Playing now:
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - Troika's second RPG and one of the few steampunk RPGs ever. It suffers from many of the same problems that have plagued both post-Black Isle devs, in that it's a bit rough around the edge and has various glitches and bugs. Fortunately, there's a dedicated fanbase that has plugged most the holes with fan patches and other mods. Also, it's a deep, well-written RPG that allows a great deal of choice and freedom, which certainly doesn't hurt.
Tomb Raider: Underworld - Actually the only Tomb Raider game that I've ever purchased or played for more than five minutes. I'm not sure why, but the series has never really done much for me, however I really like Underworld. It looks great, for one thing, and it's got a big focus on puzzles and platforming over Gears of War-esque gunplay against waves of enemies.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - On several occasions I've made a valiant attempt to complete what I consider to be one of the best Western RPGs of the past ten years, but the greatness of the first two-thirds fades quickly in the final stretch and I'm left with little desire to continue. As with Arcanum, there are numerous problems here, many of which are fixed by the fans but far from all, that are thankfully overshadowed by greatness elsewhere. It's also probably one of the best pieces of vampire fiction this side of Bram Stoker.
Atelier Annie - An entry in Gusts long-running alchemy-based RPG series that focuses on resources gathering, sidequests, and item creation, more than anything else. There's combat and "dungeons", but neither are anything special and really only exist to give resources-gathering even the most minor degree of difficulty. There's also a metric ton of dialog scenes between characters, most of which are meant to be amusing rather than dramatic or insightful.
Soon to be playing:
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Alpha Protocol
It's so rare that I actually focus on anything long enough to finish it, or even play it for long... for proof of that, see the kind of stuff I finish in the 'games I've finished' thread.
I have too many games, if I only had a few I'd actually finish things because I could focus on them. But with so many, I want to play lots of them all at once, so instead of focusing on a few at a time or something I just end up getting nowhere in a lot of them, playing more of games I've already played a lot of, etc. :)
I used to do some "games I played today" posts, some time back, which proved those points, and it's probably only gotten worse since then...
... For instance, from what I can remember, yesterday I played: (listing anything I played for any amount of time)
Minesweeper (PC)
Puyo Puyo 2 (Saturn)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii)
Mega Man 9 (Wii)
TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist (Genesis)
Mercs (Genesis)
Dead Or Alive 2 Ultimate (Xbox)
New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
Zen: Intergalactic Ninja (Game Boy)
... And today so far:
Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer (N64)
Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer (Dreamcast)
Dead Or Alive 2 Ultimate (Xbox)
Donkey Kong 64 (N64)
Excitebike 64 (N64)
Zen: Intergalactic Ninja (Game Boy)
DOA2U is one I've been working on steadily since getting it. I'm almost done collecting all of the costumes I can get in Normal difficulty (only two or three more), then it's on to Hard for what I'm sure will be even more frustration with the broken counter system... why did those idiots program counters to do so much damage, it's so horribly unbalanced and the computer abuses them so, so much...
Once I finish it, hmm... I like fighting games, so I'll probably play some other one. I'm not sure which, though. Get back to Soul Calibur III maybe? KOF 2006? DOA3 for a little while, with the new costumes you unlock for it after collecting all the costumes in DOA2U? Or Guilty Gear X2 Reload or something, for a 2d fighter? I'm not sure. :)
Right now:
Half Life 2 (replaying)
Monster Hunter Tri
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 (omnipresent)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2
Pokemon SoulSilver
Dungeon Lords - After two hours I still don't know whether I like this game or not. My gut reaction is that I don't, because it does a lot of things that I really don't like. Chief among those is the constant waves of enemies that randomly appear near your location and then attack you. There's also the fact that you gets several tons of useless junk that serves no purpose. And the whole world just feels barren and depressing. I walked through the first town, which took nearly all of those first two hours to actually get to, and found a few guards wandering around and maybe civilian, despite the fact that the city itself was sprawling. So far I've only found two places to actually go into, a dojo of some kind and a shop. That's it, despite there being dozens of "plain doors" all over the place. But the fact that I played it for two hours suggests that it has something which appeals to me, but I think the only thing that does it leveling and that most just feeds my OCD tendencies.
Great Rumbler Wrote:Dungeon Lords - After two hours I still don't know whether I like this game or not. My gut reaction is that I don't, because it does a lot of things that I really don't like. Chief among those is the constant waves of enemies that randomly appear near your location and then attack you. There's also the fact that you gets several tons of useless junk that serves no purpose. And the whole world just feels barren and depressing. I walked through the first town, which took nearly all of those first two hours to actually get to, and found a few guards wandering around and maybe civilian, despite the fact that the city itself was sprawling. So far I've only found two places to actually go into, a dojo of some kind and a shop. That's it, despite there being dozens of "plain doors" all over the place. But the fact that I played it for two hours suggests that it has something which appeals to me, but I think the only thing that does it leveling and that most just feeds my OCD tendencies.
Huh? No, at the beginning of Dungeon Lords you talk to that guy at the campfire, and then you go to the nearby town, which is a couple of minutes walk away, no more. There the gate is locked, so you have to go into the side entrance into the first dungeon, the sewers. And there you see that like with Wizards & Warriors, the dungeons are the thing that is best about the game... I agree that the overworld isn't that thrilling, but the dungeons are a completely different story!
I don't know where you went, but if it wasn't to the sewer dungeon, it was the wrong way. Unless you did that already and are talking about what you can do in that city AFTER you get into it? It didn't sound that way from your description there, though... The guy at the campfire tells you where to go, and with the patches (that you did install, right? If not, DO SO NOW!) you have a minimap that helps you figure out where to go.
Also there is a slider to control random-encounter frequency.
I installed the patch
I went directly to the city gate and then through the sewer and the other dungeons.
Then I walked around the city for a while.
Ah, good. :)
... Oh, did you get it with the paper map or not? It is useful, because there's not really a good blown-up map in the game...
One other thing I find interesting is that they actually reuse some stuff from W&W in this game. I think some sound effects are reused, and the icons used in the treasure chests (specifically, the little icons you click on to get past the lock) are identical to the icons used in chests in W&W. That was a more traditional RPG of course so you didn't have to do that kind of action-chest opening, you just hit 'unlock' and it'd work or not depending on your character's skill at it, but the icons are the same. I'm sure there are some more things than that too.
Dungeon Lords really doesn't have much about it that's particularly compelling.
It's also worth noting that it came out seven months after Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and three full years after Morrowind. Different games with different purposes, yeah, but if you put all three up on the screen at once, you'd swear that Dungeon Lords predated the other two by a couple of years at least and I'm not just talking about graphics.
Consoles:
Excitebike 64, Excite Bots (still unlocking), Excitebike World on ww
Earthbound series with english patches
Perfect Dark (darksims on flag, STILL DONT HAVE A 360 ;()
U.N. Squadron
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (with mouse patch! this game is still amazing)
No sword/heart container Zelda
DS:
Final Fantasy 3 (all thief mode!)
Chrono Trigger New Game + @ 99 ** attempting 'No heal" quest
Final Fantasy Tactics advance 2, new advance wars
PC:
L4D, L4D2, with patches, currenlty loving mutation.
An amazing flying penguin flash game
My sister got my addicted to happy pets and happy aquarium on facebook... kill me.
about 100 others games this week that i just pick up for certain nostalgia or to better understand the gameplay like Karnov or Mighty Bomb Jack, getting in to bomberman again but looking for the right one to play.
Damnation
Saw it new for $4 and decided to check it out. Basically, it's got a really good concept and world, really neat level design, some basic platforming that mixes things up, and an interesting story, but it's completely undermined by terrible gunplay. The gunplay is stiff and awkward, enemies show very little outward signs of having been hit, finding cover is frustrating [especially since there's no real cover system, you just have to find something to hide behind], and aiming any of the game's weapons is a chore. As it stands, it's probably 4.0 game, but fix the gunplay to something that's at least competent and you'd probably have a 7.5 game easily. Could have been fixed with some PC perhaps, but the game was abandoned after launch. Haven't tried the co-op, but...yeah...good luck finding anyone else that has this game.
Final Fantasy XIII [Release in North America as The Last Remnant]:
+Possibilities for customization are pretty big
+Graphics look nice enough once you drop in some AA and V-Sync with the NVIDIA control panel
+Unique take on combat
+Lots of stuff to do aside from the main questline
+Those little frog guys
-Distinct lack of urgency in the progression of the story
-Cutscenes are kind of bland
-Main character is bland and stupid [but supporting characters are kinda cool. Come on, Japan, COME ON]
-Combat is highly confusing early on
I can see why it didn't rate very highly, but, at the same time, I also like what it does right. Glad it finally went on sale for $10, because it's certainly worth that.
Today, I played Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 (PS2), Hexcite and Link's Awakening DX, both for GB/C. Yesterday, Hexcite, Link's Awakening DX, GT 64 (N64), Last Blade (NGPC), and maybe one more. Sonic Pocket Adventure (NGPC), maybe?
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Monday Night Combat
The Sims 3 (got it during Steam Summer sale)
Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 (omnipresent)
Final Fantasy XII (replaying)
I'm still regularly playing Hexcite for GBC, like, almost daily. As I have for much of this year.
Apart from that, recently I've been playing Project Justice for DC a good bit, and some other DC games some, too -- Trizeal, Capcom vs SNK, KOF '99, and Grandia 2, most notably. I'm really surprised at how much I like Project Justice -- I didn't like the first game, Rival Schools for PS1, very much, but this game is great... it was an awesome find!
I've also been playing DS, mostly Etrian Odyssey III and, in recent days, Nanostray 2. It's... okay, but definitely flawed. The controls are very frustrating. I have lots of DS games to play though, maybe dozens really, but I bet most of them will continue to be unplayed in favor of Etrian Odyssey titles... they're just so incredibly addictive, and take up so much time too. (That is, occasionally I play EO2, instead of EO3. :))
And also some here and there of many other titles of course. Like, in the last couple of days I got a couple of areas farther into Astro Pop for PS2. It's gotten really hard now, but I'm nearing the end of this story... I'd like to finish. :)