The "What Are You Playing Today" Thread

[Dracos]

Yes?  It still counts as a rental if you're gamefly or netflixing it.

[thepanda]

I didn't know netflix did games. For me, if I can't stream it, it isn't really on netflix.

[Anastasia]

Doom 2: Sunder

Been messing around with map 14 again the last few days. About 80% of my attempts end before I get to the yellow key; the first 100 demons or so are the absolute worst. If I can get past all that I usually do well. The rest of the level until the last area isn't unreasonable. I haven't cracked the last fight yet, it's insanely hard and requires some luck. I've cleared this map before, but I'd like to get a really good run or two of it under my belt.

[Dracos]

Been playing some Arkham City.  Gotten to enjoying it but I think it is a lesser game for its greater amount of stuff than its predecessor.

Also played through and beat Willow.  Ana, your turn next.  Battletoads or something :P

[Brian]

I bought a controller so I could enjoy some emulated games a while back, and I found it works with some Steam games, too.  While I was exploring the Steam Store, I stumbled across a title by the name of 'Waves'.

It's a 'dual-stick' shooter, which means you control your movement with one control stick, and the orientation of your fire with the other.  In this case, you don't have a fire button, you just fire constantly while aiming in a given direction.

So far, the game is incredibly bright, with vivid colors, the music is strangely soothing, and the gameplay modes I've tried are actually quite fun.  It seems to have a basic level of gameplay that fits into the 'bejeweled' camp of giving you tons of shiny sparkles and glitter when you succeed, but also hints of much deeper levels of complexity and difficulty.  I've really only started playing this just today, but so far I have to say -- this might be my new meditation focus for a while.

Certainly, it's incredibly soothing controlling a sphere, rolling around in the bottom of some shiny cosmic canister while flinging orbs of light at hexagons of various other colors.

You can find out more about it here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/107600/

I wouldn't personally suggest this if you don't already have a controller with dual-analog sticks.  But if you do?

Well, I enjoyed it.

[Dracos]

I beat Arkham City.

It's good, but underwhelming in a sense compared to the original.  The boss battles are definitely better.  Catwoman is a load  of suck, and folks that don't have her playable as part of the game are in a way better off~ (Hey Look, stealth assassin sections without any tools and lacking quick escape, awesome!).  Riddler feels almost overkill (400+ things to collect), and I honestly had trouble finding the next spot to go for a few of the sidequest branches.

The high point is at least some of joker's tricks are actually pretty clever narratively and really the meat and potatoes of the game is still "6 guys with guns, 1 super assassin, go!"

Oh, and in bitching:  It's way easier to fight 30 guys than it is to fight 3.  Seriously.  The biggest problem in fights is that if an enemy goes down on blow 1 or 2 instead of blow 3, and you throw the next punch, someone undoubtedly will walk up and smack you.  You're also way more vulnerable if there's no one else for a punch to target.  When there's a huge crowd, it's almost effortless to build up a 20+ hit combo being an untouchable wave of death, countering, flipping, and rapidfire punch  your way through their guns, stun rods, body armor, and shields.

Put 3 guys in a small elevator and they've got a way better chance of getting ten+ hits on batman because generic attack is way more likely to leave you whiffing which puts in a large vulnerable frame versus hitting someone (which allows for quick counter reacts immediately).

[Dracos]

Been playing some Little Big Planet 2.

I still think the original is a better game.

Also some Left 4 Dead.  It has been fun :)

[Jon]

Still been dividing my time between Skyrim and Minecraft.

[Brian]

Gotta say -- Left 4 Dead has some great co-op design elements, and it's a fun game.  I didn't enjoy L4D2's gameplay style as much; a bit too, "Well, this worked in the original, perhaps too well.  Here's some new custom specials that exist just to punish you for grouping up."

It probably says something that I've got both, but have played the original about five times as much.

[Dracos]

Well, *looks up 2 posts.  Then a post after that*

There's a lot of 2 game sets that have a better original.

Oddly, a lot of 3-5 game sets that have number 2 being the better one.

PATTERNS!

[thepanda]

By the time you've gotten to the 3rd game you've probably had to change systems. So instead of  2=1 but better you have 3= we HAVE to change up something! Anything!

[Dracos]

Well, that pattern goes with games that are on the same system though too.  Or where 2 is the system swapper.

See:
Arc the Lad 2.
Street Fighter 2
Mother 2.


Bah, my memory stinks tonight :)

[thepanda]

... Simon's Quest!

*runs.

[Merc]

Been playing through the humble bundle games. Good batch of games in it. (...and it's for a good cause! ...yes, good causes! <_<)

I stopped playing meat boy , it's very unplayable on keyboard, I'm having trouble doing wall-to-wall jumping with it. I'm debating whether it's worth buying a controller for it, knowing what I know of some of the later worlds/levels, since I don't have any other game that really requires gamepad for it.

Night Sky was cute and short. I -love- the vehicles in that game, they're adorable. =)

I just wish the puzzle portion of the game was more...puzzle-ish? I haven't tried the alternative mode though, which supposedly has more difficult puzzles. I just hope it's actually puzzles though, not just 'timing' levels. They're not bad per se, but they can get annoying when you have to keep restarting a level and going through them over and over.

Cave Story is nostalgic, though the HD music is pretty dull in general. Some tracks aren't too bad, but the game really should be played with the original tunes (and it's thankfully an option!). The HD facelift to the art isn't bad on the other hand. I haven't really got complaints about it. I find it funny that Quote's outfit is yellow in easy mode, his standard red in normal mode, and a blue outfit in hard. Balrog does not go "HUZZAH!" however now. He instead imitates the Kool Aid guy, breaking in through walls with a cry of "OH YEAAAAH!" =(

Will probably give Shank a chance tomorrow, haven't played a beat 'em up since I was...12 or so? Wow, long time. Bit Trip Runner is also probably fun...then again, I was always horrible at 2D sonic, robot unicorn and canabalt. So I may just end up frustrated from it. >_>;

...the other two games (Jamestown/Space Battles) I probably won't touch much, though.

[Brian]

Gave Jamestown a shot.  It's actually a pretty fun danmaku game with an utterly insane content.  All I'll say here is 'Allied Spanish/Martian forces'.

Edit: Difficulty will cause Touhou fans disdain at being 'too easy'.  There are harder difficulties than normal.