Topic: What are you playing?

[broodwars]

I've played through the PC "prototype" demo for the Valkyrie Profile-style 2D action RPG Indivisible that's up on Indiegogo, and holy **** that game is legit. It looks fantastic and plays very fluidly. Honestly, I'm not sure why this game is up for crowdfunding. You'd think with a showing this promising that it would already have a publisher.

If you're interested, the prototype's up for download on their Indiegogo page.

[Stratos]

I had a gift card and decided to burn some money by downloading some DLC for Fire Emblem Awakening. I'm doing my second playthrough and I love these extra classes. As a big FE fan I would say the two DLC chapters are worth it for the new classes. I do not plan on buying any of the others. Dread Pirate uses swords, axes, and magic. Princess Bride uses lances, bows, and staves.


Playing this just excites me more for IF. Can't wait for it to hit our shores.

[AnGer]

Played the demo for Stella Glow, Atlus's upcoming "RPG for pervs" (Guillaume)...

...and if I was not sold on this game already, I would probably skip it after playing the demo. If The Legend of Legacy's demo was meaty, this is rather skin-and-bones - there is so very little to do here except for moving through the prologue of the game proper. Which was, again, fine in TLoL's case since the demo just throws a lot of what makes up the core of the game proper, but here I wish they had gone with something separate to allow more insight into more of the mechanics.

Talking of the demo itself, the gameplay is decent, but has brought nothing new to the table so far. It's a tactical RPG in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics, bringing along even many mechanics from that game, i.e. positioning being relevant to damage taken (and whether or not your main character can execute a counterattack), though its leveling is lifted from Fire Emblem - each action nets EXP, taking down an enemy gives you some more and it seems scaled according to the difference between your level and your enemy's. The visuals are also decent, the character design is not stunning per se, but nicely done and less cheesecakey than what I would expect from an Imageepoch game, though the hero seems a bit bland in this. Oh, and bring on the trope counter, because this beginning has you play as an amnesiac (!) who for some reason is the best hunter in the small village he lives in (!!) and lives with a girl who kind of likes you but is a bit aloof about it (!!!). Also the village goes to hell after a witch starts singing. And there are ungodly amounts of text, but there's a text skip feature and autoplay.

Presentation-wise it is acceptable, keeping in mind though they had considerable budget problems when finishing this (Imageepoch went broke while wrapping up this game). The dub is... it is Atlus USA's own dub, so you will probably recognize some voices from other games they localized (I believe the main character is voiced by Yuri Lowenthal). What is really good is the music. Yasunori Mitsuda has not brought his A game so far into the demo, but I found the menu theme good enough to just put headphones on and just listen until the loop restarted.

If a demo's goal is to sell you on a game, this does not really cut it. If you are not sold on this game already or can look past some of the contemporary anime clichés the story in the prologue offers, then I do not believe this demo will make you desire Stella Glow.

[michaelbaysuperfan616]

I just started playing Diablo 3 Ultimate Evil edition, or whatever it is called, on PS4, and New Super Mario Bros. U for Wii U. I am addicted to Diablo 3, NSMBU, not so much.

[ShyGuy]

I'm playing Costume Quest for Halloween! Death to Grubbins!

[Phil]

I'm currently playing two games. First, I'm playing Yoshi's Woolly World with my older brother, and I must say, in many ways it surpasses Yoshi's Island. Forget it being a worthy successor. It's more than that to me.


I'm also playing The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes. Unfortunately, I don't think many if any here have it. At least they aren't wanting to play online with me. 

[Stratos]

Nice to hear the praise for Wooly World. I'll probably borrow it from my sister after she is done with it.

[Wah]

Picked up Skyrim for $2 on steam, holy **** it is good already 50 hours put into the game, stuff Xenoblade chronicles, this is better!

[NWR_insanolord]

Because I was sick of waiting for a new entry in the series I've been going back and playing Advance Wars: Dual Strike for DS.

I would have preferred one of the GBA entries, but I chose the one I had an easy way to play portably. This entry in the series always felt too cumbersome, with some of the new mechanics not working that well. The CO super powers are just so immensely overpowered, and some of the new gimmick units don't seem that well thought out.

Really wishing one of the GBA games had been in the Ambassador program, or that Nintendo would put GBA games on the 3DS where they belong.

[Stratos]

Do you like Dual Strike over Days of Ruin? I prefer DoR myself.


Hopefully we get a new one after IS finishes wrapping up Fates DLC development.


Advance Wars and Battalion Wars should both get new titles.

[NWR_insanolord]

I respect what Days of Ruin was going for, and it's always nice to see Nintendo take some chances with their franchises and try something new, but I wasn't really much of a fan of the end product.

[Soren]

I'm playing Mini Metro and I'm hooked. I mean, look at this:



It's totally up my alley. The difficulty curve is a little high, but I feel like I can sink tons of hours into a transportation sim, specially one that looks as clean and good as this.

[Mop it up]

Because I was sick of waiting for a new entry in the series I've been going back and playing Advance Wars: Dual Strike for DS...

Just a couple of months ago, I finally obtained all 300 medals in this game, and after spending so much time with it I think it's actually become my fave. I really started to appreciate the variety in the COs, and all of the combinations in mixing and matching them. I actually don't mind that the strategies shifted in focusing on managing CO powers, as this changed up the way I played this game compared to the first two games; I prefer this to the game just being "more of the same." Sure, some things could be better balanced (the Black Bomb for example is ridiculous), but I actually didn't find the balance to be as bad as I originally felt, most things can be overcome with careful planning.

I can respect if someone didn't like the changes though, it certainly gives the game a different feel from the first two in the series. And I'd still probably say Advance Wars 2 has my fave campaign, but as a complete package Dual Strike has a lot to offer and is great.

I haven't yet played Days of Ruin, but I do own that game as well.

[broodwars]

I'm playing Ar Nosurge Plus on my Vita. It is...umm...







...weird.

[azeke]

Super mario deluxe (3DS VC):
The deepest i went is world 6 before i ran out of lifes. I eventually want to beat this game (no warps obviously), it feels doable.

Additional collecting coins and yoshi eggs mini-game is also very addicting

After playing like that for a bit, SMB2: Lost Worlds unlocked, but it's weird because i distinctly remember SMB2 having boost jump and even relying on it in some of the level design, but i couldn't make it there. Weird.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit tracks (DS):
I beat one dungeon and started another.

Flute thing isn't as much as bother for me because i mostly play this game on a bus and the noise makes game think i am blowing into the microphone all the time and all i have to do is just press the right tube.

Game picked up 3d-ish over the shoulder camera look of the final area of Phantom Hourglass and uses it a lot more, it's still neat. You can't rotate the camera, but otherwise it's fully 3d view and movement.

Zelda is especially cute in this game.

God Hand (PCSX2):
This game still makes me sick. Something about it's camera movement gives me motion sickness after 20 minutes or so of playing.

It's a shame because the game otherwise is amazing. It's stupid, ridiculous and challenging -- i.e. everything videogames should be.


The game feels very much like 16-bit era beat'em'up in 3d in that how overpowered dash moves are. In Battletoads you had to dash and tackle enemies all the time, God Hand is more complex than that, but dash kick is still one of my main tools of dispatching baddies. Launching enemies around and bounce them into each other is also kinda similar to Viewtiful Joe.

Dashing is kinda a problem with 360 controller, because i constantly whiff pressing up up on a stick. Dashing and even tank controls make a lot more sense when playing on d-pad, but with 360 controller it's not an option. I tried different options like wii u gamepad and even keyboard. Keyboard works especially well, because game doesn't need analog input.

Frist area is quite a challenge and doesn't leave a good impression, you have to wrestle with both unorthodox controls, unusual camera while enemies seem to be completely relentless -- especially that first demon. Even figuring out  the default moveset and how to use took like a week.

After beating first chapter and unlocking more moves i am astonished at the depth. The amount of customization is mind-boggling. You can make your moveset consist of only Pimp moves, or make Gene only use drunken kungfu moves.

My latest infatuation is mule kick which is exactly what it sounds, looks deliciously stupid AND is useful to juggle baddies.

Also playing: Bayonetta (NSIC Pure Platinum), MGSV (completing S-rank and stuff).

[Phil]

I'm still making steady but slow progress in Tri Force Heroes, but the game that has my attention for the most part is Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden. I'm not a huge fan of the source material, and the 20 fighters might seem a low amount especially compared to the 3D fighters, but then again, the sprites are more complicated to make than 3D models. Anyway, I'm really digging the fighting system. I finally figured out how to Ultimate Combos, and that made me so happy! I'm now unlocking new assists in Adventure Mode, which is a blast. I'm hoping online play hits the West like it is going to in Japan soon.

[MagicCow64]

Winding doooown:

Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS):

I was actually looking forward to this one to scratch a Star Fox type itch, and despite some of the mixed reactions I'd seen quite a few comments from people who loved it and thought it was one of the best games in the 3DS library. I'm maybe 25% through and I can honestly say that I almost hate it and probably won't finish it. The flying bits are okay, but very simple, and it's hard to tell why and how I'm taking damage a lot of the time. But the ground stuff is miserable. I find it impossible to regulate walking vs. running vs. dodging, or how jumping works in platform sections, and the aiming being tied to the same controls as the camera just make it a fucking nightmare. The presentation has been much vaunted, but I find the game generally ugly/generic looking and the constant dialogue to be distracting in a game that is already hard to track what is going on on a second to second basis. I would go so far as to say that I'm very surprised that Nintendo shipped this game in this state, as anything other than a paean to their respect/need for Sakurai.

Box Boy (3DS):

I was also looking forward to this, but at about halfway through I'm finding it pretty boring. It's hard to even call it a puzzle game at this point given how easy it is, even including collecting the crowns. It looks good and has a catchy soundtrack, but my progress has thus far been perfunctory. Not a huge disappointment, though, given that it was cheap in the first place and discounted for the Black Friday period.

Tales from the Borderlands (PC):

I had no intention of bothering with anymore Telltale stuff, but there was a gap to fill on Thanksgiving, and I'd seen a number of positive reports about this one vs. the other recent Telltale stuff, so I bit the bullet and played through the first episode with my brother after dinner. He's a big fan of the actual games, which I haven't played, so I thought it was likely he'd enjoy it, but damn, this is like even lower down the totem poll of interactivity than anything I've seen yet. We managed to have some fun by just choosing the silence or timeout option for most everything and watching how the game awkwardly fails to compensate for this, and also testing what quicktime actions actually matter (a surprising amount don't!). This isn't even really a video game so much as a bad low-fidelity CGI movie that demands that you register attention once in a while.

[BranDonk Kong]

Just started playing The Last of Us (PS4) again after putting it down for a year because I got stuck in one place. Took me 5 minutes to figure it out this time.

Just ordered MGSV The Phantom Pain and Uncharted Collection...couldn't pass them up for $27 each.

[sudoshuff]

Box Boy (3DS):

I was also looking forward to this, but at about halfway through I'm finding it pretty boring. It's hard to even call it a puzzle game at this point given how easy it is, even including collecting the crowns. It looks good and has a catchy soundtrack, but my progress has thus far been perfunctory. Not a huge disappointment, though, given that it was cheap in the first place and discounted for the Black Friday period.

For me, the first six or seven worlds were really easy, but the difficulty started to ramp up (especially getting  the crowns) around world 8 or 9.  I mean, it was no Toki Tori, but I found it challenging enough at that point to be enjoyable.  I think there are 20 worlds total.  I just played it for a couple of hours on plane for the holiday. It's perfect kind of game for that setting.

[Triforce Hermit]

Sonic Adventure DX (Steam): Don't care what people say, I still love this damn game so much. Having a blast playing through it again. Going to try to 100% it which I never did on Gamecube. Only negatives I have about it is the bad voice acting and stage glitches with Sonic. Doing Big's B and A levels next then I got everyone's done. Not looking forward to it, but once it is done, I never have to go through it again. Chao raising addicting as **** still, but lack of "exit stage" button is irritating as **** once I get the animals I need and want to get out.


Otherwise, I still love the this game.

[NWR_insanolord]

The announcement of the original games coming to VC got me in the mood for Pokémon, so I dug out Pokémon HeartGold. That generation was always my favorite in the series, but even the remake is feeling a bit antiquated, making me want to jump to one of the newer games, and think twice about buying one of the VC releases.

[TOPHATANT123]

To be honest I feel that in some ways the games succeeding it are lacking though. The seemingly random removal of features like the ability for Pokemon to follow you, the pokephone, the pokeradio, the ability to play retro or modern music, the pokewalker, the ability to rematch gym leaders and a bloody toggleable run button!

[broodwars]

I finished the Bloodborne "The Old Hunters" DLC earlier tonight. It was brutal, especially the last few bosses, but overall it was nice to return to the heavy exploration & methodical gameplay of Bloodborne again.

[NWR_insanolord]

To be honest I feel that in some ways the games succeeding it are lacking though. The seemingly random removal of features like the ability for Pokemon to follow you, the pokephone, the pokeradio, the ability to play retro or modern music, the pokewalker, the ability to rematch gym leaders and a bloody toggleable run button!

Yeah, they're missing some stuff, but things like going back to TMs being single use bugs me, and realizing I won't be able to use the online trading since the Wi-Fi Connection got shut down is annoying.

[Stratos]

Crap, I forgot that HG/SS were on WiFi Connect.


Like you, I'm feeling more pushed to pick up a new game like the Ruby and Sapphire remakes over replaying the old ones. It's a pity because I thought HG/SS were very fun titles.


I know it is a bit "backwards", but I was hoping for a re-remake of Fire Red, Leaf Green, or a Special Pikachu Yellow on the 3DS just to get those classics in a modern (read: playable) form.