What are you playing?

Dear Bioware, please take tips from Atlus in future choice-driven endeavors. I just finished Devil Survivor Overclocked, in which the conversations I had determined whether I discovered entire aspects of the plot, and how the last quarter of the game goes (counting the 8th day). All depending on conversations. The ending FUCKING CHANGES. You EA shit-bags.

Also, the game gives me Achievements for who I talked to and saved and such, and the points from those Achievements can be used for my New Game +, unlocking different features or carrying some aspects over.

Seriously, Atlus kicked ass with this game. I'm trying to keep myself from starting anew right away, as I wanna get in some time on other handheld RPGs. But this game was fucking awesome. Didn't really care for my ending, but it's nice knowing there are seven other ones.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
"What are you playing?"

Sure as hell not Ace of Spades any more. Latest patch update? Game-killing. Yeah, switching a niche game that needs 24 people to a server from a bank of dedicated servers with a server browser to a freakin lobby system with invites... yeah, that's going to do well. Also eliminated my favorite class (rocketeer) but as a consolation changed him to an "engineer" but with the sucky jetpack. And trying to play, I crashed/locked 66% of my attempts to join a match.

Now I understand why everybody who plays hates Jagex so much.
 
I have a hard time getting into it to. But I attribute this to being an adult.

Just kidding. I loves you, man.
Dude, I felt the same way.

I looked at some gameplay video for the game and I'm like... this looks tiring to play.

Pokemon Black is awesome tho.
 
Honestly, I had this problem with Pokemon Black 2 back in November, at the same point in the game (Nimbasa). I just couldn't care anymore. I gave up on it, then when my wife got White 2, I started over and we played together awhile. Then I got to the same point in March, wanted a break from it around when Bioshock Infinite came out, and haven't played it until yesterday. And ... I just couldn't care, again. I'm not going to force myself to play something I'm not having fun with, so I put it away.

I have no idea what it is about Black 2 that tests my patience so badly.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
I'm replaying Batman: Arkham City on the New Game + setting. One thing I'm surprised by is how I'm able to handle not having flashing icons for counters. I thought that would be my downfall, but I'm able to keep up fairly well. I must be getting better at combat, because I'm definitely not struggling as much as I expected I would. In some cases I'm doing better than I did on Normal.

NG+ has caused me to change my mind about the Mr. Freeze fight. You guys are right, this guy is nasty, but in a very good way. They nerfed him _waaaay_ too much for Normal difficulty. (Though I did figure out that the game counts Drop attacks and Glide attacks as different moves, so that's how I nailed Freeze from the same railing twice. That said, I don't think he freezes all the railings at once, so it may be possible to do a drop attack twice; all my attempts blurred together.) Still, this was an awesome fight, a ton of fun to figure out. Sometimes I was a little frustrated because Bats was a little to eager to use corner cover when I wanted to run, but other than that it's got some fantastic mechanics. I especially liked the Detective Mode jammer that completely cuts off Detective Mode if you use it too much.

Also, the Solomon Grundy fight is a beautiful set piece, but it really is lacking in challenge. I breezed through the fight on NG+ just as easily as I did on Normal. Not a bad fight, because it's really fun to play, but I felt like it could have been more.
Maybe forcing Grundy to destroy some of the emitters, instead of using quick-fire explosive gel over and over.

I'm still not impressed by the Ras Al Ghul fight. It's not bad, and it is certainly challenging, but as a matter of personal taste it just doesn't do it for me.
 

fade

Staff member
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.
I completely agree. AA had much better mood and story. I was much more immersed in AA than AC. Both were, as you say, very entertaining games, and I'd play the hell out of any sequel. One criticism I had of both is that they were very short.
 
Pinball Arcade on the X-Box360. For $15 I can play Medieval Madness forever, which is AWESOME.
I played that so much. I didn't stop till I was #1 on all machines. Needless to say it took a while.
Side note: Medieval Madness is in actual machine form at the arcade near my house in tip top condition.
 
I played that so much. I didn't stop till I was #1 on all machines. Needless to say it took a while.
Side note: Medieval Madness is in actual machine form at the arcade near my house in tip top condition.
We had one at the arcade in our town when I was younger. Just played it so much we would break it all the time. Fantastic game.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
The Carmageddon android port is Spot. On. Pity no multiplayer, but man, the single player is balls deep in roadkill awesome.

My only nit to pick is the pratcam doesn't behave quite exactly like the original one did, and is a lot noisier, but that's a very freakin' minor nit, especially for something most people just turn off anyway.
 
They seem fine for me on the X-Box, especially for MM. It's exactly how I remember the ball moving and the angle of the board is spot on.
 
I've played it on multiple systems and when I only played Pinball Arcade, I thought it was fine until I actually played Zen Pinball. The ball on Pinball Arcade is far too floaty.
 
I've played it on multiple systems and when I only played Pinball Arcade, I thought it was fine until I actually played Zen Pinball. The ball on Pinball Arcade is far too floaty.
Are you talking about William Collection: Pinball Arcade? Cause if you are, I go weekly to a pinball arcade and also play the XBOX version, I have to say it's pretty spot on.
 
Because I am a masochist, I decided to hit up Old World Blues in New Vegas at level 6. On Hardcore Mode. Playing on the Very Hard difficulty level. I have only about 20 stimpacks total, and a handful of ammo for all of my guns.

Now THIS is a game. :D
 
Prototype 2: The situation at hand is ridiculously implausible--even Umbrella never got so much power that they were able to use an entire city as a testing ground, and it's sad when a Resident Evil game's scenario is less ridiculous than yours. I didn't play the first game though. Maybe they establish what's going on a little more believably. I doubt it.

BUT, the game is a lot of fun. I'm still early in it, so maybe that'll change, but right now I'm enjoying it. It feels a lot like a game I love from years back, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. When my wife noted that the mechanics were similar and wondered if it was the same company, I looked it up--it is! Awesome.
 
Prototype 2: The situation at hand is ridiculously implausible--even Umbrella never got so much power that they were able to use an entire city as a testing ground, and it's sad when a Resident Evil game's scenario is less ridiculous than yours. I didn't play the first game though. Maybe they establish what's going on a little more believably. I doubt it.

BUT, the game is a lot of fun. I'm still early in it, so maybe that'll change, but right now I'm enjoying it. It feels a lot like a game I love from years back, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. When my wife noted that the mechanics were similar and wondered if it was the same company, I looked it up--it is! Awesome.
In the first game, the city is slowly overrun by the infestation until they're forced to just quarantine the whole place. In the end, the character you play as in the first one ends up being a sentient part of the virus and keep anyone else out. So, it's not so much that the company made the city its testing ground as it was a disaster that got out of hand. I assume that in the second one, they just take the opportunity to experiment on what already happened.
 
In the first game, the city is slowly overrun by the infestation until they're forced to just quarantine the whole place. In the end, the character you play as in the first one ends up being a sentient part of the virus and keep anyone else out. So, it's not so much that the company made the city its testing ground as it was a disaster that got out of hand. I assume that in the second one, they just take the opportunity to experiment on what already happened.
That's putting it lightly.

The cover story is that they're trying to help separate the infected from the healthy, but really they're just grabbing people off the street, healthy and infected. Healthy people are injected with DNA from infected animals. Infected people are dissected or mutated. The mutated animals are prized higher than any human life and sometimes are set loose in city parks to see what will happen between them vs uninfected humans. Blackwatch soldiers kill whoever they want, and when you absorb them and get a memory, you hear their commanding officers talking about the joys of murdering people and the scientists practically orgasming over getting to treat the city as a big lab.

It's so over the top that it goes from disgusting to laughable.
 
Dishonored

Maybe I'm just not in the mood for this kind of game right now, but I couldn't get into this. The story set up is incredibly cliche, for one, so not very engaging. I had heard one of the big things about the game is that you can go through the whole game without killing anyone. This is fine, except I'm terrible at stealth and the game doesn't give you many options in terms of gameplay to do something about it. Even if I wanted the go the non-stealth route, the combat is terrible and I keep getting killed.

I don't know. I might give it a second chance, but it's unlikely.
 
Dishonored

Maybe I'm just not in the mood for this kind of game right now, but I couldn't get into this. The story set up is incredibly cliche, for one, so not very engaging. I had heard one of the big things about the game is that you can go through the whole game without killing anyone. This is fine, except I'm terrible at stealth and the game doesn't give you many options in terms of gameplay to do something about it. Even if I wanted the go the non-stealth route, the combat is terrible and I keep getting killed.

I don't know. I might give it a second chance, but it's unlikely.
It's very similar to thief, or any stealth game, really. Open combat will get you killed, if you want to kill, you have to plan it. Sneak up, create advantages.

But it's a type of game that does require a certain mindset.
 
Dishonored

Maybe I'm just not in the mood for this kind of game right now, but I couldn't get into this. The story set up is incredibly cliche, for one, so not very engaging. I had heard one of the big things about the game is that you can go through the whole game without killing anyone. This is fine, except I'm terrible at stealth and the game doesn't give you many options in terms of gameplay to do something about it. Even if I wanted the go the non-stealth route, the combat is terrible and I keep getting killed.

I don't know. I might give it a second chance, but it's unlikely.
Oh, Dishonored. My one true trade regret. I finished it twice and let it go, unaware how much I'd crave it later. I'm hoping for a GOTY edition sometime so I can get it again without feeling like an idiot who buys all the DLC later.

You get more non-lethal options as you expand your powers. Try finding more whale bones.
 
I just finished Dishonored a couple days ago. There was one thing I found somewhat jarring

Despite taking the non-lethal option for just about EVERY MAJOR PLOT POINT, I still ended up with High Chaos and the likes of Samuel suddenly deciding I was Satan---all because I guess I offed a few guards. The non-lethal options for the major plot points didn't actually really seem to affect the story all that much and it still ended up with 3 endings, two of them being in High Chaos. I suppose it netted me a whalebone or two. I guess the non-lethal options are there only if you're going almost pure non-lethal including the mooks.
 
I just finished Dishonored a couple days ago. There was one thing I found somewhat jarring

Despite taking the non-lethal option for just about EVERY MAJOR PLOT POINT, I still ended up with High Chaos and the likes of Samuel suddenly deciding I was Satan---all because I guess I offed a few guards. The non-lethal options for the major plot points didn't actually really seem to affect the story all that much and it still ended up with 3 endings, two of them being in High Chaos. I suppose it netted me a whalebone or two. I guess the non-lethal options are there only if you're going almost pure non-lethal including the mooks.
I killed a decent chunk of guards in my non-lethal playthrough and got the low chaos ending. I don't think death is all that's taken into account. I also went non-lethal with how I handed the story points. It's weird that yours ended up that way--there must have been other stuff you did to get to that point.

On the finale:

I like that both high and low chaos have their own distinct yet strong final chapters.
 
I killed a decent chunk of guards in my non-lethal playthrough and got the low chaos ending. I don't think death is all that's taken into account. I also went non-lethal with how I handed the story points. It's weird that yours ended up that way--there must have been other stuff you did to get to that point.

On the finale:

I like that both high and low chaos have their own distinct yet strong final chapters.

Probably. Maybe corpse discovery or something. It was a fun game for sure, but I got mood whiplash when it went from CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON YOU MAN to GET THE F*CK OUT OF MY BOAT.
 
Story and character were not its strong suit.

But it was imaginative and it was my kind of gameplay. I spent most of Fallout 3 crawling through subway tunnels at a snail's pace.
 
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