The "What Are You Playing Today" Thread

[Merc]

Playing SpaceChem. I saw it on the daily deals for Steam's summer sale today and the mechanics really looked familiar, reminded me a lot of Manufactoria, except instead of building robots in an assembly line, you build molecules/atoms.

Similar style of assembly line puzzle solving though, and it comes with leaderboards for each puzzle showing how much time people typically take on a puzzle or how many pieces they've used, so besides just solving them, you can try to challenge yourself by limiting the amount of symbols used to assemble the line or minimize the time for the cycles to work.

It doesn't quite have the humor manufactoria had and I think I might prefer that game (plus hey, it was -free-, you can't beat that), but this is pretty cheap at $5.09 with the 66% discount it currently has, and if you liked manufactoria, chances are you'll enjoy getting a crack at some new puzzles of a similar nature.

I do have one peeve with this game so far though and that's the tutorial stages, because they aren't friendly to time or symbol challenges. You're essentially given the generic solutions for those stages as part of the instructing process (kind of lame to be -given- the solution too, but I can understand it). However, you can still solve them with less time or fewer symbols, for a challenge...

Unfortunately, the game covers about a quarter of the screen's field (the lower-right quadrant) with the tutorial instructions, and it -always- pops them up if you try to experiment/deviate from the generic solution. And there's no way to just make the tutorial window vanish, even if you're going BACK to a stage you've already solved, and a few of those tutorial stages require you to do some stuff in that quadrant...which is covered with tutorial instructions telling you that you're doing it wrong if you aren't following the generic solution.

Still, that's very few worlds, so that's a pretty minor thing overall.

[Dracos]

I did some portal 2 co-op last weekend.  It was fun.  I don't think the game though necessarily delivers a good co-op vibe.  But then I haven't found tremendous success with co-operative puzzle solvers.

[Merc]

...the difficulty curve from puzzle to puzzle on SpaceChem is freaking insane. I kind of want to cry just looking at what my goal is for the current puzzle. It's muuuuuuch harder than Manufactoria because it forces you to break down the problem into smaller segments (and you can only break it down into so many segments) after a certain point, and each segment has certain symbols in limited quantities. I suppose it does encourage you to learn optimization by practicing in the simpler puzzles, but the spike in difficulty really is crazy.

[Merc]

Dunno if anyone's interested, but as I mentioned the game here a few weeks back, I figured I'd point out that Terraria is one of the Steam daily deals today ($2.49 sale price).

More on topic, just started to play Mass Effect. Not a game I'd typically buy due to it being a shooter, but since it's also an RPG and uses third person perspective, I figured it might be fun to try out as I've been a little curious about it in the past. Picked up ME2 as well, just in case I turn out to enjoy the first game (Here's hoping!).

[Dracos]

http://andrewmorrish.net/?page_id=313 kinda neat.

I actually prefered ME2 to ME1, the streamlined action-RPG setup was just more enjoyable generally.

[Merc]

I'll keep that in mind, though I feel slightly obligated to play them in order. =)

[Dracos]

Oh, I played them in order too.  It's not a bad thing to do.

Just well, having <20 weapons was a lot nicer than "Oh, another stack of vendor trash."

[thepanda]

I like the new EDF. Sadly, I think I liked the first one more. The increased graphics means fewer enemies on screen at the same time so we haven't had a chance to shoot missiles across the entire city like in the first one.

Still highly entertaining, though.

[Dracos]

Earth Defense Force: Electronic Boogloo?  *guesses*

Anyhow, been playing Grandia 2 in a nostalgia bent and a fair bit of Billy vs Snakeman.

[thepanda]

Grandia 2? Beat it without spamming the Eyes of Valmar, Drac!

[Dracos]

I...don't think I've ever spammed Eyes of Valmar.

Wings of Valmar, sure, but...  What's the point of the rest of them?  I always limit to just using moves that were leveled to Instant priority.

[thepanda]

The Eyes do crap for damage, but they stop bosses from ever being able to get an attack off. For a long time. After you get the Eyes you can cast Eyes and just regular attack and kill bosses super fast. I was shocked when I realized they'd let you hit bosses with it, it's so broken.

[Brian]

The Eyes do crap for damage, but they stop bosses from ever being able to get an attack off.

...I never noticed that.  Kinda like vanish/X-Zone or Doom, I guess. :p

OTOH, I liked the combat.  Heck, I even played Grandia EXTREME all the way to the end, and it didn't have any plot at all! :p

[thepanda]

OTOH, I liked the combat.

So do I. Thus, don't use the Eyes. I like Grandia games; I just wish they didn't all fall to pieces 2/3 of the way through. Also, the final boss fights tend to be pathetic.

On another note, I went ahead and finished Y's AoN. I put it aside earlier but figured I should knock it out now. Good ending, great music and art design, and some actual restraint on the cut scenes (though that might have more to do with it being a ps2 game). Good times.

Can't decide if I should play Sakura Wars ~So Long My Love~, Atelier Iris, or Odin Sphere next. I had most of Odin Sphere beat at one point, but lost the memory card with that data. Atelier games tend to revolve around farming components and making stuff. I don't know if I really want to do that right now, especially since I don't have a guide. And Sakura Wars is a Sakura wars game, with all that entails.

[Dracos]

Go play Muramasa.