What are you playing?

[StealthFan]

Trying to hang with RE7 but horror games don't mix well with me anymore. Got Yakuza 0 from Gamefly sitting around. I'll probably just go back to Xenogears.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Yeah, 4A fixes the map and has a better story with more challenging boss fights.  Basically fixes all the problems with 4.  4 is still a solid game, but 4a is more what I want out of mainline SMT.  I'd definitely play it at some point.

Bebs, but is it MUCH better? I mean only nominally better wont do it for me. I found myself gritting my teeth everytime I knew I had to go out and navigate that shit. If it's only a little better I'd rather not try.

Also, it's 2017 man, where's your impressions on Zero Time Dilema

[The Legend of Sunblade]

ZTD Impressions: Should have stayed with the VLR cliffhanger instead of making a third game 

[demi]

we already played ZTD while you were out worrying about other forums

[I'm a Puppy!]

oh I played it. I just want to see someone else go through the 

And verify I'm not crazy for thinking it's utter garbage.

[StealthFan]

4 Apocalypse is better than vanilla SMT4 by a significant margin.

[tiesto]

4 Apocalypse is better than vanilla SMT4 by a significant margin.

Is 4 Apocalypse an 'enhanced edition' of 4 or is it a separate game entirely? Should I just play 4A since I never played 4?

[Bebpo]

Yeah, 4A fixes the map and has a better story with more challenging boss fights.  Basically fixes all the problems with 4.  4 is still a solid game, but 4a is more what I want out of mainline SMT.  I'd definitely play it at some point.

Bebs, but is it MUCH better? I mean only nominally better wont do it for me. I found myself gritting my teeth everytime I knew I had to go out and navigate that shit. If it's only a little better I'd rather not try.

Also, it's 2017 man, where's your impressions on Zero Time Dilema

On the map, yes, it's 100% better night and day.  They completely redid it to make it player friendly.

I'll play ZTD sometime this year.  Dec/Jan have been nothing but FFXIV and there's going to be at least like another 2 months of that until I'm caught up.

4 Apocalypse is better than vanilla SMT4 by a significant margin.

Is 4 Apocalypse an 'enhanced edition' of 4 or is it a separate game entirely? Should I just play 4A since I never played 4?

It's a sequel.  Like literally a sequel.  I mean you can skip 4 and play 4a and still be fine and it's a much better game, but you'll get a tiny bit more out of it if you play 4 but then 4 is a weaker SMT.

[bork]

More Fate/Extella: Only played one stage last night, but it took me like five tries to clear the level.  This was Caster's four stage- you start out already at a disadvantage, since the opposing side is like "heeeeeeey, let's go ahead and thrown in powered-up Elizabeth Bathory and Jeanne D'Arc wrecking shit and quickly taking over your territories right from the start!  Oh, and did we mention that 1-2 of your other territories are also being invaded by regular enemies?"    

The way this game works is that you have to conquer areas on the map to get keys needed to 'unlock' either the last boss of the level or to open a portal to said boss.  The enemy can also get keys by taking over your territories and they can invade areas via either bosses or these weird UFO-like things that can't attack, but just pop up and redirect enemies to other areas, and then run away when you try to attack them.

Rather than even try to get all my territories back, I found that the best approach on this map was to just rush towards areas with higher amounts of keys, power my ass up, and transform into a temporary more-powerful form to quickly take over the area.  I was able to do this after several tries because by that point, I'd leveled up enough past the recommended level and received some pretty nice abilities that made it easy to fill up the musou gauges quickly.   

I get all the keys needed and then go to the portal, where I have to fight fucking GILGAMESH, who is always a pain in the ass.  I rush him and stay on him, but he still manages to use his noble phantasm (AKA mega-crazy-super-u dead in one hit attack) which obliterates the entire floor and kills me instantly.  Fortunately you can use a command seal to come back (only got three!), so I resurrected and finished him off. 

Figured that must have been the last regular level of this story, but nope...there's still at least one more stage.

Been working on FATE/Extella, which is a FATE musou game on Vita/PS4 and sequel to the PSP FATE/Extra RPG.

Got up to the point where I was in the Japanese version over the weekend and played past that last night, so I've cleared Saber (Nero)'s route and am now about to finish Caster (Tamamo No Mae)'s route. Good god at the amount of WAIFU~ shit in this game's story.  I mean literally you have Saber and Caster just clinging to your main character and they will not shut up about being your waifu~ and you responding with some cheesy ass shit and fawning over how white and soft their skin is.  Uguu levels off the charts here. I hope that the third route, where you play as Saber (Altera), a more serious character, there's none of that crap...but something tells me that there will be.   

It's weird how cheesy and uguu-zy the story is, when the Fate/Unlimited Blade Works anime I watched recently was pretty serious and had none of those tropes.

That's Fate/Extra in a nutshell. 

I wish they made Fate/Zero games.  No waifus in that :x
I tried watching some other Fate and I couldn't deal with high school kids & waifus.  But Fate/Zero aka X/1999 2.0 was great.

Yeah, I need to watch Zero.  I saw the Grand Order movie recently and it was OK.  Basically came off as "go play the game on ur phone!!!!" at the end there.

[MMaRsu]

Not only is mad max repetitive, cumbucket is super annoying

[Bebpo]

So I've been playing Gravity Rush 1 on the PS4 remaster a little here and there over the last week or two and just got to the second city and the game is amazingly charming.  Like I did not expect writing/story/presentation to be this good.  It feels like this whimsical Ghibli game.  Gameplay is alright, I watched some superplay videos and went how the fuck do I do that and now sliding around moving like Shinobi and it's solid.  The fetch quest sidequest stuff for other people is the worst part of it.  Great music too, but yeah love the characterization.  Game is way better than I expected from the first hour or two.

[chronovore]

Not only is mad max repetitive, cumbucket is super annoying

I didn't mind him. He's kind of Max's herald, and the bulk of the game would be utterly silent without him. Having his voice cues was a clever way to update the player on obstacles, hazards, and clues. Whenever Max voiced his concerns aloud, it felt unnatural.

[Mr. Gundam]

So I've been playing Gravity Rush 1 on the PS4 remaster a little here and there over the last week or two and just got to the second city and the game is amazingly charming.  Like I did not expect writing/story/presentation to be this good.  It feels like this whimsical Ghibli game.  Gameplay is alright, I watched some superplay videos and went how the fuck do I do that and now sliding around moving like Shinobi and it's solid.  The fetch quest sidequest stuff for other people is the worst part of it.  Great music too, but yeah love the characterization.  Game is way better than I expected from the first hour or two.

I finally got around to beating the first one earlier tonight (did the first 10 chapters last year, then forgot about it) and then immediately started Gavity Rush 2 after watching that anime short. I thought the original was a pretty looking game for a Vita remaster but damn, GR2 looks even better.

Also, I'm playing through Dragon Quest Builders with my daughter. I've never touched Minecraft before, so this is my first foray into a "building stuff" game. Super charming and lots of nostalgia. Nice follow up game for us after doing all of World of Final Fantasy together.

[bork]

Fate/Extella: Caster route cleared- was a little disappointed to see that the final boss was the same as Saber (Nero).  Was hoping for a twist.  The ending went on for way too long.  I GET IT YOU LIKE MASTER-SAMA AND ARE WAIFU~.  Time to move on. 

Next up is the Saber (Altera) route.  Since a version of this character is the last boss in the other two routes, I hope this means her last boss fight is different.  If not...there's a final 'hidden' route that opens for Saber (Nero) and I believe that one does have a different baddie to take on.

But before I did that, I decided to go and try unlocking the game's hidden character, Saber.  Yes, another Saber.  This one being Arturia from the original Fate games/anime.  To get her, you have to add the side mission, replay a certain stage for any of the three main characters, go to a certain area...and then get enemies to drop five health power-ups and she pops up.  Beat her and then the stage and she unlocks.  This was actually pretty easy to do, because the game was patched specifically for this unlock. Previously you could only get her during certain times of the day and they health power-ups had to drop and be picked up FAST.  Now it doesn't matter.  I just used Nero, who was so powered-up by this point that I destroyed everything on the stage and had to let the enemy invade that particular zone on purpose to get the unlock.  I had all the other areas cleared and then had to let the enemy hit me so my health would go down enough to make food items appear.  Then the stage boss popped up and ran to this area.  I couldn't kill her so I had to keep avoiding her before Saber popped up.  And then when I got her, I had to make sure not to hit the boss before defeating Saber. 


They gave Arturia her own story, which I was not expecting.  It's real short and she doesn't even get full levels- just single areas with more than one other servant and lots of enemies.  You just kill everyone to move on.

Now that it's the weekend, I'm looking forward to playing some more Yakuza 0.  Not a game you can play in short bursts.

[archie4208]

I beat a game on my backlog.  (Pikmin 3).

Just a few dozen more to go. 

[StealthFan]

panzer dragoon saga

[tiesto]

Getting ready to start the English translation of LAGRANGE POINT.

[Coax]

Enter the Gungeon is kicking my ass.

Need to use the clear screen bombs more.

[chronovore]

I'll say one thing PvZ Garden Warfare got right in the original and has stumbled on the sequel: currency and level progression. It's to the point where I wonder if 2 was intended as a free-to-play and then later converted to a retail model.

In the original, Character Level was progressed by completing clearly outlined in-game tasks, and Player Level was the sum total of all Character Levels across both Zombie and Plant factions. Coins bought collectible-card packs (gacha style), and playing ANYTHING won coins.

In 2, XP and Character Level is tied to in-game actions, and XP rate is tied to completing Daily Quests or Weekly Events. There are multiple currencies: coins, stars, rainbow stars, the latter of which I had to look up online how to gain them (full disclosure: my son played may have played through the tutorial, closing it off to me) and the character unlocks come from collectible cards, but occasionally free "previews" are offered for temporary access to them, and other times there is an hourglass icon on a to-be-unlocked class, but it's not clear why it's not available or what the icon means. Limited time? Will unlock later?

Despite my confusion, the game gets the gameplay EVEN MORE RIGHT than the original. It's a heap of fun.

[tiesto]

Lagrange Point and Esper Dream 2, both some of the best of the best when it comes to Famicom RPGs. Lagrange Point has the best music on the console, bar none, thanks to the VRC7 chip. Has a lot of random encounters mixed with small, tight-corridored dungeons, but still the game is giving me tons of Phantasy Star vibes. Esper Dream 2 has visible encounters, but these take you to an enclosed battlefield where you fight action-RPG style against different, weird ass enemies (like 2 feet, or ostriches, or fleas). Cool games.

[Stoney Mason]

Replaying through a heavily modded version of New Vegas.

http://wiki.step-project.com/User:EssArrBee/FalloutNewVegas


I'll have more to comment on as I get deeper in the playthrough but you know what is immediately nice. All quests are quests. Non of this radiant quest bs that skyrim and fallout 4 introduced.

[D3RANG3D]

DDIV it's alright I guess. 

[chronovore]

Restarted Head Lander, and really feeling it this time.

[Cerveza mas fina]

+1 for Borys stealth brag post, nothing more Souls fan that something like this

[Cerveza mas fina]

I killed some bosses easy too, but most were hard shit for me.

+the spider
+the last boss

How was FF15?

[StealthFan]

Shadow Tower 2. Addition of firearms is...interesting.

[Bebpo]

Was at the arcade playing an hour of various music games (Bemani, Theatrhythm, Project Diva, Taiko), which frankly is a pretty good workout and I should do this more often as a gym alternative, but was playing Taiko and fucking LINDA LINDA came up and got all nostalgic about Ouendan.  I should replay those 3 games.  The nice thing about music games is after enough years you lose almost all your skills and you can totally go back and replay them and it feels fresh again.



Also, everytime I play Beatmania in the arcade it annoys me how they stopped bringing them home after the PS2.  I used to have 2 turntables and all those games.  Playing DJ Max Portable or the PC ones just isn't the same as playing with a beatmania controller.  Although I wish I knew how to turn the arcade machine to 5 key (I should google it) because I used to be a pretty solid 5-key player, but I suck at 7-key. 

[Positive Touch]

so why did mirror's edge catalyst get mediocre scores again? this game isn't perfect but it's still really good. not finished with it yet but so far I think I might like it more than the original. controls are more responsive, levels don't have those confusing parts that halt momentum, and the open world isn't tedious like I worried it might be. played it all weekend and I can't put it down.

[Positive Touch]

combat sucks but it's easy so it doesn't bother me. the open world isn't amazing like it should be in a game about parkour, but there are quick warps so i don't need to worry about running over the same areas repeatedly. neither flaw is enough to drag down the levels and time trials, which like I said are generally better than the original game's.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Started playing Until Dawn, WOW, finally a good interactive movie game.  All of David Cages shitfest combined aren't as good as this.

[Mr. Gundam]

panzer dragoon saga

I'd love to play PDZ again, but I sold my copy in graduate school a long time ago for a stupid amount of money.

[eleuin]

Started TLG

Trico 

[tiesto]

Lagrange Point, still. The game has a weapon fusion system which was pretty innovative for 1991, even though nowadays this stuff is commonplace. Once I learned how to exploit that, things have been a bit easier, but the random encounters are still ridiculous. Even though I finally unlocked the airplane!

Not sure how far I am, seemingly like 3/4 of the way through according to the walkthrough I've been using. Gonna be pretty snowy here this week so I'll have some more playtime.

[bork]

Still on Fate/Extella.  Haven't been playing games much on weekends, so I play a bit of this every night.  Am committed to finishing it before going back to Yakuza 0.

The third storyline with Altera just drags on and on.  It's not that many chapters and the battles are fine, but the dialogue sequences inbetween everything (and even during some of the stages) just never end.  That would be fine if it were something compelling, but it's literally the same fucking thing over and over again.  More waifu/master nonsense, except this time you get that tsundere crap since there's effectively two Alteras (the one you play as and a titan version).    I still really like the game, though.

Altera's partner (if you have the change ability equipped) is Gilgamesh.  Dude is too damn powerful.  A bit slow, but insanely effective.  Some of her stages are also a bit challenging (and this is on normal!), which is appreciated.  For the most part, however, everything continues to just revolve around dashing to any servant-class bosses who might pop on levels and taking them out ASAP and then quickly dashing to and conquering areas that give you the most keys.  On the last level I played, I also triggered a Saber (Arturia) summon, so I had to deal with her and the stage boss at the same time...but I had a noble phantasm ready and that just one shot-killed both of them at the same time. 

(This probably makes no sense if you're not familiar with Fate.   )

[Rufus]

Had a craving for clunky 3rd person action-adventuring, so I installed Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. The default installer doesn't work with 64bit operating systems, but a kind soul made an alternative that works great. <3 Unfortunately the widescreen resolutions are -vert and there doesn't seem to be a patch, so I have to play in 4:3. Unfortunately 2 it doesn't have a 1440x1080 option and I can't find the config, but it's playable as is, so whatever. Controller set-up worked fine though, provided you're not using an XInput device.

Haven't seen much of the game yet, only the tutorial level and a ways into the first proper level. I already know that combat is going to be terribly tedious soon. Unfortunately there's no quickload to mitigate my pain. It's much clunkier than even the old Tomb Raider games. You have a fancy dodge roll, but it doesn't do you any good when Indy won't lock on to an enemy or quickly switch weapons. Even if he were as agile as Lara Croft, the level design has already guaranteed that I take damage, so I'm not too hopeful. You can even get poisoned by snakes and spiders, so you have to make sure to have antidotes on hand, just in case.

[tiesto]

What kinda game is Fate? IIRC I have a PSP one that's an RPG or something. This new one is more Musou-ish right?

[bork]

What kinda game is Fate? IIRC I have a PSP one that's an RPG or something. This new one is more Musou-ish right?

It's a musou game and the sequel to Fate/Extra on PSP.   

[etiolate]

I'd be playing For Honor beta but U-Play is still trash.

[MMaRsu]

Been playing Nioh and its fucking amazing 10/10

[Bebpo]

You never fired a gun?  Wow, my entire playthrough was gun parrying and countering everything.

Also play the DLC, now that you're on NG+.  Get ready to get wrecked.

[demi]

You arent interested in Nioh?

[Cerveza mas fina]

I borrowed The Last Guardian from the library, first impressions:

-yank controls (who maps jumping to triangle lol)
-yank camera
-visuals mixed bag of uprezzed ps3 stuff and stuff that could pass for xbox one
-fps slowdown
-aim a beam of light to have trico shoot lightning from his tail 

glad i got this for free so far 

[tiesto]

I started playing Exile: Wicked Phenomenon with the patch that restores the original difficulty level from the Japanese version, and beat it in like an hour. A disappointment, though the graphics are good for the Turbo. Also started Last Guardian, not too far just up to the part where

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Trico flips out and eats you and you lose your shield

[close]

[Rufus]

Combat still sucks, rafting was annoying, and they like to waste your time for missed jumps, but I'm having fun with Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. It's so quaint I don't mind the jank. Or the technical issues which force me to start a new game before I can load my save. I just like how it plays, jank nothwithstanding. It's also cute how it plays the fanfare from the main theme every time you use your whip to cross a gap.

[MMaRsu]

Game is fantastic BTW. I have PS4 for 2 months and it is the only game I bought on the console. Do not see buying anything else on PS4 this year unless BB2 is announced and released.

Yeah I spend $279 to play Bloodborne. Suck me.

Time to get Nioh. The best ps4 game besides Bloodborne

[MMaRsu]

Lol you didnt fire a single bullet meaning you NEVER did a visceral attack? lolol. Way to completely ignore one of the best parry mechanics in years Borys.. what the fuck

[Cerveza mas fina]

How can you even beat some bosses without shooting

[Bebpo]

I'm a speedrunner usually in games and visceral attacks do BIG chunks of damage on bosses, so I pretty much lived on gun parrying -> visceral attacks.  Although by the end game you get so overpowered none of that mattered and you just slash things dead really quick once you're at max weapon level.

Then you get to NG+ and do the DLC and lol

[Cerveza mas fina]

How can you even beat some bosses without shooting

like the final boss you rely on it to get damage in, at least me

[MMaRsu]

Borys is badass af and never used parry mechanic tho lol

Now go play nioh

[MMaRsu]

At least get the dlc asap, it has imo the coolest boss in bloodborne

[bork]

Tried the For Honor open beta.  Not for me.  Movement and game play are just too slow and clunky.  But that was on PS4, where the game is 30 FPS max.  PC is 60+ FPS and might make for a better experience, but I don't want to install Uplay.

[Cerveza mas fina]

It really won't change how the game feels I think

Can you still kill people by sliding down a ladder?

[Stoney Mason]

Reinstalled and modded and tried the STALKER franchise for like the 5 or 6th time since those games came out. I've always wanted to like those games as they seemed like something that would be up my alley. Finally realized much like Dark Souls that I simply don't like this franchise no matter how many times I try it.

Uninstalled.

[Bebpo]

At least get the dlc asap, it has imo the coolest boss in bloodborne

Plus now that Borys is in NG+ (whoops), he's gonna get his ass kicked like never before on the NG+ DLC.  I know I did.  NG+ version of Old Hunters does not fuck around.  Bloodborne's NG+ DLC is what convinced me to wait until all souls DLCs are out before starting each game so I can access them on the first run and not NG+  Looking forward to playing DS3 soon!

[MMaRsu]

Yeah I started the dlc on ng+ as well.. it was fucking hard as nails lol

[Bebpo]

Got back to Watchdogs2.  Think I'm getting near the end now.  Game is still amazing.  Pretty much 10/10 perfection for me.  I've stealthed like 95% of the game and getting in and out with just cameras, your rc car and drone is so satisfying.  As a big fan of stealth gaming, this is a great stealth game with a billion options.  Between this Hitman, Dishonored 2, 2016 was a great year for stealth.  Also I love how alive the city is, like people playing instruments and dancing in spots.  Had so many great moments and the visuals are amazing.  For me, GTAV, Sleeping Dogs and WD2 are the trio of amazingly fun immersive city sims.  We've got LA/SF/HK, 3 cities down perfect, a few thousand to go.

[chronovore]

Yeah I started the dlc on ng+ as well.. it was fucking hard as nails lol

I've been putting off playing WD2 due to fearing becoming entirely immersed and being unwilling to work on my real-life. Unity's bug-riddled authoring tool is less immediately satisfying and slightly harder than holding Square Button to hack.

[bork]

Finally finished the Altella route in Fate/Extella.  It felt longer than the previous two character routes combined.  Not because of the amount of stages (nine compared to like 5-6 for the others), but because of all of the dialogue.  It went full-on Visual Novel.  Since this character (or rather a version of the character) is the last boss, I hoped that you'd fight someone else, and the game almost hinted things were going to go this way (or have no boss) until SWERVE fight the same boss for the third fuckin' time!

But now the game story is more interesting.  The first three routes were basically the same story -your character is split into three beings and each route is him/her allying with a different servant and fighting the others- with each route being a parallel universe.  The fourth unlocked route changes things up, as your character sends their memories of the third route into the same parallel dimension that the true bad guy (spoilers, lolz) escapes into.  So it starts with you calling him out on his manipulative bullshit and instead changes to a story to ally the three main servants together instead of fighting them.  It's also harder right off the bat, which is good.

Hoping to finish this game this week already.  I like the game but I really want to move onto something else. 

[I'm a Puppy!]

Booted up Yakuza 3 Really it cements my opinion that in a world where Yakuza exists Shenmue is irrelevant. The whole "running an orphanage" thing is silly but fun. Just got to like chapter 5.

Dragon Quest VIII continues and will for a good long time. I forgot how much I loved the game. I always touted 3 as my favorite with VII coming after, but I think VIII really outdid VII now that I've revisited them both back to back. Really, it's only gotten better (though I really wish for an HD remake)

Final Fantasy XV Just finished the Ramuh cave and gotta get the Regalia back. Still having fun with the boy band. Most fun I've had with a final fantasy since X and it keep creeping up to the level of possibly surpassing X