seanstar
Haven't played 7th Saga myself, so I'd say no. I've also heard the whole "7th saga II" thing is more internet misinformation than substance.
seanstar
Goes without saying right now, but:
Portal: GET IT. Before the 24th. Really. Even though I've beaten it once, the script is still cracking me up, and I'm quite enjoying the new/second-play radio puzzles. Plus, the cake is great.
Torchlight: Sunk the $10 on this figuring it would be a decent generic character-builder/dungeon-slog for my occasional cravings for such. I still think it's kinda generic, but that I kinda lost track of the first 3 hours of play and came out with a battlemage dual-wielding a pistol (that makes things explode) and a wand (that hits with enough force to throw things over railings) speaks for itself.
jetboy
Just finished The Dig (from steam.) The intro made me hate it... reminded me too much of so many rubbish generic movies about US soldiers. That said the story really opened up and I loved it! Glad I played The Dig...
MetalDragon
Playing Doom 2 these days. In Level 13 now.
finished Doom 1 (all 3 episodes) last week, started Ultimate Doom, but that one is just damn hard, got stuck in Level 4 I think.
I never really played that back in the days, was just cheating around, now without cheats it's even cooler. ;)
After that I might start Marathon. :)
jack59splat59
I have Battlefield: 1943 and I've been playing it with the little time I spend on Xbox anymore.
seanstar
Beat Mystic Ark- ending was fair. I can now safely say the game was quite strong for its time, but not a must-play classic. Now I'm on to finding games in my queue that actually play- my used Metroid Prime 2 disc seems to have sticky non-soluble gunk on it making it frequently unreadable, and while I could start Valkyrie Profile on emulation, I'd really rather wait and get it working on console if I can (see other threads :P ) So wanting some vaguely action-game fix, I moved on to my latest "wow, that exists?! / wow, they have it?!" acquisition:
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (Master System version): I picked the game up largely because it seemed graphically so close to what I'd explored-via-emulation of the Genesis version, and hey, MJ on 8-bit synth sounded like potential awesome in and of itself. I must say this is the first game in my MS collection that really makes me glad to have the system (still haven't seen Wonder Boy III, Psycho Fox, etc.). The graphics, while lacking enemy dance moves and happy-love-magic sparklies, are quite impressive for the system. Michael has the same fluid animation as on Genesis, and most of the animation frames. I dare say he alone is probably hogging over half the sprite memory, judging from the fact that every stage/room features more or less a single flavour of not-Michael mob at a time.
Control is sufficient and deterministic, if not quite as tight and practical as many full-action games. You get the hang of which moves will glue you to the enemy's fist in a given scenario fast enough, though, and once acclimated, the only thing that I still really wished I had was a midair low-attack for getting rid of things right where I wanted to land a jump.
While the mechanic appears repetitive at first- explore every location, find all the girls, proceed- there's a surprising amount of design that went into the level progression. Each round throws another caveat to the hide & seek, whether it be new types of locations or new not-girl things that you need to watch out for when checking. Each stage brings in a new enemy type that generally breaks whatever strategy you'd found in the previous stage. Further, the stages themselves get increasingly complex and difficult to navigate/search in a systematic manner. Some areas are tricky, and the final boss is a right royal pain (I dare say impossible to beat without a specific strategy, and heavily reliant on luck and twitch-reflex once you've figured out how to even go about it), but infinite continues mean that with some patience anyone should be able to at least get to the final stages (and there's not much you miss if you get to round 5 or 6 without actually beating the game...).
I personally find this version easier and more enjoyable than the Genesis version, apart from the lack of dancing enemies, although the store rep claimed it was generally considered harder. $40 may have been a little steep for the overall enjoyment, but as a complete boxed semi-collector's-item that's a fun play to boot, there are worse things I could have spent the money on :)
Niemann
PS3 - Red Dead Redemption
Wii - Super Mario Galaxy 2
iPad - Zelda: Link to the Past via snes4iphone
I also just beat Portal for the third or fourth time. Honestly, Portal is one of the most incredible works of interactive art we have seen in a long time; simply beautiful.
mossy_11
Ico - it was quite the trial for me to be able to finally play this game. The hand-holding mechanic is amazing; such a little thing linking the two characters makes all the difference between me caring and not caring about the girl (Yorda) being escorted to safety.
Fractal - It's the follow-up to the award-winning Auditorium. I like it a lot, and am trying to get an interview with the developers (for the other site I write on). Check out the demo (online)
here.
Civ 4 - I felt an urge to start a new game of Civ, but don't have time to play it, so I'm trying to restrict my play-time to 30 minutes a day. It's working...so far.
Lufia 3 (can't remember the subtitle) - This is the Game Boy Color entry in the series. It doesn't seem like it can hold a candle to Lufia 2, but I'm impressed with what the developers managed to cram into a GBC game.
I'm not actually spending much time playing any of these games at the moment, though, because uni work and dance rehearsals are eating up all my time. (That's also why I haven't published a new article for a few weeks.)
Niemann
mossy_11 wrote:
Civ 4 - I felt an urge to start a new game of Civ, but don't have time to play it, so I'm trying to restrict my play-time to 30 minutes a day. It's working...so far.
I find myself doing a couple rounds of Civ IV once a year or so. Just an amazing game.
dickmedd
mossy_11 wrote:
Ico - it was quite the trial for me to be able to finally play this game. The hand-holding mechanic is amazing; such a little thing linking the two characters makes all the difference between me caring and not caring about the girl (Yorda) being escorted to safety.
That was the same thing that made the game for me! Check out Shadow Of The Colossus too, the gigantic world is fantastic and the horse-riding/Colossus-climbing both make it a really worthwhile play.
Pixelcade
I just moved on to Torchlight thanks to Steam. WOW WOW WOW everything I ever wanted since Diablo 2. Well done game.
seanstar
just be careful- remember you can click and hold to attack repeatedly. I got the game 3 weekends ago and haven't been able to play it since due to a nasty bout of probably-carpel-tunnel that cropped up mysteriously after ~3 days of play :P
menace690
Just finished Assassin's Creed 2. Took me over a month and a half cause I got tired of it and didn't feel like coming back to it. Not bad, just not great.
Currently on my list to play:
God of War 2
Mario Galaxy 2
God of War 3
Pixelcade
Oh man shift click is a must with a Ranged Weapon. With my warrior guy I have that attack where he just hops around beating the hell out of everything with Mana regen weapons so I just hop around a room RAWR BAM! RAWR BAM RRRRAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW
seanstar
Wizard dude who ended up turning into a dual-wielding magical ranger (wand+gun, with HP+MP regen). I'm pretty sure that, as a "spellcaster" I'm not supposed to fail to notice that the area boss is the area boss because it feels like just another named rare and doesn't require much magic (not that I use much magic beyond the melee thunder-smite anyway...)
But right now I'm playing "oh dear God my thumb was not designed to bend that way >_<;", meaning probably no games at all for a week or two (which may at leas give my wrist time to recover properly...)
djhotwheel
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 w/Expansion packs.
Most addicting game ever and it never stops.
seanstar
Xenogears (PS1): Tracked down and started this one after playing Xenosaga Ep I & II (still need to find III...), although it's been on my radar far longer. I definitely see that it's an ancestor of the series what with the whole big tangled web/chain of manipulative forces and the writers' ability to give you huge boatloads of info that explain everything until you realize that you now have more questions than you started with. And the penchant for using western/Germanic socio/linguistic/religious metaphors with reckless abandon and not quite full understanding. Plus the giant mechs, of course. I might also say that it feels vaguely like a descendant of Chrono Trigger- it would not surprise me at all to hear some of the same staff was involved in the story and design departments. Some plot points have been entirely predictable, others have caught me by surprise, and I'm still wondering what the big end-disc-1 climax is going to be, since the game has blown through a good 2-3 opportunities and just keeps going...
Squirrel
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue (PSX remake)
I played the PSX remake of the first one about a month ago. It was decent, so I decided to pick this one up as well. Now the problem is finding enough time to sit down and play it...
Pixelcade
Lunar Legend on GBA is outstanding and the graphics I think show off how good that little system was give it a shot. Won't take long but it's a good part of the series.
dickmedd
I've recently started playing Devil May Cry after finding it in a shop for about £1.50 which is a great hack and slash stress release. I'm also playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP which is a fantastic game. The controls are slightly difficult at first but it's all very well polished. Unlike the previous PSP installment, Portable Ops, this feels like a dedicated game and definitely worthy of a console port in the future. My main criticism would be the lack of checkpoints in lengthier missions, I played through a long section yesterday in which I managed to sneak perfectly through, releasing plenty of prisoners and recruiting staff etc. (another good feature) only to reach a section at the end I was poorly equipped for and thus got shot, being sent ALL THE WAY BACK to the start! Sigh!
I've also been playing a bit of multiplayer Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on GC (using GBAs) which has been pretty fun, if a little repetitive. I really do like the concept of connectivity with the GC and the GBA though and I wish there was something similar with the Wii and DS.