What Are You Playing?

Wyrm

HEMA
Wyrm said:
Anyone playing Dragon's Crown?
If you spent hours at the arcade throwing your allowance at Golden Axe you'll want to get this game!
If anyone in Europe wants to play some, hit me up. My psn id is Wyrm.

No one on Dragon's Crown? Really? It sure seemed to me a game that almost everybody here would go for.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Wyrm said:
No one on Dragon's Crown? Really? It sure seemed to me a game that almost everybody here would go for.

I played it with a friend at his house and had a good deal of fun but I don't own it myself yet. It reminds me of the D&D arcade game a lot, which I'm sure is an influence on it.
 
Dar Klink said:
I played it with a friend at his house and had a good deal of fun but I don't own it myself yet. It reminds me of the D&D arcade game a lot, which I'm sure is an influence on it.

According to wikipedia, the director actually worked on D&D: Tower of Doom... I suddenly wish I had a PS3! Playing a good hack'n'slash with a live friend is pretty much the best thing you can do on a console.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I really enjoyed Gone Home. The subject matter is certainly not for everybody, and it's brief for the price (argh, I'm posting this right as the 50% off sale ended). But it was one of the best game experiences I've had this year. And one of the best examples I can think of for games as a storytelling medium. I finished it Friday in about 2.5 hours, and despite its brevity, it's been in my headspace all weekend.

When you were growing up, sleeping over at a friend's house, did you ever explore that place? Try to learn what kind of people they were by what you saw around the house; pick up on cues in dialogue and exchanges between strangers? In Gone Home, you explore an empty house and piece together the lives of a typical American family in the mid-1990s, one scrap of paper or photo at a time. The main thrust of the story is laid out for you in spoken dialogue as you find key items. But there are about three or four concurrent stories happening in the house, told between the lines of items and pictures you find. These are left to the player to piece together, and the magic that happens there is what really made the game special for me.

I bought this game on the strength of the reviews, but it was still somewhat of a gamble based on how little the reviews said of the actual game. If someone had told me up front what Gone Home was all about, I'd have been very interested. Thankfully, no one did, and I got to discover it for myself.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Groovy Metal Fist said:
Subject matter that warrants a disclaimer on a Berserk forum? Interesting.
Not in the way that you're thinking... It's about a teenaged girl in a realistic setting. You could call it gloriously mundane.
 
Walter said:
Not in the way that you're thinking... It's about a teenaged girl in a realistic setting. You could call it gloriously mundane.

I wasn't sure what to think, actually. But I generally like the idea of stepping out my comfort zone.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Started playing Arkham Origins this weekend. So far I'm really enjoying it.

The story pretty much catches right on, as opposed to Asylum and City taking forever to ramp up.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Finished Plants vs. Zombies 2 on my phone, or at least what's available thus far. Feels more like an add-on or DLC than a true sequel, or perhaps I should say a true game. It feels like you're only getting about half the game for now, and it's just more of the same for the most part. Not a lot of innovation except for the movable plots in the Wild West (the whole "time travel" angle basically amounts to the zombies wearing different clothes). One of the pleasures of the first game was it's seemingly boundless creativity as new wrinkles were added with each level, whereas here I kept waiting for it to even get to all the wrinkles the first one had (it didn't, not even close). Otherwise, it's the same basic gameplay, or more of the same of it; fun, but it feels like Plants vs. Zombies vs. Angry Birds Lite for your phone with the new world map system and pay for play content (though you can largely bypass both). This is ironic since a rather complete version of the first game is available for phone for just 99 cents, and you'll get a lot more than anything you can pay for here. Anyway, I can't complain too much, it's not costing me anything and it's still fun, but it's disappointing that all the ambition lies in the sales distribution style than the game itself. It feels more like it's merely exploiting the success of Plants vs. Zombies than trying to top it.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
Finished Plants vs. Zombies 2 on my phone, or at least what's available thus far. Feels more like an add-on or DLC than a true sequel, or perhaps I should say a true game.
It's so sad too... PvZ was Popcap's last great game. Before that they were on fire. Peggle, Bookworm and Plants vs Zombies are fantastic. Since EA bought them, it's just been a shit show.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
It's so sad too... PvZ was Popcap's last great game. Before that they were on fire. Peggle, Bookworm and Plants vs Zombies are fantastic. Since EA bought them, it's just been a shit show.

It certainly explains the dramatic shift in retail focus; it really is just a corporate exploitation of Plants vs. Zombies. Buying every quality game company out there and doing this to their properties isn't going to do anything to help EA's reputation. Then again, it's not like it can make it worse.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I bought this bundle pack they released for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow because it contained the two DLC packs, Castlevania: Mirror of Fate (ported from the 3DS) as well as a demo of Lords of Shadow 2. It's a pretty nice bundle that's well worth it, especially if you haven't played these games before.

Anyway, I replayed LoS 1 and quickly remembered how enjoyable it was. The 2 DLC's are good too because they continue the story and actually contain key plot points that directly tie into the future games. Since I hadn't played Mirror of Fate that was a cool bonus as well. And although it's not nearly as in depth or as good as the classic Castlevania platformers, it's still really good for this series and again contains a large part of the story that will eventually lead into Lords of Shadow 2 (the demo for that was really awesome btw).

So yea, I'm really into this series right now :serpico:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Oburi said:
I bought this bundle pack they released for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow because it contained the two DLC packs, Castlevania: Mirror of Fate (ported from the 3DS) as well as a demo of Lords of Shadow 2. It's a pretty nice bundle that's well worth it, especially if you haven't played these games before.

Anyway, I replayed LoS 1 and quickly remembered how enjoyable it was. The 2 DLC's are good too because they continue the story and actually contain key plot points that directly tie into the future games. Since I hadn't played Mirror of Fate that was a cool bonus as well. And although it's not nearly as in depth or as good as the classic Castlevania platformers, it's still really good for this series and again contains a large part of the story that will eventually lead into Lords of Shadow 2 (the demo for that was really awesome btw).

You know, I've played all of the above, and you have to admit that the story is pretty bad in those games. I've already dissed LoS in another post somewhere, but its story man... Gah. And the DLCs are even worse to me. They explain the transition from
Gabriel to Dracula
(that LoS actually didn't explain at all) almost on the side, as just a perfunctory step to take in order to get to the next objective.
"You can't go there as a human, here, become a vampire, that'll do the trick!"
I really wish they'd have made more of an effort on that side of things. Ah well, the joke's on me in the end, as I'll most likely buy LoS 2 anyway.

Moving on from that topic, I'm at the end of Phoenix Wright 5: Dual Destinies. It follows in the steps of its predecessors, a nice game but I wish it innovated more than it did. It also starts off rather slowly. Still, I greatly enjoyed the later segments and I'd recommend it to any fan of the series. Only real complaint I have are the typos. In a text-intensive game like that it really ruins the moment.

Next in line is Zelda: A link between worlds, which I received today.
 

Deci

Avatar by supereva01 @ DA
Spent a little time playing in the closed beta for Elder Scrolls Online over the weekend. While some aspects I thought were interesting I don't think it's something I can invest in. Saturday night my character fell through the world and continued screaming/falling until I eventually tired of waiting to talk to a mod/GM and closed out of the game indefinitely. My eyes are pretty locked on Black Desert at the moment as far as my next big gaming addiction (read: MMO) goes.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Deci said:
Saturday night my character fell through the world and continued screaming/falling until I eventually tired of waiting to talk to a mod/GM and closed out of the game indefinitely.
You sure your character didn't just accidentally stumble into some chaos torture realm?
 

Deci

Avatar by supereva01 @ DA
Heh, ya sadly I'm sure.

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I'll hand it to ESO though, in the other MMO I used to play it didn't have the added joys of having your character screaming as he fell the whole time. I submitted a ticket, reported the bug, and probably waited about twenty minutes to be connected to someone to fix it before saying fuck it.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Rhombaad said:
Finished Final Fantasy VIII tonight. Now, on to Final Fantasy IX! :guts:

How'd you like 8? I haven't played it in a very long time, but I did enjoy it when I played it. People over-exaggerate Squall's "emo" personality, but I can still see where the complaints come from. I really liked Rinoa at the time for some reason, not sure how I'd feel now if I went back to play it. FF9 is my favorite behind FF6, so I hope you enjoy that. It goes back to the roots of steam technology mixed with fantasy setting rather than FF7 and FF8's weirdly futuristic settings mixed with fantasy stuff.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Dar Klink said:
How'd you like 8? I haven't played it in a very long time, but I did enjoy it when I played it. People over-exaggerate Squall's "emo" personality, but I can still see where the complaints come from. I really liked Rinoa at the time for some reason, not sure how I'd feel now if I went back to play it. FF9 is my favorite behind FF6, so I hope you enjoy that. It goes back to the roots of steam technology mixed with fantasy setting rather than FF7 and FF8's weirdly futuristic settings mixed with fantasy stuff.

I liked FFVIII a lot. I played it when it first came out for the PC, and I attempted to get back into it over the last few years. The Draw system is still annoying, and I don't like having to Junction magic that I'd like to use to my characters' stats to make them more powerful, but the story is enjoyable and I like Squall's character development. Rinoa is a great character, too.

I played FFIX after I bought a PS2 in 2000. It's my favorite Final Fantasy game, and I can't wait to play it again.
 
I'm REALLY digging XCOM Enemy Unknown right now. I owed XCOM enemy unknown from a Xbox 360 sale in 2012, but never worked up the guts to play it, given its reputation for hard difficulty. However I absolutely became so addicted to that game. Once I read about all the new stuff the Enemy Within expansion contained, I took advantage of a great green man gaming sale this week and bought it on steam. Friggin awesome, definitely my favorite-most-addicting-game since dark souls.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Been playing quite a bit after a few months of only a bit of Dark Souls here and there. I finally fully beat Demon's Souls over the past few weeks, I got a 3DS for Christmas so I've been playing and loving Fire Emblem and Zelda. I got La Mulana on Steam, which is a really great "Metroidvania" style game full of crazy puzzles. I also downloaded the Bravely Default demo on 3DS yesterday and I've been having a blast with it, I can't wait for the full game next month. The 3DS has got me so much more into games again, I'm looking forward to buying and playing Phoenix Wright 5, Pokemon, Kid Icarus, and SMT 4 along with many other titles.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Dar Klink said:
I also downloaded the Bravely Default demo on 3DS yesterday and I've been having a blast with it, I can't wait for the full game next month.
Same. That demo sold me on the full game. I played it all last night.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Walter said:
Same. That demo sold me on the full game. I played it all last night.
I spent way more time in it than I really should have, I decided to get all the jobs maxed out on each character and was grinding in a non-optimal area for a long while. Even then, the game's battle system is perfect, it's fast, simple, and relies on the player having fun figuring out good combos of skills. Did you get all the bonuses? I think the only one I'm missing is the completion of the town.
 
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