What game are you currently playing?

[PC the Hedgehog]

Finally finished Beach Mode in Shantae: Half Genie Hero. Easily the most rage-inducing Shantae-related thing I've ever played. And I've played the entirety of the first game.

Seeing as how we're probably getting close to a new Pokemon game reveal, I've determined that I need to get around to playing Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. After that...ugh, so many other games to play. Never had a backlog this big before.

[Biggs]

Being a bit of a consumerist moron and going against what I previously said I gave in and bought Tropical Freeze. Currently on World 4. As hollow as I feel inside from the initial purchase... god fucking damn this is a brilliant game and I begrudgingly hope it sells really well. Obviously this is how they're getting away with selling it at full price since it's the only way to play it for the many folk who missed out the first time. Market forces are the work of the devil

[Polkadi~☆]

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES

It may be old and harder to get into when you've played the later Persona games, but Persona 3 is still an incredibly good game. Good characters, great music, and the gameplay is quite entertaining.

...Except for anything involving Tartarus. Uuuuugggghhhhh, the place is a damn slog to play through.

[Danj86]

I recently got the Platinum Trophy for Shadow of the Colossus. I probably wont play the game again until it's remade for the third time on the PS5. It's pretty amazing to see the comparison screenshots though. Having played the original on the PS2, I can't really register the graphical difference until they are put together.

Now playing through Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Huh? So the games I've been playing recently, aren't even new? Neptunia VIIR comes out tomorrow, I plan to get that and it ain't a brand new title either...

Anyway, back to DK. I kinda wish you could choose to play through the levels as Diddy, Cranky or Dixie on their own normally. I also find Funky to be a fun addition. I'm still discovering things I didn't think he's be able to do, like stomp on those pesky sharks. I'm usually avoiding them when I accidentally landed on one as Funky. It's a pity they didn't change the intro CG of the story to include him though...

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Trying to play Breath of the Wild for the third time now. The other two times, I got pretty uninterested and ended up ultimately putting it down for something else. I've gotten farther than I have the other times, actually activating a good few towers, hitting some shrines, and making it up to Zora's Domain this time so hopefully I can finish it.

2 hours ago, DanJ86 said:

Anyway, back to DK. I kinda wish you could choose to play through the levels as Diddy, Cranky or Dixie on their own normally. I also find Funky to be a fun addition. I'm still discovering things I didn't think he's be able to do, like stomp on those pesky sharks. I'm usually avoiding them when I accidentally landed on one as Funky. It's a pity they didn't change the intro CG of the story to include him though...

You can, it's time attack or another hard mode but you can play as the Kongs separately (granted, Dixie, Diddy and Cranky get one heart)

[Lamperouge]

I've been alternating between Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Bayonetta 2 for the Switch. Both are extremely fun games that I'm happy to finally have the opportunity to play. 

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

Finished all of my Switch games barring Mania. (Completed a Sonic & Tails playthrough without the Emeralds and played a bit of Knuckles, but decided to wait until Plus is released to finish the rest. I am VERY MUCH looking forward to disabling Titanic Monarch's time limit.) Here's a random thought on each:

Mario + Rabbids - WHUR MAH DK DLC NEWZ?!

Pokken DX - Playing this again reminded me of how much THE WORST Nia is.

Odyssey - Jump rope thing was actually surprisingly easy once I found the right technique.

MK8 DX - The first time I've ever unlocked EVERYTHING in this game.

Super Bomberman R - Unlocked all of the stages and characters for multiplayer except for Pretty Bomber because I am NOWHERE NEAR good enough at Bomberman to manage three stars in every Story stage. I also usually post reviews of all the games I beat, but since this is my first in the series, I haven't experienced the multiplayer yet, and I'm TERRIBLE at it, I kinda felt I wasn't really fit to give it a proper critique.

Also finished most of my 3DS stuff from Christmas. Here's more nonsense:

Mario & Luigi: SS + BM - The little Lion King 1 1/2-esque parts where Superstar Saga and Minion Quest plot points intersect crack me up, especially that Toad asking Captain Goomba for help with finding something. XD BIS already has a pretty insane plot, so I'm VERY excited to see just what they can add to that with Bowser Jr.'s Journey.

Ultra Moon - This game is an interesting beast. It really DOES feel like an alternate universe take on Sun and Moon in that while a lot of it is very much the same, a lot of it is also VERY different. Definitely feels like Lillie and Lusamine's stories were just kinda glanced over versus Hau and Guzma who feel like they have better character arcs and roles to play this time around, so I guess if you're only interested in getting one, a good way to choose would be which characters' stories you're most interested in. Episode RR was also both a REALLY cool throwback to evil bases in games of old and a pretty meaty post-game. (Definitely felt like it took a bit longer to beat than Episode Delta, for instance.)

Currently going back and forth between Retro City Rampage DX (Already had the base version on the 360, but MyNintendo was offering the 3DS version last year and I couldn't resist) and Majora's Mask 3D. (I actually got this back in 2015. I am NOTORIOUSLY slow with Zeldas, but the Groomps playing the N64 version gave me the guidance I needed to get back into it.)

[Biggs]

Been replaying Resident Evil 6 (followed by 5). I think 6 is a stupidly underrated game and the Mercenaries mode alone makes it a fantastic action game. Just because it has an ass-load of niggles (most of which I tend to agree with the general consensus on), for me, they don't detract from the exceptional mobility and rich mechanics the game offers, as well as the absurd and diverse action sequences it has. I honestly feel some of its mechanics are as revolutionary as Resi 4's were in some ways. It's not the same Resi as before but it's a roller-coaster ride and I absolutely love it. Once you master the admittedly complicated controls it's great fun. I've been trying to 150 combo the first map of Mercenaries mode with all the characters. SO addictive.

I also got in to Nier Automata. Bought it and tried it a few months ago, and I only did the intro sequence. Wish I had played more, because I restarted the game today and after completing the desert sequence it truly clicked how awesome this game is.

 

[Salamander]

I mostly seem to use this as the "What game have you just completed?" thread, but I like to give a thorough review for games which don't have threads of their own, so...

The Alliance Alive - One of the most interesting and unusual JRPGs I've played in a long while, and I've come away with more or less only good feelings about it.  Storywise, the game is set in a world which was conquered by daemons countless years ago and divided into multiple realms; the heroes are a diverse group of humans, beastfolk, and daemons who come together to investigate and ultimately defeat the corruption the world has fallen under.  I wouldn't call it light-hearted in the same way that Dragon Quest is, but the presentation definitely leans more on the charming, Saturday-morning side of things, and the graphics have a quasi-chibi toybox vibe perhaps similar to Bravely Default; but the quest is epic and expansive, tightly story-driven but with ample and increasing opportunities for exploration and sidequests.  JRPG tropes abound, and are embraced to the fullest; the game features one of the coolest airships I've ever seen, for instance.  Characterisation isn't enormously deep or rich, but the characters are well-defined and it's very easy to form favourites; forget Galil and Azura, Vivian and Tiggy are the real protagonists.  (There's also quite a lot of background lore if you know where to look, but it can be rather well-disguised.)

So, in terms of story and aesthetics, the game is quietly and unostentatiously good; a step below greatness, perhaps, but while I wouldn't say it's as clever as the Bravely series or as much of a classic as the Dragon Quest games or as challenging as the darker Final Fantasies, I'd say it's easy to enjoy the game on their level, to like it more.  Perhaps that's because the game is, in gameplay terms, unabashedly original, with countless fresh ideas which don't necessarily come together at the end but which are all welcome and enriching.  There's no levelling up, for instance, with boosts coming from better equipment and learning new attack skills per weapon type, and investing earned talent points in various character upgrades.  Once you reach a certain point in the story, you can recruit NPCs into guilds, with guild assignment left up to you and varying unlocks depending on guild recruitment levels, and you can also build guild towers which will enhance guild-related effects in particular areas of the game.  There are quite a few vehicles with which to explore and adventure, some of them rather unusual.  There's a generous number of playable characters, some of them optional; and one of the best sequences in the game is an extended arc where you must split your party into multiple sub-teams to handle an interlocking series of challenges - the game's one real flaw that it only pursues this once, and would have been served well by another sequence along these lines in the endgame, but oh well.

If you have a 3DS, like JRPGs, and are prepared for something a little bit unusual, I heartily recommend this game.  You can at least play through the demo; the game's other real flaw is being pretty bad at explaining its systems, but the demo isn't too tough and you should have your bearings by the end.  It's a shame this game came along so late in the 3DS's life cycle, but if the team are able to move to the Switch and come up with another game along these lines, they could go far.

Next up: Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers - and after that?  Well, I possess a Switch now, so the sky's the limit - but I'll be holding onto the 3DS for the last few games coming to the system, games like WarioWare Gold (presently shamefully far below the radar), and, if it gets localised, Etrian Odyssey X (because I just can't kick that hundred-hour RPG habit...).

[Sean]

Celeste is the best game I've played this entire year.

0/5

[Indigo Rush]

I've been playing the heck out of Slipstream

It's an OutRun-inspired indie racer, and it's rad. Good price, too. Still haven't beaten it on hard.

 

...and a lot of the levels are named after Sonic stages, if that's your jam. 

[Tori Himemiya]

So I recently beat Bully and I need a break from a certain School Idol Festival so I'm gonna tackle my backlog for a bit. So what game am I'm gonna try to finish this day and age? Certainly something fun and interesting!

Oh a old, obscure PS1 game. My favor! I do legitimately do like this game despite some of its flaws, namely being pretty easy and being slightly clunky compared to games that Nippon Ichi would later make down the line. Rhapsody is pretty interesting too because unlike today this game actually translated the songs into English and have the voice actors sing it out. Naturally it sounds cheesy but its a practice never really done in modern times as most games and heck anime leave the songs as is in Japanese. In a way its a product of its time but I don't think its too bad of a thing. Its just interesting to say the least.

But yeah I'm probably rambling about a game no one has heard of but its been a pretty unique experience to say the least. Even if the game is pretty easy to the point you win by going on autopilot its story is where it shines. It tries to avert the whole prince finding princess story and it has its own quirks to it. Shame that Rhapsody won't get a HD remake (outside of the DS port which wasn't as good to be honest) nor will its sequels make it statewide but it at least did get a release in the West which is actually pretty surprising. I will say for a first outing for something more grand Rhapsody really did lay the ground work for Disgaea and I'm thankful for that. Its nice to revisit things I still have yet to beat.

[Diogenes]

I suddenly remembered Rodea as a thing that looked cool but I never got a chance to try before, so I'm giving the Wii version a shot. It's...certainly something. If the controls were reliable and accurate more than 10% of the time it'd probably be a pretty fun game, if a bit shallow. But it relies on the motion/pointer controls (which can be kinda sketchy even in the best cases) to do way too much. I'm constantly losing the pointer offscreen when trying to turn the camera, it's often a struggle to point it in the right direction quickly even aside from that, I've got borderline no control over how my flight path arcs, and any kind of cramped area becomes a complete clusterfuck. Just having a control scheme with the nunchuck so you could offload some of the controls onto it would've made for a much smoother experience.

That said, when everything does line up properly...it's actually pretty fun. It's basically Homing Attack: The Game, but with enough control to make it work. The way flight works means you're constantly taking action and interacting with the level instead of just passively floating through. The on-rails flight and slow default speed let you search for your next target while still moving, while the dash attack lets you zip to your target quickly when you want to. It's a surprisingly good balance of freedom of movement without making movement trivial. When it actually works.

Story's kinda balls, tho'. Like I'm very much a gameplay first kind of guy and I appreciate that it isn't dumping hours of cutscenes on me, but it's rushing through so fast and with so little explanation that I can hardly even get a feel for the context of what I'm doing. Oh we're going to some big ancient tower thing...and destroying it apparently? Oh here's a bunch of NPCs, they all appear to have An Endearing Trait, I guess? Ok so we're fighting a former ally or someth-oh they're dead, nevermind. I will say this one scene was pretty fuckin' great, though.

e: Woooow the final boss fuckin' suuuuuucks...like, all the bosses suck but the game is usually pretty generous with powerups for them since you can't actually attack and can barely even fly when you're at 1 hp, but this one puts you in a huge, mostly empty arena that's hard enough to navigate even at full power and keeps laying on bullshit until you're basically guaranteed to end up in inescapable situations, and if you end up at 1 hp and aren't right next to a powerup you may as well take the death and start the entire fight over. And the last phase isn't any better as it's basically all unpredictable bullshit; are you going to clang off this rock or are you going to take damage? Flip a coin and pray. Which of these dozen rocks is close enough to fly to? You're looking at a 2D image of rocks floating in the sky, depth perception doesn't exist here. Where exactly are you in relation to the incoming giant death laser? Fuck you, you don't get to know things, you could be right in its path or miles away, also good luck trying to dodge when you can't fly, have fun doing the entire bullshit boss fight over again.

Also the story remained terrible; feels like they had way more planned but couldn't actually get it in the game which is why the pacing is insane and nothing makes sense. I almost want to give them credit for

Spoiler

actually killing off the princess, even in spite of time bullshit

...except everything was so poorly told I honestly couldn't care and it barely felt like any of the characters actually cared either.

Weird fuckin' game.

e2: regarding that spoiler I looked some stuff up and apparently

Spoiler

in the wii u version they say the princess survived

so the one actually ballsy writing choice was really just an artifact of incompetent storytelling I guess???

[Sean]

I recently finished Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest. Both great games for different reasons, I think I like Hollow Knight better but not in terms of "it did this and that better than Ori," because comparing the two games is difficult for me.

I picked up a lot of stuff on sale on GOG, so at the moment I've been switching between Wuppo, Furi, and RiME. Wuppo is a cute game that's reminiscent of old Paper Mario writing - particularly the first game's more innocent style and toned-down self-referentialism. Unfortunately I'm not enamored with it because I find the gameplay rather lacking and I'm not as attached to the environments as I would be in PM64 or TTYD. Plus I'm up to Popo City where you have to perform random odd jobs in order to build up the city's credit quota in order to progress the plot, and it brings the entire game to a grinding halt if you ask me. It's not bad though and I'll probably finish it up to the end even if I don't feel compelled to do it 100%.

Furi is awesome. I liked the first Afro Samurai and I immediately thought of it when I initially saw this game, and only after looking it up did I realize the character designer worked on both. It's really hard and I'm not sure how long it'll take me to beat it despite it being a conceptually short game (the entire game is just bosses), and I'm utterly horrible at bullet hell and parrying - the latter is why I haven't gotten far into MGR yet. It's a good time and I definitely appreciate the little stuff that prevents the experience from being too frustrating, like healing you between boss phases and giving you a limited amount of tries per phase to get past it.

RiME's good. It's basically a successor of sorts to Ico, and I've wanted to play this ever since it came out last year. It's also surprisingly stressful, especially chapter 2 which sics a murderous pterodactyl on you throughout the entire run. The PC version has some really weird optimization issues because even at low-to-medium settings I'm still suffering from framerate drops and lag, and my laptop can handle plenty of other modern games at better if not max settings (not counting "ultra," anyway). The only time it seems to go away is if I set the graphics to the lowest setting possible but that makes the game look ugly as sin so I've just been putting up with the fluctuating framerate.

[Blueknight V2.0]

Just finished the spongebob movie game, then tried Lost Planet 1 on extreme difficulty and after about 16 minutes in I gave up and moved onto Sonic 2006.

[Danj86]

On ‎6‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 4:59 PM, Sean said:

Wuppo is a cute game that's reminiscent of old Paper Mario writing - particularly the first game's more innocent style and toned-down self-referentialism. Unfortunately I'm not enamored with it because I find the gameplay rather lacking and I'm not as attached to the environments as I would be in PM64 or TTYD. Plus I'm up to Popo City where you have to perform random odd jobs in order to build up the city's credit quota in order to progress the plot, and it brings the entire game to a grinding halt if you ask me. It's not bad though and I'll probably finish it up to the end even if I don't feel compelled to do it 100%.

I was intrigued by the possibility of a game that shares the charm of the good Paper Mario games, so I gave it a try...(Specifically because of what you said. )

I do like the hand painted visuals and I'm finding it much more challenging than I expected. And I totally love the righting too. Annoying Carlos at the very beginning into such a state that he challenges you to a fight...I probably enjoyed that more than I should have.

Although I am finding the mission objectives to be a little vague. Around the beginning, it tells you to find the underground tunnel....but to find it, you have -

Spoiler

- to pass some ruins, climb a cliff, speak to a "Yum" to get an important item, reach a pond, fight a fish and get another important item, double back then scale the ruins, cross a forest while fighting off a tribe, reach the tribal leader and beat him up, get an important item from beaten tribe leader and place it on an alter with the others you found.

Face boss that has insta-kill move, win and hurray! You've made it to the underground tunnel. Although you'll have to face another boss very shortly...

Now I have to acquire a "Chop Ticket" and I'm seeing other Yums holding them like they are taunting me...I haven't grown tired of it yet, though. ^^;

[SaturnWolf]

Baldi's Basics for Education and Learning. It's the new meme horror game that's frustrating me a lot, mostly because I'm bad at it. 

[Thrippa]

Having finished three playthroughs of Last Guardian and still not gotten the Intensive Care trophy (have to remove all spears from Trico immediately after battle, but in every case at least once when I load up a spear is suddenly present where it hadn't been, no matter that the last battle was 20 minutes before I left off and I'd searched all over the beast for any damage) I decided to table that until my husband finishes his new game, so I can maybe not have to reload the game every single night. 

So I went back to Tokyo Jungle(PS3) and decided to go for broke and storm the hidden lab to try to get the last two Archives and unlock the final part of the story.  My last several attempts ended prematurely thanks to the labs being full of sabertooths, mammoths, cheetahs, and dinosaurs.  So I battle my way as usually to the sewer entrance and through the sewers.  Here's the lab!  Get ready to die . . . . big empty room.  Well on through the next door . . . another big empty room.  I got to the penultimate archive without seeing a single foe.  Hm.  Well, let's go on and try for the last one, which will probably be better guarded.  On through uninhabited corridors until I found a crocodile!  Okay, the monsters are starting here, get ready for battle!  Next room, two mammoths who completely ignore me.  Next room, is the archive, unlocking chapter 14.  I take the back exit of the lab and die; not certain if I fell prey to old age, hunger, or the ostrich that I had been trying to kill to relieve the hunger.  So now I can finally get the trophy for completing the story, as soon as I play through the last chapter.

On the Switch, I'm bouncing back and forth between Hyrule Warriors and Splatoon's single player (need to finish that before the expansion comes out) but Splatoon doesn't play so well on the go, and at home I have so many other things going on.  Trying to finish up Miitopia on the 3DS and free my brother from being the Darker Lord.

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

Been mostly playing two games lately:

Sonic Mania - Remember when I said I was gonna wait until Plus came out to finish this? Yeaaaaaaaah, I decided to play more of my Knux playthrough since Team Sonic Racing's reveal put me in a hedgehog mood and that turned into completing said playthrough...which turned into starting and finishing a Tails playthrough in the span of a day...which turned into collecting all seven Emeralds for all characters...which turned into getting the true ending...which turned into getting all the medals and unlocking Blue Sphere. Point is, Knux gave me a completion high and I need help. 

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 - Similarly, the KH3 premiere event put me in a KH mood and I just recently finished DDD HD on Proud. (Anti Black Coat Nightmare is THE WORST if you're not totally prepared.) Also finally watched the X movie (Master of Masters gives me Deadpool vibes), so the only thing I have left on these collections is beating Julius. (I also need to unlock the secret ending because I forgot the responses you give to the questions at the end matter in unlocking it.)

Also been playing a TON of Unchained X and have somehow fully caught up on both Standard AND Proud quests, so yeah, I need KH3 NOW. (Or that teased Wreck-It Ralph world for UX. That'd also be pretty rad.)

[Blueknight V2.0]

Just finished Sly Cooper and the thievious Raccoonus about a day ago. Now I'm resuming Sly 2 Band of Thieves with Episode 2.

[jgcatindig]

Currently playing Gran Turismo 2 and Sonic Battle alternately. Also doing Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.

[SgtBloxx]

Roblox is my only main option now. Would also be playing Warframe if the firewall wasn’t such a jerk.

[Mr Loopone]

It's been a while since I've managed to play any game (as in actually playing a game, not for research). After failures of Monopoly Streets and Harry Potter Deathly Hallows 2 not working, was scrambling to find a game to play. Did have a quick go on Fuzion Frenzy 2 and well there's a possibly that I can't get into the game (its like Mario Party but without the boards and edgier). Did manage to play and complete a game, that game being...

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Last year and much of this year, I seem to only be playing Transformers based games with War for Cybertron being my favourite of the bunch and still is. The last Transformers game that I played, was average at best (but at least had a few episodes of the show). Since this was done by High Moon, had some expectations and they sort of did meet them. Playing it straight away, I could tell that this game was for a younger audience because of the difficulty level being a bit easier (and of course based off the movies that don't appeal to me) with its unlimited ammo and it also surprised me that did a majority of the game last night with only a progression blocker preventing me from going all the way. I thought Chapter 6 already? I only played for about 4 hours!

So what do I like about it? Well it still has that great gameplay and smooth mechanics that the other High Moon Transformers games had. The graphics were better in the levels themselves. Got to play as a variety of characters.

There were issues though. It seems to be buggier is the game with as well as the progression blocker mentioned, it also crashed twice on the final boss so just as polished as Fall of Cybertron then. The driving parts of the game weren't as well adapted having some iffy physics and stiff controls. The smooth mechanics were downplayed a lot in this game as sadly it seems that the game wants you to be in the vehicle and using melee attacks rather than shooting to get the high score. Honestly they trigger the multiplier and only wants to use your gun when its an enemy where you can't trigger either move. Find it funny that you can melee attack an enemy that is on a higher plane with you and there's not many times that you jump in this game either. Oh and don't give Optimus Prime a mouth, in a few of the cutscenes it looks so wrong and ugly...

Out of curiosity, played Rugby Challenge afterwards that is Rugby Union sports game (because there are two types of Rugby). Having fun but for the wrong reasons. Firstly for some reason, I could only select 4 teams including my local team so chose them, hey not often see something from my parts in a game. It's when it got to the game itself that was the unintended humour kicked in. When it first loaded up, I thought that was it since there were a few players and a field, looking no better than one of those Steam Greenlight games but did load up properly and did look better. Players standing after they jump during a line in [like a throw in for football] so instead of jumping, they stood in the air. England having a player than ran as fast as Usian Bolt that is a bit unrealistic. The gameplay when you seem to just dogpile on people and good luck getting the ball.

[Salamander]

Celeste - Having finally acquired a Switch, I decided to dive in at the deep end with what may not have been the best choice of games for getting used to the Switch's controls.  But while my overall death count in this game may be somewhat in the eye-watering region - who cares?  It's not about how many times you fall along the way, it's about whether or not you reach your destination - and I did.  All (standard) strawberries, all A-sides, all B-sides, all C-sides, even the first two golden strawberries and Pico-8, just to show that I care.  I've pushed forward with this game until I eked everything out of it...

Nobody needs me to tell them that Celeste is a good game.  But it is a very good game - not just as a carefully-constructed platformer that continually presents you with yet more impossible challenges that eventually seem all so reasonable, but as a masterful integration of gameplay and story, as an execution of metaphor.  Everything ties in beautifully, the surprisingly contemporary writing with endearing and relatable characters in a setting defined by majestic and ever-more-dangerous settings.  The difficulties of the one doing the controlling in getting accustomed to the controls is no reflection on the controls themselves; with experimentation, everything (even the things I've seen complained about elsewhere, e.g. clouds) are rigidly logical in their effects and can be predicted and controlled.  Learn the rules, then learn what you're capable of; Celeste is all about the essentials of platforming.  A tremendously fun experience, even at its most gruelling.

[Blueknight V2.0]

I'm currently half way through Sly 3 Honor Among Thieves, about to enter into A Cold Alliance. It's weird that this Sly game feels more empty compared to Sly 2, but yet has some new stuff to offer, that doesn't compare to Sly 2 or Sly 4.