What are you playing, stupid?

[Team Andromeda]

Playing GOW IV

I have to say this is the best game in years; the wind storm is so impressive, so well done( truly jaw-dropping moment like u 1st see the overhead section to Contra 3).  Loving the banter between the characters, the graphics are on a different level to most XBox One/PS 4 games; the storm effects of out of this world as are its physics (one of the few truly jaw-dropping moments of this gen)
Looks simply jaw dropping in HDR and its by far and away the best sound game I've ever heard in terms of quality of sound effects - The howling wind sound is so real it's scary: it's  outstanding and  the most impressive audio tech I've ever heard in a game ever .

[max_cady]

@Tad & @SOUP


I guess... My experience with Final Fantasy is limited to FF IV (still haven't beaten that f***ing boss), Final Fantasy XIII (ughhh) and it's two sequels, Final Fantasy XII (he was a pushover because I did so many sidequests and optional boss battles) and now Final Fantasy VII.


I finished the game last Saturday when I found out about the Item Duplication Glitch, used Elixirs on a special type of enemy just before the final boss. So I levelled up in a few hours and I took down the final boss, no prob.


In part because I never played the original when it came out, I wasn't all that impressed by Final Fantasy VII. From a gameplay standpoint, yes, it is a really good game. Few RPGs have this much variety, you have tower defense, bike riding, casino games, snowboarding, tapping buttons to warm up while climbing to the top of a mountain. However from a story standpoint, I felt like there were a few gaps here and there. Cloud Strife wasn't a particularly memorable character, at least, once we got to the reveal and twis later on. Sepiroth was definately an interesting villain and a strange one at that. The final boss was also interesting, you have Genova, which is fairly easy to beat, Bizarro Sepiroth which is just a massive hit point sponge because he restores his health every other turn and the Winged Sepiroth's only major flaw is that his Super Nova special, while fun to watch the first time, feels like a choir to sit through. Also the ending was kinda lacking, it appears that something is going to happen, all of sudden, credits. And then 500 years later... Midgar looks like something out of I Am Legend (neat-o, I guess). Not sure what happens with the rest of Cloud's crew.

[CrazyT]

Final fantasy 9. Vivi is such a cool character. I genuinly like him.

[max_cady]

So after I was done with Final Fantasy VII(Finally!), I played a few rounds of Gal Gun: Double Peace and I'm a few hours into Atlier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book.





Let me preface this by saying that I've never any of the Atelier games (apparentely this franchise started in the late PSX, Sega Saturn era), it's a little different from your average JRPG. It's much less about saving the world or unraveling some massive conspiracy, it's mostly a slice of life / episodic-ish style adventure in which an Alchemist named Sophie is trying to uncover the secrets of a strange flying and talking book. You go out into the world, exploring, picking fights with monsters, coleting items and using the cauldron to create new items. You also have a town in you talk to NPC taking on requests and getting to know all the townsfolks.

[Team Andromeda]

The good old SEGA enterprises days when SEGA and Arcades were brilliant

[Tad]

So after I was done with Final Fantasy VII(Finally!), I played a few rounds of Gal Gun: Double Peace and I'm a few hours into Atlier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book.





Let me preface this by saying that I've never any of the Atelier games (apparentely this franchise started in the late PSX, Sega Saturn era), it's a little different from your average JRPG. It's much less about saving the world or unraveling some massive conspiracy, it's mostly a slice of life / episodic-ish style adventure in which an Alchemist named Sophie is trying to uncover the secrets of a strange flying and talking book. You go out into the world, exploring, picking fights with monsters, coleting items and using the cauldron to create new items. You also have a town in you talk to NPC taking on requests and getting to know all the townsfolks.

If you're feeling up to it, I'd recommend playing Final Fantasy 8. The story, characters and world are great, but more importantly, that difficulty spike FF7 suffers from doesn't exist thanks to the junction system. Master that and learn to train your GF's (summons) correctly and the games easy. 

Junction basically allows you to put spells on every stat (speed, strength etc). The only issue is having to aquire magic by taking it (called drawing). However, a better way to get magic is to set your summons to learn skills that let them convert items into magic spells - they learn them by you battling.

I've heard some complaints about the story and I acknowledge them, but overall, I found it great. I think some struggle with it because it uses time travel which can make things tough to follow. Personally, I understood it fine though.

[max_cady]

Finished Atelier Sophie. Not a particularly long game. The final boss was tough as nails, but doable. The game can get so addicting because even post-game, there's so much stuff to do like secret bosses, secret materials, mostly fetch quests, but are easy enough to pull off. Part of the game's charm is that while your character can only go up to level 20, you can craft weapons and armor by gathering items with special traits, using the cauldron to synthesize materials and then have the shops make your gear. Story-wise, it's kinda refreshing to play a JRPG that doesn't have world ending, hero's journey type adventure. It's a slice of life kinda of adventure. Sophie wants to become a better alchemist by unconvering the secrets inside a weird flying book. And most of your quests revolve around helping Sophie's friends and learning more about the townfolks.


And I tried playing Tales of Symphonia after getting it on Steam ubber cheap but... yeah, just had something of a little games burnout. I think I'll do something else for a while. This usually happens after I finish a JRPG, so it was a bad idea to start another one so early. Give it some time.


@Tad


I might give FF8 a shot but for the moment I'm not too crazy about diving into older JRPGs right now. Not that FF7 had it's fair share of fun. But it didn't age well methinks. Though if there are any good Steam sales I might try it.

[CrazyT]

I think after playing the Elder Scrolls Online for months I can safely say that it may be one of the best games i've ever played. Having become a fan of the series just recently, I think they're all great games, but obviously only 1 one of them comes with the online social aspect. That's what makes it for me. If you're looking for a game that can make you lose yourself, relax and battle in a great world with other people besides you this is probably the perfect one for me personally. The world btw is HUUUUGGEEEEEEE!!! I don't really care for reaching the end in the game. I dont think i'll stop soon either.

This may sound like promotion but I recommend you guys try the free weekend stuff. Its free on steam right now and I highly recommend trying it out.

[max_cady]

So I'm playing another Japanese role-playing game because I love 'em so much and feel like I'm getting my money's worth almost every single time. Tales of Symphonia started innocentely enough, it was a fairly cookie cutter JRPG with stereotypes, which is standard fare in all of the Tales of games that I've played. But about 15hr in, I've experienced some weird detours and a few twists. Unlike Tales of Zestiria, which I feel like it was fantasy pure and simple, ToS deviates from fantasy and dives fully into sci-fi territory in an interesting way.

[Team Andromeda]

Playstaion VR and REZ  and  REZ VR is the best thing ever, Its like having a holiday in universal studios Orlando in your own home . Aera X is just unbelievable, unreal and simply incredible ..

SEGA make REZ 2 for the VR and also port Let's Go Jungle/Island to it .In all my years of gaming (and I started gaming on the Zx Spectrum in 84) It's just utterly incredible and amazing . Its so hard to explain what its like, but the sense of height one gets its astonishing and I totally and utterly pants myself,  playing that Shark diving game and the RE 7 Kitchen demo .

[Nathan Dunsmore]

Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii). One of the best platformers I've played in a long time.

[CrazyT]

Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii). One of the best platformers I've played in a long time.

Never had any experience with the franchise untill that game, and yeah, it was really amazing. Its loaded with content as well and it never gets old. The sequel tropical freeze is great too but I remember returns being a bit harder so i may give the edge to returns.

[max_cady]

And I'm done with Tales of Symphonia. Real shame I didn't own a Gamecube back in the day, 'cause I certainly would've had a ton of fun. And I did have a lotta fun with it. I still prefer ToV, but ToS is great in it's own way. Blending fantasy with sci-fi, made for an interesting twist. The characters as it happens, are a lot of fun, despite being massive anime stereotypes, they have good overall chemistry and there's no shortage of secrets to uncover with each and every one of them. Following the Tales of model, dungeons almost always have some sort of puzzles which have you backtrack a lot. Not as annoying as Tales of Vesperia, though I feel that sometimes, these puzzles are made to artifically prolong the game. Lyold Irving is a great character, a loveable numbskull, very different from the badass Yuri and the stoic Sorey. Lyold's companions are a good bunch for the most part, including Sheena and Zelos. On a personal level, the story was great and all, like I said, it mixed sci-fi, religious motiffs and fantasy in an interesting manner, but the ending had me shouting "Bullsh**!" despite all the exposition I was given.

[max_cady]

So after I took some time off... I decided to play Naruto: Rise of a Ninja on my Xbox 360. No real reason: just wanted to finish off all the major side-quests. I did make some major progresses. I have only one race left to get to the 100% mark.


Putting it aside, I started playing Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force on my PS4 as soon I finished opening up my christmas presents. First overall impressions are pretty good, I will say this, though, despite some polish here and there as well as a few tweaks, it is very much, a 3 year old Playstation 3 game that looks like it's an early PS3-era title, Compile Heart's game engine is very colorful, easy on the eyes, but it's crystal clear that it's dated.


Having said that, I am pretty impressed so far... This is more than just an updated port: it's features new dungeons, new scenes, more dialogue and more content. For example... This shouldn't count as spoilers because it's like the first 10 minutes of the game, but in the original PS3 / PC version, Eryn breaks Fang out of prison, we get a brief introduction of how Eryn met Fang because he pulled the Fury, aka magical sword from the stone and he unwillingly became a fencer. It's mostly cutscene driven and you get a quick fight tutorial after it.

In the new updated Playstation 4 version, however, you get roughly the same cutscenes, but the prison is a dungeon and a big one at that. And a boss fight towards near the end. For the most part, the story is basically the same, but so far, I've been some changes, new cutscenes featuring characters that I've only met much later into the game and new Furies.


A fun game, overall.

[Tad]

Inside

Just finished this highly acclaimed game and I'm not sure what to make of it. I think the atmosphere, music, puzzles are good, but I found the narrative somewhat lacking. It tells it well, but it's a subject I think that's been done to death.

FFXV

Think I'm about half way through this and I'm still really enjoying it. Some little issues are there, but it's still proving to be the best FFXV game in quite some time.