I like playing Rocket League with a mouse and keyboard.
What are y'all playing? ver 2.0
John
#1168
Iāve been playing a lot of Elliot Quest. Itās a super nice zelda 2 clone. Very pretty and appropriately hard. Sometimes some very important things are more obscure than iād likeā¦ like the goddamn shield!! Went through two dungeons without it before i happened to explore an old dungeon and find it waitingā¦
Anyway the game is way bigger than it looks, iām at 11 hours and i think iām about to enter the third act. And it looks like it has secret bosses and stuffā¦ yikes.
Makes me glad that four dudes can just up and do something like this these days.
Das
#1169
Started Alien: Isolation. Itās good thus far, but I canāt shake the feeling that the genre hasnāt developed much since System Shock 2, more than 15 years ago. I mean, seriously, how many times are developers going to dump narrative and world-building into audiologs and notes (or e-mails)? Why do people in videogames record their (often very private, very controversial, even criminal) thoughts and leave their tape recorders lying around for anyone to listen to? This was fine in 1999, because first person shooters were just beginning to transcend the Doom mold, but in 2015 itās extremely tiring (and games like Bioshock and Dishonored havenāt done much to change the clichĆ©, even coming up with elaborate steampunk technology to acommodate it). Thereās also, although I havenāt gotten to it yet, clearly going to be a rogue AI storyline in Alien: Isolation, which, you know, reminds me of System Shock 2 again, or, hell, 2001: A Space Odyssey (though Hal isnāt really rogue, more like overly literal about his mission objectives), alongside typical Alien themes like sinister androids and corporate intrigue. Anyways, itās all feeling a bit too derivative, to be honest. Still, great graphics and stunning sound design. And the mechanics, which have you hiding and running from a single xenomorph, are brilliant.
OneEightZero
#1170
Alien: Isolation is the first game where I felt like I was playing in a universe that captured a work perfectly.
I do hear you about the issues with world building, but it escapes me how to do it differently.
Das
#1173
Alien: Isolation is improving. Itās still derivative, but I really enjoy: the fact that you can do nothing to (and about) most of your enemies (except hide from them or run away, and even this last option tends to be useless against the xenomorph), which forces you to come up with aggressively stealthy strategies and prevents you from ever āclearingā an area of danger (whereas, say, in Thief, Deus Ex, or Dishonored, you can knock nearby enemies unconscious - or just kill them - and then explore and relax); and the nostalgic return to the original Alienās (now retro) sciencie-fiction aesthetic, which is a welcome reminder that any vision of the future, including our current one (which, in many cases, if not all, seems to have veered away from the āgrit in spaceā feel of the 80s and returned to 2001ās clean and rational design, with the addition of holographic displays and multiple touchscreens), is necessarily anchored to the present that envisioned it.
MidnightTrain
#1175
Oof, man I havenāt had the gaming stamina to get back into a Final Fantasy in a long time. I just donāt play for long enough periods of time anymore.
What a classic though.
RpgN
#1177
Iāve been playing different games recently. Not really sticking to one and making slow progress because of it.
New Game
Untold Legends The Warriorās Code (PSP)
F-Zero GP Legend (GBA)
I really shouldnāt have started with more games. I was testing them for being used. They ended becoming part of my backlog 
Untold Legends TWC is a sequel of a launch game that I gave a try during launch. It was very interesting and unique at the time. Having WRPGs on handhelds and proving that they can be done competently. Somehow I quit the game and probably sold it. Iāve heard that it was repetitive and there was enough room for improvement. The sequel refines the gameplay and makes story more interesting. It is a relaxing experience to go through dungeons, level-up, receive new missions and advance with the story. There are many equipment to find, different āājobsāā to choose from at the start and abilities to learn & strengthen. I greatly appreciate that you can teleport wherever you want as soon as you reach new areas and that you can save anywhere. Iām nearing the end of chapter 1 (out of 5). If you played old school WRPGs, you know what to expect.
I only played F-Zero GP Legend once and was surprised at how different and yet similar it is to Maximum Velocity. Iām planning on finishing Maximum Velocity before continuing with this one. Because this one seems to have far more content and different modes. Maximum Velocity only had one mode along with training and multiplayer. This one has story mode, championship mode, test mode (over 30 missions) and more vehicles. New in this is the playable characters. The challenge seems to be toned down in championship mode. It was a joke going through the first class. But the story mode seems to be where the challenge lies. The controls have been improved but the tracks might be more challenging. Iām looking forward to continuing with this.
Currently Playing
Hyrule Warriors Legends
Final Fantasy V
It has been months since I played Final Fantasy V. For the most part I felt off about playing it. As if I was going through the motions, not being surprised or finding something unique about this FF game. Having played many FFs games (especially all the pre-playstation ones), it felt very familiar. Until my interest slowly started rising. You meet interesting NPCs that you wish they could be fleshed out more Cid, Mid, the family of Bartz etc, you are suddenly thrown in different situations that you didnāt see coming helping a Moogle, brought to moogle village, helping a Golem and then he rewards you by becoming a summon etc and the big twist of there being different worlds . I suddenly realized that the world, characters and story are more elegantly made than I gave credit for. It is the small details that I also started noticing, where gameplay has been carefully added with the story. By that I mean there have been no fights, characters added or situations where you feel they have been added without making sense. Another very important element that made me appreciate FFV is also the challenge. It is one of the few FF games where I felt it can surprise you with its challenge and require you to be careful. I usually donāt grind and go through stories quickly unless there are side-quests that are clearly visible. I have been fine doing this with most FF games. With this, I feel that I can still play without grinding but I am pushing it. MP getting reduced quickly, having to make use of Cottage & Tents, normal fights can take lots of health etc. The more I play of FFV, the more I enjoy it.
Leo
#1178
Iām not sure where youāre at in FFV, but I was taken by surprise when Farisā gender was revealed to be female. I was a teenager when I played through most of the game the first time. I played through the GBA port and beat it for the first time. Itād be interesting to play it again with strict job rules, like using one blue mage, one beastmaster, one dancer, and one mime.
John
#1179
Ok. Iāve played a bunch of FFX, reached the Calm Lands which is aboutā¦ three fifths to two thirds of the game. I think i have enough on my plate to say something about this game.
This is the sort of game that iāve been playing since my early life, i think i first bought it on 2003 or 2004 or something and iāve always had that copy with me. Iāve played this game more times than i can remember, never really beating it because i used to be very bad at JPRGs. Only once did i reach the final boss and i didnāt manage to beat it back then. That said, this time itās been a lot easier. Turns out the game is a lot easier if you donāt flee any fight and make an effort to use all characters in all fights. To give some perspective, my first fight with Seymor went like this: grand summon Shiva, use overdrive for 9999 damage (first time i used it), enter the second phase of the boss, build back overdrive and end the second phase again with 9999 damage, Shiva dies for the third phase but hasting everyone let me finish the third phase in less than three boss turns. It was that easy.
Anyway. The game is a pleasure to revisit, even if these are all very familiar views. But a fresh revisit after all these years has let me see a couple more things. One thing i hadnāt noticed before is that Spira, geologically speaking, seems very similar to Japan. You start in the south with tropical beaches, you end just beyond snowy mountains in what seems to be a vertical climb up the latitude of the continent. Thatās to be expected though and probably more to do with the more eastern influences of the game. But iāve noticed other things too, like how considerably early this game feels in its use of 3D. Itās obvious that this game was their first attempt at predominantly 3D game world, and sometimes you notice that there is more fidelity than the game seems to know what to do with. This is particularly noticeable in the animations of the characters. Facial expressions are not very common, theyāre sparsely focused on and the animation is primarily the full body kind of very expressive and theatrical movement. XII, for example, is a game that feels decades ahead in this matter, with a lot more nuance and subtlety in the animation. That said i do recall facial animations being very expensive back then, so this is likely to be a mixture of inexperience and technical limitations. Otherwise, as it pertains to the world and the art in general, this is an extremely accomplished game. Thereās a super strong sense of image and culture spread throughout the game with particular emphasis on the religious iconography and typography. The main character designs are ok for the most part, if noticeably more extravagant than the rest of the world and that discrepancy is more harmful than not. Lulu stands out as particularly uninspired or ill achieved (the game seems almost to hide some animation emphasis on her breasts, which feels very divisive). Otherwise, i think the characters are fairly ok.
A lot to be said about the characters too. They feel very much like young characters put in a situation thatās way too adult for them to handle (as is typical of japanese video games and anime), but i think for the most part youāre able to perceive the adult side of the story fairly easily and with frequency. The themes of the game are very transparent and i donāt think anything goes unmentioned, whereas i feel other FF games tend to be more coy and shy about some of their themes. This game is literally about the tyranny of religion, inheriting the arrogance of out descendants (Spira dealing with Sin being the result of its wars, Tidus accepting his father and accepting that he has to kill him), and selflessness (dozens of examples), and all of that is something the characters visibly and audibly deal with.
I think iāll have more to say eventually, but to end this bit i must say that i truly adore this game. Itās been a constant presence in my life and iām glad to finally have the chance to finally finish it.
John
#1184
tbf Lulu is the only one that doesnāt have any really defining character aspect, Tidus comes from somewhere beyond the rainbow, Wakka is the xenophobe hyper conservative waterball player, Kimahri is a Ronso mysteriously out of place and that comes with its own baggage, Yuna is, well, the summoner i guess and the one they have to take from place to place, Auron is the āiāve done this beforeā/āi know more than i tellā/actually planned all this ordeal in the first place, and Rikku is the Al Bhed outsider who actually has an interest in convincing Yuna to not finish the pilgrimage she is helping her to continue
Lulu is the black mage onee san i guess?
sheās important and is very knowledgeable and the voice of some reason but itās hard to translate that to a strong visual identity, she doesnāt even look like sheās seen the world which is later revealed to be the case