What Are You Currently Playing? 6.65: Neighbor of the Beast

[Spark Of Spirit]

It is easily the best 3D Zelda.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've been playing through "The Iga Escape" mission in Nioh. This is by far one of the best designed levels that I've played in any game in a long time. It may very well go down as one of my all-time favorites.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I beat Blaster Master Zero. It took me about 7 total hours, basically longer than a COD game. If you like platformers you should pick it up.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Splatoon 2 test fire is awesome!

EDIT: My message got cut off. It's basically the original with new moves. People seem to be kicked a lot less now which probably means dedicated servers for this. Hope Nintendo really goes all out promoting it. It's pretty great!

[gunswordfist]

I finally got around to playing my free Steam copy of Renegade Ops. I played as Armand. Hard game or my aim just sucks. I got the helicopter, which was a surprise to me, then fly around like a mad man and the game crashed during the boss

[gunswordfist]

I just beat the first level of Renegade Ops. Okay, I am impressed.

[VLordGTZ]

So I've been making some steady progress in Zelda: Breath of the Wild over the past month.  I currently have 26 hearts, a 2 & 1/5th ring stamina gauge, and I've completed 116 shrines.  I was going to do the last 4 shrines, but then I realized that they require me to get near/complete the main dungeons, so I think I'll FINALLY do the main dungeons.  Honestly, this is probably my favorite Zelda game now.

I also picked up Nier Automata, though I haven't had much time to play it outside of the first area.  I'll probably start focusing on it more once my college workload lightens.

[Dreamer2]

Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5. That's been eating up all my video game time since last week. I'm making my way through Kingdom Hearts Final Mix and I'm loving it. Lots of great memories of playing this stuff. I'll be moving on to the next game soon. Lots to play in this collection.

If you've ever had an interest in KH, this is a great collection.

[Mustang]

I got Persona 5 on the way tomorrow. To be honest I completely forgot about the game. I know folks have been talking about it constantly but I was on a media blackout for this game as well.

I know of the Persona series, but I have very little experience with them. The only MegaTen game I have ever experienced was Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne and I didn't even finish that because of my conscience (being a christian and whatnot and playing a game where you can team up with Lucifer just don't mesh well with me, lol. Don't judge me.  ) Also, I haven't played a JRPG since Tales of Vesperia (yeah, I've played a bit of FFXV, but it don't feel like your traditional JRPG) and that game burned me out completely when it came to the genre (especially playing it right after Abyss). The long drawn out dungeons were just a turnoff to the point where I even when I found an opportunity to actually get into Persona 3&4 I just couldn't because I saw a lot of the dungeons were so long and at that time (this was also my transition to Mass Effect) I was like, yeah, I'm done. But I'm hoping the dungeons in P5 won't feel so tiring.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm still opening towers and completing shrines in BOTW. I'm thinking of going to a dungeon next, but I haven't decided which one to do next. Also finally got my Smash Bros Toon Link amiibo to give me Link's cap so now he actually looks like he should.

This game is something else.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've heard that the game can actually be pretty challenging by 3D Zelda standards, similar to the original NES classic and Zelda II in which you would experience quite a few deaths before clearing a particular area or dungeon. Is that true?

[Spark Of Spirit]

I've heard that the game can actually be pretty challenging by 3D Zelda standards, similar to the original NES classic and Zelda II in which you would experience quite a few deaths before clearing a particular area or dungeon. Is that true?

You die all the time. It's unquestionably the hardest game in the series since the NES. It's a bit easier since I started getting better weapons, armor, hearts, and stamina, but I still die quite a bit. You have to be on guard at every moment, use the right weapons, and know when to parry and dodge to get through every single encounter.

And to think there are people eager for Hard Mode and three heart runs. Masochists.

[Nel_Annette]

Got Dear Esther off my backlog in an hour. Pretty graphics (especially the caves), but yeah, otherwise, it was a miserable slog.

With Breath of the Wild out of the way, I'm back to Bravely Default and Tearaway.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm currently switching between four games right now:

Nioh- I still really want to play Zelda BOTW, but it'll be a while before I can afford a Switch. Until then, Nioh is my favorite game of the year so far, and arguably one of the best games of the decade. If your only exposure to this game was one of the early days, ignore those experiences (especially the Alpha demo); the finished product is completely different, and far superior. I'm currently at the final region and almost done with the main story. However hearing how much better the game gets on NG+ and my eagerness to always jump back in for more, I won't be putting this game down anytime soon.

Nier: Automata- If Nioh is a character action game with RPG elements, than Nier is an RPG with character action game and shoot-em-up/bullet hell elements. Not a bad combination at a, but I just couldn't help but make the comparison between the two and witch aspects each chooses to emphasize over the other. To be honest I haven't made much headway in the game as of yet. I've only cleared the first few missions of 2B's campaign, but I generally love the art-design, combat, and world-building. It'll be a while before I can play enough to truly get a feel for the game, though. My only gripe so far is that the hit-detection on melee attacks from enemies can be really off at times. It's not such a big deal on its own, but as a game made by Platinum, it is a bit disappointing since  they are ususally pretty good about getting that sort of stuff right. That said, it's not too bad on Normal, but I can see why TS17 was getting so frustrated on his Very Hard mode run since basically every attack one-shots you and when you get hit by something that didn't even look like it was close to you, it can be pretty infuriating. Regardless, I'm only playing on Normal for now so it doesn't bother me too much.

God of War 3 Remastered- I know, right. What is EK doing playing one of these? Well, I borrowed it from my brother, and I'm no longer the elitist snob that I was a few years b, so I don't outright hate any games from this genre that aren't made in Japan. That said, playing a few hours of this game pretty much confirms everything that I've ever thought about God of War as a series. It's a fun time-waster....and that's pretty much it. The combat is varied enough to keep things fresh for a couple of hours, but far too shallow and over-exploitable to entice experimentation. And the puzzles are about as basic as they come. If you take away the admittedly impressive production values, this is an all around mediocre game with average uninspired combat and a really dumb story. And I don't really have a problem with it selling so well and lots of people enjoying it. I just don't get why it got so much critical acclaim for something so obviously "just OK."

The Last of Us Remastered- I got this one for free thanks to a special deal. Basically, take everything that I just said about God of War, except apply it to a stealth game, and change the complaint about the story from being dumb to being pandering tripe that thinks it's smart by copying great films without actually understanding what makes them work. This is not Children of Men, even if the writers think that it is. On its own, it's fine. Maybe even above average, and certainly a lot more interesting to me than the movie-simulators that are the Uncharted games. But, it's easily the most overrated thing to come out this decade by far. Calling it a great game is one thing. I may not agree with that assessment, but at least I could understand having that sort of regard for it. Calling it a masterpiece, on the other hand, is outright ludicrous, IMO.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Play DOOM 4 when you get the chance. I think you'll really like it.

As for stealth I've heard good things about the new Styx: Shards of Darkness game. I've been getting into the genre since playing bits of the original Deus Ex last year and I've found that I really dig them.