What are you playing?

[Himu]

i thought arkham city was much better than asylum. recycled boss fights in asylum really puts a damper on the game. the final boss is horse shit, the game also lacks variety. Aside from the awful misogyny towards cat woman, city is pretty banger stuff. the boss fights are better, the fighting requires more timing (as someone who got the 100 combo achievement in asylum on hard mode, I was having trouble on the first fight in city), and the scenarios appeal to me more. The side quests are fun, riddler trophies take more effort and brain tinkering to get, the pacing is better, the way it utilizes batman enemies (deadshot Zsasz phone calls ) is amazing. Just overall fantastic game aside from lame (and extremely homoerotic) ending.

I still haven't replayed it, and I severely want to one of these days. One of my favorite games of last generation.

The boss fights in City are seriously some of the best boss fights of last gen. R'as Al Ghul Mr. Freeze The Penguin scenario with the sharks

Goddamn what a GAME.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

I passed on City back when it came out and played Origins instead, since I got it for free from a friend. Man, that was a mistake. I'd heard mixed opinions about City, but Origins is just bad bad bad. Awful combat, really boring city to explore, really boring boss fights.

I'll play City thanks to PS+ next year whenever there's a lull in game released.

[cool breeze]

man, and I was going to add that the boss battles in City kinda suck compared to Origins  (and that the Zsasz side missions are so boring)

[Himu]

Haven't played Origins

[Rahxephon91]

I don't know what it is but I've never been able to play through Asylum. I've played City tons of times and consider it one of the best games of last gen. Origins was ok. I don't see what was worse about the combat, in fact I think it had some nice additions. The boss battles were ok. The city sucked, but whatever. It was an ok game.

But yeah I've never played though Asylum.

[Beezy]

The boss fights in City are seriously some of the best boss fights of last gen.

[Mr. Nobody]

I remember Asylum's final boss being a big disappointment

[tiesto]

Making some decent progress in Wild Arms 2. Around 20 or so hours in. The game moves at a brisk pace - you don't spend an awful lot of time in towns or dungeons, even fights (although a bit slow with the attack animations) don't take very long. But yeah the game is braindead easy still. I can defeat groups of regular enemies without any of them even attacking.

[Shaka Khan]

Okami on PS2 was trash tier. Sonybots fucking wished it was as good as a Zelda game, although recent Zelda games have reached Okami levels of bad.

Aside from the difficulty, I remember it being a superb Zelda clone.

I also remember Ninthings shaking in their boots, 'cause someone other than kami-sama Miyamoto and onii-sama Aonuma was able to output a solid action-adventure game. It was as if they felt betrayed Whimsy went third party.

Disagree with this and I will cut you.

okami barely has any dungeons, the puzzles are brain dead, and exploration is pretty weak. okami is a solid game, but a great zelda clone? it's bad at everything zelda is great at, but great at everything zelda is bad at (namely presentation, stories). I'd say there's very few great zelda clones out there, and okami's not one of them. I'd even wager to say that it's not even zelda clone. it barely has anything resembling zelda in its gameplay. It's action-adventure to be sure, but zelda? Is SotC a Zelda clone now too?

I wouldn't be able to comment on the dungeons since I quit it pretty early on the PS2, but brain dead puzzles and easy battles are a staple of modern Zelda. Let's not fool anyone. The exploration so far has been very reminiscent of WW too (I played the remastered very recently), and the similarities don't end there: presentation, characters, dialogue, pacing, abilities and how they impact battles and environment are also clearly inspired by Zelda. Maybe "clone" is a stretch, but there's an undeniable overlap.

Oh, and I'm 4 hours in and it's already better WWHD.

That unfinished game.

[Rufus]

Okami overstays its welcome and recycles bosses. That's the only thing that bothered me.

[Himu]

Okami on PS2 was trash tier. Sonybots fucking wished it was as good as a Zelda game, although recent Zelda games have reached Okami levels of bad.

Aside from the difficulty, I remember it being a superb Zelda clone.

I also remember Ninthings shaking in their boots, 'cause someone other than kami-sama Miyamoto and onii-sama Aonuma was able to output a solid action-adventure game. It was as if they felt betrayed Whimsy went third party.

Disagree with this and I will cut you.

okami barely has any dungeons, the puzzles are brain dead, and exploration is pretty weak. okami is a solid game, but a great zelda clone? it's bad at everything zelda is great at, but great at everything zelda is bad at (namely presentation, stories). I'd say there's very few great zelda clones out there, and okami's not one of them. I'd even wager to say that it's not even zelda clone. it barely has anything resembling zelda in its gameplay. It's action-adventure to be sure, but zelda? Is SotC a Zelda clone now too?

I wouldn't be able to comment on the dungeons since I quit it pretty early on the PS2, but brain dead puzzles and easy battles are a staple of modern Zelda. Let's not fool anyone. The exploration so far has been very reminiscent of WW too (I played the remastered very recently), and the similarities don't end there: presentation, characters, dialogue, pacing, abilities and how they impact battles and environment are also clearly inspired by Zelda. Maybe "clone" is a stretch, but there's an undeniable overlap.

Oh, and I'm 4 hours in and it's already better WWHD.

That unfinished game.

WW is pretty mediocre. But comparing Okami to TP is night and day.

[Shaka Khan]

I have the Wii version thanks to Positive, and I hear it has some of the best dungeons. Ones cut from the original WW? Let's pray I can survive the infamous tedious intro.

Okami overstays its welcome and recycles bosses. That's the only thing that bothered me.

Now this is something I hear a lot and I didn't stick around to experience. Something about the second half of the game opening up just about when it felt like wrapping everything up.

[Rufus]

It feels like it's about to end several times. That's what hammers it home. I think it's at least three times that it seems it might end with the next boss fight, but no, there's more.

[Himu]

duckroll and i once joked that okami has a trilogy. so when okami wii was announced we called okami trilogy wii, because the game is that long-winded and ill paced. it's still worth it, but fuck.

[Positive Touch]

repeating bosses? I don't think you can count a boss rush at the end of a fifty hour game against its quality.

honestly don't get the "too long" complaint either, because the new content keeps coming right up till the end.

[Himu]

Because it gets boring. It's a 20 hour game stretched to 40 hours. He's talking about fighting orochi one billion times.

Shaka, imagine if you have to fight the final boss 3-4 times and each time you do it feels like the game is over, but it's not, and it just keeps going.

[Rufus]

Because it gets boring. It's a 20 hour game stretched to 40 hours. He's talking about fighting orochi one billion times.

Shaka, imagine if you have to fight the final boss 3-4 times and each time you do it feels like the game is over, but it's not, and it just keeps going.

Yes. Exactly that.

[Positive Touch]

yeah well your face is boring

[cool breeze]

The thing I hate about okami are those dumb doors where you memorize the dots.

[Shaka Khan]

Real talk doe: stretching/padding games is like Kamiya's signature.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Truth be told I've always wanted to play Okami, but never did because I hate padding and everyone complains about it in this game.

[Positive Touch]

shrug i just dont mind it. the game has multiple story arcs and each arc takes place in new area. the game was fun to me because i liked the areas and characters and stories, and the game is jam packed with shitloads of all of those. didnt feel like a one note game that dragged on too long, like ff13 frex.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

I never felt like Okami's length was a problem.  Each arc in the game's plot has its buildup and final boss to wrap it up, and i legitimately enjoyed all the development that the side characters had along the way.  You only have to fight Orochi twice, not counting the super easy boss rush at the end. Game doesn't lend itself well to replays, but whatever. I've had fun the whole three times I've played through it.

The thing I hate about okami are those dumb doors where you memorize the dots.

THIS however. Those guys can go straight to hell.

[I'm a Puppy!]

I think Dragon's Dogma Hard Mode just switched over to being the mode with double xp and ridiculous rate of giant coin bag drops.  I think I have like 900,000 gp or something now?  I dunno, potent green herbs cost 300 gp and the most expensive gear right now is like 25k.   

Oh, the pain the first few days of play brought.  Oh the fun of finally being able to take the hits of mundane monsters whilst cleaving them in twain instead of hiding behind shield, losing stamina, running around rezzing pawns.

So did Hard Mode suddenly become easy mode?
I've been playing with the idea of doing that after this run through but if it's a "suck it up for the first 20 levels then breeze through." kinda thing no thanks.

[Positive Touch]

asylum had great atmosphere and buildup, but that was really all it had over city. city took the gameplay concepts of asylum and built on them a thousandfold

[WanderingWind]

City was much better overall, but Asylum will be heralded as the better game because it was first and the only good Batman game since the SNES era. People use code words and phrases like "tighter experience" when talking about how Asylum was better to cover for the purely emotional high of playing an excellent Bat-game for the first time since we cared about Presidents getting laid.

[I'm a Puppy!]

I think Dragon's Dogma Hard Mode just switched over to being the mode with double xp and ridiculous rate of giant coin bag drops.  I think I have like 900,000 gp or something now?  I dunno, potent green herbs cost 300 gp and the most expensive gear right now is like 25k.   

Oh, the pain the first few days of play brought.  Oh the fun of finally being able to take the hits of mundane monsters whilst cleaving them in twain instead of hiding behind shield, losing stamina, running around rezzing pawns.

So did Hard Mode suddenly become easy mode?
I've been playing with the idea of doing that after this run through but if it's a "suck it up for the first 20 levels then breeze through." kinda thing no thanks.

Well.  It did take me several days of the game being a brutal, die over and over fest. 

I am now L32?  I finally killed those 3 ogres in the quarry thanks in part to switching main pawn to sorc... and oh yeah, I did the water god altar quest, which unlocked new swords and staves at Caxton... her m atk jumped like 125 points, my atk jumped like 60.  And I got her the fire meteor skill Bolide, which rocked him.  Oh, and I had a new ranger pawn who helped a lot by jumping on his back FOR me, which is something I had trouble with due to cramped quarters and 3rd person camera.  Understand, when I was fighting the first ogre earlier, it was like 5 minutes an attempt just to sometimes get him down to 5% health.  I would jump on his back over and over with fire affinity on my sword and would spam x until he tried his jump and fall backwards attack; if that hit I was dead.  When he was raging he would one-shot everyone with any hit.  Hell of a way to spend a Saturday morning, but I really wanted to kill that guy.

At this point, the little bandits and goblins hit for 1 damage, but there is some mild level scaling and even the weaker guys do have one big hit that will get through that defense.  Saurians do that dragoon jump attack that hurts a lot of it hits.  Cyclopes and ogres hurt but when a cyclops gets hit by lightning it just stands there or better yet falls over, so it's an easy mark for big xp... I have seen exactly one griffin and I was not strong enough - it flew away before I could kill it; don't know if that was scripted or what.

The game is probably more fun / faster doing it the normal way.  I'm doing my usual RPG OCD nonsense, trying to do every quest from the boards as soon as I get them (when possible, within reason, as defined by "it ain't worth more than an hour of trying and dying"), which means running back and forth with 6 of those "find the medal quests" at a time, which means I end up fighting a ton of crappy little monsters over and over, which means double xp and lots of coin bag drops.

Those are really annoying because they're not remotely clustered together.  I have had to run back to the same areas multiple times.  I do finally have some ferrystones and I can buy them from 2000 a pop at "The Black Cat," a shop I unlocked via the obligatory "tail the npc as he walks around" quest.  I really should start using them.

LOL dude, level 32? I've done nearly every quest there is and I'm nearly to the "end"  (remember what I said that the game really begins after the "end") and I just got to 38.  Also doing the quests are soon as you get them? Man, that ain't right. I like to do the main quests when I get them, but no way I'm gonna go and track down 15 dire wolves right away when I know just in the course of the game I'll kill probably 100+, let alone 45 rabbits. That's crazy son.

[demi]

There is an achievement for doing all quests, and there are some missable ones as well

[Himu]

Arkham City for top 5 best last gen games imo

[Himu]

I think you should probably concentrate on beating a game.

[demi]

You're still on the main story, even. Theres still the entirety of the Dark Arisen content yet.

[StealthFan]

Gamefly finally decided it wasn't going to send me new games on release. It missed Mordor and now Driveclub. Fucking cunts. I'll just wait then

[demi]

I'm not sure, I would just look at a guide for the missable quests. Some are tied to their completion, so you can miss out on several quests.

[WanderingWind]

Y'all making me want to play DD again, but I'm not pulling my 360 out of mothballs. Google tells me there will never be a PC port and there is no word on a sequel, so whatever.

Dumb game anyway

[Himu]

You haven't beaten games you find fun tho

[Stoney Mason]

City was much better overall, but Asylum will be heralded as the better game because it was first and the only good Batman game since the SNES era. People use code words and phrases like "tighter experience" when talking about how Asylum was better to cover for the purely emotional high of playing an excellent Bat-game for the first time since we cared about Presidents getting laid.

Or they feel that putting the game into an open world context offered nothing interesting and actually made the experience more boring while wading through a larger boring world.

Just saying.

[WanderingWind]

City was much better overall, but Asylum will be heralded as the better game because it was first and the only good Batman game since the SNES era. People use code words and phrases like "tighter experience" when talking about how Asylum was better to cover for the purely emotional high of playing an excellent Bat-game for the first time since we cared about Presidents getting laid.

Or they feel that putting the game into an open world context offered nothing interesting and actually made the experience more boring while wading through a larger boring world.

Just saying.

Nailed it!

[Rufus]

Yup. I liked grapple-gliding around, but that's about all the open world did for me.

[cool breeze]

I like how they integrated side missions into the open world.  most annoying part of City's open world, aside from the ridiculous amount of riddler trophies, is how it's shaped like a U or V.  it gets annoying to trek from Penguin's area to the steel mill.

I do worry about how big the city looks in Arkham Knight.  now you have the car and wider streets to accommodate for it.

[Positive Touch]

City was much better overall, but Asylum will be heralded as the better game because it was first and the only good Batman game since the SNES era. People use code words and phrases like "tighter experience" when talking about how Asylum was better to cover for the purely emotional high of playing an excellent Bat-game for the first time since we cared about Presidents getting laid.

Or they feel that putting the game into an open world context offered nothing interesting and actually made the experience more boring while wading through a larger boring world.

Just saying.

stoney you are not allowed to make posts like this with such unambiguous stance-taking. please do not make this mistake again.

[Himu]

That's because ssx3 is

[Yulwei]

Was playing some ranked matches on Killer Instinct yesterday. I've been practicing with Spinal the last few days and it paid off big time in yesterday's session. People online have a hard time dealing with his fireball+teleport shenanigans. His dive kick is also awesome and I abuse the fuck out of it. I didn't like this game when I first tried it some months ago but now I'm having a lot of fun with it

[Bebpo]

The Xbone Killer Instinct is legit fun. Craps all over all the shitty games the series produced over the years. All it took was taking out Rare to make it good.

I'm still surprised Double Helix made a good game.  Like, so surprised I don't think I'll ever be able to believe it until I play it myself.  DH sucks

[Rufus]

You know what sucks about Vice City.. the traffic. The cars with such fast, sudden turns, it's hard to avoid that shit. I nearly got wasted because I was on my bike cruising at a reasonable speed and some moron took a right turn, it was so sharp and fast it's kind of ridiculous and it was really difficult to see that shit coming let alone avoid it. I was like holy shit im dead but I had 10 health left, right before I crashed I had only 17 health. Thought I was gonna die and lose my money/guns.

It's worse when they turn into you when you're coming at them. I think the AI routine responsible for turning away when you come from behind isn't being flipped around or something. I could be imagining things, but it always annoyed me during police chases.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Been playing Smash Bros. occasionally during study breaks (and locally with friends today). It really gives me some heavy PS All Stars vibes in that the core gameplay is as good as always (a big step up from Brawl but no quite at Melee's level), but everything surrounding the core combat kinda sucks. All of the extra modes are either really boring, downgraded from previous versions or missing entirely, most of the new stages are awful, i don't like many of the new items added and the roster itself (especially the unlockable cast) is kinda boring. Just about the only reason I'll probably keep playing it is to have a game to play with local friends at college; its definitely the quickest I've ever gotten bored of a smash game.

[Mr. Nobody]

Because it gets boring. It's a 20 hour game stretched to 40 hours. He's talking about fighting orochi one billion times.

Shaka, imagine if you have to fight the final boss 3-4 times and each time you do it feels like the game is over, but it's not, and it just keeps going.

Reminds me of when I beat the "final boss" in Persona 4 Golden but it was like 2-3 hours before I even had a chance to go for the actual final boss.

Lotta games need to wrap it the fuck up

[chronovore]

You know what sucks about Vice City.. the traffic. The cars with such fast, sudden turns, it's hard to avoid that shit. I nearly got wasted because I was on my bike cruising at a reasonable speed and some moron took a right turn, it was so sharp and fast it's kind of ridiculous and it was really difficult to see that shit coming let alone avoid it. I was like holy shit im dead but I had 10 health left, right before I crashed I had only 17 health. Thought I was gonna die and lose my money/guns.

Worring about money in GTA VC:
Worrying about losing your weapons in GTA VC: 

I always had more money than I knew what to do with, by the time anything was actually unlocked to buy. It's usually easier to just find the weapons lying around on the street. You get access to those areas sooner than the story allows you to buy them.

[tiesto]

Because it gets boring. It's a 20 hour game stretched to 40 hours. He's talking about fighting orochi one billion times.

Shaka, imagine if you have to fight the final boss 3-4 times and each time you do it feels like the game is over, but it's not, and it just keeps going.

Reminds me of when I beat the "final boss" in Persona 4 Golden but it was like 2-3 hours before I even had a chance to go for the actual final boss.

Lotta games need to wrap it the fuck up

Yeah, getting so sick of the "fake ends" in a lot of RPGs. Especially when the ending feels so ridiculously tacked on and unnecessary (looking at you Vesperia and Wild Arms 2, even though I love you both you'd both be better games without that last act IMO)

[The Legend of Sunblade]

After Ni no Kuni's garbage straight to DVD quality "last chapter", every other RPG's fake/true end seems like a beautifully written masterpiece to me. 

[SpeedStats]

After Ni no Kuni's garbage straight to DVD quality "last chapter", every other RPG's fake/true end seems like a beautifully written masterpiece to me. 

You know that's not true.  Tales should've tipped you off to that kind of crap a decade ago.

...

I haven't been playing anything.  I haven't had time.

I played a little bit of Hyrule Warriors yesterday, actually.  I couldn't help but to feel like it should've been something like Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll, but I guess they wanted to go with a traditional Musou route than the Zill O'll games.  Link sucks, but the other two characters I've gotten to play as so far seem to be okay by Musou standards.

Other than that, I'm waiting for the weekend to play/start something properly.

[Yulwei]

I wish I would have refrained from playing through the true ending in P4. I wish I would have stopped when I got one of the somber ends where nothing gets resolved and the MC moves away. That would have been perfect

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Nah, I haven't played many Tales with awful final chapters (or many period, compared to you  ) outside of the one really bad one that we constantly shit on. Hell, the last Tales I played (Graces) had its main story wrap up sooner than I expected it to, which made me like it more!

(some rpgs really don't need to be as tediously long as they tend to be)

I wish I would have refrained from playing through the true ending in P4. I wish I would have stopped when I got one of the somber ends where nothing gets resolved and the MC moves away. That would have been perfect

P4G has an additional bad end where you cover up for the true bad guy and willingly let him get away with it. Even darker in tone than that "nothing gets resolved" end.

[Bebpo]

Strider is SO BAD, I don't know why I keep playing.  I guess I like to play through shit games once and a while to make me appreciate good ones.  This game is pretty much a Sonic the hedgehog game.  You hold forward and run through a game riddled with poor game design   Why make a Metroidvania with the biggest map ever if it's so boring, empty and tedious to traverse.  It's like they took a map and expanded it with 500% filler hallways between rooms that actually have design and the combat sucks so bad.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Are you talking about the original?

[Bebpo]

Of course not.  Have fond memories of that one.  Talking about the crappy Double Helix game from this year or last year.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Went to the Southwest of Gransys last night.  Finished all four wyrm hunt quests.  Saw a couple of chimeras, wrecked em.  Saw a golem, wrecked it.

Saw a drake. 

Was wrecked.  Nowhere near the power level I need to be for that thing.  I do think I can take a Griffin now.

I personally didn't think that the griffin was all that hard if you had fire boon. If you can kill two chimeras and a golem you're more than ready. On my playthrough I just got to the that castle out in BFE where you have to end that Salvation cult.

I went up to that wall that was taken over by female bandits and one of them mouthed off to me and I decided to clear out the place by throwing everyone over the wall. Only after I was done did I remember that one of them gave you a quest. Oh well.

I'm actually thinking of doing a bit more exploring and maybe taking on the drake first, doing soulflayer canyon.  Level up a bit before the game really begins.

[Mr. Nobody]

I'd kill for a Metroidvania on Vita

[Himu]

I don't think I've ever even played a Castlevania game. I liked the 2D Metroid games on GBA though. Never played Super Metroid.

Fusion > Zero Mission, although neither were particularly exceptional for some reason. I've felt both games were lacking ambition.

And you're a Nintendo fan?

[Cerveza mas fina]

Finished Infamous First Light, fun little prequel that kind of makes me want to play Second Son now

Does Delsin have the same powers as Fetch?

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Delsin gets Fetch's powers along the way, yeah. Though I haven't played First Light so I don't know if she has hers expanded on.