What are you playing?

[Bebpo]

Finished Dead Space Extraction.  Overall I liked it, but it got pretty repetitive by the end.  I still think Lightgun games are meant to be arcade affairs that reach 2-4 hours max.  These 6+ hour light gun games just wear out their welcome of enter room -> shoot same type of baddies -> enter room -> shoot same type of baddies. 

The different weapons were fun to use and felt varied.  I like how the game is as ammo-scarce as the real Dead Space 1 and you're constantly having to cycle and use all 4 equipped weapons non-stop because you're always out of ammo.  Good tension.

The bosses kind of sucked, especially the last one which was freaking annoying when I ran out of all ammo and had to use my dinky nail gun and it took forever.  :\  Also the little insect creatures suck because if one jumps on you, you're going to spend the next minute WAGGLETHON to get them off your face since the second one jumps off the next one jumps on before you can do anything.  Also ran into a few bugs in the in the final stages like one part where an enemy got stuck behind something (which is scary because the stages are 30-50 mins long and you don't want to be stuck and have to redo the whole thing); lucky I had 1 grenade type shot and that was able to hit him offscreen and advance the stage.

But overall they did a good job.  I don't think it really added much to the DS storyline, can't think of anything new I learned that I didn't learn from DS1.  But it was fun shooting stuff in Dead Space the Lightgun Game.  I actually liked the first few stages the best because they were new locations (well not the first stage, but stage 2-4).  Once you get to the Ishimura it's like "oh, I've seen all these areas before when I played DS1" and revisiting them isn't really exciting.

Anyhow, looking forward to playing Dead Space 2 shortly!

[archie4208]

Alice Madness Returns is pretty good.  Dat hair

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I've started to download PS3 full games from PSN so I've been playing them:

Ridge Racer 7 3D - I was a big fan of RR6 so since this game is pretty much RR6.1, I still like it.  The graphics are showing their age.
Borderlands - Had a lot of fun with the 360 version.

There's a few PS3 downloads left but this should get me started for my remaining two days off.

[Van Cruncheon]

playin' dead space 2 myself. this is really good~

[cool breeze]

...

But overall they did a good job.  I don't think it really added much to the DS storyline, can't think of anything new I learned that I didn't learn from DS1.  But it was fun shooting stuff in Dead Space the Lightgun Game.  I actually liked the first few stages the best because they were new locations (well not the first stage, but stage 2-4).  Once you get to the Ishimura it's like "oh, I've seen all these areas before when I played DS1" and revisiting them isn't really exciting.

Anyhow, looking forward to playing Dead Space 2 shortly!

I really liked that about DSE.  You see the places from DS1 before the events of that game.  I like returning to a location at a different point in time and seeing how things have changed or were.

[Bebpo]

Uncharted 3 is so good so far (51%, chapter 11, 4 hours).  I am all for ND making new franchises every gen, but I...kind of want them to keep giving me a new Uncharted adventure every 2-3 years.  It's more entertaining than 90% of the summer action movies each year.  Really like the writing and characters even though you have to disbelieve realism quite a bit.  The part in

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Syria, where you exit the tomb and it's daylight in the area you've spent an hour+ in at night...wow, looked incredible and was so cool seeing it in the day with colors everywhere and great lighting.  Man this game has incredible art design.

[close]

I think next summer I'll do an Uncharted playthrough of 1-3 + Vita version.

...

But overall they did a good job.  I don't think it really added much to the DS storyline, can't think of anything new I learned that I didn't learn from DS1.  But it was fun shooting stuff in Dead Space the Lightgun Game.  I actually liked the first few stages the best because they were new locations (well not the first stage, but stage 2-4).  Once you get to the Ishimura it's like "oh, I've seen all these areas before when I played DS1" and revisiting them isn't really exciting.

Anyhow, looking forward to playing Dead Space 2 shortly!

I really liked that about DSE.  You see the places from DS1 before the events of that game.  I like returning to a location at a different point in time and seeing how things have changed or were.

The thing is that I played DS1 so long ago and the environments themselves are so plain "BRIDGE; MEDICAL ROOM" that I didn't notice any difference!

[MrAngryFace]

[demi]

Started FABLE 3 cause I hate choosing what to play next so this is it

[magus]

> better than any gamecube game
> better than any wii game
> better than any game released in 2011

deal with it

[Great Rumbler]

> better than any gamecube game

So, Melee is better than itself?

[Trent Dole]

Wrong.

[magus]

So, Melee is better than itself?

it is recursively good

[demi]

I own over 60 Gamecube games and not one of them is Melee

* two of which are Skies of Arcadia Legends cuz that is better

[G The Resurrected]

Started FABLE 3 cause I hate choosing what to play next so this is it

Ooo lets go buy a house together and get married 

[demi]

Yee yee. I need those achievements so I would be willing to let you mount me

[G The Resurrected]

brings the term "achievement whore" into a whole new meaning.

[iconoclast]

> better than any gamecube game

excluding F-Zero GX of course.

[tiesto]

August full moon in P3Fes, gonna go do that now. Really dig the game, even with the repetition and occasional crap the game puts me through (like "Mamudo" spells after you've spent an hour in Tartarus, and some boneheaded AI decisions). I like the atmosphere, especially around the dorm (seeing a new dialogue every day for the TV, for instance), and I dig the music, especially the full moon battle theme.

Questions for the fans:

-should I be leveling up all of my party equally? I just got the robot chick and have kinda ignored Junpei in favor of Mitsuru/Yukari/Akihiko.
-what % would you say I'm at with the game? Been playing ~35h now and about to max out my first few social links
-how do I raise academics quickly? I'm almost at max charm/courage but only on level 3 in academics...

[Bebpo]

Got to the Driving/Racing stuff in RAGE.  Other than the fact driving with a keyboard is kind of iffy so I switch to my X360 controller for racing, I don't mind it at all.  Maybe it's because I love arcade racers, even shitty ones, or because I have rpg ocd and want to do every quests and gold every race, but the driving is pretty fun.  Also like the economy system with buying/selling and building equipment/upgrading your suit/weapons.  Going in I thought I was going to be playing an FPS, I had no clue RAGE was an rpg fps.  Feels like Fallout 3 except with a little less rpg.

[magus]

tiesto - there is an incredibly powerfull combination move which murders everything in a single hit including the final boss,but to get it,you need to have the persona you get by maxing the star social link

so make sure of maxing the star social link whenever you get to it

[HomShaBom]

Been playing SWTOR. 44 right now but I'm burned out already, barely want to load it up.

[The Sceneman]

started playing Skyrim.

Pros:
- soothing music
- giant scary world

Cons:
- game is 100% gay
- combat blows so much dick

I love big ass game worlds to explore, so I am looking forward to getting right into this.

[Eric P]

really enjoying Bulletstorm.  It's a lot of fun with a great presentation.

[magus]

wow i'm totaly digging that rune factory tides of destiny game,it really heavy more on the rpg part than the boring harvest moon like part,but the difficulty is a little too random,i found a ghost ship and one of the monster there one shotted me! also that RP bar is super annoying,one can manage by eating while on field but i seems to understand you are screwed with the golem? it's even worse because you don't know when you are going to get into a golem fight

[fistfulofmetal]

Driver: San Francisco is pretty dope.

driving feels pretty good. i love the in-cockpit camera. the missions are varied and fun. the storyline perfectly replicates a silly 70's style cop show. and the way they integrate the CG scenes into in-engine cut-scenes is brilliant. i don't think i've ever seen it done this way and it works real well.

[Fifstar]

Started playing Spacechem after some technical problems (to which the creator of the game responded remarkably fast, very nice). Game is good, will play until the inevitable jump in difficulty that these type of games always seem to have.

Also playing Issac, not really seeing what the fuss is all about with this one. It's okay, but seems more like a free flash game to me.

[tiesto]

Started playing Spacechem after some technical problems (to which the creator of the game responded remarkably fast, very nice). Game is good, will play until the inevitable jump in difficulty that these type of games always seem to have.

Also playing Issac, not really seeing what the fuss is all about with this one. It's okay, but seems more like a free flash game to me.

SpaceChem is pretty awesome, the inevitable jump in difficulty happened at stage 4 or 5 for me though 

Haven't played Isaac myself, what's it like? Looked like a twinstick with a Zelda 1 style aesthetic but is there something more?

[magus]

yeah it is a twinstick with zelda 1 aesthethic

other than that,power up are random and quite different between each other (for example there is one that makes it so you die in a single hit but you get 7 extra life as opposed to the single one you get normaly) giving it a sort of roguelike vibe and the monster looks super gross

[Eric P]

beat Bulletstorm and loved every over the top minute of it. 

Currently playing Dragon Age 2.

[Van Cruncheon]

i dug bulletstorm, too. not sure why it got such a backlash from the press. what did they want from it?

[Great Rumbler]

i dug bulletstorm, too. not sure why it got such a backlash from the press. what did they want from it?

It just wasn't a deep, emotional journey like Uncharted or Gears of War.

[AdmiralViscen]

Bulletstorm rox.

Fable 3 sux

[Bebpo]

I thought Bulletstorm got in trouble with reviewers because it was an FPS without Multiplayer and no one cares about SP in FPS games anymore.

[cool breeze]

I remember a lot of "the language in this game is adolescent and borderline insulting to the sophisticality video games should strive for; see: GTA4." I dunno.  What I hear about Bastion from the fans is "THE NARRATION" and the hatist "playing the game is boring."

I haven't played either yet.

[tiesto]

P3 all day, up to the Sept. full moon now... wow that Natural Dancer boss was the gayest fight ever, fucking charm spell on all my party members... there are a lot of parts where this game just pisses you off for no reason at all and there's nothing you can do about it (like "Mamudo" spells taking out the lead character)... but I must continue onwards. I like the SLink stuff a lot, maxed out the online game one, and the one with Kenji, and the one with businessman...

[Cindi Mayweather]

(like "Mamudo" spells taking out the lead character)

Have you played an SMT game before?

[Stoney Mason]

I don't remember the press back lashing over bulletstorm.  A lot of the press really liked it and it has a respectable 82 metacritic score and it even made some best of lists or most surprising lists. The no real multiplayer aspect of it may have hurt it in some reviewers and certainly with the general shooter crowd.

[tiesto]

(like "Mamudo" spells taking out the lead character)

Have you played an SMT game before?

Just Digital Devil Saga 1 (beat) and the first few hours of Nocturne...

[Cindi Mayweather]

Ah.

It's common in the series. You have to cover your ass as soon as you see a Mudo or Hama spell.

[MrAngryFace]

Or just have an immune type equipped

[Cindi Mayweather]

Well, that's what I mean when I say cover your ass.

[Bebpo]

The 2nd half of Uncharted 3 has way too much combat and the director is masochistic and keeps putting you in totally unfair bullshit situations.  You always have like a pistol and 6 guys are rushing you from every direction with weapons that kill you in 2 seconds while snipers and rpg 1 hit kill guys are aiming at you if you leave cover.  And the worst is when new enemies APPEAR OUT OF NOWHERE BEHIND YOU when you're hiding in a spot taking out that you've cleared out, taking out guys in front of you and then BAM 1 hit kill shotgun blast from behind you takes you out even though behind you was only A WALL WITH NO ONE THERE.

I think there's good stuff in the 2nd half, but it's hard for me to appreciate the OMG CINEMATIC SET PIECES when I'm dying in 5-10 seconds over and over on the same checkpoint.  Balance just seems totally out of whack at 3 or 4 checkpoints in the 2nd half.  1st half of the game was perfect, no complaints 9/10, I'm at the last chapter now and the 2nd half is about the same quality as Uncharted 1 or maybe a little worse since the AI is more aggressive.

[MrAngryFace]

Orochi 3 is so badass thumbs up will double dip lulz

[Bebpo]

lol, got the computer stuck in Rock of Ages on a stage.  They literally couldn't figure out how to get past my blockade and advance in the stage so they just kept rolling in circles 

[iconoclast]

Serious Sam 3 is fucking awesome from chapter 4 (or 3?) onward. This is how FPS should be

[Timber]

Currently working on becoming the hardest Binding of Isaac motherfucker around. Still need to complete Sheol with Isaac, Magdalene and Judas and school thousands of soft bitches so they'll know not to step to me.

  me

[chronovore]

Accidentally finished Arkham City. Thought I should hurry to see Talia, and everything just kinda flowed right up into the credits. Great game, really well done. May or may not start NG+ immediately. I might want to savor it later on, and just mess around with something else for bit.

[Cindi Mayweather]

you can finish quests after you've beaten the game

[Positive Touch]

and new game+ carries over yr riddler trophies

[magus]

more rune factory:tides of destiny,i bought myself "my first blacksmith set" and then built a poison hammer with stuff i found lying around and then i went on a monster killing rampage and learned to make monster bounce like they are balls

metacritic score of this game?

56

fucking gaming journo's

[demi]

buy it and show your support.

[magus]

buy it and show your support.

if i had the cash to do that i would be playing this game in HD

[demi]

true. i'll buy it when it bombs to $10

[Joe Molotov]

The last Natsume game I bought was Chulip for $5 new at Gamestop. That seems like a good price point.

[The Sceneman]

moving my fat body freely with the Kinect tonight, in an attempt to work off my xmas spare tyre (sorry demi)

[Bebpo]

Finished Uncharted 3.  Yeah, uh, that was a lot of combat :|

That being said I took a look at what co-op maps were available and thought it was cool they let you fight in some of the non-combat locations from the story.  Will give the online some playtime over the weekend; U2 online was a lot of fun.

[Bebpo]

I picked up Edna and Harvey - The Breakout from Gamersgate during xmas since it was $4 and I'd been wanting to play it.  It's an adventure game that was super famous in the adventure gaming scene in Germany when it came out in 2008.  It just came out in English in the last year and while the translation is pretty rough, the voice acting really grows on you.

Anyhow, the game is extremely janky.  I have to use XP compatibility mode for it to even run, saving/loading take about 30 seconds each, and clicking on commands doesn't always work.  However since I love adventure games I can look past all that and am enjoying it.  What makes it really unique besides the quirky style and story of a bunch of insane asylum patients working to break out in a sam & max style comedy adventure, is that the game has unique voiced lines FOR EVERY POSSIBLE ACTION IN EXISTENCE. 

You can have a conversation with every inanimate object in the game.  Sometimes they even talk back like when I clicked "talk to brain in jar" and then wtf it talked back and was a telepathic esper brain in a jar named bobo and I had dialogue choices with it.  I don't even think it's part of the story, I just got it because I like clicking talk on inanimate objects. 

Not only that but every item in your inventory throughout the game has a unique interaction with every object in the game.  Like I have a mallet and I can use it on everything I see and she actually whacks it and sometimes it'll break the item or cause dents or do something else.  It's really amazing how much thought was put into the world.  There are hundreds of jokes in the interactions, so even if 25% of them don't make sense due to the translation process, you still get a whole lot of good humor.

Anyhow, so far it's living up to the reviews I read when it came out in English.  Mainly that it's super janky and amateurish (was actually started as a student project), but it has a lot of heart and charming characters and story.  I'm used to euro jank adventure games at this point, so none of the interface stuff bothers me and I'm happy with it.

[chronovore]

you can finish quests after you've beaten the game

and new game+ carries over yr riddler trophies

Oh, cool.

Does it keep the map data, with all the updated Trophy/Riddle/Venom locations and stuff?

[Positive Touch]

all marked riddler trophies stary marked.  all sidequests reset.

[The Sceneman]

you can finish quests after you've beaten the game

and new game+ carries over yr riddler trophies

Oh, cool.

Does it keep the map data, with all the updated Trophy/Riddle/Venom locations and stuff?

I would assume so, although I got all 440 Riddler items before going to NG+. The Venom (Titan you mean?) locations are all re-set, as all sidequests are tracked separately in NG+ (you need to do every sidequest in the game and again in NG+ for the Perfect Knight achievement, which sucks)