What are you playing?

[Rusty Shackleford]

PSP games still do look good. Having Disgaea portable is great too. Great portable PS1 rpg system.

Ghosts n Goblins on the NES was balls hard. The kicker was that if you didn't use the correct weapon to kill the end boss, the game sent you back to the beginning(?) You didn't get the real ending, at any rate. God that game was aggravating. They don't build em like the NES anymore.

[Rusty Shackleford]

That's what it was! It's been a long time. It was like a cross or a shield with a cross on it or something. I gave up and used the Game Genie on it as a kid. God the Game Genie was awesome back then. Do funky things in SMB3 and then cheat to finish impossible games

[Rusty Shackleford]

That "Most mundane RPG you've played" on GAF almost makes me want to go back and play Lufia on the SNES. Pretty meh RPG but nostalgia. Then I remember the godawful encounter rate (literally every 4-5 steps).

[StealthFan]

I think mine would be Summoner or some other equally forgettable PS2 JRPG.

I remember Azure Dreams and Jade Cocoon with a

[Rusty Shackleford]

Kemco did Lagoon and Drakkhen on the SNES right? I remember reading about them in Nintendo Power as a kid. Lagoon was pretty bad. The guy had a butter knife as weapon. I think it was even shorter than the sword from Zelda II.

[magus]

I think mine would be Summoner or some other equally forgettable PS2 JRPG.

I remember Azure Dreams and Jade Cocoon with a

azure dreams was a good game and it doesn't play like much else so i'm not sure i would call it mundane... it's a roguelike/monster collecting mashup so in a sense it's sort of like pokemon mysterious dungeon well before it happened, with the loot you get from the dungeon, you can build new stuff in the city which adds a small element of city building to the game, some of the stuff you can build is also pretty silly like a bowling alley or a race track, there is also a dating element to it too kinda like a very simplified version of persona 3/4

oh and you can build a swimming pool to see the girls you hook up with in a swimming suit

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/azuredreams/azuredreams.htm

jade cocoon.... it had arts from studio ghibli, yeeeeeeeepppppp

[ferrarimanf355]

There's a sale on Steam for Pinball FX2 tables, so I grabbed a bunch of 'em. Gonna play some of the Marvel tables and get into this. Virtual pinball is so fun...

[chronovore]

Dark Souls (1). Still haven't beaten it because work was keeping me busy.   

I'm also making my second attempt on this game; I've just rang the second bell, nearly three years after ringing the first bell. Three year gap in Achievements, and all I have to show for it is a palette-swapped version of the first graphic.

Join me in the official Dark Souls thread, where I document how many ways there are to fail.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Volgarr. It is a good and fun and nice game.

[The Sceneman]

Dark Souls (1). Still haven't beaten it because work was keeping me busy.   

I'm also making my second attempt on this game; I've just rang the second bell, nearly three years after ringing the first bell. Three year gap in Achievements, and all I have to show for it is a palette-swapped version of the first graphic.

Join me in the official Dark Souls thread, where I document how many ways there are to fail.

I still think Dark Souls is the best game I played last gen. All the hours of gameplay and thrills and spills are timeless!

[chronovore]

Dark Souls (1). Still haven't beaten it because work was keeping me busy.   

I'm also making my second attempt on this game; I've just rang the second bell, nearly three years after ringing the first bell. Three year gap in Achievements, and all I have to show for it is a palette-swapped version of the first graphic.

Join me in the official Dark Souls thread, where I document how many ways there are to fail.

I still think Dark Souls is the best game I played last gen. All the hours of gameplay and thrills and spills are timeless!

I'll agree that it's one of the best games I've played. It is unforgiving. It is a throwback to an earlier era of non-handholding entertainment. The onus to succeed is definitely on the player. The TrueAchievements ratio for the Achievements is truly telling: nearly 65,000 tracked gamers, but only 28,000 have made it to the first Bell, and only 22,000 made it to the lower Bell.

I'm playing it smarter this time than last, and that's helping, but I'm still getting clowned pretty frequently. It feels pretty awesome when I'm in the groove, though!

[The Legend of Sunblade]

I really shouldn't start this today but who am I kidding I can't control myself. 

[Joe Molotov]

Gonna pick up my copy later this evening.

[cosmicblizzard]

Enjoy DR2.  It will leave you an emotional wreck at points, but it's amazing.

[magus]

i remember when dangan ronpa was an import only game and i desperately tried to have people talk about it, now it's sequel is out in the US on a vita and i've been left in the dust

[magus]

being poor sure does suck

don't you have any shit to give to himu? shoo! you horrible man!

[cosmicblizzard]

i remember when dangan ronpa was an import only game and i desperately tried to have people talk about it, now it's sequel is out in the US on a vita and i've been left in the dust

Hey, might have taken a bit longer, but it's a hot topic now and people love it.  And you can even be all hipster about it saying you liked it back in 2010 before it was cool.

[magus]

hey, I'm poor too these days

we're like brothers, except I'm the brother that doesn't steal shit

ehy, my stealing is accelerating the console gaming industry death, you should thank me!

[magus]

actualy i own an original copy of FF8, i'm more ashamed of that than of all the other stuff i've ever pirated

[cosmicblizzard]

am i allowed to laugh at adults becoming emotionally wrecked from a game my junior high school students laugh at the ridiculousness of?

i'm going to anyway i guess this just affects how you feel about it

Eh, their loss.

[brob]

Are you subtweeting yourself with that one, oscar?

[cosmicblizzard]

Such a bully :/


Trying to remember the last time I got feels from a game before DR2.  It's definitely been a while.  Probably high school or something.

[demi]

I got the feels when my waifu Hifumi got whacked. Dont feel bad. At least Byakuya will take over.

[cosmicblizzard]

Hifumi major waifu material.

[brob]

I remember getting real emotional in Devil May Cry 1 when the game decided to switch up how the game is played by making the first form of the last boss a Space Harrier segment. Invert controls and everything. 

Can't think of anything else tho

[Joe Molotov]

5 minutes in and a Little Mermaid reference.

[cosmicblizzard]

Oh, I think it was actually Persona 4 the last time I got emotional over a game pre-DR2.  Before that, probably some other weaboo shit.

[Rufus]

I remember getting real emotional in Devil May Cry 1 when the game decided to switch up how the game is played by making the first form of the last boss a Space Harrier segment. Invert controls and everything.

I never finished the game on the hardest difficulty because of that fight. Fucking bullshit. It wasn't enough that I was playing the inferior 50Hz PAListan version.

[cosmicblizzard]

Still better than the bike mission in Bayonetta.

[Rufus]

Couldn't be, because I don't even remember it.

[brob]

It wasn't enough that I was playing the inferior 50Hz PAListan version.

I played and beat so many 60Hz NTSC games on my 13" 50Hz TV.

Okami in black and white

[Rufus]

First game I imported was Persona 3 FES.

Imports games but doesn't buy an RGB cable, tsk tsk.

[cool breeze]

I know that feeling.  the 360 might've been the first system I didn't buy RF cables for.

[brob]

 

First game I imported was Persona 3 FES.

Imports games but doesn't buy an RGB cable, tsk tsk.

Do you think a shitass 13" porta-TV had RGB, u coddled ball of privilege 

I dunno about u, but I grew up in a time when we didn't buy new televisions willy-nilly. I was lucky my dad had been given a small tv by a friend otherwise I'd be queuing up for the one in the living room to play anything at all. 

[Rufus]

I've only ever owned two 30cm mini-TVs, the first one my mom gave away to relatives, the second one I still keep around. It's a Grundig with PAL-60 support. I hope it never dies. X3

Though every game that doesn't let you adjust the display area hurts. I think the thing needs calibrating, but I'm too scared to open it up and look for a way to do that.

[brob]

playing 60Hz in 50Hz often fucked with the centering too. Played Shinobi with the top inch missing.

[cool breeze]

in trying to find the type of portable tv I had in the 90s, I'm discovering it might've been some leftover from the 80s. 

[Rufus]

[tiesto]

Making steady progress in Lightning Returns, up to the 7th day and just have to beat the Wilderness area temple as far as main quests go, then wrap up some of the bonus stuff like beat the bonus dungeon and the super challenging Aeronite boss. The game's gotten a bit better once I learned all the systems but still probably my least favorite of the 13 saga. Also the Dunes dungeon was horrible...

[chronovore]

it's okay cosmic, i'm sure somewhere in japan there's a grown-ass man catching feels over the story in the imported spider-man game he bought

Jesus, it's like you're staring over my shoulder.

[StealthFan]

Murdered: Soul Suspect

That gameplay tho The only shit that is straight trash is the stealth segments with the demons. It's tacked on action bullshit in a game that didn't need any of it.

Also: it doesn't look that bad. The average NPC looks like last gen trash but the MC and other important characters look nice. The enivoroments have some detail and the writing is decent. I've gotten some lols from random conversations. The main mystery is interesting enough. Not bad.

[brob]

the bike and flying bits in Bayonetta were less annoying imo since they were pretty hard to out-right fail and checkpointing in Bayo is better. DMC1's final boss fight starts with a pretty tough flying bit and if you game over in the later bits you have to do it again.

I was also much better at action games when I played Bayonetta, and DMC1 was basically the first game of that very specific sort so it makes sense that these incidental flourishes in Bayo are easier.

[cosmicblizzard]

Honestly, I don't hate the bike missions as much as everyone else.  I'd even say it was somewhat fun.  Still not on the same level as the rest of the game.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Volgarr is so so good. This is the type of classic game design I wish more games were emulating these days.

[StealthFan]

Murdered: Soul Suspect was pretty good, I thought. The gameplay itself was eh but I liked the story for sure.

[CatsCatsCats]

Portal 2. It's pretty neat

[chronovore]

Went back and tried Ascend: Hand of Kul by Signal Studios, makers of Toy Soldiers. The latter is a really fun game which is clear in its goals, straightforward in its gameplay and fun. The former is not.

Also, I'm sad because I stayed up late last night trying to finish a dungeon, which ended with me getting some of my first really good loot in the game, only to have the server d/c and drop me back at the Start Menu. When I went through the loading process AGAIN, just to check my character, the XP gains were saved, but all my items were gone.

[deepest throat]

man this fanfic sidequest in SR4 is fuking hilarious 

[Bebpo]

Started playing Short hair Devil May Cry and hey, it's pretty damn legit.  It's a really solid copy of the Devil May Cry formula, just missing some of the depth and small touches that DMC1/3/4 had.  Definitely leagues better DMC2, though I wish it had more boss fights at this point.  Too bad the game didn't perform well; I'd actually be ok with Ninja Theory making more these from what I've played after a few hours.  Especially if the alternative is killing off the franchise.  There's something about the style grinding, rpg upgrading, multiple difficulties gameplay that's really unique and satisfying. 

Might need to play Enslaved after this.


Oh and considering this DMC is basically a Silent Hill game with real world transforming to hellish limbo, I'd be curious to see Ninja Theory do a Silent Hill at some point. 

[Bebpo]

Volgarr is so so good. This is the type of classic game design I wish more games were emulating these days.

You mean trial & error?

Because I don't think that ever was or is good gameplay design.  Demon/Dark Souls does Volgarr but better imo.

[chronovore]

Might need to play Enslaved after this.

I like Enslaved a lot. It's pretty, and has pretty decent gameplay for something which feels like so much content tourism. Sceneman LOVED the DLC for it.

[archnemesis]

Heavenly Sword is also alright.

[Rufus]

Mars: War Logs
...is actually kind of OK so far. I played until you escape the POW camp. Crafting equipment is cool and combat is somewhat clunky but gets better with the right upgrades.
It got me thinking that C tier gaming is fucked from inception though. Unless there's a better/more experienced dev producing them, waiting for a AAA games to drop its price looks like the better alternative than getting a reduced version of a similar concept with a seriously shoddy translation. Indie games with interesting premises look much more appealing in comparison.

[StealthFan]

DmC wasn't bad but the corridor design was boring as fuck.

[Bebpo]

Taken as its own thing, DmC is pretty good.  It falls apart at higher difficulties, and its skill game isn't even fit to lick the boots of the genre greats, but I think 90% of people who buy DMC games don't really give a shit about that stuff.  Compared to DMC1/3/4, it looks pretty bad, compared to DMC2, it looks pretty good, but it's all kind of beside the point because the real reason it failed was cosmetic.  Like, I guarantee the sales would have been more than double if they had just swapped in the familiar models for Dante and Vergil.  It's easily Ninja Theory's best game, shame Capcom pretty much fucked them over from the start on it.

Yeah, I can't really comment on the challenge skill stuff on the starting difficulty since it's real easy.  I mean enemy patterns so far seem typical DMC with grunts that stand around and tougher enemies that signal attacks.  Attacks seem a bit less "tight".  Not a huge fan of the new weapons (DMC3 still has the BEST weapons and DMC4 Nero's arm is awesome), but they bring a little variety.

Honestly my biggest complaint is just that the controls are really confusing and intuitive.  Like if you want to do a split second dodge roll for increased attack damage you need to press RT+RB which is really unintuitive in a split second, why not just make it the default dodge after you acquire it like bayonetta?  Then all the platforming with LT+X, RT+X, LT+A combinations for grapple/grapple/flight and then weapon specific enemies that don't let you use your own style but require specific weapon strikes narrowing your play style and making it a bit less fun.  Still, the rest is pretty fun so not a huge deal breaker so far about 5 stages in.

As for level design...well it's not like DMC ever had good level design outside maybe DMC1 which was made to be more of an action adventure since it was originally supposed to be RE.  DMC3 is a pure combat/boss rush game that's fucking awesome and what I consider the best action game in this genre...but the castle design is confusing and ugly and not very interesting.  DMC4 level design kind of sucks, especially the whole repeat it AGAIN thing, but again the combat is insanely good with Nero (I like that DmC kind of keeps Nero's arm mechanic with the grapple) and the boss fights are great like DMC3.  DmC's level design is nothing special but about on par.  The city stuff reminds me of Ninja Gaiden's city corridor level design and the flying grapple is an interesting new gameplay system, can't tell if there will be any real good boss fights as there's only been like one so far.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Volgarr is so so good. This is the type of classic game design I wish more games were emulating these days.

You mean trial & error?

Because I don't think that ever was or is good gameplay design.  Demon/Dark Souls does Volgarr but better imo.

I don't see much trail & error in it. There isn't much in the game you don't have ample time to prepare for. Once you know the monsters and have a strategy for dealing with each of them it's a cinch. I don't get why people are pretending this is IWTBTG. Soft modern gamers.

[demi]

DmC is good stuff. Haters owned. Was a chore playing it like 6 times for 1000 though. Didnt play Vergil DLC.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

DmC is utterly mediocre to me. I'll agree that it's Ninja Theory's best game, but I don't mean it as a compliment.

My biggest sticking point is NT having shoehorned their god awful enemy philosophy of color-coding enemies to only be affected by X attacks. One of my favorite aspects of the whole series, 2 included (to some degree),, was how you had the liberty of taking out any enemy with whatever weapons you prefer using, with the enemies designed around that. DmC tosses all of that out the window and goes "YOU CAN ONLY HIT THE RED/BLUE ENEMIES WITH RED/BLUE WEAPONS" and tosses 5 of each at you at the same time. It's a complete misunderstanding of what made combat in DMC1-4 so good.

Even more laughable that the writing, which is was NT is mysteriously praised for, was garbage too. I'll take more filling dark souls with light over endless swearing and maximum edgy scenes with babies being sniped.

[magus]

decided to play some GBA stuff and went with the original megaman battle network, jesus christ! i liked this game? how??? the level are bland mazes that are really boring to traverse, the encounter rate is higher than what my patience can stand and sometimes the game just straight throw out chores at you just to pad the game

i guess now that the novelty of a megaman rpg has gone, so has the magic

[Bebpo]

DmC is utterly mediocre to me. I'll agree that it's Ninja Theory's best game, but I don't mean it as a compliment.

My biggest sticking point is NT having shoehorned their god awful enemy philosophy of color-coding enemies to only be affected by X attacks. One of my favorite aspects of the whole series, 2 included (to some degree),, was how you had the liberty of taking out any enemy with whatever weapons you prefer using, with the enemies designed around that. DmC tosses all of that out the window and goes "YOU CAN ONLY HIT THE RED/BLUE ENEMIES WITH RED/BLUE WEAPONS" and tosses 5 of each at you at the same time. It's a complete misunderstanding of what made combat in DMC1-4 so good.

Even more laughable that the writing, which is was NT is mysteriously praised for, was garbage too. I'll take more filling dark souls with light over endless swearing and maximum edgy scenes with babies being sniped.

The color coded enemies thing is a problem, but I don't think it's a major problem since there's still a bunch of enemies in the group that you can use any weapons/attacks on.