What games are you currently playing?

[teenalphabro]

I will always stand by the fact that 3 is just as good as 2, and it might even be better than it.

[teenalphabro]

Also, finished my first playthrough of Borderlands 1 and started 2 and man. The difference between the two of them, tonally, is night and day.

[Rjoyadet]

Columns and Cutthroat Island on the Sega Genesis.

[dc20willsave]

Spent most of the last day playing Super Mario Maker. Most of the levels I've built have been pretty unoriginal but I do have to say I've played some really creative levels that did some fun things with the tools. I played at least one interesting Bullet Hell level.

[Guest]

MGS V has got to be the best game in the series.  I'm probably 50 hours in and I'm only at around 25% completion.  Honestly never thought I'd get into an open world game ever again but the gameplay hooks are too good.

Quiet completely breaks the game once you level her up, too.

[teenalphabro]

I've started Mass Effect 3, and I gotta say, it still holds up in my mind. Say what you will about the endings, but the rest of the game is incredibly effective. The opening section in Vancouver alone is in my top 10 scenes from any game, I'd have to say. I'll probably say more when I finish it, but for now, still really good. 

[Guest]

Finished MGSV.  Non-spoiler thoughts about the end.

The game isn't perfect, the mission structure near the end gets really weird and there is one major plot thread left behind (and already uncovered as cut content) indicating the game is flat out unfinished, but that ending was everything it needed to be, especially in the context of this likely being the last Metal Gear game ever.  I don't see how anyone that understands the series and the themes within could be unhappy with it, as it's consistent with everything we've come to expect at this point and the themes of how information is manipulated.

In vague half-spoilery thought, the Quiet character arc is so damn good that's it's a shame it'll be ignored simply because of what she's wearing.  It builds so well even in the context of the gameplay.

[dc20willsave]

After spending a week exclusively with Super Mario Maker, going back to playing through the Square games released for the SNES. Already did Chrono Trigger, about 2/3rds through Secret of Mana. Just realized if I want to do this justice, it's going to get expensive. I don't own Final Fantasy 2 (4) except for the GBA, Super Mario RPG, or Secret of Evermore. Hell, I don't believe I've ever gotten past the first world in Secret of Evermore. But, I already own FF3 (6), Mystic Quest, and Breath of Fire (Released by Square in the states so I'm gonna count it).

[teenalphabro]

I'm currently doing playthroughs of Silent Hill 1 and Undertale.

[Venneh]

Still working my way through the various 3DS/PS3 games. Should probably look at getting a new PS3 as the optical drive appears to be busted on mine, or seeing if it's repairable at a decent price locally. 

However, as of late, have been working on various games on Steam.

-Managed to complete a playthrough of Long Live The Queen in which I actually survived, now to go back and see how many more ridiculous deaths I can unlock. Had a great time introducing the boyfriend to this. 

-Boyfriend bought me Shadowrun: Dragonfall. How the fuck did I not know about this series sooner? Cyberpunk, dragons, conspiracies, and just general awesome. Finished my first playthrough with a street samurai Troll named Morrigan who specialized in SMGs, ended up giving control of the dragon to APEX. 

-Am now working my way through Shadowrun: Hong Kong with a dwarf mage. Literally just started last night and met Kindly Cheng. 

[Guest]

LSD: The Dream Emulator now has a PC remake.

[Davedevil]

Got the Battlefront PS4 bundle. Took quite a while to install. 

Overall I think the game retains the spirit of the series pretty well. The mechanics take a little bit of getting used to but they're fine. I appreciate the variety of mission styles, and I'm probably getting the season pass anyway, so I'm all set.

[Venneh]

Assume each game will take about five minutes to install, plus however many fucking gigs of updates. (Looking at you, Borderlands Handsome Collection and DAI, and that last wasn't even counting all the DLC.)

Recent games!

-Shadowrun Hong Kong: FUCKING PLAY THIS ALREADY. One of the better games I've played recently - great little things to follow up on around the town if you so choose, you get to play with an undead samurai enforcer and the Russian cybernetic psychopath who just hangs around in your basement, the battles have a good balance of strategy and just shooting the shit out of stuff, and you can potentially rules lawyer the big bad into going back to hell. Also, if you play your cards right, and leave the vampire queen in your debt, and have the undead samurai in your party going to face the big bad, you get the Monster Squad achievement. It's a pretty damn nice touch, and the game is full of nice little touches like that. 

-To the Moon: Had Jim play through this. Nice little RPG Maker game, a bit janky at times (FUCK YOU HORSES), but still pretty good.  Hits hard on the story front. Not spectacular, but a fun diversion.

-Borderlands 2: Fun to watch, shoot things, it's pretty. If you take a real hard look at anything, especially on a second playthrough, it kind of falls apart hard. (Especially since one of the playable characters is a Siren, and thus there should be some pretty important ramifications on the plot but nooooooo ugh ugh ugh.) Suffers for being surrounded by the other games I played it near, but still, this has at least twice, three times the budget of most of these other games.

-Persona 3 FES: Playing through this here and there. Mostly levelling up in Tartarus at night, and blindly going through social links during the day. Making good progress though. 

-Transistor: Fuck this is pretty. Plot (which I mostly inferred, but I don't mind that so much with this) is mostly to frame the experience, and given that I just played this through over the course of an afternoon/evening, it's a hell of an experience. Gameplay is pretty solid, especially if you combine things right for your various attacks. Only one real bit of padding in this tbh, and random difficulty spikes can have you randomly losing important skills, but it's a great way to spend a weekend.

Jim adds: Hi. I think SR:HK is my game of the year. It's the third in a series and the successive familiarity with the setting and tools paid off. I needed to know what happened next after every mission. The characters felt insane and yet believable. Punching Chuthulu (sp??) is pretty great, but the moment when you get an achievement for it means that the team took a look at how cool that moment was and thought, yes, that deserves a reward. SR:HK shows care. I needed to play through it again to see what changed. A bunch did. (Hannah: and there's probably even more we missed and need another playthrough for.) To The Moon was fun. I liked it less than Hannah did. Playing Borderlands 2 is fun. Listening to the radio drama that is BL 2 isn't. It's surrounded by other games that put a focus on narrative, so it looks bad by comparison, but I wasn't ready for quite how bad. P3 FES remains great, I'm excited to see it again through Hannah's eyes. Transistor, I'll put it like this. Every problem I have with BL 2 half assing narrative, Transistor does right. Transistor's short, intense and vivid. Transistor gets the details correct. In linking the game's story with its battle system in a neat way, it does itself a disservice, though perhaps that's an invitation for further playthroughs. That said, I admire that the team would choose that and then commit to it. Transistor is the most visually striking game of the ones here.

Edited December 20, 2015 by Venneh
Transistory is genius tho

[Guest]

On the topic of game of the year, here's my top ten for 2015, if anyone cares.

1) MGSV

2) Undertale

3) Soma

4) Bloodborne

5) Cradle

6) Ori and the Blind Forest

7) Her Story

8) Albino Lullaby

9) Crypt of the Necrodancer

10) Lakeview Cabin

Honorable Mentions: Viscera Cleanup Detail, Ubermosh, Dropsy, Deception IV, Neon Struct

[S-T]

I just finished The Wolf Among us for iOS. It was good but I liked the Walking Dead games better. I still manage to squeeze in time for gaming with two small children, though that's a lot less than it was four years ago.

[teenalphabro]

So far, the list I have includes Undertale, Borderlands: The Handsome Jack Collection, and Fallout 4. Outside of those, I haven't really been able to play a lot of games that were released this year. I'll probably have a rectified list within the next few weeks. 

[Rjoyadet]

 Dune: the battle for Arrakis (Genesis) what I imagine Clash of the Clans would have looked like from 21 years ago.

Ristar (Genesis) Wow! I knew that Don Patch was a parody of Sonic the Hedgehog but his look is lifted right off of Ristar.

[Davedevil]

I got Alien Isolation for Christmas, a game I've always wanted. Survival horror's not my thing, but the Alien franchise is. An hour into it so far, and I'm digging it. The tension is fantastic and the attention to detail cannot be understated. 

[Venneh]

Just finished Undertale.

 

I killed Toriel, the Dog Couple, and a few other minor monsters (Lesser Dog). Didn't kill anyone else.

Spared Asgore. Flowey came back and killed me and the game quit itself when it did.

 

Also been playing through Birth by Sleep again now that I have a working PS3. At the final round of Terra's fights, which, the first two are laughably easy, but the last one is a bitch and a half. And then it's on to Aqua's route.  

Edited January 15, 2016 by Venneh

[Venneh]

Finished the True Pacifist run on Undertale. They are not kidding when they say that that game will make you sob. So good. I was thinking about doing a Genocide run, but honestly, after True Pacifist, I fucking can't. 

Also played through the entirety of Tales from the Borderlands over a period of about 24 hours (including sleep). Honestly, this is the level of storytelling I was hoping for in 2. However? The quicktime events, while simple enough for the most part, occasionally have these poorly timed ones that make you want to throw your controller in frustration. Like, if we could get 2K/Gearbox on the gameplay, and Telltale on the story for a main installment, we'd probably have a real damn good game.

In other news:

-Still working on BBS on the PS3, haven't touched it since I last posted
-Started DAI, the map not showing terrain is the worst thing, probably going to need a bit of time to get fully into it
-Started Life is Strange, finished the first episode, interested to see where this is gonna go
-Jim started Borderlands the Pre Sequel, definitely seems like an improvement on 2 so far (barely an hour or two in)

[Venneh]

Updates!

-Still haven't touched DAI or Life is Strange

-Borderlands the Pre Sequel is full of bullshit backtracking
-Finished Terra and Aqua's routes on BBS (Aqua was the most equipped to handle her final bosses I think). Didn't get all of the stupid Xehanort reports so I can't unlock the epilogue, and I'm not going back for them, unless I can just pick up the save files and go back for them. (I probably can't, can I.)

[Davedevil]

Alien Isolation is finally paying off in a big way. I'm at what I think is the last level and almost too scared to keep on going. 

Got inFamous Second Son in the meanwhile, and it's fun stuff. It's in the spirit of Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Prototype, the Spider-Man games and every other city-based free-roam game with superpowers that I've played. It has a nice range of powers and a fairly large, varied environment for you to play with. I'll probably play First Light soon.

[dc20willsave]

After playing through the Final Mixes of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, I'm a little burnt out on that part of RPGs but not quite wanting something turn-based (yet) so I'm replaying Mass Effect, mainly since I've also been wanting to play a shooter also. The game is as good as I remember it, outside of I believe 40% of my deaths being due to my allies constantly stealing my cover. Still, I am having fun.

And, if you're curious, Male Shepherd, mainly going Paragon (I actually have it maxed out, might start doing some renegade for the lulz), Soldier (mainly since my gameplay style is to hit things with a shotgun until they stop moving), and I'm taking a slightly sadistic glee in being the best Commander ever to everyone on my crew except Ashley who I constantly belittle for being a racist. Needless to say, she's dying on Vermire.

Edited February 2, 2016 by dc20willsave

[Missy]

Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls
Throughout the first game it's continually said the world is rotting, with said rot having started in the west. Is this a jab at America?

[Guest]

I couldn't imagine they'd get something like that through translators, though it is funny.

Also, FF is much bigger in the States than it's ever been in Japan and saved their company, so they love us... erm... I mean you guys.