Whatcha Been Playing?

[dezm0nd]

Nice! I've yet to do that myself but one day... it will be mine! By the time I got there, I just couldn't hack a level that intense.

[Feirsteax]

Now all I have to do to 100% the game is beat it again. Once for each character.
Fffffffff

[Roy42]

It's easier if you get friends around and have them all take other characters. I still need to do every level with the other four characters and the prospect is boring the hell out of me.

Also, was it really worth grinding out 999 lives? I got to about 150 over the natural course of my game (and lost a fair chunk of them to Victory Road), and actively going after lives doesn't really seem that fun, with the exception of the money train.

[Flabyo]

Hearthstone is finally in open Beta.

I am playing a lot of Hearthstone now, and probably for the foreseeable future.

I won't go on, cause all you cool kids with your closed beta keys are probably already bored of it

[Feirsteax]

Also, was it really worth grinding out 999 lives? I got to about 150 over the natural course of my game (and lost a fair chunk of them to Victory Road), and actively going after lives doesn't really seem that fun, with the exception of the money train.

Heh heh heh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YNc2Ho6 ... ata_player

[RoboticMonk3y]

Olliolli on PS Vita,
it looks like a simple, clean, skateboard combo-driven score attack game.
In my Brain it should be simple for me to get insane high score, but somewhere between my brain and my fingers things are getting muddled!
Fun, but challengingly tough!

[Roy42]

Also, was it really worth grinding out 999 lives? I got to about 150 over the natural course of my game (and lost a fair chunk of them to Victory Road), and actively going after lives doesn't really seem that fun, with the exception of the money train.

Heh heh heh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YNc2Ho6 ... ata_player

Should've expected a koopa glitch would exist, they always do. Question still stands, though: was it really worth it?

[Feirsteax]

It was handy for champion's road. Saves getting the game over screen every 5 lives. I lost a good 200 lives to that level, so it was useful.
Also when I get to the stage where I've pretty much completed the whole game, I like to get max lives too, just for completeness. In 3d land if you got max lives, Mario would take his hat off. For some reason that doesn't happen in 3d world
And in nsmbU if you have 99 lives and use the gamepad to place blocks, you get special micro blocks.

[Scrustle]

Don't think I've actually mentioned it here before, but I finally managed to get a copy of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness after a while of various troubles with online retailers. But I've been playing it for a little while now.

So far it's good. Not quite sure how it stacks up against Lament of Innocence as of yet though. I like that you have a lot of different weapons to choose from in this one, and they have a lot of variation in how they handle, but the combat with them doesn't seem to be as deep as the combat with the whip in LoI. There's only a handful of short combos, while the whip actually built up quite a lot of longer combos as the game went on. I have a feeling the pacing of the game isn't quite as good as the previous one either. Instead of it being set in one castle with different sectors to explore at your own will, progress through the game is more linear. Levels are still expansive, in fact they're bigger than in LoI, but you have to go through them one at a time in a linear sequence to progress through the game. That combined with the fact they are larger can sometimes make the areas outstay their welcome a bit. Doesn't help that your character runs really slow too.

But hey, it's still early days. Like I said I'm enjoying the weapon selection, and the Innocent Devil familiar system seems interesting. Only have two at the moment, but they evolve through a skill tree of sorts with their path dictated by what weapon class you use. I'm also liking the hammy story, although it's nowhere near as hilariously awful as in LoI. And guess who shows up as a voice actor in this game? It's Liam O'Brien again. Also known as War from Darksiders, Weiss from Nier, Sanctus from DMC4, David from Killer is Dead, and every bloody other thing that's ever been created by mankind. So yeah, I like him as a voice actor, and it's fun seeing him pop up literally everywhere now that I've started recognising him more.

[PressEscToExit]

A friend is currently playing DmC (after me nagging him about it all last year) and now so am I since it's free on PS+. Jumping straight back in on Nephilim and still loving it, but finding that the PS3 version seems to run significantly worse than on 360 - weirdly glitchy audio, occasionally iffy frame rate, longer load times, Walking Dead style stuttering during cutscenes. It's just a little more unstable and grotty looking and I'm a wee bit surprised to see that sort of disparity between the platforms still happening. Cracking game anyway.

[NokkonWud]

Yeah, that was known at the time. The disparity is rare, but still there for some games sadly.

[Electric Crocosaurus]

A friend is currently playing DmC (after me nagging him about it all last year) and now so am I since it's free on PS+. Jumping straight back in on Nephilim and still loving it, but finding that the PS3 version seems to run significantly worse than on 360

That's a shame, I have it waiting in my list of PS+ games so I'd hoped they'd have this patched by now.

I've been playing Ni No Kuni for the past couple of weeks. I'd been looking forward to this one for a while, and while the art style and presentation is outstanding I'm finding the story a bit weak. Actually weak is unfair, it's charming enough (Mr Drippy is one of my favourite characters in gaming for some time) but it's yet to hit me in the way I'd expect a truly great JRPG to have done by now (I'm about 16 hours in). The gameplay is great though, a combination of Pokemon and Final Fantasy XII, and I know that the soundtrack is definitely an essential purchase.

[Todinho]

Yeah im facing the same problem with Ni nu Kuni everything in it from the visuals to the music and gameplay are captivating me but story itself im finding very bland it has charm but it's no Spirited Away.

[Cass]

Still playing Bravely Default, still charmed by it, still getting my arse kicked occasionally by the battle system (which is amazing and provides 70% of the entertainment in this game). It's great. The story is basically non-existent at this point, but the banter between characters surprised me in how likeable it is, it's gorgeous to look at, and the Norende-rebuilding sub/mini/metagame is a very addictive way to keep you coming back. My DS hasn't been turned off in about a week.

Speaking of Ni No Kuni, I actually had quite a similar experience playing that, in that the characters and setting were very entertaining despite the story being flimsy and/or non-existent. Bravely Default's humour and themes are a little more grown up, but not by much. Both have surprisingly deep battle systems.

[Flabyo]

How does Bravely Default compare to Ni No Kuni in terms of difficulty? I gave up on Ni No Kuni cause I couldn't stand the amount of level grinding to get past it's insane difficulty spikes...

[Cass]

The thing about Bravely Default is that its battle system is harsh, but not overly difficult, if that makes sense. The battle system is deep (between jobs, equipment, Brave and Default) so chances are if you're not succeeding, it's because you're doing something wrong or, more likely, not doing something you could be. I do still occasionally get random battles which wipe out my entire party (just through sheer force of RNG) but the game autosaves very often, so it's forgivable, and it happens much less now that I have a grasp on the mechanics.

But when everything clicks, you find you have an option against any boss. You will die, but when you do it feels like it's your fault as opposed to the game's difficulty spiking. When you figure a boss out, and take him down with your team at full health where previously he'd wiped the floor with you... it's pretty great.

That said... I'm 20 hours in. I hear this game reaching traditional levels of JRPG superhardness at some point.

[AndyKurosaki]

Traded some games in to pick up Skylanders Swap Force, as I'm a Skylanders whore. Well, I've got 29 of them to date. It's as fun as ever, but a bit annoying that all the Swap Force figures have their own new element, so yet again you see areas that you can't unlock without the specific figure type.

[Feirsteax]

Finished Bayonetta. Awesome. Got 2 awards that weren't stone in the end. Might go back and play some of the earlier levels, sure I'd do better now I'm more familiar with the controls.
I still haven't figured how to beat the "gold plated" enemies. I think they are immune to Witch Time, and they block loads of your attacks. No idea how to do them, end up using about 5 continues.
Amazing end sequence, as I expected from Platinum Games. LIMIT EXCEEDED! BIG BANG BONUS!!! And the dance video after the credits was hilarious.
Interested to see what new Bayonetta 2 brings to the table.

Also beat Wonderful 101 on Hard recently. Still love it. Noticed a little reference at the end I didn't see first time round, Vorkken's ship uses Zandatsu.

[RoboticMonk3y]

Finished guacamelee, enjoyed it throughout!
Played about an hour of uncharted golden abyss and can't see myself returning, I've not really enjoyed it.
Started playing Gravity rush, I'm about an hour in and enjoying it so far.

[Scrustle]

I still haven't figured how to beat the "gold plated" enemies.

What enemies exactly are you talking about there? I don't remember any enemy being immune to witch time.

I also replayed the demo for The Wonderful 101 again recently. I tried coming in with a different mind-set this time, since I thought I had a much better idea of what the game was "about" since the first time I tried. But, playing through is again, I came out yet again being put off of the game. A lot of the things that annoyed me before were still a problem (like the camera angle), and I just don't think I find the fundamental mechanics of it fun. I don't want to have to draw weapons every time I want to use them. I'd rather have that instant button-press response, and a proper camera so I can actually see what I'm doing. So yeah, yet again I think I've swung my opinion on that game, back to not wanting it after all.