What games are you playing now?

[Joshua]

I'm multi-tasking with 3 different handheld systems, so 3 different playthroughs at the moment:

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on my Gameboy Advance SP: I received a copy of LoZ: A Link Between Worlds for Xmas, but decided I wanted to revisit the original game before playing. After digging through approximately 20 boxes in my garage, I was able to piece together my GBA SP, a LoZ: A Link to the Past cartridge (oddly I found 2 cartridges), and an AC adapter. I am currently on my 2nd of 7 Dark World dungeons.

Final Fantasy V on my iPhone 5s: Like everyone else, I remember seeing that screenshot of King Tycoon getting on Hiryu and asking "What have they done?!" but after actually playing the game for a good while 1) I don't notice it any more and 2) it's really not all that bad. This is why I will not complain about Final Fantasy VI's upcoming refresh. Anyhow, I am 3 shattered crystals into the game so far...

Guacamelee! on PS Vita: I love the Metroidvania/pathfinding genre, but the difficulty curves in this game are brutal. I haven't touched it in 3 days and am actually feel I will only keep playing to try to beat the main story.

 

[Fin]

Trying to get 100% for at least 2 characters in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2. I played the first game last month and set it down after 100%ing a single character (took roughly 40 hours thanks to unforgiving, arcane game mechanics), but the 2nd game greatly improves upon its shortcomings so I should be able to go through it faster.

I'm trying to play all 7 games I have in order. I think it's gonna take a while.

 

[kamikki]

Digimon World Dawn: And boy, do I regret badmouthing it after only having played World DS. A much bigger improvement then I though it would be.

 

[Fin]

I have Dusk! And the game that came after it, Lost Evolution (which I actually beat). The DS Story/World games are too grindy for me to really enjoy since the encounter rate is so high and the combat so slow (plus all the maps look the same), but they are weirdly addicting despite all that.

Digimon World Reigitize Decode is as excellent game though and Adventure PSP was more fun than expected. Looking forward to Cyber Sleuth... preordering that ASAP

 

[kamikki]

I have Dusk! And the game that came after it, Lost Evolution (which I actually beat). The DS Story/World games are too grindy for me to really enjoy since the encounter rate is so high and the combat so slow (plus all the maps look the same), but they are weirdly addicting despite all that.

Digimon World Reigitize Decode is as excellent game though and Adventure PSP was more fun than expected. Looking forward to Cyber Sleuth... preordering that ASAP

I'm still working on that Japanese, hate playing if I don't understand fully. I'll come around to play them eventually.

 

[APZonerunner]

Papers, Please!

Glory to Arstotzka!

Video games. They're great aren't they? You can be a race car driver competing against half a dozen other drivers on a track, while battling against rain and the slippery tarmac. You can be a criminal, about to perform a deftly heist. You can be a teenage swordsman embarking on a death-defying quest to slay a monster that is the source of a plague on your village. You might be a heroic, flag-waving American soldier tasked with murdering swathes of foreign people with an assault rifle. You can even be playing an eroge game with one hand.

But up until now I don't think we've ever been an immigration official working for a totalitarian Soviet Russia-like republic examining passports and entry visas until this game came along. And thanks to Steam, I was able to pick this up and unexpectedly come across what may be one of my favourite games this generation. A game that absolutely should not be entertaining, let alone as engrossing as I am finding it to be.

I'm up against the clock in this game. Time is precious, and the hours of the day are tragically finite. I have a family and extended family (yo uncle, you're a moocher!) to look after, because they're clearly incapable of supporting themselves otherwise. They need food. They need heating. They will eventually need medicine. They will also need to stay sheltered and housed, and I have to be the person picking up the rent bills (rent bills that I have to pay daily for some reason). So I do have to perform well enough to sustain my family, and it depends on how many people I let in to the glorious country of Arstotzka.

So what's the problem, you ask? Just let as many people as you can regardless of whether they're eligible or have the right papers? Well, you forget that I'm still meant to be doing my job. I don't want officials to constantly reprimand me that I end up out of the job - or in front of a firing squad. Every morning from 6am, I enter my booth and call upon the first lucky people to show me their papers. What conceptually sounds like an incredibly basic, brainless and monotonous task is quickly spiced up when I have to actively search for discrepancies as quickly as I can. Does the prospective immigrant or visitor come from a "real" region or country? Do photos match? Are they potentially lying about length of stay? Is this person a wanted criminal? There's also this recurring character who waltzes in multiples times with fake passports. Then there are the occasional terrorists who break from the line to hurl bombs at security. They're scripted, but they can be very welcome to break up the routine now and then.

What else does this game unexpectedly succeed in doing? Despite its basic appearance, this little indie gem does a very effective job in recreating the pressure and psyche of being a border official, with multiple things to actively look out for, prevent and strive for. Hard decisions have to be made; an elderly woman may plead for me to allow her access into the country to see her son, but her papers are insubstantial. I can take pity on the poor soul and comply with her wishes and face the ire of my superiors, or I can silence her once and for all by stamping a bold red DENIED on the paper, thereby inviting her amidst the grief to curse my name.

Plus, in the event that I ever want to make a career out of checking people's passports, this can be listed as "work experience"!

Ugh, this game is magnificent, isn't it? It really is gut wrenching later on.

 

[Stealth]

Zelda again

 

[Azuardo]

Mass Effect 3 - The final part of my first FemShep run. Never realised how damn awesome FemShep was till now. Making her Renegade makes her that much more badass.

Trying to get back into Gravity Rush in my spare time, too. Only played the very beginning.

And then I've just been on smaller random games I got passed on to me: AquaPazza (some PSN anime fighting game), Wakedas (3DS puzzle game kinda like a one-sided Rubik's Cube) and Reel Fishing Paradise 3D (yeah).

My full FemShep Mass Effect run has been taking up much of the past month or so.

 

[Tsukiyomi]

Been a while since my last listing. Now i'm playing:

DmC Devil May Cry(thanks to plus)
Rainbow Moon on the Vita, cute old school RPG/strategy hybrid game
Minecraft PS3 version, though I slowed down so i'm not tired by the next update rolls out.

 

[Stealth]

Been a while since my last listing. Now i'm playing:

DmC Devil May Cry(thanks to plus)
Rainbow Moon on the Vita, cute old school RPG/strategy hybrid game
Minecraft PS3 version, though I slowed down so i'm not tired by the next update rolls out.

I tried to get into Rainbow moon.

 

[Squirrel Emperor]

Xenoblade Chronicles.

My personal highlight so far. Gives me an old school JRPG vibe.

Only 7 hours in so far. Just got Sharla.

 

[7z7]

Currently have 2 games that I am busy playing on xbox 360

- Eternal Sonata which I am just starting out

- The lost odyssey ( what a mission it was to find this game but I finally got this badboy and it has most definitely been worth the effort ) This is a must play for any rpg fan out there.

 

[Azuardo]

Trine 2 on PS4. Not played this before. Looks lovely.

Soul Calibur 2 HD Online on PS3. Not as good as it should have been. Still really enjoying the Weapon Master story mode, but god, the graphical clipping is hard to look past, and the netcode seems poor.

 

[7z7]

Xenoblade Chronicles.

My personal highlight so far. Gives me an old school JRPG vibe.

Only 7 hours in so far. Just got Sharla.

This looks insane!!

 

[Fleur]

Aww man, I remember late in the game when a new section of Tephra Cave opens up in Xenoblade and my unprepared party got their arses handed to them by a horde of LV-80-90 ordinary bat creatures. Even my strongest character (Naked Dunban) found himself screaming for his life at the terrifying mercy of a couple of bats. =(

Someone gave me the Steam key for the first episode of this:

Oops, sorry. That's an actual good game. I meant this:

It is supposedly the worst game of the year so far, and the only game I know of that is made by a Saudi Arabian developer. As you can probably tell, it might have taken a few inspirations from Uncharted. I'm not throwing accusations around, but I'm just sayin'.

I've made it through the opening section and I'm somewhere in the first temple/tomb/place-thingy. Aside from the sluggish performance on my machine, what entranced me at first was the quality of the animation. The early conversation between Faris and his sister outside the tomb palace he is about to raid is an early indication of the ragdoll-like qualities of the character models and animation. Limb movement is so stiff that even slow-moving bipedal robots exhibit more life than they do, coupled with haunting, lifeless plasticine faces. I was almost expecting a character's head to lifelessly rotate a full 360 degrees at one point.

The one-against-one "brawls" are dreadful. I attempt to kick or punch, and I inexplicably miss for no reason (on the screen, Faris's foot just goes THROUGH my opponent when it's a miss, which is most of the time), dragging these moments out into slow, laborious self-torture. Faris has the speed of an octogenarian when he walks and shimmies across ledges for some reason. Gunplay is frightening, especially when my bullets don't appear to actually lay impact on my target despite the reticule distinctly turning red. It's like I have to aim at a particular pixel to actually injure my targets for all I know.

And for a non-game reason that is completely beyond my rational ability to fathom, one crucial piece of equipment to help you solve temple puzzles is an RC car in Faris's backpack that you can actually manually drive. Because when you compile a list of things to bring when you raid tombs and temples, you're going to put RC cars pretty high on the list in the off chance that there is a ridiculously easy puzzle that just so happens would need one. Do you bring a torch/flashlight? No you do not. You put up with one of the temple's handily-placed flame torches. No, you pack an RC car instead.

This developer has managed to bring in Troy Baker as a voice actor, to my utter shock. I thought this was only a meaningless, no-name Saudi studio unbeknownst to anyone in the west. How did they manage to secure Troy Baker as a voice actor when the guy's essentially on the same pedestal as Nolan North these days? Heck, I had to make sure that the main protagonist of the game isn't actually Nolan North!

Anyway so far, it's hilarious. I especially love in takedown animations of Faris knocking dudes out how he manages to accomplish that with what looks to me like barely any physical contact. One instance, he delivers a "punch" that looks as dangerous as a five year old attempting to high-five you to a burly dude and he collapses unconscious. I love this game.

 

[yeah_93]

Beat the Last of Us recently. It deserves the praise.

 

[APZonerunner]

Thanks to a Nintendo UK web store screw up, I managed to nab copies of both Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D & Mario & Luigi: Dream Team for 3DS for £7 each, so I've just started on both those. Can't believe I missed DKCR on the Wii; it's scratching the nostalgia itch big-time.

Aww man, I remember late in the game when a new section of Tephra Cave opens up in Xenoblade and my unprepared party got their arses handed to them by a horde of LV-80-90 ordinary bat creatures. Even my strongest character (Naked Dunban) found himself screaming for his life at the terrifying mercy of a couple of bats. =(

Someone gave me the Steam key for the first episode of this:

Oops, sorry. That's an actual good game. I meant this:

It is supposedly the worst game of the year so far, and the only game I know of that is made by a Saudi Arabian developer. As you can probably tell, it might have taken a few inspirations from Uncharted. I'm not throwing accusations around, but I'm just sayin'.

I've made it through the opening section and I'm somewhere in the first temple/tomb/place-thingy. Aside from the sluggish performance on my machine, what entranced me at first was the quality of the animation. The early conversation between Faris and his sister outside the tomb palace he is about to raid is an early indication of the ragdoll-like qualities of the character models and animation. Limb movement is so stiff that even slow-moving bipedal robots exhibit more life than they do, coupled with haunting, lifeless plasticine faces. I was almost expecting a character's head to lifelessly rotate a full 360 degrees at one point.

The one-against-one "brawls" are dreadful. I attempt to kick or punch, and I inexplicably miss for no reason (on the screen, Faris's foot just goes THROUGH my opponent when it's a miss, which is most of the time), dragging these moments out into slow, laborious self-torture. Faris has the speed of an octogenarian when he walks and shimmies across ledges for some reason. Gunplay is frightening, especially when my bullets don't appear to actually lay impact on my target despite the reticule distinctly turning red. It's like I have to aim at a particular pixel to actually injure my targets for all I know.

And for a non-game reason that is completely beyond my rational ability to fathom, one crucial piece of equipment to help you solve temple puzzles is an RC car in Faris's backpack that you can actually manually drive. Because when you compile a list of things to bring when you raid tombs and temples, you're going to put RC cars pretty high on the list in the off chance that there is a ridiculously easy puzzle that just so happens would need one. Do you bring a torch/flashlight? No you do not. You put up with one of the temple's handily-placed flame torches. No, you pack an RC car instead.

This developer has managed to bring in Troy Baker as a voice actor, to my utter shock. I thought this was only a meaningless, no-name Saudi studio unbeknownst to anyone in the west. How did they manage to secure Troy Baker as a voice actor when the guy's essentially on the same pedestal as Nolan North these days? Heck, I had to make sure that the main protagonist of the game isn't actually Nolan North!

Anyway so far, it's hilarious. I especially love in takedown animations of Faris knocking dudes out how he manages to accomplish that with what looks to me like barely any physical contact. One instance, he delivers a "punch" that looks as dangerous as a five year old attempting to high-five you to a burly dude and he collapses unconscious. I love this game.

Welp. I now need to play this. I have a bit of a thing for shitty games.

 

[gaiages]

I haven't updated in a while because I'm lazy. So:

My World, My Way - It's... an interesting RPG. A little on the easy side and can grow tedious after extended play times.

Etrian Odyssey IV - Wanting something a little more challenging, I started this up again (I'm in the 3rd Land). Hard, but I made a balanced team so they don't get wrecked... as long as the enemy doesn't use attack all skills...

Bravely Default Demo - I finally started StreetPassing people (huzzah!), so I feel with the new equipment I can beat the extra boss and reap the crappy rewards Also village progress yay

Drakengard - SO BLAND. Also all the controversial stuff got cut out the NA version too so the story doesn't even make sense sometimes. They left in the chapters where I kill kids though for what that's worth, and some of the implications:

Spoiler

Like all the times where everyone's like "Caim, you know your sister likes you. Like, LIKE likes you. Wait what why does that freak you out you're just siblings geez"

 

[Squirrel Emperor]

Thanks to a Nintendo UK web store screw up, I managed to nab copies of both Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D & Mario & Luigi: Dream Team for 3DS for £7 each, so I've just started on both those. Can't believe I missed DKCR on the Wii; it's scratching the nostalgia itch big-time.

I waited 14 years for another true DKC game. DKC3 came out in 96.

It's a big reason why I'm happy DKC:TF is happening. Don't have to wait that long again.

It's a fantastic game and one of the best platformers in a long time.

Not a fan of the Tiki Tak Tribe however. Kremlings are better.

 

[yeah_93]

PS+ is godly, just got Bioshock Infinite, DMC, and Borderlands 2 for free. I am currently playing Bioshock.