What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[cicada88]

First time...

[ACSeraph]

Completed the first episode of Resident Evil Revalations 2 on PS3 last night. I'm pleasantly surprised by it. It definitely feels like a proper resident evil game, and does a better job of it than the first Rev did. Slow paced exploration based horror, with mindless grotesque enemies as god intended. None of that stupid infected with guns bullshit that ruined 6. Graphics are quite nice on PS3 too, but I haven't tried it on PS4 yet so I don't know how it compares.

It's still got a few holdovers from modern entries in the series: Weapon and character progression, partner characters, and followup attacks to headshots. It would probly make the game too easy, but they throw more enemies at you at once to make up for it. I'm not a fan of the partner characters personally, horror is something to be faced alone, but they do add to the gameplay a little bit and have unique mechanics. I'm guessing the coop is probably interesting, since only one player can actually use guns. In general it comes of as a more casual friendly horror experience. It definitely doesn't have the same intensity as something like Silent Hill, and this is probably because they know that scares off the average player.

In a way it's a bit hard to recommend in a market where one of the recent releases is Fatal Frame 5, but as someone who plays just about every horror adventure game to hit consoles, it's the most satisfied I've been with this series since its golden age.

[DEL]

On the side I'm playing a bit of Wii U Zelda Wind Waker on this NON-Portable handheld

[broken harbour]

When i don't have a few hours to play Eternal Sonata, I've been replaying the original Top Spin on Xbox.

It's a sports game... I know, don't judge, but it's one of the most addicting I've ever played. So much depth here, perfect controls, and great AI. Super fun with 3 friends and beers!

[Obiwanshinobi]

Are the original Top Spin ports (PC and PS2) good, anyone? And - for that matter - can you think of any reason to play 1 rather than 2 on PC? (Assuming the real system requirements don't make that much difference for you.)

[null1024]

went for some Crazy Taxi [Steam]

the amount of runs where I time out with less than $500 or so to hit $10000 is driving me nuts
I'll never get to 20k this way...

I also need to clean up some of my stops and try to see if there's a way to avoid wall-stick [where you slam into a wall and go up on 2 wheels and the game gives you a big-ass tip bonus, but it's really hard to escape it and it takes an asston of time].

Might need to do a bit better route planning, too.

[iconoclast]

Ninja Gaiden II

Just started playing this again. I'll be trying to improve my survival scores. I've forgotten pretty much every strategy I used to know, so I'm hoping it'll start coming back to me after a few sessions. First thing's first, though - the load times in this game are nuts. I have a feeling my 22 pages of Ninja Cinema videos may be bogging it down, but it takes forever to delete them one by one. Why did this game have to be such a technical mess when the combat is so sublime.

[JBC]

I found a copy of Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear for my GBC today. Really rare find for me & something I've been curious about since I was young. I've only made it to the bat at the end of the first level so far, but I bet I can get good at it.

Other GB stuff I've never played & need to find: Kid Icarus: Of Myths & Monsters, Operation C, all of the Bart games to compliment the NES trilogy

[Obiwanshinobi]

I found a copy of Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear for my GBC today. Really rare find for me & something I've been curious about since I was young.

Been seeing it up for sale cheap. Might take the plunge now. Not that I know of many better ways to spend such a sum of money, but I used to avoid buying GB carts ONLY because they were cheap. A couple of years down the line, however, I'm still without a GB blade action game adressing some fantasies of pre-literate mine.

I mean, really:

[Cata]

Been playing a lot of Shin Megami Tensei IV. Had the game sitting on my shelf for a good year and a half and just randomly decided to pick it up and finally start playing it about a month ago. Having only played Persona 4 I can see now why some diehard SMT fans make fun of the Persona series a bit but I still enjoy both. Fusing monsters and just progressing through the game is really addictive and lends itself well for 2-3 hour splurges whenever I get the chance.

Only thing that sometimes gets frustrating is just trying to find my way around Tokyo. Really wish there was a menu map that I could poke around. Only being able to see the area I'm currently in can get tedious at times while trying to figure out where I need to go.

Other than that, great game so far! (I'm about 25 hours in)

[Obiwanshinobi]

Been playing a lot of Shin Megami Tensei IV. Had the game sitting on my shelf for a good year and a half and just randomly decided to pick it up and finally start playing it about a month ago. Having only played Persona 4 I can see now why some diehard SMT fans make fun of the Persona series a bit but I still enjoy both.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin (and, I believe, Eternal Punishment) are mechanically different from 3&4. More like typical PSX-era jRPGs.

[null1024]

Been playing a lot of Shin Megami Tensei IV. Had the game sitting on my shelf for a good year and a half and just randomly decided to pick it up and finally start playing it about a month ago. Having only played Persona 4 I can see now why some diehard SMT fans make fun of the Persona series a bit but I still enjoy both.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin (and, I believe, Eternal Punishment) are mechanically different from 3&4. More like typical PSX-era jRPGs.

Persona 2 [well, at least Innocent Sin, haven't played Eternal Punishment yet] is also unreasonably easy and you can easily just auto through gigantic portions of the game [and god help you if you don't, since battles take ages].
The story's great at least.

[JBC]

I mean, really:

Ha! How come Kuros is always a hunky barbarian warrior on the covers & a clutsy looking knight in the games?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Persona 2 [well, at least Innocent Sin, haven't played Eternal Punishment yet] is also unreasonably easy and you can easily just auto through gigantic portions of the game [and god help you if you don't, since battles take ages].

I struggle to think of a way this kind of game can be hard (other than having exceptionally tricky puzzles).
I don't auto-battle and I don't recall the challenge (or length) of battles as anything unusual (for the genre).
Nocturne and DDS1&2 are as much grind as any jRPG out there; it's just that their battle system is fun as hell so you don't mind repetition.

How come Kuros is always a hunky barbarian warrior on the covers & a clutsy looking knight in the games?

Eighties' gaming in a nutshell, isn't it?

[BrianC]

Given the blonde hair on Amanda Pays / McGee in the intro, and Flash's facemask cutout looks right, so this looks like it could possibly be intended as a tie-in with the US series, even though Tricksy doesn't look like Hamill.

If I remember correctly, it stars Barry Allen (Wally West was the current Flash in the comics at the time), as well. I know for sure that the completely different GB Flash game is based off the series. It even has a rendition of the theme song.

[cicada88]

Beat LoZ now onto Adventure of Link...

[Immryr]

i've been playing Zelda 2 again lately myself. it's still my favourite Zelda game. it's always perplexed me that anyone finds it harder than the first game.

[cicada88]

i've been playing Zelda 2 again lately myself. it's still my favourite Zelda game. it's always perplexed me that anyone finds it harder than the first game.

I loved the first game. This was my first time ever really trying to play it full stop. I had tried several times for around 30 minutes in the past, and I always gave up before getting any real momentum.

So far Adventure of Link is pretty hard for me, but it's also quite interesting. I like how the spells and the shield mechanic work. Some of the smaller enemy sprites are really nice looking too.

I plan to go through all these 8-bit Nintendo games that I have never completed. Nazo no Murasamejou, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Star Tropics, and I need to loop SMB1 & beat SMB2 JPN.

[KennyMan666]

Zelda 2 is a harder game than the first, though. The primary difficulty I found in LoZ when I replayed it not too long ago after buying it on sale on the 3DS eShop was that it was really goddamned confusing to figure out where to go.

Personally I've been playing a lot of Mario Kart 8 recently. Quite good game, that, once I figured out all the little mini boosts and stuff you can do. Still, whoever invented blue shells needs to get punched in the dick.

[dink]

Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Megadrive version.

[Tregard]

Got a bit burnt out on EDF so decided to give Tactics Ogre a go on my Vita. I tried Final Fantasy Tactics about 2 years ago and didn't take to it, but TO immediately sucked me in for some reason. The writing is superb so far, and customising the party is incredibly addictive. The game feels quite mature and open to experimentation, which is a breath of fresh air these days.

Everything was going swimmingly until I got into a battle involving a tank boss called Gatialo. It must have taken me about an hour and a half to take that guy down, certainly long enough to leave me feeling completely exhausted. I haven't been back to it since, but I will after a break playing some Resogun.

[broken harbour]

24 hours into Eternal Sonata as of yesterday.

So far still great, combat engine is still addictive and feels rewarding, the few spots where I had to grind for an hour or so didn't seem to drag like your typical JRPG. There have been a few complete, utter, freaking, BS bosses (2nd battle with Fugue made me want to hurl my controller) but overall it's paced well and mostly balanced. I will admit, now that I've hit the halfway point, chapter 5.... I don't think there's a main character... it feels much more like an ensemble cast. At first, you're led to believe that either Polka or Frederic is the main focus... but the amount of new characters introduced in nearly every cutscene leads me to believe that's not the case.

[CStarFlare]

It's surprising how little focus Frederic gets, considering the entire concept of the game.

Eternal Sonata was a fun game, but an option to play the New Game+ difficulty up front would have been great. It's a bit easy the first time around, and the battle system is much better with the training wheels off and combos opened up. The NG+'s battles make it worth playing through again, IMO. ES really was beautiful to look at, and I've never complained about a Sakuraba soundtrack.

It doesn't look like tri-Crescendo has done much since, which is a shame. Eternal Sonata was a better action-RPG than Star Ocean 4, though that's damning with faint praise.

[null1024]

Shadow Dancer [Genesis].
Got to the final boss room once and then died like 5 times on it and then had to continue.
and I never saw the final boss again

Most of the game is really easy to me now , except I fuck up on the fire wheel boss more than I should and then the two ninja rooms at the end are aggravating as fuck
and then the final boss summons ninjas

I'm still amazed at how damn cool stage 4-2 is.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Beat Darksiders recently. Its a decent game. Not great or bad. Combat was enjoyable, but I think they spam enemies a bit too much. Puzzles are the usual Zelda fare. I encountered a number of cutscene glitches near the end of the game, namely a lot of them got cut off, so I basically had to go to YouTube to see what I missed. Did anyone here get any use out of the Scythe? Honestly, I thought it didn't have enough strength or sweeping attacks to justify its purpose.

I tried playing Bayonetta afterwards, but I think I'm pretty much done with hitting things in the face for a bit.

I also beat Portal recently, and I gotta say, its probably the least puzzling puzzle game I've ever played. Almost every puzzle in the game is "Place one Portal next to you, and another in that far away place you can't reach" or "Place one Portal in that one high place, and another on that one low place. Speedy in speedy out". Pretty much the only thing that changes is what order you do it in. Even the "Challenge" maps are mostly this. Honestly, the Portal puzzles in Darksiders are pretty much on the same level, a few of which are maybe even a bit better, and they're basically just a random dungeon gimmick. I've put more thought into single puzzles of Lup*Salad or Sutte Hakkun than I did this whole game.

And finally, Super Monkey Ball came in the mail today. Some good fun so far, but man, this game has no concept of a difficulty curve! I walled super hard on Advance Course stage 15 for a bit, but the stages that come immediately afterwards are so easy they probably could have put them in the Beginner course. I mean, it's so weird: 10 Beginner courses, 30 Advance courses, and 50 Expert courses. I know it started as an arcade game, and so is going to be heavily skewed towards being difficult, but still... The whole shpill with having to beat all the stages in a course without dying too much wouldn't bug me so much if the difficulty wasn't so erratic.
PS: Gongon 4 lyfe

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Playing Forza Horizon 1 again. This game is so great and deep. I'm amazed that even after all the time I've spent playing that it can still keep me totally entertained. By far my favorite game from previous gen.

Once I get enough money, I'm just going to plunk down the cash for an Xbone with Forza Horizon 2. I just love first one so much. I've almost bought the 360 version a bunch of times. But I don't want to spoil the experience. Might even start saving up for a Thrustmaster setup.

[gbaplayer]

I found a copy of Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear for my GBC today. Really rare find for me & something I've been curious about since I was young.

Been seeing it up for sale cheap. Might take the plunge now. Not that I know of many better ways to spend such a sum of money, but I used to avoid buying GB carts ONLY because they were cheap. A couple of years down the line, however, I'm still without a GB blade action game adressing some fantasies of pre-literate mine.

I mean, really:

That game is so cool, i played it hours and hours around 15 years ago and i got stuck at the same scene everytime. LOL.

[Immryr]

i got battle kid and the fortress of peril through the post yesterday, liking it a lot. i've played it for maybe 3 or 4 hours already and i'm just a little ways after the second boss. i'm dying a lot, but the sections which took me the most time were the dark section with the blinking blocks just before the second boss - i was stuck there for about 50 mins! and then the back tracking / finding where i needed to go after the second boss.

makes me think i should go back and play the nes megaman games. i only ever played megaman 2 and i don't think i got too far in it, i definitely remember finding it very hard.

[Immryr]

I think what I really enjoy about battle kid is how rhythmic the game feels. you feel very in tune with the shifting rhythms of the game when you're cleanly moving through a bunch of rooms at a time.

[blackoak]

I think what I really enjoy about battle kid is how rhythmic the game feels. you feel very in tune with the shifting rhythms of the game when you're cleanly moving through a bunch of rooms at a time.

Yeah, and many of the sections are best solved with a speedrunning approach too. Wonderful game, the sequel is also definitely worth playing. You take on the colormancer boss yet?