What Are You Currently Playing? 5.05: You Are (Not) A Gamer

[gunswordfist]

It was still free! Thanks Nel.

[Peanutbutter]

Recently played Sly 4 and of course loved it. I have since put it on my birthday list (it's next Friday). Really hard to believe it was made by a different team, it felt exactly the same as if Sucker Punch did it. I can't wait for when Sanzaru does Sly 5.


Currently playing the Hitman series, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. I'm still keeping an eye out for Deadly Premonition to come out. Also, when my birthday comes I'm going to GameStop and see if I can get Hotel Duck on Desen's recommendation.

[gunswordfist]

Last night I had a dream that I was playing a game that played like Perfect Dark/Max Payne/Half-Life 2 and then at the end I was Deadpool in a tuxedo with a bubble pipe and I pounced somebody.

[Nel_Annette]

It was still free! Thanks Nel.

No prob. I saw the physical copies of the game (not Survival Instinct, I assure you, it is the Telltale one) at target today for $30, so I'm glad we both could save about $22 on the game. 

Guys, after blood, sweat and tears, and so so much swearing, I finally beat Hell in Spelunky. I... I am so happy. And to top it off, I did it on my 1001st game. I had just gotten the "Addicted" achievement the game before. No more stress, just fun playthroughs of that game from now on. I still need to kill Vlad to complete the journal, though.

Also nearing the end of Hotel Dusk. It's quite the fun little mystery game, though some of the puzzles did leave me wandering around the hotel for almost thirty minutes trying to figure out what item I needed to do something and where I could find said item.

[gunswordfist]

I stopped reading right when I saw Hell. After a million tries, I can't even get to Hell in Spelunky. I got close like twice.

[Eddy]

Jumping in to say that BioShock Infinite is incredible.

I'm in the process of replaying it in 1999 Mode right now.

[Foggle]

Jumping in to say that BioShock Infinite is incredible.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, despite saying that I was done with trying to get the XBL version of NGB to work without freezing on me, I still decided to keep playing it anyways just because its my favorite fucking game ever, and I'll work through some technical difficulties if I have to. One of my only gripes with the game that I didn't have before is how there is a cap put on upgrading your weapons, so I couldn't level up my Dragon Sword until Chapter 3, and I couldn't do anything with my Lunar Staff until Chapter 4. The problem with that for me has to do with how limited the combat feels to me, being that I'm used to utilizing fully upgraded weapons in this game. Still, I do like being able to upgrade stuff in general, so now that I have my DS and LS both at level 2, the game's combat has gotten to be as fun as it should be, once again. Its not so much about chaining together combos (although that element is there), but more-so in using the right moves from the right weapons in the most appropriate situations. It just feels great in general to be able to have a complete advantage over your enemies when you use your weapons strategically in this game. I also love the enemy AI in this game. Its STILL the best in the genre, IMO. They move so damn fast and are far less predictable ad pattern-based than the enemies in most other hack n' slash games, but they still feel completely fair in how you fight them. Its just so satisfying to fight enemies in this game. I also really appreciate the light puzzle-solving elements that this game has. It just really helps the pacing of the game, as I never get worn out on fighting and  thus I don't want to stop playing for quite a while. With NG2, while I love the combat, I have to admit that I never play more tha 1 Chapter of the game at a time since they are each so long and contain pretty much nothing but fighting, so its easy for me to get worn out after just a single level. As far as I can tell, NG3RE seems to be even worse in this regard. I really do hope that the next NG game can bring back the variety and expert pacing of NGB/S.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I finished Luigi's Mansion 2. I've been basically playing a mission (or two) a night since I got it and it took me 20 hours to finish. Suffice to say content was not a problem with this one.

Negatives: The framerate could be sturdier. It doesn't hamper any enjoyment out of the game but it is easily the most noticeable problem in the game. Also some bosses are really good while others are just downright strange like the whole second boss. Other than those issues, I'm really struggling to find any other issues.

Positives: There's hidden stuff everywhere! The dark-light device is an excellent idea, and almost everything in the game is interactive. The missions are just long enough and the game itself is very meaty (I haven't even dived into the multiplayer yet), so there's a lot of bang for your buck. The final boss is amazing and easily blows away the cruddy one from the first game. Each mansion is expertly designed and full of catchy tunes and great art design. The game is very charming and Luigi is at his best. The music is perfect Luigi's Mansion.

All in all, this is basically my game of the year so far. As someone who liked the original but didn't think it was particularly great, this is basically a fulfillment of that potential that one had. If you have a 3DS this is a must-play in my opinion.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I played through Chapter 6 of NGB today. My only other gripe with the game so far is that its not very challenging on Normal. I wish I could just go right ahead and jump to Hard mode or Very Hard mode from the get-go. Things have been going too easy so far. Its hilarious, because I'm already maxed out on healing items and can't carry anymore, not because I bought any, but because I never use the damn things on this difficulty setting.

Other than that, though, its still rightfully the best game that I've ever played. The level design is still awesome, and only slightly hampered by the occasionally wonky platforming (and the original DMC had that as well, so its not like that problem is exclusive to NG games). Its also helpful that I know where all of the chests and Golden Scarabs are located, so I don't miss anything as I'm going along.

Now, one thing I love about Chapter 6 is how those zombie enemies are so damn easy to farm for essence. I stalked up 40K on essence by just spamming UTs on them, and while it is technically grinding, in this case I don't mind it because it brings a lot of benefits to me relatively quickly in the grand scheme of things, although I did end up taking a full hour to complete the level because of the time that I spent on grinding. I ended up getting my Dragon Sword to level 3, maxing out my Vigoorian Flails at level 2, and also getting my wooden sword up to level 3, and I still have over 15K in essence to spare, which I'm saving for the next level so that I can upgrade my Lunar Staff right away (once again, I can't do it right away because of the level cap). Its nice to have my Dragon Sword up to level 3, so that now I can finally use gleaming blade, which is a really useful technique, but then again, there isn't really that much necessity to it on this particular difficulty setting.

I also completed the first 60 Fiends challenge with relative ease. On my first time playing through the game, I never did that because I really sucked at the combat and would end up dying before I could take down even half of the enemies, but in this case I used the proper strategy and took out all of the enemies in a fairly short amount of time, though this is probably the one time that I had to use some light healing items to survive the entire duration of the battle (mostly because I was being sloppy and took some unnecessary damage). So, now I got another Spirit of the Devils and used it to upgrade my max Ki-limit to 3 slots, though I rarely use Ki in this game, so its more for the sake of completion than anything else, really.

[gunswordfist]

I beat The Walking Dead Episode 1 today. I can't believe so few picked Doug. Anyway, it wasn't enough for me to want to rush and get the other episodes ahead of all the other XBLA games I want but I liked it. I was glad to meet my 2nd favorite character in the comic book series, Glenn. The part where he said, 'Wait, you have a boyfriend?!' was funny.

Also, yesterday I beat Metal Slug 3 for the third time ever. I did it to look for the hostage that's attached to an achievement and I found him. Dear God I love the last level. It's like 3 levels in one. I like fighting enemies like the red spiders and squid enemies because it's so fun killing them with the knife and I like swatting the squids' projectiles. Anyway, I plan on beating the game again today but with my baby brother and because I want to go to the above ground path in Mission 3 that I had to look up on youtube to see where to enter it.

[gunswordfist]

We beat Metal Slug 3 today. That Ostrich path is decent.

I forgot to mention this, I finally got around to beating Sonic Generations. It took a few dozen tried but I got the hang of it. Then I went on to do the Metal Sonic boss fight on Hard mode. Fun but too repetitive.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, do any of you guys know that really irritating and frustrating feeling that you get when you are trying to 100% a game and collect every item, but accidentally go to the next area and get locked out of the previous area while knowing full well that you had more items to attain over there that you now can't go back to? Well, yeah, that happened to me in Ninja Gaiden Black (on Chapter 9: The Military Supply Base), a game that I know inside and out. I wasn't thinking straight and just walked into the next area, which had a mini-boss fight so the door locked behind me. In most cases, once you finish the fight, the door will re-open, but this also had to be one of those few times that it stayed locked, so I couldn't even go back. It just leaves this really annoying feeling of incompleteness, however I could still make it back to that area, but it'll be much later on in the game and I'd have to take a long trip just to go all the way around to there. Its not for anything important, either, but I just feel the need to uncover every single chest in this game, so its still going to be grinding at me for a while.

[Avaitor]

Gamestop is doing a 50% off sale for some of their cheaper used games. For less than $2.50, I got Blast Works and Link's Crossbow Training. Not bad.

[Foggle]

Looks like my Deus Ex playthrough is getting cut short. It freezes every time I try to leave the exploding ship, and I only have one save file because I'm a dumbass.

Welp.