What are you currently playing?

[Eleven]

Tales of Vesperia for the PS3. Reading the translation from my phone doesn't feel like reading subtitles. It feels like reading a wiki. Still, enjoying it so far. Got the main story translation on my phone's browser, and some youtube videos downloaded for the skits (they're in english!). And a google doc file for the side quest translation. Lots of work that I need to have breaks!

[Hot Heart]

TMNT: Out of the Shadows.

 

Was really excited for this for months beforehand, and being honest, I was disappointed, initially. However, I've played a bit more and it has improved quite dramatically. I can see why so many people have been dismissing it as slow and clunky...because the game starts you severely gimped. I think releasing a demo with the turtles at their most basic, un-upgraded state, was a terrible idea and will probably have put a lot of people off. Once you get up a few levels, you'll unlock a few extra things that make life a lot easier; particularly the 'Team' upgrades that improve your speed, toughness, attack strength, etc.

 

Of course, some of it depends on the enemy types (as Raph, too many of the early enemies are knocked over quite easily, making it difficult to maintain a combo) and learning the rhythm (can't attack relentlessly and then block at the last second like in the Arkham games, you have to anticipate enemy attacks because timing plays into whether you counter or just block/deflect). There's quite a bit of depth to the system and I can see myself really wanting to try and master it; I've already been stringing together 40+ hit combos, even with slower turtles like Raph and Donnie.

[TheMightyEthan]

Is Ralph slow?  I understand Mikey's probably the fastest, but I would expect Ralph to be faster than Leo.

[Hot Heart]

You'd think, but they've made Raph more of a brute since he's all close-range, and Leo's the balanced one. So speedwise it's Mikey > Leo > Raph > Don. Then there's other base stats like Health, Toughness (damage/knockdown resistance) and Attack. Raph fares pretty well in all the other departments.

[Chronixal]

Been on-off playing Dragon's Crown and I must admit, despite all the hype I had before it's release, I'm not loving it as much as I thought/hoped I would be. I can't pin it down but there enough little niggles that bug me. The odd thing is once I'm playing, I can for hours without issue. I just often don't have the desire to pop it in and play it.

 

Otherwise, mainly doing a second play of Ace Attorney 4. Still very fun and enjoyable. 

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Assassin's Creed Liberation. I'm enjoying it buy it is buggy as the bayou swamp it's set in. The gameplay is good and remarkably similar to the main games, but seems to push you along through the story more forcefully.

 

The main problem I have is with the fighting - I just can't get a hang of the countering which was my main way of fighting in the main games so is quite a setback. Luckily it's never exactly difficult so it's more just that it's less satisfying than anything else.  I struggled with the trading too. I only managed to set my first ship a sail by accident even after resorting to the web for instructions. It's also a bit clunky in that you can select things on the touch screen but then have to press circle to go back instead of an on screen button.

 

I think I'm going to find the multiplayer similarly baffling. I set up a home node then pressing on other nodes doesn't seem to give me any options to do anything. That's why I'm on here now - on my laptop trying to find out how the heck it works.

[TheMightyEthan]

 

PS3 version.  Fucking love it, one of the greatest games of all time.  Possibly my favorite.

 

Also, playing it remote play over Vita is what really sold me on the PS4.

[toxicitizen]

The Last of Us.

 

Holy shit, Naughty Dog, you masterful bastards. This game is something else. Don't know how far along I am but I've been playing it a lot the past couple days and I am loving the hell out of it. It feels like more of a survival horror game than the games that actually call themselves that. Those usually end up showering you in ammo and before long resource management becomes trivial. Here, not so much. I constantly find myself keeping track of what I have and how to most efficiently use it.

 

"Alright, these two guys haven't seen me yet. Can't sneak up on them but I'm almost out of handgun ammo so I better not start shooting. I'll toss this molotov instead and only use a bullet or two to finish them off if necessary." It really makes for satisfying gameplay. At least, it does when the enemies aren't being blind and stupid. And I'm not talking about the clickers here...

 

I think I must be at least halfway through it by now but I feel like not a whole lot has happened storywise, so it's hard to tell for sure. But yeah, really glad I picked it up. 

 

edit: Holy shit! Earlier tonight I got to the part where

 

 

Sam gets infected and killed and his older brother blows his brains out. When the next section started, I actually had to pause the game and put the controller down for a few minutes to process what had just happened. I seriously considered just turning the game off for a while. Jesus christ, this game is heavy. No game has ever had that strong of an effect on me.

 

 

Up until that point, I didn't really get why people were saying that TLoU is a great game but not a "fun" one. I mean, I get why someone might say that about Spec Ops: The Line but I had been having a lot of fun with TLoU prior to that. It was tense as fuck but I enjoyed that. Now I get it a bit more...

Edited September 9, 2013 by FLD

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Holy frick. AC Liberation must have the jankiest controls ever - it is SO frustrating. I'm trying to run a rooftop race in one minute and it is absolute torture. I'm hanging on an eave trying to get on the roof and instead of climbing up she's edging along the... edge. Jumping directly at a tree fork and she does sailing past it. trying to jump onto a high wire and she goes flying over it onto the ground. Stood at the bottom of a tree and running around it or sneak peeking around it instead of climbing it. I am feeling so agitated right now I'm on here taking a break from it again as I already gave up on it last night. Races are my least favourite thing in the AC series but in the other games I at least felt like my errors contributed to the context sensitive free running messing up. Here it just... I seriously have a knot in my stomach right now. ugh.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, that game's not very good at sensing the context.

[Strangelove]

I dont remember the first 2 or so hours of KH1 being nothing but fetchquests. Retarded.

[CorgiShinobi]

I do... -ish. All I remember is that once you get to Traverse Town, you get a few small enemies and the game doesn't pick up until you've defeated the Guard Armor boss.

 

Or maybe then you have to deal with the Gummi Ship, and then it picks up.

[staySICK]

uh, I'm bouts to hop on cod blops 2 (360) with some friends.

 

been playing my vita a bit too, between PS+ and that Japanese game sale

[FMW]

I dont remember the first 2 or so hours of KH1 being nothing but fetchquests. Retarded.

Hey, at least it isn't the first 2 or so hours of KH2!

 

I've been getting back into Etrian Odyssey IV.  I've clawed my way to the third major boss, but I'm kinda afraid to go in and fight him.  I've learned the hard way that just because I CAN fight a boss doesn't mean I'm prepared to fight that boss.  There are still a couple of quests to be done in the snow area, I think I'll mop those all up first just to be sure.

[TheMightyEthan]

uh, I'm bouts to hop on cod blops 2 (360) with some friends.

Get outta here dudebro!

[Mister Jack]

I've  gone back to The Binding of Isaac because I'm trying to unlock the polaroid so I can get the true ending but GOD DAMN IT IS IT HARD.

[danielpholt]

I've been trying to rekindle my love affair with the F1 series, however I've just admitted defeat. 

 

I seem to be stuck in a weird place between wanting to enjoy my time with it, and wanting the game to be difficult enough that i don't feel like I'm taking my shitty car to the world title. Unfortunately, i seem to be in between 'hard' and 'medium' AI settings. One is too easy, and the other is too tough. I guess we'll chalk 2012 up as an off year for me.

[Mr. GOH!]

Playing Amnesia; A Machine for Pigs. Very strange kind of anti-videogame videogame. 

[toxicitizen]

Playing Amnesia; A Machine for Pigs. Very strange kind of anti-videogame videogame. 

 

What does that even mean?

 

 

On topic, I'm still working my way through TLoU though I haven't had a lot of time to play the past few days so I haven't progressed all that much.

 

Other than that, a few days ago I finally accomplished my first significant milestone in Spelunky! So far, I had been focusing on unlocking the shortcuts to each worlds so that I can get back there easily and practice until I can actually take two steps into them without dying. It was going pretty smoothly, there's a tunnel guy waiting for you when you reach a new world that asks you for some items. Ropes or bombs, usually. Do it three times and he builds a shortcut so you can start directly at that world. The plan was to unlock all the shortcuts and, once I got the last one opened, then try to beat the game from there.

 

Then I reached the last requirement for the last shortcut. Suddenly, bombs and ropes weren't enough, motherfucker asks me for a key. That key is found on a level in the very first world. So suddenly I had to start a run and not only survive through the entire first three worlds, I had to do it carrying that goddamned key. Meaning, I can't carry a weapon. It seemed goddamned impossible. 

 

I had a few close calls last week, including one time where I made it to the end of the last level and could see the fucking exit. But I somehow dropped the key into a fucking abyss. I wasn't even mad. I was just confused as to how that even happened. Then a few days ago I finally pulled it off! This game is so fucking satisfying when you can tell how much your skill level is rising. Next up, trying to beat the game.

[TheMightyEthan]

I had a few close calls last week, including one time where I made it to the end of the last level and could see the fucking exit. But I somehow dropped the key into a fucking abyss. I wasn't even mad. I was just confused as to how that even happened.

That story makes me think of a time, that's an entirely different situation, but I was in university and we had a test in one of my classes that I thought I did pretty good on, probably a B, maybe an A if I got lucky.  The next week when we got the grades back I learned I had gotten a 33%.  It was so far below my expectations that I wasn't even upset, I just started laughing.  If I'd gotten a C I'd have been disappointed, a D I'd have been mad, but the F---- was just too much.

[TCP]

The Last of Us.

 

Holy shit, Naughty Dog, you masterful bastards. This game is something else. Don't know how far along I am but I've been playing it a lot the past couple days and I am loving the hell out of it. It feels like more of a survival horror game than the games that actually call themselves that. Those usually end up showering you in ammo and before long resource management becomes trivial. Here, not so much. I constantly find myself keeping track of what I have and how to most efficiently use it.

 

"Alright, these two guys haven't seen me yet. Can't sneak up on them but I'm almost out of handgun ammo so I better not start shooting. I'll toss this molotov instead and only use a bullet or two to finish them off if necessary." It really makes for satisfying gameplay. At least, it does when the enemies aren't being blind and stupid. And I'm not talking about the clickers here...

 

I think I must be at least halfway through it by now but I feel like not a whole lot has happened storywise, so it's hard to tell for sure. But yeah, really glad I picked it up. 

 

edit: Holy shit! Earlier tonight I got to the part where

 

 

Sam gets infected and killed and his older brother blows his brains out. When the next section started, I actually had to pause the game and put the controller down for a few minutes to process what had just happened. I seriously considered just turning the game off for a while. Jesus christ, this game is heavy. No game has ever had that strong of an effect on me.

 

 

Up until that point, I didn't really get why people were saying that TLoU is a great game but not a "fun" one. I mean, I get why someone might say that about Spec Ops: The Line but I had been having a lot of fun with TLoU prior to that. It was tense as fuck but I enjoyed that. Now I get it a bit more...

 

You're still really early in! It's definitely the longest Naughty Dog game I've played. I think you'll have a few more times where you almost turn the game off, it can be pretty brutal.

[toxicitizen]

That story makes me think of a time, that's an entirely different situation, but I was in university and we had a test in one of my classes that I thought I did pretty good on, probably a B, maybe an A if I got lucky.  The next week when we got the grades back I learned I had gotten a 33%.  It was so far below my expectations that I wasn't even upset, I just started laughing.  If I'd gotten a C I'd have been disappointed, a D I'd have been mad, but the F---- was just too much.

 Ha, while I can see the similarity, I think I'd be a little more upset about screwing up a test.

 

You're still really early in! It's definitely the longest Naughty Dog game I've played. I think you'll have a few more times where you almost turn the game off, it can be pretty brutal.

Seriously. I feel like I've already played through an entire Uncharted worth of content. I also methodically scour the environment for all the supplies I can find, so I'm probably progressing very slowly compared to someone just advancing through the story. I'm a little bit after that now, though. I made it to winter and

did the part where you get the antibiotics and then the guys track you back to the house. So I've picked off a bunch of them and I think I have to make my way back to Joel next.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

 

That story makes me think of a time, that's an entirely different situation, but I was in university and we had a test in one of my classes that I thought I did pretty good on, probably a B, maybe an A if I got lucky.  The next week when we got the grades back I learned I had gotten a 33%.  It was so far below my expectations that I wasn't even upset, I just started laughing.  If I'd gotten a C I'd have been disappointed, a D I'd have been mad, but the F---- was just too much.

 Ha, while I can see the similarity, I think I'd be a little more upset about screwing up a test.

 

Most classes I probably would have, but that one dropped your lowest test grade (including the final), it was the last test before the final, and I had A's on all the earlier ones.  So all it meant was that I had to actually take the final instead of skipping it like I'd been planning.

[Mr. GOH!]

 

Playing Amnesia; A Machine for Pigs. Very strange kind of anti-videogame videogame. 

 

What does that even mean?

 

 

 

I've played it for two hours and not a single thing has really happened. Gameplay is all walking through the environment while reading notes or your character's journal, listening to recordings and listening to telephone conversations between your character and a mysterious male voice, and that's it. No chase scenes, no combat, no real puzzles. Yet, I am enjoying it.

[toxicitizen]

Ah ok. Well, I don't know if you've played the original Amnesia but that didn't have combat either. It's more about atmosphere and hiding from the horrible things. But considering this one was made by TheChineseRoom, the guys who made Dear Esther, I wouldn't be surprised if they emphasized atmosphere on this one.

 

I kinda want to get A Machine for Pigs but I still need to play the original. Also need to finish Outlast. I haven't touched it since I started The Last of Us. Makes it doubly difficult to find the time when it's a game you really can only play at night to get the full experience.