What Are You Playing (Summer 2012)

[Joust Williams]

Almost ran through The Darkness 2 yesterday. Much better than the tacked-on co-op. I am very interested in seeing how the story wraps up.

[Drewbacca]

ME1 is a bitter pill to swallow. The game is OK, but too long with the planet mechanics. If you REALLY like the ME universe it might be worth it to experience a lot of the small decisions the comics gloss over.

Im currently still working through ME3. I was hoping to work through Tuchanka but havent had enough time.

Im looking at picking up Demon Souls once im done ME3 and wrap up Skyrim. Demon Souls or Alan Wake.

I am not sure i want to play Diablo 3 but my bro got it for me in May for my bday. I like Diablo but ive never been a fanboy. Usually fizzle after a week or so.

[NGEFreek]

Picked up playing goof troop on SNES, holy shit, this game is like a prototype of four swords adventures and its awesome.

Now I have a reason to see my brother more often.

[Joust Williams]

Resuming Max Payne 3. It is hard on hard difficulty. I am not sure I can finish it. Too many guys with full armor and they're too accurate

[sleeve]

Still playing Persona 3 Portable.

For all this game's faults, I love it to death. I've clocked about 35 hours and I'm just about done with summer break, in August.

The game's music doesn't get enough praise, IMO. It's such a bizarre mix of hip-hop and sparse piano/synth. It really highlights the contrast between day and night.

The music also does some of the best theme and variation work I've heard in a game since Chrono Cross. For example, listen to the Tartarus tracks and pay attention to the first shift that happens (in game, this takes place from block 1 to block 3). This shift occurs at a particular point in the game where a big revelation happens.



The change is fairly simple: the composer adds a sustained minor chord progression, and turns down the synth. But it nicely echoes the changes taking in place in-game.

[Diff-chan]

What faults? Persona 3 is awesome.

[sleeve]

What faults? Persona 3 is awesome.

Agreed, but some might accuse it of being repetitive. Just a teensy bit.

And I know Finch is going to call me names when he sees this post.

[Diff-chan]

He needs to get over it.

[Geo]

He needs to get over it.

[Yoshi]

I've been playing a lot of stuff lately!

Double Dragon II: The Revenge (FC) - I was surprised by how easy this one is when I tested it. I think I got a Game Over on about stage 6, but every death was due to a fall, which sucked. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to have platform elements in a game where you have to hit A and B together to jump should be beaten. I'm all about a 1cc on this once I get back to it in terms of serious play.

Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone (FC) - This one is hard as a bitch. You don't have lives. When your health reaches zero, it's Game Over. I also don't like the visual style. The first two games in the series have the short, squatty characters. This one goes for more realistic looking ones, but the hardware can't do them justice, so it just looks worse.

Jurassic Park Builder (iOS) - This is a freemium park builder simulation, but it's easy to ignore the "mium" part. It has the obvious dinosaur bonus for me, which probably is what puts it over the top of similar games. I also like that I can play it in very small chunks a few times a day.

Ninja Ryūkenden (FC) - I popped this one in to test it and wound up playing roughly halfway through it before having to continue. It's frankly not as hard as I remember it, which is the opposite of some of the other 8-bit games I've been playing. And, unlike III, the original isn't easier on FC than NES. Of course, I haven't finished yet either, so I'll reserve final judgement.

Wanpaku Dakku Yume Bōken (FC) - I'm never going to call this "Duck Tales" again. It's too fun to say the Japanese title (probably incorrectly). I used to have this game so dialed in that I'd play for score. Now, I'm being super careful to ensure I have enough lives at the end to finish it on Normal. I finished the moon and went back to Transylvania but forgot which way to go, made a wrong turn, and lost my last two lives to fucking mine carts. I'm not playing the sequel at all until I beat this, and I really want to try to the sequel, as I never had it before.

Ys Origin (PC) - Nightmare difficulty in this is legit. I beat the first boss, but it took maybe ten tries. I really like the execution and am glad I was able to get this and Felghana during the Steam sale. Hopefully the rest of the series makes its way there as well.

GohanX and I also got to test almost 30 Famicom Disk System games for Timber yesterday, which was a blast. That has to be the coolest piece of hardware that next to no one has seen in the wild in the US. I think my next blog post will cover that experience in detail.

edit: Blog post is up.