What are you playing?

[pilonv1]

Grandia 2 owned my life for a period of time. I stayed up til 4am at one point thinking I would finish the game but it turned out I was at least 6 hours from the end.

[cool breeze]

Grandia games have my favorite combat systems.  Grandia 2 on the Dreamcast was the first time when I thought the combat system had the appeal of an action game, like, more than a lot of action rpgs.

[Nintendosbooger]

HotD is really awesome. Good job, Sega. Didn't experience any of the killer glitches from my last playthrough.

Only 2 things wrong with the game:

1. It's a little too short for my taste.
2. They shouldn't have made some of the weapons so powerful. The automatics make it feel like shooting fishes in a barrel, so we had to refrain from selecting those.

Onward to Fire Emblem.

[magus]

yea people says that grandia battle system is awesome but i never understood the reason

[MCD]

it's turn based with a twist, counter shit and cool looking attacks.

[demi]

yea people says that grandia battle system is awesome but i never understood the reason

Because it's more energetic, have to act on your toes. Enemy winding up to do a killer attack... think fast. Is your character quick enough, then you can Cancel his attack and he starts all over while the rest of your team goes up to beat his ass.

You'll understand when you play it.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

5000th post!

Still grinding through Borderlands.  Almost ready to level up to 16.  I find myself getting less and less funds and my style of gameplay has changed from guns a-blazin' to stealth combat, hiding behind the environments and using melee attacks...a lot.  I'm still entertained from the Burning Sniper Rifle - seeing the little "11" and "12" come from them is hilarious as well as them screaming in pain from the shot.

Gamefly is now shipping Batman Arkham Asylum.  I'll just alternate between the two and maybe rent Borderlands later down the road.  I'm catching up on a lot of vidya I've wanted to play on the 360.

[demi]

Gamefly is amazing man.

[magus]

yea people says that grandia battle system is awesome but i never understood the reason

Because it's more energetic, have to act on your toes. Enemy winding up to do a killer attack... think fast. Is your character quick enough, then you can Cancel his attack and he starts all over while the rest of your team goes up to beat his ass.

You'll understand when you play it.

but i have played it,it's cool that you can cancel attack and delay enemy attacks but it doesn't feel like a big upgrade to me compared to ye olde "attack attack attack,heal when necessary"

[demi]

It's very different.

[cool breeze]

it's turn based with a twist, counter shit and cool looking attacks.

It also treats the field as a field and not a place where people stand around.  Where you and the enemies are actually matter.

[Third]

HotD is really awesome. Good job, Sega. Didn't experience any of the killer glitches from my last playthrough.

Only 2 things wrong with the game:

1. It's a little too short for my taste.
2. They shouldn't have made some of the weapons so powerful. The automatics make it feel like shooting fishes in a barrel, so we had to refrain from selecting those.

I told you it was short. You should've downloaded it!

[CHOW CHOW]

is there no left 4 dead 2 thread? did a couple searches
anyway, the demo was great...the gfx are much improved.  the character models, lighting, etc all look much better than l4d.  It seems less like a shit pc game, which is what the original reminded me of
might have to cop..but idk @ $60, doesnt seem to be on sale anywhere.

[iconoclast]

L4D2 is the deal of the day on Amazon. $35 on 360 and $28 on PC I think.

[CHOW CHOW]

holy shit, just ordered it..35 is nothing.  got prime 2 day shipping as well...usually arrives in 1
good look

[demi]

L4D2 is definitely good times. I 1000'd in a weekend I think, with Luciverse

[archie4208]

Goddamn NG2 on mentor is fucking ridiculous.  ROCKET SPAM ROCKET SPAM ROCKET SPAM ROCKET SPAM

[Eric P]

picked up Arkham Asylum after some time away from it

the bane fight was a pain in the ass with keyboard controls.  Double Tap Space and a direction to dodge.

argh

[iconoclast]

Bought Critter Crunch on PSN ($3.50 right now at Amazon) and played that for a little while. Pretty decent puzzle game with glorious 1080p 2D art. I approve!

[Raban]

picked up Arkham Asylum after some time away from it

the bane fight was a pain in the ass with keyboard controls.  Double Tap Space and a direction to dodge.

argh

Get a 360 controller, man.

[Eric P]

i have one and it doesn't work, even after uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers

nor does xpad or the other indie driver programs.

but the pad works on my xbox 360, go figure

[The Sceneman]

man Im so close to 200/200 in Splosion Man, me and my bro are up to 3-11 and have all the cakes along the way. This weekend mayne

[Raban]

i have one and it doesn't work, even after uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers

nor does xpad or the other indie driver programs.

but the pad works on my xbox 360, go figure

That sucks. What are using, XP?

[Eric P]

yah

[Raban]

yah

Yeah, for some reason XP has a hard time with those controllers. Upgrade to Windows 7, dawg.

[Eric P]

i can't afford it

i buy too many records.

i only someone worked for microsoft and took pity on me

[Raban]

i can't afford it

i buy too many records.

i only someone worked for microsoft and took pity on me

 

[Bebpo]

Anyone play this Critter Crunch thing on PSN?  It's $3.50 at amazon.

[drew]

rainbow six vegas

i never played this back when it came out because i didnt have an hdtv

now that i do have an hdtv the graphics are pretty antiquated, oh well

[cool breeze]

Anyone play this Critter Crunch thing on PSN?  It's $3.50 at amazon.

It's a decently fun puzzle game with nice HD 2D art.  I got it at $7, don't know if it was worth it at that, but $3.50 is good price.

Also, Thexder Neo is on sale for $5.  That game I bought at $10 and was totally worth it.

[demi]

Anyone play this Critter Crunch thing on PSN?  It's $3.50 at amazon.

Buy Might & Magic DS instead

[Bebpo]

I grinded Aqua for a few hours this morning (that sounds dirty  ).  Ready to finish BBS tonight yay yay

Anyone play this Critter Crunch thing on PSN?  It's $3.50 at amazon.

Buy Might & Magic DS instead

That's by the same guys right?  And Edge gave it a 10 or something.  And you made a thread about it...

[Raban]

Gonna try and beat FFX before the month's out, starting now.

Himuro, when did you say you're gonna start replaying FF12? I just bought it today in preparation.

[Stoney Mason]

Decided to start playing Fable 2 which I've tried to play two other previous times and dropped.

[duckman2000]

Fable 2 is poo

Molyneux

[Stoney Mason]

Fable 2 is poo

Molyneux

I didn't care for the first and the fact that I've put this one down twice (albeit fairly early) doesn't bode well but I need something to play until Mass Effect comes in and it can't be too long.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Fable 2 is weak.

[cool breeze]

Fable 2 was a pretty kickass 'sim' like game.  Shame the main focus (RPG, story, combat, everything else) was not so good.  Didn't help that the game made me think my 360 was dying all the time because of how poorly it ran.  Surprisingly that isn't even the worst part.  The worst is the complete lack of accomplishment feeling you get when playing.

[demi]

Sounds like we got some hatas in here. Its cool. Gonna rebuy the platinum hits version for the DLC.

[duckman2000]

"Oh man, I found a hidden cave! I wonder what magical super-weapon this chest holds... oh, it's another feathered hat, just what I needed!"

Fable 2

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
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Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell

[cool breeze]

I forgot that I wanted to post about how I need to take back a lot of praise I may have given Killzone 2 in the past.  Yesterday I played it a bit while Dark Messiah was installing, and while there were things I still like (mostly the look and feel, which kinda fails a bit) I was not enjoying it.  One good thing is that multiplayer controls feel almost standard now with the exception of lag, but the single player controls still feel really laggy with bugged out acceleration and generally twitchy.  The FOV and how low to the ground you are really were bothering me.  And for all the nice feeling the guns have and for how good enemy AI seems, it all kinda falls apart with how much damage they can take.  Between the feeling of movement, shot rate, all the effects and general look, the disconnect what you see and what happens is ridiculous.  It's still a really nice looking game, though.

I also remembered that Dark Messiah was "Kick enemy into spikes or throw boxes at them: The Game"
 

[Raban]

I also remembered that Dark Messiah was "Kick enemy into spikes and fire or throw boxes at them: The Game"

It's more or less a physics tech demo wrapped inside a terrible game. But the physics are terrible too, so it just ends up being fucking hilarious.

[Bebpo]

I tried making a video of KH BBS battle system. 

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

I'm not playing very well because to get the psp in focus with my lens I had to hold the system like 5 feet in front of me and try to stay still.  I also got confused and wasn't sure what I was doing for the last 20-30 seconds.

Still the goal was to show some pretty colors and zero shifting.

[Junpei the Tracer!]

The PSP can do some really good graphics.

[chronovore]

Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell
Level 3 time freeze
Level 5 fire spell

Pretty much this. I'm willing to play games on harder difficulties if it makes them more interesting, but it's really hard to opt for melee combat when spells will do the job so quickly. It's like forcing myself to jump a gap in a platformer using only Jump or Jump+Dash, even though I know there's a Double Jump I can use and clear it easily. For that reason this spell-combo breaking the game's balance left me really cold.

And double-down again on the performance. Chug, chug, chug.

I was happy to play through once for free on a friend's copy, but I bailed before mopping up a number of one-off 'cheevs which is rare for me.

[Raban]

I tried making a video of KH BBS battle system. 

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

I'm not playing very well because to get the psp in focus with my lens I had to hold the system like 5 feet in front of me and try to stay still.  I also got confused and wasn't sure what I was doing for the last 20-30 seconds.

Still the goal was to show some pretty colors and zero shifting.

Every time I see a hot PSP game I wanna run out and buy one, but every time I do, I never buy anything because the games cost too much, so I just buy Lumines and play that until I don't touch my PSP for months at a time, then I sell it. This has happened four times.

[duckman2000]

I forgot that I wanted to post about how I need to take back a lot of praise I may have given Killzone 2 in the past.  Yesterday I played it a bit while Dark Messiah was installing, and while there were things I still like (mostly the look and feel, which kinda fails a bit) I was not enjoying it.  One good thing is that multiplayer controls feel almost standard now with the exception of lag, but the single player controls still feel really laggy with bugged out acceleration and generally twitchy.  The FOV and how low to the ground you are really were bothering me.  And for all the nice feeling the guns have and for how good enemy AI seems, it all kinda falls apart with how much damage they can take.  Between the feeling of movement, shot rate, all the effects and general look, the disconnect what you see and what happens is ridiculous.  It's still a really nice looking game, though.

I also remembered that Dark Messiah was "Kick enemy into spikes or throw boxes at them: The Game"
 

Interesting, that was sort of my impression during a recent playthrough (well, a few levels). I still swear by the A.I. and the mood, but some things that I forgave it for in my first run stood out this time, including the midget thing. The first run was just intense CQB against a damned adept enemy in hostile territory, and the environments kept getting better throughout the game, culminating in the most insane courtyard battle I've ever played, but everything but the A.I. had worn off for the second run. Well, weapons still sound damned good, but I'm tired of the ISA and helghast carbine.

Still think it's excellent where it counts and an overall better campaign than any FPS released that year, but it apparently isn't particularly replayable.

One thing about graphics, though. I keep thinking that it looks worse than it really does, but they really did a damned good job with that. Maybe they can do a Naughty Dog and deliver an all around great game next time. It's also in dire need of some stealth/sabotage/assassination missions to break up the relentless warfare.

[Bebpo]

Finished KH BBS.  Excellent game.  Need some time to really digest it.  Took me about 43 hours to fully clear it, but it was very close to a 10/10.  It's Nomura's MGS3.  The battle system is the best in the KH series and the story actually makes SENSE wtfff and connects and sets up KH, KH:CoM, KHII, KH Wii, KH PS3 and outside of one thing it doesn't come off as forced.  Bravo to Nomura and Watanabe for actually taking the complex mess of the KH universe and trying their damnedest to fix it and keep it alive.  I just hope they don't pull an MGS4 and fuck it all up after building up this giant story.

And this has to be the most expensive portable game ever made.  It's a full big budget console rpg that they just decided to stick on a portable.  The staff roll is insane.  Comparable to FFXIII and KH2.  Must be 100+ staff.  I wonder if they'll even profit ^^;

The game has a lot of closure but still it sets up 2 more games.  One being a spinoff filler and one being the next KH.  My guess is the Wii is gonna get the spinoff in a year or two and then the latter will be PS3/X360 in like 4 years ^^;

Nomura really made good on the series with BBS.  I was pretty disappointed with the KH franchise by the end of KH2 when the story got distinguished mentally-challenged, but now I love it again and can't wait for the next games.  Maybe my goty 2010 already.

[bork]

If I only played through a little bit of the original Kingdom Hearts and never played any of the other games, would I be okay with BBS?

PSP GOTY 2010 is gonna be Peace Walker though.  No doubt.

[Bebpo]

Sure.  Gameplay is self-explanatory and the story is a complete prequel and stands on its own like MGS3.

I dunno about Peace Walker.  I hope it will be good, but the controls are still pretty janky.  Huge improvement over portable ops controls, but still not good enough to actually make the game fun to play on the psp from the demo.

[ManaByte]

Going to finish Mass Effect today. Got to Ilos and achievement unlocked:

[ManaByte]

Well I finished Mass Effect so I'll probably play more Dragon Age until ME2 next week.

[The Sceneman]

man this Mass Effect DLC really does in fact, blow dick. They recycled the same fucking buildings from all the other planetary sidequests   Glad I bought it when it was on special!

[Raban]

man this Mass Effect DLC really does in fact, blow dick. They recycled the same fucking buildings from all the other planetary sidequests   Glad I bought it when it was on special!

You talking about Bringing Down The Sky? Yeah it's kind of stupid. Even the new race is dumb.

[demi]

man this Mass Effect DLC really does in fact, blow dick. They recycled the same fucking buildings from all the other planetary sidequests   Glad I bought it when it was on special!

Nice to know you listened to me

[MCD]

bring down the sky got me the liara squad achievement, can't hate.

[cool breeze]

The second DLC is even worse.  Only nice thing is getting the reward at the end that makes getting ultimate armor, weapons, and enhancements early on easy.

[Kestastrophe]

Ugh, Mass Effect dlc was in fact garbage. I had to laugh because I remember when the BioWare guys were talking about DLC for KOTOR and how they were going release new planets, etc. and nothing ever came out, then they talked about ME dlc and it was the same bullshit with minimal effort put into the releases, and now I've heard one of the doctors say something about how ME2 is going to have a huge breadth of dlc in one of the developer blogs. lol.

I wanted to investigate the subject of console RTS for myself, as I was spurned by a recent podcast topic by Tom Chick, so I've been playing Halo Wars. Its actually not bad and quite fun, but its not very good either. The campaign, for the most part, offers enough variety that it doesn't get too stale. Towards the end the missions do get repetetive. The multiplayer is an unbalanced mess, but that doesn't stop it from being fun because no one knows how to play properly. Not that I really do, but I figured out a few strategies that have worked, and now my record is something like 15-3 lol. Its really fun abusing the imbalance.

I would love to send this and End War to Frag, if he would do a segment on a borecast episode 

[The Sceneman]

man this Mass Effect DLC really does in fact, blow dick. They recycled the same fucking buildings from all the other planetary sidequests   Glad I bought it when it was on special!

Nice to know you listened to me

I tried, but I was jsut so keen for more Mass Effect. At 240 pts its no big deal though, and I get an achievement, and it'll help towards my Liara Ally achievement which im trying to get this playthrough (3rd, on Insanity). I got Pinnacle Station as well for for completions sake