What are you playing right now #2

[Elin]

I never really expected to find myself playing male-orientated dating sims, but I realised about two months back that they're really good shadowing practice in Japanese, what with their dialogue heaviness, generally fully voiced scripts, and entire casts of female characters with the sort of cute voices, intonation and pronunciation that I want to imitate, so I've been dipping into the genre here and there recently. Playing the Memories Off series from the start right now. Kind of cute, in a very ordinary, down to earth sort of way.

[Gypsy]

Time and Eternity.

This game realistically deserves scores of closer to 5/10 compared to what it is getting. It's not good, but it's not OMG TEH WURST GAM EVUR. At this point it's pretty much trendy to hate the game (sheeple bleating back out the same cry without any thought, and the likelihood that they actually played it for more than an hour before jumping to the same conclusions is very low). And of course this leads to the trolls saying it's actually a great game. I'm definitely in the middle on it. It's playable, and probably worth about $10 and I expect the regular edition to settle down in the $10-15 range.

The funny thing is, when a western game of the same quality gets released it manages to average out on metacritic in the 60s. I wouldn't call this game underrated (like Alpha Protocol or Deadly Premonition) but it doesn't deserve 2/10 type scores. Those should be reserved for things Vampire Rain: Altered Species, Rogue Warrior, NBA Unrivaled etc... Things with fundamental gameplay problems. At least that's what the 0-2 range should be for imo. I don't know where it will balance out in the end, but it's definitely better than Last Rebellion, which was deservedly getting scores in the 4/10 range.

TL; DR: Lol videya gam jurnalizm.

[Gare]

I gave Dishonored a try, and I suppose it's a cool game with all the superpowers and sneaky gameplay, but... I feel like something's missing. I honestly can't quite put my finger on it. For one thing the game is way too bright which I absolutely hate, but maybe that's just my Thief fanboyism showing. But I can't really play it for more than 45 minutes or so before I simply lose interest and feel like quitting. The game just doesn't quite suck me in the way Thief or Human Revolution did, and I'm not entirely sure why.

[deadlegion]

I gave Dishonored a try, and I suppose it's a cool game with all the superpowers and sneaky gameplay, but... I feel like something's missing. I honestly can't quite put my finger on it. For one thing the game is way too bright which I absolutely hate, but maybe that's just my Thief fanboyism showing. But I can't really play it for more than 45 minutes or so before I simply lose interest and feel like quitting. The game just doesn't quite suck me in the way Thief or Human Revolution did, and I'm not entirely sure why.

Because it's a mediocre game, there wasn't anything about it that was really cool and I just wanted to get through it asap.
Which thankfully doesn't take long at all.

If it was released 8 years ago it would've been good I guess.

Overhyped

[Inferno.]

I gave Dishonored a try, and I suppose it's a cool game with all the superpowers and sneaky gameplay, but... I feel like something's missing. I honestly can't quite put my finger on it. For one thing the game is way too bright which I absolutely hate, but maybe that's just my Thief fanboyism showing. But I can't really play it for more than 45 minutes or so before I simply lose interest and feel like quitting. The game just doesn't quite suck me in the way Thief or Human Revolution did, and I'm not entirely sure why.

Same problem here, I've tried to love this game, I really have. I've attempted to play it on three separate occasions, and as you've described. It doesn't capture me like Human Revolution did, or any other stealth game I've enjoyed, for that matter.

[FlavaFlave]

Same problem here, I've tried to love this game, I really have. I've attempted to play it on three separate occasions, and as you've described. It doesn't capture me like Human Revolution did, or any other stealth game I've enjoyed, for that matter.

Same here - I like the game, a lot, but every time I start it up, it makes me want to play Deus Ex, therefore tempering my attention span for this game. I've beaten the first few chapters, but it just can't hold my attention. It's certainly no Thief game, but it is good on its own merits, but for whatever reason it just doesn't hold my attention worth a damn.

On topic, I'm playing RE2 on my Vita, and also dabbling with RE4 HD on PSN. I will say one thing about RE4 - this is a pretty lousy "HD" edition. It's not Silent Hill bad or anything, but it's just an upscaled PS2 game, and it LOOKS like a PS2 game. It also only runs in 720 - cheap bastards couldn't even up res to 1080. Meh. It's still a solid game thought

[Colamisu]

Almost done with Darksiders, finally. I'm at that grindy section of maxing everything out before going for the final boss. Unfortunately, the three achievements I earned in the past 6 hours didn't get credited to me. Max out all weapons, get max number of wrath cores, and kill 10 enemies in one blade geyser.

[Pokemongenius]

Started playing more PSP stuff thanks to new PSP emulator. Metal Gear Peace Walker, Little Big Planet, Dissidia 012, and Radiant Mythology 3.

[Gypsy]

Mana Khemia 2. Realised there was still some stuff I needed to do.

[Elin]

More Bravely Default aka Final Fantasy V-2. Maybe I just suck at games these days, but this is quite tough. I guess they figured that if they were going to mimic older games, they might as well go all out and bring back their difficult levels too? Fun, anyway! Though it feels a bit jarring to have modern aesthetics and storytelling sensibilities with a story that is so retro. I often feel as if there should be more going on because it's presented in a modern, cinematic-y way, and then I remember that it's a very intentional homage to older Square games right down to their style of storytelling. Not that that's a bad thing, of course. Still, I suspect those expecting the second coming of Final Fantasy IX based on the look of the game might be a bit disappointed, as it's much closer to III or V.

Mana Khemia 2. Realised there was still some stuff I needed to do.

I think I did everything, but disappointing sequel was so disappointing. It was still fun to play, but I found most of the characters really unlikeable, and the story never really went anywhere at all. The first game had quite a simple story, but everything about it was so warm and charming, and that's what made it memorable to me. The second one just felt... sort of forgettable.

[Gypsy]

Yeah the first game was much more adorbs.

I don't rate the 2nd MK that highly among the Atelier games.

Something like...

Mana Khemia
Atelier Ayesha (speaking of adorbs games...)
Atelier Iris
Atelier Totori
Atelier Iris 2
Atelier Meruru
Atelier Rorona (difficulty issues kneecap this game for me)
Mana Khemia 2
Atelier Iris 3

Keeping in mind I'd still play MK2 or AI3 before I played many other games and I still like them as games. I just wouldn't rate those two as highly as others in the series. I'm a bit torn on ranking Totori and Iris. I really enjoyed both but would definitely put them under MK and Ayesha. They feel interchangeable really.

[Takion Sun]

I've been going waaayyyy overboard with PSX and PSP games ever since I finally got around to hacking my PSP. Just to name a few:

Gods Eater Burst (Monster Hunter without the clunkiness! Hell yeah!)
Valkryie Profile: Lenneth (Very unique rpg, par for Tri-Ace's course)
Star Ocean: Second Evolution (Same as VP, very fun, awesome characters)
Parappa the Rapper (Grand-daddy of all rhythm games, hard as HELL but fun)
Legend of Dragoon (Very slow and plodding so far, but seems to have great story)
Threads of Fate (Generic animu-style jrpg, but unique combat system)

Many more to come. Good grief do I ever need a bigger memory stick.

[Ace Ventura]

Playing Kingdom Hearts on a PS2 Emulator. My happiness level has increased Ten-Fold.

[Gypsy]

Uncharted 2. For no real reason.

[Chicken Boo]

PSP Lost Heroes

Near-end the game and it's still damn hard even if everyone's at 88-90