Gaming What Are You Playing?

[Sangome]

[color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]Since Capcom has come to the grand realization that its fanbase apparently consists of easily-appeased drones that would rather play Super Mega Ultra Deluxe Kawaii Desu Fighter 9000 with Fries and a Coke* instead of greenlighting a sequel to a game series that fans have been clamoring for for a decade now, I decided to fire up [b]Megaman Legends 2[/b]. There's still several things I haven't done on this game...like beat it. But there's a few little odds and ends I still need to do, so I figure it'd be a good time killer. I might go back to the original game as well and play it on Hard mode - I've never tried it on Hard before, so that should be an experience to say the least.

*I like the popular fighting game series I'm lampooning here, btw. Just sayin'.[/font][/color] Edited July 21, 2011 by Sangome

[Magus]

I just finished [b]Halo: Reach[/b] earlier this morning. I have to say that as epic as the game is, it's a sad one as well. I didn't shed any tears or anything, but there were a lot of "wow" moments, especially when characters started biting the dust. I had a blast playing this game from start to finish, although I'm still in favor of playing as the Chief. But yes, the Halo series just have so much epicness to quinch my thirst when it comes to the campaign.

Now I fired up [b]Mass Effect[/b] again just to remind myself what's happened, especially since I've yet to really dive into ME2 (5 months and still haven't dived into the game like I want to)

And then I'm still having fun playing [b]Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition[/b]. I don't care what anyone says about Capcom, at least they're putting out games that I'd actually play. Anyway, so far, I've completed the game as Ryu, Ken, Akuma (man, Cammy was ridiculous when playing as Akuma), Ibuki, Oni, Gouken (he's terrible...), and Sakura (she's terrible against Zangief).

[Shinmaru]

I'm playing [b]Radiant Historia[/b] and am currently stuck on a boss with minions that spam self-destruct attacks, so I've got some level grinding to do ... and, of course, there's no save point in sight, so I have to grind enough to the point where I'm confident I could destroy the boss with the powers of my mind, lest I completely waste my time. Damn it, Atlus.

[Asher]

Right now, I'm almost done w/ [b]Catherine[/b] by Atlus. I'd say that there's at least 8-10 hours of gameplay and cutscenes. I thought that I wouldn't enjoy the puzzle aspect of the game at all, but it's kinda fun despite how frustrating it gets. However, I do feel like I have to force myself through with it just to get to the main plot, but it does feel good when I get past a wall that I just can't wrap my head around. The puzzle game is the only drawback that I can see turning this game off to a lot of potential customers.
Other than that, the presentation and story are fantastic. I like the morality system, but there were some instances where I felt like my answer was indeed a good (paragon) answer, but it was the opposite. There is also a neat online polling system. After a level is complete, you'll be asked a morality question and you get to see what the community put as their first answer. Most of the time, they do pick the morally "good" answer.
I would love to discuss the the story of the game further, but I don't want to spoil anything. I'll just say that the ideas and discussions that are brought up are very dark, but it's up to you to see the light through Vincent's messy situation. Edited July 27, 2011 by Asher

[CaNz]

I have gotten back into playing Oblivion thanks to Japan. (though I needed to make a good character for my xbox since my last game was on a friends.) I started from scratch and It is kinda fun going through the story again, but grinding is as tedious as always.

I decided that I was going to exploit the glitch in the game where you can level a character beyond max by using a spell that drains your attribute, then training with a master level teacher. The only skills this is useful with are athletics and acrobatics, so my character is going to be flying by the end of it. I am also using the glitch where you can level up your melee attacks by hitting the frozen people at a certain daedric shrine. This is really the best way to get it out of the way since it takes forever, and I use magic so I rarely kill people with my hands.

Finally, Apotheosis rocks.

[James]

[font="Palatino Linotype"]I had a go at [b]The Stanley Parable[/b] yesterday, which is a Half-Life 2 mod. Has anyone else tried this? It's pretty interesting/weird. I'm curious to know what different paths people took.

[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIppRUoe70E[/media][/center][/font]

[Magus]

(I fee like I've become a lurker now)

For the most part I've been playing [b]Mass Effect[/b]. I died against that stupid worm thingy in the Argos Rhos (?) place because I got to close to it. I don't feel like doing that stuff over right now so I'm done at the moment.

I still have Super Street Fighter 4: AE in my PS3. I'm thinking about trading it in since I already have the regular SSF4, so I could just buy AE for $15 from the PS store. I need to utilize that thing seeing how I haven't used it at all. This has pretty much become my all-time favorite now even though I hardly play it as much as I'd like to. I dropped playing as Guy. Don't get me wrong, I'll still use him for fun, but he's way too tricky and difficult to use, so now I'll be using Fei Long as a main, Abel and possibly Cody as secondary's. I've been watching way too many videos lol. I shouldl be putting in the practice since I'm still trying to learn how to cancel and FADC properly.

I don't know what's taking so long for my order, but I should have Batman: Arkham Asylum, Folklore, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and Crysis 2 on the way. I know I once stated that I don't care for Arkham Asylum at all, but I'm hoping the change in console will change my opinion about that since I tend to play these type of games better on a PS controller.

[Asher]

[quote name='Magus' timestamp='1313041063' post='708855']
I dropped playing as Guy. Don't get me wrong, I'll still use him for fun, but he's way too tricky and difficult to use, so now I'll be using Fei Long as a main, Abel and possibly Cody as secondary's. I've been watching way too many videos lol. I shouldl be putting in the practice since I'm still trying to learn how to cancel and FADC properly[/quote]
After dabbling around in the SSFIVAE community, Fei is S tier. I'd say if you put a good amount of time into Fei, you'll survive Ranked Matches more often. His pokes are way too good.
I get a feeling that you're getting really serious about this game! Do you think it's about time to invest in a stick? Just wondering, lol, but I do understand that they are very pricey.
And as I mentioned before, if you feel like you're still lost w/ some of the basics, pick up Ryu and you'll learn quite a lot. Try starting w/ Ryu's basic SRK FADC into Metsu Hadouken.
Then when you get that down, you could learn FADC into mixups like fireball FADC into throw or low roundhouse. That's what I'm trying to get down.

Right now, I feel like I'm progressing w/ Ryu. I almost made it to 1000PP, but then I had a really bad losing streak which brought me back to around 550PP.
My Ryu is close to Grade B (3000+ BP), but that means nothing if I can't prove my own worth w/ player points.

[Magus]

While I don't think I'll break into the fighting game community like that, heck I doubt if I'll ever be as competitive as I once was back in the 90's with SFA2, and I doubt I'll be serious enough to jump into the tournaments and whatnot, however, I'll pretty much play casually, but I still want to be good enough to be considered decent.

As for the stick, I do own one already, if anything, it's the time committing to learning how to use it (Again... I haven't used a stick since the arcades died out back in the 90's). I was never good/great at using a stick to begin with. Infact, using this stick is taking me out of my element, but right now, if I use a regular controller using the back buttons, it just feels awkward. Trying to combo with R1/R2 is a nuisance.

[Asher]

I feel the same way. I want to get good, but to the point where my skills are respectable. I wouldn't mind playing in a tournament setting once to see if my experience w/ the game has any meaning, but I wished I had the time.

Is it a Madcatz TE stick? They have these fightpads out that have button configurations similar to stick, but it keeps the D-Pad. The only downside is a handful of fightpads that I saw online are of questionable quality. The Hori fightpad coming out in August looks decent. http://amzn.to/p5SX5i

Hope this helps! Edited August 12, 2011 by Asher

[Big Bob]

As of right now for the [b][i]PS3[/i][/b], I've been playing [b]NCAA 12[/b] a lot and just recently got back into [b]Call of Duty: Black Ops[/b]. I grabbed all of the new map packs off of my buddy and have been testing all of them out.

For the [b][i]360[/i][/b], I've been playing [b]Gears of War 2[/b] and [b]Battlefield 2[/b], but I just went and picked up [b]Halo: Reach[/b] and [b]Red Dead Redemption[/b] because a bunch of my buddies have it and I figured it would be fun to play with them,

[CaNz]

[quote name='Big Bob' timestamp='1313183107' post='708883']
but I just went and picked up [b]Halo: Reach[/b]
[/quote]

You should join up with my group and preform fantastic feats on the Halo Reach battlefield.

I started playing a bunch of [b]Summon Night: Swordcraft Story[/b] (both 1 and 2) because I need a good laugh once and a while.

I have also plugged in [b]Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounter in Space[/b] because I have been watching so much Zeta Gundam. Playing this game just makes me fall in love with Zeon over and over. The leaders may have been jerks, but the people who followed them were so freaking cool that I think I would be okay with a principality.

[Magus]

[quote name='Asher' timestamp='1313165012' post='708875']
I feel the same way. I want to get good, but to the point where my skills are respectable. I wouldn't mind playing in a tournament setting once to see if my experience w/ the game has any meaning, but I wished I had the time.

Is it a Madcatz TE stick? They have these fightpads out that have button configurations similar to stick, but it keeps the D-Pad. The only downside is a handful of fightpads that I saw online are of questionable quality. The Hori fightpad coming out in August looks decent. http://amzn.to/p5SX5i

Hope this helps!
[/quote]

Yep, it's a TE stick. I think it's the first TE stick that was made when SF4 was released. That Hori fightpad looks like it's on the uncomfortable side.

[Sangome]

[color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]I rented [b]Marvel vs Capcom 3[/b] again and I feel horrible for it because of Capcom's antics lately, even though I'm largely over it by now. But it's still a very fun game...which makes me unsure of how to feel. >_>;

If they do a good job with Phoenix in Ultimate, I might forgive them. Might.

I've also been playing a ton of [b]Super Mario RPG[/b] lately. I've had it on the VC for a long time, got stuck on Moleville, and just sort of stopped. Now I managed to break through that tedium and am now at Barrel Volcano, I think just before the boss.[/font][/color] Edited August 15, 2011 by Sangome

[Big Bob]

[quote name='CaNz' timestamp='1313400814' post='708921']
You should join up with my group and preform fantastic feats on the Halo Reach battlefield.
[/quote]

Well, go ahead and add me on Live. Keep in mind, I'm iffy when it comes to shooters. Some of them take me a bit to get use to so I don't want to hold you guys back.

[Magus]

I just finished [b]Batman: Arkham Asylum[/b] for the ps3, and while I feel that I can play these type of games better with a sony controller, my opinion still haven't changed. The game is good, but not that great. Perhaps I'm not doing something right, but I was hoping that everything I upgraded would carry over to a new game +, but it turns out that it doesn't. I'm not a completionist at all so all this stuff dealing with the leaderboards and challenges don't really do much for me. Honestly, I feel like I've wasted $24 (Game of the Year edition) for nothing.

One thing it did accomplish, was that it made me feel better when beatin up the prisoners. I've been pretty steamed almost all month and the game did cool me off a bit.

This is the 2nd game I've actually beaten since landing a job (out of 20+ I think). I'll probably try to tackle Metal Gear Solid 4 next.

[Morbo]

Been replaying Breath of Fire 3 for PS, i only recently found out my PS3 could play PS games... OMG I love this game, I just can't name the exact reasons why

[Sangome]

[color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]Welp, I beat [b]Super Mario RPG[/b] the other day, finally. Great, great game. I miss it. ;~;

I am now playing [b].hack//GU Redemption[/b], since I was stuck on an early boss for forever, and I really desperately need to finish this trilogy. I forgot how pretty, fun, and addicting this series can be. >_>

I think I might also pick up [b]Final Fantasy IX[/b] soon, too. I've had the game for years and have barely touched it. ANNNND at some point I'll resume LttP and Super Metroid before Des kills me. *shot*[/font][/color]

[CaNz]

I just got a super sweet flagpole for my house in Animal Crossing: City Folk. I have a lot of work to do in my museum, (especially the art section thanks to a certain art forging pro) and I want to get that perfect town rating so that I can get the golden watering can. I am also trying to get a Golden Axe, but I will probably be a platinum member at Tom Nooks store before I get it. I do really enjoy talking with Serena.

[James]

[font="Palatino Linotype"]I just bought [b]Deus Ex: Human Revolution[/b] for Xbox 360 last night. I managed to play it for a couple of hours or so before bed.

I have not yet come across the famous (or infamous?) boss fights that so many reviews have mentioned, but from what I've played so far, I'm definitely enjoying the overall experience.

There's nothing particularly innovative about the plot, but I think the key here is that the developers poured a [i]ton[/i] of detail into everything. You can literally go through an office building and read everyone's emails and actually see all the responses and such. You can even move between different PCs and see threads where people have been talking about the same subject (or about each other) from different perspectives. It's just incredibly detailed and I find that very impressive.

[spoiler]There's even one of those Nigerian spam emails, to boot![/spoiler]

Having not played the original Deus Ex, I'm not in a position to comment on the similarities or improvements, but Human Revolution definitely benefits from the mixture of RPG and FPS elements. And this is probably the first game (other than perhaps Mass Effect 2) where I actually find the hacking [i]fun[/i]. Human Revolution goes a lot further than Mass Effect 2 though - hacking is really an art from in and of itself.

I am also quite enjoying the conversation options. They are a little bit more detailed and dynamic than many of the reviews suggest, although they don't feel as fluid as Mass Effect 2. It's hard to compare though, because the emphasis in Human Revolution's conversation seems to be quite different. That is, there's a very definite "game" involved with just the conversations themselves. You can almost "lose" the game, but then recover at the last minute by carefully examining the reactions of the other character. It seems to work pretty well so far.

A few reviews criticised the character models as being a bit outdated - to some extent, I think this is true. The character models are probably somewhere around the same quality as what you'd see in Half-Life 2, maybe (and this is not a bad thing, it's just an observation). I don't see a huge issue with this, because the character models are certainly not [i]bad[/i]. I'm a bit surprised at the emphasis placed on them by some publications.

But the overall graphics are absolutely beautiful, especially because of the gorgeous art style. Everything is bathed in golden light, with a very strong colour palette to complement this. Eidos Montreal has made beautiful use of transparencies and multi-layered surfaces throughout, as well - it's overwhelming, but subtle at the same time. I really love the style.

And I'm also very much enjoying the soundtrack, so far. It has a really brilliant mix of subtlety and over-powering emotion - most importantly, I think the music is very appropriate for the relevant circumstances you find yourself in.

There's a lot more to say, but I might wait until I've played some more. I'm very keen to see how terrible these boss battles really are![/font]

[Ellerby]

[quote name='Sangome' timestamp='1314303342' post='709105']
[color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]Welp, I beat [b]Super Mario RPG[/b] the other day, finally. Great, great game. I miss it. ;~;[/color][/font]
[/quote]
[color="#696969"][font="Tahoma"]Ohh grats! My friends keeps bugging me to play through that, heh.

I'm currently playing the crap out of [b]Team Fortress 2[/b] because it's now [b]free[/b]. In about 2 weeks I put more hours into TF2 than it took me to beat Mass Efffect 2, which I think is pretty awesome considering how huge ME2 is in comparison. [b]Replay value[/b] [size="4"]FTW[/size].

Seriously, I just love being a Spy. I've put 8 hours into Spy alone (best is 15 points in one round, 4 backstabs in one life). I'm not the greatest at it but I'm definitely improving. I find spy to the most rewarding class as it's arguably the most difficult. You can't just run into a group of enemies clicking down a single button and rake in the kills *cough*[size="1"]pyro[/size]*cough.* You have to constantly be aware of your surroundings and be outsmarting your enemy (especially those pesky engineers). There's[i] nothing[/i] more satisfying than backstabbing an engineer and sapping his turret before it gets a chance to turn and shoot you.

And it's nice to see Deus Ex is living up to all the hype. Attention to detail is one thing I love in my games so I may have to try it out (it's the little things that add up, y'know?). [/font][/color]

[RedJ]

[color="#FF0000"]I keep trying to finish [b]Oblivion[/b] before Skyrim comes out, but every time I turn my computer on, I end up playing [b]Fallout[/b]. Playing that game with an intelligence of 1 isn't easy, by the way.

Also, I picked up [b]The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening[/b] today. I played it and died within two minutes of starting. I'll get to that sword eventually.[/color]

[Shinmaru]

Been playing [b]Mass Effect[/b] for a while and slowly making progress through it (I have the time to play it only a couple of days a week). Right now I've rescued Liara and kicked the Thorian's ass on Feros. I'd probably be a lot further along if I just concentrated on the main story, but I've been sidequesting like crazy along the way, haha. Gotta have that experience to beef up those biotic powers, man! Also want as many paragon points as possible to unlock those final Charm slots ... I get the feeling I'll need them ...

[Magus]

I was playing a couple of rounds of [b]Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition[/b] against my brother-in-law (online O_O) yesterday, and for the most part, I got whipped, but I did better than I thought I would. I tried using my arcade stick but man, it's hard to adjust. Then I switched over to the pad and while I did better, I still had a hard time doing some of the moves because of button placements. I think I'm going to buy one of those fighting pads with the 3 buttons lined up next to each other. I tried Ryu but to my surprise I found him to be very difficult to use because, well, I haven't been practicing like I should've, but even then, trying to Shoryuken > FADC > Ultra was just not clicking with me, which makes me amazed at my brother-in-law that he was doing all those combo's on pad. I mean, me just even attempting some of that stuff had my thumb in pain, and he was doing those combo's like it was nothing. Anyway, I played a lot better with Guy, Cody and Juri. I couldn't do any Ultra's (couldn't think of them off the top of my head), but my performance was better than playing as Ryu. I couldn't do Guy's target combo because the PS3 controller is crazy difficult to try do any combo with.

Anyway, I also got back into playing [b]Metal Gear Solid 4[/b] and [b]Assassin's Creed 2[/b], both of which I've never finished, let alone, got very far. I'm thinking about getting the MGS collection just because it's MGS and I'd like to play all of them on the PS3, but at the same time I'm not sure if I want to put myself through the torture of playing MGS2 again. I mean I like MGS 2 but there are certain areas that I just can't stand and I actually played them on normal and to find out that I get nothing but a camera for my effort put made me feel discouraged. At least in MGS3 I know I can get a lot more. And then I want to play Peacewalker.

I'm thinking about buying the first Assassin's Creed just to see how it all started even though I had it once before but I traded it in because I didn't like it. And then transitioning from AC2 back to AC1 might be a pain because the gameplay in AC is just so much better than the 1st, but still I'm debating on whether I'd like to play it. Edited September 29, 2011 by Magus

[Sangome]

[color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]First, a couple of restarts:

I restarted [b]Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World[/b] with the intent of finishing it all the way through. It's...not...a very good game. But I figured I'd at least have a right to criticize it later? Right now I'm on chapter 2, though I've not played it for a few days.

Also restarted was [b]Twilight Princess[/b]. I got stuck a long time ago and decided to just start over. I beat the consarned forest temple last night, and am about to go tackle that here again shortly.

Now then, today I downloaded [b]Super Smash Bros[/b], [b]Chrono Trigger[/b], and [b]Mario 3[/b] from the VC. SSB and Mario 3 I had not played in a long time, and I never actually played CT outside of a few minutes, so I'm looking forward to it.[/font][/color]