What are you playing?

[Smooth Groove]

I think Castlevania 2 on the NES was the only Castlevania that I ever played through.  Terribly overrated series, imo. 

[OptimoPeach]

Been away for a week so got down with a DS, played Castlevania: OOE. Never played through a Castlevania game before. Love Super Metroid and finished Shadow Complex last week so I'm pretty down with the formula. Order of Ecclesia is damn good, I found it more challenging than both SM and SC too.

OOE is the worst Metroidvania iteration on DS by a wide margin, so if you're liking that one then get your hands on Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin

I think Castlevania 2 on the NES was the only Castlevania that I ever played through.  Terribly overrated series, imo. 

lol well to be fair Castlevania 2 is notorious for how awful it is in comparison to the series. It's like using The Adventure of Link and FF8 as barometers for the general quality of their respective series. Download Super Castlevania or SOTN and you'll probably understand the love

[Beezy]

Choosing right now between PC: Splinter Cell Conviction, Assassin's Creed 2, Batman:AA,  360: Bayonetta, Red Dead Redemption , PS3:Demon's Souls.  I want to give Demon's Souls a try but I don't want to turn into a monstrous Sfag since I've just finished Heavy Rain and GOW3 not too long before it. 

Batman is good and short, but easy. Bayonetta is amazing and as long as your average action game. It can be difficult your first time through on normal if you suck at japanese action games. Haven't played the rest.

Think I'll take your pick.  I haven't really played a great Jap fighting-action game this gen.  DMC3 was kinda bland and NG2 had too many problems to be considered great.

[chronovore]

Batman is soooooooooooooooo good. It has that Metroidvania mechanics that I simply adore.

I've got to go back to it at some point. I'll have to restart, as I've forgotten all the controls now.

[Bebpo]

Xenoblade is pretty cool.  It's kind of the first wjrpg and disproves the theory that you can't have big open game & tight storytelling at the same time.  Basically FFXII but bigger, deeper battle system, more stuff to do and more story.

[Great Rumbler]

Xenoblade is pretty cool.  It's kind of the first wjrpg and disproves the theory that you can't have big open game & tight storytelling at the same time.  Basically FFXII but bigger, deeper battle system, more stuff to do and more story.

Tell me more about the battle system, if you will.

Also, I've heard that the cities are overly large and kind of on the empty side. And, the game has fast-travel, right?

Also, also, how is the story?

[Bebpo]

Battle system is like an MMO.  You auto-attack and have special attacks (arts) that refill over time (no mp).  What makes it interesting is attacks do different things based on positioning.  Like one of the first arts will cause attack down debuff if you hit an enemy from the side.  Another will do much higher damage from the back.  There are other little parts to it, like some attacks cause stun and then from stun some attacks knock an enemy down.  Some enemies can only be hurt when knocked down.  There's also party stuff and vision where you see the future if an enemy is going to do an attack that will kill a character in your party and you can prevent it.

Game has TONS of loot.  Use the loot to trade with NPCs like .hack, or sell it and buy stuff, or craft it into gems you can equip, or equip it (all visible).  It's very much a diablo-esque loot game like his last game Soma Bringer.

The cities are big, but it's not a huge deal because of no loading fast travel.  The environments are huge.  Honestly I feel like they are too big and wish I could run faster.  Feels like traveling in an MMO.

Story is good.  Lots of cutscenes, good writing/direction.  Good characters, much better than your typical rpg cast.  Plot is solid.  Has mysteries and foreshadowing and stuff from the start.

Graphics are ok.  Nice scope, good animation, awful textures/models.  Music is ok, some great tunes here and there so far.

[OptimoPeach]

Trying to play Legend of Mana as a followup to my SD3 play-through, but the whole build-your-own-world thing isn't any less annoying than it was 10 years ago. The combat also feels less fluid than SD3 somehow. I dunno. I really want to like it because everything is so pretty and the music is incredible, but I'm not exactly hooked by the gameplay.

Honestly I think I might just play Legend of Legaia instead. Still haven't mustered up the inspiration to finish FF13

[Great Rumbler]

Battle system is like an MMO.  You auto-attack and have special attacks (arts) that refill over time (no mp).  What makes it interesting is attacks do different things based on positioning.  Like one of the first arts will cause attack down debuff if you hit an enemy from the side.  Another will do much higher damage from the back.  There are other little parts to it, like some attacks cause stun and then from stun some attacks knock an enemy down.  Some enemies can only be hurt when knocked down.  There's also party stuff and vision where you see the future if an enemy is going to do an attack that will kill a character in your party and you can prevent it.

Game has TONS of loot.  Use the loot to trade with NPCs like .hack, or sell it and buy stuff, or craft it into gems you can equip, or equip it (all visible).  It's very much a diablo-esque loot game like his last game Soma Bringer.

The cities are big, but it's not a huge deal because of no loading fast travel.  The environments are huge.  Honestly I feel like they are too big and wish I could run faster.  Feels like traveling in an MMO.

Story is good.  Lots of cutscenes, good writing/direction.  Good characters, much better than your typical rpg cast.  Plot is solid.  Has mysteries and foreshadowing and stuff from the start.

Graphics are ok.  Nice scope, good animation, awful textures/models.  Music is ok, some great tunes here and there so far.

Sounds pretty good, can't wait for Nintendo to get it localized for the Americas.

[demi]

Trying to play Legend of Mana as a followup to my SD3 play-through, but the whole build-your-own-world thing isn't any less annoying than it was 10 years ago. The combat also feels less fluid than SD3 somehow. I dunno. I really want to like it because everything is so pretty and the music is incredible, but I'm not exactly hooked by the gameplay.

Honestly I think I might just play Legend of Legaia instead. Still haven't mustered up the inspiration to finish FF13

Legend of Mana is poop. Legaia is the shit though. A classic

The battle music is so bass

[Great Rumbler]

Legend of Mana is awesome, but it's a lot different from most other JRPGs. It's got a relaxing feel to it and it's pretty easy, I've been playing through and I don't think I've died yet or really come across a battle that I couldn't handle. But, I really like all of the little stories and sidequests that the game offers and it's got some really stunning locations and backgrounds.

[demi]

Poop

[OptimoPeach]

I actually died on one of the first boss battles I did, but that's because the hitboxes are so funky and the timing of techs is weird.

Poop

But it's sooooooooo pretty :'(

Maybe I'll rip my copy of Legaia and just play Mana sidequests on the side

[Great Rumbler]

I actually died on one of the first boss battles I did, but that's because the hitboxes are so funky and the timing of techs is weird.

Yeah, techs are awful, they take forever to do and most of the time you end up missing because the monster moved out of the way. 

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Sent back Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce to Gamefly.  I started to warm up to it but chilled right away as the objectives became more elaborate without really explaining anything.  The game was not good enough to check out an FAQ.  I eventually started to enjoy the grindy nature of the game, letting the assistant officers do most of the dirty work with me getting in a few hits here and there.  The game is still almost pure jank, a game that probably was barely acceptable with PSP standards when it came out for that.  It was a lazy port up and I don't think anyone was pretending otherwise.  I've fallen out of love with the Musou franchise but I'll probably rent the Fist of the North Star game when it comes out.

Got Forza Motorsport 3 in the mail.  Never played the first two and played the hell out of Gran Turismo 3.  Forza is well done but not very exciting.  It does have a much better sense of speed than GT, which 95% of the time is like watching paint dry or grass grow.  Even better is that it is not as grind oriented as GT.  There is some grinding but I hated having to race a dozen races to get an upgrade in my suspension.  So I like the quick upgrade feature.  The tracks are decent.  I've put three hours into the game and could see myself catassing the game this weekend because I'm getting FFXIII next.

[chronovore]

Lips: I Love the '80s arrived, so I've been playing that and Red Dead CA Redemption 5¢.

Avatar awards! Check the sportjacket and piano tie:


Have more Lips stuff to rant about now, so will necro that thread for venom, but I've enjoyed singing 40 songs in the last 24 hours. Could have used a Thomas Dolby song in there, but I guess he was more popular in the US than the UK? While I'm on that, who the hell are The Communards?

[Eric P]

Oblivion.  Modding this looks so complicated.

[Raban]

More and more TF2 every. Fucking. Day. Goty, gotg, gotf, literally the greatest achievement of mankind.

[Great Rumbler]

Oblivion.  Modding this looks so complicated.

It's really not that bad. Just download the Oblivion Mod Manager, it lets you select which mods you want to use and which you don't.

[Bebpo]

XENOBLADE

fuck, it's FFXII over again.  I'm going to have 90 hours in this sucker by next week I bet ^^;

[archie4208]

I'm in the last chapter of The Witcher.  Awesome story, bad gameplay.  Hopefully The Witcher 2 is more fun to play.

[Bebpo]

I'm in the last chapter of The Witcher.  Awesome story, bad gameplay.  Hopefully The Witcher 2 is more fun to play.

That's the impression I got from the first hour.  Was really impressed until I had to fight stuff and then I was like uhmmmmmm

Will still play it eventually because I like the art and I've only heard good things about the story.

[brawndolicious]

I'm nearly done with Bioshock 2, I just got to the last area in the game right after you get the final plasmid...

I immediately noticed that the combat is so much smoother than the first game, yet it's harder too since you have much tougher enemies.  One thing that I'm sure I'm in the minority of is that I think the story is actually more well-developed than the first game, with even the audio diaries' writing and locations seeming much better written/coherent in how they explain what has happened in Rapture since the last game.  The new villains are also really good and more interesting to me than the ones in the first game.

After this, I'll probably go into Brutal Legend.

[Bebpo]

Xenoblade

...this shit just got real

[Raban]

I'm nearly done with Bioshock 2, I just got to the last area in the game right after you get the final plasmid...

I immediately noticed that the combat is so much smoother than the first game, yet it's harder too since you have much tougher enemies.  One thing that I'm sure I'm in the minority of is that I think the story is actually more well-developed than the first game, with even the audio diaries' writing and locations seeming much better written/coherent in how they explain what has happened in Rapture since the last game.  The new villains are also really good and more interesting to me than the ones in the first game.

After this, I'll probably go into Brutal Legend.

I was anti-hype for Bioshock 2 at launch but as time has worn on and people don't even mention it, I'm much more interested in it now. I'm happy to hear that it's superior technically to the first. I really don't care for the first Bioshock. The repetition was extremely annoying, and the characters weren't interesting at all. It didn't help that the game was basically a remake of System Shock 2, making the plot pretty easy to spoil for yourself.

[brawndolicious]

Yeah, the exposition and the gameplay is a lot tighter now.  Even the level design is linear, so less backtracking and repetition.

[magus]

XENOBLADE

fuck, it's FFXII over again.  I'm going to have 90 hours in this sucker by next week I bet ^^;

that... doesn't sound like a good thing

[Bebpo]

I guess if you don't like FFXII, sure.
It's a huge game if you take the time to explore and do quests and fight rare mobs.   Could end up being what FFXII was trying to be if Matsuno hadn't died of eye cancer and the project fallen apart.

looks like a psp game in stills though 

[archie4208]

I'm in the last chapter of The Witcher.  Awesome story, bad gameplay.  Hopefully The Witcher 2 is more fun to play.

That's the impression I got from the first hour.  Was really impressed until I had to fight stuff and then I was like uhmmmmmm

Will still play it eventually because I like the art and I've only heard good things about the story.

Yeah the story is worth trudging through all the Euro RPG jankiness.

Edit:  I just beat the game.  The final cinematic was so worth it. 

[Beezy]

XENOBLADE

fuck, it's FFXII over again.  I'm going to have 90 hours in this sucker by next week I bet ^^;

Like FFXII? Please tell me that it let's you fight your own battles.

[Bebpo]

You have more control over your character than FFXII.  But you have no control over your teammates for the most part.

Game still auto-battles but you have a bar of special attacks that you can use immediately and then they have their own individual charge times.  Positioning matters as does chaining certain attacks to knock enemies down or paralyze them to do more damage.

[Joe Molotov]

Beat Mana Khemia. Gust games always have such great soundtracks to uguu~ to.

[youtube=560,345]ipNKfOEdDDM[/youtube]

[youtube=560,345]2guiRH2FsSk[/youtube]

[youtube=560,345]_rd2QSapOAI[/youtube]

[youtube=560,345]LlkVvrKu9yg[/youtube]

[Bebpo]

So every once and a while I get addicted to a game and it's bad for my health.
Like I put in 30 hours in 4 days, 60 hours in 8 days, etc...
My eyes start turning right and feel hard to stay open
I feel out of it, like when you have a fever and there's a layer between you and the world
and I don't get enough sleep for days
It's not a good thing and I don't like when this happens.  Luckily it takes a rare game that to do this to me.

I remember the first time I played FF3 (FF6j) in jr. high and I couldn't put it down.  Then same thing happened for Chrono Trigger.
Then in high school that week straight of FF7
Then in my Japanese dorm, the week straight of Xenogears and later the 2 day playthrough of all 30 hours of Xenosaga ep1

I remember when FFXII came out and I played 91 hours straight in a week or so. 

Now it's happening again with Xenoblade >_<  I feel like I should go to sleep right now and get a full 8 hours sleep to get back to normal, but I want to see what happens next
so hard not to put hand on controller and load game.  If I move forward and trigger the next scene/location it'll end up being 3 hours later and I'll have explored half of it and done a half dozen sidequests. 
Arghghhhgh.  Why are you so addicting, big epic jrpgssss

[brob]

FF12 looks nice when emulated. Doesn't fix the game though, just the graphics. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Bebpo]

so pretty

[Raban]

FF12 looks nice when emulated. Doesn't fix the game though, just the graphics. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

Shut up, bitch!

[magus]

go joe!
do mana khemia 2 or ar tonelico 2 next

[tiesto]

Grinding out the Arena in Resonance of Fate. 31 ranks down, 19 to go...

[Great Rumbler]

Now it's happening again with Xenoblade >_<  I feel like I should go to sleep right now and get a full 8 hours sleep to get back to normal, but I want to see what happens next
so hard not to put hand on controller and load game.  If I move forward and trigger the next scene/location it'll end up being 3 hours later and I'll have explored half of it and done a half dozen sidequests. 

You're killing me, man, KILLING ME.  :'(

[Bebpo]

An illustrated guide to why Xenoblade rocks



This is a bridge



This is the river that runs below it.  You can jump off the bridge and swim downstream and stop and find stuff on the little beaches along the way.



This is the lake that the river comes from.  You can explore that entire lake and there's actually stuff to find in it.

and random pretty picture:

[brawndolicious]

This is for the wii?  Why does it look like it has effort in it?!

[bork]

NeoGeo Battle Coliseum (360): Now over 100 wins in ranked.  I think I'm like 145 on the leaderboards.  My current team is Mr. Big and Mai, the latter I will sometimes substitute with Tung, Athena, Kim, or King Lion.  I'd read before that the game's top tiers dominate the game, and I believe it.  You definitely have an advantage if you have Big, Kim, or Hotaru on your team.  Mr. Big is great for obliterating scrubs; his spinning baton attack stops high-attack crap and his "psycho crusher" goes over ground-based fireballs. King Lion's counter and fireball will shut down anyone who has no idea how to properly play the game.  I am amazed that people still don't know you can guard step through projectiles and assorted attacks...it's crucial to playing the game well.  They just spam fireballs, jumping HK/crouching HK, and spam crouching LPs/LKs.  Unless there's some bad lag, that shit isn't going to work...scrubs have far less of a chance of winning in SNK games than they do in Street Fighter.  Nothing sadder than watching people attempt flowchart Ken tactics (it doesn't work at all) with Hanzo and Fuma.

Super Street Fighter IV (PS3/360): Still dominating almost all my video game play time.  I am finally beginning to feel a bit burned out and have been trying to play other stuff instead, but I keep on coming back to this game.

Lost Planet 2 (360): Haven't played this as much lately but I am about to hit level 50.  The recent patch has made playing versus games a lot better; you can now run and climb much faster, they've balanced out the weapons, and mechs now drain your T-Energy at the faster pace they should be when you use big energy weapons.  I still greatly dislike that you cannot get any points to use towards unlocking weapons/abilities/etc. from playing ranked matches; it's distinguished mentally-challenged that you can only get these points from playing ranked.  That should have been addressed in the patch.  It also would have been nice if they changed the campaign mode so that you can use your own custom character right from the start rather than after you clear the game once.

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker (PSP): Very slowly going through the game, mainly just doing the story missions.  It's fun, but it's not grabbing me like MGS3 Subsistence did.  The first boss fight wasn't particularly engaging and just felt tedious. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I took out and fulton'd all the guards accompanying the tank, then shot up its fuel tanks until the gunner popped up, and tranq'd him.  It wasn't difficult, just sloooooooooow.

[close]

  I hope it gets better.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney (iPhone): Replaying this game for the first time on the iPhone.  It's been so long since I played the original that the stories feel new again.

Hokuto Musou (PS3): Played a few DLC challenge levels with Mamiya; got my ass KICKED.  It's tough!  Then I started on Shin's Illusion Mode.  He plays a lot like Rei but feels more enjoyable to use.

[magus]

that's how every boss fight in peace walker it is with the exception of the AI weapons

[bork]

that's how every boss fight in peace walker it is with the exception of the AI weapons

That's what I was afraid of.     Even Portable Ops had one-on-one boss fights that felt very much like the classic MGS-style boss fights.  Guess the problem was they couldn't do that with multiplayer being available?

[Bebpo]

This is for the wii?  Why does it look like it has effort in it?!

Because it's the first real rpg Nintendo has published in decades, so they actually gave it some money and time.  Apparently the development was 3 years.  Most of the team that did Xenosaga Ep3 probably went straight to working on XB, while some went to Soma Bringer on DS and then after that finished went to Xenoblade.

...and apparently the game has dropped off NoA's list of published titles as of today.  NoA is such a joke.  I'm still surprised Sin & Punishment 2 is finally coming out later this month.

[Great Rumbler]

This is for the wii?  Why does it look like it has effort in it?!

...and apparently the game has dropped off NoA's list of published titles as of today.  NoA is such a joke.

WHAT?!

[magus]

[The Sceneman]

I'm back to playing Peggle XBLA again 

Just 12 more challenges in Peggle Nights to complete, and thats my 250/250. I cant believe I even have 230/250, the achievements are ridiculous

[magus]

ehy bebpo
you think classic dungeon is light enough on text that i can play it even if i'm not japanese savy?
i really want to play a nippon ichi game that's not disgaea/soul nomad/makai kingdom/phantom brave

[archie4208]

I just bought Arcanum off GOG.  Time for some janky WRPG goodness.

[Great Rumbler]

I just bought Arcanum off GOG.  Time for some janky WRPG goodness.

Aw yeah!

[Bebpo]

ehy bebpo
you think classic dungeon is light enough on text that i can play it even if i'm not japanese savy?
i really want to play a nippon ichi game that's not disgaea/soul nomad/makai kingdom/phantom brave

Dunno, I think it's all numbers.  There isn't a lot of Japanese.  Learn enough Japanese to play it.  Are there any guides in English on the web?

[magus]

not that i could find... i tried it and the actual game seemed simple but the thing below it are so confusing like... i get it,i have different schemes but how do i get new one? is it a level up thing? what are those green gem that i can put in power up place for? can i make new character or do they simply join? why certain power up won't activate? why the character have different schemes?

[Bebpo]

-you get more schemes as you level up.  Each class has a unique set
-you get more characters as you advance the story.  Soon you'll get the ability to make your own
-The green things give you more placement stat, setting down stat modifiers cost placement stat, the ones you set won't activate if you don't have enough placement stat
-you need to equip your spells in the scheme menu.  Different for each class but you keep them when you job change.  The tentacle monsters can only be killed by the opposite color magic

The only thing in Japanese that's really important besides the stat modifiers is on the schemes you see text connected to circles.  The text is like HP-50%, XP+200%, etc... whoever you put in there will be effected.

[Positive Touch]

fucking awesome i'm actually stuck in a game.  mass effect 2 no less.  stupid-ass scion husks drop my whole team in like a minute and i cant fight them off with all the regular husks beating on me.  still got lots more patience before i go into controller-throwing mode tho.

[demi]

Scion Husks are the fat ones? They have a weak spot on the side, a little head that moves around. The regular husks fry in one shot from Incinerate

[Positive Touch]

thanks but i just got past it by getting really lucky while leading the husks in a circle.  this boss is fucking annoying because my teammates won't get out of the way fast enough

[magus]

you know what?
i surrender
too much moon language
will wait for the us version if it ever get released

[Bebpo]

you know what?
i surrender
too much moon language
will wait for the us version if it ever get released

 

Learn Japanese!  It's fun!! 

[magus]

if it was just learning a new language i would do it
but it's learning a new alphabet!
an alphabet where a lot of letter looks the same