What Games Are You Playing 2013?

[Shale]

DmC: Son of Sparda, Dante's game. Mostly smooth sailing so far. Had a few resets on each of the boss fights thus far -- Hunter in the first level has a few attack patterns I didn't see the first time out, and Succubus knocked me off the platform, which eats a ton of health. Also, Butchers (the things with buzzsaws for hands) are assholes. SOS extends their combos, so I have to re-learn all the attack patterns or I get my face ripped off when I try to dodge twice and then counterattack, against a combo that's four hits long now.

[superaielman]

CSTW- Just finished Dacre's dungeon. This game is.... okay. It's BoD7 with a slightly tweaked battle system, but not by enough to really hook me. Writing is good when it's there, which it mostly hasn't been.

[Grefter]

Subtle.

[superaielman]

You lost me there.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I think he may be referring to CStW's style of humor?

[Grefter]

I would claim I was being subtle, but I legit just hit reply to the wrong Super post.

Payday 2 - Shitty Halloween event got extended.  Still playing anyway, still fun even with shitty enemies.  Devs apparently like the Headless Bulldozers and are contemplating finding a way to emulate them in normal gameplay.

They may be okay if they weren't just extra spawns but as is getting gangbanged by Shield dudes too.

[Meeplelard]

Giga Bowser RPG: Just punched Wiggler in the face...a lot...

[Dark Holy Elf]

Punching things in the face a lot is Bowser's self-assigned job! That and lighting things on fire. Including his allies. Especially his allies.

[Meeplelard]

Well, I figured that part out!  It is, however, important to note the last significant thing I recently punched in the face so people have an idea of where I am in the game though!

[superaielman]

CSTW- Final dungeon. Using Umi/Sharpe/October. Randoms get real freaking nasty in the volcano and onward, bosses have kind of lost impact. Been running Umi for Flood, Umi/October are using Void to handle randoms. Sharpe has okay MT damage (500~) but I have him in for bosses. Dacre/Ember both look pretty scrubby, Paws is okay but lacks damage.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Pokemon XY - 6 Gyms down. Using Chesnaught, Blazy, and Blastoise

Civ V - Just beat Prince mode with Augustus.

[superaielman]

CSTW- Finished. It's a slightly remixed version of breath of death. I conceptually love the games, but in spite being short they drag a little. The almost complete lack of plot hurts- the writing that's there is very good, but the actual plot is obviously a joke. It's a quality product though. Donno what I'm playing next.

[DjinnAndTonic]

If you want something "Like CSTW, but with a plot", you really should try out PA3. It has a lot more consistent writing and yet a similar playtime and even tighter balance in gameplay.

[Dhyerwolf]

CSTW- Finished. It's a slightly remixed version of breath of death. I conceptually love the games, but in spite being short they drag a little. The almost complete lack of plot hurts- the writing that's there is very good, but the actual plot is obviously a joke. It's a quality product though. Donno what I'm playing next.

You should go for MK 2 now!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Pokéymanz Y - Beat third gym! And I have a L39 Greninja and a L34 Pangoro HAVING JUST BEAT THIS GYM. I'm turning the damn Exp. Share off.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Using the Exp Share and sticking with a single party is so cruel.

Pokemon X - Beat up Team Flare a lot and got my uber. My team is Delphox, Venusaur, Starmie, Hawlucha, Krookodile, and Eviolite!Haunter. Mostly around Level 49-50. The game is fun and definitely one of the best Pokemon games; fast-paced and much more emphasis consistent competence out of enemy trainers instead of bosses being good and everything else being a sea of suck. Obviously you need to avoid the aforementioned cruel situation above if you want the game to put up any fight, but I think the design they went with can work for any number of playstyles. I was expecting to hate on the game for the new Exp Share but on reflection it's actually a big positive.

And obviously things like the better animations do a great deal for the game. Skipping a gen probably makes this much more pronounced. So much faster-paced than Diamond, too! This game kinda drives home how Diamond was bleh.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I've even been rotating a lot! Problem is I never took out froggie and panda because um yeah. So, you see what happens there. Also, it's pretty telling that trainers and randoms STILL put up a fight against the high-levelled folks, so I haven't experienced the game being retardedly easy (but I also used underlevelled people a bunch), and enemy levels are oddly high as it stands anyway. I may put Greninja and Pangoro in a box later, but I'm keeping 'em as panic buttons for now, since my whole party is overlevelled (comprised of Greninja/Pangoro/Sylveon/Heliolisk/Sigilyph/Amaura). I wanted to get a more interesting Fairy type (and my Sylveon lacks Draining Kiss, so the suck is strong), but oh well. On the other hand, I expected Amaura to be trashy, but it's oddly useful.

EDIT: Also, until it evolves, Helioptile fucking suuuuuuuuuuuuucks.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Pokemon Y - Just caught my Uber. Lysandre is hilarious.

Using Blaziken, Meowstic, Heliolisk, Durant, Chesnaught, and Umbreon. I'd never used Umby before so I decided why not and the others are all cool Pokemons I'd never used before.

[Meeplelard]

EXP Share kind of needs to be turned off if you do not want to steam roll things; I turned it off late (Gym 6 or so), and levels did end up lower than the E4 at least by the end!  I think of the EXP Share as a difficulty modifier of sorts rather than a feature.  Game letting you turn it off whenever you want to me makes it, at worst, a poorly implemented object that you ignore, rather than a legitimate flaw. 

Think of it as analog to things like FF9 Tetra Master, where in if you don't like the feature, ignore it and pretend it's not there; game does not penalize you for this.

Elfboy, fwiw, Gen 5's battle speed is about even with HGSS (which is a significant improvement to DP; sounds like Platinum is about the same.)  It does, however, do a few things that speed the game up in general.  The one that comes to mind is weather; it will only show the weather effect the turn it is activated, then have a symbol in the corner reminding you what weather is activated when selecting commands, so you don't have to go through "Rain Continues To Fall!" *animation* every turn.  XY naturally did something similar.

But yeah, XY is one of the faster Pokemon games, even though it sounds like it should be one of the slower ones.  Gamefreak really did a good job in that regard.


Giga Bowser RPG:  So I had a bunch of useless plumbers beat up a Bug/Fairy type Caterpillar by abusing some ruler mechanic!  Also our hero punched a giant tower mech a bunch of times.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I think Pokémon Y battles move faster than Platinum. It's -really- impressive, they did a great job streamlining animations and shit. Map navigation's also very notably faster.

EDIT: Also, I -like- the Exp. Share. It's just broken as fuck, but it's inevitably very useful and viabilizes a much looser poké rotation (streamlining further the Pokémon swap would close the deal for good, but eh). I've been rotating 2/3s of my party since the game's beginning and haven't felt remotely stressed about it. Honestly, I feel the game is -improved- by its existence, though it certainly can be perfected.

[DjinnAndTonic]

So I just got my copy of Guided Fate Paradox. It is less "zany" than Disgaea D2, but I'm gonna go ahead and say that it's got a better story going on. The art is apparently done by the artist who made Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and the main character is basically Kyon. Depending upon your opinion of these things, it's either the best NIS story, or the worst.

Gameplay is basically ripped wholesale from ZHP if you've ever played that, but with a few quality-of-life upgrades and a "partner character" with variable AI you can customize. So far a great roguelike as of the beginning of Chapter 4.

Your main character suddenly becomes God and learns he has to grant the prayers of those who believe in him. The best part was granting the prayer of zombie.

Oddly enough, it was a pretty serious moment. 

[Meeplelard]

I think Pokémon Y battles move faster than Platinum. It's -really- impressive, they did a great job streamlining animations and shit. Map navigation's also very notably faster.

EDIT: Also, I -like- the Exp. Share. It's just broken as fuck, but it's inevitably very useful and viabilizes a much looser poké rotation (streamlining further the Pokémon swap would close the deal for good, but eh). I've been rotating 2/3s of my party since the game's beginning and haven't felt remotely stressed about it. Honestly, I feel the game is -improved- by its existence, though it certainly can be perfected.

Oh, I'm not saying EXP Share is bad; overall I agree with you.  All I'm saying is at worst it's a feature you turn off and ignore, as though it was never there.  When that is the worst case scenario, that's generally a good thing.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

So, uh, just got Star Ocean 4 through le mail. Do I keep busting through PokéYmanz or do I give in to ADHD?

[Dark Holy Elf]

The only correct solution is to play both.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

You take me for someone who has far more free time and gaming focus than I have.