Author Topic: What are you playing?  (Read 692223 times)

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Offline magicpixie

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #175 on: October 06, 2013, 04:34:51 PM »
Picked up Game Stock Car 2013 and played a bit of it recently.  It's really nice to play a racing game with tracks that I haven't seen much of since these seem to all be located in Brazil.  The game is based off the rFactor 2 engine, I believe, and it shows.  The game is fairly utilitarian graphically, but the physics simulation is great.  I've had a bit of difficulty figuring out how to set this game up to work with my G27 as the menus don't seem to be very helpful.  I really would like to figure this out, because as it is now, throttle and brake inputs feel almost digital and it's near impossible to get the amount of control I want.

Finally got my confirmation e-mail from the Race Room team.  Despite being a time-trial game f2p game, Race Room is actually quite fun.  The handling and physics seem pretty good, and the game in general runs like butter.

I was looking forward to the new console launches specifically for Forza and Drive Club, but these two games are really dulling any enthusiasm I had.  Assetto Corsa and Project Cars and the fact that there has been little info regarding compatible wheels on the new consoles will make it even easier to put off purchasing the two consoles for a while.

Necroed: Egads, GSC 2013 is fricking amazing, Forza can go EABOD.  As earlier, the graphics engine is ancient and the UI is unintuitive like I've never seen before.  For some reason, brakes were assigned in my control settings to some unknown input, and always at 100%.  Once I fixed that, I fell in love with the handling simulation in this game.  Momentum and balance play a huge factor in cornering - poorly timed shifts can to throw the cars off if you aren't careful.  If Reiza ever get big enough to make a big-budget AAA racer, I think they would have the hands-down best product out there.

Also been trying to get gold medals in the Challenge portion of F1 2013.  I've seen people say that this offering is akin to a roster update in sports games, but I feel like the changes Codemasters have made to the handling and tire modelling are quite significant.  It is much easier to lose your back end if you aren't careful on the throttle, and tire-wear is much more harsh.  If you aren't smooth with your inputs, you can easily burn through good tires in a few laps.  Understeer in 2012 was definitely an issue, but it seems much better in 2013.  Ultimately, this series is a great middle-ground between true hardcore racing sim, and arcadey racers.
« Last Edit: October 10, 2013, 09:30:32 PM by magicpixie »

Offline azeke

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #176 on: October 17, 2013, 11:38:39 PM »
Bastion:
Started this game properly. Wow, gamepad controls are pretty bad. It defaults to auto-aiming and in default configuration was buggy or something, because alternate attack wasn't working at all for me until i set it up properly myself.

It's a shame because the game is great with keyboard and mouse, i really wish they could make a better control scheme for it.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations:
You know what. Aside from usual Ubisoft jank, it's actually pretty great. The music is really good, II only had one good track in the beginning (main theme), and i don't remember anything from Brotherhood at all. Revelations already had two music pieces i really liked so it's already beating all other AC games for me.

Galata Tower sequence was also pretty cool. I know, it's cinematic garbage with super dilluted 3d platforming and i as mainly Nintendo guy, supposed to hate it. But i enjoyed it, what are you going to do?..

Bomb system is retarded and i don't use it at all. And it seems they knew that most players would ignore it because in one mission where i had to use bombs they placed a box with four of them just in case i didn't had any.

Moments where some random templar assassin creeps up to me and tries to stab me are very intense. Music goes all Hitchcock and you have a second or so to react. They also happen in the most unfortunate moments: like during one stealth mission this guy tried to kill me and i had to defend myself ruining my cover.

Wonderful 101:
Still takes up most of my gaming time. Unlocked four or so secret characters by now. Got 82 achievements out of 101. Filled almost entire row for normal difficulty with plats. Only have 9-C and 8-C left.

Replaying finale boss for the second and third time was just as hilarious and amazing. When you can't help but tear up from awesomeness even on replaying the finale you know this is a special one...
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Offline azeke

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #177 on: October 18, 2013, 01:15:12 AM »
Puzzle Kingdoms:
If you didn't knew this game is made by creator of Puzzle Quest, same cheesy kinda-bad artwork would clue you in:

Also has the same generic fantasy type "plot", if you can call it that.

They changed puzzle system for this one and it took ten or so minutes for me to figure out. It went from Bejeweled system to sorta Yoshi's Cookie where you have to move entire rows and columns.

Previous Puzzle Quest games felt too random at time because of random puzzle pieces that fell from the top and sometimes could combo in a very unpredictable manner. So it was kinda hard to fight with any strategy in mind, when your AI enemy could get a lucky strike of 6 or so combos, fill in all attack slots in one turn and then demolish you in the next one. Spells that randomly changed the board also didn't help.

With this new system randomness is a bit more controlled. Strings of three or more combos are extremely rare. Also the board shows you what piece is going to appear from each side so you can plan ahead accordingly:



It's an okay game, just what i need to spend my lunch break on work. The biggest problem for me so far is special mini-game where i have to destroy all the pieces from board -- i just can't destroy all of them because when you move pieces you always add a new piece on the board.

Viewtiful Joe:
Got zoom power. Now that i have full powerset combat system becomes kinda messy and doesn't feel as tight as in other beat'em ups. It just feels like there are too many options for you at any given moment.

It IS limited with extent of your gauge and i know you're supposed to string your attacks and constantly keep restoring your gauge with bottles from destroyed enemies to get huge points. But this system just didn't clicked with me yet.

Flying bus puzzle was kinda annoying. You do realize you need to use power to solve it, but which one and at what moment? Those two pink robot girls were also annoying. I did beat them but it felt like i missed some trick.

Currently i'm on a hotel level.

Super Smash Bros Melee:
While i am playing GameCube games, i decided to go back to this one and try to figure out how to actually play it again. I watched great documentary about Melee and it kinda hyped me up.

I tried to play Smash games, many, many, many, many times. Could never understand it. The second when i push my stick up and my character jumps, my brain just breaks.

Still don't understand if i can do smash attacks in the air or not. Can't even do smash attack reliably on the ground.

The game is so reliant on stick movement and it's intricacies and it's probably my biggest hurdle.

Apollo Justice:
It feels like writers are just doing combinations by now.

The usual scheme is that we have innocent defendant who we have to prove is not guilty and witness who was the killer. I think starting with third (?) game they really started to play around with the formula. We got guilty defendants that we had to prove are NOT guilty, we had guilty prosecutors and finally with this one we got guilty attorney. The next game should finally make the judge a murderer -- he's the only one who they haven't played with.

First case already was pretty hard, probably one of the most contrived ones in the series.

Watching Trucy and her cute animation when she steps from heel to toe, made me realize series has became like an japanese idols group where they constantly have to "update" their girls roster, because previous ones cross magical 21 years limit and becomes "too old". When you look at it that way she isn't all that different from Maya, her animations and reactions are very similar, same fighting pose with her fists, same sulking pose and all.

And of course newest game feature a new girl, who is also quirky and energetic and has sunny attitude. I'm onto you, Capcom, you won't trick me again with your moe ways...

Link's Awakening:
I've just beaten Face temple that was a huge maze spread on to three-four levels, and now i'm at the last dungeon and it's an even bigger maze. Ugh.

What's most annoying is that mini-bosses keep respawning so you have to kill them again and again when you're simply roaming between rooms trying to figure out where to go.
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Offline magicpixie

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #178 on: October 19, 2013, 10:13:56 PM »
Man, I feel like I've said this before, but Game Stock Car 2013 is the best racing game I've played in a long time.  I just started futzing around with karts, and I'm having way too much fun throwing these things through these tracks.  Karts are super light, and, with the track designs, really zip around.  The extremely tight steering radius takes some getting used to, and even though I still really suck, the bendy tracks are just a riot to navigate.  It really makes you work to find and hit your apexes, and plan a few steps ahead just to set yourself up for the next corner.  I haven't even tried the F1/F3 or the Minis yet, and I've barely started messing around with the namesake stock cars.

For under $30 this game really delivers on content.  And since it's on PC, you can count on a ton of community mods that you can pick and choose from to customize your experience to your own liking.  rFactor 2(GSC uses the rFactor engine) is a great racing sim, but the experience is brought down by the fact that it is currently unfinished and relies almost completely on user-generated content.  GSC 2013 is fantastic right out of the proverbial box.

I also started to replay Apollo Justice a few weeks ago, but didn't get very far since the last two months have been absolutely nuts for games.

Offline ShyGuy

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #179 on: October 20, 2013, 09:35:51 PM »
I picked up the The Bard's Tale in the latest Humble Bundle and am playing it in Linux. Great sense of humor, I can see why it has such a good reputation.

Offline azeke

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #180 on: October 21, 2013, 12:15:26 AM »
Assassin's Creed: Revelations:
Finished. People who said it was a bad game, can go and eat a bowl filled with something nasty.

It's a great game. My favorite story in entire series so far, great ending and the best ending sequence gameplay-wise of all AC games.

II and Brotherhood had great endings, but it was crazy story twists that made them good. Gameplay was really, really lacking in both.

The ending in Revelation starts as your regular carriage mission and then they turn it on it's head and it becomes something great and crazy. And then it becomes even more crazy in the end. Loved it.

Portal-like levels where we get to know Desmond's and Clay's lifestories were kinda stupid. By the end their sound effects and visuals got too disturbing and i still have to finish Clay's two last levels because it got tad too intense for me (those flashes in church, ugh). Ending of Desmond's missions was great though.

Altair's missions were okay and the final sequence with Ezio lightning the torches and Altair putting them out in the past was wonderful.

Music was also pretty cool.

By the end, i actually started using bombs and they weren't all that bad and pretty useful. It's still stupid they put so much effort on bomb crafting system.

The only genuinely bad parts in the game were tower defense sequences. But i only played them whopping two times during my entire game. Which is again stupid that they made entirely new gameplay system for something i spent about ten minutes in total. I "won" first tutorial-like tower defense mission and lost the second one. After i lost my assassin's den, it took me about two minutes to recapture it, which made this whole sequence even more moot and pointless.

The main part why i enjoy series so much -- 3d platforming is still very much there, and this time they toned down full synchronization considerably, which made it a bit less annoying.

Revelation probably DOES have less content that previous game but do you really want even more collectathon pieces and more generic thief/mercenary/romani missions? I still collected all 100 animus fragments, not for the stupid UPlay achievement, but because i simply enjoy traversing the city by itself.

Assassin's Creed III (Wii U):
This is my first AC game on console and wow... It looks like that bowl of something nasty! I shudder to think how it looks like on 360 and ps3...

Even rather drab Revelations with it's grey/black colour effect was still a great looking game and II and Brotherhood were outright gorgeous looking on PC. Now, this?.. Framerate, jaggies all over the place... I think it's better to play it on gamepad because it's lower resolution hides these flaws much better.

I now have to think long and hard if i will still want to get ACIV on Wii U or should i go back to superior looking PC version...

I am still very early in the game and map hasn't even appeared yet. I really want to see how they did map management on gamepad.

Mario Kart Wii:
Had friends coming over. At first we wanted to try some racing game and i discovered i have no split screen PC racing games! Burnout Paradise has no split screen and has some weird sound issues anyway. After searching around i just gave up and booted up Mario Kart.

It was my friend's first time playing it and he didn't understand much what was going on, and i also completely forgot how to drift. We still had fun.

Donkey Kong Country 2 (GBA):
That sword boss was really great. And i love how vertical the game gets, especially with Dixie where you climb way up and then jump off and glide down to get to places you can't with Diddy.
First game feels almost pedestrian in comparison, seeing how non-linear DKC2 is.

I level warped in four levels or so, which felt cheap, because i didn't actually beat the level -- i just found a secret that teleported me to the end of it. I feel like actually replaying them to get as much stuff as i can.
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Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #181 on: October 21, 2013, 11:40:31 AM »
I picked up the The Bard's Tale in the latest Humble Bundle and am playing it in Linux. Great sense of humor, I can see why it has such a good reputation.
Is this a remake of the old Commodore 64 game? I loved that game as a kid.
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #182 on: October 21, 2013, 02:20:09 PM »
I believe it is a "reimagining" It originally came out in 2004 and pokes a lot of fun at common RPG tropes, like killing a rat in the cellar and opening chests in people's home. It looks like it comes with the original three games from the 80s but I haven't tried them yet.

Offline Stogi

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #183 on: October 21, 2013, 09:25:41 PM »
I played it on Android. It's actually quite deep.
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Offline azeke

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #184 on: October 22, 2013, 12:50:47 AM »
Assassin's Creed: Revelations:
Done. Finished Clay's missions. It was pretty stupid. Stupid ending, rather stupid and unnecessary revelation about the traitor in previous games.

Eh, whatever. I guess these missions are supposed to replace puzzles. Well they definitely cranked up weirdness for these ones.

Assassin's Creed III:
I got over performance hit from PC versions and can play the game without constantly wincing now.

Got to Boston. Map on Gamepad is too zoomed-in, i wish it was displaying bigger part of the city so that i could look further than one block around me.

UI is kinda weird. I don't like how they display historical data. Firstly, the picture and text are angled and take a small part of the screen.



So much space is wasted. It's hard to read that small font on TV, so i have to lift gamepad closer to my eyes and read it there. Another thing is that you have to press B four or five times to exit from this screen now.

On the other hand they added notifications list, so you can always bring back database entries you missed when you didn't feel like reading. That's cool.

Controls feel a bit more touchy-springy compared to previous games. Your character is too eager to jump over stands and fences when you hold ZR. I will probably get over it.

Other than that it's fine so far.

Rhythm Paradise (Rhythm Heaven) DS:
I got "Superb" on all mini-games half a year ago and so now i am just collecting missing "Perfects". Still got about 10-20 of them. As i said it turned out that in some mini games "Superbs" are much harder than "Perfects", so eventually i will do it.

People who said touch controls didn't work as accurately as they could are wrong. Big gimmick of this game was using touch controls in a very unusual way that requires some practice to master. It is accurate, and even then timing is actually pretty generous (Rhythm Heaven games for GBA and Wii are much stricter with timing).

Like, doing the action not when stylus touches the screen, but when you lift it. Or guitar mini-games when you have to strum it in a very specific way. I'm guessing as usual this went beyond reviewers' learning capabilities and they chose to blame the game instead.
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Offline MagicCow64

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #185 on: October 22, 2013, 07:21:53 AM »
I was baffled by how much worse nearly every element of AC III is compared to II-rilogy. The parkour controls are worse, the menu system is terrible, the combat is even awfuler than usual, the cities are lame, the side missions stripped down and lazy, story incoherent and hard to follow, main character boring, I could go on and on. I loved Brotherhood, but after III I don't think I'll be touching another game from this series.


Oh also, you're spot on about the Gamepad map. A persistent interactive map could have been a game-changer, but instead they slapped on an ugly, slightly expanded, untouchable minimap. Yech.

Offline azeke

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #186 on: October 22, 2013, 07:37:55 AM »
Oh also, you're spot on about the Gamepad map. A persistent interactive map could have been a game-changer, but instead they slapped on an ugly, slightly expanded, untouchable minimap. Yech.
Dammit, i was hoping this map was so empty and busted because i haven't unlocked something yet. I'm still very, very early in the game.

Imagine playing AC and just looking down and seeing all targets and icons all around you. And they really should add multiple targets, it's stupid that they haven't done this after so many games. Like you can mark one target as your current one and a few others nearby that you plan to do after.
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Offline jarodea

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #187 on: October 22, 2013, 09:24:49 PM »
This thread started in May, well it's not too hard to sum up the games I've played since then (bold are games I am currently playing):
  • Find Mii 2
  • The mansion mii game
  • Luigi's Mansion 2
  • Gunman Clive
  • Wario Land 3
  • Fire Emblem sacred stones or whatever
The only one I've beaten is Gunman Clive.

Offline azeke

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #188 on: October 24, 2013, 02:41:10 AM »
Enough Plumbers:
I have dim memories of playing this game years ago and after watching Patrick checking out second one, i wanted to play them both again.

What an inventive little game! Really interesting puzzle platformer with cloning mechanics. I was stuck on level 14 for a while, but the final solution turned out to be much easier than i thought.


Ninja Gaiden (NES):
I'm on level 5 (meaning that when i start the game from the beginning every two days or so on my breaks, level 5 is now when i give up). Need to figure out how to do that wall to wall jump. You know the one. Yes, THAT one.

The game is all about patterns, all enemies have predetermined behaviors and they're all very simple to kill individually. Some trouble might start when the game starts spamming them but "don't stop for nothing and keep running" mantra works for majority of the game.

Despite that enemy behaviors are wildly different, majority of them are killed if you simply stop for half a second and slash (range on this sword is bigger than you think). Birds are easy, either duck and wait for them to fly closer and slash or jump over them and let them fly off screen.

Speaking of screen, screen border is actually your main weapon in the game, not only you can simply ignore most enemies by running past them or just by letting them run off screen themselves, you can even abuse it to change the position of especially uncomfortable enemy.

There is one dude in the beginning of level 5-1 who is standing on top of a pillar and throws knifes at you. He is rather bothersome, but you can manipulate screen border near him a bit and he will fall off that pillar. Level 5 also introduces white dudes who throw boomerangs at you -- so far they're the only enemy that you NEED to use power-up against.

Because i have big health bar i find that strategy "harm yourself to abuse invincibility state" (thank you, La Mulana, for teaching me this!) works wonderfully in this game.

Assassin's Creed III:
The beginning of this game is weird. It takes them three hours or so for them to give me full access to the city, before that i just go from mission to mission. Just roaming the city and collecting stuff is one of my favorite things to do in the series and they won't let me until i am done with all tutorial missions.

Even when they give me access, it still feels rather empty:
  • there are no shops (there is some cart on wheels that sells stuff though)
  • i've only had one extra mission in the entire city (delivering mail)
  • and viewpoint synchronization points are too scarce (seriously what were they thinking when they picked that setting? there is just not enough tall buildings).
I don't even know what viewpoint synchronization does anymore, because it sure doesn't unlock any shops that's for sure.

Fast travel system... I still didn't figured it out how to actually use it, so i won't whine much on it yet, but i just hope that you don't actually need to roam around in this underground maze every single time you want to move to point to point. Because that would defeat the whole point of "fast" travel system.

Full synchronization on fort siege mission was annoying. But at least it made me learn some new moves. I like new cornering mechanic and how you can whistle to attract guards. But human shield mechanic is a pain to use, and it's always better just to run away when you see guys starting line fire.

Rifles take too much to reload. I mean what happened, Ezio and even Altair had much better guns with zero reloading time. I know, i know: "MUH REALISM", but this is a videogame. At the very least, they could have added some kind of active reload system from Gears of War to it -- that might have made it more fun. So far, it's better to fire a rifle, ditch it and then pick up another one from corpses that you don't have to reload.

It was kinda funny in this mission how one of my men climbed on top of a roof, positioned himself right above the guard and then jumped off it to kill... a dog standing nearby. Really? I'm not even sure if it was a bug or something but it was funny either way.

Franklin's speech about picking older women for lovers was absolutely hilarious. It turned even more hilarious when i googled around and found out it's 100% real.


Scribblenauts Unlimited (PC):
A perfect opportunity for my new wireless keyboard and mouse. I tried to play it before but it was hard to play with my setup -- i really don't want to play games on my monitor anymore and my TV is in across the room from my PC.

First time when i tried to play i couldn't really understand the controls, it just didn't make sense. Yesterday i finally got it: the game was made with Wii U touch controls in mind first and foremost and in PC port they didn't bother to change them at all. So this game is actually most controlled by mouse mostly and keyboard is only used for typing.

But controls aside -- this is such a great game. So much fun and charm. Now that i am actually playing it i love it so much and i am so sad that Wii U version was delayed to in Europe until it became completely irrelevant. I could have played this wonderful game on Wii U launch a year ago... In August, i finally caved in and got Steam version on sale for 4 bucks. I would had zero problems with buying this great game fully priced a year ago, WB. Your loss, once again.

I love humour in this game so much. like there are lockers at fire fighters station. What's inside them? Mini giraffe, hungry platypus that will eventually eat said giraffe and a pink fireman helmet.

Most of the puzzles are very easy and but still very fun. Like when you give fire fighters' mascot dog a little helmet of its own, a little fire truck will appear and then the dog will get into it and ride away!

And i love how game is both a guided experience and at the same time gives player some freedom to have fun. I had one mission where i had to make pizza and after i gave the cook tomatoes, dough and anchovies (whatever that is... i only know that from movies), he asked me to add special ingredient of my own.

Of course, being mature well-adjusted adult i am, i added boogers to the mix. Guy who ate this pizza enjoyed it well enough.

Some puzzles didn't really made sense though. Like most of art gallery. It felt like for some paintings, anything could do. When gnome asked to add something on the painting i randomly added a rat and it worked. So either this was a very well implemented Pratchett reference or anything would have worked.
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Offline Pixelated Pixies

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #189 on: October 24, 2013, 05:53:21 PM »
Currently playing Pokémon Y. Let me tell you, Pokémon is far less monotonous when combined with Jack Daniels and Gypsy Punk.
Gouge away.

Offline ymeegod

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #190 on: October 25, 2013, 05:32:07 AM »
My titles for the week:

Metro: Last Light (360)--loved the first 3/4 of the game but then the story takes a dive in the wrong direction.  Still once in awhile an linear story driven fps is what I need and this filled the void.

Disney epic mickey castle of illusion  (3DS)--talk about disappointed.  Didn't have the Disney 'charm'. 

Devil Survivor 2 (3DS)--kept dying due to cheap shots by the AI and overwhelming boss battles.  Wouldn't have minded so much if they just included an retry option but they don't.  :( 

Ratchet and Clank All 4 One (PS3)--a lot of people bash this game as being the worst in the series but I enjoyed even though I played it offline with just the AI :(.  Captain Quark needs his own game.


Offline azeke

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #191 on: October 26, 2013, 05:06:23 AM »
Candy Box 2:
This game absolutely annihilates my productivity at work lately. I can't get anything done for two days now.

I played first game and overall liked it, though it was very obtuse and very grindy at first. While second game also has some slow waiting moments, but in 2, even grinding became so much fun.

Not sure if they made it more clear or i got smarter, but with Candy Box 2 i understood everything pretty much right away. After struggling previously with 1, i know what kind of screwed-up logic it expects of me now, so in first day i breezed through starting phases and puzzles very quickly.

Then i left my work PC on for the night, so that game would keep harvesting candies and lollipops. That helped somewhat in the first game, because you could boost your health with lots and lots of candies, but not so much in 2 -- now all encounters are designed to be impenetrable if you're trying to force yourself through. All of them require you to get some specific item or new ability or potion or something.

Back then, playing 1 i gave up on Developer that comes after Satan in Hell. On 2, i got to castle, and then to Developer again, who feels like final boss, because he has has infinite lives (not just ridiculous amounts like billion or something, it actually says "so much hp!" in his healthbar). Still, looking at my inventory, i still have ways to go, because i barely have 15% of all items in the game.

Just now, on the third day, i came to work and saw some more things to do in this game. What a delightful little HUGE game.

Arkanoid DS (with Taito Paddle controller):
Finally got my order delivered.

Dial feels kinda loose... I read up other impressions and people on forums said that wheel is supposed to have some resistance to it. The one i have -- you can touch it and it goes spinning and spinning.

It still works great though. I prefer to hold with two fingers, but when i gave it to my friend he started to move it with just one finger and it worked for him just fine.

Game itself, well it's Arkanoid, pretty much the same game we played on NES. Same music, same gameplay. There was one weird thing about first levels though -- they don't take entire screen width which is weird considering already low resolution of DS. Hopefully it gets wider so that you can really use that dial.

Dial really make a difference for a game like this, now you can move your ship pretty much instantly across entire field AND still be very precise.

Ass 3:
Full synchronization is so painful in this game. Even the most simple missions become aggravating if you go for 100%, because you have to figure out all the intricacies of controls and all "AI" patterns. I'm on 4th sequence and i think i replayed every mission in sequences 2 and 3 at least 5-10 times to get full sync. It was mostly because of controls and just general lack of polish.

Brotherhood also had that flaw -- that game also had missions that had completely broken and unrealistic full sync requirements that were nearly impossible to execute with controls of the game. It's like these requirements were written by a person who never actually played the game (which might very well be true considering ridiculous sizes of AssCreed development teams). Fortunately these missions were all optional stuff.

III has these kind of missions right in the beginning of the story, where you just getting to the grips with new controls and mechanics. SO ANNOYING.

In one mission i really wanted to maim and kill every single soldier in that fort (including George Washington and John Fraser) because it wanted me to be completely stealthy, not to be detected and not kill anyone. And it's almost impossible to stay stealthy with these controls -- like, i am hiding in a bush and then make a run for the next bush. I jump over the fence... and cling to a nearby wall instead of hiding in the bushes that are right freaking there. Or i am hiding in the bushes and touch some random barrel or a rock and now Haytham starts climbing this thing, ruining his cover.

They also removed neat stealth feature that Revelations had. In eagle vision you could see trails and routes or the guards so that you could plan your actions. But now it's gone.

Yes, let's make a game with emphasis on stealth and remove stealth features and make new controls that are literally antithetic for all things stealth!

Just now writing this, from the comments of the video linked i knew that i should have switched to fists -- then i could attack guards without killing them. I suspected as such but never actually tried it and thanks game for never telling me this.

Even after doing all these optional objectives you're not done -- you have to find a way out of fort and meet with that indian lady. First time i did all that stealth mission by some miracle and then i thought it was all over and then just ran out of fort and towards her. Of course all the soldiers in the fort saw me and ran after me.

Let me tell you something -- these guys are just relentless. It's very hard to lose them in the forest and the worst part was when i met indian lady and.. she started to fight redcoats that are chasing me. Of course i HAVE to be anonymous to finish this damn mission so i started running circles trying to lose them BUT apparently Zio once she started fighting she keeps fighting, and she started following these redcoats! It was so stupid. I need to become anonymous to talk to you and but i can't become anonymous because you keep following these soldiers! UGH!..


... Woosah... Woosah...

But at least i now figured out that new fast travel system. It's actually very good! You need to unlock new teleportation points by wandering in a maze but once you did you can then move to this point at any moment in the game from the map. Very handy.

Last night i finished Haytham missions. Let me tell you, it was like 2 am and i was very tired and sleepy and but DAT ending made me go "WAIT, WHAT?!" along with Desmond. I literally sat up in my bed. I now vaguely remember something about that reveal before game's release, but thankfully i forgot all of it. Man, it was a great moment!

It pumped me up enough to stay for two more hours playing as Haytham's son. I really liked new tree climbing mechanics -- it's so fast and smooth. Hunting.. was eh, it's okay i guess.
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Offline AnGer

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #192 on: October 27, 2013, 12:42:00 PM »
Been playing some Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl in the new Story Mode. Which isn't bad, but isn't the best thing to happen since the invention of sliced bread. It's what I'd call "a safe bet" and somehow goes to show that it is not the best idea to write a story on top of an existing game from a franchise where FF–esque storytelling was never a part of the engagement.

Offline magicpixie

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #193 on: October 27, 2013, 02:24:57 PM »
Last night i finished Haytham missions. Let me tell you, it was like 2 am and i was very tired and sleepy and but DAT ending made me go "WAIT, WHAT?!" along with Desmond. I literally sat up in my bed. I now vaguely remember something about that reveal before game's release, but thankfully i forgot all of it. Man, it was a great moment!

It pumped me up enough to stay for two more hours playing as Haytham's son. I really liked new tree climbing mechanics -- it's so fast and smooth. Hunting.. was eh, it's okay i guess.

I've been thinking about that reveal for quite a while now, and I was wondering what kind of impact it would have had on someone who hadn't played any of the previous games.  I thought it was pretty cool the way they played around with my expectations like that.

I've read some reviews for Arkham Origins, and it irks me that so many outlets are down on this game just because it doesn't change anything about the series.  So far, I'm having a great time being the gotdamned Batman again.  Not every game in a series needs to be a revolution for it to be a solid outing.  Of course, 25% off, and being visually stunning on PC helps a lot.  There isn't too much to say about the game, since it's so similar to Arkham City, just bigger.

Offline oohhboy

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #194 on: October 28, 2013, 03:04:38 AM »
I can understand why Origins is getting marked down. Yeah, you are the GODDAMN BATMAN, but it is too much of the same too soon without the level of polish or innovations the previous games have. It is a game in search for a reason to exist outside of more money and it doesn't have one. It got pushed out the door because it's almost time for next gen and the accounts say that to maximise our profits we should use the engine one more time.
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #195 on: October 28, 2013, 02:09:02 PM »
I think there are some nice refinements in Origins. The side missions are better integrated into the story, the design of the characters is generally better, and I think the story is more enjoyable (so far).

Offline MagicCow64

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #196 on: October 28, 2013, 08:10:04 PM »
Last night i finished Haytham missions. Let me tell you, it was like 2 am and i was very tired and sleepy and but DAT ending made me go "WAIT, WHAT?!" along with Desmond. I literally sat up in my bed. I now vaguely remember something about that reveal before game's release, but thankfully i forgot all of it. Man, it was a great moment!

It pumped me up enough to stay for two more hours playing as Haytham's son. I really liked new tree climbing mechanics -- it's so fast and smooth. Hunting.. was eh, it's okay i guess.

I've been thinking about that reveal for quite a while now, and I was wondering what kind of impact it would have had on someone who hadn't played any of the previous games.  I thought it was pretty cool the way they played around with my expectations like that.

I've read some reviews for Arkham Origins, and it irks me that so many outlets are down on this game just because it doesn't change anything about the series.  So far, I'm having a great time being the gotdamned Batman again.  Not every game in a series needs to be a revolution for it to be a solid outing.  Of course, 25% off, and being visually stunning on PC helps a lot.  There isn't too much to say about the game, since it's so similar to Arkham City, just bigger.


The problem with the reveal in AC III is that it could have made the game much more interesting if they'd just stuck with the premise that you were playing for the other side. All kinds of ludo-narrative interest there! Which could have been more complicated and engaging than the famed over-rated Bioshock hat trick.


I haven't played Arkham Origins, but I'm encouraged by some of the low-end reviews. It reeked of an expansion pack cash-in from the moment it was announced, and the usually PR-arm aligned Gamespot had the guts to give it a 6/10 for being lame. It's time for reiteration to get lashed.

Offline ejamer

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #197 on: October 28, 2013, 10:28:30 PM »
Zenonia (3DS) - Meh.  For a game that won a handful awards as an iOS title, I can't really say it's worth playing on your 3DS. From the terrible translation work to the grind-heavy, generic gameplay there just isn't much here to draw you in. On the upside, it is a pretty harmless hack-and-slash that will eat up a bunch of time and isn't actually "bad"... just not the best use of your time or money in my opinion.


Liberation Maiden (3DS) - Probably enjoying this more than I should be. It's pretty mindless action, and I doubt I'll drop significant time into it beyond the initial playthrough... but I like the production values and find the controls to be pretty tight with the circle pad. If this game was much longer I'd probably enjoy it less. Glad I purchased it on sale due to the short length, but still would recommend giving it a shot if the concept (flying a mech over future Japan blowing up lots of stuff in a full 3D environment) sounds interesting.
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Offline azeke

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #198 on: October 30, 2013, 12:40:09 AM »
Candy Box 2:
Okay, this here, this game is one of the best games i played this year. Guaranteed top 10 spot from me.

Under the unassuming ASCII-aesthetic hides Skyrim made in browser. And probably it will take you about the same time to finish it, too. I still haven't closed the tab that i opened last week when started the game. Of course most of it was me just standing and grinding for candies and lollipops (very convenient that you can just leave it and do other things, like you know work, while the game plays for you).

As i said despite that combat is very basic, developer still makes some absolutely mindblowing things with it. All battles are either won by grinding or by applying some crazy new trick using items you have.

Two days ago i was stuck and then had to resort to wiki. Oh my...

There is so much stuff in it. And the solutions... Wow.

Also -- start clicking everywhere you see. Because i didn't and i was out of a very crucial items very early in the game and later even didn't realize i had entire new area available for me -- i simply didn't recognize it as a place i can go to (ASCII graphics, what are you going to do).

Assassin's Creed III:
I am starting "to get" the controls. Finally. It seems like Ubisoft's solution to scarcity of buildings in colonial America's setting was to make character able to jump across the widest streets. Even if you won't make it, you will land on the street after falling of a roof with seemingly no damage.

About the first stealth mission that i had so much trouble with (because of broken AI and controls that are anti-stealth). There is a person who posts very extensive videos about ACIII stealth missions. He has a lot of insight into the game's (broken) systems and employs them to do perfect runs of stealth missions.

Story... Is okay i guess. I found it kinda weird when game made a small time skip and after teenaged Connor we now have gruff buff Connor seemingly in his thirties now. Okay whatever.

I don't yet understand "restoration of Davenport's mansion" thing. I realize it's replacement for upgrading your town in ACII but i just don't feel it for now. I especially don't like how you have to move from captain's hut to Davenport's mansion back and forth constantly. Either on foot or by water it takes too much time.

Played first naval mission. It was very cool, if a bit shallow. Seeing my crew duck under the fire while my ship is getting shredded by cannonballs is really, really cool.
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Offline azeke

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #199 on: October 31, 2013, 03:09:30 AM »
Pikmin 2 (Wii):
Still can't get over how good this game looks. Those flower petals and seasonal changes every time you boot the game...
Messed around for an hour trying to progress. I only have purple, white and red pikmins. I can see an area with blue pikmins and their onion but can't get there yet. I also have electric gates but no yellow pikmins yet.

Also i forgot how to dig up stuff. My treasure meters goes crazy dinging and i don't know what am i supposed to do. Been a few months since i played it.

Enough Plumbers 2 (flash game):
Started sequel right after beating the first one yesterday. Graphics and animations got much better, and backgrounds and overall style have a bit of Paper Mario look.

Just looking at level select screen you can see the improvements: leaderboards of sorts, more levels and possibly hidden world behind pink tube on the ceiling (?):


New power-ups are very cool, i liked level with space man where entire level was mirrored horizontally.

Level 9 was so manic and crazy, i still don't understand how i managed to beat it.

Bayonetta (360):
I am trying to get Platinum on Gates of Paradise for a few months now. It's not supposed to be THAT hard and it's not the longest level in the game. I've already platinum'd much longer and much harder levels by now but i have big problems trying to plat this one.

The first hurdle is that alfheim where you have to make five torture attacks. For some reason, if torture attack doesn't kill the enemy it won't count. This additional requirement demands very deliberate magic use from the player. You even have to incorporate taunt-dancing to increase your magic bar into your tactics to properly finish it.

Still, the best way to increase magic is to hit enemies, so for this level you have to use the fastest weapon you have, preferably the one that has small damage (so that you won't kill enemies too fast leaving you without the chance to execute torture attacks on them). Guide recommends using sword, but i am using lightning claws.

Even verses after that alfheim are troublesome: right after that you have two pairs of Graces and Glories (as in -- four fastest and the most dangerous enemies in the entire game, yes, including bosses). By this point i already beat one pair of them in the alfheim but i did with torture attacks in mind so switching to regular fights where you just have to kill as fast as possible and don't have infinite retries is desorienting.

And after that i still have more troublesome verses. I am especially bad at laser corridor sequence -- simply because i don't really have much opportunities to train for it because it is so late in the level.

Also it's funny how Bayonetta is still the only game that makes me literally sweat. I have to wash and change after especially intense sessions.
Winners don't hate and W101 rocks