What Are You Playing? (Summer, 2014)

[MechDeus]

ArcheAge - Got into the closed beta for this weekend and I can see binging on this when it gets released. It's the dice-rolling but still action-y combat that Guild Wars 2 and Wildstar use except it doesn't feel as much like shit. I don't think the world sandbox PVP stuff really opens up until like level 30 so I haven't tried it out yet, but even with the slightly low-rent look compared to big budget stuff I can really see the potential here. The build-a-class thing (kind of like Rift) they have going on is pretty nice, although the racials makes my character choice pretty limited if I want to become a pirate. I also wasn't expecting mounted combat which is a nice surprise. If Black Desert announces their Western publisher soon like they've been teasing I'll be pretty happy with the MMO lineup we have going on into next year.

Starpoint Gemini 2 - Singleplayer spaceship sandbox, with all the usual goodies of trading, piracy, building a fleet, etc. and real time combat. It's in beta and the story mode isn't implemented yet so it's only the freeform go-do-whatever-you-want mode so far, but I'm liking what's here. Right now I think it's only the more modern design of mouse aiming which makes me sad, but they're adding in joystick support as they develop so hopefully I can hook up a flight stick once I get one for all these spaceship games coming out.

[MechDeus]

Warhammer 40k Space Marine - I finished the first part of this but I'm almost assuredly not going to finish it. So far this bland retelling of the Quake 2 story with a squad of supertroopers in hilariously goofy armor who generically shoot their way through a series of intensely boring and non-memorable piles of brown rubble at stupid looking orcs has surprisingly failed to capture my interest in any way.

[gameoverDude]

Crimzon Clover: World Ignition - Getting a better grip on the scoring, with 300 billion for the first stage. Stage 3 is still crazy after the midboss goes down (still have yet to get a 2nd DBM in stage 3).

Phantasy Star III was OK but not my favorite. While there are backgrounds in battles instead of a boring blue grid, the attack animations take a major hit (you don't see your character come out to perform an attack, and the monster animations are cheesy). PS III clearly shows the limits of a 6 Meg cart- it should've been done with 12.

[Yoshi]

Earthbound (SNES via Wii U VC) - I watched my best friend in high school play this when it was new, but I've actually never played it. I'll say this after about an hour: There's certainly nothing else like it. It strikes me as a game you have to be young enough or old enough to enjoy, and I'm now in the latter category. I don't think it would have done it for me in college when it came out. I still tend not to like the games that rely too much on humor, but so far, so good.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (PC) - I realized I had an extra copy of this in my Steam inventory, so I gifted it to my brother. We started playing it tonight. I had played alone forever ago, but it's really a different game in co-op. You can tell that's how it was intended. It makes me more excited for the sequel later this year.

[MechDeus]

Resident Evil 6 - This is game is objectively terrible but I'm loving it. Granted, I'm still very early on so there's plenty of time for this to all fall apart, but it's fast, the souped up melee is really great, and there seems to still be a good amount of people playing because I'm getting random drop-in co-op partners almost immediately. I haven't even really seen how bad the partner AI might be since I've only played with it for like a minute or two. The options for this are also pretty great although I'm probably going to leave invasions turned off until I'm done with the story for the first time. The areas seem a bit too cramped but they do make for some good firefights. I even like how they display the QTEs with a meter.

[Changeling]

Speaking of Dreamcast, been playing Daytona USA (aka 2001) a lot lately. I played it once when it was new, thought it controlled like ass, and never touched it again. I saw on Game Sack or something where they turned the analog sensitivity almost completely down and then liked the game, so I tried it, and sure enough, this game kicks ass now. The controls allow for a lot more powersliding tomfoolery than the Saturn ports, similar to the arcade games. The game is beautiful, it has more tracks, more modes, customizable everything, it's everything I want from the game. Except one thing, the music kinda sucks, and there's no option to use the original music or the buttrock remixes from CCE. It takes away from the experience a little it.

Did the same thing and was pleasantly surprised.

Anyway, I've been playing :

Team Fortress 2- Been trying to get better with the Demo-Man. I love going melee with him. I love all the new weapons the game has now. They've added so much.

Chrono Trigger(DS)- Been playing an hour or so before falling asleep and enjoying it. Never played the game before so its all new to me. I see people freaking out about the music, but I don't get it. Maybe I will the more I play.

Rogue Legacy- Started this yesterday and was surprised. Lost track of time quickly which is a good thing. Building up my stats and trying to get better but its hard at first. My first Rogue-like.

[GohanX]

Btw, I found that there is a hacked version of Daytona 2001 that restores the arcade music.

[Finch]

Chrono Trigger(DS)- Been playing an hour or so before falling asleep and enjoying it. Never played the game before so its all new to me. I see people freaking out about the music, but I don't get it. Maybe I will the more I play.

Frog's theme is the best video game that ever video gamed

[AstroBlue]

Earthbound (Wii U VC) - I don't remember Earthbound being as harsh as this, you actually have to grind levels? Or was I just accustomed to doing this back in the day? I totally forgot about the annoying mushroom status and having to do lots of "go here to see you can't do anything then come back to get the solution". Having fun.

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) - Playing with my wife, super fun game and the 3D "space" makes this such a better co-op game then the "New Super Mario Bros. Wii"

[Chux]

Earthbound is only super grindy in the beginning, at least that's been my experience.