Topic: What are you playing?

[azeke]

Codename Steam (demo, 3DS):
This what happens when Intelligent Systems decides to rip-off both Valkirye Chronicles and Gears of War...

It's pretty cool and camera control on face buttons works a lot better than i thought (i usually hated it in DS and PSP games).

Turn based movement based on radial distance from the starting point is pretty cool (check out "Skulls of the Shogun" -- it has the same system). What is different is how the game commits to third person shooter perspective all the way, removing overhead view completely. Getting to high places becomes very crucial and abusing overwatch to stun or kill all incoming enemies as they come in view is super useful.

You can kinda "wander around" collecting coins and stuff as long as you are in the circle, but that isn't completely free -- you can get caught by enemies' overwatch if you're not careful.

I like coins and steam mechanic and how you can min-max it by abusing checkpoints and save columns. You can turtle and mostly stay in one place and rely on overwatch to kill off enemies or do a mad dash towards the goal eating all the damage but eventually reaching it and winning the level.

Game looks like N64, but some of the presentation is genuinely nice. UI feels great, but it's way too easy to press L by accident and randomly shoot into the wall, wasting steam.

Waiting on enemy movement phase is definitely way longer than it should be, it kinda kills the momentum. That's really the only big problem, i wish it was addressed in the full version...


Punch Out (Wii):
Still trying to beat Soda Popinsky on Title Defence.

I can reliably knock-out Soda two times in the first round, but then it's not enough time to drop him third time for TKO. Ad come second round Soda changes his patterns completely and that's messes my reactions big time. It feels like Soda's second phase was designed to hit me each time while i am still in first phase mode...

Practice mode is useful but it's kinda hard to train when you have infinite health.


Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox):
I am at the finish line.

I stopped playing when i reached the tower and died there for the first time. Then after few months i was ready to tackle it again. A-and -- it's not that hard at all. More like annoying with ghost fish and bugs that stun lock you. But if you abuse essence to get Ultimate Techniques one after another ("UT chaining") it becomes trivial. I didn't discover UTs until i got to 70% of the game, and i almost glad i didn't.

UT chaining sometimes feels like "cheesing the game" a bit too much. Though with how few combat options NGB gives you, you have to take what you're given, abusing flying swallow and other moves that are way too OP and almost mandatory.

Okay so tower was relatively easy. No i got to boss rush.
First tentacle boss is pretty easy -- can't believe i was stuck on him for days year ago... Also he gives health orb so you can even intentionally prolong the fight and farm HP from it.

The second boss is snow yeti worm boss. Lunar seems to be the best weapon against with long range and fast attacks. He's slow and all his attacks can be dodged if you're careful. He still hits very hard and can take up to 70% of my life.

Third boss is some kind of devil that mostly floats in the air only occasionally attacking and constantly respawning smaller mooks. I kept using lunar on him and it was decent enough (especially when he's flying because it's hard to reach with with regular dragon blade, but lunar can get a few hits in). I am thinkig of maybe killing mooks for essence and then trying to do Ultimate Technique on him. Usually UT on a boss can take up to 50% of their HP (that's what i am talking about UTs making the game "too easy"). It's hard to pull off though -- you need boss placement, essence placement line up just right to do it.

He's still hard because he shoots fireballs every few seconds, i never managed to get him lower than 70% until i die, but it all seems doable.

I expect a few (new or reused) bosses after him and that should be it...

[broodwars]

I found the lack of an overhead view to be a major problem with the STEAM demo, as it makes trying to aim the Bear Bomb more of a colossal headache trying to fight the camera than it should be. It's also really hard to get a feel for what are areas where you or an enemy can be & what are not without an overhead view so you can 'see the board'. Also, I'm really not a fan of Overwatch being an automatic "stop them in their tracks" action. In something like Valkyria Chronicles, you'll get shot by enemies as you pass by, but it's not a guaranteed maximum damage. Running to cover is an option. In STEAM, it's way less forgiving, making it more akin to something like XCOM. I kind of feel that if Overwatch is an automatic stop, it should at least guarantee maximum damage, but there's still a dice roll being performed in combat. I found my characters were never getting a confirmed kill on Overwatch, where the CPU was always getting it.

[azeke]

I found the lack of an overhead view to be a major problem with the STEAM demo, as it makes trying to aim the Bear Bomb more of a colossal headache trying to fight the camera than it should be.

You can change the angle of bomb toss by pressing R.

It's not a "colossal headache".

I found my characters were never getting a confirmed kill on Overwatch, where the CPU was always getting it.

Overwatch is always a guaranteed stun at least, for what i seen.

Also i never had characters dying on me, it was close a few times, but i was using coins to refill health at the nearest save checkpoint. Also in the last mission i played i got surrounded by enemies from all sides and seeing no way to kill them all, i just ran to the goal with Henry taking a lot of damage but reaching it in one turn and winning overall.

I still have to finish the demo though.

PS.

Also i freaking love jumping down animation and verticality in general. I also LOVE than you can kick your own teammates nudging them towards the goal.

[Soren]

The 404 page on Platinum Games' website leads to a browser game featuring Bayonetta. It's called "Angel Land". It's hard. My best score was 4700.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

downloaded some new texture packs for Minecraft so been getting addicted to that all over again.

[ClexYoshi]

okay, so I've been playign a large swadth of thins since I last posted in this thread... part of this is because I got a PS4.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker: This game fatigues me very quickly for some reason, which is weird given the pace. I suppose this is a case of "Be careful what you wish for," because I've had it for a month at this point and I've only had the energy to chip at it bit by bit by bit.


Metroid Prime Trilogy: I wanted to get it while it was $10. I started Metroid Prime 1, which I hadn't played since it was new, and got up to the Varia Suit before saving and putting it down. I did it for a stream,a nd honestly I was pretty distracted through most of it because my friend decided to let a stupid kid into the call who spent the whole time bitching about Battlefield Bad Company 2.


Sid Meyer's Civilization Beyond Earth: this is decent fun. never really sunk my teeth into a Civ game, and it's fairly enjoyable, even if I don't know what in the heck I'm even doing.


Wario Land 2:  I have a LOT to say about this game. I had an interesting history with Wario's games, having played Super Mario Land 3, Virtual Boy Wario Land, Wario Land 4, Wario World, and Wario Land Shake-it! I've somehow avoided the immortal Wario games and... now I'm kinda glad I did. I do not like Wario Land 2. more than most video games I have played, I feel like Wario Land 2 serves to waste my time. Nondescript breakable floor and wall tiles that lead to secret exits? check. absurd levels of knockback with very annoying enemy placement? Check. a very obnoxious system of screen transition? Checkcheck!

without the exploration and kleptomania that comes with this game, it'd be obscenely short. if Bosses, enemies, transformations, and the myriad puzzles and secret rooms didn't serve to waste your fucking time, this would be SO short. not to say there aren't shining beacons of good level design that require you to carry enemies to a spot to bounce off of them or break walls only enemies can, but more often than not, this game is just out to troll you.

Wario's controls are VERY stiff. it took me some time to figure out that there was a high jump by holding up on the D-pad before jumps. wario also has a weird thing where the first step he takes before moving is slower than when he gets going. it doesn't feel like a momentum thing, just a jarring thing with his movement. or the brief pause he takes while landing from one of those aformentioned high jumps. there's so much awkwardness that leads to the one second you need to get smashed in the head by a beer bottle and go tumbling down 5 screens.

It's a game that has a style to the presentation that I like, and the music has been a delight, but... I will take Wario Land 4 over this any day. Wario Land 4 didn't waste my fucking time and insult my intelligence by having me repeat rooms because some asshole enemy hit me and I sprang all the way back to the top of the room.


Guilty Gear Xrd Sign: this is the long-awaited sequel to the grandaddy of air dashers, and it looks stunning and feels great to boot. I really do forget half the time that the characters are 3D Models and not high quality sprites. I'd really love to see if Arc System Works' animation style could be applied to other games, because it just looks gorgeous.

I... honestly never played Guilty Gear or Guilty Gear XX Sharp or any previous entry in the franchise, so I have a lot of catching up before I really am confident to face others. So far I'm liking Slayer and May. I need to try the whole cast and see who sticks out for me.


P.T.: O-oh god... OH GOD!!!


Rogue Legacy: Everybody has been telling me I'd love this game and to give it a shot. I'm very much in the James Jones camp when it comes to my idea of the Roguelike, and making a metroidvania game into a roguelike does not titillate me, especially when the myriad descendants of you who have to blindly rush to their deaths for some... family tradition honor BS have a run cycle more embarrassing than the 'I **** myself' jog that monster hunter characters have, and they wield a sword with the finesse of Skyward Sword link. I don't have a good feel for the sub weapons, nor the down stab. I really don't like entering a room and getting blindsided. it is a really shitty feeling when I've ventured where I was not supposed to and died because roguelikes do not allow for any sort of level memorization, which is very much a key part of the 2D platformer experience. I'm just looking forward to grinding out all the upgrades so then I can start using the one guy to lock down the castle. unfortunately, I don't know if I'll have the patience to stick with this one.


Aliens: Infestation: However, this is a pretty sweet metroidvania. setting aside the fact that a lot of your upgrades are glorified keys. I like this one a lot, although again... I need to play it mroe after I force myself through the rest of Timewaster McGee 2 and the other **** I am playing at the moment.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'd like to strongly and passionately urge everyone here to play Freespace 2. It's simply incredible. The game's fairly cheap on GoG and the fan-made source code project really does wonderful things to upgrade it, but the one caveat is you really need to play this game with a flight stick. It technically works without one, but it really doesn't.

[broodwars]

I'm just about done with a playthrough of Baten Kaitos Origins (GameCube) on my Wii U. The game holds up remarkably well, despite some frustrating dungeon designs. Monolith's strength for designing interesting worlds is quite intact, and the story is arguably better than what I played of Xenoblade.

I also have been putting a little bit of time into Guilty Gear Xrd SIGN, which was $24 in the recent PSN Flash sale. It's way too technical a game for me, but I've enjoyed the flashy fighting system and the characters are all distinctive. Just about to start the Story mode, actually, after doing an Arcade run as Elphelt, who has a similar fighting style to Noel from BlazBlue so I had an easier time learning her moves. If I had paid full price, I'd feel ripped off, but the price was right with the flash sale so I can't really complain.

[Phil]

Baten Kaitos Origins. Gotta find myself a copy of that!

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I sampled Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures on Wii U for the first time yesterday. It was okay not great but okay. I put in about an hour and then got bored but I might go back to it some day.

[broodwars]

I've started playing a cool little game on my PS4 that just came out today out of nowhere called Hand of Fate. It's Dungeons & Dragons tabletop mixed with collectable card games and rogue-likes, and the end result is something pretty cool. The dealer plays the role of dungeon master, narrating your adventure and providing descriptions of events and color commentary. You travel through "dungeons" represented by event cards drawn from both yours and the dealer's decks, trying to get to the end of the dungeon where the boss monster resides. When you pull a battle or trap card, the game switches to a 3D environment where you dodge traps and slay enemies using a combat system similar to the Batman Arkham games, but nowhere near as polished. You collect gold, find treasure, and have grand little adventures. I'm really enjoying it so far. It's like Crimson Shroud on the 3DS, only good and with a budget greater than $5 (this was a Kickstarter game). It's only on PS4, Xbone, & PC right now, but apparently there's a Vita version coming in the future.

[MagicCow64]

Here's a couple of things:

Alien: Isolation (PC):

To start off on a positive note, this is the best running modern PC game I've ever encountered. Optimized to all get out, I can run it on high/ultra at 60 fps on a mid-decently specced laptop. If you're interested in the game, I'd go with PC.

That said, I'm about five hours in and don't know if I'm going to go back to it. I was concerned it would be too stressful, but I'm playing on normal and it's mostly kind of boring. I've only run in to the alien a few times, and avoided it by sitting crouched for a minute and then creeping in the opposite direction until I'm out of the area. I've died from HVAC shafts, but those seem to be static and are more annoying than anything. The droids have been the main antagonists aside from the handful of human encounters, and they're pretty annoying as well. I get that you shouldn't be able to kill the alien, but the gun should at least take out the droids. Offense is really fucking feeble. The ship feels like a collection of generic grey corridors thus far, with a plasticy sheen on everything, so I'm not really getting the atmosphere praise.

Life is Strange (PC):

I finished the first episode tonight, and thoroughly recommend this if you enjoy trying lower key games while, er, listening to jazz. I thought the second season of the Walking Dead and the Wolf Among Us were trash, but am nonetheless bizarrely attracted to this style of game. Thankfully Life is Strange has the bare minimum of gameplay to actually engage as a game, with a potentially interesting but woefully under-developed rewind mechanic.

I always try to play these things as sociopath simulations to see how bad the game will try to get me to feel about my "choices", and there's some potential here. I felt like it made me undo a few things I wanted to let slide to make my character as shitty as possible, but according to the summary at the end I didn't actually have to, which is perplexing, because in a few of those "choice" cases I swear I had no interactivity point to progress until I did the "right" thing. Would be pretty gross if the summary was partially fake. The writing is comically awful, which is a plus if you're in the mood. I'm assuming, though, that as this goes along it'll fall into the usual Telltale trap of it becoming extremely obvious that your "choices" were meaningless, but maybe this one'll do it right! Or at least get to a David-Cage-level of illusion by including failure states for storylines.

[azeke]

MGS: Twin Snakes (GC game on Wii):
Why controls in ALL MGS games i've tried are always so consistently BAD. So unbelievably terrible and awful. It's like a moron who designed this UI and controls had a bullet point to make as much basic mistakes as possible and he exceeded the plan.

On a platform that has two analog sticks (PS1) it was a game that uses Ikari Warriors (on NES) style shooting with some auto lock-on that barely works... Scrolling between weapons and equipment is reversed -- it goes up when it you expect it go down. Why? Because. Crouching is bad. Sticking to walls activates when you just want to open a cabinet.

Because controls are barely functioning bosses and enemies were designed around it, so everything is majorly slowed and dumbed down. Instead of, you know, -- FIXING the damn controls. Bosses take into account that you will spend some time struggling to do the most basic stuff and spend more time talking than actually fighting you. Because of sacrificed gameplay design bosses often turn into just mind-numbing trial and error, until finally game takes pity on you and spells out one way to defeat the boss through the character on a radio.

Speaking of talking -- dialogues are terrible. I am guessing all these random speeches about the most random things might have been impressive and profound for a teenager who never opened a single book in his entire life, but nowadays it's all just eye-rolling material.

Voice acting... I can make some allowance for the state of VA in videogames at the time, but i can't justify how awful Snake sounds all the time. In every single phrase he sounds like he is extremely constipated and tries WAY too hard to sound badass. Again, this might have worked on impressionable teenager back in 1996, so i dunno.

From i've seen MGS realy like to remind you how you're actually playing a VIDEOGAME (despite long cutscenes and dialogues dominating over sparse gameplay) -- characters giving out tips won't shut up which buttons you need to press on a controller and stuff and the boss i defeated last night had a gimmick that was ALL based around that (Psycho Mantis).

It's cute the first time it happens, but it gets tiresome when they repeat it again and again. Okay, i get it -- it's a VIDEOGAME (not a good one, mind you) -- i get it! Stop with the winking already.

Captain Toad:
I think 100%-d first book with Toad, but it feels like it's missing yet another mark or something. Maybe they will add yet another gimmick to force me to replay the levels?

I will reiterate my point about speedrunning levels with touch mechanics -- some ridiculous finger gymnastics required:

Left hand:
Control left stick with index and middle finger
Use your thumb to touch occasional stuff on touchscreen

Right hand:
Press one or two face button with your thumb
With forefinger in a claw position you control camera on right stick

Also while speedrunning i found a flaw with controls in this game.

Climbing ladders is kinda interesting with how many games have trouble with it. It's problematic in Ghost and Goblins, in La-Mulana and many other retro platformers. But it's surprising to find such a mistake in EAD game, of all studios.

When you're climbing ladders and change camera angle your character may stop climbing up because direction you're pushing left stick has become "wrong" to climb up. This was quite an annoyance in some levels where i had to actively control camera all the time to see where i am going.

DMC2 (360):
S ranked mission 1 with Dante -- it's very hard to achieve not because the game is hard, but because combat system is completely borked.

WHY. Why am i still doing this? Oh right -- achievements... I am not looking forward to the one where i have to beat 9000 levels of Bloody Palace mode -- by my estimations it will take 2 hours (in one sitting obviously).


DMC1 (360):
Dante Must Die -- the hardest difficulty of the game. On my way to S-ranking DMD (already s-ranked entirety of Hard), i hit a wall during first Nightmare boss fight in mission 16. I dedicated a night to it and looked up how other people do it.

This boss is quite tricky -- there are orbs that change colours and may break depending on which attacks you're doing, this impacts how much damage they take. The worst thing about orb status is that it is saved between ALL boss encounters so you have to be aware that you might make boss fight 3 WAY too difficult for yourself if you are not cautious in boss fights 1 and 2. There is also a strategy to WHEN exactly into the fight you let Nightmare eat you and how it affects orbs...

Anyway i figured it out and finally got S-rank.

The problem is, next mission is the final encounter with Nelo Angelo who is the hardest boss of the game. Even surviving him is an achievement by itself, but i also have to do it in time and with enough orbs collected to get that coveted S-rank...

These final missions starting from 15 are all pretty hard because they just throw all bosses at you one after another -- Griffon, Nightmare, Nelo Angelo.

[lolmonade]

A few friends and I have been putting a bit of time into Payday 2.  For those not aware, the simplest explanation is it's a 4-player co-op shooter game where you play as robbers, most often either robbing a bank or jewelry store.  There are several different levels with varying objectives that usually devolve to "wait for your drill/equipment to finish unlocking a door/computer to get the cash/jewelry/data disk/etc while defending it from police raids, and restarting the equipment when it gets jammed.  Once complete, haul the loot to your escape vehicle.


In-between missions you get experience to level-up one of four different character types you choose, and can upgrade weapons/equipment/masks/etc.  It's a game that's fun with other people in doses, but not quite as fun if you're stuck playing with the dumb-as-rocks CPU teammates.  Good for a free game through PS+ though that i had in my backlog to give a try.




Other game i've been playing is Fallout: New Vegas.  At the behest of one of my friends, i'm giving Fallout series a 2nd chance after not caring much for Fallout 3.  So far, the Wild west aesthetic is helping me a lot in keeping interested in the game, but I'm encountering some of the same issues I have with the game.  Specifically:

• Taking forever to get from one point to the other.
• Enemies being bullet sponges, with an ammo scarcity & economy that punish overuse of guns.
• Using weapons without the VATS system being almost useless.
• Missions not always being clear what needs to be done to complete the objective.

I'm seeing this game through just to see if my opinion of it changes, as I gave up on Fallout 3 after about 10 hours.  Maybe some of these things are alleviated after leveling up for a while & using points towards certain traits/skills. 

[oohhboy]

In regards to Payday 2, for the love of God, play it on PC unless you have absolutely no choice in the matter. The consoles are hopelessly behind in bug fixes and content. Lolmonade mentions there are 4 skill trees to put you points in, but in the PC version there are now 5 trees and a perk system. That is just one of the massive number of new additions.

[MagicCow64]

Grow Home (PC):


I like the concept of this game, and appreciate its aesthetic, but by gory this feels like the team took an alpha build to a Ubisoft Vice President who took a glance while on the phone and then stamped it for publication. The controls are friggin' abysmal, which renders every moment of the game a chore. It might have been more tolerable if the basic jet pack wasn't nearly worthless, but it takes fully upgrading it to provide basic functionality. But seriously, I don't know how they released the game in this state. Your robot feels like one of those springy toy things where you push the bottom or press a button to release the tension keeping it upright: [size=78%]


The physics are also abysmal and feel really inconsistent, with the robot sometimes floating around like he's in low-gravity, and other times dropping off a vine like a rock when you think you have a solid grip. Also, while the gripping mechanic seems kind of clever at first, it gets tiresome real quick, especially with 360 triggers. Finally, it was a really, really dumb call to make the floating mechanic based on a depleting resource.


I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream (PC):


I've had this on my radar for a long time, but hadn't picked it up because for some reason I thought it was an early 3D PC game, and thus probably unplayable today. But it's on GOG, and sprite-based, so I snapped it up. Definitely one of the weirder games I've ever played. On the gameplay merits it's an okay point and click, but the atmosphere is one of the more unique and harrowing of any game I've played. The nightmarish structure of the characters' existence also allows for a cool gameplay hook where you can fail the episodes repeatedly as you try to figure the way out of the scenarios. Kind of like a sci-fi horror-themed Groundhog's Day, where you can commit atrocities. There are some really annoying bottlenecks, though, Broken Sword style, where you've seemingly tried everything, but it turns out you have to talk to character X twice, look at thing you've already looked at, talk to character Y, look at thing again, e.g.[/size]

[azeke]

Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (PC version):
It's a miracle that the game from 2002 can be run on modern PC and how little fixing it needs to run. Just apply videocard patch, audio patch and boot up xpadder profile to fix non-working triggers. That takes less time that it took me to write this sentence. Compared to some other games from early 00s, it's a breeze.

Controls are better. Wait no, they're not "better", it's just now you have more moves. Some of the stuff i know from Twin Snakes like tackling, but things like leaning, shooting from a corner, dedicated lock-on button, hold up is all new.

Sneaking from behind and breaking people's necks is still the most efficient way to deal with mooks though. Grabbing is improved and now you don't have to be exactly behind them to do it, but on the other hand -- enemies can now duck to evade your grapple.

Hold-up procedure is ridiculously, excrutiatingly complicated: you sneak to the guy point a gun at him, threaten him for a bit so that he would give out his dog tag and then either knock him out or kill him. During all this, you have press, hold and release up to FOUR buttons in a VERY specific order. Things only get more complicated if you don't have non-lethal gun and don't want to actually shoot the guy (whether out of pity or just don't want to give out your presence with the boom). The only reward for all this is a collectable dog tag. I tried to do this for a while until i said screw it and just started to break people's necks like usual.

Leaning is also kinda wonky.

And you still can't do anything with guys that are lying on the floor. It was the same in the first game: say you knocked out a mook and he's out on the floor. But i see that he's gonna wake up soon (you can tell by the stuff that's orbiting his head) and you can pick up his body from the floor and drag him around but you CAN'T finish the job by strangling him -- you have to wait until he wakes up and stands up, THEN grab him and break his neck.

So yeah, combat now has a lot more options, but the controls also became even more needlessly complicated.

MGS games are big on movie references. First game was a lot like Rambo III: Hind helicopter, electric torture sequence, headband, shirtless culmination. Also some fun with names Hal/David and Jack/Rose from 2. The last reference is especially random because that's the last movie you expect to be referenced in a game about secret spies.

Writing i think got better -- a bit less repetitions of what was just said, less "huh"-s. And more importantly -- game is funnier, with stupid dialogues (Otacon trying to be funny with chinese proverbs) and LOTS of situational humour (naughty posters). Game scenarios are also pretty amusing by themselves -- like you trying to sneak around 100 marines as they watch a presentation on a huge screen.

No tryhard teenage level "deep thoughts" so far...

Before starting the first game i kinda looked down on the series based on it's reputation ("too many cutscenes, stupid writing"), and while it's definifitely true, the gameplay is still fun  by itself. Well as much fun as "stealth" game can be with all this waiting.

Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake eater (3DS demo):
Actually that's my second time trying out this demo. My first time was two years ago, when i had no idea what MGS is. Now as i am starting to getting into the series, i decided to try the demo again to see how's the port on 3DS. Back then i didn't last even ten minutes -- because of (again!) baffling control scheme and overall complete misunderstanding of what i have to do.

Framerate is VERY bad, almost headache inducing, still undecided if i want to buy it or not, but i see it for 8 euros so it's tempting... It's not helping that screenshot functionality is disabled on game's official MiiVerse -- i really like this feature.

Now as i have an experience with both MGS1 and 2, i can see what this demo is about.

The biggest change is perspective and control scheme. MGS1 and 2 were mainly top-down with separate first-person 3d view. Top-down perspective was kept almost as a legacy from 8-bit games where series has started.

MGS3 changes things by ditching top-down perspective completely and introducing third-person perspective with camera control on a right stick. Because 3DS didn't have second stick you use face buttons. Camera never moves by itself so you constantly have to change it. Since face buttons are occupied by camera control, most of the actions are done on d-pad, it works decently enough but moving left thumb from circle pad to d-pad so often is cumbersome.

STILL even with actions put on a d-pad AND camera control on face buttons, MGS3 controls the best of them all so far. It's a bit closer to "traditional" third person shooter setup than the monstrocity of top-down/first-person mix in previous games.

You can now quick switch in a cycle of three items or weapons which is a HUGE improvement. You can set different quick switch settings for items and weapons which is also a very smart addition: three-way switching makes more sense for items, while two-way equip/unequip cycle works better for weapons.

I will run through a demo a few more times to decide. So far the only big downside is framerate...

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

Dragon Age Inquisition PS4. I just got this over the weekend. I am torn I am liking it so far but it reminds me of Fable 2 but not in a good way. I will keep going for now its the first game I have actually gotten into in a long time.

[ClexYoshi]

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia:



... or maybe I'm not actually playing it.

Pokemon X Version:

I started trying to Masuda Method again and immediately remembered why this is a dumb idea. I probably haven't fought an actual pokemon battle in a very long time.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS:

Grinding for equips. WHY.

Pokemon Trading Card Game:

There is a whole thread that I have taken over in my incessant gushing over the game.

There's been other stuff too, but I probably shouldn't talk about that on this particular forum.

[azeke]

Unreal Tournament (alpha, PC):

It's still the same Unreal with a prettier graphics. Which is exactly what it needs to be.

Unfortunately the only available servers are in US so all of them have stupidly high ping values (>100) and this is completely unplayable for twitch shooter.

But with how rusty i got not playing FPSs in almost two years, i was fine playing offline with bots for an hour.

Sound effects are kinda off, but it's expected for an alpha. But otherwise it's perfectly playable and very enjoyable Unreal.

All the classic weapons are back but they also tweaked some of them, like Stinger minigun alternate fire is now some kind of charged shot (?).

Looks great, plays great and completely free. Highly recommended if you have 7Gbs of traffic to spare.

They kinda want to replicate TF2 success with making their base game free and selling cosmetic items, but i do wonder if it's too late at this point.

Shovel Knight (3DS):
Later parts of the game have really cool level mechanics and unlockable contraptions.

Like mechanical gear thing that can roll over spikes and jump by itself and destroy everything in it's path. Or flying ice statues that you can push around and they emit rainbows after them that you can use as platforms. Propeller sword and dust knuckles are also very ingenious ideas.

Seeing so many original ideas in such an old genre as 2d platformer is very impressive.

Levels get much harder too. Propeller Knight and Polar Knight's stage were pretty hard.

Challenge levels with propeller sword and dust knuckles were even harder to do on 3DS small d-pad because you do constantly go from pressing down to pressing up, then left and then up and down again.

[ClexYoshi]

Virtual Boy Wario Land:

I love drawing this fat bastard. <3

Not playing this on the big red itself, but after wanting to test out the New 3DS XL's web browser playing 3D Youtube videos, I looked up videos of Virtual Boy Wario Land, and... it is really impressive. so impressive that I found an Emulator and adjusted it so it displayed in Black and white instead of Black and red to avoid the ice cream headache that comes with playing this game on it's intended hardware (my virtual boy is currently missing the eye cover, so it's not very playable at the moment too.)

Wario Land on Virtual Boy is a short, but elegant game. while it lacks the backtracking of it's Super Mario Land 3 counterpart, it has levels that just FEEL vast because of the 3D effect and the novelty of exploring the backgrounds. It's an effect I strangely... didn't get with Mutant Mudds. maybe it's because this game's art direction is fucking amazing. Wario looks really detailed and even things on the sprites like the curvature of pipes, wario's arms, and a few details on the enemies pop. there's a ton of paralax even on layers of background that Wario or enemies don't directly interact with, and the smart use of mostly black with use of highlight gives the game a high and striking contrast.

I think Wario is at his best with powerup systems that mimmick a Mario Game rather than immortal Wario or the health bar from WL4/Wario World/Shake-it. it just feels great to get a new powerup. the sound effects are wonderful, the gameplay feels responsive and not like Wario feels too heavy or such. Bosses are inventive thanks to the use of the multiple layers, and just... I love this game. I really would love to see this game get reverse engineered or remade. It makes me question why the 3D Classics strategy died before this game could make it to the 3DS, because it looks and sounds and plays amazingly.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse: THis is probably a game that if you wanted it, you probably already have it. it's flawed. the camera is wonktastic and fails to keep up with the speed of the action. there is a lot of grindy tedium as the game is more an RPG, but one that actually works (Unlike Legacy of Goku or Dragon Ball sagas)

there's kinda a simple joy in making an OC for a story you have seen a million times over and having them try and set the story as you know it right. Love for the franchise is mandatory here, though. this isn't like the Scott Pilgrim Game or something like that. it won't get you in at the base level, and a lot of **** wont make sense unless you know these characters or how these events are supposed to occur. Likewise, there's a lot of stuff one just... wouldn't understand without a franchise wiki open or an extensive knowledge of the show. an example is sometimes a piece of equipment will say "Boosts all Krillin related Skills!" or something, but... then you have to think of what attacks Krillin prominently fought with in the show besides maybe destructo disc or the Kamehameha. this gets worse when you get to characters that have attacks that aren't as obvious. (Like say... Berter and Jayce).

I do like the gameplay, for as over-complicated the controls are. you have standard attack, heavy attack, Jump/upwards flight, and generic Ki blast on the face buttons, L1 blocks, R1 toggles lock-on to an opponent, L2 allows quick flight, and R2 changes the face-buttons to the super skills you've equipped. this can range from Kamehameha to crazy melee combo attacks that consume Ki to energy charging, instant transmission, solarflare, and even the Parapara bros. dance (which besides trolling is actually really good because you can essentially stun-lock an opponent into Parapara dancing and remove them from a fight or leave them open to a friend's ultimate attack. also, the epic trolling of Dragon Ball GT's lowest point tastes so sweet.)

D-pad has a bunch of stuff like quest logs, items, use of your scouter, chat fuctionality...

and then descent from flight is L3. which is kinda important if you don't want to be stuck up in the sky.

of course, things like grapples, guard breaks, launchers, ultimate attacks, etc. are all button combos.

once you get used to the controls, the game is pretty fun though! it's great playing with friends, and the whole game has this quasai MMO thing going on, with quests having a pool of drops you could get and the hub world having online connectivity and such!

but therein lies the game's biggest failing inasmuch that the online servers are VERY bad. you will frequently get booted back to the main menu from the hub world, even during SINGLE PLAYER because of server issues. DiMPS obviously did not expect this game to do as well as it did, and as a result this game is CONSTANTLY booting folks because the server just cannot handle how many folks are playing the game.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I been playing Mario Vs. Donkey Kong on Wii U, I got through the first world and started the second world. This is my first Mario vs. DK game of this type and so far I am kind of liking it. It is nothing like I expected. It has a very cool old-school vibe going like a classic Donkey Kong or even old school Wrecking Crew going on in some ways its pretty dang fun.


I am actually starting to get somewhat excited for Mario Maker. I think that there is a very real chance that Nintendo can win over the retro gamers this generation if they really push that theme. I just hope they realize that retro *is* their calling card and give up chasing the hard core crowd once and for all and stick to doing what they do best.

[Phil]

Try out my levels, marvel! And let me know if you create anything!

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

did you add me as a friend? I haven't even checked I think I have Miiverse stuff turned off.

[Phil]

Pretty sure I did! If not, you are allowed to shame me in front of all NWR. *nods*
The best way to see friends' levels is to follow them, but that requires the Miiverse functionality. To share levels, you have to post to Miiverse. That's where your level gets comments and stuff.