-Pokemon Fire Red.
I can't say any thing about it .
Collecting and evolving, these things made a legend game.
What are you Playing?
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After a Japanese otaku friend got me to watch this:
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I realized my life was incomplete without the Sakura Wars series, so I went out and bought the first one for PS2 and have been playing it ever since.
Incidentally Sakura Wars games are hard. Really, really hard. When the girls ask you something you have literally like 10 seconds to read the answers (in Japanese) and pick one.
Even with the guide open on my lap I still have a hard time, because sometimes 10 seconds is about how long it takes me to read what the answers even are much less pick one.
Anyway, the difficulty just makes it all the better when the game actually pays off with its great story and atmosphere and characters. -
Dropping into FFX-HD. Know this is the Ugly Duckling of the VII-XII run, but I have a fond place in my heart for it.
I didn't know, however, that they'd completely overhauled the soundtrack, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.
Here, for comparison:
Original Besaid Path:
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Remastered:
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I mean, they're both nice, but that's a pretty significant tonal/voicing shift from the original.
Hang in there, Kierkegaard.
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I finally got around to playing Dust: an Elysian Tail after deciding to get my DualShock 3 working on my PC, and it's fantastic. It has way more content than I expected (secrets, challenges, crafting, quests, etc) and it has such an attention to detail. The visuals are beautiful and fluid and it's just a joy to explore and beat up mobs of enemies. I'm pleasantly surprised that several secrets are well-hidden and require ingenuity to find. And the music is top-notch. It had won me over by the time I got to the title screen, pretty much.
But probably the most pleasant surprise is how good the voice acting and humor in the game are. Even NPCs with one or two lines are colorful and believable. I actually laughed out loud when an underground country bumpkin sent me on a quest to "fetch his beatin' stick." And your sidekick Fidget is adorable and her sarcasm is great. She also breaks the fourth wall relatively frequently, questioning how the hell you just magically tuck big sheep-like creatures into your inventory or asking an NPC if they "saw the screen" when you were killing monsters.
If I have any significant complaint it's that fighting is too easy. Other than bosses, it's actually pretty hard to get hit by monsters. I regret not playing on a harder difficulty, but honestly I don't think battles would even get more challenging. The challenge would come more in the form of not getting your health partially restored automatically at save points. Actually, it's the platforming that really ramps up in difficulty later in the game. Spikes, poison-spewing spores, and other hazards can actually do quite a number on you if your movements aren't precise. Another annoyance is that the game really wants you to spend your upgrade points from leveling up. Every damn time you scroll past the upgrade screen it warns you that you have unused points, as well as perpetually reminding you in the corner of the screen. And you can't spend only SOME of your points. It forces you to assign them all. This seems like a dumb oversight to me, and a dumb assumption that "why would anyone NOT want to spend their points?"
But on the whole I'm having a real blast.
I mean, they're both nice, but that's a pretty significant tonal/voicing shift from the original.
Wow they really are quite different. The remastered one is a lot warmer and softer, for better or worse. But it definitely doesn't just feel "remastered," more like "reinterpreted."
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Went back to Batman Arkham Asylum to get some more trophies for the plat.
After that I'll go for the AC plat.
Damn I love those games. -
Still enjoying Fire Emblem: Awakening…
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Bought X/X-2 HD today and played it a little. Feels good to be back in Spira but that sensation of nostalgia hasn't kicked in just yet. Might be the case tomorrow once I get to unlock more chars.
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Well, I 100%ed Dust and started a playthrough on the hardest difficulty, though I have other things to play so I don't think I'll complete it soon. It never stopped being just a great experience, and the story managed to stay interesting. The only thing that I don't really get is what's up with General Gaius. He seems like a pretty cool, caring dude. Like where does genocide factor into all of this. It makes no sense to me lol.
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Finally finally finally beat Orstein and Smough in Dark Souls. I leveled up a bit more and then it only took me a few more tries.
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Well, I 100%ed Dust and started a playthrough on the hardest difficulty, though I have other things to play so I don't think I'll complete it soon. It never stopped being just a great experience, and the story managed to stay interesting. The only thing that I don't really get is what's up with General Gaius. He seems like a pretty cool, caring dude. Like where does genocide factor into all of this. It makes no sense to me lol.
In case you don't know this, I've heard that there was basically intended to be an entire second half to the story, which would, among other things, have revealed a true antagonist from behind the scenes, or some such thing. It all ended up cut due to various budget or time issues.
On an unrelated note, Typing of the Dead: Overkill is an un-ironically amazing game. Kids should be taught to type using it in school.
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In case you don't know this, I've heard that there was basically intended to be an entire second half to the story, which would, among other things, have revealed a true antagonist from behind the scenes, or some such thing. It all ended up cut due to various budget or time issues.
Well that WOULD make a lot more sense. It was never explained why there was fear/hatred of the Moonbloods, nor what mysteriously happened to their technomagical way of life in the past.
On an unrelated note, Typing of the Dead: Overkill is an un-ironically amazing game. Kids should be taught to type using it in school.
That would be hilarious. It would also result in a 100% proficiency rate in typing.
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Finally putting a little time in inFamous: Second Son. Y'know, I was pretty on board with getting more of the same but prettier and better, and for the most part, it is that, but…
That Hero/Villain Karma stuff was terrible when it started and it never has gotten better. Might as well just hit a switch at the beginning of the game that says "I would like to play as a villain" or "I would like to play as a hero," since taking it down the middle would just cripple your character anyways.
Also, WHEN DID IT BECOME BLASE TO JUST WANT TO BE A HERO? Why are they so certain that I need the option to be a villain? Why am I surrounded by anti-heroes and brooders?
sigh
Hang in there, Kierkegaard. -
Finally putting a little time in inFamous: Second Son. Y'know, I was pretty on board with getting more of the same but prettier and better, and for the most part, it is that, but…
That Hero/Villain Karma stuff was terrible when it started and it never has gotten better. Might as well just hit a switch at the beginning of the game that says "I would like to play as a villain" or "I would like to play as a hero," since taking it down the middle would just cripple your character anyways.
Also, WHEN DID IT BECOME BLASE TO JUST WANT TO BE A HERO? Why are they so certain that I need the option to be a villain? Why am I surrounded by anti-heroes and brooders?
sigh
Have to agree with you binary morality has worn out it's welcome. I can see it work in certain contexts like star wars the whole sith vs jedi thing might be able to justify it. But in general it's just awful. Especially how infamous did it(judging by how and 1&2 did it). I mean Mass Effect's Paragon/Renegade got my eyes rolling a few times throughout the series but it's nothing compared to how bad it is in infamous. Especially because I think there is a large part of the game that wants to create the illusion of reality despite the comic books parts, I mean the choice of graphic style alone does that. It just doesn't pair very well with how cartoonish the morality plays out in these games. I was rather surprised that they stuck with the system and instantly miffed about it back when they revealed it.
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It tends to just leave you with a solid intro, mediocre middle, and two crap endings.
It makes me a curmudgeon, but for narrative games, I still stand in the "one game/one ending" camp.
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Mmmh well for me it really depends on the narrative/game itself. Like Chrono Trigger, I liked all the additional endings there and it fit with the whole time travel.
I'm also ok with there being a core resolution that's consistent in all possible endings while the B/C plotlines can have variable resolutions. The Neverwinter Night/Dragon Age games come to mind.I think what I don't like is when you're given a choice right before the end, with the choice being ending defining.
It often feels so disconnected to everything that comes before and doesn't really feel like a resolution. The endings themselves also end up very black and white most of the time which makes it even more ridiculous.
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Started up Pokemon Y, I don't think I can play this. This game is far from being smooth. It's a shame cause I know under all of that is a deep and engrossing system but I can't deal with having my patience constantly tested by design that's way too old for its own good. -
So I got around to finally playing and beating the first Phoenix Wright. It was a great game and I loved ever second of it. I'm currently on the second one, Phoenix Wright: Justice for All. I want to also start the Professor Layton series. Anything I should know prior to playing it?
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Mass effect I played pure goodguy, but then slowly switched over to asshole (but not straight evil) by the third game, because I figured Shepard had been screwed enough by that point he'd be more focused on his own ends and working around the idiots at that point… it was in character the way I played him. And I do some really weird combos in Dragon Age sometimes. (Like I have a blood mage that hates all other mages) Having the option is nice.
But yeah, in games like Infamous where it just flat out decides your entire move set and anything approaching neutral just neuters your characters, there's not much point or nuance... you're very rarely going to take one option over the other if it goes against your tree... except in those rare cases where the "evil" choice is just really awful or its the difference between a terrible mission and an okay one.
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The evil route in inFamous is especially ridiculous: "I'm a bike messenger. Now I've got electricity powers. I'M GOING TO KILL CIVILIANS WILLY-NILLY."
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I'm a few chapters (about five, I think) away from finishing up Fire Emblem: Awakening's story, but I've spent the last three days using Reeking Boxes to summon Risen mobs on the world map to grind on. While gaining XP to level up can be a pain, raising weapon proficiency is even worse, which is why promoting/reclassing characters can be a pain, despite the perks of better stats and new skills/weapons. If only there were a way to gain the Proficiency skill without having to reclass into Cavalier, which wouldn't be convenient at this point in the game. Well, I'm still having a blast with the game, so it's all good…
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The thing with the morality system in Infamous is that Cole is still an asshole and your choices don't really matter.
"Hey! Old lady crossing the street. Should I help her? It would win me the love and respect from all these kind loving civilians. YES! Maybe even the key the to city! Or should I push her into traffic and rob the purse for all its worth?! These good for nothing bastards hate me anyway."
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Continuing my backlog clearing, I've been playing Trine 2: Complete Story this past week. I actually find it pretty hard to put the experience into words. I can say the music is great just like the first game, and that the dialogue is quite witty (though sparse), but in the end Trine is entirely about the gameplay.
And what I've come to feel is that really the game is just a giant physics engine playground. It completely lets you craft your own experience, and play the game on your own terms. Each little area is ostensibly a "puzzle," but defining it as such is perhaps too narrow in scope. The objective every time is the same: get from point A to point B. There is very little "puzzle" definition beyond that most of the time, in my mind, because you could take so many different approaches. There may be "the easy way" (say, stack 4 conjured boxes and you're done) or a minimalistic way (accomplished with little or no abilities), but beyond that it's up to your creativity. Taking a minimalistic approach would involve maximizing the effectiveness of all the little tools and gadgets placed in each area by the designers – I think of it like a sandbox in which a collection of objects has been placed, and it's up to you to figure out how they work together. Or just ignore them and bring your own toys. In that sense, as weird as it might sound, I think Trine is a true "sandbox game."
Clever game design can help encourage creativity with puzzle solutions though, and at least in this respect I think most of the main game doesn't do too well. Most areas are too easy to bypass, and really promote the "whatever, I can just use a couple boxes so why bother" attitude. Experience orbs can all be obtained in this exact same way, unless they are hidden in which case the challenge is not in reaching them but rather in observing them to begin with. There are a few exceptions, especially in the last 1 or 2 levels, but not much. I had no real inspiration to explore advanced upgrade abilities because I didn't need them. And the combat, while making Pontius feel actually useful for a change, always felt so superfluous. The boss battles were not much better.
The extra (presumably DLC?) levels, however, really, REALLY shine. They simply aren't messing around. I've explored the full gamut of ability and ability combinations trying to make parts easier or reach those experience orbs wayyyyy up there just taunting you. I've done things I hadn't previously thought possible, let alone considered, by combining abilities like low-gravity fields with conjured (or already-present) objects, the charge, the drift, bouncy surfaces, etc. Some things are designed such that they absolutely require certain combinations, like magnetized boxes against a descending section of pipe so that you have somewhere to stand above a Pit of Doom to fire explosive arrows and destroy some rubble.
So in summary I would say the main story is fun and humorous, but it starts to get stale and/or drag. The extra levels are pure joy, and they ramp up the humor to an even greater level (I can't believe how much they make fun of Amadeus' wife).
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Hiroy, it's weird in Second Son, too, because Delsin tends towards this sort of goofy heroicism which doesn't mesh at all with EVIL.
And Foolio, what I really appreciated about Trine was how much time I could spend gaming the system. There were so many times where I was 95% sure I passed an obstacle in a way the designers never intended, and that was fine.
Hang in there, Kierkegaard. -
And Foolio, what I really appreciated about Trine was how much time I could spend gaming the system. There were so many times where I was 95% sure I passed an obstacle in a way the designers never intended, and that was fine.
In an abstract sense it's more than "fine" – it's like "Haha! In your face stupid game, I'm not doing things your way!" -- which comes with a sense of pride on top of the fun in coming up with the solution at all. The open-endedness is great, but what I was trying to get at is that the easiness of the main story in Trine 2, with very few exceptions, undermined that sense of accomplishment with alternate solutions.
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Are you playing Trine solo? I have to say my experience with the series has been rather tedious playing solo. Like you mentioned Wizard boxes are just so efficient most of the time so rarely bothered to do anything else alone also switching around für certain things could get really annoying at times.
That said when I played it with friends it was a ton of fun. The ensuing chaos and working around everyone doing the less than optimal thing since everyone sees a different solution to an obstacle(depending on their character) was a lot of fun. I enjoy when a game makes you coordinate to succeed.
I wish there were more cooperative bosses though and maybe something that makes dying less trivial. -
I wouldn't ever play Trine co-op. It'd either be even EASIER with good coordination, or frustrating as hell for me. As for dying being less trivial, there is a "hardcore mode" that limits the amount of reviving you can do, and I believe if all your characters die it forces you back to the start of the level. But that doesn't sound fun either.
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But you need to experience the hilarity of wizard plank blocking jumps or making boxes rain on you and best of all projectile deflecting warriors!:ninja:
Yeah I didn't like how they handled "hardcore". I'm not really sure what I would want from the death system either. It just felt a bit too inconsequential but at the same time "hardcore" was kind of annoying(That said we didn't really play to win as a group it might be decent if you take it seriously). -
Just got done playing Katawa Shoujo.
Great game, it was more enjoyable than I thought it would be, and it hit surprisingly close to home for me in some characters.
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So turns out I don't have Priscilla's soul in Dark Souls so I need to go and get that before I can get the Lifehunt Scythe. After I go and do that I suppose I'll continue on with the game. Though I don't know what to do really. I think I have to go through that door in the garden with the butterfly.
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Just finished Second Son. It's…uh...not that great, I guess? It feels lighter on content than inFamous 2, for one thing, and the mysterious undisclosed power-sets are either really lame or too late in the story for much use. Sidequests and storyquests feel lamer than usual as well.
I know, I can only really think of critical things to say at the moment, but it's not a bad game by any measure. Just standard with sprinklings of great (travel's actually fun!) and easily forgettable.
Hang in there, Kierkegaard. -
I've tried Pokemon again, wiped my save(wasn't too far in first gym). Put the language on German instead of Japanese. It helps a bit cause the nostalgia is now more effective. I don't know it's somewhat irrational. Still I can't say I'm sucked in yet.
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I just beat infamous second son. I'm going to play as evil delson now
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Started Assassin's Creed 2 and don't Know why I didn't play it before … I mean I have the game collecting dust in my shelf since Christmas 2012 lol
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I played through Deponia over the weekend and wow… it was just far above my expectations. As a lover of (point & click style) adventure games I don't know how this flew under my radar, but it's everything I wanted from a current-day iteration of the genre. The setting is really creative with the junkyard planet of Deponia -- something I was initially worried about, as I can be somewhat picky in terms of setting (I hate things that resemble the "real world" too much, e.g. Leisure Suit Larry), but everything was very unique and inspired. The music has a western and metallic feel and is very fitting, and the voice acting is pretty great too. The visuals are detailed and colorful. Also, epic singing hobo.
Aside from the setting, a lot of the freshness of the game comes from the fact that you play as a completely arrogant, lazy, piece-of-shit bum. He's sarcastic about everything, insults everyone, and likes to inflate his own ego at every turn. There's pretty much nothing likable about him, and yet that's who you get to control. He's kind of Guybrush Threepwood if he were stripped of all compassion and humility (and to an extent, intelligence). The completely off-base portrayal in Monkey Island 4, which I detested, is actually a step in the direction of this character, Rufus.
At any rate two of the big things in adventure games -- story and puzzles -- are executed to an extremely high degree of success. The story is pretty interesting throughout and does an amazing job of practicing "show, don't tell" (this is actually true of puzzles as well). If you want to flesh out any sort of context about the world you're in, its inhabitants, your family history, or almost anything else, then you have to do it by piecing together bits of evidence, dialogue, and examination of items and your surroundings. If you don't understand the rules of a puzzle, nobody's going to explain them to you. Observe and learn. And it has what I found sorely missing in Syberia, which is the ability to examine almost anything, including items in your inventory, and get character-narrated observations. It's extremely well-scripted in terms of what Rufus will blabber about when you try things that don't work. Trying to combine items with each other, or using them in places they don't belong, will prompt often-unique responses depending on the objects involved, and most of the time they're hilarious. As an example, if you try to use a dart with a window at one point, Rufus chuckles and says "if I throw the dart from here, I can hit someone without being seen! Sadly there are no people around."
As for puzzles, they are plentiful, intelligence, varied, complex, and often difficult. When you have a game totally full of puzzles it's hard to keep every single one interesting and challenging without tipping into frustration territory, but I think Deponia largely succeeds. And it helps when the subject matter is light or humorous. It's hard to get mad at a puzzle you can't figure out when it involves trying to get a nuclear-powered espresso machine controlled by an organ working. I still ran into some annoying moments where something I'd tried 5 times before, and finally given up on, happened to be the right answer now that some situation or other was slightly different. Or like, at one point you have to try to pick something up, then get lectured about how you can't have it, and then try again to trigger an event. Silly me -- I did what I was told and didn't try a second time. It's those little moments that tend to foil me, and not puzzles themselves. I'm pretty good at putting together what I'm supposed to do and understanding the underlying mechanisms.
As for downsides, other than occasional obtuse situations like I described above, the game sometimes lacks some polish. Not in the visuals, which are great. But sometimes text boxes show up badly positioned, or if you try to combine different items too fast the game sometimes gets kind of confused and your click actions stop behaving properly, requiring you to close and re-open the inventory. In one rather bizarre instance, a certain line of dialogue would always show up in German on-screen (after being displayed properly in English for a split-second at first). The voice acting took me a while to dig, because it sounded weird at first, and sometimes the actors clearly phrase or intone sentences wrong. For example, saying "what're you ASKING me for?" when it's clearly meant to be "what're you asking ME for?"
All in all I'm really happy with the game and I'm definitely going to be getting Deponia 2 and 3. Hopefully on sale though, because they are currently $20 each.
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Finally Finished Borderlands 1..after 1 year of owning the game.. Mordecai at lvl 35..
! The destroyer final boss ..really wasn't that hard due to a rock that hid me from the laser and the alien weapon and 42 damage corrosion rifle..only died twice..I sincerely thought that Baron Flynt was a worse/harder boss due to the Boomstick
Now..back to finish Borderlands 2
<avi drawing="" credit="" to="" pirateneko<br="">My DeviantArt:http://mediafan658.deviantart.com/
My FC is 3308-4620-6155</avi>
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I playing Project Diva f2nd I loved the first game so much i had to import the second one and i have to say its much better than the first game. its worth the $80 i paid for it.
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Beat Crysis again. About to start a replay of Warhead.
Also played Sir, You Are Being Hunted for a bit.
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The Swapper was awesome. Amazing atmosphere, really cool puzzles that just get harder and harder and make you think creatively, and a thought-provoking narrative. With no bullshit in between. That is all.
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@Majin:
The Swapper was awesome. Amazing atmosphere, really cool puzzles that just get harder and harder and make you think creatively, and a thought-provoking narrative. With no bullshit in between. That is all.
Yey another believer. The only game I wrote a steam review for my friends for. Because after finishing it the game left me with this feeling that I could concisely put into words what makes it so great. Funnily the review ended up being more like a blurb(3-4 sentences) because everything is so tightly packed it felt like a disservice being overly flowery about the game when the whole experience has been so on point.
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Yey another believer. The only game I wrote a steam review for my friends for. Because after finishing it the game left me with this feeling that I could concisely put into words what makes it so great. Funnily the review ended up being more like a blurb(3-4 sentences) because everything is so tightly packed it felt like a disservice being overly flowery about the game when the whole experience has been so on point.
Well. You can see I agree. All my thoughts in this thread recently have been massive posts. And this one just… felt wrong to try that.
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Almost done with AC2 and doing a Nuzlocke run on my Black 2 copy. Hope I'll beat the Champ this time
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Monster hunter 3 ultimate, using lances on underwater is fun, no longer have problems with lagiacrus.
Rathians are still annoying to fight even though they are weaker. -
Stalker Lost Alpha leaked (and screwed a bunch of stuff up, but that's another story) and it's fantastic, even though there's still going to be some improvements. Levels are so much larger, draw distance/graphics in general have been improved quite a bit, and so has the AI. So yeah, that's what I've been playing. I'm happy at getting new Stalker content even if it is technically a remake of the first game.
Also Crysis Warhead.
Edit: Also the stuttering is almost gone compared to the other Stalker games (thank God), and I think the loading times are in general shorter.
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Just finished The Swapper. The story was interesting, and the setting looked really cool (Not everyday you see art assets for a video game sculpted from clay). The puzzle were pretty much perfect in terms of challenge as well, requiring a good amount of thought, but not leaving you staring at the computer completely stumped for extended periods.
Also I've returned to my last Skyrim playthrough. Decided to spruce it up with some graphical mods. That took awhile, swapping out different mods and observing the changes, but I think I've settled on a good assortment, so I'm ready to do more playing.
Steam Profile: Sorikai33 | 3DS Friend Code: 2981 6418 0894
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Sig art by Stjepan Sejic
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I
m pretty much the slowest gamer in the world, as I just a few days ago purchased Super Smash Bros. Brawl, now that it costs a lot less, lol. Its really awesome
Well worth the wait. -
Just got the platinum for Assassin's Creed 2 (I know, late to the game) and moved on to Tomb Raider.
I also restarted my copy of Pokémon Black 2 for a Nuzlocke challenge. Got my first badge. -
I'm gonna go play me some Skullgirls once I get home from work, along with some Saints Row 2. I've tried to get into Saints Row 3 after one of my brothers gave it to me for christmas but I just couldn't…..at all. -_-
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Finishing up Crysis Warhead. Nvidia just released a driver update improving performance in pretty much any DirectX game, so the game runs much better.
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Foolio posted a hefty write-up of it the other day, so thought I'd mention that Deponia is $1.99 on Steam this weekend. Been meaning to check this out for a while, so reckon I will.
Hang in there, Kierkegaard. -
Foolio posted a hefty write-up of it the other day, so thought I'd mention that Deponia is $1.99 on Steam this weekend. Been meaning to check this out for a while, so reckon I will.
Oh thanks for the heads up! I'll probably also dip in.
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I'm still playing my cousin's copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening. I can finish the game at any time, but I want to recruit all of the children first (I need seven more), then finish the final SpotPass paralogue I have pending, and then finally go take out the big boss. This game has been really fun, but also frustrating, since I tend to lock up for a bit when given a lot of choices (like reclassing my avatar, for example)…
I want to believe too big guy3ds code friend:0404-6254-1866
