Topic: What are you playing?

[NWR_insanolord]

The Luigi game is a completely different set of levels from the Mario version. They're not remixes, the Luigi levels are significantly shorter and more difficult. New Super Mario Bros. U plays like Super Mario World, New Super Luigi U plays more like Mario 3.

[ejamer]

The Luigi game is a completely different set of levels from the Mario version. They're not remixes, the Luigi levels are significantly shorter and more difficult. New Super Mario Bros. U plays like Super Mario World, New Super Luigi U plays more like Mario 3.

Excellent - good to know!

[Wah]

Picked up Supar Meat Boy on the Steam Halloween sale for $3.50, ready for some balls deep difficulty!

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm finally getting the hang of FIFA 17. People like to claim sports games don't change from year to year, but I went from dominating in 16 to finding it almost impossible to score in 17 because of the tweaks to the game engine. I'm finally getting into the groove with it now, which is good since it's probably the game I'm going to play the most over the next year.

[Wah]

Picked up Warioware for the DS for $4, and the new doom for $28. Hope to enjoy both.

[MagicCow64]

Owlboy (PC):

Another years-in the making indie darling, another dud. I hadn't heard of this before the release praise, at least, so there's no weight of disappointment here as with The Witness, Obduction, and to a lesser extent Inside.

I really need to learn to ignore indie game reviews. Owlboy has meticulous pixel art, but the general art design is fairly bland and repetitive (similar to Ori and the Blind Forest in that respect). The music swings wildly between chiptune type stuff and what sound like Andrew Bird tracks. There is way too much "story" for what I took to be an action adventure game from the trailer. It constantly jerks the control away from you to have the characters blather. Like Undertale, it treats emo "feels" baiting as profound, but it comes off even worse in this context given the genre of the game. And like Undertale it injects fedora-humor in at regular intervals.

And those are the aspects that seem to be universally praised!

The game itself is painfully mediocre. The controls are fiddly, the combat starts out as a chore and becomes insufferable. Level design is bland and it's hard to say what gameplay even really consists of; it'd be a stretch to call much of anything in the game a puzzle, moreso just very obvious obstacles that, again, feel like a chore to get past, and there isn't any platforming because you fly. There's really hardly anything to it. Oh, but there are regular stealth sections, which are predictably terrible.

All in all I have no idea how this game took so long to make. I think I'm near the final area, but I am having such a bad reaction to the game and its reception that I don't know if I'll bother to finish.

[Wah]

just finished sun and moon demo and oh my god, the game tells you the god damn what's super effective and whats not now! AGRH! And Team Skull walk cycle! XD I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Other  then that ready for some new pokemans.


It"s like if eminem did drugs, got drunk and decided to show people what "walking" is. All set to bad no lyric "rap" music.

[ejamer]

Moved to Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Wii U).  This isn't a series I'm usually big on, but I can't deny the quality after playing through the first world of stages.


The constant delays for loading are unfortunate though - LEGO City Undercover remains king of the loading screen, but at least that game could let you play for a significant amount of time between seeing loading screens pop up. Here it feels like you are waiting for content to load every couple of minutes, which is a huge pet peeve for me.


Got this game for free through the old Club Nintendo rewards. Makes me nostalgic for a rewards program that would offer me rewards I might actually use...

[NWR_insanolord]

I started up Mass Effect in backward compatibility on Xbox One now that 2 and 3 are available there as well. This isn't the first time I've started the game, but I never got more than a few hours into it despite it being the main reason I bought an Xbox 360 eight years ago. I'm really liking it so far, going with a female renegade Shepard. I'm a loose cannon who plays by her own rules, but damn it, I get results!

[BranDonk Kong]

Just been playing a bunch of PSVR demos. It sounds cliché, but the immersion is second to none. Sure the display could be higher-res (especially with the PS4 Pro out now), but the experience is incredible. It's hard to go back to non-VR games after this.

[ejamer]

Just been playing a bunch of PSVR demos. It sounds cliché, but the immersion is second to none. Sure the display could be higher-res (especially with the PS4 Pro out now), but the experience is incredible. It's hard to go back to non-VR games after this.

Ugh... I'm still skeptical about VR providing experiences that I'm keen to play, but really need to try this sometime. Reactions have been much more positive than I expected they would be.


(Only "ugh" because if it lives up to the hype I can't afford buying in anyway.)

[BranDonk Kong]

I honestly bought it fully content with the idea that I'd just try it out for the weekend and return it to the store, but it's simply awesome.

[Evan_B]

VR works for some games, but not all.

[ejamer]

VR works for some games, but not all.

As a huge 2D platformer fan, I'm not quite sold on it.  But obviously I'm a bit biased there... 
Kidding aside, what games/genres benefit from it most? 

[Mop it up]

Moved to Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Wii U). This isn't a series I'm usually big on, but I can't deny the quality after playing through the first world of stages.

Even if you're not into it, it's worth sticking it through to the end if for no other reason than the music. There's some incredible stuff later in the game!

[ejamer]

Started playing Vagrant Story (PS One Classics, via PSP) and am enjoying the game in the very early stages. Don't really know what I'm doing and might read the manual to help figure things out.  Haven't really gotten into weapon customization yet, although have heard that's a big part of the game. Did start trying to combo attacks though, which is kind of fun.


Seems prime for a remake - although maybe being widely available through PSN makes that unnecessary.

Moved to Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Wii U). This isn't a series I'm usually big on, but I can't deny the quality after playing through the first world of stages.

Even if you're not into it, it's worth sticking it through to the end if for no other reason than the music. There's some incredible stuff later in the game!

Music is very good... but I still really dislike the game (after getting mid-way through the 3rd world).  Too often if feels like level design is simple but I'm spending time fighting controls instead of trying to beat the stage. That's frustrating.


Are 10-second loading times normal to enter or exit a stage, or are they a result of having the game on my hard drive instead of directly on the Wii U?

[Phil]

Almost finished with Disney Magical World 2. One of the proud ~10,000 who purchased a copy last month! I have 95/100 stickers, and I wasn't keeping track of how many total stickers were in the game. Thus, I'm surprised how close to the end I am after just about 24 hours of playtime. Really love the customization and how every little thing you do makes some sort of progress, whether it's to get new materials, craft new items, or get closer to gaining a new sticker.

[jvgsjeff]

Almost finished with Disney Magical World 2. One of the proud ~10,000 who purchased a copy last month! I have 95/100 stickers, and I wasn't keeping track of how many total stickers were in the game. Thus, I'm surprised how close to the end I am after just about 24 hours of playtime. Really love the customization and how every little thing you do makes some sort of progress, whether it's to get new materials, craft new items, or get closer to gaining a new sticker.

There are actually 130 stickers this time. I just hit 106, and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. Although I am the type that tries to complete my item collection, so it may take me a while yet.

[Phil]

Haha. I got to the credits after 30 hours, so I'm satisfied with putting the game aside for now.

[ejamer]

I honestly bought it fully content with the idea that I'd just try it out for the weekend and return it to the store, but it's simply awesome.

What games/demos were you playing?


Had a chance to play with PSVR for a while, and didn't really care for it.  (Despite my negativity earlier, I was really surprised at what a letdown it was. I had fully expected that trying it would convince me PSVR was awesome.)


Is there such a thing as Virtual Uncanny Valley? Graphics aren't good enough to convince me anything is real, and gameplay also rung hollow most of the time. Many of the games tried to be immersive, but had such strong limitations on how and what you could interact with in-game that they lost much of the value. The Kitchen demo wowed my cousin, but left me extremely underwhelmed, as it was hardly more than a cut scene where your head controlled the camera.


I didn't love the sense of isolation you get when playing with a pretty massive headset on, and that put a real damper on any same room multiplayer. The most fun we had was probably Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes... but VR was very clearly a gimmick there.


I don't know. Maybe I'm biased because VS is way outside of my price range, but head-based motion controls to manage a camera just isn't something I'm looking for. It's also very rare that I want to completely isolate myself in a virtual world the way VR demands. Guess I'm getting old.

[MagicCow64]

La-Mulana (PC):

So I've been interested in this game for a long time, but was put off by the alleged extreme difficulty and abstruse puzzles. GOG had a flash sale last week, however, and I bit the bullet at $4.

I'm about three hours in and my feelings are decidedly mixed. I very much enjoyed completing the initial ruins zone (and didn't realize I could leave through the area exits), as I chipped away steadily figured out the grammar of the world interaction and the logic to the clues, while picking up some vital items. Controls are a tad stiff for the genre, but serviceable.

But then I beat the first boss and have pushed out the walls, so to speak, with grail warps into four or five other areas. With the increased scope I've lost serious track of any clue logic and don't have a clear sense of what I'm supposed to be doing or why, other than eventually killing the boss in each sector. Like, the last time I played I wandered into some labyrinth zone and stumbled into a shop that's selling a helmet that will let me progress through a waterfall on the other side of the world. Glad to get the hat, but I could use more rhyme and reason to the progression. 

[francisbaud]

Not playing anything right now. The most recent game I've played was League of Legends, I spent several hours earlier this year on that game. I'm pretty bad at it though and I keep dying. I've also tested 2 indie MMORPGs in development, CU and CF.

[ejamer]

La-Mulana (PC):
...

Although I've only played the WiiWare version, I hold the game in high regard (despite some real love/hate over the obtuse puzzles).   I liked the way you could explore and try to learn from the environment in many different areas, how the game layered puzzle on top of puzzle, and how delightful it was to uncover secrets one by one until you had mastered a whole section of the world.  I even kind of enjoyed the decidedly old-school controls that work pretty well once you master them.


But the obtuse design doesn't get better with time - in fact it sometimes gets worse. After uncovering the truth about Eden, I had absolutely no idea how to progress further in that world... and to this day still haven't figured that secret (or many others) out.


I did hear from a friend that there is no "solution" though, and that's it's essentially totally random if you want to progress. I'm not entirely sure that's true, because this game hides many solutions to puzzles in places you wouldn't think to look (background artwork, clues given in entirely other parts of the game world, etc).  Moral of the story?  Don't be afraid to use an online guide if you want to progress deep in to the game.

[ShyGuy]

Tropico 5 has consumed me. The best "City-Sim" out there right now.

[MagicCow64]

La-Mulana (PC):
...

Although I've only played the WiiWare version, I hold the game in high regard (despite some real love/hate over the obtuse puzzles).   I liked the way you could explore and try to learn from the environment in many different areas, how the game layered puzzle on top of puzzle, and how delightful it was to uncover secrets one by one until you had mastered a whole section of the world.  I even kind of enjoyed the decidedly old-school controls that work pretty well once you master them.


But the obtuse design doesn't get better with time - in fact it sometimes gets worse. After uncovering the truth about Eden, I had absolutely no idea how to progress further in that world... and to this day still haven't figured that secret (or many others) out.


I did hear from a friend that there is no "solution" though, and that's it's essentially totally random if you want to progress. I'm not entirely sure that's true, because this game hides many solutions to puzzles in places you wouldn't think to look (background artwork, clues given in entirely other parts of the game world, etc).  Moral of the story?  Don't be afraid to use an online guide if you want to progress deep in to the game.

Thanks for the response, that's pretty much as I expected. I'm about six hours in, not as far along as you got, but I think I've seen nearly every area to some extent. I've got a boss waiting in the Sky Spring that seems intimidating, and a miniboss in the Twin Labyrinths that seems impossible with my current equipment (I think I've got about half the items/weapons), but other than that I'm just wandering around. I haven't quite gotten stuck, and there's some more stuff to go back over with my newer gear, but I pretty much gave up on trying to follow the clues. There are just too many of them, and even my expanded recorder filled up almost immediately. At this point, they mostly seem way too vague to be worth thinking about, and several I've only realized what they meant after I randomly or intuitively uncovered the secret.

I feel like in another two hours or so I'll hit the limit of what I can blunder through on my own, and therein lies the predicament you mentioned about guides. The game itself isn't all that "fun" on a mechanical level (and the fucking knockback is starting to drive me nuts), so looking up the solutions seems like it would render the experience pointless. I guess we'll see if I'm up to the challenge!