Topic: What are you playing?

[Order.RSS]

After really liking The Last Story, I moved on to Pandora's Tower. Did anyone here play that? I could really use some advice, because I'm now in the sixth tower and even the most basic enemies are routinely wrecking my ****. Already died five time without even making it to a third room, it's ridiculous how much the difficulty has suddenly spiked. The GameFAQs for this one are really bad unfortunately.

I'm constantly short on absolutely everything, too. Money, useful supplies, healing items. I've upgraded the sword just twice, purposefully not upgrading the dual-blades or scythe. Did you guys & gals struggle this much too, or am I just really really bad at it? Are you supposed to just dodge-roll everywhere? Do they expect you to return to previous towers and grind for scraps? I'd assume not because the cash drops are pitiful and everytime you venture to a tower you're also risking Elena's transformation gauge...

[broodwars]

I played the OnRush beta a while back and while the racing felt good I didn't see how the modes they had could keep me engaged for long.

The Single-player mode attempts to make up for the low number of game types by putting in side objectives ("total X number of fodder, drive through X number of gates consecutively, shield teammates X number of times, etc." & forcing you to use different car classes with specific loadouts. I'm concerned at how much longevity this will give the game, but I'm enjoying it so far. Honestly, this is a game that could really use a Mario Kart-esque Battle Mode or Split/Second's course-altering Power Plays.

[ejamer]

After really liking The Last Story, I moved on to Pandora's Tower. ...

Just want to mention that I love seeing your reports about a bunch of old Wii games.
I haven't had much time for gaming lately - but have a whole shelf of Wii games still waiting for my attention so am living vicariously through your reports.

[TOPHATANT123]

After really liking The Last Story, I moved on to Pandora's Tower. Did anyone here play that? I could really use some advice, because I'm now in the sixth tower and even the most basic enemies are routinely wrecking my ****. Already died five time without even making it to a third room, it's ridiculous how much the difficulty has suddenly spiked. The GameFAQs for this one are really bad unfortunately.

I'm constantly short on absolutely everything, too. Money, useful supplies, healing items. I've upgraded the sword just twice, purposefully not upgrading the dual-blades or scythe. Did you guys & gals struggle this much too, or am I just really really bad at it? Are you supposed to just dodge-roll everywhere? Do they expect you to return to previous towers and grind for scraps? I'd assume not because the cash drops are pitiful and everytime you venture to a tower you're also risking Elena's transformation gauge...

I played the game twice back-to-back a couple years ago and absolutely loved it and I don't remember it being that difficult. I don't remember any specific tips or anything but I remember that I never had to grind.

There is a timing based charge attack, are you doing that correctly?

[MagicCow64]

Pandora's Tower warning: You can **** your save over right near the end of the game based on a few factors, so I recommend leaving your monster lady love alone as much as possible in case you need to activate one-off interaction scenes to get through a glitch that stops you from going into the last tower(s).

[Order.RSS]

Just want to mention that I love seeing your reports about a bunch of old Wii games.I haven't had much time for gaming lately - but have a whole shelf of Wii games still waiting for my attention so am living vicariously through your reports.

Thanks! I basically missed out on the entire Wii generation back in the day, dropped out of gaming for quite a few years. What I like a lot about Wii is that many of its games seem designed to be played in shorter bunches. Lots of them are level-based still, so if you have more time again in a while, maybe start with something like that? There's plenty of games you can fire up for 15 minutes and put down again.

I played the game twice back-to-back a couple years ago and absolutely loved it and I don't remember it being that difficult. I don't remember any specific tips or anything but I remember that I never had to grind.There is a timing based charge attack, are you doing that correctly?

I'm definitely not doing charge attacks enough, no. I grinded for 30 minutes to get some money and materials to make an armour now, added 120 defence points so hopefully that should help me out. The freaking boss just broke my sword too, like thanks a bunch swamp thing. I think I just have to accept I'm really bad at this game. The chain is probably better used to keep enemies away while dealing with other ones, I think I went in too much with a hack&slash mentality.

Pandora's Tower warning: You can **** your save over right near the end of the game based on a few factors, so I recommend leaving your monster lady love alone as much as possible in case you need to activate one-off interaction scenes to get through a glitch that stops you from going into the last tower(s).

Yeah I saw the glitch warnings, thanks! Someone on GameFAQs suggested it might be the opposite, where if you have a whole bunch of interactions left, the game crashes because it has all those stored. We'll see I guess, first I even need to get there - spent nearly three hours today on the sixth Tower, so it's a while off still.

[MagicCow64]

Yeah I saw the glitch warnings, thanks! Someone on GameFAQs suggested it might be the opposite, where if you have a whole bunch of interactions left, the game crashes because it has all those stored. We'll see I guess, first I even need to get there - spent nearly three hours today on the sixth Tower, so it's a while off still.

In my case I got the hard lock glitch and had no remaining interactions, so [shrug emoji]. Alls I know is that I tried for hours to get around it and had to give up.

[ejamer]

I had imported Pandora's Tower before it released in North America, and wonder if I should just play that version instead of the local one. Apparently it didn't have the same problesm.

[Luigi Dude]

I had imported Pandora's Tower before it released in North America, and wonder if I should just play that version instead of the local one. Apparently it didn't have the same problesm.

The Japanese and PAL versions do not have the glitch so if you have one of them play that version instead.  Since NOA didn't want to localize the North American version, they allowed Xseed to bring it over instead like with The Last Story.  But unlike The Last Story, Xseed somehow accidentally introduced a major glitch and never bothered to playtest the entire game before releasing it since it's a glitch that will effect 100% of everyone who plays it if they reach the 11th and 12th towers.  Or they did notice but decided the cost to fix it wasn't worth it which would be even more scummy to do.

Hopefully the game either gets an HD remaster or another release on the Switch so the glitch will finally be fixed for America or we can all easily get the PAL version.  I had to reset my Wii over 20 times to eventually get through the last towers but it's an experience I don't want to recreate.  Which sucks because the last 2 towers that the glitch affects were some of the best parts of the game.  Pandora's Tower is a great game but that glitch is what stops me from replaying it even though I'd really like too.    

[ShyGuy]

I'm plunking away on Wolfenstein: the New Order whenever I boot into Windows. I'm beginning to think the game is good but not great. It feels like it keeps pulling me away from the core first person shooter component to do dumb stuff like forced stealth or interactive cinematic moments. Ammo is also too scarce.

[broodwars]

Still plunking away at Onrush, and I've made significant progress both in online play & SP. I'm really enjoying the change-up to the usual racing formula, and it's easily one of the most entertaining games I've played all year.

Unfortunately, it's also one of the most needlessly frustrating. For one, despite the game having 4 different modes (Overcharge, Countdown, Switch, & Lockdown), the Ranked online season play (which is the only online available right now while the Ranked mode is in-season) really only has 2: Switch & Lockdown. I've only seen Overcharge a few times online, and I've never seen Countdown online. That's especially impressive considering that the ranked season matches are automatically generated. Players don't get to pick anything except their vehicles.

Granted, Lockdown & Switch are the 2 best modes in the game, but this game has enough issues with repetition already without deliberately making it worse. That's assuming you can even get into an online match, though. Right now, you have about a 20% chance of getting matched into a brand new match, about a 60% chance of getting matched onto a losing team in a match that's about to wrap (hope you don't mind losing an online rank!), and 20% chance of getting matched into a match that's already ended (thus starting the entire process over). Oh, and I hope you won that match you got thrown into the last minute of, because otherwise you get none of the progression currency that's used to unlock the rewards from the online season.  This is a team-based game. That is bullshit.


Oh, and that's assuming that the Codemasters servers actually hold up, because they frequently disconnect immediately after matches or during matchmaking. And SPEAKING of those servers, this game requires an always online connection to even play the Singleplayer events. Why? I have no goddamn idea. I've been kicked out of Singleplayer matches because the servers hiccuped, and it's maddening as hell.

It's a real shame, too, because the actual gameplay is phenomenal. Your cars are made of paper mache online so the slightest love tap kills you, but the sheer energy & physicality of the game is infectious. Despite the limited number of tracks, they can experience shifts in daylight & weather conditions over the course of a race that can radically change up how the match plays. There is genuine creativity and willingness to experiment, and it's all wasted on a game that is needlessly crippled by stupid decision decisions outside of gameplay.

[NWR_insanolord]

My HORI left Joy-Con with a real d-pad finally came in, and I've been going back and playing things with it to test it out. It feels really good, I'm having a great time with it on things like Celeste and Dead Cells. If you like 2D games and play your Switch in handheld mode a lot of the time definitely check it out when they release the western version next month.

[lolmonade]

Into the Breach had a stealth launch yesterday, which was a turn-based strategy game I had been waiting to see if it'd make its way over to Switch or tablets. 

You select regions of a map where enemy bug monsters are popping up in waves, and your primary objective is to keep cities on the map safe from harm controlling 3 different mechs/vehicles.  There are usually secondary objectives as well (protect these units, destroy this item, etc)  The bugs will set themselves up by moving and targeting a town or character, and it'll show the path the attack will travel, including if it'll reach across the screen or just one tile.  In your turn, you can move and then attack with your units.  Priority is in protecting the buildings, as too many hits will result in game-over.  But some of your attacks have a knock-back effect, so often the best strategy is less about trying to kill enemies quickest, but targeting your attacks in a way where the enemies will target each other or fall into water which kills them.

I'm not far in, but so far, it has been great fun, something I really enjoyed toying-around with on the couch with the TV on in the background.  Exactly the kind of thing I need while I wait for Fire Emblem to show up.  If anyone was waiting on that indie game that's aping Advance Wars, I think this would be a suitable filler until that shows up.

[BranDonk Kong]

Spider-Man (PS4)
This game is incredible. Definitely the best Spider-Man game ever made.

[broodwars]

Spider-Man (PS4)
This game is incredible. Definitely the best Spider-Man game ever made.

I'm still quite partial to Shattered Dimensions, just due to the variety of characters; styles; & locations. Still, I started playing this game after work, and I look up now and it's 1:30 AM so it must be doing something right. It's a very good game, but it's definitely full of the usual Ubisoft Open World issues (a map full of icons, radio towers to unlock said icons on the map) and Spider-Man game issues (repeating audio, repetitive side content). Still, you can't beat the sheer amount of polish Insomniac put into it.

[lolmonade]

Spider-Man (PS4)
This game is incredible. Definitely the best Spider-Man game ever made.

I'm still quite partial to Shattered Dimensions, just due to the variety of characters; styles; & locations. Still, I started playing this game after work, and I look up now and it's 1:30 AM so it must be doing something right. It's a very good game, but it's definitely full of the usual Ubisoft Open World issues (a map full of icons, radio towers to unlock said icons on the map) and Spider-Man game issues (repeating audio, repetitive side content). Still, you can't beat the sheer amount of polish Insomniac put into it.

How does it FEEL to explore NYC as Spider-Man in the game?  That's always been my biggest hangup in the more recent games.  I try not to idolize Spider-Man 2's swinging, but there was a momentum and speed coupled with some of the upgrades in that game that made the experience of just traveling through the city joyous.

[broodwars]

Spider-Man (PS4)
This game is incredible. Definitely the best Spider-Man game ever made.

I'm still quite partial to Shattered Dimensions, just due to the variety of characters; styles; & locations. Still, I started playing this game after work, and I look up now and it's 1:30 AM so it must be doing something right. It's a very good game, but it's definitely full of the usual Ubisoft Open World issues (a map full of icons, radio towers to unlock said icons on the map) and Spider-Man game issues (repeating audio, repetitive side content). Still, you can't beat the sheer amount of polish Insomniac put into it.

How does it FEEL to explore NYC as Spider-Man in the game?  That's always been my biggest hangup in the more recent games.  I try not to idolize Spider-Man 2's swinging, but there was a momentum and speed coupled with some of the upgrades in that game that made the experience of just traveling through the city joyous.

It feels excellent, as I see web swinging elements from several different Spider-Man games that give you a great deal of control over where you're swinging and where you're landing. Incidentally, I finished that game last night for Platinum #159.

[ejamer]

So I've finally gotten into playing Etrian Odyssey IV (3DS).

It took a few attempts, as the early going could feel rough and unforgiving and my interest flagged a bit during the first play attempt. Ok, it's still rough and unforgiving, but at least I'm enjoying the pain now.

I just started exploring the 4th land, and should still have plenty left to see and do. My characters feel powerful enough now that it's rare to have a total party kill unless I do something foolish, and more importantly they feel nicely customized to my liking. I think I whiffed on some of the subclass assignment though; or more importantly, just didn't maximize some of the usefulness of the class synergies.

I do like how the game pushes you to not just fight bosses, but plan out how to best take advantage of their weaknesses and individual quirks. There also seem to be a lot of different strategies available depending on how you've set up your party.

Anyway, good game so far. Rather enjoying it.

[ejamer]

In the middle of Super Mario 3D Land (3DS), and rather enjoying the game.

Straight up, it's not as good as Super Mario 3D World on Wii U even though it takes a lot of cues from that game. Levels are much shorter, and tend to be a pretty narrow track - but they still feel really good with enough secrets and areas to explore, and wonderful variety from level to level.

The physics feel a bit odd - sometimes it's hard to keep a good sense of where you are going to land during jumps if you shadow is obscured for any reason (thinking of one boss where this happened) and Mario has a weighty feel that prevents him from moving as quickly as I often expect. Neither issue affects overall enjoyment though.

So far I've played through to the middle of World 7, picking up all coins and topping every flagpole along the way. Even though World 8 is the traditional end, I know there is more content in this game and I'm looking forward to things getting a bit tougher as it's been a pretty quick romp so far. Big thumbs up to this point.

[Adrock]

Super Mario 3D World is a better game across the board. I have fonder memories of Super Mario 3D Land because I played it first.

I’ve poured over 200 hours into Breath of the Wild. I still have to defeat Vah Rudania, but I completed everything else in that region. Otherwise, I’m still searching for the remaining Shrines and Korok Seeds. Somehow I still have like 230 Korok Seeds left. I don’t even know how that’s possible. Last night, I spent a literal hour trying to beat Blynne’s Mounted Obstacle Course. F that mini-game. The number of times my Royal White Stallion just dodged the hurdles or stopped entirely when approaching them straight-on was 10 kinds of infuriating. I got the Extravagant Bridle and Saddle, but at what cost?

Not sure how I feel about the DLC. I’ll definitely need a break from the game once I finish up the last two regions.

[BranDonk Kong]

In the middle of Super Mario 3D Land (3DS), and rather enjoying the game.

Straight up, it's not as good as Super Mario 3D World on Wii U even though it takes a lot of cues from that game.

Super Mario 3D Land came out two years before Super Mario 3D World. The cues go the other way around. I like 3D Land, but I think in general the levels are way too short. Most of them take less than a minute or so to finish even on your first play through.

[ejamer]

In the middle of Super Mario 3D Land (3DS), and rather enjoying the game.

Straight up, it's not as good as Super Mario 3D World on Wii U even though it takes a lot of cues from that game.

Super Mario 3D Land came out two years before Super Mario 3D World. The cues go the other way around. I like 3D Land, but I think in general the levels are way too short. Most of them take less than a minute or so to finish even on your first play through.

Oh wow, I totally had that wrong... For some reason, I was imagining that Super Mario 3D World came first!
Thanks for correcting me.

Agree that levels are super short, but was ok with that because of the portable form factor. Start a new level, and you know it'll be over in a couple of minutes (literally) regardless of whether you win or lose.

And I do think it takes longer, most of the time, if you want to get all coins and the flag your first time through because there is a bit less room for error...

[Adrock]

The short stages worked well for a handheld game.

[MagicCow64]

In the middle of Super Mario 3D Land (3DS), and rather enjoying the game.

Straight up, it's not as good as Super Mario 3D World on Wii U even though it takes a lot of cues from that game.

Super Mario 3D Land came out two years before Super Mario 3D World. The cues go the other way around. I like 3D Land, but I think in general the levels are way too short. Most of them take less than a minute or so to finish even on your first play through.

Oh wow, I totally had that wrong... For some reason, I was imagining that Super Mario 3D World came first!
Thanks for correcting me.

Agree that levels are super short, but was ok with that because of the portable form factor. Start a new level, and you know it'll be over in a couple of minutes (literally) regardless of whether you win or lose.

And I do think it takes longer, most of the time, if you want to get all coins and the flag your first time through because there is a bit less room for error...

I liked 3D World much more, but also played 3D World first. 3D Land feels dangerously close to the original New Super Mario Bros. to me in terms of being too bare. And like the "This food sucks and the portions are too small" joke, the post-game content is really recycled and stale. The Bowser stages were a good concept, though.

[Luigi Dude]

Mario 3D World is better the first time through when collecting all the medals and stamps, but 3D Land is more fun to just replay when trying to rush through the levels as fast as possible.  The shorter more compact levels hold up better on replays compared to the larger more spaced out levels of 3D World.  With 3D Land I actually had the most fun rushing through all the levels a second time as Luigi, while in 3D World it was a blast the first time but when replaying as the other characters kind of becomes a drag over time.