What are you playing?

[Shino]

I think all the Blockbusters in this city are closing down because everytime I see one they're have a going out of business clearance sale.  After I worked out this morning I stopped by one and picked up Infamous and Ninja Gaiden II Sigma (or whatever it's called) for 30 bucks total.  It's so rare to find cheap PS3 games that I was considering buying a lot more but I just couldn't find anything else that caught my interest.

That's a damn good deal.
InFamous was one of my favorites last year.


Hitting up 3D Dot Game Heroes right now on PS3.
Also Mario Galaxy 2 on Wii and Half Minute Hero on PSP.

[chronovore]

I think all the Blockbusters in this city are closing down because everytime I see one they're have a going out of business clearance sale.  After I worked out this morning I stopped by one and picked up Infamous and Ninja Gaiden II Sigma (or whatever it's called) for 30 bucks total.  It's so rare to find cheap PS3 games that I was considering buying a lot more but I just couldn't find anything else that caught my interest.

Yeah, I don't fire up my PS3 a whole lot, but I would have jumped on both of those in a heartbeat. I played the Infamous demo the other day, and fell in love. I'ma grab it soon. I guess I'm also pretty interested in Ninja Gaiden series now that I've become somewhat attracted to action games through Conan and Star Wars the Force Unleashed.

(snip)

I can finally call myself "done" with UFC 2009 Undisputed, just as UFC 2010 comes out today.

Have you played 2010 yet, or just the demo? I know it only just came out officially, but it seems like a bunch of retail places were selling it early. I haven't read much about it so maybe I'm wrong, but it didn't seem like there were many improvements from what I played. I might get it just so I can play as Shaq though lol

I've had the opportunity to play quite a bit of the game and, personally, it feels like a lot has changed, but YMMV.

The clinch game has been made consistent with the controls for other grappling (ground), and ground has been fleshed out with new positions, and analog control over posture from any which aren't clinched. 2009's technique+move+strike attacks, where a fighter steps in quickly from "probing" range and plants a HUGE BOMB on the defender, those are nearly entirely removed. This itself makes me really happy, as I've had my head bobbled a few hundred times by those counterintuitively effective strikes during laggy matches. I've also heard people comparing the new swaying system to FNR4, but since UFC's are timing based and can't be held, they feel different to me.

It all comes together to provide a more consistent experience, and between fights the menus are less clunky, so just navigating is no longer a huge PITA. A lot of work has gone into the presentation, across the board.

I've been surprised at how many people are still playing it, though I guess the "Platinum Hits" and games-on-demand release has influenced that. How much of UFC2009 did you end up playing?

[demi]

They fixed Tinker, so now you can 200 this free game. There's even youtubes of all the puzzles so you can lazyass your way through.

... which is what i'm doing

[Bebpo]

Heavy Rain is so cool.  I think you don't really get how neat of a game it is until you talk to someone else who finished it.  I was talking with my brother who finished it after I lent it to him and his game was completely different than the game I played.  He made totally different choices and it's interesting hearing about how all the scenes played out differently.  Really impressive branching story technology in the game.

[chronovore]

They fixed Tinker, so now you can 200 this free game. There's even youtubes of all the puzzles so you can lazyass your way through.

... which is what i'm doing

Was Tinker broken? I started playing it but haven't gone back to it for awhile.

Dunno why they don't offer a 360 version... other than the conceit that it's a draw for people to sign up for Live for Windows or whatever they're branding it as now.

[OptimoPeach]

I've had the opportunity to play quite a bit of the game and, personally, it feels like a lot has changed, but YMMV.

The clinch game has been made consistent with the controls for other grappling (ground), and ground has been fleshed out with new positions, and analog control over posture from any which aren't clinched. 2009's technique+move+strike attacks, where a fighter steps in quickly from "probing" range and plants a HUGE BOMB on the defender, those are nearly entirely removed. This itself makes me really happy, as I've had my head bobbled a few hundred times by those counterintuitively effective strikes during laggy matches. I've also heard people comparing the new swaying system to FNR4, but since UFC's are timing based and can't be held, they feel different to me.

It all comes together to provide a more consistent experience, and between fights the menus are less clunky, so just navigating is no longer a huge PITA. A lot of work has gone into the presentation, across the board.

I've been surprised at how many people are still playing it, though I guess the "Platinum Hits" and games-on-demand release has influenced that. How much of UFC2009 did you end up playing?

I guess I'll have to rent it and check it out more. The first one was surprisingly fun, but I was never really crazy about it -- or at least not enough so that I'm DYING to get 2010 at full price.

To be honest though, I didn't play much of 2009 online, so maybe that is a big part of the thrill. I probably sunk 15-20 hours into it between single player and matches with friends

[ManaByte]

Taking a break from RDR to play through Batman GOTY on the 360. Played most of it on the PC, so it's going quick.

[brawndolicious]

The collectibles were actually pretty fun in Batman.  Challenge room achievements were just annoying though.

[magus]

i've put quite a big amounts of hours on monster hunter 3 (still less than it took me to defeat baal in disgaea tough ) and i simply can't stop playing it... there is a part of me that want to play the older monster hunters so it can simply punch in the face something different for once and another that doesn't like playing it on a small screen,without online and with what seems a crappy UI forced by hour longs tutorials

[Raban]

Beat Lost and Damned. Here's my rundown:

+ The mission checkpoints were a much-needed addition. I only had to re-do two missions, but the checkpoints helped shorten the length significantly, and they're exactly where you expect them to be.
+ The handling on both cars and bikes have been much improved. Strangely when I ran into some things head-on whilst riding a bike I wouldn't fly off. Helpful, but it clashes with the realism that R* is trying to capture with this game
+ I'm not sure if this is factual, but the facial expressions during cinematics looked a lot better in LoD, a lot more subtle, natural movement

- Himuro put it best when we were talking about GTA IV and said that the layout of the city isn't fun to drive. Sure it's a pretty accurate reimagining of NYC, but it's a really boring, complex map that I've never once been happy to drive on. What's worse, in LoD, cabs are kind of phased out, so you find yourself driving everywhere.
- For those of you who haven't played this, LoD is filled with tons and tons of missions of nothing but just killing a fuck-ton of people. I had to suffer a lot of close calls, but don't go repeating my mistake. Go into every mission loaded with armor and weapons. Even the most innocent-sounding missions usually turn into a clusterfuck of gunfighting at the drop of a coin.

Admittedly, I didn't finish all of GTA IV or LoD, opting to run through the story as quickly as possible. After completing BoGT, I'll go back and try and score 100% on all of these. LoD seems to have a lot of side-missions and I unfortunately can't speak on them since I didn't even touch that stuff.

At any rate, onwards to The Ballad of Gay Tony.

[Raban]

Does anybody else want to see a female protagonist in the next GTA game? We've already played like every race, let me play a woman, plz.

[brawndolicious]

A woman wouldn't really work as a criminal in a game that's about giving you the freedom to be a sociopath and shoot at random shit in a "living" world.

[chronovore]

I've had the opportunity to play quite a bit of the game and, personally, it feels like a lot has changed, but YMMV.

The clinch game has been made consistent with the controls for other grappling (ground), and ground has been fleshed out with new positions, and analog control over posture from any which aren't clinched. 2009's technique+move+strike attacks, where a fighter steps in quickly from "probing" range and plants a HUGE BOMB on the defender, those are nearly entirely removed. This itself makes me really happy, as I've had my head bobbled a few hundred times by those counterintuitively effective strikes during laggy matches. I've also heard people comparing the new swaying system to FNR4, but since UFC's are timing based and can't be held, they feel different to me.

It all comes together to provide a more consistent experience, and between fights the menus are less clunky, so just navigating is no longer a huge PITA. A lot of work has gone into the presentation, across the board.

I've been surprised at how many people are still playing it, though I guess the "Platinum Hits" and games-on-demand release has influenced that. How much of UFC2009 did you end up playing?

I guess I'll have to rent it and check it out more. The first one was surprisingly fun, but I was never really crazy about it -- or at least not enough so that I'm DYING to get 2010 at full price.

To be honest though, I didn't play much of 2009 online, so maybe that is a big part of the thrill. I probably sunk 15-20 hours into it between single player and matches with friends

Oh, wow. If you actually played that much with your friends in local matches, you likely had the best possible experience. Unless, of course, you dominated them all so badly that you became bored, or they grew to hate you. That would not be optimal. If you're all pretty comparable though, local matches are the best.

UFC 2009 ranked online games have been about 25% respectful, enthusiastic MMA fans who will message you "gg" afterward, or even ask for Player Match revenge matches, 25% badasses who are Level 70~90 but are still trotting out the strongest possible fighter against level 20 peons like me, and 50% bad experiences - really laggy play or shit talking or clinch-range elbow spammers... and god help you if you actually win, because they'll still disconnect even though it records a loss, because it doesn't subtract XP from their rating.

So you're not missing much by not going online. I'd rather have competent local players to go up against. I'll be interested to hear your impressions after the rental. It's good that the DLC "online code" won't negatively affect your experience.

[chronovore]

Does anybody else want to see a female protagonist in the next GTA game? We've already played like every race, let me play a woman, plz.

Are you still having gender identification issues, sweetcheeks? 

I don't think they'll ever do it. Go back and re-play Saints Row 2 if you want to be a female sociopath. GTA is always going to be about being a male badass doing testosterone-riddled stuff. SR2 is just all-around crazy.

[Raban]

Has nothing to do with me, I just want to see more women protagonists in general that aren't Lara Croft. There are many women that would work to fit a sociopathic, homicidal role. Look at Elizabeta's character in GTA IV.

I wasn't asking whether or not they could, I'm 100% confident they have the means, I was just asking if anybody but me wants that. If other people would even enjoy that. Or is it really all about playing some macho, psycho-killing dude?

[OptimoPeach]

Bayonetta

[twerd]

half life 2, episode 1, episode 2 and super mario galaxy 2.

i haven't played HL2 since it came out. game still holds up, plus the steam patch updated some of the models/lighting so it still looks pretty fresh.

[bork]

Has nothing to do with me, I just want to see more women protagonists in general that aren't Lara Croft. There are many women that would work to fit a sociopathic, homicidal role. Look at Elizabeta's character in GTA IV.

I wasn't asking whether or not they could, I'm 100% confident they have the means, I was just asking if anybody but me wants that. If other people would even enjoy that. Or is it really all about playing some macho, psycho-killing dude?

You could play as a female in the original GTA, IIRC.  Although all the characters looked exactly the same when you started playing.    

And can't you play as a female in GTAIV's multiplayer modes? 

[chronovore]

Has nothing to do with me, I just want to see more women protagonists in general that aren't Lara Croft. There are many women that would work to fit a sociopathic, homicidal role. Look at Elizabeta's character in GTA IV.

I wasn't asking whether or not they could, I'm 100% confident they have the means, I was just asking if anybody but me wants that. If other people would even enjoy that. Or is it really all about playing some macho, psycho-killing dude?

Ah. Sure! Why not? It's an over-the-shoulder game, so if I have to stare at someone's ass for 40~100 hours, why not make it a cute one?

[archie4208]

I'm getting back into Heroes of Newerth.  Watching dozens of hours of pro vids has made me a better player

I'm still awful at the game, though.

[OptimoPeach]

Did most DotA players switch to HoN? I was never big on either because it felt like WoW arena with less depth and more balance issues when I was playing it in closed beta, but it's gotten incredibly popular these past few months, and some random in the SC2 ladder told me that they worked out a lot of the kinks

edit: Also, can you post some YouTubes of pro play plz

[archie4208]

I have no clue.  I never played DotA but I love HoN (outside of the raging 12 year olds).  The game does seem to be fairly popular.  HoN has a minimum of 20k people on at one time which I think is pretty good for a practically unknown game.  It is essentially more popular than TF2 and L4D2.

Also the game's balance is reminiscent of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 where you have a giant pool of characters but only about 15 of them are competitively viable.  www.honcast.com is the de facto 'pro' site and there are a bunch of replays and stuff there.

[chronovore]

Still playing through Conan and UFC2009. I've got 3 wins to go before I get the 50 win 'cheev now, and then I can retire UFC 2009 until I get my hands on 2010 next week. I either see brand new players running in fear from my lobby, or level 60 guys who have played, no joke, 3000+ matches. About half the time they're on some kind of ego trip, and even if I get rocked and dropped, they won't finish it. It really pisses me off, it's almost like they're trying to make me DNF rather than just take the victory. Really aggravating.

Conan continues to be half awesome and half crap. Bugs galore where unresolved timing issues with QTEs have just broken the game, but when it's on, and I have to figure out how to clear a room of mixed enemies, it can be pretty great.

Also going back to Gastronaut's first game, Small Arms. There are some things that just boggle me, like world geometry which obscures where my character is, and the appearance that some characters can recover from falls pretty easily, while I always fall to my death like a chump. I'm guessing there's some kind of "up dash" or something that I'm missing.

[Raban]

Has nothing to do with me, I just want to see more women protagonists in general that aren't Lara Croft. There are many women that would work to fit a sociopathic, homicidal role. Look at Elizabeta's character in GTA IV.

I wasn't asking whether or not they could, I'm 100% confident they have the means, I was just asking if anybody but me wants that. If other people would even enjoy that. Or is it really all about playing some macho, psycho-killing dude?

You could play as a female in the original GTA, IIRC.  Although all the characters looked exactly the same when you started playing.    

And can't you play as a female in GTAIV's multiplayer modes? 

Yes. And I do

Ah. Sure! Why not? It's an over-the-shoulder game, so if I have to stare at someone's ass for 40~100 hours, why not make it a cute one?

This is why I always make women when I'm given the option to make a character.

[Bebpo]

Sent in DiRT 2 to Gamefly.  Completed 99% of the DiRT Tour but couldn't find the one missing event I needed.

Either way, I loved the game and was probably the best racing game I've played since Rallisport Challenge 2.  Everything was well done in the game although some of the voice clips would get repetitive if you played it long enough.  The race tracks were varied enough where it felt like Codemasters actually gave a fuck about putting out a quality product.  There were also enough things in the game along the tour progression to where you kept playing.  I live in the boondocks now so playing online isn't an option (slow ass internet) so I just sent it in.

I finally tried DiRT 2 tonight.  Had been holding off because I wanted to finish DiRT 1 first.  But I figured what the heck I'd see how different it is. 

I expected DiRT 2 to look similar and play similar to DiRT, but wow, the graphics are a lot better :O  It looks really really nice now.  DiRT 1 is kinda dated at this point.  But DiRT 2 has sharp detailed textures and great lighting.  Love the look.  Game seems to play better too.  Think I will be dropping DiRT 1 and just play DiRT 2.

I also tried to get into GRID again, but man I haaate the driving model in that game.  Reminds me of DiRT1 but much worse and not that fun to drive.

[magus]

ehy bebpo were you the one raving about blue dragon:awakened shadow... i tried it for a bit and it seemed a mehtastic action rpg in the exact vein of final fantasy:crystal chronicle if it was made by someone obsessed by dragonball...
am i missing anything or is it like that?

[demi]

It's not even close to Final Fantasy CC... that game was turd city. This one is so better.

[Bebpo]

It's good, keep playing.  Game gives off shitty impression at first.  At first I was like lol, then later on I was like omgaddictingloot then later on I was like FUCKTHISAI but I still liked it.

[bork]

Still just playing SSF4 and Lost Planet 2.  All the other games I bought in the past month remain unplayed. 

[ferrarimanf355]

Leveling up in Blur is faster than I thought it would be. I like how the car unlocks are across the board, and not to a specific class.

I may hit level 25 soon, and I haven't touched the online yet.

[Bebpo]

Double juggling srpgs atm:

Still working through Valkyria Chronicles; over halfway through now.  It's a pretty good strategy game.  Really encourages breaking the map design to finish maps as soon as possible for the highest xp/money reward.  The only negative I have about the game is mid-battle reloading takes like 1 min, which is annoying if you're doing a lot of trial/error to see if you can pull something off & not being able to see the map layout before you actually start a map.  It's also not the fastest srpg out there, you get to sit and watch enemies move around for 1-2 mins each turn. 

Also playing through SRW OG Saga Lord of Elemental on DS.  Fairly straightfoward FFT/SRW style srpg, which is a nice change of pace from Valkyria's heavy thinkingness.

and playing some Dirt 2, maybe Dawn of War II as well on the PC front.


Less than 24 hours left until Alpha Protocol.  So hyped.  Gonna drop everything I'm playing and play the heck out of it.

[chronovore]

Probably should post in the "what are you drinking?" thread because that's what most of yesterday was. However! Before I started in on that, I wrapped up UFC 2009 while all the Tapout bros in America were warming up their couches in preparation for the UFC 114 pay-per-view.

I only needed 3 more wins to get that 50 wins 'cheev, but there are still DNF nobgobblers out there for some reason. After the patch, in UFC 2009 any DNF records a loss for the disconnecting player but don't affect their XP. But it's stupid to DNF because (a) both players' DNF % is shown on the lobby, so everyone gets to see if you're a complete scrotum and may choose to leave them playing with themselves, and  (b) There just isn't that much XP loss if the other player is even a little above the loser's level. But it looks like the patch also counts DNFs as a WIN for the non-disconnecting player.

One guy was bringing Big Nog out to my Mir, and though he was entirely gassed and I had nearly full Energy, the slippery bastard got out of 4 or 5 submissions; I suspect a turbo controller (good luck with that in UFC 2010, bro). I finally locked on a triangle from rubber guard and as the tapping out animation played, he disconnected.

The last guy I fought, the one that brought me to my 50 wins and the 'cheev, was some guy who wrote "nice connection jap" (it was buttery smooth  on my side, so I can only assume the shared cable modem in his trailerpark was being overloaded, which I paraphrased for him to "LOL U MAD?") and then he gives me "shut up chink stop skipping school" and "im mad no your a jap whats your real name ching ching chong after your parents named you by dropping sliverware" -- CLASSY! So I felt pretty good about having submitted him in the first 30 seconds of Round 1.

[iconoclast]

I'm up to Chapter 9 in Resonance of Fate. Amazing game; completely redeems tri-Ace for their previous abortions. The battle system in particular is head and shoulders above everything else (on current platforms anyway). The story has been fairly interesting so far, and I particularly like the episodic style to it. Combine that with the group being bounty hunters, and it gives off a nice Cowboy Bebop vibe. If it continues to improve the more I progress, I can easily see it taking the crown for best RPG this generation.

I finished Borderlands as well, and got my Berserker up to level 45 in my second playthrough. It's a good game, but I think it would have been a hell of a lot better if each class had several more abilities and it played similarly to Shadowrun. The loot is pretty disappointing as well.

I'm also playing through Mario Galaxy 2 on occasion. I'm up to world 5 I believe. I can only play 3-5 stars at a time before I get bored, but it's still a good game. If every mission was designed like the prankster comets, it would be a much better game.

I 1000'd Super Street Fighter 4 too. Best game ever.

[The Sceneman]

yo icono, Im about the same level as you in my second playthrough, want to play some Borderlands sometime? Got the Zombie Ned/General Knoxx DLC?

[iconoclast]

I usually only play Borderlands with one of my friends since we're both leveling our characters together, but if you see me on you're welcome to join us. I don't have any DLC either, though I'll probably buy General Knoxx some day. I'll probably shelve the game for a while after I 1000 it though since I'm not a huge fan.

[magus]

ehy bebpo were you the one raving about blue dragon:awakened shadow... i tried it for a bit and it seemed a mehtastic action rpg in the exact vein of final fantasy:crystal chronicle if it was made by someone obsessed by dragonball...
am i missing anything or is it like that?

it's like i was looking into the future

spoiler (click to show/hide)

so you go into this dungeon and meet this guy called torippo who says there is a treasure! he ask you if you want to join his search for treasure's and off you go!
in the dungeon you discover that the dungeon itself was created by the greatest mangaka ever akira toriyama! (at least the game says so...)  and that the guy you just meet it's a robot (it then hit me... torippo) designed to write the greatest manga ever,in case you haven't facepalmed hard enough wait! it gets better! the treasure itself is none other than a manga tutorial by the master itself!

[close]

anyway it's still a mehtastic action rpg,sure there is loot but all of your equipment can be powered up to the same strenght level making different weapon/armor useless,plus none of it seems to make any difference,you are always in "die in 3/4 hit" mode no matter what you are wearing,this is especialy frustating since your cpu companions are brain dead and will absolutely refuse to dodge,block or otherwise survive for more than 3 minutes 

[chronovore]

IIRC, Akira Toriyama (or Bird Studio or whatever his klatch is called) was commissioned to do the world and character design, because (a) he's like a god over here and (b) it's worked pretty well for DragonQuest all these years.

[Eric P]

Just Cause 2 still.

i went back and started a new game on a harder difficulty and am going through playing the game "seriously" meaning no bolo patch stuff.

it's still a hell of a lot of fun

also, i am playing a bit of FEAR on hard and going through playing HL2 to enjoy the engine upgrade. 

[tiesto]

I'm up to Chapter 9 in Resonance of Fate. Amazing game; completely redeems tri-Ace for their previous abortions. The battle system in particular is head and shoulders above everything else (on current platforms anyway). The story has been fairly interesting so far, and I particularly like the episodic style to it. Combine that with the group being bounty hunters, and it gives off a nice Cowboy Bebop vibe. If it continues to improve the more I progress, I can easily see it taking the crown for best RPG this generation.

Yeah, I am just about to start Ch 11 in the game... wait till you get to the Ch 9 boss, he was extremely difficult. Nice to see that, even when I thought I mastered the game... they are still throwing tricky bosses that require positioning and strategy to take down. Absolutely excellent game.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Playing a lot of Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2.  I'm really impressed with the sequel.  I thought the first one was pretty boring for a Musou game, with several steps taken back to get it out the door in time to cash in on the near launch of the PS3.  The sequel does many things right and progresses the series.  I don't care much for Gundam or the numerous storylines they tried implementing but the gameplay changes are great.  I finished the Official Mode and now tearing through the Mission Mode.  I like how it is set up and again, is a dramatic departure from the original.

Critics panned it because, surprise, surprise, most of them didn't really play much of it.  Just enough to make a few vidcaps and slap a C+P review they did of a previous Musou game.  Then they spent the remainder of their hours determining which ironic T-Shirt they can wear for their next vidcast.  I wouldn't say DWG2 is my favorite Musou game but it is up there.  I still don't give a shit about the Gundam world but I like the gameplay changes - I barely notice the QTEs and the general floatiness of the game.

Also Gamefly is sending me Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce.  I have no idea why they refuse to send me games like The Saboteur or Sonic All Stars Racing.

[magus]

good lord this is soooooooooo stupid,they suddenly decided to put a huge difficulty spike in it,the boss in question heals itself,use a spell that deals damage in a zone (the cpu isn't smart enough to scatter around so it might as well say "hit all") and best of all! has a spell that disables your dodge AND damage you

[Bebpo]

are you talking about BD?

Playing a lot of Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2.  I'm really impressed with the sequel.  I thought the first one was pretty boring for a Musou game, with several steps taken back to get it out the door in time to cash in on the near launch of the PS3.  The sequel does many things right and progresses the series.  I don't care much for Gundam or the numerous storylines they tried implementing but the gameplay changes are great.  I finished the Official Mode and now tearing through the Mission Mode.  I like how it is set up and again, is a dramatic departure from the original.

Critics panned it because, surprise, surprise, most of them didn't really play much of it.  Just enough to make a few vidcaps and slap a C+P review they did of a previous Musou game.  Then they spent the remainder of their hours determining which ironic T-Shirt they can wear for their next vidcast.  I wouldn't say DWG2 is my favorite Musou game but it is up there.  I still don't give a shit about the Gundam world but I like the gameplay changes - I barely notice the QTEs and the general floatiness of the game.

Also Gamefly is sending me Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce.  I have no idea why they refuse to send me games like The Saboteur or Sonic All Stars Racing.

I didn't like it because I do give a shit about gundam and they really dropped the story focus from the first game.  I also didn't care for most of the gameplay changes and I felt like there weren't enough new units to feel like a sizable upgrade. 

I really liked the first one and put like 60 hours into, but even though I put 30 hours or so into the 2nd I didn't care for it that much.

[magus]

yep

spoiler (click to show/hide)

talking about that nene guy

[close]

[Bebpo]

Hmmm, didn't have any problems there.  I think duckroll died a few times at that spot.  Are you buffing/debuffing like crazy?  You should be.  The buff/debuff game is very similar to SMT3 and it makes & breaks the battles.

The only time I got really stuck was on the tentacle robot boss.  But then I didn't know you could upgrade your equipment.  So once I upgraded all my equipment (I had the best loot by that point) I totally destroyed it.

[Raban]

Beyond Good and Evil. Awesome game so far, just really easy. Not a huge fan of the archetype used for Pey'j but I can deal. Really hope to see a next-gen follow-up to this.

[magus]

Hmmm, didn't have any problems there.  I think duckroll died a few times at that spot.  Are you buffing/debuffing like crazy?  You should be.  The buff/debuff game is very similar to SMT3 and it makes & breaks the battles.

The only time I got really stuck was on the tentacle robot boss.  But then I didn't know you could upgrade your equipment.  So once I upgraded all my equipment (I had the best loot by that point) I totally destroyed it.

nope... as my first extra bonus shadow i got the giant beetle since it was the protection shadow and i hoped it would stop my guy from dying like flies... apparently protection in this game means "bunch of useless spells"
at least it gives off a huge HP bonus,so a cpu can resist for 4 minutes instead of 3

[Bebpo]

Yeah, it's been a while so I don't remember the spells but doing things like:

Attack up
Def up
HP up
MP up
MP regen
HP regen
Shorten time between uses

Helps a lot.  It's almost like an MMO.  Or like the .hack games (fake MMO).  Before I walked into a boss room I'd buff as much as possible, walk in, spend the first 15 seconds debuffing the boss as much as possible and then attack while constantly buffing/debuffing as things wore off.

[Great Rumbler]

Playing now:

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - Troika's second RPG and one of the few steampunk RPGs ever. It suffers from many of the same problems that have plagued both post-Black Isle devs, in that it's a bit rough around the edge and has various glitches and bugs. Fortunately, there's a dedicated fanbase that has plugged most the holes with fan patches and other mods. Also, it's a deep, well-written RPG that allows a great deal of choice and freedom, which certainly doesn't hurt.

Tomb Raider: Underworld - Actually the only Tomb Raider game that I've ever purchased or played for more than five minutes. I'm not sure why, but the series has never really done much for me, however I really like Underworld. It looks great, for one thing, and it's got a big focus on puzzles and platforming over Gears of War-esque gunplay against waves of enemies.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - On several occasions I've made a valiant attempt to complete what I consider to be one of the best Western RPGs of the past ten years, but the greatness of the first two-thirds fades quickly in the final stretch and I'm left with little desire to continue. As with Arcanum, there are numerous problems here, many of which are fixed by the fans but far from all, that are thankfully overshadowed by greatness elsewhere. It's also probably one of the best pieces of vampire fiction this side of Bram Stoker.

Atelier Annie - An entry in Gusts long-running alchemy-based RPG series that focuses on resources gathering, sidequests, and item creation, more than anything else. There's combat and "dungeons", but neither are anything special and really only exist to give resources-gathering even the most minor degree of difficulty. There's also a metric ton of dialog scenes between characters, most of which are meant to be amusing rather than dramatic or insightful.

Dungeon Lords - After two hours I still don't know whether I like this game or not. My gut reaction is that I don't, because it does a lot of things that I really don't like. Chief among those is the constant waves of enemies that randomly appear near your location and then attack you. There's also the fact that you gets several tons of useless junk that serves no purpose. And the whole world just feels barren and depressing. I walked through the first town, which took nearly all of those first two hours to actually get to, and found a few guards wandering around and maybe civilian, despite the fact that the city itself was sprawling. So far I've only found two places to actually go into, a dojo of some kind and a shop. That's it, despite there being dozens of "plain doors" all over the place. But the fact that I played it for two hours suggests that it has something which appeals to me, but I think the only thing that does it leveling and that most just feeds my OCD tendencies.

Soon to be playing:

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Alpha Protocol

[Bebpo]

Playing now:

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - Troika's second RPG and one of the few steampunk RPGs ever. It suffers from many of the same problems that have plagued both post-Black Isle devs, in that it's a bit rough around the edge and has various glitches and bugs. Fortunately, there's a dedicated fanbase that has plugged most the holes with fan patches and other mods. Also, it's a deep, well-written RPG that allows a great deal of choice and freedom, which certainly doesn't hurt.

Tomb Raider: Underworld - Actually the only Tomb Raider game that I've ever purchased or played for more than five minutes. I'm not sure why, but the series has never really done much for me, however I really like Underworld. It looks great, for one thing, and it's got a big focus on puzzles and platforming over Gears of War-esque gunplay against waves of enemies.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - On several occasions I've made a valiant attempt to complete what I consider to be one of the best Western RPGs of the past ten years, but the greatness of the first two-thirds fades quickly in the final stretch and I'm left with little desire to continue. As with Arcanum, there are numerous problems here, many of which are fixed by the fans but far from all, that are thankfully overshadowed by greatness elsewhere. It's also probably one of the best pieces of vampire fiction this side of Bram Stoker.

I reaaaaally want to play all 3 of these.  They are in my backlog, but no timeeeeeeeeee

Alpha Protocol

OMG YES, FOUR HOURS TO UNLOCK ON STEAM USA OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[demi]

A bunch of respectable titles and "Atelier Annie" - yeah you aren't hiding a secret

[Great Rumbler]

A bunch of respectable titles and "Atelier Annie" - yeah you aren't hiding a secret

>Implying that "respectable" and "videogames" should be used in the same sentence

spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's an animu game, yeah, but it's barely even worthy of a footnote in the "embarrassing secret" category of animu games.

[close]

[demi]

I'm implying that Annie is an embarassing game. Enjoy your basement status

[Great Rumbler]

I'm implying that Annie is an embarassing game. Enjoy your basement status

It has an anime aesthetic, but that's the only thing about it that could be construed as "embarrassing".

[demi]

Uh, no

[Van Cruncheon]

how awesome is last remnant pc? so awesome.

how awful is heavy rain? so awful.

[Bebpo]

I don't think Atelier games are embarrassing to play.  I just don't think they have much appeal to men.  They seem very much aimed at women.  It's like reading shoujo manga; nothing wrong with it if you find something you enjoy.

[Great Rumbler]

Uh, no

Well, since you're the expert on the Atelier series, I'll defer to your judgement.

[demi]

I don't think Atelier games are embarrassing to play.  I just don't think they have much appeal to men.  They seem very much aimed at women.  It's like reading shoujo manga; nothing wrong with it if you find something you enjoy.

Thanks... I didnt know how to put it in words

[Great Rumbler]

Resource gathering and city management

[Bebpo]

I picked up Dark Void because it was $10 on GFWL and has yummy X360 achievements.  Did the first real chapter and yeaaaah, as a cover shooter it is not the greatest ^^;  It feels like a crappy Gears of War/Uncharted clone.  But I will wait until I get my jetpack to see if that makes it fun.  The intro with the jetpack had promise.

Also achievements are bugged.  Didn't get my achievement for clearing the 2nd level