, I wanted to play more. Shenmue 2 I guess?