The 'What are you Playing?' Thread

[Ngamer01]

I'm playing Tales of the Abyss for the first time on my 3DS. Abyss is my third Tales game and I'm enjoying it so far. ^.^

[Tom29193]

I'm also playing Tales of the Abyss for the first time on the 3DS, I'm enjoying the game a lot. I just wish those small dialogues had voiceovers or music to keep me focused and entertained and that directions were more clear. Heading east does me no good when I don't know how far east I have to go.

[thresholdXCI]

Xenoblade Chronicles. Can't help but feel it's a crying shame this is a Wii-exclusive because the graphics really let down what's a spectacularly designed world, and the many cinematic sequences I've come across so far would be that much better on a more powerful system.

Other than that though it's spot on. A little confusing with the sheer amount of mechanics thrown at you during the first few hours, but there's so much to do you know there's going to be enough time to really get to grips with everything. It's a hardcore RPG for hardcore RPG fans.

[MAGNUS-8M]

Been neck-deep in Pokemon Black and Pokemon-GL.com lately...I should have been more into it once the site launched in America, but I put it off and now I'm really behind. But it's fun to mess around with for a bit, get a few Pokemon I can't get in the main game, download them, and then evolve them however far they need to go, then grab another the next day. I don't expect to 'catch them all' or anything, but I'm doing much better than I have on any other Pokemon game at least.

Getting ready to finally buy an eShop game, but I'm not sure what to get... at the very least I might wait for the next month to come by to see what free Club Nintendo games come out in March. But at the moment, I'm thinking about Pushmo and whenever SML3:Wario Land finally releases(I mean everyone else got it two weeks ago, what's the hold up). I mostly want Pushmo for its longevity with all those QR-code user-made levels floating around, but I just can't tell if it's a game I would like for the basic mechanics.... I just figure it would give me the most bang for my buck, but I just don't know if it'd be worth it. Same reason I'd want Wario Land, out of the 'three' SML games, it seems like it's the longest and most interesting out of them...if they'd ever release it.

[KingBroly]

Resident Evil: Revelaitons
- I'm through Chapter 4, and I've done the first 3 Raid Missions. It's pretty good so far, like RE4 meets RE1, which is something I wanted because of the first major RE5 DLC, even though RE5 as a whole sucked. So far so good, but I think ammo restriction is getting a bit on my nerves.

[Eliskor]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Tales of the Abyss. I'm kind of itching to go back to Final Fantasy X which I've had on the backlog for over a year now (I've beaten it before so maybe that's why). I'm at Braska's Final Aeon and I don't know what my problem is, but I was never good at that fight.

I've heard people say that for a final boss its pretty easy and it probably is, I just make it look hard. xD Haha Maybe I don't level up the right starts or customize the right weapons with the right attributes. Who knows but I'll beat him again eventually. Just going to spend a few hours grinding a bit to get more Defense since I think that's my biggest issue.

[Tom29193]

Tales of the Abyss still but with Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, ModNation RoadTrip, and Wipeout 2048. I'm a busy gamer, still have some games I need to finish on my 3DS too.

In Tales, I'm getting ready to set out for the Meggiora Highlands again. Feel really bad for Guy now that I know part of the reason his phobia exists. In Miles Edgeworth, I'm hot on the trail of the Fake Thief in Turnabout Ablaze. Uncharted is the only Vita game I've progressed far in, probably about midway in at Chapter 15.

[Da_RaY]

Just got Brutal Legend. Found it used for $7. So going through that, LA Noire, Twisted Metal, and LoZ: Minish Cap

[MAGNUS-8M]

Finally took the plunge and grabbed Epic Mickey... then went to Gamestop next door and got SSX-Blur for like five bucks.

SSX Blur is a guilty pleasure of great motion controls that kind of sum up what we all thought all Wii games were going to be, except it's done very well. I also love the game because it reminds me SO much of a little NES snowboarding game called 'Heavy Shreddin' that I really liked as a kid(published by Parker Brothers oddly enough). The three-peak system and 'free roaming' environment makes it pretty fun too, and even more reminiscent of Heavy Shreddin' too.

Epic Mickey... so far, it's good, but good grief it just feels 'rushed'. I really hate that the cursor's frame-rate is SO slow on the title screen, even though it's not too bad in-game...but that might be because the in-game's frame rate is also a little low/laggy, so it might be that I just don't notice the cursor as much by that point. The camera.... I have almost no problem with the camera in Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, even Heroes and Shadow weren't that bad, and they got ragged on big time for their cameras. This game's camera is absurd.

I can almost never see up or down where I'm supposed to go, I frequently walk to the edge of a certain level of ground with no idea if there is a platform 'two feet' below or twenty feet below, or no platform at all. Sometimes I press the 'C' button to swing the camera around, but Mickey won't be looking far enough and the camera will just ignore me. Targeting bounding-boxes for painting/thinning areas frequently get in the way when I'm aiming for a completely different area. The worst case was when I was standing on a thinnable-platform, aimed at a gear on the wall, and the game counted it as me aiming at the platform beneath me, resulting in falling into a lake of thinner. :/

All in all, I like the game....but unfortunately I feel like the majority of it's charm is simply that... charm, presentation, music, characters, locales. Gameplay is moderately good for a platformer, but weak, and doesn't *quite* make up for the glitchy/framey overall feel of the game. I get the feeling once I beat the game once, even with the idea of a New Game +, it's kind of unlikely I'll want to go back. All I can say is that it definitely helps that I got this game at $20, doesn't quite feel like a loss and I feel like I can get into the story/presentation of the game without being bugged about how much I payed for it. But I still can't quite help but feel like 'how did this get out the door in this condition?'

[Alleyway]

I'm currently playing Mass Effect 3 and Dillon's Rolling Western. Soon to be Kid Icarus!

[vinniebrock]

^^^ I loved Epic Mickey, but completely understand everyone's criticisms.

I bought Dillon's Rolling Western last week, really like it. Fun mix of action & tower defense. Also been playing a lot of Rhythm Heaven Fever, which is easily my favorite game of the year so far.

EDIT:

I've been playing Mutant Mudds on my 3DS. I can't say that I'm enjoying it.

that makes me a sad panda. I was looking forward to getting it. Guess I'll just wait for the demo...

[KingBroly]

I've been playing Mutant Mudds on my 3DS. I can't say that I'm enjoying it.

[pummy84]

Still play Old Republic, along with Mass Effect 3. Speaking of which, I just watched what is now my favorite scene of the whole series.

[JimLink]

As I finished The Last Story, I am currently playing Skies of Arcadia Legends and the first Dragon Quest, furthermore Nintendogs+Cats just to relax.

[Jazzy]

I'm playing Bit.Trip Runner. This game is absolutely infuriating and tedious at times, but I feel that I must experience it in its entirety because my beloved's pixel art is featured in it. I prefer the other games in the Bit.Trip series, though.

[HylianTom]

This weekend was an old-school weekend. I played the original NES Kid Icarus for about ten hours on Saturday, into the wee hours of the morning on Sunday. It cannot be understated: that game is damn tough! Frustration, thy name is "Icarus!"

Then, on Sunday afternoon I started a game of Faxanadu and just finished it 100% about 20 minutes ago. It's still an intense, fun game that I'd love to see realized in a large 3D world. This game was also challenging, but I remembered enough tricks from my last playthrough several years ago to the point where I eeeked through with few problems.

The Wii U could use some action-adventure games of this type. Hear my cry, Nintendo:
Long live the single-player action-adventure game!

This week, I work three 14-hour shifts on Monday through Wednesday, and then I have a four-day weekend. I'll be apartment hunting on one day, but the rest of the weekend will be spent playing through Fragile Dreams for the first time (RawMeat's dramatic praise of it during the podcast convinced me to buy it blindly). I tried the first half-hour of the game on this past Thursday, and I can tell that I'm in for a real treat.

[CaptainColon]

I'm one of those guys who tries to play through multiple games at once, when really I should just pick one game and focus on finishing it a lot quicker.

Wii: Right now I'm playing through Kirby's Return to Dream Land (but I'm playing it via Dolphin, not the Wii itself).

Xbox 360: Saints Row 2.

PlayStation 3: Nothing now, but last night I did finish Sly Cooper 1 and recently finished RE: Operation Raccoon City (it wasn't that good).

3DS: Barely played in the past month since I finished RE: Revelations. Lately the only time it gets powered on is to check for new messages on SwapNote. Maybe someday I'll go back and finish Mutant Mudds and Pushmo.

PC: Not much. I like playing Left 4 Dead 2 but only in co-op. I plan to start Dead Space soon.

PS Vita: Super Stardust Delta and Unit 13.

[MAGNUS-8M]

Finally got Sonic Classic Collection for DS, out of fear that they would delete the VC games soon(and it would be nice to have them portable).

You know what really sucks though? They either changed the good mid-boss music in S&K or somehow they pool together resources between S3/S&K/S3&K games and all of them have S3's mid-boss music... which sucks because I hate that version. Just VERY weird and a bit jarring to be playing that game and not have the same classic experience I once did. I'd hate to go off and buy it on the Wii VC after all, but I almost feel like doing it just because I feel cheated having 'the wrong music' in that game. I knew it was a bland and barebones port, but good grief, that's REALLY terrible.

Also it's a bit weird how everything is a bit 'wide', yet the screen isn't quite wide enough to show all the action, so in areas where the screen was fixed, it'll actually smooth-scroll the screen left and right depending where you are on that static 'screen'. It's just another thing that's awkward. Sound is okay, but definitely a little lower quality, which is baffling, but still not as lame as screwing up the music. Also a little annoyed that S2's Options Menu is gone... it just loads up with the option to play as Sonic & Tails, just Sonic, or just Tails, right off the main menu. It's like every bit of this collection was made in the cheapest way possible.... still good games, but just annoying what little differences they put in.

EDIT: Wow, something even WORSE about this game: S3 and S&K's Special/Emerald Zones are almost unplayable. The world-sphere flickers CONSTANTLY. I'm guessing the reason the game looks 'wide' despite needing to scroll left and right, is that they probably kicked out the odd or even scanlines and just did a quick-and-dirty 'progressive scan' for the DS/3DS' non-interlaced LCD screen. Although the characters don't look THAT squatty for it to be that way, even if they do look a bit wide artificially, but it's the only reason I can think of that would explain why the sphere-world would appear to be jumping back and forth so wildly. So shoddy. I'm glad that the music is correct in S3&K, but it's still disappointing to know it's wrong in S&K. Oh well, I suppose it's still playable, but good grief it's such a shoddy port.

Really need to pick back up into Epic Mickey and Pangya2/SSX-Blur again soon, now that things have finally calmed down, but then again I've got a lot of hobby stuff and other things I've been putting off for so long...

[pummy84]

Playing Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness on my Vita. I never thought I would enjoy a tactical RPG, but I'm really enjoying Disgaea.

Also going to start playing Xenoblade Chronicles soon. Still playing Old Republic, focusing on leveling a Jedi Sage right now.

[CaptainColon]

For once right now I'm trying to just focus on beating one game. Alice: Madness Returns for PS3. It's really good so far (about 5 hours in)

[thresholdXCI]

I bought Mass Effect 2 for PS3; buckled to the Mass Effect 3 hype-train. Only a couple of hours in and haven't really got to grips with everything yet, but it seems good so far. The comic did an okay job of introducing a new-comer to the back-story, but was a little too fast so I might go and read up on the story of the last game in more detail.

[Mirr0rR3flection]

I've been currently playing my import of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance on my Japanese 3DS. Its such an awesome game and its pretty lengthly if I do say so myself. Before just a few days ago I was spending my time with Kid Icarus Uprising. (Playing more online Multiplayer than the actual story surprisingly. )

[ninjaTOASTY]

I'm currently trying to finish up Kid Icarus: Uprising's single player (I've been too hooked on the multiplayer). When I finish that, I'm going to go back and finish up Tales of the Abyss on my 3DS. And my roommate and I are slowly making our way through Tales of Vesperia. It gets confusing trying to play two Tales games at the same time...

[KingBroly]

Rayman Origins
- Beat it, along with the extra level/boss. It's a good game, but it's far from being the best 2D Platformer ever. It's not even the best 2D Platformer this gen. Not by a long shot. That belongs to Super Meat Boy, which is followed closely by Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Bastion
- I tried as hard as I could to go through it, but I can't. I just don't get why people like this. The combat's terrible. The story's generic despite being told well. The music's okay, but it's not enough to keep me going.

Kid Icarus: Uprising
- Continuing my 9.0 Intensity struggles. I'm up to Chapter 6 now, but I'll have to get a good Bow first for a specific Challenge.

[vinniebrock]

(^^^I also did not like Bastion. At all.)

Kid Icarus: Uprising: Been playing it almost every day since launch. Did not think it would live up to the hype/my expectations, but it did (imo). My GOTY thus far.

Trials Evolution: Haven't put in as much time as I'd like (haven't had much free time lately), but it's awesome so far. The tracks, customization, the creation tools & downloadable tracks, interface. etc. is all pretty amazing.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Really enjoying it. It can get pretty repetitive, but the story & combat keep it interesting / fun. Pretty much goes without saying, but the scale is nothing short of impressive. Also, the environments look nice on an HDTV. Not Dolphin-nice (obviously), but still... not bad. It's one of the few RPGs I've been excited about in recent memory and it hasn't disappointed.

Also been playing a little NFL Blitz (meh. fun in short bursts) and just finished my 2nd playthrough of Twilight Princess. I still think it's a great Zelda game Somma ya'll iz juzt haterrrrz.