What are you playing?

[Raban]

FINALLY.

I just beat Darksiders on Apocalyptic. Fuck that last boss. Dying sends you back to BEFORE the boss fight even on the last form. That's bullshit. Anyways, awesome game. Dead Space now.

[demi]

Wait you had trouble? I remember beating him without a scratch. Just ran around with my horse.

[Raban]

Wait you had trouble? I remember beating him without a scratch. Just ran around with my horse.

No, the dragon part was easy. The fight after gave me a rough time, since getting hit once knocks out like a third of my health. He's dead now tho, so no harm done.

[Bocsius]

This final boss in FF13 is so cheap. 

[magus]

This final boss in FF13 is so cheap. 

just start healing as he gets out of stagger
and remember that if you ever find yourself in deep shit a summon heals you fully,and you can do up to 4 times again if you turn your doctor's code into elixirs

[Bocsius]

Note to self: google doctor's code and elixirs.

[fistfulofmetal]

since i suddenly have no games on my plate right now i decided to go back and keeping (trying) to play metroid other m. mistake. i left off heading into the lava area. pretty quickly i encountered the worst thing ever. if i get hit off, or jump weird into the lava its instant death. but i dont mean you land in the lava and instant in sense that you just die right then and there. i mean you land in the lava and instantly you cant move and have to wait as your health slow drains and you die. the fuck. every other metroid game i have ever played lets you jump out of the lava. you move slower but you can escape. this is horrible. its not like its really hard or anything but the controls are weird and sometimes you end up trying to doge something and whoops you're in the drink and have to start over from the save. i only played a little bit after that. beyond the lava area you have to face off against a fairly awful boss fight. its a horseshoe crab looking thing who chases you around and is immune to all your attacks. i let it chase me around for a few minutes and was not able to figure out the point of which i am able to attack it. from what i saw i believe it's right before a moment inwhich he lunges at you and a red shiny bit it exposed on his stomach. but he seemed to only do this directly after chasing me and in that moment samus is facing the other direction and the controls suck so when i manage to turn around the moment is gone which results in me getting fucking hit. eventually i just let myself die because i was so uninterested in continuing. so i wont!!! back to gamefly you go.

[Bocsius]

Had no doctor's code, had no elixirs. A pair of cherub's crowns did the trick, though. Stupid "protogenital" wrath.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

progenitorial

[close]

[The Sceneman]

Donkey Kong has one hell of an asshole, I'd love to get inside that shit.

fixed

[tiesto]

The forest level in Vagrant Story was fucking annoying as fuck, just beat that.

[magus]

The forest level in Vagrant Story was fucking annoying as fuck, just beat that.

it's where i stopped playing the game the first time

[Positive Touch]

The forest level in Vagrant Story was fucking annoying as fuck, just beat that.

thankfully the only other comparable shit you have to deal with is too many block puzzles

[EmCeeGrammar]

Donkey Kong has one hell of an asshole, I'd love to get inside that shit.

fixed

Its a great game, but frustrating as hell.

Just remember not to rush things and constantly check stage props for hearts.  Tell me when you get to the BATS, though.  Shit will drive you up the wall.

[Smooth Groove]

Just finished Batman tonight. 

Felt like a badass beating Batman in 2 nights after beating RE5 last weekend.  It's a been awhile since I've finished any game. I think the last one was GOW3. 

Up next is Dead Space but before moving on, a salute to some of the best levels I've ever seen,

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I've been testing my new PC by playing some Crysis again.  I'm getting over 90fps with everything turned up to max @1900x1200 along with the real lifesis and natural mods in place.  Pretty incredible stuff.

This thing is a freakin' beast.

[tiesto]

The forest level in Vagrant Story was fucking annoying as fuck, just beat that.

thankfully the only other comparable shit you have to deal with is too many block puzzles

Do I need to tinker in the workshop to beat Vagrant Story or can I safely ignore it? I'm getting really sick of crafting-esque stuff in my RPGs, hell even the DQ series isn't safe anymore.

[magus]

as i said the spellbook that help you change the elemental property can give you the damage you need without tinkering with the workshop

but the final boss has no elemental weakness (and i think no type weakness) of sort so once again i say that you should totaly learn to chain stuff with a bowgun so you can use all those skills that deal damage ignoring defence and resistance,stuff like that skill that deals damage equal to your risk value,chain concretly and you can do a shitload of damage with each chain

anyway i found the first optional area in lost odyssey and it had enemies that made me a level everytime i killed them until level 49 so i grinded everyone to level 49... i wished it worked like suikoden where you can jump 20 level in a single battle instead of this way where experience just get lost,now i just need an AP trip and then i can bench row cooke and mack FOREVER!

[Diunx]

Finally finished tales of the abyss, that final fight was a cakewalk, how long is persona 3?

[Himu]

50-100 hours

[iconoclast]

I think I had 120 hours on the clock when I finished P3 FES (Journey + Answer). But I also left my system idle a lot to play Halo when I got tired of going through the dungeon.

[demi]

1 hour too many

[Diunx]

Don't really feel like spending all that time with an rpg again anytime soon, gonna finish Odin's Sphere I'm assuming that game isn't as long as a regular rpg.

[Joe Molotov]

I've been testing my new PC by playing some Crysis again.  I'm getting over 90fps with everything turned up to max @1900x1200 along with the real lifesis and natural mods in place.  Pretty incredible stuff.

This thing is a freakin' beast.

So what do you got in that Alienware, dual 580's?

[iconoclast]

After seeing the Macho Man in the latest WWE All Stars promo, I finally got in the mood to play Legends of Wrestlemania. So I borrowed that from a friend and 1000'd it over the last few days. It's not really a good game, but it's not trying to be, I guess. It's super simple and like 50% of the matches are just QTEs, but eh it was still fun. It's just a nostalgia game pretty much. The thing that bugs me is that they have this whole "relive, rewrite, redefine" thing going on with a bunch of classic Wrestlemania matches, but they're all really half-assed. The "relive" ones are the best, since you can recreate some spots from the actual matches as part of your objectives, but the problem is there's only like 10 matches to relive! There's a whole bunch of other matches in the "rewrite" and "redefine" sections, but they're kinda just thrown together without much thought put into them. Why couldn't EVERY match have an option for "relive, rewrite, and redefine"? That's a rhetorical question; I already know Yuke's is a shitty developer who always does the bare minimum. Not to mention there's a ton of classic WrestleMania matches that aren't represented and classic wrestlers who aren't even in the game (Macho, Owen, Razor Ramon, Diesel, etc), but I can understand why.

But I still liked it. It's a great nostalgia game. It reminded me of the good old days of wrestling, before everything got "edgy" and serious and everyone started wearing black.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I've been testing my new PC by playing some Crysis again.  I'm getting over 90fps with everything turned up to max @1900x1200 along with the real lifesis and natural mods in place.  Pretty incredible stuff.

This thing is a freakin' beast.

So what do you got in that Alienware, dual 580's?

No, actually dual 6870's.  I don't know, those things were made for that game.

[Smooth Groove]

Yup, AMD gpus tend to be a little faster in Crysis. 

[Bebpo]

Red Dead Redemption is really nice looking sometimes.  I just did the mission in the basin early on and the shootouts between the towering rocky cliffs and bridges and shrubby looked awesome. 

This might be the first Rockstar game I ever complete and I've played every single Rockstar game since GTA1!

[Smooth Groove]

GTA3 was the only Rockstar game that I almost completed.  That stupid driving across 3 islands mission with a time limit killed it for me.  Since then, I've just messed around with every Rockstar game without getting deep into any of them.  Actually, that's what I do with sandbox games in general.  The only sandbox game that I finished this gen was Far Cry 2. 

[Himu]

omg that mission is the best mission in the game

Espresso 2 Go

[naff]

This might be the first Rockstar game I ever complete and I've played every single Rockstar game since GTA1!

never finished any PSX GTA, nearly finished London but not quite. I just liked exploring and seeing how many stars I could rack up and how long I could survive causing mayhem (mainly with the tank). Haven't played Bully and I'm still trying to finish RDR, I was loving the game, my favourite Rockstar game since Vice City, then I got to Mexico. Mexico sucks and the landscape gets old, fast. I first put RDR down 3 months or so ago then picked it up last weekend to finish off Mexico, but it goes on for a while and it's soooo boring, and the stodgy animations and euphoria physics are starting to frustrate me more than ever. It's probably Rock Stars implementation more than anything but every time I jump or get in/out of cover it's like Marston is miming being stuck in molasses and I want to blame Euphoria engine and the stupid rag doll physics it seems to entail. Sure it's funny sometimes but more than anything it feels distinguished mentally-challenged over realistic.

[iconoclast]

Yeah Mexico is really awful. I wouldn't blame Euphoria for any of the game's problems though... it's just Rockstar being Rockstar.

I think I'm gonna try to finish RDR today. I shouldn't have too much left in the story now, and I'd like to get it out of the way before I get Fist of the North Star from gamefly today or tomorrow.

[demi]

InFamous > any Rockstar game

[iconoclast]

besides Bully

[tiesto]

Right now I'm playing Saiyuuki World 2, which was translated as Whomp 'Em in the US.  It's a pretty decent Mega Man clone for the NES.  Not too difficult, which is kind of good because yesterday I did Gun-Dec/Vice Project Doom and after this I'm going to take another run at Kabuki Quantum Fighter.

Oh wow, I remember Whomp-em but never played it... Vice: Project Doom is a pretty entertaining game, some lovely (for the NES) graphics, even if the core gameplay is a bit on the cookie-cutter side. Speaking about fairly obscure NES games, did you ever play/beat Clash at Demonhead? That's a tough one.

[Himu]

Mexico sucks ass in RDR and despite that it's still my favorite rockstar game since Vice City or maybe even The Warriors.

[demi]

besides Bully and The Warriors

nailed it

[Brehvolution]

+1 Mexico took forever. And what did you get out of it? nuthin

[Bebpo]

InFamous > any Rockstar game

Definitely.

Sandbox games I've enjoyed more than any GTA/Bully/RDR:  Infamous, AC2, Crackdown 1, Red Faction Guerrilla, Just Cause 1 & 2; pretty much most of them.  Rockstar gameplay is always janky as FUCK (RDR has so many awkward control things) and their mission design has always been iffy.  At least RDR has checkpoints so you don't have to drive 20 mins all over again, HUGE progress for them.

Bully was really the only Rockstar game I got far in.  Every GTA game I get maybe 20-30% through the story and am frustrated or bored out of my mind and just blow shit up and drive around taking crazy jumps (something that was missing in GTAIV for the most part ) until I'm done with the game.

[Himu]

sounds like someone hasn't played the warriors

[Bebpo]

Yeah I liked the Warriors and I liked Ping Pong. 

Non-sandbox Rockstar games >>> sandbox Rockstar games.

[Himu]

The Warriors mixed sandbox with non-sandbox elements though. It felt like sandbox except at a lower scale, something Rockstar should really embrace.

[Corporal]

Currently playing the happy happy fun fun "let's see if I can get past 49% on that loading screen" subgame of Rift.

It's absolutely swamped right now. All servers on high or full, connecting to the server select lobby is an absolute crapshot and works maybe one time out of a dozen.

The 5 minutes I managed to play before the server rebooted were pretty underwhelming. Feels like someone played WOW one day when inspiration struck. Then someone clobbered them over the head and brainwashed them into thinking that it would be better if it looked more realistic and generic.

When will they ever learn. Oh well. Free beta, so who am I to complain.

Edit: Well, that works too. I guess. If everyone wants to log on, just lock all servers.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[magus]

i got the super-ship in lost odyssey so now i can diddle around and getting more shit i don't need placed in boring looking cave's

all these upgrade are pretty much useless,my character already feels like stronger than gods,kaim has like 6000 HP and in fact i forgot when was the last time i casted an healing spell at all

really reminds me of all those boring side from FF4/FF5/FF6.....
is grand staff the last dungeon or can i finish it safely?

[demi]

Last place is Hall of Mirrors

[naff]

Yeah Mexico is really awful. I wouldn't blame Euphoria for any of the game's problems though.

Since they started using it in GTAIV there's all that collision stuff like hitting a car or a pedestrian or a wall etc and taking ages to recover as you flail around. Obviously I'm not blaming Euphoria for all the games problems, my main problem with Mexico is dull characters with boring, frustrating missions and brown repititive environments and it drags on far too long, and because I'm not enjoying the main aspects of the game the flaws in the core gameplay have become more obvious.

[Bebpo]

I'm not anywhere far enough to comment on the flaws of the core gameplay, but I gotta say that after a few times, herding cattle gets pretty boring :X  Hope there aren't a ton more herding cattle missions throughout.

[Joe Molotov]

Yeah Mexico is really awful.

Racists.

[Bebpo]

Finished The 3rd Birthday.  Took me about 8 and 1/2 hours. 

Good stuff.

[chronovore]

+1 Mexico took forever. And what did you get out of it? nuthin

+1 Mexico took forever. And what did you get out of it? nuthin

It's worse than "nuthin" because it dilutes Marston's character. He's a reformed bad guy. The first one-third of the missions are pretty straightforward, John working against his will in order to free his family.

As soon as he lands in Mexico, he's working both sides of the fence, the Rebeldes against Generalissimo Turdface (that might not have been the actual character name). That could be very cool; working opposed factions against each other is the basis for Fistful of Dollars, and RDR clearly takes many cues from the "Man with No Name" movies; but here you'll find no narrative showing that Marston's even aware of his duplicity to each faction. Instead of cleverly staging a set-up, even one which only leads to Marston's goal of taking out the bounty target, it instead looks like he's just a well behaved dog, doing what any boss says, just to stay on their good side.

GTA and Mercenaries had a faction reputation mechanic that made missions really interesting. RDR has a reputation mechanic on whether you're doing Good or Bad Deeds, but even the Bad side of that can be bypassed by wearing a bandana to cover your face. Which makes it even more surprising that those Rebeldes and Generalissimo missions don't suffer any reputation effects to either side when you are gunning people down.

TLDR version: Mexico takes a morality tale and drags it unnecessarily through an unequivocally morally ambiguous, even careless story arc, lessening the overall experience.

[Himu]

Yeah Mexico is really awful.

Racists. (Image removed from quote.)

add this to the smilies plz

[Bebpo]

My T3B final impressions from gaf:

Alright, just finished my first run on normal and cleared the first two eps on my new game+ easy replay.

Overall this was a really great game. Very impressed. The combat is GOOD. Real good. The weapons feel so great. Love using them and the enemies are fun to fight. Enough variety for the size of the game. The level pacing and challenge on a normal first run is great. At first it was a bit tough, but once you get past the initial learning curve it's pretty fair the whole rest of the game. Level 5 has some tougher spots but that makes it fun because you need to play at your best. I'd put it a first run on normal around the same difficulty as Vanquish on normal.

The rpg system was great. Buying weapons and customizing them was a lot of fun and your really noticed the effects in battle. The OE skill system is pretty cool too although it's a bit too much trial & error to get what you want. Still, having skills appear while you're fighting is cool and gives it kind of a kingdom hearts/arpg feel.

The music was great and the game length was perfect. Took me a bit over 8 hours for my first run.

On top of that this really is a game that shines on new game+ like DMC3/Bayonetta type games where you keep all your stuff. Building your character to have even cooler skills, more badass weapons, and funky costumes makes it either super fun while your speedrun and blow through all the enemies in 1 hit on easy or I assume a challenging fun experience on hard.

The graphics were also fantastic. One of the best looking portable games yet.

Control was....less than stellar, but playable. There were a few parts like in Ep2 with the stinkers where the lock on goes CRAZY and it's annoying until you figure out the layout of where the orbs are and where the enemies are and how to move around the area. Also sniping can be a bit of a pain with doing 180 turns and even aiming quickly. And sometimes when I'm changing weapons she accidently throws a grenade ^^; There's also a bit too much button mashing in liberation mode and PSP button mashing is never fun. On a real console this would control like a dream, but on PSP after some getting used to it, it's...acceptable.

The story ummm, I don't hate it as much as all you guys. Maybe because I never finished PE1 and never played PE2 and this is my favorite Parasite Eve game by far, but I'm just glad that by the end the story makes SOME SENSE (maybe not complete sense) but there's at least some satisfying closure. Is it a good story? No it's a bad C-movie sci-fi psuedo-intellectual tale, but hey it makes some sense and carries the non-stop action and gorgeous cutscene visuals so I'm really not going to complain a ton.

Another reason why I'm not that down on the writing is outside of the plot itself, the worldview for the game was AWESOME. It was a unique setting conveyed through the gameplay itself. This is the first game where when you die it's not just "oh well, there goes a life" it's "oh shit now I watch myself slowly get torn up while screaming from a third person perspective" and it really hits the note home of how depressing and bleak this world is. The way they took a standard mechanic (lives) and added humanity to it is something that seriously deserves some respect. The soldier dialogues at each save room are great and I love how they conveyed that these were just normal people scared shitless with no clue what's going on (like you) against enemies that exist only to kill you. It's a game that's definitely TOO dark and TOO bleak and I wouldn't necessarily want to see more like it, but as a single game experience there's really nothing like The 3rd Birthday, so even if the plot is terrible I'll give it a pass because the world they've created and the way they present it is fantastic.

So yeah, all in all outside of control issues because it's on the PSP when it should be on a console, this was a thumbs up good game. "Gun shooting rpg" is something I would like to see more of, because SE proves it can be done and done well.

[Smooth Groove]

Why didn't you cut and paste to GAF instead?   

[Bebpo]

Because that was the game's official thread and this is a more general thread!

[demi]

Also P3 introduces time travel. Instant shit. Shouldnt even be considered a PE game... embarassment.

[Eel O'Brian]

i liked mexico in rdr - it had better music, the desert was beautiful at sunrise/sunset, plus all the best racial stereotypes

it did go on too long, though

infamous is a mediocre game with a giant melted douchebag for the main character

[iconoclast]

I'm nearly at the end of RDR and haven't even noticed any music so far. It's just been boring movie-like ambient garbage. snooze.

[demi]

I like Cole's attitude.

When Zeke fucks up at the Prison he doesnt butter him, he straight up says, Zeke you're a piece of shit, go sit in a corner.

I appreciate that.

I don't appreciate him putting the pussy on the pedestal and bending over for Trish though.

[Eel O'Brian]

sorry there aren't enough squealing pre-pube bubblegum pop tunes in there for you, maybe in the sequel

[iconoclast]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

Real video game music. Big budget games consist almost entirely of instantly-forgettable ambient garbage, with very few exceptions.

[demi]

Did icono post a song from a shmup? A broken blender sounds just as exciting