What are you playing?

Oh we're not allowing MMO playtime in this competition? Because if so, I think I'd have a good shout. Here's my character info from the MUD I've been playing since 1994 (though this character was only created in 1999).

Code:
Lord Sheltem the Ancient Protector of the Dead (V) (saintly)
-==========================================================================-
| Level: 92 (Inquisitor) Gender: Male Type: Non PK
| Guild Devotions: Necromancer
| Avocations: Acrobat
| Best Kill: Shadow Guard, class: 3,806,350
| Arch Foe : Terran SCV -{out of control}-, class: 479,385,780
| PK Arch Foe : ghost of Khalida(rm of Khalida), class: 90,530
| On for 14 seconds.
| Age: 264 days 5 hours 52 minutes 26 seconds.
| Created: Sun Jul 04 12:39:21 1999.
| Clan: The A Team
| No unread mail.
| Sheltem also exists @ the following other realms: 3s
-==========================================================================-
Key information in there is "Age: 264 days 5 hours 52 minutes 26 seconds." That is to say, 6,341 hours. And that's just for this character, my primary char. I have two others, with 41 days and 50 days of mudage, respectively. And this doesn't include my earlier characters, from 1994 to 1999, which were deleted.
 
Oh we're not allowing MMO playtime in this competition? Because if so, I think I'd have a good shout. Here's my character info from the MUD I've been playing since 1994 (though this character was only created in 1999).

Code:
Lord Sheltem the Ancient Protector of the Dead (V) (saintly)
-==========================================================================-
| Level: 92 (Inquisitor) Gender: Male Type: Non PK
| Guild Devotions: Necromancer
| Avocations: Acrobat
| Best Kill: Shadow Guard, class: 3,806,350
| Arch Foe : Terran SCV -{out of control}-, class: 479,385,780
| PK Arch Foe : ghost of Khalida(rm of Khalida), class: 90,530
| On for 14 seconds.
| Age: 264 days 5 hours 52 minutes 26 seconds.
| Created: Sun Jul 04 12:39:21 1999.
| Clan: The A Team
| No unread mail.
| Sheltem also exists @ the following other realms: 3s
-==========================================================================-
Key information in there is "Age: 264 days 5 hours 52 minutes 26 seconds." That is to say, 6,341 hours. And that's just for this character, my primary char. I have two others, with 41 days and 50 days of mudage, respectively. And this doesn't include my earlier characters, from 1994 to 1999, which were deleted.
I don't have figures for the account on my MUD (which I started playing in 1996 and was hired into as a GM in 1998) because it closed down for good on November 2nd of last year. :(

--Patrick
 
Oh hush, you. And MMOs don't count, we've all got those.
If MMOs don't count, then I have no clue. Probably some 90s game. I played Chrono Trigger over and over, and Final Fantasy Tactics I would keep playing even with having done everything and all my characters being level 99.

In retrospective, replaying Dark Souls several times doesn't sound so unhealthy.
 
Feeling kinda bored with Persona 4 Golden. In Persona 3, you had to keep going back to Tartarus and getting farther up the tower. It was part of routine, just something you had to keep in mind, because when you hit the monthly story event/boss, you had to be strong enough for it, and most of the time that would be in a separate place from Tartarus.

In Persona 4, each story event coincides with its own dungeon in the TV World. You don't keep advancing in the TV World past that, both sides are interconnected. Design-wise, this feels like the ideal solution. You want the gameplay and story to be connected, right? And it varies the game because each dungeon is related to the character you're trying to find.

The problem is that I have no reason to do anything until the next story dungeon shows up. I could spend a month ONLY doing relationship stuff, because why should I grind when the next dungeon will have even stronger monsters? So I'll just wait until the next one opens, plow through it getting stronger, finish the story event, and then another month of social links. So instead of frequently juggling the social links and dungeon spelunking like in Persona 3, in Persona 4 it comes in predictable pattern waves of Social Link month, dungeon, Social Link month, dungeon. So I can sit and hammer out the relationships one sitting, do the dungeon the next ... It's streamlined, and that should make the game better, but it feels dull to me.

This is probably how people who are fans of an older franchise enjoy the chaos and mess of earlier entries, while the later entries are packaged a bit better for consumption, but lose a little in the process. If I hadn't played Persona 3 first, I doubt I've had noticed this, but it makes it hard to keep picking the game up because it gets so boring. So all I have to look forward to are the cutscenes, but unfortunately (and this is my fault, not the game's) I've already been through this story twice in the anime.
 
So Xenoblade X's story is pretty shit, but man the music in this game is 99% amazing (really it's just New LA's music that's kinda balls).



This actually kind of reminds me of the Veldt music in FFVI:
 
bitch #1 about rocksmith. The first "Session mode" mission is basically just loudly and obnoxiously hit strings until the session musicians reach your "intensity", which is counterproductive bullshit. Once you get past that, though, you actually start learning how that mode works, which is cool.

Bitch #2: This thing is annoying addicting. 6 hours, 3 days, my fingers hurt like a sonofabitch.
 
So Xenoblade X's story is pretty shit, but man the music in this game is 99% amazing (really it's just New LA's music that's kinda balls).



This actually kind of reminds me of the Veldt music in FFVI:
I'd stay in Noctilim extra just to listen to the daytime music; it was so great to run and jump to. Composer is the guy who does music for Attack on Titan and Kill la Kill.
 
I'd stay in Noctilim extra just to listen to the daytime music; it was so great to run and jump to. Composer is the guy who does music for Attack on Titan and Kill la Kill.
Yeah, I find myself really excited to go to Noctilum every time a quest comes up. Also I didn't realize it was him, that's pretty awesome.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
I've been playing Dead Island and I can't decide if I really like it, or all it's flaws are bringing it down below "good". I certainly wouldn't recommend it over Far Cry 2, which did jungles better, or L4D2 which did zombies better, or Borderlands which did looting better, or even Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning which did weapon durability and looting better.

On the other hand, some of what DI does well, is a lot of fun. It feels satisfying to chop up zombies with an electrified axe, or a glowing hot machete that would never work in real life.

Pros:
- Good looking environments
- The weapons become fun when you can craft crazy modified stuff

Cons:
- glitches, glitches and more glitches. I've lost awesome weapons when they just disappeared from my inventory after trying to upgrade them. I've tried to craft items only to end up with tons of another item (yeah, what I wanted was a couple of meat baits, but I'll take 25 deo-bombs, sure)
- Weapon durability. Damn, even steel pipes wear out way too fast. It just makes no damn sense.
- Enemy respawns are way too damn fast. I've seen them pop in right in front of me as I was returning from within sightline of an area. (Ugh, I just realized that Far Cry 2 is better about weapon durability and enemy respawns than this game is, and FC2 is annoying when it comes to both!)
- Guns are just criminally underpowered (unless you're fighting humans, in which case almost any pistol is OP)
- Horrible UI. Everything is so damn clunky. And the tracking on the map for objectives is glitchy. It's just so bad.
 
Not too impressed with Mega Man VI. This is the last of the NES ones I haven't played, and within half an hour I'd played through 6 of the 8 robot master stages. They asked very little of me, besides the Knight Man stage, which I'm struggling with at the beginning. I haven't beaten any of the bosses yet because I'm trying to abstain from using the charge shot, but some of them seem designed for you to make use of it judging from their attack patterns.

Maybe the post-robot master stuff is better, but I was a little sad to have chewed through so many of the stages in such a short time when the other games put up more of a fight.
 
Not too impressed with Mega Man VI. This is the last of the NES ones I haven't played, and within half an hour I'd played through 6 of the 8 robot master stages. They asked very little of me, besides the Knight Man stage, which I'm struggling with at the beginning. I haven't beaten any of the bosses yet because I'm trying to abstain from using the charge shot, but some of them seem designed for you to make use of it judging from their attack patterns.

Maybe the post-robot master stuff is better, but I was a little sad to have chewed through so many of the stages in such a short time when the other games put up more of a fight.
Mega Man 1 is good, 2 is great, 3 and 4 are pretty good, and 5-6 are merely... okay. -7- is where things go wrong though, unless you want to try the NES remake of it somebody made.
 
Sigh, I bought car soccer so I could play it with my kids, because they are doing an esports league season with it starting next week. Blarg. Car soccer. :(

SO, if anyone wants to hang out and play it with me next week after I get back from visiting my family, let's do it. I will suck. It will be glorious.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Mega Man 1 is good, 2 is great, 3 and 4 are pretty good, and 5-6 are merely... okay. -7- is where things go wrong though, unless you want to try the NES remake of it somebody made.
Queued up to the appropriate part:

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Sigh, I bought car soccer so I could play it with my kids, because they are doing an esports league season with it starting next week. Blarg. Car soccer. :(

SO, if anyone wants to hang out and play it with me next week after I get back from visiting my family, let's do it. I will suck. It will be glorious.
Is there some way for all of us to be on the same team? I forget if I even bought this or not.
 
Mega Man 1 is good, 2 is great, 3 and 4 are pretty good, and 5-6 are merely... okay. -7- is where things go wrong though, unless you want to try the NES remake of it somebody made.
I liked 5 despite what others said, so I thought I'd like 6 too. So far the only stuff I've liked is the submarine, because it reminds me of Shovel Knight, and the Rush fist, because it's like a more useful version of Guts Man's weapon from the first game.

At least I can farm E tanks from Flame Man's stage now that he's dead.

On more impressive playing, I spent most of this evening battle the Fume Knight in Dark Souls 2 and was eventually successful. I dabbled with Sir Alonne, but didn't feel that fight was worth the time put in. Off to a wintry wasteland!
 
I always felt like Mega Man 2 overshadowed the rest of the series. I mean, it's one of the best entries by far, but I really think 3 and 4 are just as good.
 
I always felt like Mega Man 2 overshadowed the rest of the series. I mean, it's one of the best entries by far, but I really think 3 and 4 are just as good.
I think 3 is great too, but it only works as the third entry in the sense that some of the surprises that show up late in the game are only cool if you have the prior experiences to give them coolness context. But it works.

6 is the first game of the classic series where I feel like the levels are a cakewalk (except Knight Man). The stage music is still great.

I have 7 on the Wii U, but I haven't tried it yet, so I have no idea what makes it so bad. I've seen footage of 8 though ... I don't think I could stand listening to that for a whole game.
 
I think 3 is great too, but it only works as the third entry in the sense that some of the surprises that show up late in the game are only cool if you have the prior experiences to give them coolness context. But it works.

6 is the first game of the classic series where I feel like the levels are a cakewalk (except Knight Man). The stage music is still great.

I have 7 on the Wii U, but I haven't tried it yet, so I have no idea what makes it so bad. I've seen footage of 8 though ... I don't think I could stand listening to that for a whole game.
7's issues for me were based on the extremely large sprites and zoomed-in camera. I found it hard to platform and control as cleanly and precisely as I could in older MM games because the feel of the controls didn't match the size of everything.
 
7's issues for me were based on the extremely large sprites and zoomed-in camera. I found it hard to platform and control as cleanly and precisely as I could in older MM games because the feel of the controls didn't match the size of everything.
Oh, they tried to keep it like the earlier games with the platforming? I assumed because it copied the X series in appearance that it copied the gameplay as well, a la more run-and-gun than platforming. That's why I like the classic series more, it feels like I'm doing a lot more in each stage. That's a strange design choice and I can see why that'd be a problem (and why a NES remake would be better). I'll try it at some point, but I have a feeling my thoughts will be the same as yours.
 
Not a fan of the game-padding method "go through this area a second time to collect certain key items." I didn't like it in Metroid Prime and I don't like it in Dark Souls 2, Crown of the Ivory King DLC. Yeah, here it's optional, but when the option is between fighting the boss solo vs fighting the boss, plus three knights that keep respawning through the fight ... well, I know the right choice.
 
So, I've been playing some LA Noire, just finished the traffic desk, and I'm sorry to say I've grown bored of it already. It's a well-crafted game, but it just can't keep my interest.

I think the problem is that I realized there's no real penalty to screwing up a case. I could botch my way through every investigation, and no matter what happens I'll still be able to move on to the next one, and get promoted after a few cases. The game is happy to just merrily move me along the next set of rails, telling me the story it wants to tell.

Now, granted, there's nothing wrong with telling a story, but usually you'd want the game to be as immersive as possible for maximum storytelling effectiveness. And here LA Noire falls short again, because I keep running into things that break immersion. The aforementioned ability to be a star cop even if you screw up every case, for one. The ability to just ignore your current case and go gallivanting through the city looking for gunfights and fisticuffs is another. All of this combines to remind me that I'm not really playing a game, I'm watching a lengthy movie with moderately interactive segments.

So, new plan. I'm just gonna barrel through the rest of the game, picking "doubt" on every question, and enjoy Cole acting like a psychopath. There is probably a strong case to be made for this being the "wrong" way to play the game. Don't really care, for me it's either play it wrong or don't play it at all.
 
Now, granted, there's nothing wrong with telling a story, but usually you'd want the game to be as immersive as possible for maximum storytelling effectiveness. And here LA Noire falls short again, because I keep running into things that break immersion. The aforementioned ability to be a star cop even if you screw up every case, for one. The ability to just ignore your current case and go gallivanting through the city looking for gunfights and fisticuffs is another. All of this combines to remind me that I'm not really playing a game, I'm watching a lengthy movie with moderately interactive segments.
You're a white, war hero cop of the right religious affiliation in 1950's Hollywood and you cover for your bosses. There is literally nothing you could do short of a shooting rampage that would get you demoted, let alone fired, as long as you keep the Status Quo.
 
You're a white, war hero cop of the right religious affiliation in 1950's Hollywood and you cover for your bosses. There is literally nothing you could do short of a shooting rampage that would get you demoted, let alone fired, as long as you keep the Status Quo.

I've played this game, shooting rampages won't do it, either.
 
I feel I should emphasize that LA Noire is definitely a good game though, it's just not for me. The cases are generally compelling and interesting, and the gameplay mechanics are tight. For people looking to live out a noir film, it's probably an unparalleled experience. And the facial animation technology is quite amazing, though frustrating for me, because I keep getting it wrong.
 
I wouldn't just barrel through the rest of the game if you find the cases compelling; it's still fun to try figuring out what's really going on. Which to me is why the game has zero replay value.

But the whole keep going thing is annoying. I can only think of one case I screwed up where I actually had to start the case over. Action scenes can be skipped. I think Rockstar really wanted people to finish one of their games for a change.
 
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