What are you playing?

[Gilgamesh]

I finally beat the last Dead Space game. DS3 was 90% perfect 10% annoyance. It was a very long journey to get here too. I played all 3 Dead Space 3rd person games. I played the two inbetween sequel games (the puzzler and the rail gunner). I read both novels all all 3 graphic novels. I ate up anything Dead Space related (with the exception of DS mobile because I don't have an iOS device).

I seriously love this entire universe that Visceral created. I love everything about it. The annoyances I had with DS3 are so minor in comparison to everything that's done right.

After such an epic series of games, it's going to be hard to find something to play that will enrapture me the same way.... speaking of Rapture.....

 

[figmentPez]

It's been a long time, but I seem to recall plus mode in Bastion being totally worth it.

I thought it was fun to play around freely with the weapons, but that was all the NG+ really offered for me. For others it the challenge of invoking all the difficulty modifiers might appeal, but I'm not a fan of really difficult games.

 

[Hailey Knight]

So the other day I popped in the original Legend of Zelda and started playing the 2nd Quest, and it was awesome because I realized that I had never actually beaten the 2nd Quest, so it was almost like I was playing the first game for the first time all over again!

...Three days later I was still looking for level 4.

I've never played the original. I see the video on the Nintendo eshop and I fear I won't like it. Not sure how to shake this, unless Club Nintendo wants to make that one of their offers for the month (yeah, right).

 

[GasBandit]

Playing Orcs Must Die 2 again a lot lately, trying to get all endless co-op scores into the top 100.

It's difficult because sometimes I go so long (like, a 6 hour long level) that the game finally crashes and I lose the score.

 

[figmentPez]

Finished Arkham City, and I have to say I liked the story and progression in Arkham Asylum a whole lot more. The mechanics are undeniably better in B:AC (with the exception of trying to force players to take upgrades as soon as possible), but I just don't think the game as a whole flowed as well. The boss fights weren't as memorable, either. Great game, but I think it lost something being open world.

Now I'm playing the prototypes from Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight. Thus far:

• Costume Quest Prototype: Sadly, this one keeps bugging out on me and I can't finish it. Still, it's fun to see what the original idea for Costume Quest was like.
• Black Lake Prototype: Holy cow, this is a great pitch. I want to play this full game so badly. If DF can expand as much on this concept as they did on CQ, then Black Lake is going to be amazing.
• Autonomous Prototype: This was awful. The visual style was interesting, but the gameplay was confusing and poorly done. Maybe it's better with one of the creators walking you through it, but to me it was an unpolished, hard to control, aimless mess. The controls were terrible, the interface was worse, and the game gave very little feedback. I couldn't tell enemies from frendlies, I couldn't tell item pick-ups apart, and I couldn't even tell the difference between enemy fire and health packs. Awful. I did not vote for this, and I'm angry with people who did.
• Hack n Slash prototype: I have mixed feelings on this. The art is cute, if a little bland, and the concept shows some promise, but in the end it felt at odds with itself. The puzzle solving element of hacking enemies programming didn't mesh with the action elements. It was a whole lot of hurry up and stop. Quite often I was running around, dodging enemies, and then... everything slows to a crawl as I navigate a text menu to reduce an enemy's health counter to zero. I can see a fix for this. Instead of having a menu for each enemy, have programmable weapons that can be pre-set with certain effects. That would speed up basic combat, while still allowing more complex solutions. It would also allow more interesting power progression in the game. If DF can implement that, or some other way to keep the pace more consistent, this game could actually work. I didn't vote for it, but it's not a bad choice.

I've still got The White Birch Prototype, Happy Song Prototype (which I think became Once Upon a Monster) and Spacebase DF-9 Prototype to play.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I disagree the boss fights were better in AA--most of them involved you fighting lots of henchmen. In AC, you get to take on the villains themselves much more often, and got more varied gameplay because of it.

 

[Bowielee]

Yeah, the Grundy, Ra's, and Clayface fights were great.[DOUBLEPOST=1368135119][/DOUBLEPOST]So, I just finished the new Tomb Raider. I really dug it. It was pretty much Uncharted, but with Lara Croft. Which brings that whole genre full circle.

 

[AshburnerX]

Dragon's Dogma. It's like the twisted combination of...

- Dark Souls
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Monster Hunter
- Dragon Age
- too many to count

I don't know how Capcom did it, but this game is just about perfect...

 

[Bowielee]

Dragon's Dogma. It's like the twisted combination of...

- Dark Souls
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Monster Hunter
- Dragon Age
- too many to count

I don't know how Capcom did it, but this game is just about perfect...

This is the first time I've heard anything positive about that game.

 

[Ravenpoe]

The boss fights weren't as memorable, either. Great game, but I think it lost something being open world.

Ra's Al Ghul disagrees with you

 

[AshburnerX]

This is the first time I've heard anything positive about that game.

7.7 Average review score, 8.2 average User score on Metacritic.

Seriously, it's tons of fun, as long as your willing to walk everywhere. They gave everyone who bought/finished Dragon's Dogma free, unlimited ferry stones as one of the perks for buying DD: Dark Arisen and I feel like this should have been for everyone.

Otherwise, I can't really think of anything bad to say about the game.

- Character Creation is almost as good as City of Heroes (better in some regards)
- the Pawn system makes sure you always have allies to back you up (and their AI is pretty good)
- Plenty of weapon types (Sword/Mace, Two-handers, double daggers, 2 types of bows, two types of staves staves, two types of shields) with varied uses. Using a sword to cast magic is WEIRD.
- Tons of abilities
- Lots of armor
- Enemies are fun to fight, especially the giant ones. Climbing onto a giant cyclops, tricking it into removing it's helmet, then cutting out it's eye and tusks? Doable in this. You can even lit it ON FIRE.
- huge amount of sidequests

For $40, this game is a great deal. That's right; the updated rerelease is a budget title and it comes with new HD textures and the Japanese vocal track, as well as the Dark Arisen expansion.

 

[Reverent-one]

7.7 Average review score, 8.2 average User score on Metacritic.

Seriously, it's tons of fun, as long as your willing to walk everywhere. They gave everyone who bought/finished Dragon's Dogma free, unlimited ferry stones as one of the perks for buying DD: Dark Arisen and I feel like this should have been for everyone.

Otherwise, I can't really think of anything bad to say about the game.

- Character Creation is almost as good as City of Heroes (better in some regards)

Whoa. I don't need to hear anything else.

*Goes to look up the game immediately*

 

[AshburnerX]

Whoa. I don't need to hear anything else.

*Goes to look up the game immediately*

- Young-Old
- Fat-Thin (even down to limbs, so you could have skin arms and a fat body)
- Tall-short
- 20-40 options each for hair, nose, mouth, face shape, facial hair, scars, etc...

It's literally possible to play this game as a little girl. Or a decrepit old man. Or fat woman. Or a friggan giant. THEY COULD ALL BE ON THE SAME TEAM. If you can imagine it, you can probably do it. The only real limitation is that gear has stats unlike CoH, so your going to be changing your clothes on a regular basis. But still, it's pretty amazing.

It's only 360 and PS3 right now, but I could totally see Capcom releasing this on PC.

 

[Frank]

You know what Dragon's Dogma's biggest fucking shitty terrible awful stupid mother assing twat dick balls asshole problem is?

No PC version. They'll port EVERY other game they make to PC, but apparently Dragon's Dogma is impossible.

FUCK YOU CAPCOM.

Apparently the pawn system is IMPOSSIBLE to do on PC. The biggest load of nonsense bunk I've ever heard in my entire life.

 

[AshburnerX]

I'd wager that the sequel will get a PC release... because this is TOTALLY getting a sequel. I had to go to three different stores to find a copy and it was the last one they had. This has gotta be making some serious bank.

 

[figmentPez]

I disagree the boss fights were better in AA--most of them involved you fighting lots of henchmen. In AC, you get to take on the villains themselves much more often, and got more varied gameplay because of it.

I loved the Poison Ivy fight, and thought the fight against Harley's henchmen on the electrified floor was fantastic. Also, the entire sequence with Killer Croc was amazing.

There were so many henchmen fights in AC that I was getting sick of it. The Mad Hatter was just a henchmen fight. I loved the Scarecrow levels in B:AA, but they didn't do anything like that.

Yeah, the Grundy, Ra's, and Clayface fights were great.

I didn't think the Ra's fight was impressive, sorry. The dreamscape flights were pretty cool, but the fight itself didn't hit the right notes for me. Also, the fights against the Penguin and Two Face felt like complete wastes. Not to mention the anti-climax to Harley Quinn's Revenge. I didn't like the mechanics of fighting Hammer & Sickle as much as I liked the mechanics of fighting Titan goons in B:AA.

Also, my friend warned me about how difficult the Mr. Freeze fight was, but he went down like a chump. I thought some of the forced stealth in B:AA was more difficult, and more interesting, despite not having big names attached.

 

[Hailey Knight]

They had the same forced stealth mechanics in AC. It wasn't any different, but you got the benefit of the other variants on top of that. The Mr. Freeze fight nicely combined the forced stealth with a non-henchman boss fight, though I'll admit they overused the room where it took place. That's fine if the new boss types didn't do it for you, but I feel the game is stronger for having more variety than repetition.

The reason the game didn't flow as well is because it was less linear than AA. AA was a gaunlet; AC was trying to be sort of a sandbox, and a sandbox is never going to feel as tight because it's not tight; you can do as you please.

 

[Bowielee]

Also, my friend warned me about how difficult the Mr. Freeze fight was, but he went down like a chump. I thought some of the forced stealth in B:AA was more difficult, and more interesting, despite not having big names attached.

I do have to ask what difficulty level you played it on, because the Mr. Freeze fight changes based on the Difficulty level. Because you can't use the same method to attack him more than once. Since it takes fewer stuns to kill him on lower difficulties, he's easier to kill because you have more options open. On higher difficulties, he becomes extremely hard to beat because you use up an option every time you attack him.

 

[figmentPez]

I do have to ask what difficulty level you played it on, because the Mr. Freeze fight changes based on the Difficulty level. Because you can't use the same method to attack him more than once. Since it takes fewer stuns to kill him on lower difficulties, he's easier to kill because you have more options open. On higher difficulties, he becomes extremely hard to beat because you use up an option every time you attack him.

I played on Normal, and I used the same method to attack him twice, maybe three times. Oh, the first two times I used one of the set-up environmental traps, and he disabled those. Then I just leap at him, when he wasn't looking, from one of the railings. I was kind of surprised it kept working. Maybe I hit a glitch.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I played on Normal, and I used the same method to attack him twice, maybe three times. Oh, the first two times I used one of the set-up environmental traps, and he disabled those. Then I just leap at him, when he wasn't looking, from one of the railings. I was kind of surprised it kept working. Maybe I hit a glitch.

That doesn't sound at all like the battle I had with him.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Yeah, you shouldn't have been able to use the same maneuver on him more than once. That was one of the things I really liked about that boss fight. On hard mode, it's really tricky because you pretty much have to use every single trick possible to beat him.

 

[Bowielee]

On hard, you have to stun him, like, 7 times before he goes down. He also releases those drones more frequently on hard.

Also, for the record, the Titan thugs were boring after you figured out how to batterang stun them when they charge.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Devil Survivor Overclocked: Atlus sure knows how to tease you into thinking you're almost done. Even when you realize the layout of bosses, you don't know how much grinding you'll have to do in-between. I thought I was hot shit having beaten the 11:00 one on the final day, only to have to grind a few more levels for the next, and now ... well, I know this is the final fight technically, but I apparently am several levels under.

 

[figmentPez]

He also releases those drones more frequently on hard.

I really must have hit a glitch in my game, because I don't remember him releasing drones. Maybe I just happened to be hiding in a hallway or something when he did it, but just now I was watching a Youtube video of the Hard difficulty fight, and I was thinking "what on earth are those drone things?"

 

[Bowielee]

I really must have hit a glitch in my game, because I don't remember him releasing drones. Maybe I just happened to be hiding in a hallway or something when he did it, but just now I was watching a Youtube video of the Hard difficulty fight, and I was thinking "what on earth are those drone things?"

Honestly, on normal his fight is super easy, but it becomes a whole different ballgame on hard.

 

[bhamv3]

The "Joker" fight in the room with the trains took me like 10 tries to beat.

On Normal.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I really, really love Arkham City. And Arkham Asylum. The amount of love in those games for the Batman mythos is palpable. My favorite things are the easter eggs. The secrets. The hints and clues you can pick up about the greater world around you, like finding Scarecrow's secret boat in Arkham City (which is so well hidden it doesn't show up on your bat scanner vision thingy).

 

[Frank]

Planescape Torment again for the first time in many years.

Fuck this game is good. It's just the best RPG. Seriously. Even as archaic as it is it just shits on all the writing in every other game.

 

[Bowielee]

I really, really love Arkham City. And Arkham Asylum. The amount of love in those games for the Batman mythos is palpable. My favorite things are the easter eggs. The secrets. The hints and clues you can pick up about the greater world around you, like finding Scarecrow's secret boat in Arkham City (which is so well hidden it doesn't show up on your bat scanner vision thingy).

How did people even find this? Did they run around with the decoder everywhere on the map? Or, more likely, someone hacked and found it.

Even knowing where it was, it took forever to get the scanner tuned right when I did it.

 

[Ravenpoe]

How did people even find this? Did they run around with the decoder everywhere on the map? Or, more likely, someone hacked and found it.

Even knowing where it was, it took forever to get the scanner tuned right when I did it.

There are some clues in game that lead you to it. Scarecrow's mask can be found for a Riddler Challenge, and it's on a beam that overlooks the boat. You can also scan the radio frequencies to find unlisted frequencies that do nothing but repeat a string of numbers. If you decipher them using different number replacement methods (123-ABC, 123-ZYX, etc) you can find messages from Scarecrow claiming he's planning a return.

 

[Terrik]

I've been playing a steady stream of DOTA 2, with a bit of Civ 5 on the side. One thing I've discovered about Civ 5 is that I *love* the longest game time setting. I actually get to enjoy each era and it's units and slowly spread out my empire with a bit of careful planning.

I really want to get into Darksiders II. For some reason, I can't. I don't get it either, I really liked the first Darksiders. Maybe I'm not in the mood for a game that involves a lot of running around and collecting that isn't named "Zelda".

 

[Bowielee]

I've been playing a steady stream of DOTA 2, with a bit of Civ 5 on the side. One thing I've discovered about Civ 5 is that I *love* the longest game time setting. I actually get to enjoy each era and it's units and slowly spread out my empire with a bit of careful planning.

I really want to get into Darksiders II. For some reason, I can't. I don't get it either, I really liked the first Darksiders. Maybe I'm not in the mood for a game that involves a lot of running around and collecting that isn't named "Zelda".

I actually found it hard to get into at first as well. I wasn't really fully invested until the Golem fight.

 

[Terrik]

I actually found it hard to get into at first as well. I wasn't really fully invested until the Golem fight.

Yeah I got to the golem fight and was pretty invested in playing on the hardest difficulty. Then I had to put the game down for a month or so, came back, turned the difficulty down a notch because I just want the story, and have tried getting back into it that way. It didn't help that I found out I had forgotten a page of the book of the dead and re-searched three dungeons to find the damned thing.

 

[Bowielee]

I didn't go the completionist route with that game. I still have to go back and do the extra dungeons from the DLC.

 

[bhamv3]

Whoever joked that getting married spells the end of my gaming career, you weren't far off.

Anyway, I'm still working slowly through New Vegas. Finished my first playthrough, sided with NCR. Now I've started my second playthrough, with Hardcore Mode on. Planning on being a psycho killer this time, wiping out every settlement and every living being I encounter.

So far though, Hardcore Mode feels like an annoyance rather than something that really adds to the game. Finding enough food, water and beds for sleeping isn't really that difficult. Ammo having weight is an annoyance rather than a real limiter; I still have enough ammo to kill anything I want, but now I can't carry as much loot.

I dunno, I'll keep at it, but so far I prefer vanilla. It's just more fun.