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

[Aceearly1993]

Kagayaku Kisetsu e /To the Radiant Season (PS1)

Get Mizuka's true ending. Why Kohei must keep himself FAR away form Mizuka at first is the thing I still can't get it...
The Eternal World is so cruel that one must live there forever once the contract is set and he/she hasn't got a lover in the real world at the end of regret time... But it's a perfect place for people who were filled with despair/suffering/don't dare to face real world/real world hurt them too much...         
It seems that PS1 version lacks voice actor interviews(interviews are unique in PC full voice version as what I can tell); and other bonus were set available by default in PS1 version (=no unlockable specials after true ending=worthless)...
Overall I like the game; It's still above 95% of the PC original's quality aside from the strange opening. Not actually the same as some dude on nicovideo message board said ^o^
Why the media mix of the game so limited was probably because some of the developer staff went away from original company (and they formed Visual arts/Key later...!) and then the company KID (responsible for PS1 version) collapsed in about 200x without fortune. I KINDA WISH the PS1 version could get a PSN Japanese /PSN western release but it may end up being some kind of fantastic dream...



...
A failed attempt of Lecarde Chronicles hard mode playthrough was also there about few days before



Yes, I CAN beat normal mode no-death but hard mode is simply WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much for me, and now I'm in totally desperation

[squaretex]

Now that AM2R has re-affirmed my love for Metroid, I decided to plug some holes in my backlog...namely, the Prime games. For some odd reason, I got a good ways into the first one, but never finished it. And stories of the second's difficulty made me run away as a chicken.

BUT...having come across Metroid Trilogy for 40ish bucks, I've dusted off my long-neglected Wii...and the fun has begun.

[zangetsu468]

Now that AM2R has re-affirmed my love for Metroid, I decided to plug some holes in my backlog...namely, the Prime games. For some odd reason, I got a good ways into the first one, but never finished it. And stories of the second's difficulty made me run away as a chicken.

BUT...having come across Metroid Trilogy for 40ish bucks, I've dusted off my long-neglected Wii...and the fun has begun.

Some of Prime 2's difficult has been reduced in the trilogy, particularly with bosses - so I've read.

Also I'd recommend the PAL version of MP1 as the trilogy contains the NA release which doesn't have as good particle effects, plus it has a hard mode. (Not sure but this may be in the trilogy version).

[JR]

I loved the first Prime, but Prime 2 seriously annoyed me...that might be why I haven't played the third one yet, I don't know. The bosses were fun, but the backtracking and ammo were irritating. (Not to say that backtracking is a bad thing, but it just felt tedious in Prime 2.)

Speaking of not finishing Gamecube-era games, I have to get back into Wind Waker one of these days. I finished the first dungeon years ago, but then got into the boat and just never picked it up again for whatever reason.

[zangetsu468]

I loved the first Prime, but Prime 2 seriously annoyed me...that might be why I haven't played the third one yet, I don't know. The bosses were fun, but the backtracking and ammo were irritating. (Not to say that backtracking is a bad thing, but it just felt tedious in Prime 2

Granted there is some backtracking but Prime 2's world felt much more immersive, impressive, with better AI, more levels of verticality, and it felt more isolated (like the first 3 Metroids) to me.

Prime 3 is the opposite of Prime 2; linear, with beam-stacking. It's more like Prime 1 but better imo.   

[PFG9000]

I didn't really care for Prime 3.  I've only played through it once, so I do owe it a second go.  But I think all the characters and dialogue made it feel like less of a Metroid to me.  And it felt unfinished.  The snowy section of whatever planet that was seems so tiny, like they intended to do more with it but never got that far.  I did like the motion controls quite a bit though.  Overall, of the Prime games I like the first the best, then Echoes, then Hunters, and Corruption last.

Lately I've been putting lots of time into Final Fantasy VI.  I've never finished a jRPG before, and I really don't care for the genre at all.  It took me many years and at least four attempts to really get into FF6.  But in the end I enjoyed it quite a bit.  It's definitely one of the best games I've ever played, even if the genre isn't my thing.

Now that I finished FF6, I'm working on Marathon: Infinity.  I love those Marathon games, but I never played much of the third one until now.

[Gunlord]

Been playing a lot of Vindictus lately, since the new boss rush mode was just what I'd been looking for ;o

[TheTextGuy]

Somehow been in a run and gun mood lately
Been playing some Gunlord for the Dreamcast.  It's a nice Turrican-esque game that will satisfy that Turrican itch. A bit rough at some places, but it's fun and satisfying.  If only it was on a service like Steam or PSN instead of being just a exorbitantly expensive Neo Geo PCB or part of a less expensive but still steep costing Dreamcast bundle with other NG Dev Games.
Also played some Metal Slug X after watching a retrospective of the series.  Might give Metal Slug 4 another chance someday.

[zangetsu468]

I didn't really care for Prime 3.  I've only played through it once, so I do owe it a second go.  But I think all the characters and dialogue made it feel like less of a Metroid to me.  And it felt unfinished.  The snowy section of whatever planet that was seems so tiny, like they intended to do more with it but never got that far.  I did like the motion controls quite a bit though.

The characters were meh, no Metroid game has executed another "human" character as well as Fusion imo.
The game's environment certainly felt less organic than the first 2 primes, but I don't believe the frozen section you're referring to necessarily felt unfinished. I was actually quite surprised that such an area was juxtaposed to the rest of that planet.

Personally I think Prime 1 would have been better than Prime 3, but the point where you enter the Phazon mines seemed a bit uninteresting to me, particularly that part until you fight the giant space pirate and acquire the phazon suit. Although I appreciated the challenge of the mines more so than the previous areas I felt that the overall design was a bit uninspiring compared to the rest of the game. Prime 3's areas were less predictable, had better controls and had some elements from prime 2 (like the space jump) which made it a more enjoyable experience imo. I didn't mind Hunters, but it's definitely lacking in its 1P campaign and I wouldn't rate it with the others tbh. 

[JR]

Playing Bionic Commando Rearmed 2...so far not as well-made as its predecessor overall, but still fun. I keep seeing so much stuff that I'm not able to get yet until I obtain other abilities...hopefully they didn't string the player along too much before actually giving them a means to backtrack and get those items.

Played a bit of Tetris Ultimate for Vita tonight, too. Any sort of iteration of Tetris is always fun for me to play for an hour or two once in a while. This one has really somber music, for some reason...the music itself is good, but it's just kind of funny that they would give such a melancholy vibe to one of the most popular puzzle games of all time. But I digress.

[KaZudra]

Replayed My share of Metroid games...
Beat Super Metroid, AM2R, Zero Mission, and Fusion in that order.
Now on Prime Trilogy, Mainly because the GC Prime's Controls are just too awkward for me.
So Far I've only had to have a little assistance in Prime 1, mainly because it's rather easy to forget a Room that required a power-up and getting lost was pretty easy early on.

But now I've got a clear Idea on why a good amount of people don't like the term "Metroidvania", even though it's an umbrella term for Non-Linear Exploration based platformers, Metroid does it completely different than other metroidvanias.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Pokemon and Zelda picross. I should have started playing this long ago.

[Abnormal Freak]

Beat the first two stages of the Nioh demo and unlocked both DLCs for the main game. This game so clearly wants to be a Souls game that I refer to it as a Soulslike, but it's got some unique twists, and the setting obviously reminds me more of Team Ninja's own Ninja Gaiden series.

It also generally feels less dangerous than Bloodborne, which I really have to be in the right mood to play. So it's nice to play a Soulslike that isn't quite as punishing as FromSoftware's games, and with traditional stage selection, just to mix things up when I'm feeling a bit too bitchslapped and confused by Bloodborne's difficulty and branching paths.

[JR]

Played through Wizards & Warriors last night. It's one of those games that I like to return to every so often. No challenge whatsoever, but it's always fun.

Trying to get as many PSN games completed as I can right now to free up hard drive space on my PS3. Waiting to play Dead Nation right now, as soon as the update finishes downloading. 25 minutes and counting...

[Ratty]

I was recently reminded of "Spooky's House of Jump Scares" (re-titled to "Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion" over a legal dispute) through a James and Mike Monday.


I thought it would be perfect for Halloween and considered waiting, but nah. It's a good game so far. I played through the first 200 rooms in about an hour and at least so far there's a savepoint every 50 rooms, right after the level boss.

Did I mention it's FREE? http://store.steampowered.com/app/356670 because it's free. Check it out if you're in the market for a horror game.