What video games are you guys playing nowadays?

I hate that feeling; part of me wants to start new games I haven't played before, but then part of me also wants to finish up games I've started and not completed. At the same time though, sometimes I just don't want to revisit those games for one reason or another.

I used to have that feeling of guilt whenever I didn't finish games. But I'm kinda over that. Mostly because the games I really enjoy, I do finish in one go, and the other ones I'll return to only if I feel inclined to. Usually if I stop playing a game it's because it's just not that good. And what with me getting into this generation so late, I've got a massive backlog of actually awesome games to finish.

Yeah I purged a lot of games recently for that very reason

My backlog is so huge I'm kind of over it.

I've got games I'm still trying to trudge through. Assassin's Creed Revelations for one.

Bioshock was just so good and I didn't want any spoilers so I spent a lot of time on that game and beat it. Amazing!

I beat Duke Nukem Forever's The Doctor Who Cloned Me DLC. I enjoyed this more than the main game. It's still not great, but it had a better sense of pacing, and was more fun to play. The writing also seemed (slightly) better.

Beat Yoshi's Story for the first time. Conclusion: I don't think I like it. Even without comparing it to Yoshi's Island (seriously my #1 favorite game, no bullshit or hyperbole there), it's very underwhelming and just kind of...weird in a not very interesting way. N64 sidescrollers are all weird for some reason, but I'll take Mischief Makers and Goemon'e Great Adventure over YS any day.

Suppose I'll play it again sometime and select a different path, just to see more of the game and give it a fairer chance. Hoping the 3DS and Wii U games are good, but Yoshi's Island DS was pretty underwhelming as well, so I dunno. I still haven't been able to beat it, and I've had it since release.

I love Yoshi's Story, though it is a very unconventional platformer. To this day I have yet to unlock all of the levels in it; I should go back and do that sometime. I think there's some requirement, like getting all special items or getting higher than a certain score threshold, in order to be able to select certain levels in later worlds. I never was able to unlock some of the later levels as a kid.

I borrowed Yoshi's Story from a friend when I was in like middle school and beat it. I remember enjoying it but haven't played it since then. Have yet to play Yoshi's Island, though.

So... was paying some ActRaiser and decided to switch to other games. Popped in Super Empire Strikes Back. I've that game since I was a kid and I still can't beat the first fucking level. Impossible. And then... some Gradius III. Good shit right thar.

This fan art is so damn bizarre and ugly that I actually like it. Bonus points for the nipples and exploding Psy-Crow head.

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That fan-art is cool.

I've never played a Super Star Wars game, although I have a complete copy of the first one which I got a year or two ago. I should get around to playing it sometime.

Loxx, you should get Yoshi's Island. It's a really great, charming game.

I preordered Far Cry 3 - Blood Dragon on Steam just now. I held off on preordering it since I wanted to try the first Far Cry, which I've had on GOG for forever, so I could see if Far Cry's basic gameplay appeals to me... which it does. Far Cry is pretty fun, although I wish stealth wasn't ridiculously difficult. I gave up on stealth pretty early on, for the most part, and have decided to just treat the game as a normal shooter in a sandbox world. I'm on a giant ship at the moment, shooting guys and stuff. It's neat, and I can see myself finishing this, so I decided to preorder Blood Dragon in order to obtain the game's soundtrack when it comes out

Realized I didn't mention I'd finished Tomb Raider.

I was really surprised with this. I got it after it was on the PSN sale, but had semi-low expectations. I'd heard that the writing and Lara's whole character arc was good, and I was really interested in that. What I wasn't expecting was the kickass pacing, non-linearity of the levels and just overall awesome gameplay.

The combat was tight as hell, the stealth was good, the dynamic no-button-press cover system didn't fail me a single time (!), the upgrade/salvage system was tight. The amount of scavenger-items in each area was great. The way each "area" was multi-linear, while the path itself was linear made for great pacing. The Metroidvania-style upgrades worked wonderfully (new items unlocking new places), and the climbing/traversal was pretty darn solid. Especially the rock-climbing which was a bit more interactive than Uncharted (the timing when jumping and re-attaching).

The only real flaws are the ludo-narrative dissonance (god I love that phrase), in which the Lara of cut-scenes is much less of a killing machine than in the actual gameplay, as well as some wonky controls in the scramble-counter mechanic (and some lame ass supernatural story-elements). Overall though, it's one of the more solid blockbuster games I've played in a long time. It's challenging at times, but you'll never get stuck, it's a nice easy thrill ride. Definitely up there with Uncharted. I would love to see a crossover between those two.

too bad you may never see another one unless Square Enix sells the ip. 3.4 million in the first month is a failure to them.

Ugh... seriously, how the fuck can anyone take Zelda seriously? I just popped in Twilight Princess again (because my Wii was fucked and couldn't read discs... it took me DAYS for the god damn thing to work and get to the first temple). I just took 30 minutes to try and catch a fucking fish for the stupid ass cat and couldn't. Fuck this game. And fuck this series. Zelda is fucking terrible. Always has been, always will.

Zelda is cool, but Twilight Princess gets off to a bad start with that fishing bullshit. I had to look online to figure out how the fishing works, because the game doesn't a fucking terrible job of explaining it.

That narrative dissonance you describe in Tomb Raider, Shrike... I've noticed that in other games as well. I haven't played Tomb Raider yet, but it's particularly bothered me in games such as Dead Rising 2, where

Spoiler:

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Zelda really is a shit series. Link To the Past was cool, OoT and Winwaker are alright I guess. I've said it before, but I really never understand the hype behind any nintendo first party game. IMO mario, super smash, donkey kong, and whatever else I forgot to mention is also pretty meh. Kirby and Fire Emblem have some good games at least

I initially wrote out a huge post with one-line thoughts on most Nintendo games, but I think it would be simpler to say that while I love a lot of their games, I don't think Nintendo is the be-all end-all of gaming. They also have their share of games that I'm not a big fan of, such as The Wind Waker, and the Metroid series in general. On the other hand, I love almost every Mario game (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a masterpiece), and the Mario series gave us Princess Peach Nintendo is also responsible for other super-cool games like the DKC trilogy and EarthBound.

Ancient Rune wrote:

too bad you may never see another one unless Square Enix sells the ip. 3.4 million in the first month is a failure to them.

Their expectations for all their western titles were ridiculous. I just don't get how a multi million seller gets to be a disappointment. They have to have had bloated as fuck budgets if a game like that doesn't make ends meet.

Damnit Square needs to get their shit together.

Sold off most of my remaining PS2 games, my remaining Gamecube games, and several PS3 and 360 JRPGs. Now my to-play queue is slightly less pathetic

I got rid of Record of Agarest War Zero after realizing that there is no way I'm going to be able to get through two of those games. Ugh

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this game is addicting as fuck, way better than frog fractions

Square Enix is a really silly company. If they decide not to pursue sequels to Tomb Raider/etc. because they didn't meet their unrealistic expectations, then fuck them. They really need to have a better understanding of how the industry works.

They think its OMG LIGHTNINGS VAGINA IAPS IPHONE BROWSER GAMES MORE LIGHTNINGS VAGINA PORTS MORE PORTS EVEN MORE LIGHTNINGS VAGINA

Jesus Jeff, how long did Agarest War take you? It's shaping up to be looooooooooooong

jthefrank wrote:

Jesus Jeff, how long did Agarest War take you? It's shaping up to be looooooooooooong

I don't remember any quantitative values, since it has been well over 2 years since I played it, but I didn't remember it being unnecessarily long. However, it definitely wasn't short either.