The "What Are You Playing Today" Thread

[Dexie Oblivion]

Trying to unlock all the costumes in DoA: Ultimate.

God, I suck at 3D fighters. X_x

Also: Street Fighter Alpha: Anthology.  I had almost forgotten how much SFA3 kicks ass.

[Ragnar]

Up to Chapter 4 of Dragon Quest 4.

I never got past chapter 2. My damn emulator files got corrupted. If you know of a good NES emulator with multiple save state slots, lemme know. >_>

[Dracos]

Nesten?  FCEU?

Zophar's domain (google it) is your friend. =)

Dracos

[Karlinn]

Currently struggling through The Way; pinned down by a nasty dragon thingy in Episode 5.  I'm impressed with the overall production, but it has one and a half episodes left to prove to me that the plot isn't a hopelessly convoluted mess and that every character isn't an egomaniacal self-centered pathetic excuse for a human being with a criminally tragic past.  Oh, and there's lots of oh-so-helpful "..." along the way, coupled with more people in the shadows than out of them.

I'm not saying it's all gotta be sunshine and rainbows, nor am I asking for Cliff's Notes, but I am asking for a main character I do not detest and a story that's less angsty than all of Livejournal, Linkin Park, and the collected works of Anne Rice combined.  Oh, and it'd help if the QfG-style stat 'porting between episodes actually worked like it was supposed to, instead of randomly changing my skills and stripping me of stats that I worked my ass off for.

I'm sensing a case of reach > grasp here, which is a shame because the concept and the idea for the world is pretty cool.  More to follow when I get un-stuck and emerge victorious.

[Karlinn]

Aaaaaaand it's over.  I didn't reach the end of Episode 6, I just gave up.  Lemme tell you why.

The whole game, and I mean the whole game is about this guy Rhue trying to find what happened to his girl after some tragedy years ago.  Everything he does, he does for that one singular purpose - and he does some pretty goddamn horrible stuff along the way, both in direct pursuit of that goal and on the side.  Of course, the people he does horrible stuff to also have done horrible stuff in the past, or have had horrible stuff done to them.  The short of it is, the entire cast, almost to a man, woman and child, is collectively more fucked up than the entire population of fifteen randomly selected mental hospitals across the continental United States, combined.

Somehow, I put up with this.  I put up with the shitty characters I neither understood nor cared for, I put up with the endless drama and 'shocking' plot twists and the fact that most of the game's graphics are ripped from FF6 and Breath of Fire 3, and half the game's music from FF7, FF8, Star Ocean 2 and Brave Fencer Musashi, and that the jousting system was nonsensical and the fact that I couldn't quit the game when I wanted to.

The minigames and puzzle sequences, which ranged from 'decent' to 'god-awful' did not exactly smooth things over, and let's leave aside the fact that one has to complete an ungodly number of not-optional sidequests on top of not-optional sidequests to get anywhere.

I put up with this because, up to Episode 6, they have a coherent world.  There is a clear flow of events.  The story has many loose ends to tie up, but it has room to do so.  And then, lo and behold, right in the middle of a Fight Club 'you are Tyler Durden' revelation, Episode 6 traps our hero in a dream world... for hours, and hours, and hours, doing menial tasks and performing in plays and going on dates and the plot's going nowhere and we still haven't answered questions that have been going on since hour 1 and...

I just gave up.  The plot was going in some bizarro David Lynch-ian 'let's make things even more convoluted even though we have questions in the goddamn real world that are sort of on hold for some reason' direction, and I just gave up.  I couldn't take it anymore.  The characters pissed me off, the story was jerking me around, and a glance at the forums, and a hefty dose of spoilers, has led me to believe the ending would literally have me reduced to a Hulk-like rage, only instead of hurling a tank I would curl up in a little ball, sobbing quietly.

So promising, but it went so very, criminally, unforgivably wrong.  Folks, play at your own risk unless you have a very strong stomach for madness, pretense and complexity the likes of which would make Xenogears and Lain look like they were made by Fisher Price.

[Dracos]

Bleh.  Sounds like one of those 'modern' tales for computers.

Anyhow...  started KOTOR.  Finished KOTOR.

Good and fun, but not great.  The heavy handed writing really got to me towards the end.  THe filler dungeons didn't help.  The fact that they made both light and darkside absurd jackasses doesn't help.  Who the hell includes brainwashing and mental obliteration in 'lightside techniques'.  The ending was bleh too.

Started darkside but the fact darkside makes you look like a trash compactor hit you really killed my buzz.  "I'm playing a corpse!  And not in the cool Nameless One sense X_X"

Starting bard's tale now.  No windowed mode makes dracos sad.

Dracos

[twentytwo]

Hmm... I know I shouldn't, but I think I'll play that game (the Way). I enjoy playing games that are both "this is how you make a good game" (ICO) and "this is not" (Unlimited SaGa). And Karlinn, that post was awesome.

And, speaking of Zophar, I started Lunar 2 recently. It's amazing just how BAD the voice talents were at Working Designs. And, after that, I'm continuing my work on my Chrono-parody with Radical Dreamers... (joy!)

-22

[StormDragon]

I am eagerly awaiting the part where the Prince takes off his shirt.

....whaaaaat??

[Karlinn]

Hmm... I know I shouldn't, but I think I'll play that game (the Way). I enjoy playing games that are both "this is how you make a good game" (ICO) and "this is not" (Unlimited SaGa). And Karlinn, that post was awesome.

And, speaking of Zophar, I started Lunar 2 recently. It's amazing just how BAD the voice talents were at Working Designs. And, after that, I'm continuing my work on my Chrono-parody with Radical Dreamers... (joy!)

-22

Good luck, brother.  Here's a FAQ to help if you're serious; it's not too hard up through most of the game, but there's a lot to miss and later on it ramps up the difficulty more than a few notches.

Ahh, Lunar... the world so nice, we played through it twice ^^

Also, Dracos: Yeah, that's BioWare for you.  They really don't do subtle very well; I maintain they should stick to making Forgotten Realms games, and devote their leisure time to finding something better than the Infinity engine to do them in.

[Dexie Oblivion]

Jade Empire.

Toad Demon style is made of win and love. <3

[StormDragon]

The thing I love about PoP is the interaction between the Prince and Farrah. The library part was funny; he's off doing all sorts of acrobatics and she's over there narrating stuff about love to him from a book.

It's all very heh and lolz.

[Ragnar]

Recently got Capcom vs SNK II and the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology.
Am taking to Capcom vs SNK II, and am trying very hard to master the character of Hibiki, which is not at all easy. I can still only beat the game in easy mode. ;_;

[Dracos]

Storm: that is fun, though I always preferred the gauntlets.

----

Ninja Cop has been my poison for nearly 10 hours now.  Great stuff.

Dracos

[Dexie Oblivion]

Recently got Capcom vs SNK II and the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology.
Am taking to Capcom vs SNK II, and am trying very hard to master the character of Hibiki, which is not at all easy. I can still only beat the game in easy mode. ;_;

Dan Hibiki? <_< No wonder you're having trouble, he was purposely made as a sucky character.

EDIT: Oh yeah, playing Symphonia again. Will prolly start Al-Qadim later.

[Dracos]

The djinn lords will crush you!

Dracos