What games are you currently playing?

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Soul Sacrifice's core mechanic isn't really about permanent choice. It's about decision making and finding your own path to power. The whole game is told as though you're reading a story in a book, but you have the ability to change some of the outcomes.

You don't really see that in the demo, which is why you didn't pick up on that theme. It's very strong in the retail release as you progress through the main single player campaign, but it does make your criticism of the use of tears as "do-overs" ring hollow. It's a very deliberate design choice, because the crux of the story is that you're trying to change your fate. If you could only sacrifice your allies once, ever, no one would ever do it, and that would impact your choices, which runs counter to how the game allows you to develop in any way you choose.

It's definitely super-grindy, but you always feel like you're making progress, be it unlocking a new outfit, more XP to power up your magic levels, a new sigil for your arm, getting a new spell, or even just making a spell you have stronger. That doesn't excuse it from being grindy, but it does keep it from being pointlessly grindy, since you always get something useful for your time spent as long as you don't fail a mission.

As for tactics, all I can say is my character is at the end of the main single player campaign and I still got one-shotted by a boss in a side mission (Level 35 out of 100 max). The mission is only rated like 4/10 for difficulty, too.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Does anyone know if there's anything special about the Mega Man games on PSN versus the Mega Man Virtual console releases? So far I haven't been able to find anything on them, but I know if I go with the 3DS VC version they'd all be a dollar less, eat up less memory and have save states going for them that I know PSN versions of PSOne games dont' have. Do the PSN versions have have any extras?

Just curious because it looks like May's pretty dry for Vita and 3DS on the retail front, at least until Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is out. Dunno if Vita has any indie games liked up at all this month, but I do know Nintendo's re-releasing the Zelda Oracle games this month. Aside from Phantom Hourglass, they're the only Zeldas I've never finished so I am looking forward to giving them a second chance.

Odd that I loved Link's Awakening to pieces but never really got into those two. Oh well, it was a hectic time in my life when those were out.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I'm pretty sure they're just straight up ports with no real difference - unless the PSN version has trophy support, which I doubt.

I'm on Darksiders 2 now, and I gotta say I liked WAR better than DEATH - He's too much of a sarcastic dink. Normally I like those kind of characters when done well, but DEATH is just being a total asshole to everyone completely unprovoked. I dunno, I guess I just liked the respectful (yet aggressive) tone WAR set. I also liked the Aesthetic in the 1st game better, which is odd since it wasn't as colorful as 2 (2 is way too WoW-like in it's art style, even the names and HP bars on enemies when you focus on them I mean WTF?!)

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Regarding Mega Man, you're better off with the PS2 Mega Man Collection, which gets you the first 8 games + Power Battles. Should be relatively easy to find, and certainly less expensive than buying digital. That is, unless you're just dying to have them in a portable form.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

That's what I have, along with the PS2 MMX collection and the MMZ DS collection ^_^

Never giving them up.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I've been tinkering around with Star Trek Online in spurts this weekend. While my laptop is just barely managing it what I've played so far is quite impressive. The tutorial alone has a very brillant design and the controls and user interface are very intuitive. Perhaps its also the few years under its belt, but this is something I have no trouble playing just on a laptop as it is and it has the option for Xbox Controllers, too. One moment I'm in a turbolift off to get orders from my captain, then I'm transported over to a ship besieged by the Borg, blowing them out of airlocks, fighting them off and not long after dealing with their probes in space with phasers and photon torpedoes.

So far even your rote MMORPG quest design (kill X number of stuff) doesn't get too heavy and bothersome, instead keeping the grind of those minimal to keep the action on-point. Whether its an away mission or a space battle everything is pretty easy to get a grasp on.

Star Trek has a hard time when it comes to getting good games, but I have to say this is indeed one of the better ones. I don't know if I really picked the best race and skills for an engineer, though. I figure that would be more my thing since they seem more of a support class, but I chose Betazoid (just in case people do RP in this game, I figured they were easier to stay in-character on) and some initial support skills into into engineering stuff.

--------------------

Also in awesome news:

Is Level-5 about to announce Guild03? - Destructoid

Guild 02 was just released recently in Japan, the first of of the three games is slated for July in the US and trademarks are looking like they're already registered for Guild 03. Its not official yet, but Level 5 did register three names in the same day and a title like Earth Devastating B-Rank Girlfriend does kind of scream Guild to me.

[DakAttack]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I got around to checking out Battlefield 3's Endgame content and it isn't any more impressive than the other expansion packs. The entire game feels like a b-team product, overall, and I'm still not sure why I pre-ordered Battlefield 4's limited edition.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I'm still holding off on BF4 until more concrete details come out.

Overall, the class balance was much better (especially for Recon) in Bad Company 2. I agree that End Game wasn't quite as amazing as I'd hoped either. Of course, a large part of my problem with BF3 is I just don't have enough friends who want to play it, and that's a big factor in that game's enjoyment. Halo or CoD you don't really need friends to enjoy, though it helps - BF it's kind of a requirement due to the heavy emphasis on teamwork and the multitude of retards online.

I have absolutely no faith in BF4's campaign based on that 17 minute demo, but I'm still holding out that DICE will come to their senses and fix a lot of what went wrong in BF3 (the list is quite long).

[DakAttack]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I agree, there's a lot they got wrong. I got my money's worth, but it could have been done a whole lot better.

I wish they'd fix the character models so everybody's not shooting bullets out of their foreheads. I hate seeing a forehead behind cover and thinking I'm safe, but realizing as I'm being shot from said forehead that on their side they're another three feet above the barrier.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Pretty much how I felt.

I still don't regret buying Premium, as it was a huge discount and came with a lot of great perks - I hope to see it again, however this time I'm gonna wait a bit.


I'm just gonna make a list of stuff I feel went right or wrong between BC2 and BF3, that I'm hoping BF4 will correct (including minimum of 32 players on console)

- Bullet drop felt just about right in BC2. You only had to adjust a little bit over very long ranges. In BF3, I swear they measure "Meters" in Feet. The Muzzle velocities are all way off the mark for virtually every gun except a few of the SMGs I think. The Abrams tank is the worst offender. I looked it up, that damn thing's main cannon fires between 1570 and 1750 m/s, but in-game it's closer to 400. I don't mind having to correct my aim somewhat, but I honestly had such a rough time sniping and hitting long range targets in general in BF3 to the point of just giving up. There was no need to mess with it. Hell, even the standard go-to M16A3 was way off the mark at only 800 RPM. It technically goes up to 950, but that's cyclic (which means if you didn't have to reload) but I suppose they were taking an average of that? The 650 mv is way off though it's actually 948 making it far more accurate than it's shown to be in-game but whatever...


- Damage models are all over the map as well. I liked that generally, bullets did more damage in BF3. However, they stupidly nerfed sniper rifle damage while also adding suppression which just neutered recon. I actually liked Suppression for the record, but not being able to land sniper rounds as effectively in BF3 (due to bullet drop changes) and no longer getting 1-shot kills when hitting the chest area really hosed the class. Who the hell thought that was a good idea anyway?! Please DICE, explain to me how taking a .303 to the heart is any less deadly than the head. And then on top of that, they went all CoD on us making everything but the ARs complete trash. All the LMGs are "Medium" range, while AR's are long range which is the exact opposite of how they actually are - The M60 in particular got nerfed real hard this time around. DICE doesn't seem to grasp the concept that machine guns are AoE weapons, and that a hailstorm of 7.62s coming downfield is a bad time. They got it somewhat right with the 7.62 rounds travelling slower than 5.56's, but the damage drop off should have been drastically lower for them as well. There really just wasn't the proper sense of fear there should have been from a Support guy with his bipod deployed. Don't even get me started on the heavier weapons - the .50's are all a complete joke and even the jet guns are stupidly weak. I've shot infantry and seen them live from a jet and honestly, I don't see how anyone could walk away from 30mm being fired at 3900 rpm and 1070 m/s. The helicopters were largely paper airplanes and the AC-130 got nerfed into oblivion (should never have been added to Rush either for that matter). I mean, I get that you need to have a sense of balance but there's some stuff that's just so ridiculous it kills the experience for me. I like BF because it's the closest thing to a war sim in terms of realism and I'd like that to be accurately reflected - especially since it further pushes the need for teamwork and tactics.


I got more but I wanna go do something else for now lol and I think I got the point across. They need to give the Mortar back to Recon as well and bring back the Specialist - give it the SMGs and C4 as well like in BC1 (I never liked Support having the ammo AND explosives... especially when their primary are LMGs) and it would be nice to see something MAG did this time around, which was weight-based customization. You pick your general class and then gear up accordingly. For example if I plan to charge in guns-blazing, I'll take Assault and sacrifice mobility or perhaps some secondary gear for heavier armor. Also headshots & explosives really should deny revival - so beyond f'ing sick of "Revive Trains" in BF3... if even 1 goddamn Assault guy lives suddenly their whole team is back up.

[Firewind]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Playing the Nevrwinter beta and it's a lot of fun. it is by the same studio that made Star Trek Online and Torchlight and wow it shows. Basically take Torchlight's Game Engine and STO's player created quest system so players can make their own quests, dungeon crawls and even entire CAMPAIGNS with the game engine. Now set it in the Forgotten Realms.

Each class has something they can bring to a group too that is useful, anyone familiar with 4th Edition D&D will know the sorts of out of combat utility each class gets:

Rogues can use their Thievery skills to see traps and disarm them, they can also Sneak and find hidden stashes of items placed around dungeons.
Fighters use Dungeoneering experience to be able to locate hidden doors and can also detect traps but can't disable them.
Wizards can use Arcana skills to locate and use magical items and devices to help the group (which adds to their already silly amount of utility and crowd control).
Clerics...Look for religious icons and use them for buffs? Okay this just seems shoehorned in to give them something unique but Clerics have so much utility you can always find something for a Cleric to do in a group.

The combat is very action orientated but flows pretty well and they pull it off thanks to them making it very much like Torchlight's combat. My only real complaint so far is that there's a lot of bugs still around and there's only four classes (Rogue, Fighter, Wizard and Cleric) but the game is still in beta

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I didn't care for it at all. I tried it and Ragnarok Online 2 in the same day and just gave up on both like right away. I can definitely see why people are drawn to Neverwinter, it's just not for me.


EDIT: I also gave the Fuse demo a try. I still liked it better when it was Overstrike, as it was more akin to Ratchet & Clank. Now it looks and feels more like Resistance, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I am a little tired of every single shooter now being overly serious and having such drab color palettes. I get the feeling the decision to change it didn't come without at least some pressure from EA. The controls are fine though and the premise is OK enough;

You control these 4 mercenaries who each have their own unique "Xenotech" weapon. Nayla for example (my favorite) has a Warp Rifle that fires out pulses of anti-matter that have been bonded with Fuse (Fuse is the alien material that the game revolves around; it binds itself at the molecular level to other elements and rapidly changes them) and when you've hit an enemy with enough shots, it creates a singularity which is pretty cool to watch. You can also tag multiple enemies and then focus on 1 to set off a chain of singularities effectively killing everyone in 1 go. Her secondary ability cloaks her. You can hotswap between any of the 4 squad members at any time which is nice, and best of all the AI is actually competent! You don't have to babysit your team mates, they will go out of their to revive you if you go down and for the most part are fairly reliable. My only gripe is you can't give them specific orders, which was annoying in the 2nd half of the demo which opens up with a boss fight against 2 heavily armored enemies. I could never really get behind them to smack their weakpoints for very long.

[DakAttack]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Pre-loading Metro: Last Light. I hope it doesn't lose my attention like Dead Space 3 and Bioshock Infinite, which were too easy and too hard to care about, respectively.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

o.O I finished both those games and loved them.

Last Light looks great, though I gotta pass on it for now I think

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Bioshock Infinite was hard? Didn't seem that bad to me. Not particularly great combat, but should have been very manageable if you're not playing on Hard or 1999 mode.


Icemage