What are you currently playing?

[Kenny]

Tomb Raider Multiplayer.

It has multiplayer?

Think Uncharted's MP.

I played two games and never went back as it was terrible.

Shooter multiplayer doesn't interest me whatsoever these days. I'm loving the single player in TR however

Yes indeedy. Like WRC said, it's like Uncharted's MP but I prefer TR's because of the bow and arrow. That shit makes the game really fun.

Played a little Remember Me. Interesting concept and all, but I can get why people didn't like it. Combat isn't that great and the vaulting is so rudimentary is feels tacked on rather than essential. But I do love the Memory Remixing segment I played, I hope there's more like it. And I get they're trying to do the whole epic cyberpunk story with it, nice effort but...eh. It looks pretty but that's about it so far.

[Crimson Ryan]

Tomb Raider brick wall rant..

I didn't really have a problem with all of what you just said in the game. A bit unrealistic but the message still gets across.

Played a little Remember Me. Interesting concept and all, but I can get why people didn't like it. Combat isn't that great and the vaulting is so rudimentary is feels tacked on rather than essential. But I do love the Memory Remixing segment I played, I hope there's more like it. And I get they're trying to do the whole epic cyberpunk story with it, nice effort but...eh. It looks pretty but that's about it so far.

I have this also from PS+. Completely coincidental I was thinking of playing this after Tomb Raider. Been a long time since I've played a cyberpunk science-fiction game. I know OL enjoyed that one..

[Kenny]

Oh shit, I didn't realize that whole rant was about Tomb Raider.

I took time to read it and that pretty much sounds similar to my problems I have with things like The Dark Knight trilogy. I guess that's partly why the story in TR is kinda shit too (aside from the bigger problems like forgettable characters and lack of clear motives) but I loved the game itself and I love the Multiplayer even more.

I have this also from PS+. Completely coincidental I was thinking of playing this after Tomb Raider. Been a long time since I've played a cyberpunk science-fiction game. I know OL enjoyed that one..

If you wanna try it, get it for free or cheap as hell. I bought it for $5 on Gamefly.

[Calshot]

Tomb Raider brick wall rant..

I didn't really have a problem with all of what you just said in the game. A bit unrealistic but the message still gets across.

Played a little Remember Me. Interesting concept and all, but I can get why people didn't like it. Combat isn't that great and the vaulting is so rudimentary is feels tacked on rather than essential. But I do love the Memory Remixing segment I played, I hope there's more like it. And I get they're trying to do the whole epic cyberpunk story with it, nice effort but...eh. It looks pretty but that's about it so far.

I have this also from PS+. Completely coincidental I was thinking of playing this after Tomb Raider. Been a long time since I've played a cyberpunk science-fiction game. I know OL enjoyed that one..

I was slightly annoyed by Lara's quick ascent to being a cold-hearted killing machine, but I got over it. The actual tomb raiding portions were fun, though a bit easy. I just wish there were more of them. I didn't bother with the multiplayer as it seemed like one of those tacked-on multiplayers that the devs half-assed. If it's actually good, I'll give it a shot.

I also have Remember Me from PS+ and played an hour or two yesterday. Kenny's thoughts about the game more or less mirror mine.

I've also finally got around to playing Digital Devil Saga. I'm loving it so far, but it was a struggle to get it to play on my PS2. The laser on my ancient thirdhand fat PS2 is nearly dead, so it wouldn't copy the game to the hard drive (which I have to do for nearly every game as the laser can't read most of them). I had to get an adapter so I can load disk images from the computer straight onto the hard drive, but it was worth it

and I can pirate PS2 games now.

[Kenny]

If you try it, only play Team Deathmatch or Free for All. I usually play Team Deathmatch cause I feel it's more competitive. Doesn't matter if you play Ranked or Casual in either mode.

[Crimson Ryan]

If you wanna try it, get it for free or cheap as hell. I bought it for $5 on Gamefly.

I have it already from PS+. Just a case of downloading it.

I didn't bother with the multiplayer as it seemed like one of those tacked-on multiplayers that the devs half-assed. If it's actually good, I'll give it a shot.

If it's similar to Uncharted it sounds like a simple shooter multiplayer. Not a bloated twitch-fest like Call of Duty.

I enjoyed that from the short space of time I played it. I'd give it a shot (pun) if the three of us could play TDM together..

[Henry Spencer]

Finished Dark Souls 2. Something like 65 hours by the end of it.
Overall I loved the game; regardless of anything, it's still purely, unmistakably a From Software game. And that's nothing but a good thing.
But as mentioned, it is missing something that the previous two games had. Maybe it's an art design issue, maybe it's a difficulty issue (DS2 definitely feels easier than DS1), maybe it's the lack of "planned" events, like dragon attacks and the like. Maybe it's that the grand majority of the bosses just aren't as intimidating as in earlier games. I'm not really sure. But whatever the case, DS2 just doesn't feel as "destined to be classic" as the last two games did. It certainly had some of the right ingredients; the major environments shown off in demos and pre-release footage certainly had the right flair for the series. The Mirror Knight is a cool fight, the Executioner Chariot is awesome, the Dragon Aerie is absolutely beautiful, as is the Shrine of Amana that I showed in an earlier post. But everything feels disjointed from eachother.

There is a big reason for this. I can confirm that the entire team of Dark Souls 2 is different from the same team that developed Dark Souls 1 & Demon's Souls. A fan confirmed it on the official Souls forums [he did a screenshot the credits of both games - DS 1 and DS 2]. So not only is the director/creator of the Souls series, Hidetaka Miyazaki, working on another project, but the entire team who made those earlier games are too. Prepping for a new IP? A new King's Field? Shadow Tower? Echo Night? Demon's Souls 2 for PS4? Guess we'll see soon.

With regards to Dark Souls 2 - I've definitely warmed up to the game the more I've played it. But man the invasions are so frequent and I just lost 50k souls because of it, I was pissed. Glad that the game and the bosses got much darker though. Some of the bosses though seem to be retreads on previous bosses, but still plenty of original ones in there too. Iron Keep is proving to be such a nightmare though, my god. So many traps, fire everywhere and tough enemies. I've yet to beat either of the bosses too.

[OL]

^^Yeah, it was one of the bosses in Iron Keep that I was having trouble with, back when I mentioned actually summoning a couple of other players to help with it. It was the giant knight that sets his sword on fire.
The other boss was a cakewalk for me though. Might have just been a character build thing, because it seemed easy enough to just sidestep his attacks and then pummel him with my way-too-overpowered ultra greatsword. And that was one of the more disappointing fights, because it didn't keep true with the old rule of thumb that I used to apply to the enemies in the last two games: if it looks tough, it is tough. In this case, the guy looked insanely intimidating, but he was so predictable that I beat him on the second go (first time I only died because I was trying to follow a bit of misleading information some other player left).

Started the first Dark Souls the other day though, hoping to try things with a different type of character this time around (as I usually just stick with the sword-swinging types). Made a pyromancer, so I've basically been using magic for my first time in the series now. Made things feel totally different when I fought the Taurus Demon. I ended up causing him to fall off the side somehow. And since I have high resistance to fire, I was able to pass the bridge where the red dragon attacks without actually killing it. Before, I had to do the cheap little "shoot its tale" trick.
I just need to find a good wand now, so I can use magic other than fire-based stuff.

Tomb Raider brick wall rant..

I didn't really have a problem with all of what you just said in the game. A bit unrealistic but the message still gets across.

I do just want to reiterate that I wasn't calling the game out as crap or anything (because it obviously isn't, from the technical side of things), I just thought the move to making Tomb Raider into something more real-world "gritty" just doesn't work because they negate the concept at every single turn with things that aren't realistic. Kenny's Batman comparison makes total sense because those movies were trying to do the exact same thing with Batman. Only difference, for me at least, was that Begins had already shattered the chances of any of it seeming realistic to start with, so I was still able to enjoy The Dark Knight, knowing what it was going to be like beforehand.
I may still continue Tomb Raider at some point (because I obviously only just started it, and despite anything, the gameplay was still good).
I just kind of wish that it was still the same style of T-rated, "Indiana Jones with boobs," ruins-romping, light-hearted fun that the original games were. I much prefer that, in this particular case. I'll always have a soft spot for the original game, especially.

Remember Me

Completely coincidental I was thinking of playing this after Tomb Raider. Been a long time since I've played a cyberpunk science-fiction game. I know OL enjoyed that one..

Indeed I did. I just want to say, though, that my love for it is primarily for the aesthetic qualities, which really are excellent. The visual design is some of my favorite of the past generation, as is the soundtrack, which completely has its own sound and matches the visuals to a T. I also loved the conceptual stuff dealing with memory exchange and all that. The narrative isn't exactly the most compelling at every point, but it has some really great ideas, and I thought the conclusion was great.
Otherwise the game is totally linear, and the combat is a bit too simple for its own good. But this is also a case where I don't mind excusing things like that on the grounds that it's the very first game from Dontnod Entertainment. Taking that into account, the game still seemed really impressive to me.

EDIT: Jeez, just can't avoid the walls of text nowadays, can I?

[Henry Spencer]

Yeah that's what I plan on doing once I finish Dark Souls 2 - go back to Dark Souls 1 and roll out with a new character build. I may go all out on a magic based character too, just for an extreme change from my (almost entirely) melee based units and a different kind of challenge that will obviously present. I've heard that Demon's actually prefers a magic build over melee whilst Darks 1 it's the other way around. Will be interesting to see how different the experience will be.

Anywho, I'm going away for a few days and will have a good chance to play through some of my portable game backlog that's been accumulating. After playing Ground Zeroes though, it really got me into a Metal Gear mood, so I picked up the MGS HD Collection off PSN to play on the Vita, which only includes MGS2 and MGS3 and not Peace Walker but eh, PW is a bit too grindy for my tastes [and I've been playing nothing but games with a lot of grinding lately, so it'll be nice for a change] and I much prefer MGS2 & MGS3 anyways so [let's face it, they're both masterpieces], not too upset about that. Been ages since I've played them both too, so I'm really looking forward to diving back in to a post-modern masterpiece and the ultimate survival stealth experience.

Other games I'm taking away with me include Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time (PSP), Brave Story (PSP), Lux Pain (DS), theresia (DS) and Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS).

[Segata Sanshiro Jr.]

I agree with almost everything OL said about Tomb Raider, plus a lot of other issues with it. I feel like its a beautiful painting made in manure, no matter how amazing the image itself is, the whole thing is just shit.

Metal Gear: Ground Zeroes, finally took some time to play a game since I got back and I'm enjoying it. Wasn't sure if all the changes were going to work out but it all seems pretty solid, and I'm impressed that the characters with accents don't all sound like Al Pacino in Scarface. I like it, hope MGS5 isn't way far off though.

[Jokatech19]

I'm trudging my way through The Red Star on PSP right now. It is one of those historically hard games. It has received very little attention. The only things I find are isolated little threads of lore speaking of how certain bosses are unbeatable and the few who have braved the game are stuck. I feel like it's 1995 all over again, and there are no walkthroughs or strategies for the game I'm playing. It's this unknown beast, that I plan on being the first to write reviews and guides on. Kind of cool.

[OL]

^^I remember when the comic that it's based on first came out, and it got a fair bit of attention in the comic community for being one of the best blendings of hand-drawn and computer-generated artwork up to that point. Never got around to reading the whole thing, but I was always intrigued by what I saw. The artwork was great, and the setting sounded really cool, being a sort of fantasy/sci-fi version of Soviet Russia and all.
Always wanted to try the game. Might have to snatch it up one of these days.

[Who Really Cares?]

Went back to Arkham Origins which is a damn good game.

Enjoyed the main story but wanted more Black Mask Like advertised but oh well I still really liked the more badass Batman.
That final Bane encounter is pretty tense.

Still got a lot of side missions to do and then maybe at some point I'll have a try at 'I Am The Knight' mode.


I'll be starting South Park The Stick of Truth before that.

[OL]

Got Deception IV in the mail yesterday. Only played a little bit, but it was a total blast. You're bound to flub the traps a bit the first time you try them, but once you finally string a few together (pumpkin head>>bear trap>>pendulum), you feel like a fucking boss. And good god, the tone is mean. I love it. The whole point is to kill the enemies in complex, brutal, or humiliating ways, but the thing is that they're coming after you because the main character herself is basically evil. They're the good guys. So when the second enemy popped up and I pressed the button to see her profile, it said how she became a mercenary so she could afford money for her sick, ailing father... and I just laughed at how sadistic that makes the game seem.
This really makes me want to play the rest of them now. Seems like a really great, original series.

And this is totally unimportant, but I was shocked at the fact that the game actually came with a full-color manual. It's rare enough that games even come with a manual now, but to have it in full color as well? Crazy.
Not that it's a great manual or anything; it's all just instructional text and whatnot, with little to no artwork anywhere. I was just surprised by the inclusion.

[Henry Spencer]

^I'm trying to finish up Deception 2 before IV arrives [only got around halfway through it last time].

Got Deception IV in the mail yesterday. Only played a little bit, but it was a total blast. You're bound to flub the traps a bit the first time you try them, but once you finally string a few together (pumpkin head>>bear trap>>pendulum), you feel like a fucking boss.

That's the kind of "skill based" gameplay that I love about this series.

And good god, the tone is mean. I love it. The whole point is to kill the enemies in complex, brutal, or humiliating ways, but the thing is that they're coming after you because the main character herself is basically evil. They're the good guys. So when the second enemy popped up and I pressed the button to see her profile, it said how she became a mercenary so she could afford money for her sick, ailing father... and I just laughed at how sadistic that makes the game seem.
This really makes me want to play the rest of them now. Seems like a really great, original series.

Well then, I look forward to the series restrospective/review that this series so justly deserves.
They're criminally underrated and overlooked. And I just found out the other week that the Fatal Frame/Project Zero series development team are the one and the same who made the Deception series of games (same director/lead designer on both series, too).

You're unfortunately playing the most advanced game in the series first, so it will be quite a step back going from that with all of its refinements, to playing the first game in the series, which honestly feels like a game made on King's Field 1's engine. It's clunky as hell, but that atmosphere. Plus the story is incredibly batshit crazy.

The one recurring theme throughout the series though is that you are evil. Then again the characters you kill start out being sympathetic and then they have incredibly messed up/evil characters also come after you later on into each game who commit such deeds as rape, mass murder ("ethnic cleansing"), paedophilia, kidnapping, extortion, patricide, killing children; you name it, there's some incredibly messed up villains in these games and it feels good putting those bastards down.

It is interesting that the first Deception remains the only one where you play as a male though. And to be honest, it was pretty ballsy for them to bring out a game in the mid 90s that has the main character devil worship, so that he can be revived and can wreak vengeance on everybody in the game.

And yeah, every game has enemy profiles that you can read up on before each fight.

And this is totally unimportant, but I was shocked at the fact that the game actually came with a full-color manual. It's rare enough that games even come with a manual now, but to have it in full color as well? Crazy.
Not that it's a great manual or anything; it's all just instructional text and whatnot, with little to no artwork anywhere. I was just surprised by the inclusion.

That's cool that they did that in an age where even black and white manuals are a rarity.

I'm still blown away that Tecmo-Koei even greenlit another entry in this series after all of this time (we're talking about a series here that hadn't been seen or heard of since circa 2005), let alone localized it at all, since it is so niche and unknown. I had literally never heard of the series myself until like a year ago.