What Are You Playing?

I've been playing a bunch of PC Engine CD games lately and having a blast. I picked up a Turbo Duo a few months ago. I played through Ys Books 1 + 2 recently and I just loved it. It is an action RPG that has been released on a slew of platforms so it is pretty easy to get your hands on I imagine but the gameplay is ironically very refreshing. The game was made in a different era and its simplicity is a breath of fresh air. I'm a bit of a completionist so having a very simply straight forward linear RPG experience that requires only a handful of hours was a pure joy. It is also extremely charming to play a game that does the absolute best it can while being hamstringed by the technical limitations of its day.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Skeleton said:
I can't imagine playing RE4 without Separate Ways though.

The Wii version has it, along with a Wiimote shooting gameplay that isn't bad at all.

Skeleton said:
Back in the day we had a conversation about RE4, and playing the game again made me think of it. For example, within the first minute or two of the game Leon's talking to his co-worker and makes his first one-liner, a wise-ass remark that was completely unnecessary and made Leon look like a dick. I was reminded of our discussion and that you said you didn't like said remarks. After a loud groan, I thought," Yeah, Aaz has a point there."

A bit of a side note, but your idea that the Las Plagas should've had a connection with the Nemesis tyrant's parasite is absolutely brilliant. A part of me weeps every time I think about it because it's such a great idea, and RE4's creators completely ignored it for some reason. The saddest part is that the Nemesis' parasite and the Las Plagas work nearly in the exact same way. So not only could there have easily been a connection but they probably got the idea from RE3 and purposefully chose not to make the connection.

Oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah it's just one of these cases where you realize why having a professional writer on a video game team truly matters. It really wouldn't have taken much to turn all the bad parts from RE4 into gold.

Skeleton said:
I never played RE5 and RE6 so a part of me wants to get them too just so I can see how the series ended up. But a much louder part of me really doesn't want to. :ganishka:

RE5 has a pretty bad story, and it just reused RE4's gameplay without improving upon it. That aside, I had fun with it. RE6 got such terrible reviews that I never played it. However I played RE: Revelations on the 3DS and it's pretty good. Highly recommended.

---

As for myself, I'm still playing VR games on the Oculus Rift currently. I finished Lucky's Tale and Chronos, two relatively high budget productions that I had a lot of fun with. I did a bunch of smaller games as well, and globally I'm pretty pleased with the result, except maybe for Fated: The Silent Oath. It costs $20, lasts maybe 3 hours, and is mostly an interactive story with very few gameplay elements that are not very well executed. But more than that, I felt like the story strings you along on a series of red herrings only to deliver a twist in the cheapest way possible, which is not what I call good storytelling. And it's done too clumsily to be effective, too. Anyway, next I think I'll get into EVE: Valkyrie and maybe The Climb, a Crytek game... about climbing.

All that aside I wanna get Rise of the Tomb Raider and Dark Souls 3 whenever I find the time.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Aazealh said:
RE5 has a pretty bad story, and it just reused RE4's gameplay without improving upon it. That aside, I had fun with it. RE6 got such terrible reviews that I never played it. However I played RE: Revelations on the 3DS and it's pretty good. Highly recommended.

I never completely finished 6 (though I was on like the final bonus chapter when my HD died so I've virtually finished it) and if you liked the others there's no reason you won't like this one (it's the same shit, for better and worse) except that you can't really go back to the RE4/5 control scheme. I tried playing 5 after and it was untenable. I didn't bother tainting the experience of 4.

Aazealh said:
As for myself, I'm still playing VR games on the Oculus Rift currently.

So, now that you've had more time with it; novelty that's more trouble than it's worth, or, THE INEVITABLE FUTURE!?

BTW, somewhat related: my mind is still kind of blown that Nintendo created a 100 million unit selling alternative way to play games that nobody else could emulate despite their best efforts... and they just kinda walked away from it themselves. Oh well? I mean, imagine a Wii version of Dark Souls. :magni: (probably a lot of broken TVs =)

Aazealh said:
All that aside I wanna get Rise of the Tomb Raider and Dark Souls 3 whenever I find the time.

Rise of TR is basically exactly like the first one, which I loved but realize now I kind of got my fill of (those $5 steam sales really work, I got TR for that, then paid the full $60 for RotTR; you win publishers =). As for Dark Souls... somehow I've played the original over 30 hours and didn't realize there was a counterclockwise leading path down to New Londo from the first bonfire! UGH! I also wasted a firekeeper soul on account of not knowing how/where to use it until then. :puck:
nerdrage.gif
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I've played the original over 30 hours and didn't realize there was a counterclockwise leading path down to New Londo from the first bonfire! UGH!

That was literally the first zone I went to after arriving at the Firelink Shrine :ganishka: It was a huge mistake... :femto:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
So, now that you've had more time with it; novelty that's more trouble than it's worth, or, THE INEVITABLE FUTURE!?

I think it's pretty great, but to be fair I've been convinced for some years now. The library of content available right now is also pretty good for something that just launched, although obviously it'll take time before some truly revolutionary games come out. In the case of the Rift specifically, the release of Oculus Touch (special VR controllers as opposed to a standard gamepad) will help cement VR's strengths.

That being said, this isn't going to replace standard display gaming, it's complementary to it. I've actually just bought the new Doom on Steam (even though I have absolutely no time to play it.... but probably will do so anyway).

Griffith said:
BTW, somewhat related: my mind is still kind of blown that Nintendo created a 100 million unit selling alternative way to play games that nobody else could emulate despite their best efforts... and they just kinda walked away from it themselves. Oh well? I mean, imagine a Wii version of Dark Souls. :magni: (probably a lot of broken TVs =)

I don't think they properly understood the strengths and weaknesses of the Wii. Their loss.

Griffith said:
Rise of TR is basically exactly like the first one, which I loved but realize now I kind of got my fill of (those $5 steam sales really work, I got TR for that, then paid the full $60 for RotTR; you win publishers =). As for Dark Souls... somehow I've played the original over 30 hours and didn't realize there was a counterclockwise leading path down to New Londo from the first bonfire! UGH! I also wasted a firekeeper soul on account of not knowing how/where to use it until then. :puck:
nerdrage.gif

Finding strange paths to weird places is really half the fun of the Souls series. This one is pretty obvious though, I gotta say. :iva:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
That was literally the first zone I went to after arriving at the Firelink Shrine :ganishka: It was a huge mistake... :femto:

Yeah, especially if you had the master key and tried the Valley of Drakes or Blighttown. The funniest part though is it's not like I just missed it once starting out, I've restarted this game a dozen times and never gone that way!

Aazealh said:
I think it's pretty great, but to be fair I've been convinced for some years now. The library of content available right now is also pretty good for something that just launched, although obviously it'll take time before some truly revolutionary games come out. In the case of the Rift specifically, the release of Oculus Touch (special VR controllers as opposed to a standard gamepad) will help cement VR's strengths.

That being said, this isn't going to replace standard display gaming, it's complementary to it.

The VR controls I've read about are what reminded me of the Wii, like Nintendo did something truly revolutionary that worked and was a huge financial success and then they just dumped it for no reason like it was any other failed gimmick they tried. Anyway, I'm certainly curious to give VR a shot, and I think my dad even mentioned sinking cash into the Oculus Rift because, why not? It probably won't replace standard gaming, but maybe it'll eventually be considered a media category unto itself. If I was a VR company CEO though I'd be trying to take Bethesda on as an investor or otherwise incentivizing them to develop the next Elder Scrolls/Fallout for VR first.

Aazealh said:
I've actually just bought the new Doom on Steam (even though I have absolutely no time to play it.... but probably will do so anyway).

I wasn't impressed by the open beta.

Aazealh said:
I don't think they properly understood the strengths and weaknesses of the Wii. Their loss.

Yeah, it's bizarre and the only decent rationale I can think of is they wanted to go more in the DS direction, even at home. They also still haven't figured out their true market advantage going back decades, which is that they're the only hardware company that has Nintendo games! Simply make your hardware up to the current standard for 3rd parties and you'll have the must-have system by default. Instead, they're almost making themselves complimentary to standard gaming, as you put it with VR.

Aazealh said:
Finding strange paths to weird places is really half the fun of the Souls series. This one is pretty obvious though, I gotta say. :iva:

I'm not even bad at the combat and I still found a way to suck. :ganishka:
 
Stilllll playing Fallout 4. Being a lot more thorough on my second character, which basically means a side quest can mean days (of playing an hour or two here and there) of wandering. Reasonably excited for Far Harbour.

About to start Demon's Souls as well. Figured I'd start from the beginning, though I know it's not connected to Dark Souls. Might be dated but hopefully it'll be a good time.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
I think my dad even mentioned sinking cash into the Oculus Rift because, why not? It'll probably won't replace standard gaming, but maybe it'll eventually be considered a media category unto itself. If I was a VR company CEO though I'd be trying to take Bethesda on as an investor or otherwise incentivizing them to develop the next Elder Scrolls/Fallout for VR first.

That's how I see things evolving. There's room for both types of experiences, but I can foresee many years in the future, the biggest AAA titles are developed primarily for VR, because of the level of immersion that's possible in that medium.

I wasn't impressed by the open beta.

The open beta was universally reviled, but it was also not developed by id, and it was multiplayer only, which, honestly isn't what I remember Doom for.

Early impressions of the game are out, and I've watched around the first hour of the game. Impressions are mostly positive, but no one's going apeshit over it, which is about what I expected. The speed of the game is the best part, for me.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Been playing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and am about 10 hours in. It's my first MH game, but from what I understand that's nothing compared to how many hours I'll end up playing it.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
The VR controls I've read about are what reminded me of the Wii, like Nintendo did something truly revolutionary that worked and was a huge financial success and then they just dumped it for no reason like it was any other failed gimmick they tried. Anyway, I'm certainly curious to give VR a shot, and I think my dad even mentioned sinking cash into the Oculus Rift because, why not? It probably won't replace standard gaming, but maybe it'll eventually be considered a media category unto itself. If I was a VR company CEO though I'd be trying to take Bethesda on as an investor or otherwise incentivizing them to develop the next Elder Scrolls/Fallout for VR first.

The controls are a lot more precise than on a Wiimote, but mostly the difference is that you view them in the game from a first person POV. That makes all the difference. It's extremely immersive, but requires to have the space and the hardware and all that. Did Nintendo invent motion gaming though? Sure. As for convincing a big editor to get into VR, don't worry, they haven't been sitting idle. Almost all big studios are experimenting with it. Ubisoft's even already released some games.

However, it's not as easy as just sticking a VR mode on top of the Elder Scrolls. You have to account for a number of factors for VR, not the least of which is motion sickness. If your first VR experience was an unmodified Skyrim you'd probably puke your guts out within 20 minutes.

Griffith said:
I wasn't impressed by the open beta.

I haven't tried the multiplayer yet, but I'm digging the campaign.

Tabris said:
About to start Demon's Souls as well. Figured I'd start from the beginning, though I know it's not connected to Dark Souls. Might be dated but hopefully it'll be a good time.

Demon's Souls is great. I think playing them in chronological order is a good idea, although you might get tired of the franchise by the time you get to Dark Souls 2.

Johnstantine said:
Been playing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and am about 10 hours in. It's my first MH game, but from what I understand that's nothing compared to how many hours I'll end up playing it.

Yeah man, going into triple digits is par for the course with this series.
 
R

Resonance

Guest
God_Hand.jpg


This game is fantastic. The combat,cheesiness and ost really make this a timeless classic for me. Especially with the whole Fist of the North Star vibe it gives me.
alsoBerserkrefferencelol
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Aazealh said:
Yeah man, going into triple digits is par for the course with this series.

I really like the mechanics of it. It's a nice change of pace from console stuff. Haven't played a DS game in quite some time, but it's nice to see how ungodly the backlog is on games.

Any suggestions for what to hit up next?
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Johnstantine said:
Any suggestions for what to hit up next?

On 3DS? Resident Evil: Revelations is pretty neat. Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is great too, if you like the classic SNES title.
 
Aazealh said:
Demon's Souls is great. I think playing them in chronological order is a good idea, although you might get tired of the franchise by the time you get to Dark Souls 2.

It actually has been a lot of fun so far. It's been challenging but I've found as long as I don't rush headlong into things and actually think things through it's not too bad at all (so far). I've killed the first couple bosses and have only died once (which was my fault against some jackass with a spear). But it's still the beginning so I imagine many tears will be shed upon a thousand deaths.

Though I intend on playing all of them, I doubt it'll be in one straight go. I only really game an hour or two at a time unless I have a lot of time to kill so this will take a bit hah.
I don't want to burn out on them either. Have tons of other things to play as a decent break in between. But since I have so many of them to play has me quite excited.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Aazealh said:
On 3DS? Resident Evil: Revelations is pretty neat. Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is great too, if you like the classic SNES title.

Yeah, 3DS. I actually played LBW when it released, but then I stopped using my 3DS due to the numerous children I've sired since then.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Tabris said:
It actually has been a lot of fun so far. It's been challenging but I've found as long as I don't rush headlong into things and actually think things through it's not too bad at all (so far). I've killed the first couple bosses and have only died once (which was my fault against some jackass with a spear). But it's still the beginning so I imagine many tears will be shed upon a thousand deaths.

Here's a big secret about the Souls games: they're not that hard. Their difficulty is vastly overstated by everyone for some reason I can't quite understand. It's as if along the way people forgot that games are meant to have some measure of challenge, and require you to learn their mechanics in order to progress. Same thing happened recently with Hyper Light Drifter, a game I finished in Hard mode without any trouble but that apparently the Internet lost its marbles over because it was supposedly so hard. Walter told me the devs even had to patch the game to make it easier! All these people need to be put in front of Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden on the NES, that'd give them a taste of what a truly punishing game is.

Johnstantine said:
Yeah, 3DS. I actually played LBW when it released

Oh yeah, I remember that! Sorry, it had slipped my mind.
 
I have been going hard in DS3 . I'm on my third build. First was a guts build :guts: great sword strength, followed by a dex build, now I am doing a pure int, faith build. In this build I am trying to play out all the NPC quest lines. Its a pain in the ass but its been a lot of fun. I found some really cool secrets and items that took me three play troughs to find and I am still finding new things. Irithyll of the boreal valley is still the most beautiful souls area in my opinion. When you see that moon and the snow fall it was like the first time seeing Anor lando in DS1.
 
Aazealh said:
Here's a big secret about the Souls games: they're not that hard. Their difficulty is vastly overstated by everyone for some reason I can't quite understand. It's as if along the way people forgot that games are meant to have some measure of challenge, and require you to learn their mechanics in order to progress. Same thing happened recently with Hyper Light Drifter, a game I finished in Hard mode without any trouble but that apparently the Internet lost its marbles over because it was supposedly so hard. Walter told me the devs even had to patch the game to make it easier! All these people need to be put in front of Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden on the NES, that'd give them a taste of what a truly punishing game is.

Thoughts exactly. I think people are a tad it too used to being able to duck behind a corner for a few seconds and come back with full health. About the most punishing thing for me in the last few years is when a Bethesda game crashes and I forgot to save for an hour. That's kinda NES style.

So far Demon's Souls isn't actually that punishing when you die. Probably the most annoying part is the Soulform but that's just taking away some health. Having to kill everything again isn't too bad at all. It doesn't add that much punishment once I know where I'm going and once you get their attacks down. Which for me is 85% dodging and backstabbing. It's easy to farm a shitload of health in a few minutes in Boletaria if I need it. But again this is so far. I'm almost done the second level and I have no idea what's coming for me hah.

Definitely fun though.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Aazealh said:
Here's a big secret about the Souls games: they're not that hard. Their difficulty is vastly overstated by everyone for some reason I can't quite understand. It's as if along the way people forgot that games are meant to have some measure of challenge, and require you to learn their mechanics in order to progress. Same thing happened recently with Hyper Light Drifter, a game I finished in Hard mode without any trouble but that apparently the Internet lost its marbles over because it was supposedly so hard. Walter told me the devs even had to patch the game to make it easier! All these people need to be put in front of Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden on the NES, that'd give them a taste of what a truly punishing game is.

Oh yeah, I remember that! Sorry, it had slipped my mind.

Haha, it's all good!

As for your Souls comment, I completely agree. I went into the mindset of it being ridiculously difficult and I think that's what made it so hard. Once I learned the basics of it, it got a bit easier.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Aazealh said:
Here's a big secret about the Souls games: they're not that hard. Their difficulty is vastly overstated by everyone for some reason I can't quite understand. It's as if along the way people forgot that games are meant to have some measure of challenge, and require you to learn their mechanics in order to progress. Same thing happened recently with Hyper Light Drifter, a game I finished in Hard mode without any trouble but that apparently the Internet lost its marbles over because it was supposedly so hard. Walter told me the devs even had to patch the game to make it easier! All these people need to be put in front of Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden on the NES, that'd give them a taste of what a truly punishing game is.

Yea pretty much. The games are more traditionally challenging rather than brutally difficult. People got soft in the last decade+ where games lose a lot of their difficulty by the fact that a lot of the time you can save your game anywhere, or checkpoints are numerous, or there's just not really any penalty for dying. The Elder Scrolls games are notorious for this. It drains all the life out of the game when your character is overpowered and you all you need to do is stop for a second to save your game before you take any chances or make any decisions. There's nothing at stake really. Now the Souls games come around and they have some of those old school ways and it's super refreshing.

Anyway I myself just picked up a PS4. I had put it off for so long because I was still debating if that was the direction I wanted to go in, seeing as how I had a 360 instead of the ps3. But I figured there really wasn't any choice this time around. It sucks that all those achievments I racked up are gone and now I'm starting fresh with 0 trophies on the ps4, which isn't a big deal but I won't lie, it bums me out a little. But I managed to grab the limited edition Uncharted ps4 which looks really nice. It's all blue with gold lights. Of course the first game I'll be playing is Dark Souls 3 :guts: I just couldn't put it off any longer.

UPDATE- After putting about 10 hours I shut it off went to bed and the very next morning went to turn it on and the ps4 wont turn on. It beeps once and powers back off. This is so typical that it would happen to me, I can't even tell you how pissed I am. Anyone have an issue like this?
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Oburi said:
UPDATE- After putting about 10 hours I shut it off went to bed and the very next morning went to turn it on and the ps4 wont turn on. It beeps once and powers back off. This is so typical that it would happen to me, I can't even tell you how pissed I am. Anyone have an issue like this?

That sucks. I Googled and came up with this: http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/Consoles-Peripherals/PS4-Won-t-Turn-On-No-Blinking-Blue-Light/m-p/42292085#M20910
 
I played Nier recently. It's pretty fun, I guess.

I didn't really love the things people seem to praise it for (atmosphere, soundtrack, "strange" story). The characters were pretty fun and there were some good twists, but I just can't handle melodramatic anime cutscenes in my life right now, even if they're in a sort of unusual context when compared to, I don't know, Final Fantasy XIII.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Finally finished Final Fantasy XII. The story was pretty decent, and I enjoyed the battle system, but man did it take me forever to get all of the achievements. Now, it's on to Final Fantasy XIII!
 
I played through Final Fantasy XIII this year and I enjoyed it. I don't think it deserves all all the hate it gets. The story and characters were far less cringy than I expected and the battle system was actually really fun to me. It had been a really long time since I played through a JRPG so coming straight off of XII it might be differen experiencet for you.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Rhombaad said:
Finally finished Final Fantasy XII. The story was pretty decent, and I enjoyed the battle system, but man did it take me forever to get all of the achievements. Now, it's on to Final Fantasy XIII!

Which version did you end up playing? I wish that International version would get a wide HD release. I don't give two shits about 10 or 13, but would love to play through that game.
 
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