What are you playing?

[Sarah]

I am playing Dark Souls and I have been really annoyed with it. Open world doesn't suit this game. Why? Because it's impossible to tell whether you're dying because you're not supposed to be somewhere or if you're just dying because that's how the game works.

I spent the majority of the day wandering around trying to figure out where to go after the Gargoyles (from whom I got the helm on my first kill :D). I had been down to lower Burg and got wiped out by Capra Demon a few times before deciding that wasn't where I was supposed to be. So I ended up wandering through the graveyard, getting slaughtered and then trying again because at least I could kill the skeletons a little. Then after remembering the guy said that the second bell was down, I took the elevator down. I was killing the dreglings that don't do anything and was like "oh yeah, this is cake." And then the ghosts appeared and I died. Repeatedly. I tried running past them but then I got mobbed by like 82 of them at once. So then I went back through Burg and Parish and killed some enemies that I couldn't previously but still found no real acceptable path. So I went back to Capra, who killed me about 300 times over the course of the day. Or, I should say, the dogs did. Who the pineapple puts two dogs and a giant goat in a tiny room?

Finally, at 1:42 AM I defeated his goat ass and found my way into the depths. That was pretty easy, though Gaping Dragon starts off quite misleading. Took me a few tries but I got him (and his tail axe (also got the tail axe of the gargoyle)) and now I'm Blighttown. Just realised the time and that I should be working.

But yeah, I'm really frustrated because I liked Demon's Souls a lot and I want to like Dark Souls too but it's so frustrating because I pineappleing hate open worlds so much. I'm so overwhelmed constantly.

[SuperNerd]

Don't worry, it gets better. You aren't the only one who despises extremely open-world games. But for Dark Souls, only the beginning is really confusing as to where you should go. Once you're on the right track, you'll basically stay on a pretty straightforward path.

The Capra Demon is one of the worst "mini-bosses" of the game. And like you said, the only thing that makes the fight difficult is the two plague dogs. I got lucky when I went up against him, with a lucky swipe that knocked out both dogs, letting me focus just on him. Can't say the same for my friend who got the game, though, it took him almost a day and a half to win.

Now I do want to state that Blighttown is probably one of the most infuriating places in the game, at least in my opinion. There's essentially two parts to it, and the second part is the absolute worst. To save you some sanity, I will tell you that if you haven't done so yet, open up the shortcut back to the Firelink Shrine that is near the entrance to the sewers (it's like right across from the door) because in that shortcut back, there's a lady behind iron bars who sells items that cure poison, plague, etc. You'll really want a good stock of those before exploring Blighttown.

[SuperNerd]

Dammit, Southperry lag.

[Olsi]

Me and my friends have been playing Dungeon Defenders a lot quite fun.

[Secun]

Playing MHFU, still. Afraid of fighting Tigrex ;~;

[Rob]

Playing MHFU, still. Afraid of fighting Tigrex ;~;

Do it. What weapon do you main? Are you talking about the Urgent quest to get 4 or 5 star missions? Snowy Mountains and stuff?

[Smooth Criminal]

Along with Devil Survivor and EBA, I started up TWEWY today. God, the beginning is terrible and the fighting system is kind of awkward. Paying attention to both screens while already trying to work with the weird style of combat on the touch screen is frustrating. I think I was way more interested in the characters who weren't Neku, but the story and feel have been getting progressively better.

I'd love hearing from some of you guys who have already played TWEWY how the heck you manage with the really weird dual screen fighting system and how to improve pulling off/paying attention to my combos on top screen when going for cards for Fusion.

I did start up Devil Survivor Overclocked and wound up getting halfway through, though. Amazingly addictive, simple but brilliant gameplay, and a great story. Soundtrack is alright, but really repetitive. The voice acting isn't that great, I almost wish I was playing without it and even though I know where to disable voice acting, I can't unimagine their voices and it'd take away from the experience for me- but I do appreciate that almost EVERYTHING is voice acted. I should probably focus on TWEWY a bit more, since as a whole, I've heard it's worth prioritizing over Devil Survivor.

I'm also doing another run of Mass Effect 2 before 3 comes out. I realized I haven't played all the DLC and bought Lair of the Shadow Broker, Kasumi and her related stuff, and Arrival. Can't wait for 3.

[Sarah]

Along with Devil Survivor and EBA, I started up TWEWY today. God, the beginning is terrible and the fighting system is kind of awkward. Paying attention to both screens while already trying to work with the weird style of combat on the touch screen is frustrating. I think I was way more interested in the characters who weren't Neku, but the story and feel have been getting progressively better.

I'd love hearing from some of you guys who have already played TWEWY how the heck you manage with the really weird dual screen fighting system and how to improve pulling off/paying attention to my combos on top screen when going for cards for Fusion.

I did start up Devil Survivor Overclocked and wound up getting halfway through, though. Amazingly addictive, simple but brilliant gameplay, and a great story. Soundtrack is alright, but really repetitive. The voice acting isn't that great, I almost wish I was playing without it and even though I know where to disable voice acting, I can't unimagine their voices and it'd take away from the experience for me- but I do appreciate that almost EVERYTHING is voice acted. I should probably focus on TWEWY a bit more, since as a whole, I've heard it's worth prioritizing over Devil Survivor.

I'm also doing another run of Mass Effect 2 before 3 comes out. I realized I haven't played all the DLC and bought Lair of the Shadow Broker, Kasumi and her related stuff, and Arrival. Can't wait for 3.

Don't pay attention to what your other character is doing. It doesn't matter.


I need to buy Arrival before ME3 comes out. Stupid thing didn't come with the Cerberus edition for some reason.

[Secun]

Do it. What weapon do you main? Are you talking about the Urgent quest to get 4 or 5 star missions? Snowy Mountains and stuff?

I main LS. Was the 4* Elder urgent. Cleared it relatively easily, which threw me off; I thought Tigrex would've been much harder.

Currently farming Kirin for Kirin Thndr Tails.

[Razmos]

Completely forgot that the Final Fantasy XIII-2 demo was available.
Downloaded it and played it, and i enjoyed it quite a lot.

The gameplay is far better in my opinion. I love the monster taming, i love the quests and the exploring and i still love the combat system from the original. The battle music is nowhere near as good as Blinded by Light was, but it's not completely terribad either. Was a little confused about how the Crystarium works in this one, but i'll probably wait until i get the full game before i really try and figure it out.

Found out through my own craftiness that your monsters can devour your other monsters to increase its stats and give it different roles, effectively meaning that any monster can have any role if you train it properly, which makes it seem like the monster has more customization options than Serah and Noel do. Turning my Omega Weapon into a healer = lol

Since you can recruit Lightning as a monster through DLC, does that mean she can eat monsters too? Or can monsters eat her? hilarious.

Regardless, it seems like the story is gonna be a pile of crap from what i've read online. But eh, i'll play it anyway.

[Dark Link]

Picked up "The Sly Collection" a couple days ago. How I've missed the Sly Cooper games.
Just got to the Panda King in the 1st game. Hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow and work on Sly 2.
Mz. Ruby's fight sucked hard, due to being out of sync, but found out you can just spam the button(s) to auto succeed.

[Myles]

Just got Mortal Kombat 9 in the post.

Just ordered MW3.

Just bought XBL Gold (waiting for the email with the code now).

Not good when I have an exam on Friday.

[Dusk]

Bought Sonic Generations since it's on sale on Steam this weekend. Sonic Team has been trying to take Sonic back to its roots in recent years, but I think that this is the first game that they've really succeeded with, and not just because they've reintroduced the Sonic from Sonic 2 as a playable character. They've really brought back the excellent stage design and fast-paced core gameplay, without all the filler crap that they introduced in the more recent games.

The thing I love the most about the old Sonic games is the stage design. It's difficult if you want to go as fast as you can, but very forgiving. Each level is full of shortcuts and boosts that pop out at you suddenly and require good timing and precision to hit, but if you miss, you'll often just fall into an alternate path that's slower and more difficult to get out of. When you do everything perfectly, you'll move along at dizzying speeds, and it feels awesome.

Surprisingly, I actually enjoy most of the modern Sonic stages more than the classic counterparts. Modern Sonic is even faster than classic Sonic, and has tighter controls, and somewhat more forgiving platforming to make up for the smaller reaction time windows and the greater difficulty of moving in 3d. Playing this game has changed my opinion on the Sonic games of recent years. The 3d stage design has gotten better since Sonic Adventure, with more alternate paths and less rail movement, and the core gameplay is still awesome. They just need to ditch a lot of the annoying minor characters or at least keep them in the background like they do in this game.

[Sarah]

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)

Currently playing:
Dark Souls

[Secun]

About to start the Nekoht quests on Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, just have finished all of the 1-6* Village Elder quests and unlocked the dual Rajang quest.

Finishing up some stuff in LR, though, like upgrading my Fire Dragonsword to a Red Dragonsword.

[Rob]

Went totally retro and started some games I wanted to play for a while now.

- Shining Force II (Like 3 or 4 battles away from finishing it, though I want to grind a bit to get better spells)
- Monster World IV (For so long I've wanted to play this! I got around to making the translated rom work with an emu that I've been speeding through it in two days. I'm gonna finish it soon, yay)
- FFT Advance (second replay)
- Megaman Zero 1,2 and 3. I'm not digging it that much, but I'll probably get around to beat them all eventually.
- Bit Generations games. If no one has played this games for the GBA, do it now.

[Rob]

lagperry

[Dark Link]

100%'d Sly 1 a few days ago. Started work on Sly 2 and am already at Chapter 3.
Didn't realize how massive the changes were from Sly 1 -> Sly 2 when going directly to the next game without having to wait years in between.

[Sarah]

100%'d Sly 1 a few days ago. Started work on Sly 2 and am already at Chapter 3.
Didn't realize how massive the changes were from Sly 1 -> Sly 2 when going directly to the next game without having to wait years in between.

I know, right!? I plat'd 1 and 3 but because I had already played through Sly 2 100% on the PS2 I just couldn't get into it. Finding the bottles in that game was a chore. I hope Sly 4 is more like Sly 1 in that regard.

[Myles]

ME3 HURRY THE FK UP :|