What games are you playing currently

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Pater Alf
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Re: What games are you playing currently

Post by Pater Alf »

Dark Fall - The Journal
Hooray, I found a genre in which I suck even more than in fast-paced sidesrolling action games and it's "Myst"-like adventure games. Seems I'm completely unable to tell important from unimportant infos in this game and no matter how hard I try, I miss half of the hints to solve certain puzzles. I'm pretty sure I will need a walkthrough if I want to see the end of this game.
[quote="eMTe"]I dont think trying to pass the screen in computer game once per 500 tries makes you a geek. Rather a dangerous psychopath.[/quote]
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Pater Alf
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Re: What games are you playing currently

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In the end I wasn't as bad as I expected at first. I still needed the walkthrough, but I found out many things myself. It wasn't a bad experience, but I don't think I will play the sequel anytime soon.

One mor modern game, before the Might & Magic madness starts...

Giana Sisters - Twisted Dreams
The first game I backed on Kickstarter and I'm quite happy with the result. It creates something new, but leaves enough references and things of the original to be fun for all the players who played Giana Sisters on their C64 or Amiga 25 years ago. The game is beautifully designed, the gameplay is fun and the soundtrack is one of the the best (maybe the best) I've ever heard in a platform game.
And one thing is for sure: This game has really a steep learning curve. The first four levels are very easy show you all the basic moves and elements and then the game says: "I taught you what to do, now do it!" and raises the difficulty enormouly. Might frustrate some players, but I like it.
[quote="eMTe"]I dont think trying to pass the screen in computer game once per 500 tries makes you a geek. Rather a dangerous psychopath.[/quote]
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Pater Alf
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Re: What games are you playing currently

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Damned, the last boss monster is really hard. Tried to beat it for three hours now and still always fai at more or less the same point of the battle. Gets a little frustrating, think I'll give up for today... :(
[quote="eMTe"]I dont think trying to pass the screen in computer game once per 500 tries makes you a geek. Rather a dangerous psychopath.[/quote]
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Scythe
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Re: What games are you playing currently

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Just started on Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Surely you've at least heard of this JRPG with animated sections by Studio Ghibli. I've quickly come to realize that I hate child actors. Child voice actors too. Other than that, it feels so much like Dragon Quest 8 that you'd think... oh, they made that too. DQ8 was one of my favorite PS2 games, so that works out well enough. I'm just not sure I can stand the voice acting. Maybe I should turn it to Japanese instead.
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Re: What games are you playing currently

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Ah, I finally have time to begin Mark of the Ninja. I finished ME3 and Trine 2: Golbin Menace, while gorgeous is just rage-inducing. Time for some stealthy action. I just don't understand why the character is named Mark.

Speaking of rage-inducing, Trials Gold is available for pre-orders and stuff. Not much point getting the preorder unless you like skins and betas. I probably have to get the game so I can prove to people at work that I'm worthy.
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Re: What games are you playing currently

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Might and Magic I - Secret of the Inner Sanctum
An amazing game. Nearly 30 years old and still easy accessible. Of course you have to draw your own maps (which isn't that hard, because all the maps have the same size) and write down notes, but exploring the world and slaying the monsters is good fun. Game isn't easy and in the beginning you will die quite often, but difficulty is fair and with the right strategies and spells, you will be able to survive after a while.

So far my whole party is on level 3. Should soon be safe to leave the first city and explore the outer world (and solve the first quest).
[quote="eMTe"]I dont think trying to pass the screen in computer game once per 500 tries makes you a geek. Rather a dangerous psychopath.[/quote]
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Re: What games are you playing currently

Post by Parvini »

The two games I've been playing most over the past couple of months have been:

1. Heroes of Might and Magic 2 -- I went a little wild over Xmas buying games I already own in DVD format digitally on GOG.com and started playing the Heroes games again. Still as addictive as ever.

2. Mount and Blade Warband (with Floris Mod) -- excellent game, been playing it a lot.
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Re: What games are you playing currently

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I'm still playing Might and Magic I and it gives me a pretty rough time. Not because it is a bad game (in fact it's a very good game), but because of some dubious decisions that I made when I created my party. Those made the beginning of the game much harder than it has to be. But by now all my characters are on level 5 and I got the first good attack spell, which means that I can survive battles and don't have to rest or run back to town to save after each one. Makes it much easier to explore bigger parts of the maps. And I might even complete my first quest soon.
[quote="eMTe"]I dont think trying to pass the screen in computer game once per 500 tries makes you a geek. Rather a dangerous psychopath.[/quote]
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Re: What games are you playing currently

Post by eMTe »

That reminds me I have several rpgs to beat. Betrayal at Krondor, Amberstar, Magic Candle, Wastelands, Kinights of Legend, Albion, Lands of Lore, Diablo (yes, I know Diablo is not rpg, Scythe :D). As for first three ones and LoL I was near the end, but never was patient enough to made the final thrusts.

Oh yes, and there are also several SSI games on the list...
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Scythe
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Re: What games are you playing currently

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Regardless of Diablo's non-RPG status, I do believe that the only game out of that list that I haven't actually completed is Wasteland. BaK completed twice, I believe. Albion I have completed 3-4 times....

Right now, I'm playing through Corpse Party: Book of Shadows on the PSP, which is a highly unpleasant (occasionally venturing into the realm of the ridiculous) Japanese visual novel about high school kids trapped in a haunted school... and dying horribly over and over.

Before that I went through the new Tomb Raider on my X360, which was mostly a blast, but strangely felt kind of like Corpse Party, considering what Lara Croft had to go through in that game... some pretty graphic death scenes, bordering on the sadistic.

After this, I think it's time to run an old PS2 game I bought in some sale, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, but let's see if something unexpected doesn't show up first.

All my consoles gotta get used.
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Re: What games are you playing currently

Post by Pater Alf »

I was looking for a coffebreak game that I could play besides Might and Magic I (for which you really need time). Thought that Pixelry looked nice and gave it a chance. I have to say that I really like the setting, the pixel graphics and the retro soundtrack. But unfortunately the game itself isn't very good. It's just a number of repetitive mini games that get boring after a short while. Game claims to be still in alpha, so there's still hope for massive improvement.

[quote="eMTe"]I dont think trying to pass the screen in computer game once per 500 tries makes you a geek. Rather a dangerous psychopath.[/quote]
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Re: What games are you playing currently

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I had little time during last week, so the only offline game I played was Death Gate which I was finally able to run, using online help how to run it.
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Re: What games are you playing currently

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Seems I'm playing Might and Magic I for a whole month now. Think I'm only halfway through. This game is really damaging my 10% quota of completed games in my backlog.

Tried another coffee-break game and it's The Trouble with Robots. Game is really good fun. It's colourful, it's funny and you need some strategic thinking for building the right card decks to succeed (and also some luck for the right cards to appear in each turn).
[quote="eMTe"]I dont think trying to pass the screen in computer game once per 500 tries makes you a geek. Rather a dangerous psychopath.[/quote]
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Re: What games are you playing currently

Post by eMTe »

In recent days I visited some abandonware (and not only) sites which I almost forgotten to exist and downloaded several classic adventure games which I never finished. Result:

I finished Coktel's Vision Fascination.

I almost finished Flight of the Amazon Queen.

I advanced further in Teenagent, Shadow of the Comet, Eternam and Dragonsphere.

I tried to beat various classic pnc adventures in the past, but I have never been so successful (I still refuse to use walkthroughs). My wild idea is that hidden object and escape room games - even if they almost totally flooded gaming websites and they have bad press - have also positive impact: they increase general observation and problem-solving skills, so games from golden age become easier to beat. I played several Pastel Games' games recently and they require a great deal of patience and pixel-hunting to beat. Now, this is why I beat Fascination within one hour.
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Pater Alf
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Re: What games are you playing currently

Post by Pater Alf »

KRUNCH
There are games in which constant dying is part of the concept and the fun and the player doesn't feel frustrated, but challenged by it (e.g. "VVVVV", "Super Meat Boy" or "I Wanna Be That Guy"). Unfortunately this one isn't one of them. The level design is great and I wouldn't mind a very hard difficulty, but the controls and the sprite collision is so sloppy and inaccurate, that nine out of ten times you will die because of that and not because you did something wrong. As an extra challenge the game deletes my savefile frome time to time (I have no idea why) and so I have to start from the beginning again... :(

But to say something nice at the end: The soundtrack is amazing!

[quote="eMTe"]I dont think trying to pass the screen in computer game once per 500 tries makes you a geek. Rather a dangerous psychopath.[/quote]
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Re: What games are you playing currently

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Pater Alf wrote:There are games in which constant dying is part of the concept and the fun and the player doesn't feel frustrated, but challenged by it (e.g. "VVVVV", "Super Meat Boy" or "I Wanna Be That Guy").
We must have played a different version of I Wanna Be The Guy.... :D

Talking about constant retrying and challenge, the free demo of Trials Evolution Gold is available on Steam...

Anyway, I've been playing the latest Tomb Raider and I find it pretty excellent. Of course, the game, like Splinter Cell: Conviction, is best played without trying to compare it to the previous games... Many might argue that it's not representing what Tomb Raider games are, but it's a really great game on its own right.
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Re: What games are you playing currently

Post by eMTe »

VVVVV, even if it is frustrating, has absolutely fantastic level design.

As for this KRUNCH game which I don't know, the music is indeed great, but remember that sound in modern games is sometimes more important than game itself and it can influence your overall reception. Hypermarkets, as you probably know, learned that if they broadcast pleasurable music you will stay longer and you will buy more goods. Same applies to freeware/indie games. The more "retro" music and sfx the more you like the game.

So don't fall into traps too often.
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Re: What games are you playing currently

Post by Scythe »

Well. Persona 4 Arena was released in Europe this Friday, only about 8 months delayed. It's a sequel to one of the best JRPGs to grace this world (Persona 4 of course). Strangely, this is not an RPG, but a visual novel covering an arcade fighting game. Its release is a history of disaster.

You see, the developer, Atlus, decided to region lock the release, because they were worried that Japanese gamers would import cheap copies from the US. They released the game themselves in Japan and, a few weeks after, USA. However, they left the European release in the hands of some unknown company (because Japanese game developers don't consider Europe a "market").

Now, this company had the source, it was already translated to English from the US release, all they had to do was get it rated, print the discs and get the game out to retailers. What did they do? Well, only they know what they did. They started a Facebook page, then they dawdled around and put up pictures of silly cosplay for a few months. It started becoming a joke. They kept pushing release dates and putting up more silly pictures. This went on for half a year, while the relevance of the online part of the fighting game was slowly slipping away.

Finally they set a firm(?) release date. By this time, there were daily tirades on Facebook over their incompetence and people telling them to just quit. What did they do? They decided to print a limited edition that included the sound track... on vinyl. Strangely, that did not seem to calm people down.

In any case, it's finally here, I don't play online, and I'm just happy that I can play a game I've wanted for over a year now.
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Re: What games are you playing currently

Post by Dizi »

I've just finished one play through Ron Gilbert's The Cave, in all honesty I wasn't that impressed and can't see me replaying it to see the other characters stories simply because it is quite repetitive and the puzzles aren't that difficult...although the cave itself (it has a voice that makes comments throughout) made me keep going until the end as the humour there was quite good, I think without that humour I wouldn't have played through until the end of my 3 characters stories.

I'm also currently playing through Ni No Kuni, I've finished the main story and now just playing though to complete all the side quests that pop up after completing it, This was a game that I enjoyed although like Scythe mentioned the kids voices aren't so great.

Plus I'm just about to start Resonance, hopefully it will live up to the reviews that I've read as the graphics of the game look amazing :D
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Re: What games are you playing currently

Post by Scythe »

Dizi wrote:I'm also currently playing through Ni No Kuni, I've finished the main story and now just playing though to complete all the side quests that pop up after completing it, This was a game that I enjoyed although like Scythe mentioned the kids voices aren't so great.
Honestly, I simply stopped playing it due to the voice work. I'll get back to it some day.
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