What are you playing?

[Kestastrophe]

Picked up GoW collection when I preordered GoW III, so I am replaying the original game. I beat it when it came out, but haven't played it since. What an awesome game, I forgot how good it was

[Bebpo]

The best part of Deadly Premonition is the completely inappropriate Super Mario music that plays during dialogues in the middle of a GRUESOME MURDER CASE

[magus]

i was in the mood of playing a rpg so i restarted shadow hearts 3

[Fragamemnon]

Mostly Starcraft 2 beta ( excellent, it is both a game that honors the magic of the classic first game while still being assertively it's own game), but this morning I put in Class of Heroes PSP just to "see what it is about" and wound up playing until 5PM or so.

[Mr. Gundam]

Star Ocean 4 -- I just made it to Area 51 in 1957 and they introduced a cat girl. I GIVE UP.   

[Ichirou]

Star Ocean 4 -- I just made it to Area 51 in 1957 and they introduced a cat girl. I GIVE UP.  

Owned.

[Bebpo]

Star Ocean 4 -- I just made it to Area 51 in 1957 and they introduced a cat girl. I GIVE UP.   

You haven't even gotten to the bad part, lololol

[Ichirou]

What're the differences between the PS3 and 360 versions anyway?  Just the Japanese dubbing?

[Tucah]

Finally beat MGS4, glad to be done with this. It was fun enough for the first two acts, but by the end I just kind of got bored with the story and stopped caring about the endless cutscenes (holy fuck the ending was long).

I'll spend the next day or two playing tons of BC2, then on to the almost definitely mediocre FFXIII.

[Bebpo]

What're the differences between the PS3 and 360 versions anyway?  Just the Japanese dubbing?

PS3 version lets you change the enemy you are targetting.  This would have helped A LOT in the X360 version because the game is distinguished mentally-challenged.
Japanese dub, no disc swapping.

No new content though.  Graphics are slightly worse like always.

[Ichirou]

Well, at least it's not a Vesperia deal where 360 owners got screwed out of tons of content.

[demi]

thats a big imply ichirou. im really hitting myself for missing out on a loli pirate?

[Ichirou]

She's not the only extra character you get in your party.  Plus new weapons, story sequences, etc. Tons of content that was cut from the 360 version due to time constraints, basically.  The trolls say that 360 owners were beta testers...the trolls are right.

[demi]

Still not missing out. Thats like saying you missed out on Star Ocean 4 now that its on PS3. olololol

[Ichirou]

That may all be true but I got the game for $15 and in English. 360 version wins again.

:munch

Yup, shitttttamerican PS3 owners got screwed yet again.

:usavich Himuro :usavich

[Bebpo]

"Mr. Zurkon does not need nanotechnology.  Mr. Zurkon runs on fear" 
Mr. Zurkon in the greatest character ever

I want one  :'(

[Brehvolution]

:usavich Himuro :usavich

[Eric P]

25 hours into OG Stalker and i just hit priypat

[Cormacaroni]

Finally got back to Mass Effect 2

This game just fucking rocks. Still gettin' the band together. Seriously thinking of printing up a t-shirt that says 'RT Renegade Option'

[treythemovie]

She's not the only extra character you get in your party.  Plus new weapons, story sequences, etc. Tons of content that was cut from the 360 version due to time constraints, basically.  The trolls say that 360 owners were beta testers...the trolls are right.

For any normal publisher, that would be called DLC.

Namco 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

She's not the only extra character you get in your party.  Plus new weapons, story sequences, etc. Tons of content that was cut from the 360 version due to time constraints, basically.  The trolls say that 360 owners were beta testers...the trolls are right.

It may just be be, but while the extra PS3 content in Vesperia would be nice to have, the original 360 version almost felt overly long as is.

That being said, if they'd ever release it over here I'd almost certainly pick it up as soon as the price fell to something reasonable.  Like a slime appears said, you can pick up the 360 version of Vesperia for next to nothing and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay anywhere near 60 dollars for the same exact game with what ammounts to DLC thrown into the mix.

[Green Shinobi]

Picked up ODST for cheap from a guy who was moving.

They should have called this Halo: You Will Hear Fucking Annoying Heavy Breathing Every Time You Get Hit.

I'm playing on Heroic, and your shields seem to go down faster than they do in Halo 3 on Legendary. Every fucking stray bullet turns your screen red and leaves your player gasping for breath. This is easily the weakest Halo title so far. And goddamn if the hub isn't a P.O.S.

It'll be nice to have all the DLC maps from Halo 3 though. I never bought any of that shit.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Oh, and I've been playing Battlefield BC2 - awesome even though I suck balls in multi, but occasionally when I'm not trying to grind through some shit class that I don't want to even play (hello recon), I can string together some impressive games.  I seem to do better when I just take off my mike and play it without the voicechat, which seems weird since it really is a team based game.  With the voice on I tend to do a lot of distinguished mentally-challenged kamakazi runs without even thinking about what I'm doing.

I've also been going through Heavy Rain.  I still say it's not much of a game but at least the story is videogame interesting and it's more like how I originally thought Indigo Prophecy would play out after going through the first bit at the diner.  The graphics can be pretty damn impressive - like the close up of the faces during the loading screens.  It'd be even more impressive if you could manipulate them in some way but even still, they're tech demo good.  Reminds me alot of Sony's 2005 E3 during the PS3 unveiling and they were demoing the graphic capabilities using a rendering of the head of the guy from Spiderman 2.  I probably should've waited until this came down in price because I don't know how much replay I'll get out of this even with the different outcomes, but waiting for PS3 games to drop in price is like waiting for Haley's Comet.  It just doesn't happen too often.

And since I bought my Astro A40 headset, I've been popping in just about everything I can get my hands on just to hear how they sound on the things.  If you want an awesome proffesional calibur gaming headset and have $250 burning a hole in you wallet, I can't recommend these things enough.  It really brings a new dimension to every game I own. 250 bucks is a steep price to pay for a gaming headset but you're getting some serious quality.

[treythemovie]

The greatest irony of the PS3 version is that its biggest new features, the useless inclusions of Flynn and Patty, are the same things ultimately preventing the game from being localized. You just can't win with Namco.




Anyways, since we're talking about Tales of: I wonder when Graces will get announced. A quick glance over the various forums on the internet show that alot of people are getting antsy about it, though I think this is unfound as Namco's marketing team is the incompetent type that will just randomly announce it one day without fanfare. On the off chance that Graces doesn't get localized though, I'd say that it doesn't bode well for the series. It would probably mean Namco America has finally given up on the series as a whole, outside of, perhaps, a Vesperia 2 or something.

Regardless, I don't think its a worry. Namco really doesn't have anything else in their IP stable to allow them to just drop one of their main ones, even if it does poorly (Tekken is dying, Soul Calibur sells only with cross-promotion, everything else has been critically panned, their best selling series relies entirely upon outside [cartoon] IPs, etc). They really can't afford to drop the Tales franchise overseas unless they want to quicken their pace towards Atari-dom ineffectualness.

[demi]

Graces will flop horribly, after TOS2 they wont even bother.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

The greatest irony of the PS3 version is that its biggest new features, the useless inclusions of Flynn and Patty, are the same things ultimately preventing the game from being localized. You just can't win with Namco.

Really?  Why is that?  Voiceover cost?

[treythemovie]

Graces will flop horribly, after TOS2 they wont even bother.

Oh I'm sure it will; all Tales Of games sans the originally Symphonia have after all. But in terms of the series' normal poor performance, I think Graces can at least outperform ToS:DotNW overseas, unlike its Japanese release. Overall though, Namco is facing a rather real threat of obscurity that they can't afford to back down on, even if it requires publishing guaranteed bombs overseas. If they degrade much further people will just stop paying attention to the company entirely, if they haven't already. They'll literally become the new Atari (particularly ironic considering that they just recently absord part of Atari to become their european branch).

Its kinda sad to see Namco go down so simply as they actually have some talented developers in their company, unlike several of their japanese bretheren facing similar problems. Its just that Namco horribly misuses their talent, either by having them work on the same tired old thing repeatedly (Tales Team) or by having them work on useless side projects doomed from the get go (Ace Combat team). What Namco needs to do is take their talent and focus them on making new creative projects that will garner interest and sales. They can't just keep spamming out the dwindling handful of IPs they have left.

The greatest irony of the PS3 version is that its biggest new features, the useless inclusions of Flynn and Patty, are the same things ultimately preventing the game from being localized. You just can't win with Namco.

Really?  Why is that?  Voiceover cost?

The inclusion of Patty and Flynn to near-every scene has changed the dialogue enough that it pretty much necessitates a brand new translation and voice-work; essentially redoing the localization. This has always been rather obvious, at least to those who knew the extent of the changes, but iirc, Johntv from GAF recently confirmed that the localization of the PS3 version would require significant work and implied it to be the major stopgag to its chances.


You really don't think about it at first but the inclusion of new characters in a scene not only means their added dialogue but that everyone else's dialogue in the scene will change also in reference to the new characters. And that's not even including all the other extra dialogue and scenes Namco threw into the game (there's a reason they bragged about the game's script being X times bigger).

[AdmiralViscen]

I just used my bad company amazon credit to get fallout 3 for $7

[Bocsius]

I'm not really all that into my replay of Mass Effect 2, so I'm thinking of dusting off GoW* or GoW2**.

*God of War

**Gears of War 2

[Kestastrophe]

In my replay of the original God of War, I have forgotten how frustrating some parts are (thinking of the part where the floor falls out after a certain amount of time and you have to kill a ton of doods and several sirens). Plus I forgot how awkward the platforming is due to the camera. Still a great game though

[Bebpo]

I'm cutting down on gaming again now that classes started back up.

Playing Deadly Premonition in short 1-2 hour bursts every few days.  Same with Ratchet CiT.
And at the end of DQVI but waiting for a day or two where I feel in the mood so I can marathon the last 4-6 hours I have left.

All of them are good games, but none of them make me want to play nonstop when I have free time.


Going to get Megaman 10 Thursday though and play the heck out of that.  And will get Zettai Hero over the weekend and that'll be my new addiction I'm sure.

[magus]

go bebpo!
i want zettai impressions like... right now

anyway i'm playing the psp version of eye of judgement,it's a cool one

[Eric P]

fucking snipers in stalker are driving me mad.  i am being forced to carry around this heavy ass rifle in retaliation

[tiesto]

Gonna be FF13 till i beat it...

[Bebpo]

FINAL FANTASY ]|[

I hope it's not the DS version!

[Kestastrophe]

In my replay of the original God of War, I have forgotten how frustrating some parts are (thinking of the part where the floor falls out after a certain amount of time and you have to kill a ton of doods and several sirens). Plus I forgot how awkward the platforming is due to the camera. Still a great game though

That part is so easy you wuss

Once you know the very specific way that you have to do it. I was trying to use only the blades of chaos (and coming really close), instead of deshielding the one baddies, then switching to Artemis.

I forgot how garbage some of the platforming segments in the game are. The one that sticks out is after defeating the minotaur on those planks overhead with blades spinning everywhere. The camera works against you, and Kratos' ledge grab seems sloppy and arbitrary. I still haven't made it to Hades and the spinning columns, so I am saving some rage

[ch1nchilla]

Bayonetta. It's fucking awesome and the most satisfying game purchase I've made since (!) Mirror's Edge.

[magus]

well i think it's pointless to make a thread about it so let me dump some impression of the psp version of eye of judgement here for the single guy that might care (what you say? this guy doesn't exist? oh who cares!)

soooo first of all,this version has a story mode which from my understanding wasn't there in the ps3 version,
so far i have 17 opponent and unless more unlocks after completing the main story,i doubt the number will go beyond 20 since i'm already at what the game call the epilogue,there are 333 cards (i guess there are more than in the original?) and you can buy singles from a shop (which is somewhat disappointing,i like the randomness of the packs) normal card are cheap but rare cards are incredibly pricey,there are no battle animation altough you get a short FMV everytime you pull off one of the rare cards,there is also a library with tons of backstory but well... tl;dr
 
there are achievements but the game doesn't tell you how to get them,for those that don't know anything about eye of judgment it works like this,basicaly you have a 3X3 grid where you can place monster,each turn you get 2 mana and you use this mana to play creatures the first guy who place 5 creature on the board wins,of course to prevent this you can attack your opponent monster with your own creature,some creature only attack in a direction but other can attack in multiple one,a creature will attack only once when you place it but you can pay extra mana to have it attack again after being placed,all of them also have an elemental affiliation,placing it on a square with their same element will give them a 2 HP bonus,if instead you place it on a square with the opposite affilation,they get a 2 HP penality you also get to play spells,some deal damage,some get you extra mana,some screw up the opponent in some way and uh that's the gist of it...

the cpu can pull a decent fight but it still feels pretty weak when you can beat everyone with the deck the game gives you at the start,ultimately it kinda reminds me of a simpler version of culdcept without the monopoly part (altough culdcept had much better card art) 

[T-Short]

I'm playing the JC2 demo over and over again, plus the DLC for Trials HD :arr

[Fragamemnon]

I was kind of underwhelmed by the Eye of Judgement PSP demo. The core game didn't grab me as compelling as, say, Magic : The Gathering or even Spectromancer.

Just playing Class of Heroes PSP and SC2 beta at the moment, and likely for the foreseeable future.

[chronovore]

Bayonetta. It's fucking awesome and the most satisfying game purchase I've made since (!) Mirror's Edge.

Mine's on order, and I'm very excited that it may arrive next week, hopefully we will be out of crunch and I can actually play something.

Last night I warbled my way through 5 songs in Rock Band 2 that I could normally 5-star, but I nearly failed out. Clearly work is beating the hell out of me, and fatigue is messing up my ability to breathe.

I'm REALLY enjoying Space Miner: Space Ore Bust! - I've got 3 hours in it, which is 2:50 more than I've spent in any other iPhone game.

Played the demos for Toy Soldiers and The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, both of which I was looking forward to because of the unusual art style they'd adopted. Retro style is great. Unfortunately for the latter, I don't have the extra processing cycles for a puzzle game right now, and I didn't realize the former is a TOWER DEFENSE GAME. :amcry

[magus]

I was kind of underwhelmed by the Eye of Judgement PSP demo. The core game didn't grab me as compelling as, say, Magic : The Gathering or even Spectromancer.

Just playing Class of Heroes PSP and SC2 beta at the moment, and likely for the foreseeable future.

yea same here,but the amount of card game on console basicaly amount to zero so you take what you can get

i didn't like class of heroes,it just was one pointless quest after another and the game felt pretty random

[Ichirou]

Mass Effect 2.  It's pretty awesome so far, though I don't like Jacob Taylor - too much of a pussy.

[Mr. Gundam]

Finally got the 1,000,000 fans trophy in Rock Band 2 last night.

[Fragamemnon]

i didn't like class of heroes,it just was one pointless quest after another and the game felt pretty random

Games like this, the grinding/leveling/planning of characters and equipment isn't just part of the journey, it's pretty much the destination. The quests and what not just enable me to get to new levels with better loot and tougher monsters! 

[magus]

i'm playing the psp version of blazblue and i have to ask

greatest fighting game character ever?

[cool breeze]

APB has the best character creator in a game

[Bebpo]

APB has the best character creator in a game

beta or something?

[cool breeze]

APB has the best character creator in a game

beta or something?

yeah, closed beta started

[bork]

Playing a bit of Soul Calibur IV.  Been a while and I suck even worse than before!  Thinking of going back to it and taking up a new character.

Mass Effect 2.  It's pretty awesome so far, though I don't like Jacob Taylor - too much of a pussy.

I think I put him in my party only one time outside of his loyalty mission.

[iconoclast]

i'm playing the psp version of blazblue and i have to ask
http://pressthepsbutton.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/taokaka.jpg
greatest fighting game character ever?

Taokaka is the only character I play in BB

6C -> 236C -> 2D~6 -> j.C -> 8D~6 -> j.C -> 8D~6 -> j.236BB -> j.236BBB

I think some of her combos got nerfed in Continuum Shift though :'(

[Bebpo]

APB has the best character creator in a game

beta or something?

yeah, closed beta started

Is it Crackdown MMO?

[bork]

i'm playing the psp version of blazblue and i have to ask
http://pressthepsbutton.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/taokaka.jpg
greatest fighting game character ever?

Taokaka is the only character I play in BB

6C -> 236C -> 2D~6 -> j.C -> 8D~6 -> j.C -> 8D~6 -> j.236BB -> j.236BBB

I think some of her combos got nerfed in Continuum Shift though :'(

How do you tackle good Rachel players with Taokaka?  When I tried her, I got shut down by that chair move. 

I like to use Tager and Litchi the most; hope CS really balances everything out more.

[iconoclast]

The electric chair has a lot of recovery, so if they start using it a lot I just try to bait it and 5C for a counter hit and then follow up with a 6C combo. Other than that I just play her as usual - keep pressure with mix ups, overheads, throws, drive attacks, etc. My Tao is pretty average though so I'm not very useful for advice

I'm waiting for the Continuum Shift port to really dive back in. SSF4 with some BBCS on the side will be good times.

[cool breeze]

APB has the best character creator in a game

beta or something?

yeah, closed beta started

Is it Crackdown MMO?

no, but it is by those guys.  There are some videos up from GDC on the game.  It's somewhere between GTA online and a GTA mmo.  Bigger than one, smaller than the other.

[archie4208]

God damn all the gimmickry in Bowser's Inside Story annoys me.  The battle system is really good, but all of the minigames make me want to hate the game.  The worst part was when

spoiler (click to show/hide)

you had to wait for Bowser's back to heal and move away from the DS for about 2 minutes

[close]

.  The writing is nothing special, either.  I'd put it on the same level as Partners in Time.  Nintendo will never match Paper Mario 2 again, will they?

[magus]

i'm playing the psp version of blazblue and i have to ask
http://pressthepsbutton.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/taokaka.jpg
greatest fighting game character ever?

Taokaka is the only character I play in BB

6C -> 236C -> 2D~6 -> j.C -> 8D~6 -> j.C -> 8D~6 -> j.236BB -> j.236BBB

I think some of her combos got nerfed in Continuum Shift though :'(

How do you tackle good Rachel players with Taokaka?  When I tried her, I got shut down by that chair move. 

I like to use Tager and Litchi the most; hope CS really balances everything out more.

in the psp version,you can do special move simply by pushing the analog stick in a direction and being able to pull off that special throw with tager anytime without any 360° bullshit felt a little overpowered
also
Tager: we have different politics
Taokaka: Poly Tits? is that a new kind of boobies?

[Rman]

I'm engrossed in FFXIII.  No backlash from me.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I've been playing some Dirt 2.  It's a fun game but everything outside of the race can be pretty obnoxious at times.  Definitely for budding rebellious 12 year olds in a upper middle class suburban community but for a 25 year old, the fact that you can't skip a lot of that stuff is disappointing.  Anyway, the races are fun so far.

I've also continued to play Red Faction Guerrilla and find myself enjoying the game more and more as the difficulty ramps up.  Smashing buildings while getting shot at by 12 master chief looking people is fun.

[Bebpo]

I finished DQVI so now I'm just playing Ratchet & Deadly Premonition while hoping my Zettai Hero shows up in the mail today.

I decided to finally play RGG3 now that the US version is out and there's a community discussing it (though 90% of discussion is just about Sega's horrible localization).  Played a bit, but I think I'll try to finish up Ratchet first this weekend so I have less games on my plate and then it'll just be RGG3 + DP for my console gaming.

...well until GoW3 comes out next week.  Then I'm taking a 3 day break from everything and blowing through that