What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Khan]

Decided to bash out some hours in Dark Souls im 113hrs in and my sorcerer is soul level 115 i can still die from most bosses with a few hits but goddamn some of the spells can do some crazy damage I got invaded last night and I 1 shot the guy with homing crystal soulmass I kinda felt bad for the other guy.

135 hrs in sl 140 ish and I can say game was a blast to play the end boss was pretty damn easy sadly killed him on my first try, blocked and kept pelting him with spells until he went down some of his moves were pretty cool like the 1 handed slam throw move he did on me but the most memorable thing ill remember is the music during the boss battle it almost brings a tear to the eye knowing what happened to lord gywn

[Moniker]

Mostly just Temple Run 2 on my Windows Phone.
Been traveling a lot for work, so little time for proper console/handheld gaming these last few weeks.

For a better autorunner, I recommend Robot Unicorn Attack 2. Less input-gimmicky, anyway. Don't play it that often, unless I'm waiting at a doctor's office or something, but satisfies. I like the option between getting wings and it making a sort of tunnel-snake kinda game when you get at top speed, or going without and doing classic autorunner gameplay. I tend to go without.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Final Fantasy X HD Remaster. I actually picked up the remaster for X-2 since the International version of X isn't really that much extra content, but I hadn't played X in a long time, so I figured I'd do a run of it first. And I plan to get the platinum trophy for it. Took Expert Sphere grid because I never got the chance to try it before. Defeated the Macalania Temple boss.


Also playing Bravely Default, but I'm not very far in yet. Last job I've gotten is Black Mage. I loved the demo and expect to love the full game quite a bit. I'm playing on Hard mode of course.

Also have Demon's Souls now, but I haven't started it yet.

[Bananamatic]

looking forward to bannerlord. are you using free movement with your shield? the game is hard as shit. i think anyone who enjoys the technical aspect of the souls games should check our warband; they share many similarities.

vanilla is pretty stupid though, the upgrade curve is definitely not linear - an army made entirely of swadian knights can just roll through anything 5x bigger(and enemies generally use all levels of units)
gets boring real fast

[null1024]

Smash Hit [Android].

Pretty fun little rail shooter. Break shit with marbles, when you run out of ammo, that's it, hitting things costs 10 marbles, and there are targets that give you more marbles. Nice concept and execution.

Currently the only non-emulated game I've been playing on my phone.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm...Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is just depressingly bad. Enjoyed the heck out of the Moai and Mister Super Flamboyant Peacock (*throws purple fringe scarf around neck before stalking off*) but Hector runs just so slow. Somebody apparently thought the way to make Lament more fleshed-out was to pad out each map segment and add meaningless inventory games. Look, guys, it's still the PS2 and it still doesn't look like mountains.

Resident Evil 6 some more - there's a surprisingly large amount of good in this game, but the Left 4 Dead content kind of highlights how much more mileage Valve gets out of reusing content than Capcom does. Starting to feel the burnout already - though it says I've put in over 50 hours already. I guess my eyes had to adjust a bit, but the FOV gives me some headaches like whoa. Bit too much screen movement going on, and the sad thing is that it's mostly not necessary. It does feel like things could've been refined considerably (mainly in melee combat, the feel of some of the shooting mechanics, and the metagame components all basically suck), but still not bad at all. My initial impression about characterization was that Valve treats their own throwaway characters better than Capcom treats their famous characters, but having played some more of the game I'm not sure that's true. Chris' and Leon's stories were just excruciating to start (and you get some of this with Jake) but those stories did seem to pay off later, especially during crossovers. The Mercenaries is as fun as ever - the No Hope version (with no skills) seems to be the way to go here, since I like its fast pace better. Not trying super hard yet, but I've got a couple 500K+ scores already, and unlocked a couple new maps.

Kinda funny how RE6 basically seems to have given everybody what they asked for, and the response? "Noooooo!" Nonstop action insanity and more QTEs than you can shake a freightload of broken controllers at.

[Marc]

Did people ask for that? The Resi fans I know all wanted a return to the earlier games, not 5 on steroids. If CapCom did the remake treatment with 2,3 and Veronica I'd be on it day one. Shitty action games with zombies, no thanks.

[null1024]

Final Fantasy Type-0 [PSP].

Since the patch came out, I decided to give it a go. Just did the first actual mission from once you get in the school. Seems fun. Best graphics I've seen on the PSP too.
Also, you can actually dodge things as far as I can tell [maybe that will change later], I'm so used to Square games making you soak damage.

[Ed Oscuro]

Did people ask for that? The Resi fans I know all wanted a return to the earlier games, not 5 on steroids. If CapCom did the remake treatment with 2,3 and Veronica I'd be on it day one.

Sure, I'd definitely buy any new REmake, or Dino Crisis for that matter (well, maybe not at the initial sale price - most of my RE games have been bought at firesale prices, RE4 excluded), but I was talking more about the not inconsiderable number of new buyers since RE4. Everything up to that point was relatively small (with the exception of RE2, which sold nearly as much in its day, though in an earlier market). As it turns out, Dead Rising isn't hitting bigger numbers than REmake, but I'm sure Capcom are interested in not milking the franchise dry while also leaving room for drumming up interest in new franchises. There's only so much they can saturate the world with RE stuff before they start muddying their own sales channel.

I would like to see the industry backing off the "must make 10 million to break even" model, but we might as well ask them to go back to the PS2/Xbox/GameCube for development. I don't know how you can make a first-class game on modern systems without a gigantic budget; as I pointed out, even RE6 is reusing lots of assets.

So yeah, Capcom wants more of 5M+ games than they want games that don't break 1.5M. Hard to fault that logic.

In case you aren't tracking me:
http://gearnuke.com/capcom-releases-upd ... es-figure/
http://www.gamechup.com/dead-rising-ser ... -revealed/

Shitty action games with zombies, no thanks.

That's going too far. Sure, it's not the best game ever, but quite unique and it's welcome to see Capcom trying to cater to the technical gamer crowd.

There was a lot to like in the previous RE games, but let's be honest - most people played them while half asleep. Good, interesting combat wasn't front and center like it was in the Onimusha franchise.

[BulletMagnet]

Also, you can actually dodge things as far as I can tell [maybe that will change later], I'm so used to Square games making you soak damage.

Interest piqued.

[BrianC]

Been playing Mario Kart 8 Wii U and Mario Golf World Tour 3DS with some other stuff here and there. Played a bit of PGA Tour Golf II, Jackal, and Atomic Runner when I was visiting my dad.

[EmperorIng]

I played BoF3 back when it first came out. It was the first jrpg I played after I fell in love with FF7. Loved every minute of it, but don't know how much I'd love it today. IIRC it's full of familiar JRPG tropes, you end up killing God and all that.

Two weeks later, after stewing on this comment (among others), I held off on selling the game and stuck with it, for at least a few more hours, inbetween TRP-STGTs and practicing Raiden.

I'm right at where you meet Momo. It got a lot more engaging after that slow start! I think I'll stick with it, and I like the dragon morphing system (though I wish the game informed you when you got it - it would have saved me a few aggravating fights).

[Formless God]

Xenoblade. Didn't really live up to the hype, but it isn't too offensive either.
The combat system is serviceable. Barely deeper than an MMO. The game doesn't make you fight that much so it doesn't get repetitive too quickly. Some bosses took me more than one try to beat so that's cool.
Thanks to the instant traveling and various kinds of bonuses I feel less autistic when "exploring" the large, open fields of fucking nothing. Load times are great and traveling is really instant.
I have conflicting feelings about the questing. On one hand most automatically clear themselves (I don't have to go back to the NPC), on the other hand every last one of them is a damn fetch quest that unfortunately give better EXP and money than what you can find on the fields.
30fps sucks ass but at least it stays consistently there. Feedback is pretty good but my input also occasionally gets dropped.
The menu is crap. Changing tabs is a pain and I'd really appreciate a "Sell All in Category" button.

Best graphics I've seen on the PSP too.

What kind of witchcraft did they use to achieve this load time, I will never know.

Also, you can actually dodge things as far as I can tell [maybe that will change later], I'm so used to Square games making you soak damage.

No, it won't change. Dodging is a crucial mechanic in the game; it gives you iframes (against certain kinds of attacks) and cancels recover animations. Everything hits like a truck so you'll need to actually dodge.

[Ed Oscuro]

Interesting comments on Xenoblade - kind of what I was expecting really. It's been on my "well, check it out at least" list for a while.

How do games like Pandora's Tower, The Last Story, and the Wii Monster Hunter (Tri) measure up to it?

[BIL]

BDOOMv019 remains the smoovest comfort gaming I ever knew. This is valuable time I could be road-testing ROMZ god damn it! Recently went through E1 in DOOMBuilder and undeafed all monsters, for a bit more rowdiness. They out ta get me! BUT NOT FOR LONG

HOT CONVULSIVE MEAT PUMP EXPULSION



HI-TECH EXPRESSIONZ <3

[Jonathan Ingram]

I don't know how you can make a first-class game on modern systems without a gigantic budget

It's hard, but not impossible. Smart management and a talented, reasonably sized team of developers with a clear vision of the goals they want to achieve go a long way towards ensuring that your game isn't a bloated monstrosity that requires 10 million sales to break even. A case in point is Uncharted 2. It's one of the games often pointed out as an embodiment of an "AAA" experience, yet it was made on a measly(relatively speaking) budget of 20 million dollars which is likely a fraction of what Resident Evil 6 cost with its 600 strong development team that Capcom boasted of. And come to think of it, Naughty Dog employs only 200 people or so and it doesn't impede their ability to produce accomplished games in a timely manner.

[mastermx]

Playing Ninokuni... I'm really disappointed in this game, it could have been so good.

Also playing Dark Souls 2 and Ultra SF4. I'm happy with those two games.

[broken harbour]

Still playing FF7 whenever I have time, 42 hours in, on the second disc. Still liking it.

Also played a little Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold and some original Mario Kart for SNES lately. Good multiplayer fun.

Mario Kart holds up extremely well, incredibly well actually, while MK64 is still superior, the original MK has great controls and the Mode 7 doesn't feel gimmicky at all.

I'm debating what RPG to play after I finish FF7 in a few weeks, I have in my pile of unplayed aqcuisitions:

FF 1+2 - PS1
FFX-X2 Remaster
FF12
FF13 1 thru 3
Tales of Symphonia Chronicles
Star Ocean: The Last Hope


I was thinking either FFX-X2 or Symphonia......

[Ruldra]

FTL: Faster Than Light

Didn't take me long to nail a victory on easy, but on normal it's been a complete nightmare. I hardly get enough scrap to upgrade my ship and later on enemies are too strong for me. I don't know if I should press on and try to win with the Kestrel or unlock the other ships first.

[null1024]

Soul Sacrifice [Vita].
I'm digging this.

Best graphics I've seen on the PSP too.

What kind of witchcraft did they use to achieve this load time, I will never know.

Also, you can actually dodge things as far as I can tell [maybe that will change later], I'm so used to Square games making you soak damage.

No, it won't change. Dodging is a crucial mechanic in the game; it gives you iframes (against certain kinds of attacks) and cancels recover animations. Everything hits like a truck so you'll need to actually dodge.

oh thank god, dodging stays important

And the load times? That's what happens when you run from Memory Stick. Shit's fast. If that guy is playing from UMD, I will eat my hat.
hell, something tells me he's running in an emulator, since he's having framedrops in places that I'm not. Or, he's just not running at 333MHz.

Still playing FF7 whenever I have time, 42 hours in, on the second disc. Still liking it.

Also played a little Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold and some original Mario Kart for SNES lately. Good multiplayer fun.

Mario Kart holds up extremely well, incredibly well actually, while MK64 is still superior, the original MK has great controls and the Mode 7 doesn't feel gimmicky at all.

I'm debating what RPG to play after I finish FF7 in a few weeks, I have in my pile of unplayed aqcuisitions:

FF 1+2 - PS1
FFX-X2 Remaster
FF12
FF13 1 thru 3
Tales of Symphonia Chronicles
Star Ocean: The Last Hope


I was thinking either FFX-X2 or Symphonia......

I kind of want to say Symphonia, but I'm biased as hell towards the Tales series, heh.

Also, even though I think SMK has held up really damn well, I really don't think SM64 did. Crash Team Racing looked better, handled better, and had better item balance. Only problem with that game is needing a PS1 and a PS1 multitap to get good 4 player split-screen action.

[broken harbour]

I think SMK64's Battle mode trumps all other MK game's battle modes, tho I have yet to play Double Dash, or MK8 so I could be wrong there.

I hear MK8's battle mode is neutered.

[Ed Oscuro]

I don't know how you can make a first-class game on modern systems without a gigantic budget

It's hard, but not impossible. Smart management and a talented, reasonably sized team of developers with a clear vision of the goals they want to achieve go a long way towards ensuring that your game isn't a bloated monstrosity that requires 10 million sales to break even. A case in point is Uncharted 2. It's one of the games often pointed out as an embodiment of an "AAA" experience, yet it was made on a measly(relatively speaking) budget of 20 million dollars which is likely a fraction of what Resident Evil 6 cost with its 600 strong development team that Capcom boasted of. And come to think of it, Naughty Dog employs only 200 people or so and it doesn't impede their ability to produce accomplished games in a timely manner.

I'm way behind the times - $20M and 200 people is what I'd call a pretty big title!

Strange thing, though - the credits didn't seem all that long to me, though maybe I'd better go back and compare with some other titles. I wonder if they're including figures from e.g. the Sony audio mastering crew.

Also I should have remembered that the gigantic slovenly bureaucracies we call "game developers" have learned a trick some time back - continually slough off key developers and outsource development through these smaller studios. It's the same model that Sony brought to high visibility as far back as the original PlayStation days (and I think Nintendo and other platform owners used essentially the same model).

I think that my concern is still well-founded. As games continue to become complex, how much of the unique content can't just be farmed out? You can do a fair amount on the software side with third-party libraries and on the visual front with commercial texture libraries, but presumably you still need artists and people working on the gameplay experience side of things. I think the general trend of requirements pushes towards needing still more people to go beyond just roughing out a design.

Personally, I'll take something that's rough around the edges and more reflective of a unique vision than something like RE6 which looks rough due to having been fit together by large groups of different people, with only mediocre results. I think lead developers have always had to ride herd over their developing crews, but as that work spreads out in every way (geographically, temporally, and in terms of sheer bodies) it must be harder to really hit the intention of a vision.

[gbaplayer]

Grandia (PSX)

made a restart yesterday. i could not proceed my level 23 save file inside the grandeur just before the fight against baal.
stupid game design: if you are too weak you cannot proceed in that fight and you cannot return to a city nor levelup. 29 hours of my childhood wasted.
hope this time i will do better...

[soprano1]

Final Fantasy Type-0 on PSP and Tales of Innocence on NDS. The first looks amazing, the second looks ok. I would rather play Tales of the Abyss, but i can't find a copy for my 3DS, so i just watched the anime and got Innocence.

[Icarus]

Kantai Collection. >_>

[Lord Satori]

Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker HD

I'm at what I think is the final boss, and it's total BS. You have Ganondorf who morphs into a gigantic puppet connected by strings. The battle starts, and I immediately go to sever the strings. He slams onto the floor for a brief moment, and I discover that he's completely invincible!

So about half an hour passes of me trying various tactics, and repeatedly severing the strings when they go to reconnect, and I eventually give up. This is the first boss in the game where I genuinely don't know wtf I'm supposed to do.

[XoPachi]

Turok 2 and Titanfall. Having a blast with both.

[Jonathan Ingram]

I think that my concern is still well-founded. As games continue to become complex, how much of the unique content can't just be farmed out? You can do a fair amount on the software side with third-party libraries and on the visual front with commercial texture libraries, but presumably you still need artists and people working on the gameplay experience side of things. I think the general trend of requirements pushes towards needing still more people to go beyond just roughing out a design.

Not disagreeing at all here. More powerful hardware and higher expectations mean that the amount of time and people needed to create art assets and work out all the kinks on the software side of things can only go up. Not being a texture artist, I could only guess how much longer it now takes to draw a texture compared to how it was a decade ago. Outsourcing has effectively become part of the streamlining process, and with increased complexity I reckon fewer and fewer developers would want to keep things strictly in-house.

Still, I can't help but feel that the budgets and development team sizes of some of the more popular games on the market are unnecessarily bloated. I could never surmise that close to a thousand people worked on Assassin's Creed 4 if I didn't come across a piece of news with respective information, because absolutely nothing about this annual assembly line production feels that way. With stakes risen so high, it takes but a couple of failures to put a software house six feet under.

[Marc]

FEAR. Playing it on hard and it's making for a really tense and enjoyable experience. Go charging in, and one well placed grenade can wipe out your entire energy supply. Enemies give a decent illusion of being smarter than even many current FPS's, they use cover, will flank from multiple exits and generally make like unpredictable without being psychic. Great stuff, may actually see this through to the end if it can keep up this intensity, without doing so artificially. Reminds me of the original Half Life quite a bit which is no bad thing.

[louisg]

I've been playing a lot of Airborne Ranger on C64, which is fantastic! So far I'm really bad at it, but it's a great semi-sim. Imagine a more sober version of Call of Duty that's more of a one-man-army strategy game in realtime and you've got Airborne Ranger. One neat touch is your rangers can get captured and you can rescue them with another player you've saved to disk Super cool. I think the stages are randomized a bit as well.