Topic: What are you playing?

[broodwars]

Wow. I had always meant to get into that series, but I may just skip it entirely if it ends on such a sour note. Though I guess I could just play the first and pretend there are no sequels, but that never feels right. Is it worth trying the first on its own?

Honestly, I'd just skip the first game. It's a terrible game that has a grand total of one good moment there at the end. You're better off playing Virtue's Last Reward, which recaps the only important details from 999 and is a far better game.

[ejamer]

Wow. I had always meant to get into that series, but I may just skip it entirely if it ends on such a sour note. Though I guess I could just play the first and pretend there are no sequels, but that never feels right. Is it worth trying the first on its own?

Honestly, I'd just skip the first game. It's a terrible game that has a grand total of one good moment there at the end. You're better off playing Virtue's Last Reward, which recaps the only important details from 999 and is a far better game.

I disagree slightly - the first isn't terrible if you view it as a visual novel. But the branching paths have a horrible implementation that will end up wasting far too much of your time if you want to play through normally. I think the iOS version actually works as a visual novel, and if so would be a decent way to get into the series.


The second game had a less interesting story for me, but much better gameplay mechanics. I thought it was good, although a slight letdown from the story in the first game. If only playing one game on your 3DS/Vita, I would opt to start here.


I haven't tried the most recent game.  Probably will at some point...

[ejamer]

...
If you want I'd live to join you for some hunts some time. I've been itching for some console MH action and I still have a few things I need to finish in 3U.

I'd be game for this, but have a hard time scheduling sessions (or playing at decent hours of the day) because of family commitments. 


What were you looking to finish off? 


I'm just bumming my way though the early G-Rank quests now, so not an accomplished hunter. No special goals for me, although getting some upgraded armor would be good. (Usually prefer to not get hit, but being rusty and moving into G-Rank is making that harder than it used to be.)  Bow user, decent but not great (need to be more efficient and up damage output or will run into timing issues with 3+ monsters in a quest). Usually play solo.

[broodwars]

Got rid of my copy of that POS and picked up a copy of Kirby Robobot instead. I really liked Triple Deluxe, and it would be pretty hard for Robobot to anger me like ZTD did.

[broodwars]

So yeah, I like Robobot, though not as much as Triple Deluxe. The level design doesn't feel as interesting, and the secrets aren't as well-hidden.

Lately, I've been playing some Mirror's Edge Catalyst, and it's incredibly...OK. I wasn't a big fan of the original game, but this one's clicking with me so far. I'm not quite sure why, though. The controls are pretty much the same, outside the new grappling hook feature I really like. The open world is incredibly tacked-on and repetitive, but I do like stumbling across secrets as I'm making my way across on some mundane errand. The music flat-out sucks, which is a shame considering "Still Alive" was so great in the original game. Really, my only huge complaint is that the time constraints on the timed missions are insanely tight, seemingly designed to be only beaten with a fully decked-out Faith.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm finally playing Pocket Card Jockey, and I'm really liking it. Conceptually it makes no sense but it's extremely addictive.

[broodwars]

Finished Mirror's Edge Catalyst, and it was...OK, I guess. I don't think the shift to open world really added anything to the experience in the end, and the story is just 'meh" from beginning to end. In fact, I find it hilarious that Anita Sarkeesian allegedly signed off on this game's story, given that the game damsels 2 men and fridges one of them as well. This from the lady who stated that the use of these tropes is wrong "for any gender." Hypocrite.

[BranDonk Kong]

Resident Evil 5 (PS4). My friend brought it over and we played for 8 hours straight yesterday. We're about 80% done, probably gonna finish in a couple days. I think it's a pretty great game - definitely more action than horror survival, but it's an excellent co-op game.

[Oedo]

Just finished re-learning the super basics and doing the one star quests in Monster Hunter Generations. MH4U was my first Monster Hunter game and I was enjoying it, but I stopped around the 15 hour mark (which is to say before I really got into learning much beyond the super basics) because I was swamped in games that I just wanted to play more than it. Like most reviews have mentioned, this feels like nearly identical to MH4U (at least at the basic level beyond things like Hunter Arts and Hunting Styles) and I'm enjoying it much the same. It feels like a good game to play regularly on the side and hopefully taking that approach instead of trying to blast through it in a short period of time like I do most games will help me stick with it. If anyone wants to jump online later, let me know!

[Stratos]

...
If you want I'd live to join you for some hunts some time. I've been itching for some console MH action and I still have a few things I need to finish in 3U.

I'd be game for this, but have a hard time scheduling sessions (or playing at decent hours of the day) because of family commitments. 


What were you looking to finish off? 


I'm just bumming my way though the early G-Rank quests now, so not an accomplished hunter. No special goals for me, although getting some upgraded armor would be good. (Usually prefer to not get hit, but being rusty and moving into G-Rank is making that harder than it used to be.)  Bow user, decent but not great (need to be more efficient and up damage output or will run into timing issues with 3+ monsters in a quest). Usually play solo.

Sorry, thought I replied to this but guess I didn't. I'm mostly hoping to clear the last G-Rank, hunt some Brachy and Abyssal Lagi, and just enjoy MH on the big screen in HD while dabbling in weapons I nver fully got into before. I really wish we could get a new console Monster Hunter (hoping Nintendo can pull off getting MH5 on the NX).


I'm most free on Mondays and Tuesdays, but I could also find time Saturday and Sunday afternoon/evening.

Just finished re-learning the super basics and doing the one star quests in Monster Hunter Generations. MH4U was my first Monster Hunter game and I was enjoying it, but I stopped around the 15 hour mark (which is to say before I really got into learning much beyond the super basics) because I was swamped in games that I just wanted to play more than it. Like most reviews have mentioned, this feels like nearly identical to MH4U (at least at the basic level beyond things like Hunter Arts and Hunting Styles) and I'm enjoying it much the same. It feels like a good game to play regularly on the side and hopefully taking that approach instead of trying to blast through it in a short period of time like I do most games will help me stick with it. If anyone wants to jump online later, let me know!

I still have not fired up my copy but I will have to add you so we can hunt some time. I'm also open to playing the older games so if you wanted to go back and finish 4U I'm game for that as well. There is always plenty for me to do in these games and I can just enjoy the thrill of the hunt and weapon collecting.

[Oedo]

Sounds great Stratos, I added you (my 3DS friend code is 0190-0807-1525 - ami). MH4U would be tough for me now because I got it digitally and my SD card is packed. I'm down to play to Generations most evenings for the next little while though. Let me know whenever you wanna jump online.

[Stratos]

Love Lego City Undercover! The only thing it is missing is a 2-player co-op mode like all of the other games have. Maybe we can get a sequel for the NX?

[broodwars]

I have played about half of the Battleborn campaign (the game is currently on a PSN Flash sale), and...this game has a lot of problems, but I kind of like it. It's not on the level of Overwatch or Garden Warfare 2 in terms of sheer polish, but it is its own game with its own unique qualities.

[Phil]

I finished off Tearaway: Unfolded (i.e. got the Platinum), so that was fun. I'm also playing DOOM, and that is a real fun one. I've honestly never played the original, but this new one has me quite interested.

[Wah]

Life is Strange: Episode 5
Can't wait to jump in the ending of 4 was the biggest wtf moment in gaming I've come across so far. (hint don't watch spoilers play the game)

[Oedo]

Played a lot more Monster Hunter Generations over the past few days and, ever since I started playing last week, I got the impression that the visuals weren't as good in Generations as they were in MH4U. I wasn't totally sure and I couldn't go back to MH4U to compare the two, but Digital Foundry put out a video a few days ago that explains it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orbz3Astxx4. No New 3DS enhancements for the visuals this time around. That's a bit of a let down and, evidently, it is at least somewhat noticeable if you played MH4U on a New 3DS.

It doesn't really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things though and I'm still enjoying the game. Having pretty much finished all of the two star quests and moving on to the three star bunch, I've reached the point where using the Hunter Arts properly, using traps, mounting monsters, managing inventory before and during a quest, etc., start to become important (at least for someone who doesn't have a lot of experience with the series like me) to get the bigger monsters to go down quickly. I'm starting to see how successfully hunting the more difficult monsters can get to be really satisfying and I'm looking forward to starting the high ranked quests at some point. The game has continued to be really fun so far.

[azeke]

Super Meat Boy (Steam):
Finally unlocked achievement for completing all of world 4 levels ("Hell") without dying after like a week of training and finding the safest routes.

Just today i was so close -- i beat 19 levels in one go and died stupidly on the last, 20th level. Then this night i finally got it but the way it unlocked was strange because achievement appeared when i was only halfway into the world. As it happens -- i don't have to go sequentially and technically can do these levels in the world in any order, as long as i don't die. That might have saved me a LOT of time if i knew that before, because with this trick i could do hardest levels first and then just breeze through easy ones at the end...

Also thanks to latest speedrun on Games Done Quick i finally beat Dark 4-11 "Surrender" level. I think i stopped playing SMB last year because i just couldn't figure it out.


Spelunky (free version on PC):

I tried it several years ago, but i didn't understand it back then. Now, when i know more how roguelike games are designed to be replayed, i got into it more.

Jumping and running controls are very, very weird at first. They make more sense on controller but even then there will be occasional slip-ups because main character slides like crazy even when you're not running.

So far i unlocked Jungle shortcut and got to Ice Cave several time and that's where i usually fall down into the endless pit.

I wished items made more difference -- for example in Binding of Isaacs items you get into a run create incredible gameplay diversity, but in Spelunky platforming never really changes.

Orbit or Beat (free online flash game):

Rhythm Doctor developer mentioned this game as an example of "actual rhythm game" akin to his own RD or Rhythm Heaven:
http://www.zuzunza.com/myflash/game_detail.html?game_id=562091
It's very cool, but i wished it was one button instead of two buttons that you have to press by turns (left/right or up/down). These turns get very, very confusing when rhythm gets faster and especially when changes from offbeat to beat and back again.

[Oedo]

Played through the first two worlds of Yoshi’s Woolly World over the past couple of days and I’m really liking it so far.

I love the fact that the main collectibles are your fellow Yarn Yoshi that have to be knit back together. The thing that often bothers me the most about games like this is that the main challenge for experienced gamers is behind getting the collectibles, yet there’s rarely any compelling reason from a story or gameplay sense to collect all of them. I really appreciate the fact that Good-Feel made enough of an effort for it to be mean something beyond just satisfying the completionist in me.

One thing I’m not as much a fan of is a lot of the collectibles being found through the clouds that only appear once you touch them. If the challenge in the game is behind getting all of the collectibles, fair enough. But taking that approach and then adding an element of monotony, rather than any real test of skill, is a poor choice; at that point the only thing that’s being challenged is your patience. That’s my only real complaint so far. Platforming and dispatching enemies aren’t much of a challenge, but I already knew that would be the case well in advance so it hasn’t been an issue.

Of course the visuals and the music are amazing, and that’s where the game really shines. The attention to detail is really impressive and, so far, the music is as great as I was led to believe. If soundtracks are included as My Nintendo rewards somewhere down the line, Woolly World needs to be part of the first wave.

[Mop it up]

One thing I’m not as much a fan of is a lot of the collectibles being found through the clouds that only appear once you touch them.

Yeah, I ended up just using the badge that makes these automatically appear when I first played a level.

[Oedo]

Thanks for the heads up, I didn't even realize there was a badge that does that. It's a shame because in a lot of instances the clouds are cleverly placed so that you'll run into them if you're collecting the beads or hitting an enemy, but I find myself running into empty areas or throwing balls of yarn at thin air just to see if there's a cloud there much too often. I might just start using that badge now if it gets worse in the later worlds.

[MagicCow64]

I'm a big fan of Good Feel and Woolly World is another knock-out. I actually enjoy the cloud stuff, as I felt it lets the game get into your head in a pleasurable way. The only thing it really prevented me from doing without going through a stage three times was collecting all the coins or whatever that unlock the stamp, but I only really cared about the yarn bindles and flowers (or whatever it was that opened up the secret levels).

[Luigi Dude]

Thanks for the heads up, I didn't even realize there was a badge that does that. It's a shame because in a lot of instances the clouds are cleverly placed so that you'll run into them if you're collecting the beads or hitting an enemy, but I find myself running into empty areas or throwing balls of yarn at thin air just to see if there's a cloud there much too often. I might just start using that badge now if it gets worse in the later worlds.

My first time through the game I just tried to find everything I could and usually ended up getting 18-19 stamps each stage.  I tried to find the one's I was missing after I beat it without using the hidden cloud badge but after a while literally every hidden cloud I missed my first time was some randomly placed one that I had to keep obsessively scrub every inch of the level to find.  So I had no problem just using the badge to help find the rest since most of the ones I missed were usually in pretty random locations anyway.

So you're not really missing too much if you use the badge to find the hidden clouds and it will save your sanity in the end.  Plus the platforming challenges do pick up in the latter worlds so getting 100% in the later levels becomes more platforming skills compared to the earlier worlds where their only real difficulty relies more find the hidden objects, so finding the hidden clouds in them isn't as important to contributing to the overall gameplay as the early ones.

[Wah]

Playing the original Legend of Zelda for a review. egh I don't want to do this...

[Triforce Hermit]

Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven: Eh, it has better story then Rune Factory which isn't saying much. The combat is tedious and oversimplified. I hope it picks up and gives me something. The commander enemies take too long to kill. The generators take too long to kill. Battles feel really boring as it is just trading punches with an enemy over the course of 20 turns with no real strategy. There is no way to grind levels really to improve. I thought it was going to be an inn/business sim? It isn't (that I've found yet). Which really....ugh. Wasted potential overall.

[ejamer]

Playing Daxter (PSP).  Went in with relatively high expectations, as the game did very well critically and is often lauded as one of the best on PSP. Gotta say, I'm not impressed at all after the first 33%.


Camera is poor, controls and collision aren't very sharp, and story is an almost non-existent mess where you just hop from one stage to the next without any meaningful progression. Levels are very linear, feel repetitive because the goals rarely change much, and remind me of playing stripped down versions of N64 collectathon type games (not a compliment). There are often lame QTE-style mini games, which aren't particularly fun, and failure often means you have to try again until pushing through successfully.


All those complaints aside, it's not actually a bad game and I'm content to keep playing. It just completely failed to live up to expectations of being something truly special on the PSP. Seriously: look at summaries from the Metacritic critic review, and then play this game. What kind of kool-aid were those nuts drinking?  If this is the best action/platforming the PSP has to offer then maybe it's a good thing that I've been viewing the system primarily as an RPG machine.