What are you playing, stupid?

[SOUP]

A friend came in from out of town for the weekend and we ended up beating the co-op mode in Portal 2. Really fantastic, but there were some definite head-scratchers in there.

[max_cady]

I beat it. I finally finished Resonance of Fate. Nearly 110 hours put into it. This was indeed one of the hardest games, one of the toughtest RPGs I've ever played. The final boss battle is quite difficult. But doable, it's just a matter of picking the right strategy and a bit of luck.

The ending of this game was... strange, to say the least.

[CosmicCastaway]

I started playing Haunting Ground again the other day, it's been about two years since I last played it. The game is really quite fantastic, I still think it's one of the best survival horror games out there for a number of reasons. While I enjoy games like Resident Evil, the game giving you no other option but to run and hide never gets old and always keeps you on your toes. I really wish Capcom or someone would make another game like this.  Plus, Hewie is arguably the most adorable video game dog ever!  ^_^

[SOUP]

I beat it. I finally finished Resonance of Fate. Nearly 110 hours put into it. This was indeed one of the hardest games, one of the toughtest RPGs I've ever played. The final boss battle is quite difficult. But doable, it's just a matter of picking the right strategy and a bit of luck.

The ending of this game was... strange, to say the least.

After all that, would you recommend it as a purchase?

[MadeManG74]

I finished James Bond: Bloodstone just now. I picked it up on special a few weeks ago when it was like 80% off. Pretty decent game, not great, but a nice little shooter/stealth/car chase game with some nice Bond flavouring.

I also went on a shopping spree on XBLA last week with their specials. Got Perfect Dark, Duke Nukem 3D, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles all for half-price. Been playing Duke Nukem 3D and it's bloody awesome.

Next up I want to play some Valkyria Chronicles.

[tarpmortar]

Oh wow, working on like five games, maybe four. I pretty much finished Pilotwings on 3DS, which really means I just realized how boring it is and that I was only playing it because there wasn't any launch software that was super compelling.

Games I am currently playing and enjoying:

Shining Force Legacy of Great Intention - Genny baby
Bully: Scholarship Edition - PC ($3.70 on Steam : D), good but if it goes on much longer it might began to get stale, a.k.a. pacing issues. With that said much better than the crap GTA franchise in my opinion.
Shenmue on the ole Dreamcast, played it way back in the early 2000's when I was around 10-12, great game (definitely amongst my favorite games ever), and has really aged very well.
Nimbus - PC, great indie game, and feels influenced by Sonic, but I am not sure why.

My spare time games, the games I jump into when I just wanna play something and not worry about progress so much right now are Spiral Knights and Chu Chu Rocket.

I also need to start setting aside more time to practice Virtua Fighter 5, my Lau chan (my main) has gotten very weak compared to what I was last year.

[MadeManG74]

With that said much better than the crap GTA franchise in my opinion.

*gasp* Surely you don't mean Vice City as well!?  

[tarpmortar]

With that said much better than the crap GTA franchise in my opinion.

*gasp* Surely you don't mean Vice City as well!?  

Vice City is admittedly the most bearable, but I have played GTA 2, 3, VC, SA, and 4. The vehicle physics are atrocious, the scripts are riddled with curse words (which would be ok if the game wasn't taking itself so seriously, ala HOTD: OK) in uncomfortable places that remind me of 13 year old kids who wanna seem tough, the gameplay is repetitive, the worlds are too large. It gets tedious in the old Driver games, but they always had better physics for their cars so I atleast enjoyed driving to and fro.

One thing I think Shenmue nailed as a free game was a smaller free world that allowed for a really amazing and intimate atmosphere, literally the game brings back vivid memories of Ogaki, it brings me right back there. Free games that followed afterward, particularly from the west, focused on larger worlds with less detail. Size is only a good thing if what happens inside of that space is useful or pertinent to the experience, I have not seen a free game effectively use these large maps for a purpose that would actually prove to make the game better in some manner. Almost everytime it's large space to traverse over.

With that being said I really enjoyed Red Dead Redemptions' storyline, and the dialog was handled in a mature manner. Bully has a smaller world, and that is actually one of the things I have enjoyed about it thus far. I could handle a bit smaller, but it's definitely better than most of the newer sandbox titles.

[CosmicCastaway]

The one thing I don't like about the GTA games and Bully is that I find the protagonists very unlikeable, although I've heard the main character of Red Dead Redemption is pretty good.

[tarpmortar]

The one thing I don't like about the GTA games and Bully is that the protagonist is that I find the protagonists very unlikeable, although I've heard the main character of Red Dead Redemption is pretty good.

I get that, I'd say that is a chief complaint for me as well. Red Dead Redemption's John Marsden is definitely a change of pace, that game gave me chills.

[MadeManG74]

RDR was so much better than GTAIV, I can agree with that. I found Vice City to be genuinely enjoyable though, I know what you mean about the worlds being too big and sparse (the number 1 complaint about San Andreas for me was exactly that), but I thought Vice City was actually really dense with things to do. Properties to buy, side missions etc were EVERYWHERE.

As for the swearing, I never thought it was overbearing, and in Vice City's case I loved the truckloads of references and send-ups of 80s crime films like Scarface and Carlito's Way.

In any event, I've just been playing Duke Nukem 3D and been getting back into Marvel vs Capcom 3 as well.

[tarpmortar]

As for the swearing, I never thought it was overbearing, and in Vice City's case I loved the truckloads of references and send-ups of 80s crime films like Scarface and Carlito's Way.

The one where I just remember the amount of cursing being uncomfortably bad and sounding very awkward was mainly GTA 4, I don't remember much dialog from the earlier games as it's been quite a while since I touched any of them. I am not a prude, I curse quite a bit (and I don't mind it in a self-mocking manner like HOTD:OK), but with GTA 4 it was so obvious that the game was attempting to take itself seriously with and it was using the words in an attempt to come across as "bad".

Terrible script, it had no originality and on top of that was riddled with curse words to cover up the writers' and their inability to write a legitimate, human, conversation.

With all that in mind though, the bad driving physics and repetitive missions span across the entire series, and also, just remembered another; free aim. WOW. Stunk in RDR too, but felt slightly improved and the rest of the game made up for it.

[Aki-at]

I am not a prude, I curse quite a bit (and I don't mind it in a self-mocking manner like HOTD:OK), but with GTA 4 it was so obvious that the game was attempting to take itself seriously with and it was using the words in an attempt to come across as "bad".

One reason I really hated GTA4 was purely because of this, the series went from being comical and mostly humourous to being extremely serious and depressing.

Whilst I can agree GTA has mostly bad everything, I was willing to forgive it for the most part because of the massive levels of content and exploration. Both of which was radically brought down in GTA4 and absolutely hated that game.

How'd you go from partnering with James Woods to stop an alien invasion to serious story about how Nico is not really a bad guy but he is but not really but he has to do it but not quite but what the hell this is a mess. Boggles the mind what some developers thought this generation.

[SOUP]

I'm right with you guys on GTA IV. I've had it since it came out, and still haven't brought myself to actually beat it. Trying to run someone off the road for the millionth time while the car bounces around unpredictably in a rainstorm isn't all that fun.

On the upside, I beat Portal 2's single player. This game was full of so many fantastic moments. Anybody else here have it on PC/PS3?

[Barry the Nomad]

Playing Phoenix Wright on the iPod. I'm at the last chapter! From there, it's on to the WiiWare ports of the next two titles.

Oh, and I really want a Home Alone fighting game. Capcom needs to get on that. Imagine the roster! Harry, Marv, Pigeon Lady, Old Man Marley, Buzz, Santa, Kevin, John Candy with his Polka Power! And the arenas: the house, the airport, the attic above the orchestra, the skating rink, Duncan's Toy Chest!

I'm joking, but a part of me would love to see that. Like really slick sprites of characters with over the top animations. Hell, Jojo and Rival Schools is about as odd a concept.