What are you playing?

My only gripe is that it's not announced yet for Wii U. The celestial brush is so much easier to use with a touch screen.

Hurrah! 2 out of 3 Green Nevi felled. I wonder if I should continue with the Nevi or to go tear my hair out Gold medalling the remaining challenges.

quantum conundrum


it's fully voiced over by jon delancie
hnng

I'm going full-blown bored and playing KH2FM+ again.
I'm using Data Roxas as a warm-up, no problems and barely any nicks....Only after to have my behind handed to me by Terra's armor.
Well, that's my fault for playing on Critical Mode.

Playing Hugo after finishing Yunica's story feels so wierd.

So far in 2012 I've beat...

Demon's Souls (January 7th)
Mass Effect 2 (January 9th)
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (January 20th)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (February 5th) (Platinum on February 12th)
Resident Evil: Revelations (February 9th)
Rayman Origins (extended play for Platinum on February 14th)
Nier (extended play for Platinum on February 17th)
Sly 2 (February 18th) (platinum)
Jak and Daxter (March 2nd) (platinum)
Tales of Graces F (March 20th)
Uncharted 2 (March 31st)
Super Mario 3D Land (April 3rd) (100%, glittering stars)
Devil May Cry (April 4th)
Devil May Cry 3 (April 18th)
Parasite Eve II (April 23rd) (Bad ending haha. FLIIIIIINNNNTTTT)
Rocket Slime (May 4th)
Xenoblade (May 9th)
Professor Layton and the Last Specter (May 17th)
Atelier Totori ("Good" ending [not true ending] May 22nd)
Jak 2 (May 25th)
Jak 3 (May 27th)
Atelier Meruru (June 3rd)
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (June 13th) (Platinum: June 15th)
Pokemon Conquest (June 21st)

Currently playing:
Dark Souls (on hold)
Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One (going for plat)
ICO
Shadow of the Colossus
Mass Effect 3
Uncharted 3
Grandia
Devil May Cry 2
Legend of Dragoon
Tales of the Abyss 3DS
Musashi: Samurai Legend replay

Need to get:
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance (July 31st)
Sly 4 (FALL :()

Just updatin'

I purchased and played Journey this past weekend. Beautiful game.

but a COLLECTOR'S EDITION was just announced and it has a ton of content and now I has a sad.

Quote:

---

The complete set of bonus flOw, Flower, and Journey content includes:

• Thirty-minute behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Journey
• Creator Commentary playthroughs of all three games
• Three exclusive mini-games from thatgamecompany
• Concept art and screenshot galleries for all three games
• Original soundtracks for all three games
• PS3 dynamic themes and wallpapers
• PSN avatars including eight exclusive new Journey avatars never released before
• Official game trailers and developer diary videos
• Reversible cover art

---

Almost none of that makes it worth $30.

Except the fact that it's on a disc. And I want to play Journey. Will be buying.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sarah

Almost none of that makes it worth $30.

Except the fact that it's on a disc. And I want to play Journey. Will be buying.

---

But I would have been willing to pay double the price for all that. Oh well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jon

But I would have been willing to pay double the price for all that. Oh well.

---

You know that the three exclusive mini-games ARE Journey, Fl0wer and Fl0w right?

Turns out I accidentally bought a Region 2 Gravity Rush so I can't install the DLC. FUUUUUUUUU-

Team Fortress 2/Cube 2 All these changes are so...eh. Confusing.

So far in 2012 I've beat...

Demon's Souls (January 7th)
Mass Effect 2 (January 9th)
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (January 20th)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (February 5th) (Platinum on February 12th)
Resident Evil: Revelations (February 9th)
Rayman Origins (extended play for Platinum on February 14th)
Nier (extended play for Platinum on February 17th)
Sly 2 (February 18th) (platinum)
Jak and Daxter (March 2nd) (platinum)
Tales of Graces F (March 20th)
Uncharted 2 (March 31st)
Super Mario 3D Land (April 3rd) (100%, glittering stars)
Devil May Cry (April 4th)
Devil May Cry 3 (April 18th)
Parasite Eve II (April 23rd) (Bad ending haha. FLIIIIIINNNNTTTT)
Rocket Slime (May 4th)
Xenoblade (May 9th)
Professor Layton and the Last Specter (May 17th)
Atelier Totori ("Good" ending [not true ending] May 22nd)
Jak 2 (May 25th)
Jak 3 (May 27th)
Atelier Meruru (June 3rd)
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (June 13th) (Platinum: June 15th)
Pokemon Conquest (June 21st)
L.A. Noire: Complete Edition (June 30th) (Platinum: July 5th)

Currently playing:
Dark Souls (on hold)
Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One (going for plat)
ICO
Shadow of the Colossus
Mass Effect 3
Uncharted 3
Grandia
Devil May Cry 2
Legend of Dragoon
Tales of the Abyss 3DS
Musashi: Samurai Legend replay

Need to get:
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance (July 31st)
Sly 4 (FALL :()


Still playing L.A. Noire, going for 100% of trophies (which supersedes plat since there are 4 DLC packs (included with CE) that each have trophies). Story was pretty awesome though. Love that ending.

Realized a few reason for my recent hesitance since the last post.

Starting with a side rant

Missables & Consequences

I'm a collector; I shouldn't have to restate that fact. Recently I've been trying to get around it thanks to practicality and budgeting, but it's still there.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that people who like to collect things dislike permanently missable content within a game. But I've been hearing counter-arguements about difficulty, and allowing players to never feel like they've missed something is being viewed as "too easy". Now, previously, I would have disputed this because it was about my interests, but thinking about it; most RPGs are. That much I'll give them, and I suppose that much can drive the market. But what gets to me is why have a 5 minute segment within a game with no direction to the player to find that has an effect on the end of the game without affecting the remainder of the story? In games that can take over 100 hours per completion in cases?

I find that consequence too harsh personally. Why repeat a game for one minor task? If you are going to make it pivotal within the game, how about you branch the story along with it? Change future dialog, enter different areas, gain different affinities? If all it is going to do is alter some "point score" used to determine the ending, just don't do it. Unless it is a short enough game with a good enough reason to be replayed. I can't say that most traditional RPGs can validate that on gameplay mechanics alone. Divergent story paths, perhaps, but I can't really want to go back and play say Dragon Quest 4 just for it's mechanics since they are often repeated and have newer variants that are more appealing.

Another more obvious point of this is missable items within the catalog of the game needed for 100% of something. I can definitely understand that there should be consequences for not paying enough attention within the game; more-so for intentionally doing the wrong thing. But to make that one thing entirely unavailable for the duration of the game causing a restart for that reason alone is again, way too harsh for longer games.

In cases like these, I am perfectly fine with such content as long as it is made available post-game. Heck, make it 10 times harder to emphasize that you could have gotten it easier before; just don't take it away permanently. It really ticks me off, and makes me feel like to get the best out of my time, I HAVE to follow a guide; at which point I'm not really playing the game, now am I? It winds up just following the motions and completing a task set about in an instruction manual. Quite frankly, developers need to stop doing that unless they can truly justify it with multiple endings (pushing it), multiple story arcs, or multiple ways to approach a task. This hit me a little in Valkrye Profile (stopped) and Star Ocean 4 (slow, but still playing)

Emotional Ties

Lately, I just haven't had the emotional stamina to handle story driven games so I've been crawling back to task driven ones to tie me over in the meanwhile (Disgaea 3, Kairosoft Cell Phone Games). I want to get back to them, I just can't handle most good story elements right now.

Pacing

This is why I think I had such a problem with Star Ocean 4, and I don't believe it is exclusive to the game (pretty damn sure Xenosaga had the same problem), but just the same, it's a hindrance and I don't have the patience I used to. What I mean here is that there are hours of cutscene/peaceful town actions, then hours of fighting (often without save points throughout). This led me to be overly critical of each element, since they were forcing it in your face for a period that seemed a bit too long. If they had managed to break it down a little better (more checkpoints/peaceful areas: less 5 cutscenes in a row), I probably would not have been so hard on the characters themselves. And as of now, I still haven't bothered trying to grind each area for missable database content and quests that happen in each fighting area that would likely triple duration of time I'd have to spend in them. And as it was I experienced a dungeon area going 2 hours before finding one save point from the last. Improve the split, and all of the other points I made probably wouldn't have been noticed.

Beyond Good & Evil HD

100% Completion except for mdisk 13 which required registration with Ubisoft's website. Have a separate save in case I decide to do that though. There was no platinum for this game.

Ratchet & Clank: Crack in Time

Platinum gotten.

Star Ocean 4

Still in En II. I misunderstood the quest dialog for getting the wind ring and wound up doing a quest for an NPC who shared the name making me beyond broke (bought all the skills beforehand). When I finally got it, I was confused since I had spammed the X button all around the area for around 20 minutes before and nothing happened. Will likely be finishing soon.

3D Dot Game Heroes

There's really no other way to describe this than a Minecraft inspired (when was this released again?) hybrid between Legend of Zelda and Dragon Quest with intentional parody.

At first I was confused as to why they had taken the full power sword beam from Zelda and made it ridiculously overpowered. I mean, to make it silly, even the upgrades you pay for at the blacksmith ONLY APPLY to the full health version. It was like there's no point to even be alive if you aren't at full health to overkill everything. And then I found out about spelunker mode (1 hit death).

So yeah, this is one of those very, very easy games with stupidly hard challenges. Here's one to try: Play spelunker mode with no deaths using only the Gladius and secondary items. The Gladius in this game is about the length of the swords in 2D Zelda games versus the better ones in this game which are about 12 times that size.

Still, getting out of another little rut, so things are improving again. Progress should return to a reasonable pace soon.

Just finished getting 100% of trophies for L.A. Noire.

pineapple Auto Fanatic. pineapple it so hard.

Someone give me some props. I need some props.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sarah

Just finished getting 100% of trophies for L.A. Noire.

pineapple Auto Fanatic. pineapple it so hard.

Someone give me some props. I need some props.

---

I give you 23 props.

Lately I've been playing a good bit of Vindictus, Quantum Conundrum, and Lollipop Chainsaw.

Recently got all achievements on the Deus Ex DLC, Missing Link, and soon I will plan to get all achievements on the main game. I have also been putting a lot of hours into the Binding of Isaac to get all achievements on it, but damn, is it hard getting that Golden God/Platinum God achievement.

Picked up Telltale's Walking Dead game recently so I will be starting that soon, too.

Started up pokémon heart gold, yay.

Bought Tomba! from the PSN because it is the greatest game of all time. Finished that in a day because I've memorized every event and it's not especially long to begin with.

Playing Arkham City now. Game is pineappleing jam-packed with pomegranate.

So far in 2012 I've beat...

Demon's Souls (January 7th)
Mass Effect 2 (January 9th)
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (January 20th)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (February 5th) (Platinum on February 12th)
Resident Evil: Revelations (February 9th)
Rayman Origins (extended play for Platinum on February 14th)
Nier (extended play for Platinum on February 17th)
Sly 2 (February 18th) (platinum)
Jak and Daxter (March 2nd) (platinum)
Tales of Graces F (March 20th)
Uncharted 2 (March 31st)
Super Mario 3D Land (April 3rd) (100%, glittering stars)
Devil May Cry (April 4th)
Devil May Cry 3 (April 18th)
Parasite Eve II (April 23rd) (Bad ending haha. FLIIIIIINNNNTTTT)
Rocket Slime (May 4th)
Xenoblade (May 9th)
Professor Layton and the Last Specter (May 17th)
Atelier Totori ("Good" ending [not true ending] May 22nd)
Jak 2 (May 25th)
Jak 3 (May 27th)
Atelier Meruru (June 3rd)
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (June 13th) (Platinum: June 15th)
Pokemon Conquest (June 21st)
L.A. Noire: Complete Edition (June 30th) (Platinum: July 5th)
Tomba! (July 6th)
Batman: Arkham City (July 8th)

Currently playing:
Dark Souls (on hold)
Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One (going for plat)
ICO
Shadow of the Colossus
Mass Effect 3
Uncharted 3
Grandia
Devil May Cry 2
Legend of Dragoon
Tales of the Abyss 3DS
Musashi: Samurai Legend replay
Riviera: The Promised Land
Yggdra Union

Need to get:
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance (July 31st)
Sly 4 (FALL :()


Just 100%'d the main campaign for Arkham City. Need to run through NG+ and do the Riddler's Revenge. Bought Tomba! off the PSN and 100%'d it in less than a day. Still love the pomegranate out of it. Also bought Riviera and Yggdra Union since they were $5 each.