What are you playing?

[The Sceneman]

yeah its a really good game. Its the first TR game I played since TR3 on PS1, so the story had me pretty stumped too! I think the Angel is Natla, the Atlantian foe from the first Tomb Raider game. No idea what she was doing in the monkey cage though.

[cool breeze]

yeah, it is Natla or Natle.  I kept reading it as "Nataile", then I thought of Tommy Wiseau saying that name.

[Bebpo]

Tomb Raider Underworld

It may be janky with a baffling camera and sometimes sloppy controls but it is really really good.  Better than Legend and Anniversary so far.  The best change they've made was having checkpoints everywhere so when the game messes up, it is at most 10 seconds of work you need to redo.  Combat is terrible too but the difficulty system is neat and let me turn down the amount of health they have, so it is only a one shotgun blast to the face and they die.  It is still unnecessary to have random bats flying around to piss you off.

Game looks great too.  Can't comment on the console version but it looks sharp and runs great on PC.  Still, I want to rent the 360 version since I read the DLC is 360 exclusive for some reason.

The story is pretty nuts too.  I don't know the Tomb Raider lore but there is an angel and like an anti-Lara, plus I'm pushing giant rocks. 

Be careful.  Those be fightin' words!  

I need to play Underworld.  I loved Legend outside the Motorcycle bit and Anniversary was TR1 but better, which meant it was the best TR/Uncharted game ever.  I have the X360 version.  Wonder when I play it this summer if I should play it on X360 or double dip on a PC sale and play it on PC at 60fps + better graphics.

[bork]

Underworld is better than Legend, no question.  I still haven't played through all of Anniversary yet, so I can't make that claim.

Swaggaz, I had fun with the DLC levels, but felt they were a bit overpriced.  I don't know if I'd rent the 360 version just to play the DLC, although the Lara's Shadow level was fun (it revisits a previous stage), with different game play and a better ending to the story.  The other DLC has a mostly-new level, but the story is basically just setting up Lara's Shadow.

[cool breeze]

I should clarify that appeal of it vs Anniversary is different.  Underworld is a much snappier game with better pacing.  Where Anniversary has a single puzzle and platforming section that drags on for a while, Underworld doesn't have that problem.  I prefer what Underworld does and I feel like I can play it for longer stretches, but I could see someone preferring the more detailed and longer sections of anniversary.  I will admit that the satisfaction for completing those is great even if I feel fatigued by the end and don't want to continue right away.

The 360 vs PC thing, I think it depends on the DLC.  The game runs really great on PC (Eidos ) but the 360 has the two DLC things.  I don't know if they're good or if you can play them without completing the game first.

Underworld is better than Legend, no question.  I still haven't played through all of Anniversary yet, so I can't make that claim.

Swaggaz, I had fun with the DLC levels, but felt they were a bit overpriced.  I don't know if I'd rent the 360 version just to play the DLC, although the Lara's Shadow level was fun (it revisits a previous stage), with different game play and a better ending to the story.  The other DLC has a mostly-new level, but the story is basically just setting up Lara's Shadow.

hmm, I'll have to see how expensive the DLC is.

wow, $20 for both? forget that.  I think I payed like $7 for the actual game.

[chronovore]

I dunno; I full-completed Tomb Raider: Legend, loved every minute of it, didn't even get bent out of shape on the motorcycle sequences. The game just clicked with me. Tomb Raider: Anniversary didn't work as well for me for some reason. The new control scheme definitely made the whole game less of a frustration-fest than I remember the original to have been, but somewhere during so-and-so's Folly, I meandered to other games and have not been able to convince myself to go back.

This has also kept me from getting into Underworld, as the consensus seems to be "same as Legend, but better animation and a frustrating camera," which means it's more fun to watch and less fun to play. 

I should clarify that appeal of it vs Anniversary is different.  Underworld is a much snappier game with better pacing.  Where Anniversary has a single puzzle and platforming section that drags on for a while, Underworld doesn't have that problem.  I prefer what Underworld does and I feel like I can play it for longer stretches, but I could see someone preferring the more detailed and longer sections of anniversary.  I will admit that the satisfaction for completing those is great even if I feel fatigued by the end and don't want to continue right away. (snip)

This is exactly what killed me on Anniversary: sending me out to individual puzzles so I can bang my head on something for an hour, grok it, bring the key back to the main room, lather, rinse, repeat.  If Underworld is "snappier" it might give me enough momentum to not only finish it, but then roll through Anniversary just to get it out of the way...

[Bebpo]

Having fond fond memories of TR1 playthroughs back in the day probably make Anniversary that much more enjoyable.  When I played Anniversary I was surprised at how much of the original I remembered from playing on my 3dfx Voodoo2 card.

[demi]

Better than Legend and Anniversary so far.

Yep, I said this WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY back in the TR threads.

U > L > A

Glad to see my opinion being justified

[Don Flamenco]

yeah, so Chaos Rings is fucking good.  PS1 S-E is back.  It's like they felt bad for putting out FFXIII and decided to briefly be good again.

[Great Rumbler]

Right now I'm going through the combined catalog of the SNES and Genesis. So far I'm making my way through the action genre [run-and-gun, sidescrolling action, and action/adventure mostly], I've played about 31 games up to today [I started on Saturday]. Some of them are pretty good and some of them have aged very, very poorly.

I've been writing about the experience on a blog that I started up a few days ago.

[demi]

Are they emulator or cart? Emulators r for gheys

[Great Rumbler]

Are they emulator or cart? Emulators r for gheys

I have a lot of them in cartridge form or disc form, but I'm also going through some games that are nearly impossible to find or are only available in English through fan translation.

I've been playing all of them on my PC though with my Xbox360 controller, so, yeah, emulation.

[Raban]

I tried playing Mother 2 and 3 recently and I couldn't even force myself to keep playing. Why do people hype this shit? Does it get any better later? The writing is so forced-drama and the characters come off as dull. The only joy I found was the pixel art, which is fucking amazing, and the OST, which easily ranks on the top 5

[demi]

Mother 3 is awful... Mother 2 is ok, it doesnt really have a story as much as Dragon Quest does.

[OptimoPeach]

Right now I'm going through the combined catalog of the SNES and Genesis. So far I'm making my way through the action genre [run-and-gun, sidescrolling action, and action/adventure mostly], I've played about 31 games up to today [I started on Saturday]. Some of them are pretty good and some of them have aged very, very poorly.

I've been writing about the experience on a blog that I started up a few days ago.

Link plz. I love this kind of stuff. I still need to get the Genesis collection for 360

[Raban]

Mother 3 is awful... Mother 2 is ok, it doesnt really have a story as much as Dragon Quest does.

K I thought I was going to get crucified. It's too bad Mother 3 sucked, pretty much everything but the game itself is amazing. The setting, logo, music, art, everything is good except the boring-ass gameplay.

Mother 2 was fun until I got Paula and had to grind for her to be the same level as me. Fuck that noise.

[demi]

Yeah it has its slow spots. Stick with it. Mother 2 can be good, I think. You could always just cheat, I guess.

[Great Rumbler]

Right now I'm going through the combined catalog of the SNES and Genesis. So far I'm making my way through the action genre [run-and-gun, sidescrolling action, and action/adventure mostly], I've played about 31 games up to today [I started on Saturday]. Some of them are pretty good and some of them have aged very, very poorly.

I've been writing about the experience on a blog that I started up a few days ago.

Link plz. I love this kind of stuff. I still need to get the Genesis collection for 360

http://greatrumbler.wordpress.com/

I've got some other stuff on their too, but right now most of it is SNES and Genesis talk.

[Raban]

Yeah it has its slow spots. Stick with it. Mother 2 can be good, I think. You could always just cheat, I guess.

Fuck that. I'd keep playing if I was running out of RPGs to play, but I have an assload of other, better RPGs that haven't been beaten by me. I'll hold off until I'm desperate.

[demi]

I'd be interested in this list of "better RPGs"

[Smooth Groove]

Just messing around with FF13 while semi-watching the Lakers game.  Dunno about the gameplay yet but the game looks really good, possibly even better than Uncharted 2.  Mainly, the textures are of much higher resolution than other console games and make FF13 look almost sharper than 720P .  I wish all console games this gen had such high quality textures.   

[Bebpo]

Tried a few games I was thinking about playing if I found time to see what I want to play next:

Brutal Legend - seemed ok, did the first rts dungeon battle.  I kind of like that it's a big nice looking explorable world with stuff to find since I've been positive on sandbox games lately.  But man, the PS3 version is a technical mess.  The graphics have tearing and framerate stuttering (might affect the X360 version too) and the PS3 version has this horrible sound bug that they fixed in the 1.01 bug at launch but then re-introduced in the 1.02 patch (and it's impossible to go from retail game to 1.01 now) that makes all the sound effects (not dialogue or music) sound horribly muffled and low volume.  So the sound mix is just nasty and sucks.  Man, I wish there was a PC version like Psychonauts.  The tech problems aren't game killing, but they sure do bring the enjoyment down a notch.

Heavy Rain - interesting.  It feels like a traditional PnC adventure game done now a days with a huge budget.  At first the controls seemed a little awkward, but artistically I'm hooked.  Really enjoyed the opening credit sequence.

Tales of DestinyR DC - Game still holds up really well.  Giant 2d sprites, giant character portraits, giant text boxes, make the PS2 game still look nice on HDTVs.  I really want to play this when I find time. 

Baten Kaitos II - Wasn't really feeling it.  Game feels a bit dated these days and by gods the analogue stick on GC controllers is like the worst punishment a modern gamer can endure.  Wii controllers are amazing compared to the monstroisity that is the clunky wavebird and it's awful analogue stick.  Probably won't get to this for a bunch of months.

Just messing around with FF13 while semi-watching the Lakers game.  Dunno about the gameplay yet but the game looks really good, possibly even better than Uncharted 2.  Mainly, the textures are of much higher resolution than other console games and make FF13 look almost sharper than 720P .  I wish all console games this gen had such high quality textures.   

Yeah, FF13 uses great art & textures to make up for simple geometry in the environments.  Main characters have good polygon counts though.

[Raban]

I'd be interested in this list of "better RPGs"

FF3-10 and 12 are all on the backlog
Tales of Vesperia
DQ4-8

And I think that might be it. Radiata Stories is going to find its way into my possession eventually, and I'd like to try Xenogears and Vagrant Story but I'm having a hard time getting Pops to work on my 5.00 M33-2 PSP. Anybody who's well-versed in this feel free to PM me!

[demi]

I'd be interested in this list of "better RPGs"

FF3-10 and 12 are all on the backlog
Tales of Vesperia
DQ4-8

And I think that might be it. Radiata Stories is going to find its way into my possession eventually, and I'd like to try Xenogears and Vagrant Story but I'm having a hard time getting Pops to work on my 5.00 M33-2 PSP. Anybody who's well-versed in this feel free to PM me!

Legend of Legaia - thank me later

[Raban]

I'd be interested in this list of "better RPGs"

FF3-10 and 12 are all on the backlog
Tales of Vesperia
DQ4-8

And I think that might be it. Radiata Stories is going to find its way into my possession eventually, and I'd like to try Xenogears and Vagrant Story but I'm having a hard time getting Pops to work on my 5.00 M33-2 PSP. Anybody who's well-versed in this feel free to PM me!

Legend of Legaia - thank me later

Gameplay looks interesting, will check it out.

[Ichirou]

Legend of Legaia fucking sucks ass.

[Raban]

Legend of Legaia fucking sucks ass.

[Ichirou]

I'm not kidding, it's one of the worst RPGs on PSX.  We're talking Beyond the Beyond level shit here.

[Raban]

I'm not kidding, it's one of the worst RPGs on PSX.  We're talking Beyond the Beyond level shit here.

Why? Just, story? Gameplay? What pushes it into that realm of shittiness?

[chronovore]

Better than Legend and Anniversary so far.

Yep, I said this WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY back in the TR threads.

U > L > A

Glad to see my opinion being justified

Or as they say in France, "UU LA LA"

Tried a few games I was thinking about playing if I found time to see what I want to play next:

Brutal Legend - seemed ok, did the first rts dungeon battle.  I kind of like that it's a big nice looking explorable world with stuff to find since I've been positive on sandbox games lately.  But man, the PS3 version is a technical mess.  The graphics have tearing and framerate stuttering (might affect the X360 version too) and the PS3 version has this horrible sound bug that they fixed in the 1.01 bug at launch but then re-introduced in the 1.02 patch (and it's impossible to go from retail game to 1.01 now) that makes all the sound effects (not dialogue or music) sound horribly muffled and low volume.  So the sound mix is just nasty and sucks.  Man, I wish there was a PC version like Psychonauts.  The tech problems aren't game killing, but they sure do bring the enjoyment down a notch.
(snip)

Sadly, yes, the framerate stutter is there on the 360 version as well. It's a noticeable hitch whenever driving the Druid Plow around, though it doesn't seem to show up during races IIRC. Considering how gorgeous the world is, I wish it could have been presented in buttery smooth goodness.

Get ready for a steep change in difficulty after a couple of those RTS fights. Once you get to the skirmish at the Dry Ice Quarry, it is ON LIKE DONKEY KONG.

[Great Rumbler]

I'm not kidding, it's one of the worst RPGs on PSX.  We're talking Beyond the Beyond level shit here.

You shut your filthy mouth, Ichi.

[cool breeze]

Tomb Raider Underworld is too short  :'(

[Enl]

Played through and finish Ghouls 'n Ghosts last night since it's been about a good decade since I've last played through it to completion. Love the sheer amount of mispellings in the ending:

[youtube=560,345]oJsTN2mlW2o&hl=en_US&fs=1&[/youtube]

[Kestastrophe]

Playing GTA IV on pc and I have reached the point to where I remember why I quit playing when it first came out.

-no mid mission checkpoints
-getting busted is stupid and cheap. I don't even understand why its possible to get busted when you are still able to be killed by cops
-When you respawn after dying or getting busted, you lose all of your fucking weapons and armor 
-restarting missions is useless when you still have to drive all over hell to get where the mission actually starts

I was having a blast because I enjoy the gameplay much more on pc version, but now it feels like a chore to play. Please tell me they fixed this shit in the Stories Expacs 

[demi]

Nope. But I just used cheats before a mission when going for the 100% achievement on Gay Tony

[Kestastrophe]

Cheats don't disable cheevs?

[Bebpo]

Nope. But I just used cheats before a mission when going for the 100% achievement on Gay Tony

Probably the only way I will ever enjoy GTAIV

[demi]

Cheats don't disable cheevs?

There are some that do I think, but the ones like health and ammo dont, as long as you dont do them during a mission. I even spawned a helicopter near the mission start so I could get to places faster.

[Kestastrophe]

I was having so much fun, at this point I don't even care if I get achievements. I just want to be able to enjoy the game  :'(

[Smooth Groove]

Playing GTA IV on pc and I have reached the point to where I remember why I quit playing when it first came out.

-no mid mission checkpoints
-getting busted is stupid and cheap. I don't even understand why its possible to get busted when you are still able to be killed by cops
-When you respawn after dying or getting busted, you lose all of your fucking weapons and armor 
-restarting missions is useless when you still have to drive all over hell to get where the mission actually starts

I was having a blast because I enjoy the gameplay much more on pc version, but now it feels like a chore to play. Please tell me they fixed this shit in the Stories Expacs 

Nope. But I just used cheats before a mission when going for the 100% achievement on Gay Tony

Probably the only way I will ever enjoy GTAIV

You should check out the mods.  

http://www.thegtaplace.com/downloads/f3563-gta-iv-simple-native-trainer-v1-0

[Bebpo]

Brutal Legend is like a really, really bad game.  It's bad like Deadly Premonitions except not in a lololol way :\

I don't think this was the game Double Fine was up to the challenge of making.  Psychonauts was good even if the actual "gameplay" part of it was a bit amateurish because the level design and art/writing really carried it.  The art is really the only thing carrying this game :X

[Ichirou]

I'm not kidding, it's one of the worst RPGs on PSX.  We're talking Beyond the Beyond level shit here.

You shut your filthy mouth, Ichi.

It's true, bro.

[Great Rumbler]

I'm not kidding, it's one of the worst RPGs on PSX.  We're talking Beyond the Beyond level shit here.

You shut your filthy mouth, Ichi.

It's true, bro.

No it's not! Legend of Legaia was a really fun game!

[Positive Touch]

Legend of Legaia was a piece of fucking shit ass game.  It's a boring dungeon crawler (with VERY HEAVY emphasis on the crawl), but instead of mashing X to get thru fights you have to wiggle the joystick.  It is totally not fun or rewarding at all.  Also, the graphics suck ass.  DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME

[Great Rumbler]

Lots of wrong opinions ITT.

[Bebpo]

I never played the first Legaia.  But I played the 2nd one and it was ooook at the time for a early gen ps2 rpg.  It wasn't great or even good, but it was passable.

[demi]

Legend of Legaia was a piece of fucking shit ass game.  It's a boring dungeon crawler (with VERY HEAVY emphasis on the crawl), but instead of mashing X to get thru fights you have to wiggle the joystick.  It is totally not fun or rewarding at all.  Also, the graphics suck ass.  DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME

You deserve to be uninvited to cool parties

[Bebpo]

The message boards for Legaia 1 & 2 are still really active on gamefaqs in 2010

w...t....f

[Ichirou]

How about how you have to hit like twenty buttons just to make an attack?  Legaia was an awful game.

[demi]

The message boards for Legaia 1 & 2 are still really active on gamefaqs in 2010

w...t....f

Good games never die. Except Legaia 2, I cant explain that. That one was poooop

[The Sceneman]

Legend of Legaia owns. Damn that Songi!

[Raban]

Getting back into WoW. I've missed you, baby!

[Don Flamenco]

Getting back into WoW. I've missed you, baby!

smh

[Raban]

Getting back into WoW. I've missed you, baby!

smh

It's a good game to get me back into traditional RPGs so I can prepare to knock out my JRPG backlog.

[Stoney Mason]

Bayonetta came in for me on Gamefly. This should be interesting as I'm not generally big on this genre. Definitely going to play it on whatever is the "normal" difficulty.

[demi]

Bayonetta came in for me on Gamefly. This should be interesting as I'm not generally big on this genre. Definitely going to play it on whatever is the "normal" difficulty.

That would be "Hard" mode

[Stoney Mason]

Not for me.

[demi]

You should just play Automatic one button pusher

[Stoney Mason]

Only if normal proves too hard.

 

[Raban]

Only if normal proves too hard.

 

If you're just trolling demi, lol, otherwise, Bayonetta isn't nearly half the game on lesser difficulties. It isn't even that hard.