What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing? ARCHIVE

Infamous is a great game. One tip if you intend to collect all the blastshards... Don't get off the first island until you collected all you can collect there. This limits the amount of searching later on.

As far as Valkyria Chronicles is concerned I would like to know your issues with it. (not that that will change your mind nor do intend to do so, I'm just interested) I played it back and forth and over again and again.

Lagduf wrote:

Shadow Complex is Super Metroid/Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for this modern generation.

It's the best game to come out on XBLA this year.

...

We haven't had a "great" console turn based strategy this generation yet.

As good as Shadow Complex is, I think the new Defense Grid: the Awakening released 2 days ago is better. You HAVE to try it. I guess Lost & the damned isn't considered XBLArcade, but that's my favourite game I've downloaded from marketplace this year.

As for your 2nd point, the best I've seen for turn-based strategy games on this generation:

360 & PS3:
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution - really fun for the first week or two you play it and then it gets old

Wii:
Phantom Brave: We Meet Again

Civ Revolution is fun, but, it's just a distilled down Civ IV. I'd still rather nerd out with that.

I just wish we'd get a turn based strategy in vein of Tactics Ogre or even Advance Wars on the 360.

There are soom good strat games on the PSP (and DS), and I guess the PS3 has Disgaea 3...but I simply don't enjoy that series's gameplay.

I heard good things about Defense Grid, but i'm dubious that it's better than Shadow Complex which in my book is a modern classic.

I played more Infamaous today.

It's definitely cool, and best of all I like that it's an original IP.

Lagduf wrote:

Civ Revolution is fun, but, it's just a distilled down Civ IV. I'd still rather nerd out with that.

I just wish we'd get a turn based strategy in vein of Tactics Ogre or even Advance Wars on the 360.

There are soom good strat games on the PSP (and DS), and I guess the PS3 has Disgaea 3...but I simply don't enjoy that series's gameplay.

I heard good things about Defense Grid, but i'm dubious that it's better than Shadow Complex which in my book is a modern classic.

I played more Infamaous today.

It's definitely cool, and best of all I like that it's an original IP.

There's a Military Madness remake coming to PSN/XBLA/WiiWare.

ubarose wrote:

Military Madness is already out on WiiWare. The Man's been playing it all summer.

It's a remake with updated graphics and online mulitplayer called Nectaris: Military Madness or something. I wasn't refering to the original Turbografix-16 game that yeah is on Virtual Console. Or at least I'm pretty sure.

Military Madness: Nectaris is not out yet.

LilRed wrote:

As far as Valkyria Chronicles is concerned I would like to know your issues with it. (not that that will change your mind nor do intend to do so, I'm just interested) I played it back and forth and over again and again.

# Occasionally Bad AI - Sometimes you'll be puzzled over the AI decisions. Particularly when they just run straight forward at your entrenched soldiers. Other times they'll ignore obvious shots they should take. It's not fun to win because the enemy is stupid.

# The maps feel too scripted - This is really my main complaint. It seems to me that there is always a single best solution in terms of actions and what types of classes you should deploy on any given map. Once you've "figured out" the map you'll be able to beat it quickly. This makes playing the "skirmishes" for me very boring, since gold and exp is based on your score which is in turn based partly on how fast you complete the map. Sometimes the maps just feel gimmicky to me. I want to realistically be able to try out different options, or have multiple viable routes to victory. I just don't feel that is the case in this game.

It just feels like you're solving the map more than making sound tactical decisions. Obviously dealing with terrain is part of any tactical decision, however, the maps are all set up so there are these obvious, glaring routes to gain an advantage on the enemy. What you're supposed to do feels to scripted.

# Potentials - I don't like this system, I rarely suit my force to take advantage of these, though some of the good ones are really good but they're on main characters i'd always use anyway (Largo, Rosie, Alicia, etc). I'm sure I would kick ass if I used these more effectively, but i've got through the game just fine without.

# Friends - Again, didn't find this too useful. Being able to combine fire is cool, but most of the time you can kill a regular enemy in a single volley. I didn't really use this too much, and got through the game fine.

# The Story - It's very boring early on, and honestly it felt pretty trite. I felt the tone of the game was at odds with the subject it tried to present. You have a light hearted, ridiculous romp set against the backdrop of this epic war which the characters all decry and talk about how terrible it is. It just doesn't work. The tone is too uneven. Later on things start to get a bit more serious, but early on the bubbly nature of the characters just really annoyed me especially when they tried to deal with a serious subject. It just came off as completely unbelievable to me at times.

The characters feel a bit two dimensional to me and I just didn't feel like their was a lot of character development across the game. Arguably only a few of the characters grow.

Ultimately though the story comes to together - I just think the pacing is slow initially and the way it's presented in the early to mid portions just doesn't jive right with me.

# Destructable terrain - This is just a minor annoyance. Sometimes there is no way to tell what you can and can't destroy [aside from sandbags of course]. Really annoying. Most of the time I discover it can be blown up on accident (as some walls that can be knocked down don't show up as targets.) And not all maps feature things like this.

# Missing Shots - sometimes missing with lances and anti-tank rounds really pisses me off, particularly when you're really close to the enemy. I just wish there was some way to determine accuracy. I mean, i've missed like three times in row with a lance on an object no more than 5 feet away.[/ul]

I also wish the game had trophies, but that doesn't really change my opinion of the game, just something i'd like to note. I do like the ingame medals you can earn, however, so props for those (even if you don't know what you need to do to get them)

Also, Faldio's decision at the end of the game literally makes no sense. His "sacrifice" was entirely meaningless, particularly given that he had literally just saved the day, AND that his "crime" which he was trying to right wasn't worth dying over. Why end his life over the betrayl, particularly when he realized what he did was wrong. I mean seriously, it's not like Welkin and Alicia wouldn't have forgiven him (based on what we see of their actions throughout the game.) That was just another puzzling aspect of the story. A shame too, Faldio was my favorite character besides Largo.

I played the Defense Grid XBLA demo.

I wasn't really impressed - mainly because I'm not entirely enthused about the whole Tower Defense genre. It's not a bad genre it's just that ultimately it can get a little stale. Eventually strategies will develop and on any given map there is a way to "solve" it. Sure, it could take numerous tries to figure it out - but once you've solved it, whats the fun? You'd simply be going through the motions doing the exact same thing. Not that games that are repetitive in nature aren't fun, but in the case of tower defense I don't think placing towers over and over again are fun. Once you've achieved the max score, why bother again? The gameplay itself isn't engaging enough to come back (particularly because it isn't moment to moment skil based.)

That's my main criticism with the Tower Defense Genre. Unless some random elements get thrown in, I'll pass.

Shadow Complex still stands as my XBLA title of the year. Excellent presentation, interesting story, engaging gameplay, and a wonderful blending of a classic genre with modern elements and tastes.

I personally loved the 2.5D presentation even though aiming in to the background wasn't perfect. The ability to both run 'n gun, be sneaky, and do melee attacks was wonderful. Great hidden items, and getting the 12th pass key nets you a truly kick ass reward.

The challenge mode is a nice add on too. Some of those are downright challenging.

ugh, Defense Grid wasn't nearly as fun as I've heard it to be.

Arkham Asylum is still frickin' amazing. It's not getting old at all. I loves it.

So apparently there is some bug with the latest PS3 firmware update that makes Uncharted: Drakes Fortune crash or lock your system. Annoying, because I just bought the game and now can't play it!

I do find it somewhat hilarious though considering Sony had a PS3 Bundle that included Uncharted. I'm sure there are some still floating around out there too - But I'd get the new slim anyway I was in the market for a PS3.

Lucky me bought my PS3 about 10 days before they announced the price drop and revealed the slim.

Anyway, the ending to inFamous is great.

I guess i'll have to play MGS4 now.

omg, I was playing Arkham Asylum the other night on my 360 and was in Intensive Treatment and some of Scarecrow's fear gas was leaking up ahead (this was going to be my 3rd and final encounter with him I think) anyway, i walk into the gas and Batman (who i secretly suspect is Bruce Wayne, by the way) starts coughing and then my 360 locks up and makes a bunch of feedback noises so I quickly turn it off.

I launch the game the next day and the same thing happens. I try a different corridor and the same thing happens. I delete Arkham Asylum off my hard drive and try it one last time playing it off the disc (I assume the disc must be scratched at this point since a similar thing happened in Call of Duty 2 and I had to return the disc). Same thing happens again. This time for some stupid reason, i decide to let the lock-up run its course. I subject myself to a bunch of awful noises and graphics and am honestly worried I'm damaging the 360 when the screen goes suddenly black. And then slowly I see Batman is now having a Scarecrow-induced nightmare.

I then realize that Edios has pulled a Eternal Darkness trick on me and the feedback and jamming is intentional and meant to make the user feel like THEY are losing their mind too.

UGH, so I had to reinstall the game and it took me forever.

I feel dumb

Hahahaha.

Admittedly, my first response on that part was "what the fuck, that graphical distortion is like nothing i've ever seen before on the 360....oh wait it's part of the game...awesome."

The Scarecrow sequences in Batman: AA are so excellent. I find him to be absolutely terrifying in that game as I've never actually seen the Scarecrow presented as having a glove of syringes before. Is this something they do in some comics? For some reason that just creeps me out so hard, and i'm not really afraid of needles. Scorpions whose stingers have been replaced with syringes also creep me out, but that glove was way creepier. It's like an even more terrible version of Kruger.

I'm playing MGS4 now and enjoying it. Cut scenes don't seem to be obnoxiously long, even though the story is still as convoluted as ever, but hey - that's just the name of the game with Hideo Kojima so I just roll with it.

Still playing all the shmups I can and also I'm really engrossed in Planescape Torment.

I have noticed that the shmups I like most are the ones that don't start out butt-hard and brutally unforgiving, and are also cool and interesting the whole way (I expect it to get hard later, though). R-Type 3 starts out OK, but then gets totally ridiculous, as-in "how-am-I-supposed-to-beat-this" HARD starting somewhere around level 3. Dying once means going way back to a checkpoint, which doesn't help at all.

I enjoyed Space Megaforce probably the most of the SNES shmups. UN Squadron is pretty good, but I find a lot of the boss battles highly annoying.

Been playing some shmups on MAME, and holy crap I'm in love with DonPachi (and DoDonPachi). The shot/laser weapon combo is awesome fun and the early levels aren't very difficult, but around level 4 the game starts getting hard. Fortunately, there's no checkpoints, so you can actually play through all the levels before you master the game.

Another awesome MAME shmup is Armed Police Batrider. It's got a ton of different characters/ships you can play, each with its own weapon and stuff. First level isn't too bad; the rest are deep in bullet hell. It's FUN.

I feel the same way about Radiant Silvergun as I do about Axelay for SNES (another game where you have several different weapons at your disposal and there are no power ups). It's got a relatively steep learning curve and it's very hard to not die A LOT. At least Radiant Silvergun lets you have an easy first level so you can figure stuff out. Axelay tries to kill you dead 3 seconds into the game.

Banes, Sandi, and I did Story Mode on Beatles Rock Band. 46 songs in one session.

Amazing. Freaking tiring, but amazing. Vocal harmonies are hard, hard, oh my god hard. Harder if you are trying to play an instrument at the same time. We finally got a couple of Triple Fabs (all three parts actually in harmony) on All You Need is Love....on Easy.

you bought the Doctors Without Borders charity song? Good on ya! If I end up getting that game for my birthday next tuesday, I'm buying that DLC song right away. Glad to know the game is fun. It looks so amazing. How is Don't Let Me Down? That's my favourite Beatles song and the guitar on expert looks like a BLAST to play.


I gotta hunker down this weekend and finish Batman cuz i'm expecting to get Saints Row II and maybe Beatles Rock band next Tuesday. I'm also expecting War of the Ring. Should be an awesome birthday (I hope). I've also asked for Le Havre and NHL10 so we'll see...