What are you playing?

[Sabaku Ika]

I've recently become addicted to Cave shmups on iOS. Shmups of any kind usually destroy me within seconds of starting, so it surprised me that they work so well on a touchscreen. I guess it's the added precision and closeness to the screen that does it... I'm now playing Mushihimesama 1 and 2, Espgaluda 2, Death Smiles, and Dodonpachi Resurrection. I kind of hope they don't release any more of these soon, 'cause they will make me homeless.

[al kusanagi]

Top two lessons learned from playing Borderlands 2:



1. Ain't no rest for the wicked.



2. No fappin' in the dook hut.

[Melon]

Journey was the best gaming experience I've had in a long time.

[al kusanagi]

I'm not going to write off RE6 just yet, but there are some extremely questionable design decisions that have been made in it. Also, I always play games on their default difficulties first, but I may just start over on easy and hopefully that will alleviate some of the bullshit.

[AEUGNewtype]

[quote name='Al Kusanagi' timestamp='1349213078' post='135019']

I'm not going to write off RE6 just yet, but there are some extremely questionable design decisions that have been made in it. Also, I always play games on their default difficulties first, but I may just start over on easy and hopefully that will alleviate some of the bullshit.

[/quote]

What are these questionable design decisions everyone keep spouting off about? I played both demos extensively and have already played about 3 hours of the prologue and Chris' campaign on the retail game, and the game is fucking fantastic. I'm also playing on normal difficulty to start off, but what is the "bullshit" you've run into? Everyone is just condemning the fuck out of this game because its not RE2 or RE4, just like they did with RE5 when it came out, but the crap I've been reading about this game is WAY worse than any of the horseshit I heard around when RE5 came out. The only thing about the game I wish was different so far is I wish the camera was a little more zoomed out and not up in your character's grill the whole time. Its not a big deal, I just wish you could control that a bit more. Every negative review I've read for the game is so fucking pathetically vague and uninformed that you'd think they didn't even play the game past the prologue and are just guessing about what happens for the entire rest of the game, so it really makes me wonder what everyone actually dislikes about this game, or if they're all just butthurt this isn't RE 4.75. I think reviews are absolutely worthless anyway, but seeing all this nonsensical shit-talking is starting to get irritating.

[al kusanagi]

Hey, I ignored the reviews completely and I'm just going off my experience so far. I chalked all the bad reviews up to "No one has liked a Resident Evil game not named 4, but I've liked them," but things I don't like are:



-Lack of an instruction manual or anything explaining the controls. Apparently there's a dodge move in there somewhere which would help avoid the cheap damage, but damned if I've found it.



-Unavoidable damage. If they want it to play like an action game, then give me a means to play it like an action game. If the dodge works to avoid it, then maybe this will help.



-Fucking quick time events.



-Game only pauses in certain situations.



-Frustrating UI.



Maybe Leon just has the campaign that accentuates all these issues and the others are fine, and I'll probably get used to it, but I can totally see where all the negative outlook is coming from. The game is polarizing as shit.

[Melon]

Tokyo Jungle is the funnest game I've played in awhile. Addicting!

[al kusanagi]

Looks like Leon just has the shit chapters. RE6 is more fun in Jake's chapters. Also, after trial and error I've figured out several extra controls, but still have no idea what a lot of the options do.



Seriously, Capcom... Just a goddamned instruction manual would have solved most of these issues!

[AEUGNewtype]

[quote name='Al Kusanagi' timestamp='1349217819' post='135032']

-Lack of an instruction manual or anything explaining the controls. Apparently there's a dodge move in there somewhere which would help avoid the cheap damage, but damned if I've found it.



-Fucking quick time events.



-Game only pauses in certain situations.



-Frustrating UI.



I can totally see where all the negative outlook is coming from. The game is polarizing as shit.



[/quote]

It seems to be fairly common nowadays to not have instruction manuals because the in-game tutorials are supposed to explain all that, and I don't know if its in the retail game or not, but in both demos, the loading screens gave you a full explanation of all controls, so I learned from that. Most games now either don't have a manual at all or the manual is literally one page that shows you controls and four pages of legal information, and then all of that same information in 3 other languages. I think the game attempts to teach you a lot about the game system from the little prologue section with Leon, but doesn't do a very good job. Not a good reason to hate a game in my book, though.



I personally don't mind quick-time events as long as they're well-placed, which this game doesn't seem to be too out-of-hand with it yet, at least from Chris' campaign.



Its also becoming very common now that games don't flat-out pause, and its mostly because of online functionality, so I'm fairly used to that as well.



The only thing that irks me a little about the UI is the fact that you have to "equip" herbs to use them, basically, it just feels terribly unnecessary. That, and the fact that after you use any grenade, it auto-switches back to your weapon after throwing one of them. Maybe you can turn that off, I don't know.



The internet is a giant shithole regarding this game, there are thousands upon thousands of little kids and stupid assholes posting "user reviews" on every site giving the game a 0 or 1 out of 10, more than likely before they've even actually played the game past the opening 5 minutes or played it at all and are just emulating all the mentally retarded "professional" review sites by giving it a low score and taking these people's words as truth. I believe most of what you see in the "professional" reviews is absolute closed-minded, knee-jerk reactions to the game, and reviewers are also on a time schedule to complete a review before it launches, so they try to rush through games, so when an action game that's as long as RE6 comes along, they get pissy about it because there's so much content that its hard to get through before the deadline.

[al kusanagi]

The problem with the loading screen thing is that since I have the game installed, they load in about half a second, so I don't even get to see the commands. Not knowing a lot of those commands led to some really frustrating situations/deaths when I started with Leon's chapters, since it's all about getting swarmed by a shitton of melee enemies. Jake's is much easier since their first instinct is shooting. Also, not having any skills during the Leon section really sucked since you get hit constantly and he'd lose a minimum of one block of health every time. Now with a defense increase, I've got a lot more survivability.

[aine]

I finished Diablo 3... on Normal. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /lmfao.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lmfao:' /> Still took me 45+ hours of playtime, because I like to take my time like that - even thought that after getting some good gear from AH around lvl 15 and then upgrading a few items around lvl 23 it felt like I was playing with God Mode on. All bosses were down in 10-15 seconds, and only towards the end of A4 the mobs managed to make any noticeable dents in my HP. Diablo went down in less than 2 minutes.



I feel that quests in Pigg Life pose more challenge than that. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> But I still enjoyed it in a leisurely way, just uncovering the plot piece by piece, without the need for too much grinding. It was the first Diablo and first hack&slash that I played for real, and I certainly didn't hate the experience. But then I know I won't be playing H&S games too much either, just not my thing in the long run. So no playing Nightmare mode for me for the foreseeable future, also because it would take me some 250 hours to complete. Come on punk, call me a casual. Make my day. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... >/pimp.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':pimp:' />



And Blizz should just get together and make their own CG fantasy movie, because the FMVs were quite jaw-dropping. Especially the one at the end of Act 3. I guess it's about 15 minutes FMV footage total, but it left me craving for much more.



The only real bummer came at the end, when I thought I'd try pushing some of the rare items I picked up on RMAH and see if I could get any buck out of it. I played on US servers, planning to do some co-ops with my buddies across the pond (which never happened), and you can only use RMAH in your home region. AND you can't transfer characters between regions. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... dammit.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':dammit:' /> I gotta see if I can just change my home region on B.net.





To folks playing Borderlands 2 - is it worth checking out? Everyone seems to be raving about it, but so they were about Borderlands 1, and I threw it out after long and tedious 5 hours of giving it a chance. I tried hard, but I couldn't take the murky, dull, bordering on non-existent plot, unbalanced repetitive gameplay, unfunny jokes, hundreds of confusing items, etc. I loved the visual style and it's probably the best looking game of the past few years (as opposed to most other games that look like shiny balls with some bump-mapping added), but apart from that it was a total waste. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /pouty.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':pouty:' />

[al kusanagi]

If you didn't like Borderlands 1, stay far away from Borderlands 2. It's the same game with everything improved upon and a much better plot, but nothing is fundamentally different, especially the humor.

[AEUGNewtype]

After finishing my initial run of all four Resident Evil 6 campaign runs this morning, I can say this is easily one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a long time. Once you get the controls fully down (which may take a while, depending,) the variance of gameplay styles, art design, huge amount of content, complex inter-weaved storylines, and pretty much everything about the game makes it one of the most epic and enjoyable things I've played in a while. I haven't even touched Agent Hunt or Mercenaries yet, so just based on the content in the single player campaigns, I can already say this. The "professional" gaming review industry is a giant piece of shit and reviewers all just suck each other off when they write reviews to avoid drawing attention to how little effort was actually put into it and little kids are spamming every site on the internet with user reviews with 0 out of 10.

[al kusanagi]

I'm not as optimistic as you. It's by no means horrible, but the controls are still terrible for the type of game they were going for. While I'd rate it higher than the 2 stars Giant Bomb gave it, I agree 100% with all that was written in their review. The reviewer even mentions how the game "gets better" once you start adjusting to the idiosyncrasies of it, but you can't deny that the game would be greatly improved with controls more suited to an action game. Other than the controls and Leon's campaign, I like it, although if they were going to be so ambitious with the story, I would have liked a Claire/Rebecca campaign too.

[AEUGNewtype]

[quote name='Al Kusanagi' timestamp='1349373890' post='135178']

I'm not as optimistic as you. It's by no means horrible, but the controls are still terrible for the type of game they were going for. While I'd rate it higher than the 2 stars Giant Bomb gave it, I agree 100% with all that was written in their review. The reviewer even mentions how the game "gets better" once you start adjusting to the idiosyncrasies of it, but you can't deny that the game would be greatly improved with controls more suited to an action game. Other than the controls and Leon's campaign, I like it, although if they were going to be so ambitious with the story, I would have liked a Claire/Rebecca campaign too.

[/quote]

It didn't even take me but a chapter or two in Chris's campaign to adjust to the game, and I've not had any real issues with the controls, especially no more than in any of the other RE games, and this control setup sticks with the tradition of RE controls while just adding a few elements to allow a bit more freedom and fast-paced control during combat, and if people are still complaining about the controls of the RE series at this point, after this many entries, why the fuck aren't they playing another series instead yet and ignoring RE? I enjoy the feel of the controls being right in between classic RE controls and full-blown action game controls, not relying too heavily on either. My opinion, obviously, which seems to be pretty unpopular.

[al kusanagi]

I played the game in the worst possible order for the controls. Chris is by far the easiest and has almost no QTEs in sight, and you barely need the melee mechanics and the dodging. Starting with Leon, it drops you right in the middle of the shit with limited resources, tons of QTEs and forces you to heavily rely on the melee mechanics. If the game had been locked into Chris, then Jake, then Leon, it would have been a decent progression for getting used to the controls and mechanics, but starting with Leon really soured me on the game. Switching to Jake wasn't bad at all, and Chris' chapters are an outright cakewalk. Hell, not only haven't I died in his chapters, I've only healed twice before chapter 4.

[AEUGNewtype]

[quote name='Al Kusanagi' timestamp='1349379810' post='135191']

I played the game in the worst possible order for the controls. Chris is by far the easiest and has almost no QTEs in sight, and you barely need the melee mechanics and the dodging. Starting with Leon, it drops you right in the middle of the shit with limited resources, tons of QTEs and forces you to heavily rely on the melee mechanics. If the game had been locked into Chris, then Jake, then Leon, it would have been a decent progression for getting used to the controls and mechanics, but starting with Leon really soured me on the game. Switching to Jake wasn't bad at all, and Chris' chapters are an outright cakewalk. Hell, not only haven't I died in his chapters, I've only healed twice before chapter 4.

[/quote]

The mechanics are definitely very different through the different campaigns, and that was one of my favorite parts. Also of note, I did my first runs with Helena and Sherry, not Leon and Jake, and even the sub-characters play styles versus the main characters play styles seems to differ quite a bit, and that makes the game feel different depending who you pick in each campaign. Jake has his whole hand-to-hand thing, but Sherry has the stun rod, so while both characters are extremely powerful in the melee department, both of their melee styles differ greatly. Also with Chris', Piers style is largely focused on long-range combat because he has the most powerful sniper rifle in the game whereas Chris handles the shotguns and melee a bit better. Overall, I feel like Leon isn't that great (though I've only used him in the demos) but I liked Helena a lot more after my first play, besides that she has no melee weapon, just fists/gun hits. Ada's campaign also changes things up quite a bit as well, since she has no partner to help, and her campaign mostly centers on stealth for the combat and lots of thinking/puzzles.



I feel like people have come to accept gameplay styles that don't really require much work or variance in control/progression, and this game would definitely throw most people off. I also made a conscious decision to not pick Leon's campaign first because it seems like that was the one that had the most hype and what most people were anxious to play, but I felt like I would save it for last, and after experiencing the whole story, I think the way I did it may have been the best order to play in. Chris's story reveals the least about the overall story, while Jake's reveals a little bit more than that, then Leon's is like "so here's almost every reveal about the main story." While Leon's definitely doesn't reveal as much as Ada's, it really felt like his should've been the last one in the progression before hers, which makes it feel odd that they even made it a choice between the 3 campaigns to begin with, but I guess its probably because people just want more pick-and-choose options in games instead of being told a story at the developer's discretion.

[Zounder]

[quote name='Al Kusanagi' timestamp='1349270176' post='135072']

If you didn't like Borderlands 1, stay far away from Borderlands 2. It's the same game with everything improved upon and a much better plot, but nothing is fundamentally different, especially the humor.

[/quote]



I disagree with this. I couldn't get into Borderlands 1 at all, and I'm loving Borderlands 2. It's funnier and everything is -much- less tedious. Though I can understand somebody finding the 2nd too similar to the 1st, I just personally disagree.



I recommend playing it co-op, though, at least in my experience it makes everything much more fun when you're working as a team. (I feel that way about Diablo 3 too.)

[showraniy]

Whoa, it's a weird day when I'm agreeing with AEUG, but I have to agree that RE6 is fun for me so far. I'm not liking Chris' campaign just because I've had to play the first chapter over three times because of save file issues, so it started to feel really Call of Duty-ish for me. I wanted zombies back in my REs, so Leon's story so far is my favorite. I'm reeeaally starting to miss Claire though. With all this Chris in the last two games, I was thinking she'd show up at some point, but no luck.



For some reason though, I'm just not having fun, and I don't get why. I'm playing the game, it's an okay way to kill time and I'm fine spending all day doing it so far, but I'm just not really having fun for some reason. With 5, even though I didn't give a single shit about the story, I just remember having lots of fun playing it. 6 has just felt like a drag so far with gaming mechanics that are just interesting enough to keep it from being boring.



Oh, and I don't know what system you're playing on, Al, but the roll/dodge is X and R1 on PS3, and I'd imagine the equivalent A and R1 on 360. You have to hold X/A first though, because you have to be running to perform the dodge/roll. So it's actually pretty useless overall, and my brother and I just do it to amuse ourselves when the other is taking too long in an area. I spend more time smashing the melee button in hordes of zombies than doing any dodging.

[al kusanagi]

I eventually found the dodge. There are a number of enemies that charge at you from a distance, so it does come in handy, especially leaping backwards. The key is, you've got to remember to let go of aim as soon as you hit the ground, or you'll just lay there.

[AEUGNewtype]

Whoa, it's a weird day when I'm agreeing with AEUG, but I have to agree that RE6 is fun for me so far. I'm not liking Chris' campaign just because I've had to play the first chapter over three times because of save file issues, so it started to feel really Call of Duty-ish for me. I wanted zombies back in my REs, so Leon's story so far is my favorite.

I think I know what you're talking about, and its not an issue, but lots of people are throwing shit-fits because when the game says "checkpoint," that does not mean your game is saved, that means you have a checkpoint in case you die but the game only actually SAVES when you get to a loading screen or major FMV cutscene, and it says "saving..." in the top left corner.

For some reason though, I'm just not having fun, and I don't get why. I'm playing the game, it's an okay way to kill time and I'm fine spending all day doing it so far, but I'm just not really having fun for some reason. With 5, even though I didn't give a single shit about the story, I just remember having lots of fun playing it. 6 has just felt like a drag so far with gaming mechanics that are just interesting enough to keep it from being boring.

Most polarizing paragraph ever written, especially in contrast to the first paragraph <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> Also, I think Mercenaries is where the game mechanics have their true chance to shine, since you have bigger arenas and more enemies to use your abilities against. I've seen some absolutely jaw-dropping videos of people playing Mercs online where Leon is literally jumping and dodging back and forth while dodging the mid-air jumping zombies and getting headshots and reloading seemingly all in the span of about 2 seconds. Once you get on the ground and start doing the roll stuff and shooting from the ground, its almost like a whole new control system once you explore what it can really do, and the running slide/jump kick moves are supremely useful in a lot of situations. I've started to use more of the combat and cover mechanics on my 2nd playthroughs that I'm going through now and it makes the game much more fun instead of just "see enemy, shoot, run, or melee" kind of thing.

[showraniy]

I eventually found the dodge. There are a number of enemies that charge at you from a distance, so it does come in handy, especially leaping backwards. The key is, you've got to remember to let go of aim as soon as you hit the ground, or you'll just lay there.

Wait, you can leap backwards? You might be talking about a different move then. Man, I've died so many times just being jump-attacked by some stupid zombie and it gets irritating. And for me, aiming on the ground is half the fun of the rolling. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> Also rolling back and forth sideways.

"saving..." in the top left corner.

Actually, my issue had to do with an improper installation of the game onto the PS3, so the data file actually corrupted and deleted the whole chapter's progress as soon as we finished it. And deleted a whole chapter of Leon's story too (the only other one we'd played so far). A quick call to Gamestop let us know we had to reinstall and then it worked, but it sucked when it happened. Twice. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hatthe.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whatthe:' />

Most polarizing paragraph ever written, especially in contrast to the first paragraph <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> Also, I think Mercenaries is where the game mechanics have their true chance to shine

Wow, that's hilariously awkward of me. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> I have a horrible habit of not rereading before hitting the submit button, so whooops. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... stling.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whistling:' /> I've been avoiding Mercs because I want to finish campaign first (no real reason), so I might try it out to liven things up. I'm actually wondering if having to replay my least favorite chapters of Leon's and Chris' campaigns is why I'm not having as much fun, so I hope for good things now that the saves are working right and I'm at better places in the story.



Just for the record, I hate dungeons, so forcing me through a long one for two chapters is not the way to get on my good side, Capcom. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /noway.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':noway:' />

[AEUGNewtype]

"saving..." in the top left corner.

Actually, my issue had to do with an improper installation of the game onto the PS3, so the data file actually corrupted and deleted the whole chapter's progress as soon as we finished it. And deleted a whole chapter of Leon's story too (the only other one we'd played so far). A quick call to Gamestop let us know we had to reinstall and then it worked, but it sucked when it happened. Twice. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hatthe.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whatthe:' />

Eew, yuck. I can definitely see how having to play the exact same (long) section of a game over and over again could get a little irritating, but unfortunately that's not the game's fault, nor yours, so hopefully once you start playing all the other content (which there is a TON of) you'll forget about that bad experience. And hopefully your Sony MiracleStation (sic) won't mess up again.

I've been avoiding Mercs because I want to finish campaign first (no real reason), so I might try it out to liven things up. I'm actually wondering if having to replay my least favorite chapters of Leon's and Chris' campaigns is why I'm not having as much fun, so I hope for good things now that the saves are working right and I'm at better places in the story.

That makes sense, I'm pretty sure its meant to be played later for multiple reasons. You unlock stages in Mercs by finishing the campaigns and you also kinda need to buy some skills to do decently at Mercs, so its better to wait til later. You'll also have a much better grasp of the controls and mechanics systems.

[Wapiko]

RE6 has been bought in my household, but for now my boyfriend is playing his new copy of Fallout 3. I've got a ridiculous fear of zombies, but I can't help myself from turning off the lights and watching people play through the RE games.



And when I can get away with it I've been playing through Skyrim on my own account for hours on end <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... R#>/8o.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='8o' />

[Ap2000]

Funky and interesting few days right now:



Resident Evil 6 released.

XCOM Enemy Unknown released.

Dishonored released.

Retro City Rampage FINALLY released.



And, most importantly, Iron Brigade for 9,23€ (-33% sale) on Steam this whole week. SOLD!



Also started to play Technic for Minecraft, which is an insanely huge content mod-pack.



I still haven't bought Dark Souls... I feel like I need to take a break from university for a whole semester and just gamegamegame.

[al kusanagi]

I'm loving XCOM. It's a perfect update to the original series. Hard to believe the last time I played it, 80% of Morning Musume wasn't even born.

[Ap2000]

[quote name='Al Kusanagi' timestamp='1349822405' post='135520']



I'm loving XCOM. It's a perfect update to the original series. Hard to believe the last time I played it, 80% of Morning Musume wasn't even born.

[/quote]



I never played the originals, but a friend of mine, who loved the originals, says it's way too casualized.

[al kusanagi]

Other than movement not being based on a grid, class-based special skills, and an adjustable difficulty that lets your squad members survive for more than two missions, everything is pretty much the same.

[Wapiko]

Isn't there a Fable sequel coming out soon too? This is a hectic month for new releases.

[Ap2000]

[quote name='Wapiko' timestamp='1349826072' post='135530']



Isn't there a Fable sequel coming out soon too? This is a hectic month for new releases.

[/quote]



Yeah, in the form of some kinect bullshit

But Fable has always been crap. lol



October usually starts the craze up until early January. From there on it's 0 games until March when maybe the next big game hits (maybe even GTA V).