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

[Spark Of Spirit]

Thanks for the Pikmin 3 info, my friend got it so I'll probably get to play it myself soon enough.

By the way, Wonderful 101 is amazing.

There is SO MUCH STUFF in the demo, and I don't even know how to start describing it. First of all, each of the core members (you get Hand, Gun, and Sword, in the demo) all have their own move-sets that are upgradable, and you can combine attacks from each for combos even though it took me to the end of the demo to realize it since things get pretty crazy with dozens of allies and enemies littering the screen all going about their own modes of attacks. You can do pretty much anything you can in Kamiya's other games combat-wise, but there just seems to be so much other stuff you can do with upgrades, items, stage hazards, enemy weapons you can use, and an amazing soundtrack that does 'epic' right in video games.

Though I only played it once, I slowly figured out what to do at my own speed and didn't get too lost. I played it on the highest difficulty the demo had (Normal) and I didn't have much of a problem (and I'm usually bad at these games) once I learned all the core moves. Enemies move really fast, and hit hard, so learning how to block, dodge, and hit weak points with combos. You can also use things around the environment to gain extra items/health/upgrades, and recruit temporary heroes that help throughout the level. The demo level was also really long, which surprised me.

There's a lot of Viewtiful Joe influence here from the whole pattern drawing (this is easily done on the right stick, by the way) in slow motion, to the emphasis on knowing when to time your attacks. It still has platforming, as well as the typical goofy comedy, too.

If the whole game keeps it up the whole way through, this will easily be Platinum's best game.

And maybe even Kamiya's.

If you have access to a Wii-U, don't waste any time. Play it.

[Foggle]

If the whole game keeps it up the whole way through, this will easily be Platinum's best game.

High praise indeed. Then again, almost every new Platinum game ends up becoming their best, because they're always learning new tricks and producing the finest titles the industry has to offer.

I'd have no qualms buying a Wii U just for W101 and Bayo2, though I can't justify full price yet. Then again, Pikmin, Smash Bros., and Donkey Kong. Hm. Give me a real Metroid Fusion sequel (or Prime 4) or another Fatal Frame and you'll have my 350, Nintendo.

[Spark Of Spirit]

If the whole game keeps it up the whole way through, this will easily be Platinum's best game.

High praise indeed. Then again, almost every new Platinum game ends up becoming their best, because they're always learning new tricks and producing the finest titles the industry has to offer.

It actually does feel like they've put everything they've learned into this one. Instances of Viewtiful Joe, Okami, God Hand, Vanquish, and Bayonetta, are all over it, from the items, to the moves, to the mission structure, to the environments and to the general characters.

If you haven't seen the Nintendo Direct, you should watch it, if only for Kamiya dressing and talking like Iwata which is so bizarre. He also explains everything in the game rather well.

I also just found a secret mission while playing the demo, so I guess exploration is a good thing.

[Foggle]

Exciting! I will watch that video later for sure.

[Grave]

Super Street Fighter 4
Tried playing a little bit more yesterday. My internet sucks. I probably need to get an ethernet cable or something because going wireless is a terrible idea when it comes to fighting games. So much lag and disconnecting. Anyway, I got blown up big time. Tried playing as Cody, Ken and Guy, and out of all of them Guy was the one that I played more decent as. Whoever said just pick the character you like the most wasn't lying. I only played 1 game as Guy and it was against an A rank Ryu, and while I do think he was toying around with me, I did manage to hold my own. Not to mention I just feel so outta touch with the shoto characters. As for Cody, he was my best character at one point, now he feels like my worst. Playing as Guy felt a little more natural to me. Can't say he's going to be the main, but I'll definitely be playing as him a lot more.

Halo Reach
Still feels epic as ever. Too bad I didn't save.

Borderlands
I know I should probably get a bit further into the game, but honestly I'm not feeling this game at all. I'm not going to blame the game itself, but more like the genre. FPSs in general is just a genre that I'm tired of. I think the only games I actually enjoy playing is Halo (although I will say I'm Halo'd out, so I'm not interested in Halo 4 or the new Halo that's coming out on the Xbone) and Mass Effect.

[Foggle]

As I've said in the past, the first Borderlands is a very slow-paced game. Only, like, 25% of people actually enjoy playing it solo (though I'm one of them). I'd recommend either hitting up the co-op mode with some friends or trying the second game before you write the franchise off.

[Grave]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to write off the series until I see how the 2nd game is. I'm just stating that FPSs as a whole is becoming a genre that I'm losing a lot of interest in fairly quick.

[Micki!]

BL2 is definitely a better game as a whole, it improves in every aspect of the first game, and on top of it has a great narrative through the villain and other dialogue, something the first game seriously lacked hardcore... And the new classes, while I do miss Brick from the first game, are so much funnier to play as than the first games classes, they're alot more interesting to play with and you can (unlike the first game) make some really interesting combinations through skills when high enough level..!

Now, I'm all into the skills, but that's because I play the game like there's no tomorrow, so I'm slightly biased, but it's not like I'll lie to you when I say that the game quality wise and content wise is both bigger and better than the first game in every way..! Especially the second and fourth DLC campaigns are fantastic additions to the game, mostly because of the characters speaking and the storyline..!

Ok done preaching about this game, it's a shame you're growing away fro the FPS genre, but I guess it can't be helped for some people..! 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Halo Reach
Still feels epic as ever. Too bad I didn't save.

This is still honestly my favorite FPS from last-gen. It is also my favorite Halo campaign mode (it surpassed the original for me just slightly, since it shares all of its strong points WITHOUT having The Library), and is probably the best example of how to do an modern FPS game (other than F.E.A.R. and Half-Life 2). Sure, the game is short and can easily be finished in about 5 hours or less, but the replay value is insanely high that I got well over 50-hours of play-time with the game's campaign mode, overall. There isn't a single level I don't like in the game, either, though I will say that I'm not a big fan of the 2 major flying sections in the game (the ones in "Long Night of Solace" and "New Alexandria"), but that has more to do with them being relatively slow and uneventful rather than them being frustrating to play through. Everything else about the game is pretty much brilliant, though.

Really, the people who say that Halo 4 is better than Halo: Reach are crazy. I don't know what game they were playing, but Reach is actually fun to play through without feeling tedious. Halo 4 is about as derivative of a Halo game as you can get (though, to be fair, I still like it a lot more than Halo 2 in terms of the single-player, which by far has the worst campaign mode in the entire series, IMO).

[gunswordfist]

There's still not enough games with Halo's level design. I have both Crysis and Reach (can't get Reach yo work) and I hear that's pretty much it for good games with Halo 1 style levels.

[VLordGTZ]

I finally played the Wonderful 101 demo.  It was a lot better than I expected it to be.

[Kiddington]

Pokemon Yellow.

Because why not.

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

You guys convinced me to get Ducktales. Any platform of preference, or one where it performs the best?

[Foggle]

It'll probably run smoothest/look sharpest on PC, provided you have a decent rig and a controller. Outside of that, Wii-U is probably the way to go if you've got one. But, honestly, we're talking miniscule differences in performance and graphical fidelity with a game like DuckTales. I'd just go with whichever system you like most.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Wii-U if you like Off-TV play and Miiverse, PC if you want the best version. The PS3 version is supposedly really good, too.

The remake is pretty great, despite the odd hater here or there.