What games are you currently playing?

[Aeni]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I just play FFXIV as that's all the time I have for about anything now. Anyone liking Cataclysm? I sure didn't during beta.

[Neverslip]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

It is definitely a reboot... a very solid reboot, imHo. The ending pushes for sequel pretty hard but at the same time it's freakin' amazing how they go about spinning it.

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

From what I've been told LoS is a solid game, but not a Castlevania. Which is pretty much the impression I had to begin with.

But that opinion is probably very biased considering the source is as much of a fan of old school Castlevania as I am.

This is about right. Really the only things that scream Castlevania about it is that the main character is named Belmont. Aside from that? Not much.

I don't like the combat control nearly as much as God of War's to be completely honest, but it's still fun and a challenging game (if occasionally unfair - one section in particular "introduces" a new double jump wall-bounce mechanic which you need to get past an obstacle... but the game never tells you you can do this, and it doesn't work anywhere else in the game).

Other than such gripes, it's still a very pretty game with good combat pacing and a reasonably decent storyline.

Patrick Stewart I found to be a detriment; that incessant hamfisted narration just grates on your nerves like nails on a chalkboard after a while.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Yeah, as awesome as Patrick Stewart can be, I took some times to watch cutscenes and see some of the narration of this game.

Remember this scene from Star Trek: First Contact?

The thing about Stewart is he can do shades of psychological darkness well, the hints of what lies beneath the surface but when he tries to go full-on dark - even when he's just describing the events of others - it just doesn't work.

All in all, I still wish they had just called it "Lords of Shadow" because a proper Castlevania it ain't.

[Aksannyi]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I just play FFXIV as that's all the time I have for about anything now. Anyone liking Cataclysm? I sure didn't during beta.

I'm loving it. I just dinged 84 on Sunday night, and so far, I've been really enjoying the grind. Minus a few bored 85s here and there. The new zones are awesome. I haven't done any of the dungeons yet, though.

And flying everywhere = win. My main gripe is that I wish they had spread out the portals to the new zones throughout the main cities. Put two in UC and two in Org or something, because Org lags so bad that I can barely walk out the front gate. It's worse than Dalaran because you still have all of your level 1-60 toons hanging out there, too, where Dalaran really only had 70+. And I gotta bitch about the fact that they supposdely removed the portals in Dalaran partially to cut back on lag (and also because they want people to hang out where the new content is) but then created an even worse problem by throwing them all in Org.

Oh well. All in all, I've been having fun. I'd say my favorite new zone is Uldum. I also like the difficulty increase, though now that it's been a few weeks and people are thinning out, they can cut off the insta-respawns. Because some of those mobs hit really fucking hard. XD

[Fliegar]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Harrison Jones made Uldum for me.

Most badass WoW character ever? Yes, yes he is.

(Also known as Indiana Ford)

[Aksannyi]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Yeah, I am loving that line. I'm not quite through it yet, but so far, it's amazing. I'm so loving the cinematics.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Castlvania LoS, imHo was damn good. GoW falls flat for me. Kratos is one of the most predictable and boring one-note characters I've ever played. Flame me... still won't change my reluctance to force my way through the same story already told twice only dressed this time in a "III".

Oh please. Gabriel was awful, and the post-credits ending just made it all the worse. I won't argue that Kratos is pretty plain, but that's the point - He's an (very) angry Spartan with nothing to lose. I honestly felt the combat and platforming were both really, really bad in LoS. GoW 3 had issues with double jumping that drove me up the wall at points but otherwise the combat didn't feel "cheap" the way it did in LoS, which basically boiled down to swing 2~3 times and dodge over & over & over...

They could have eased up on the QTE's too. The platforming really was awful though, half the time Gabriel wouldn't jump, or wouldn't jump far enough. Other times he seemed to just move on his own accord, even with my thumbs off the sticks o_O;

It was the combat I couldn't stand above all else though. Fighting just felt cheap & stupid with how much the enemy blocks you. They only give you maybe 2, 3 moves tops that can supposedly break blocks but they either don't work or happen so late into the combo that you'll be countered before you get a chance (or surrounded and then countered). Why do I have to spam X after a timed block instead of just hitting it once? Why does chaos magic, despite what the guides say, not allow my regular hits to break most blocks? I have a huge list of complaints about that PoS game that I'm gonna leave in a previous post I made.

[Neverslip]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Different strokes for different folks...

As a story that interested me... LoS > GoW.... GoW's story was interesting in 1... redundant and boring in 2... and as far as I got in 3 it seemed like it was following the same (now) predictible format of: Kratos angry... but must pass through the so and so for the whatsamagigit to slay who he's angry with...getting angrier the whole way. I'm even a fan of Greek mythology and got sickk of it midway thru GoWII

As a character that interested me ... LoS > GoW ... just barely. Gabriel got pretty one-note or silent towards the end of the gameplay. The ending however I felt was pretty bad-ass, I didn't see it coming and it really sparked my interest in a sequel. I've read a lot of vampire/Dracula books and I like the idea of this retelling.

As a game with varied gameplay... GoW > LoS ... GoW did have quite a huge selection of ways to kill. This actually added to the frustration for me at times. Too much sh!t to think about. I'll totally give ya that in LoS the mobs were incredible at turtling up.

Graphically GoWI and GoWII (remastered for PS3) had nothing on LoS but that's because they were last gen. GoWIII hasn't wowed me yet but I'm not incredibly far into it yet. I was pretty impressed with both the cutscenes and the scenery in LoS.

All just my opinion. I'm sure you don't care.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Story was an uninspired piece of trash too heavily based on Dante's Inferno.

Not that God of War was much better, in fact I don't think anyone plays those (at least not solely) for the plot. I did enjoy the plot in all 3 games, but it was never the focus of that series.

[Neverslip]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

it was never the focus of that series.

I enjoy games for their story... and that the story wasn't the focus was very evident.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I had struggled for a bit to figure out what I could get for my parents on their Wii that was their speed. They got it "for fitness" and when they say those word it usually means they just bought something they'll never find time to use.

Settled on getting them Wheel of Fortune. I had noticed a lot of families were picking up that, Jeopardy and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Figuring there must be something to the popularity of those games, I gave Wheel of Fortune a spin.

We did our Christmas stuff last night and decided to give the game a go.

Its a little rough around the edges on graphics and framerate, but the presentation and pacing of the game is exactly that of the show, just with a bobbleheaded Mii version of Pat Sajak and Vanna White. You can play as your Mii, spin the Wheel with the Wiimote, use the Wiimote to pick letters, buy vowels and solve puzzles. All the Toss-up rounds andspecial wheel wedges and commercial break puzzles are there as minigames, too.

There's the option to use Wii Speak, but we found it misfired on letter selections for a couple turns, so we stopped using it, but that little snag aside it was a pretty good time. Since Wii pointer controls are a factor, when you choose to solve the puzzles you're given ample time.

All in all it was a good time and a hit with my parents, so I think I'll follow up with Jeopardy for my stepmother's birthday since its made by the same studio that did Wheel of Fortune. If it had online play, I would have grabbed a copy of WoF myself since its a good little game.

Pat and Vanna look weird as Miis, but noticeably less so than the real-life versions these days.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Pat and Vanna look weird as Miis, but noticeably less so than the real-life versions these days.

What's creepy is the cartoony versions of them they sometimes use in the intro that look just like Mii's >.>

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

What's creepy is the cartoony versions of them they sometimes use in the intro that look just like Mii's >.>

Dad mashed through cutscenes and intros once I taught him about that, so I didn't get to see the full into.

He was just like "Am I going to have to sit through all this every time?"

"Just hit A, Dad."

He certainly enjoyed Wheel of Fortune more than the Mario games I also brought over, guess it helps he knew the rules. Stuff like Mario was a bit too abstract for him.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

He certainly enjoyed Wheel of Fortune more than the Mario games I also brought over, guess it helps he knew the rules. Stuff like Mario was a bit too abstract for him.

o.O too abstract? I can kinda see the point in terms of the world and all the craziness, but there's nothing terribly abstract in general about classic mario.

Unless you're talking about games like Galaxy. Hell even I found Galaxy to be horribly disorienting at first.