Topic: What game(s) have you been playing lately?

[Ratty]

Since I don't see this topic already thought I'd give it a try. Much like the music thread, just your thoughts on whatever game you happen to be playing right now.
I'll start it off.

"Phantasy Star" for the Sega Master System-
Phantasy Star Sega Master System Commercial
Well, it's interesting to see a lead female protagonist in such an early console outing for the genre, but as you might expect from an 8bit RPG the characters and plot are so thin they might disappear if you turned them sideways. At least in my experience so far. The first-person dungeons are as confusing as they are impressive for the time/system. If I can't finish the game it will either be because of those dungeons or my 20+ year old game battery dying. Despite tending toward grindyness it's a pretty fun and challenging RPG so far.

Bright and colorful graphics really show off the technical superiority of the Master System over the NES, particularly the storyboard cutscenes. The music however is nothing special, with overworld tunes which while adequate for setting a mood become repetitive very quickly. So that I find myself as often as not muting my TV during one of the many grinding sessions necessary to get money in the game. The relatively tinny sound on the non-FM chip enhanced Master Systems we got outside of Japan only exacerbates this problem. Overall not bad so far, scratches the RPG itch I've had lately.

[Abnormal Freak]

I'm going through Last Window: The Secret of Cape West, which is the sequel to Hotel Dusk: Room 215.

I had a LOAD of fun playing Hotel Dusk the year it came out. I had gotten a very severe sunburn on my entire upper body so I didn't wanna go anywhere because that required I put on a shirt, which was the most painful thing ever. So I spent like three or four days or maybe a whole week just sitting in my room all slathered in aloe and leaning forward, really engaged in the game. It was amazing. (I still had to work, which sucks 'cos I work near a big oven, but I just tried to do the bare minimal tasks, whatever needed to get out of the way, and let my dad deal with the rest, lol.)

So here I am, five years later, enjoying the hell out of the sequel. Bummed it never came to the States, but at least it got an English translation release in the UK. Still a whole lot of fun, really captures the greatness of the first game so far. Maybe not quite to the extent of the first, but it's still excellent.

Funny, I bought the game like a year ago and started to play it then but didn't get far. While I was waiting for my copy to arrive from overseas, I had bought a similar game by the same company (Cing) called Alive, and I was rushing to beat that before Last Window showed up. That was a bad idea since I got pretty burnt out on the whole point-and-click, talk-talk-talk gameplay, so I only played a couple hours of Last Window and never did finish Again. I intend to fire up the latter again sometime, but after a break once I finish the other, and I'll have to start from the beginning to refresh my memory.

[ScionOfBalance]

Okami.I've beaten it two times and i still can't stop playing.It's so addicting.

[Kale]

Mount and Blade: Warband

Game is just so awesome.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Folklore PlayStation 3 Trailer - Japanese Trailer

Folklore. It's a pretty bog-standard action JRPG from the early PS3 days, but at the same time, it's saved by it's emphasis on Celtic myth and legend. And Keats. OH MY GOD KEATS.

[Aridale]

D3 and Dragons Dogma right now. Thats about it

[Ratty]

That was a bad idea since I got pretty burnt out on the whole point-and-click, talk-talk-talk gameplay, so I only played a couple hours of Last Window and never did finish Again.

The same thing happened to me with the Gabriel Knight games. I enjoyed the first one so much* that I grabbed the other two on Gog right away. But got quickly burnt out after a few hours on GK2 even though it seemed to be a genuinely good game with FMVs where the actors surprisingly weren't terrible. Still haven't beaten either of the GK sequels some two years later.

*Beautiful sprite art, voodoo, Tim Curry failing terribly at a Louisiana accent and Micheal "Worf" Dorn as a Jamaican ...sign me up!

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I got my Dolphin Emulator running at 1080p.
So I'm doing a NewGame+ of Xenoblade Chronicles for kicks.  It's so beautiful!  High-Res pic in the spoiler tag. 

(click to show/hide)

[VladCT]

I got my Dolphin Emulator running at 1080p.
So I'm doing a NewGame+ of Xenoblade Chronicles for kicks.  It's so beautiful!  High-Res pic in the spoiler tag. 

(click to show/hide)

SPECS NAO

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Ummmmm ok lmao:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad-Core CPU
Q9650 @3.00GHz
3.00Ghz, 3.50GB of RAM (really 8GB but Windows XP, my main OS, cannot see the rest)
ATI Radeon HD 5870 Series, PCI Express, 1GB GDDR5 RAM

Microsoft WindowsXP Pro (I have Dual-Boot but it appears there's some problem with my Windows7 Product Key, so I am unable to update DirectX in Win7.. )
DirectX9

If I were running in Win7, it would probably run faster due to access to 64bit goodies and extra RAM.  Too bad Microsoft is being stupid about my Product Key.  I hate that crap (it's a real disc, I just don't use Win7 enough and forgot to activate the product when I first installed, so now it doesn't want to do it and Microsoft's website is all 'here's a link to our store where you can buy our system'.... yeah NO I bought it already).

The emulator's visuals are really good but I don't get 100% emulator speed at 1080p.  I get about 70% (still beautiful and playable as the original game's framerate never went higher than 30fps and the emu runs between 24 and 30fps on my system).  There are occasional stutters in sound but that's an emulator/plugin thing that cannot be fixed with a better system.

Also, I am FORCED to throttle to 24-30fps, as the game's heavily voice-acted and the audio is hardcoded to the 24-30fps framerate.  I can tweak the emu to run the game at 60fps but then in cutscenes, the audio will play way after the animations, since it all renders in the game engine (no FMVs here).

It's really... really... really really nice, though.

If I unthrottle the speed and run New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it almost looks too good.  Like, "maybe what Wii-U would look like" good.

[X]

Just finished another session with Champions Online. My Valkyrie character is a real heavy sword-wielding ass-kicker. Plus she's dead-sexy!

[Neobelmont]

For my sega saturn I am playing vampire hunter Darkstakers revenge, Grandia, and Assault suit Leynos 2

For the ps I am playing SOTN which I am not going to lie I like it more so than the psp dcx version simply because the tv screen helps me.

And that is it for right now.

[VladCT]

Ummmmm ok lmao:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad-Core CPU
Q9650 @3.00GHz
3.00Ghz, 3.50GB of RAM (really 8GB but Windows XP, my main OS, cannot see the rest)
ATI Radeon HD 5870 Series, PCI Express, 1GB GDDR5 RAM

Microsoft WindowsXP Pro (I have Dual-Boot but it appears there's some problem with my Windows7 Product Key, so I am unable to update DirectX in Win7.. )
DirectX9

If I were running in Win7, it would probably run faster due to access to 64bit goodies and extra RAM.  Too bad Microsoft is being stupid about my Product Key.  I hate that crap (it's a real disc, I just don't use Win7 enough and forgot to activate the product when I first installed, so now it doesn't want to do it and Microsoft's website is all 'here's a link to our store where you can buy our system'.... yeah NO I bought it already).

The emulator's visuals are really good but I don't get 100% emulator speed at 1080p.  I get about 70% (still beautiful and playable as the original game's framerate never went higher than 30fps and the emu runs between 24 and 30fps on my system).  There are occasional stutters in sound but that's an emulator/plugin thing that cannot be fixed with a better system.

Also, I am FORCED to throttle to 24-30fps, as the game's heavily voice-acted and the audio is hardcoded to the 24-30fps framerate.  I can tweak the emu to run the game at 60fps but then in cutscenes, the audio will play way after the animations, since it all renders in the game engine (no FMVs here).

It's really... really... really really nice, though.

If I unthrottle the speed and run New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it almost looks too good.  Like, "maybe what Wii-U would look like" good.

Considering that my PC isn't that much weaker compared to yours, I should be able to run it smoothly on standard settings...

Also, I am FORCED to throttle to 24-30fps, as the game's heavily voice-acted and the audio is hardcoded to the 24-30fps framerate.  I can tweak the emu to run the game at 60fps but then in cutscenes, the audio will play way after the animations, since it all renders in the game engine (no FMVs here).

as the game's heavily voice-acted and the audio is hardcoded to the 24-30fps framerate.

hardcoded to the 24-30fps framerate.

...Well that sucks.
EDIT: Another question, does this game require a Wiimote? Because fuck me sideways if it does.

[JR]

Ninja Gaiden Sigma. I've been putting this one off for a while (despite owning this and II), due to its reputation for being difficult, but it's been totally manageable so far (maybe the original Xbox version is harder?). It's also some of the most fun I've had for a while with this type of game: I can safely say I like it more than the Devil May Cry series and even Bayonetta, and it's about dead even with the first God of War game IMO.

Also, is it weird that for the last week or so that I've been playing this, that I've been getting the music from the old NES series stuck in my head when I'm not playing??

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Considering that my PC isn't that much weaker compared to yours, I should be able to run it smoothly on standard settings......Well that sucks.
EDIT: Another question, does this game require a Wiimote? Because fuck me sideways if it does.

The 'hardcoded to 24-fps' is an assumption.  Citation needed (but it seems to be for the gameplay/voiceacting reasons I mentioned).
The game doesn't require a wiimote (it's not a motion game).  On the Wii I play it with a Wiimote with a Classic Controller.  On the Wii Emulator I... still use that, since the emulator uses your bluetooth adapter (if you have one) to sync to a wii remote (if you have one).  However, you can configure a 'virtual' game controller' and a 'virtual classic controller' so it's very possible to play this by faking the system with an emulated wiimote/classicontroller setup.