Now Playing?

[King Jiggles]

Well, it's been a while since I've done anything but post movie reviews on this board, but I've been playing a lot of games recently, so I thought it'd be fun to talk about what everyone's playing at the moment, rather than make a new thread for each one.

At the beginning of the year, I realized that if I continued collecting games as I had, then I'd never be able to finish any of them. So I did a silly thing and resolved to not buy any games this year in order to beat as many of my current collection as possible. This gave me the opportunity to catch up with my collection while also forcing me to stick with a game until it was finished, rather than allow myself to lose interest somewhere in the middle. I became anal and drafted a list of games I'd like to beat and the order I want to beat them in. So far I'm doing a decent job, with 18 beaten since January. Here's what I'm working on right now:

Prey: Conda's been on me to finish this one for a while, so I'm still slowly making my way through it. It's fairly fun, though not as revolutionary or scary as it seems to think it is. As a shooter it's fairly straightforward, even with the physics-bending mechanics and "no-death" gameplay. The thing that most impresses me about it is the art design. The designers really did a good job of portraying an alien civilization that has collectively given the laws of physics the middle finger. The gigantic, spherical "space room" in the middle of the alien's ship is awe-inspiring every time I see it, and blend of biological and mechanical in their spacecraft is not novel, but cool nonetheless. The story and characters are nothing to write home about, and they're thankfully kept on the sidelines.

Starcraft: Despite my love for this game, I've never actually beaten all the single-player campaigns, and I kept sucking at multiplayer. Well, not anymore. I've finally cleared the Zerg campaign and my brother and I have set up several multiplayer games between his Mac and my Dell. With all this practice I've finally become quite adept with my Zerg buddies, consistently shouting "NOTHING CAN STAND BEFORE THE SWARM" during matches. I friggin love this game. It's quite literally timeless, with a seamless combination of great graphics, great music and sound design, and amazingly balanced and frenetic gameplay.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wing: Since I loved Final Fantasy XII to a ridiculous extent, it was only inevitable that I would pick up its DS sequel. The gameplay is significantly more RTS-flavored than the MMO stylings of FFXII, and the story is generously more kid-friendly and less politically complex. Still, that's to be expected from a DS sequel. The controls are tight, responsive and, most importantly, simple. It's only in the summoning mechanics when things start to get a little complicated, but it's still easy to understand. The characters are paper-thin and the story is only somewhat interesting, but it's simplistic fun and a good way to spend 10 minutes (per mission).

LEGO Batman: If you've played any other LEGO game yet, you'll know what to expect here: simplistic, surprisingly fun action with a playskool challenge. I really only got it because it's Batman-related, but it's still fun for a romp or two.

What are you guys playing?

[sRc]

Hmm what am I currently drifting through...

Project Diva (PSP), Brave Story (PSP), Star Ocean 1 (PSP), FF4 After Story (Wii), Monster Hunter 2 Freedom (PSP), and the various Touhou series games (PC)

[Windjet]

what am i currently drifting through...? LIFE

[King Jiggles]

Conda: I have literally only heard of one of those.

Windjet: Waka waka

Well, let's see. . . I finally finished Prey, and while I had a good deal of fun with it, I felt sort of let down by what seemed to be a promising ending. Oh well, we'll see if i ever pick it back up again. I also finished the original Starcraft campaigns and am now working on Brood War while still playing with my brother. I beat LEGO Batman (friggin' deserve a medal for that, I'm sure) as well, and also beat two of my little brother's Sly Cooper games, which were both wacky fun. While I got to the final boss on Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, I have yet to beat him (apparently I need to train up to level 80 or so from a collective level of 50, so nuts to that), so in the meantime I borrowed and beat my brother's Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which is addictive and challenging. I hope to play the sequel as well.

Another game you all need to know about is Psychonauts, if you didn't already know about it. It's one of the most enjoyable, hilarious, and creative games I've played in a long time. It's set in a summer camp for psychically-gifted children, which is crashed by a circus runaway named Raz. Hoping to capitalize on his psychic abilities before his restrictive father comes to pick him up, Raz makes the most of the 2 days he has at Whispering Rock summer camp, getting to know the other psychic kids and earning merit badges. When he stumbles upon a secret plot to steal all the kids' brains, it's up to Raz to find the missing brains and save the day. The gameplay is fun and inventive, every single level (taking place in various people's maladjusted minds) is unique and stunning, the boss fights are great, and, above all, the characters and story are fantastic, brought to life by some of the greatest voice work and writing in any video game ever. Sure it's cartoony, but the whole thing is carried by a very twisted sense of humor that makes the entire game feel much more mature that it appears on the surface. I just barely finished it, but i already want to go back and play it again to find more figments, sort more emotional baggage, and clear out more mental cobwebs (all actual items you collect in the game). It's easily one of my favorite games ever, and you should all give it a try!

Also, I finally picked up Tron 2.0, so I'm getting started on that. Pretty keen so far.

[sRc]

yay! Tron 2.0 is an awesome game

[Infoseeker]

Playing on my psp mostly recently.

Monster Hunter Freedon Unite (PSP) though very little compared to when it came out. Mostly to help out my friends still playing it. Xlinkai anyone?

Star Ocean 1 (psp)

Legend of Heroes 2 (PSP)

I need to find Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube. Before I play the sequel. Only US Tales-series game I haven't played.

[sRc]

Monster Hunter Freedon Unite (PSP) though very little compared to when it came out. Mostly to help out my friends still playing it. Xlinkai anyone?

haha that would be a nice idea if I had that version. dont think our two versions can link up together tho

[Infoseeker]

No they don't, but you can always upgrade to the new version! ;D

It's Freedom Unite is only an expansion and not a sequel; so all your data will carry through. They simply added more Hunter ranks to the game; therefore new versions of the same boss made harder, alongside your gear has further upgrades. Of course they added new maps to throw those upgraded bosses into.

It's supposed to be so hard you can't solo them. But I could able to do them. Can you believe I beat the whole game with only Long Swords? I have 300 missions complete with Long Swords. xD
And single digits for the rest, for "training" missions.

[The Fish King]

Is it sad that 14 years later I still spend at least 2 hours each day playing Pokemon games?

[sRc]

No they don't, but you can always upgrade to the new version! ;D

It's Freedom Unite is only an expansion and not a sequel; so all your data will carry through. They simply added more Hunter ranks to the game; therefore new versions of the same boss made harder, alongside your gear has further upgrades. Of course they added new maps to throw those upgraded bosses into.

It's supposed to be so hard you can't solo them. But I could able to do them. Can you believe I beat the whole game with only Long Swords? I have 300 missions complete with Long Swords. xD
And single digits for the rest, for "training" missions.

ah cool ill have to get the expansion then, didnt know you could use the old data