What are you playing?

[CHOW CHOW]

Currently playing:
League of Legends -- I play this almost everyday.  It's just a great game and my GOTY so far
Black Ops SP & MP
Crysis -- Think I'm almost done, just finished the gravity alien underground level.  Awesome game with the best gfx ever + excellent gameplay

Played for a while then stopped for some reason:
Fallout New Vegas -- 10 hours in, it's just hard for me to keep trudging through this knowing I get no 360 achievements.  Wish I didn't buy this on the PC.  I also feel kinda weird playing with mods on... it's hard to explain... it sort of cheapens the experience.  Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
Starcraft II -- 3 missions left in campaign... got bored of multi-player after a few weeks.  Meh, kinda wish I didn't blow 60 bucks on this
DC Universe Online beta -- leveled a hero and a villain to level ~5.. got bored.  MMOs suck but at least this one has decent combat
The Witcher -- didn't like this at all, worst combat ever in an RPG, game world is generic

Yet to play
Bioshock 2 -- copped this for $1.99 from the GFWL sale...was so happy to find out it has 360 achievements.  Gonna start this tomorrow
Age of Empires III - got it for ten cents from the GFWL sale... prob play 1 match and uninstall

[iconoclast]

I beat Spider Man: Shattered Dimensions the other day. Pretty much all of my complaints from earlier remain the same... I do like the boss fights though. They're not as bad as they could have been anyway. And the first person punching scenes are pretty cool. And the game has pretty good animation for the most part. Though the game is super glitchy. Three times I had to quit to the title screen and reload an old checkpoint because the next cutscene wouldn't trigger, my character got frozen in mid-air twice, the game completely locked up once, and the collision detection is pretty terrible. I'm in the middle of playing through it again to get platinums on each stage and finish a few of the challenges I missed. At least it's more fun when your character is maxed out. I wouldn't say the game's terrible, but it's really not a huge improvement over the previous Spider-Man games. I'd give it a 6/10.

I still think Marvel Ultimate Alliance is the best Marvel game this gen. I should pick up the sequel some day.

Started playing SSF4 again too. Didn't touch it for a few months so I was super rusty and wound up losing 1000+ PP in ranked matches, but I've gained most of it back. I really wish SSF4 had a matchmaking system. If you don't host the game all you'll get are "Unable to join session" messages until you luck your way into a room. That's the most annoying thing about online fighting games.

And for some reason I had the urge to start learning to play drums on Rock Band 2. I can handle most of the songs on hard now, but songs with abnormal kickpad beats still really mess me up. The tracklist in that game is kinda weird too... There are a lot of good songs in the game (and some really awful ones), but I have no urge to play most of them. Meh.

[Herr Mafflard]

Started playing some VVVVVV. Awesome game, shoulda got it earlier, etcetera, etcetera.

Found about 30% of the map and rescued the red guy from the Tower level. This game really busts your balls - tho the amazing soundtrack eases the pain; can just sit there listening to it for hours.

Great practice for Super Meat Boy next week!

[Raban]

I've been playing Assassin's Creed 2 and while I'm enjoying it, is the entire game doing nothing but quest after quest? Does it ever open up into something more? I'm getting a little tired of what feels like a never-ending introductory section.

Other than that, TF2. Considering snapping up VVVVVV and SMB on Steam this week.

[tiesto]

A bunch of shitty Indie games. And gonna be beta-testing the new game from Barker's Crest, the guy who made Avatar Golf.

[D3RANG3D]

Still playing Nehrim

[bork]

I still think Marvel Ultimate Alliance is the best Marvel game this gen. I should pick up the sequel some day.

IIRC the DLC characters for UA2 are back up again until the end of the year, if you care about them.

Started playing SSF4 again too. Didn't touch it for a few months so I was super rusty and wound up losing 1000+ PP in ranked matches, but I've gained most of it back. I really wish SSF4 had a matchmaking system. If you don't host the game all you'll get are "Unable to join session" messages until you luck your way into a room. That's the most annoying thing about online fighting games.

I had the same problem until we upgraded our internet speed.  But even then it still happens from time to time.  It's weird; this only happens with (S)SF4.

[ManaByte]

Completely addicted to Hot Pursuit on 360.

It came with a starter pack code for NFS: World on PC and that's actually pretty good. It's just a F2P MMO version of Undercover with nothing but Russian players, but it's fun.

[Diunx]

Playing Beyond Good and Evil, so far is better than every Zelda game ever made.

[Herr Mafflard]

I've come to the conclusion that the escort level in VVVVVV is pure evil. You know what to do, how to do it, but at every try you fail. Sometimes you're too quick, sometimes you're not quick enough - misjudge a millimetre and you're fucked, start over.

Here is the section below, fuck those moving platforms - I will come back to this game in later.

[Bebpo]

I love that room

[Herr Mafflard]

I too will love it...


once I clear it.

Until then though, fuck that room up the ass.

[Bebpo]

sounds about right. 

fwiw the escort bit was the most frustrating spot in the game outside of the very very end which is insanity.

[Herr Mafflard]

good to know


started Alpha Protocol, seems okay so far (aside from the tedious tutorial section). Not sure if i'm into the convo system; sometimes I just wanna know what my guy is gonna say, it seems a bit of a pot luck in that regard.

Trying to play full on stealth with silenced pistol, working out okay - the hacking mini games are the worst tho.

Need to play it a bit more to get a good gauge on how much I like it - seems a bit of a slow starter.

[Diunx]

The final boss of BGAE is so fucking frustrating, gonna finish that shit tomorrow.

[demi]

Flip your controller upside down

[Diunx]

Never thought of that

[D3RANG3D]

I played Recettear, which is my first animu game in like 12 years got it along with 4 other games on  Steam for five bucks , god I feel dirty  But then I washed off the shame by watching Expendables

[iconoclast]

Got 1000/1000 on Shattered Dimensions. The second playthrough was definitely way less frustrating since you have a maxed out character with all of the moves unlocked and such. So yeah it's a pretty decent game, aside from all of the glitches. I swear I encountered more game-stopping bugs in this game than any WRPG I've ever played. Ridiculous.

I like all of the bonus suits too, but it's stupid that they're locked away behind so many challenges. I only got to use my favorite spider-man suit (scarlet spider) for like 10 minutes because it was locked away behind all 180 challenges, and at that point I was nearly done with the game. Oh well. I enjoyed the game in the end.


Not sure what to play next... Kinda feel like going back to Demon's Souls and getting the platinum.

[Bebpo]

I would've liked it if each suit had some unique abilities.  Either passive support ones or new gameplay moves.  Visually they were great fanservice to have, but yeah not much point to them.  Which is why I didn't buy the DLC costumes.

[chronovore]

Flip your controller upside down

Never thought of that

It's how I finished. I'm pretty sure it's the solution most people eventually come up with.

[iconoclast]

Randomly decided to play Ikaruga and start working on my chaining. I was determined to get the achievement for A-ranking stage 2, and after an hour or so of practice I finally got it by the skin of my teeth.

The beginning section with all of the ships flying around you is RIDICULOUS. That has to be the hardest area in the game to chain properly. The other tricky part of the stage is the area about half way through where you have to chain a bunch of enemies while switching polarity constantly in order to absorb the alternating rings of bullets and lasers. Keeping your chain through that area is vital for the A-rank, so that's usually where I screwed up. I managed to do it though, and of course right after that I mistimed my bomb and broke my chain. I thought I blew it, but I kept on playing anyway, chained the rest of the stage up to the boss, and started fighting him with a 2.27mil score. Beat him with 74 seconds left, so the 740k bonus points put me just past the cut-off for the A-rank (3mil). Fuck yeah.

[Positive Touch]

Legacy

Although not a regular Mario game, Yoshi's Safari contained a few milestones seen to be notable. For one thing, this is the first game where Princess Peach is referred to by that name in the North American release, predating Super Mario 64 which popularized it. Secondly, this game contains an individual Magikoopa boss, which may have been the inspiration behind the Kamek character. This game also marked the last appearance of the Koopalings in an official Nintendo game until Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, released in 2003, as well New Super Mario Bros. Wii, released in 2009. Yoshi's Safari is also the first and only dedicated shooting game that Mario has starred in.

[Herr Mafflard]

Looks like they've finally released 2 new characters for Castlevania HD. Anyone gonna cop this?   It's a good excuse for me to start playing again as i still need the 10'00 kill cheev.

[Diunx]

Finished BG&E but missed the little scene after the credits because I was chatting on my phone gonna go look that shit on youtube, great game but very very short and that "behind the scenes" sucked.

[ManaByte]

Still enjoying NFS World. Got my 1969 Charger. Wish you could actually make custom decals like in Forza 3 though.

[iconoclast]

Chaining stage 3 in Ikaruga is so hard.

You need about 2.8-3million by the time you get to the boss for the A-rank... My best run was a little over 2 mil. The stage is really fast paced, so you almost never have a second to catch your breath and think about what's coming next - it's just constant chaining until the little cutscene halfway through. And then it's more chaining.

I really hate scoring systems that make you memorize the entire game from start to finish. But still, Ikaruga is the best puzzle game ever.

[Darunia]

Finished DKCR. Started Kirby's Epic Yarn. Wow. I nearly fell asleep after clearing the first 5 stages. Great artstyle, boring as fuck. I'm probably done with this

[Bebpo]

Blur online is pretty damn fun.  Too bad the online community is dead on the PC version.  But still enough to get 3-5 person races on.

The single player is kind of just ok.  I'm sort of with demi on Split/Second being more exciting and fun with better graphics and more variety in SP.  But at the same time the AI isn't distinguished mentally-challenged bullshit in Blur so the races are actually fun and not just pissing you off.  Dunno if I'll stick with the SP until the end though.  Doesn't seem interesting enough.  But will at least get my $15 out of it.

[iconoclast]

I started playing Bayonetta again... I seriously can't believe they make you repurchase/unlock EVERYTHING when you start playing with Jeanne. What the fuck. Now I guess I'll have to do a run where I focus on collecting halos, weapons, and all of the upgrades and shit. This game has too many boneheaded design decisions.

[Great Rumbler]

Started playing Sakura Wars on the PS2. I really like it so far, especially the character interactions [which is good, because that's 90% of the game]. The only thing that frustrated me is that it's really easy to mess up but a pain to try to go back and do something over, which I suppose is the point but I just can't stand to do something the wrong way and always want to go back and fix it.

[cool breeze]

Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions on the 360

Everything about the presentation is really great, especially for a spider-man fan like me, but parts where you actually playing are kinda busted.  A lot of actions just don't seem to register or have illogical auto-assist.  If I'm in a boss fight and I press "B" to grab the boss while my analog stick is pointed towards said boss, don't have me do a zip attack to the random enemy at 4 o'clock....and ffs, I am pressing down on the analog sticks! don't make me watch this guy say the same dialog for 10 seconds before it fails to register my input again! this first person fighting shit fucking sucks.  The Noir 'stealth' sections are boring when they work and FUCK YOU when it doesn't.  The action sequences are just shallow mashing of buttons while you run though levels collecting things.  When levels open up more, things just get confusing because they stuff all these actions on so few buttons.  How about have swing on the RB and keep RT as web zip? and I just want to jump, not do that web jump thing.  It gets annoying and confusing; the second ultimate stage gave me flashbacks of the Knuckles stages from Sonic Adventure 2.

The presentation is top notch, but I just wish it was more fun to play.  All things being equal, I'd say Shaba had a better idea of how a Spider-man game should play.  This game ain't bad, though.  But I've enjoyed pretty much every spider-man game except spider-man 3, so yeah.  I wouldn't be upset if there is a Shattered Dimensions 2.  At the very least, there might be a sequel to the DS game, which I enjoyed more at this point.

I have the third set of levels to get through still.  I hate how quitting doesn't seem to save your checkpoint progress, meaning you need to sit and play for more than half an hour at a time.

[Raban]

And people compared SD to Spider-Man on PS1?

[iconoclast]

It does get better when you unlock all of the attacks and stuff (air combo XXYX is godlike), but yeah it's not that great. It really sucks when you're trying to pick up an item around the arena to throw at a boss or enemy, but you wind up web-zipping to some guy who's offscreen. The first person parts aren't bad though, you just have to press down after the prompt appears; if you do it too early you get smacked.

I never played Web of Shadows, but the game's definitely better than Spider-Man 3 and a liiiiiittle bit better than Friend or Foe. Spider-Man 2 is still the best in the series.


Also, ilomilo is out on xbla (you need a code from here if you want it early: http://wp7supersecretaccess.ilomilo.com/). I just played the trial and it was okay. It doesn't really do anything special or interesting, but it's not bad either. It's just a typical puzzle game where you go from point A to B while collecting as much junk as you can. I'll wait until it's half off.

[Mr. Gundam]

I've been playing Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep while here in Nebraska. Good game.

[archie4208]

I spent 2 hours yesterday trying to kill Sarevok.  That is not a fun fight.    Although I think I am woefully underleveled so I went back and am trying to do some TotSC content to get better lewt and more levels.

[Diunx]

Man the controls of King's Field are some fucked up shit.

So King's Field doesn't have loot and the combat should be a federal offense, any reason why I should keep playing this instead of downloading the superior Morrowind demi?

[Sho Nuff]

Crazy Taxi XBLA port is utter garbage.

Pac Man DX is masterful. When you have like a billion ghosts following you and then you get the power pellet it's like YYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH COMBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[demi]

Man the controls of King's Field are some fucked up shit.

So King's Field doesn't have loot and the combat should be a federal offense, any reason why I should keep playing this instead of downloading the superior Morrowind demi?

Sorry, can't help your shit taste. Hope this helps...

[Raban]

Man the controls of King's Field are some fucked up shit.

So King's Field doesn't have loot and the combat should be a federal offense, any reason why I should keep playing this instead of downloading the superior Morrowind demi?

Sorry, can't help your shit taste. Hope this helps...

[Diunx]

Man the controls of King's Field are some fucked up shit.

So King's Field doesn't have loot and the combat should be a federal offense, any reason why I should keep playing this instead of downloading the superior Morrowind demi?

Sorry, can't help your shit taste. Hope this helps...

Do I at least get some cool looking magic?

[Himu]

Crazy Taxi XBLA port is utter garbage.

Do tell.

[D3RANG3D]

Man the controls of King's Field are some fucked up shit.

So King's Field doesn't have loot and the combat should be a federal offense, any reason why I should keep playing this instead of downloading the superior Morrowind demi?

Sorry, can't help your shit taste. Hope this helps...

Do I at least get some cool looking magic?

Download the superior Morrowind problem solved.

[Sho Nuff]

Crazy Taxi XBLA port is utter garbage.

Do tell.

Interface looks like crap, sloppily scaled up assets. Sound balance is TOTALLY out of whack; you can't hear any of the voices. Also, the voices are not the Dreamcast voices and are re-recordings with different people (probably because the original used celebrity gaijin "talent" in Japan with contractual pull). Also, no Offspring, but everyone knows that.

[Raban]

Man the controls of King's Field are some fucked up shit.

So King's Field doesn't have loot and the combat should be a federal offense, any reason why I should keep playing this instead of downloading the superior Morrowind demi?

Sorry, can't help your shit taste. Hope this helps...

Do I at least get some cool looking magic?

Download the superior Morrowind problem solved.

I can't believe you're comparing Morrowind to King's Field. You're off to a terrible start here, my friend.

Interface looks like crap, sloppily scaled up assets. Sound balance is TOTALLY out of whack; you can't hear any of the voices. Also, the voices are not the Dreamcast voices and are re-recordings with different people (probably because the original used celebrity gaijin "talent" in Japan with contractual pull). Also, no Offspring, but everyone knows that.

Pass, then. That's a huge bummer.

[Bebpo]

Finished Gray Matter.  It has its flaws, but overall it's the best adventure game I've played in a decade.  There's no furries, it's not a goofy comedy, it's not episodic, it's entirely click and point, it's a full 10 hour+ length; basically it's everything that adventure games are not anymore :X  I hope it finds enough niche success that they make a sequel.  Telltale games are ok, but they don't really do it for me.

If Hollywood played knew about niche games like this, Gray Matter would make a good movie I think.

[Van Cruncheon]

is grey matter on steam
_

[Bebpo]

Possibly in February.  Right now it's only released in Germany.  In Feb it's getting wide release across English speaking Europe.  Then hopefully will hear something about US release.   

[demi]

Better than Scratches? I dunno... that is a pretty high bar to beat

[Bebpo]

I've never been big on first person adventure games.  I blame Myst for not selling me on any advantages over traditional 3rd person P&C.

[demi]

What is advantageous with third person? If I were to suggest one first person it would be Scratches. I've played the whole kaboodle. It is leagues above the competition.

[cool breeze]

Spider-man shattered dimensions finished.  Post credit scene relieved all the boredom and frustration mix I was feeling in the final stretch.  Really excellent spider-man fan service, but the game is dull and can be a pain in the ass to play because of bad controls.

the look of the Amazing levels is really great.  The dream spider-man game would be presentation and all that on par with this game, combat/swinging mechanics by Shaba (web of shadows people), and someone else who can design a fun game around it. 

[Bebpo]

I think Shattered Dimensions was a better experience for me because I didn't marathon it.  The game is really repetitive and monotonous, so after 1 stage I'd have my fill of swinging and shallow combat and call it done for the day.  Doing a bunch of stages in a row would be pretty tiresome.

I still found it enjoyable though.  I loved the challenges and collect-a-thon aspects and the boss fights were mainly fun pattern bosses and not combat bosses, which I appreciated since the combat is really really weak.

Plus yeah, the fanservice was great.  Such an awesome roster of villains.

[demi]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[cool breeze]

I did like the way challenges were handled and I agree with you about the bosses.  Occasionally things got messy when the game started grabbing a box thirty feet behind you instead of the boss you were two inches from, but yeah, I like that they were pattern based instead of just chipping away the health.

I didn't really marathon it.  I would do less than an act a day with big breaks between them; the pacing is bad anyway you play it.  For example, a part of the boss makes you fight waves of enemies to launch an item, right? they literally keep spawning enemies to the point where you're mashing Y+B until you have a huge combos because the shit is lasting for minutes.  Then you jump to the next platform and you need to repeat the exact same thing--TWICE.  Or in the oil rig, it's like "smash these cameras....now these...now these...ok, now you're done! move onto the second rig and smash some more cameras."   Come on, game.  I spend 40+ minutes on a level and that gets me a gold rating for excellent time? that ain't right.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, the oil rig was a classic example of why the levels needed to be cut in half.  The 2nd oil rig was like ...what.  If the levels were half the length and the web grab detection/camera were tightened I think it'd be a pretty good game.  As it is, it's an ok game with great fanservice.

[iconoclast]

That's all true, plus that reminds me how repetitive the objectives can get. Specifically how every noir stage has you rescuing x amount of civilians. I didn't really marathon it either.. I think it took me a week to get the 1000 on it in 16 hours or so, and I usually like to blow through games I rent pretty quickly. The game was just too repetitive to play level after level after level.

But as lame as the "smash a bunch cameras" objectives were, Deadpool's stage was probably my favorite. I liked the non-linearity of it and going around finding all of the hidden spider symbols and stuff. Plus that section with the tidal waves at the end was the coolest thing in the game. Sandman's stage was probably the worst, because you have to throw water barrels at the sand enemies in order to hit them. And since the targeting is terrible, it's just frustrating.

Although, speeding through each stage in order to get the platinum medal for the time limit was kinda fun. Running past every skippable fight really cuts down on the tedium, and makes most stages take 15-25 minutes max.



On a side note, X-Mode in Ketsui is super fun.

[Diunx]

You don't have any msn friends demi? :'(

[Raban]

You should add me on MSN, demi

[demi]

You don't have any msn friends demi? :'(

Most of them have lives...