I beat God of War Ascension recently. It had fun puzzles that were a bit more challenging than previous GOW puzzles. The combat felt great, I like being able to latch onto one enemy while attacking another. The only weapons in this game are variations of the Blades of Chaos and it was a good idea overall. TBH the only other GOW weapons that I remember liking nearly as much as the Blades were the Artemis Blade and those fists you get off Hercules.

The two things the game really lacked were epic boss battles and enemy variety :(

So I went out and randomly got this:

http://media.ps2.guias-trucos-juegos...t-viii-ps2.jpg

I do a lot of whim buys. But I actually have a reason for once! JRPG is something I haven't touched before and I really want to get into them. Can anyone recommend any games for me? I've already played Crono Trigger which was mind-blowing.

So yeah, back to the game. I've never played a Dragon Quest game in my life so I had no idea what I was getting into. I saw a bit about the DS game when it was coming out and I thought it looked great. I've heard how it's a great game and a great franchise. Also I know that Level-5 make amazing games, I've heard that developer name so many times.

The only problem I have is the random encounters. I hate them. And I don't know why too, cause I'm a massive fan of Pokemon. But apart from that, I really like the game's graphic style and the characters are great, the voice acting is super.

Because I'm so unsure about it, I've stopped playing for a bit. I should continue with it?

Other then that, I've been playing Fallout New Vegas again as well as the new HD remaster of Age of Empires II. I even went back onto Spiral Knights. I wish more people played that game...

Dragon Quest VIII is quality and a good jumping off point to bigger and better games. It's highly linear but not quite as long as I'd like but it's still very good. The strategy guide wouldn't be a poor investment if you want to find secrets, but the linearity makes it more or less unnecessary.

I would recommend any Final Fantasy game that isn't II, IV, VIII or IX. Not because they're bad (generally speaking most gross nerds I know at least grudgingly admit that those games have an excellent story). But they're linear and much of the sidequesting requires a fair bit of prior knowledge. If you're into it, there are some excellent LP's by Something Awful goons I'd suggest you read before playing them.

On that note, I'm playing FFVI right now. It's the last to use sprite based graphics (excluding the FF tactics games) and it's slowly shaping into something with a lot more substance than FF7. I suggest playing both of these games because FFVI is where Square really opened up the battle system/numbers and FFVII essentially lets you make any character any combination of jobs at any time. And they're both on PSN.

If that's not your flavour, however, there's an EXCELLENT RPG called Xenogears about some Chinese National salughtering people with a robot, great battle system and a very nice looking game to boot. I didn't get too far the first time but it pleasantly surprised me. I'd especially recommend Xenogears if you've played Chrono Trigger.

Dragon Quest VIII is really really great, but watch out for the absurd difficulty jump about halfway through. It takes everyone off guard.

I never found out what happened in Bacarat, but now if I play it again it would be via emulator, because I don't really have access to a TV to plug my PS2 into. If I start again on an emulator I have to go through the boring, linear opening and I just don't have the strength for that right now.

The random battle system is bad because of the size of the continent and the distance you can see. If you see a chest in the distance and start making your way towards it you can really take forever to make any decent progress. Then you have to go all the way back. It's worse in the early game before you figure out almost everything is locked until you have the thieves key. The system is also annoying because some fights can take an eternity, especially with the Jargon-summoning bells when you're down a party member or two.

I love what I've played of DQ8, though. Great fun.

The only JRPG I've ever bothered with is Persona 4, for the reasons that it's relatively simple and not all that hard to figure out compared to other games in the genre. You might like that if you can get past the anime style.

I actually did something other than WoW and LoL recently! Oh gosh!

I decided to download and sign up for Warframe because a friend of mine was enjoying it so much. As it turns out it's pretty fun, if a bit hectic. Still a teensy bit non-intuitive but it at least tells you how to move and kill things in the tutorial. The more advanced things... you can probably find out from people as you play, or just stumble upon, like I did with the sliding and the colour customisation.

The way they've done the multiplayer is great. I'm very happy with that. I just hope they make objectives and routes a bit... clearer in future.

It's amazing.

I finished MI2. Nate's right, the ending was awful. It didn't sound that bad, but in context it was a real downer on an otherwise great game.

I had to look at a guide to get some of the puzzles out, sadly. They were only silly things, like finding the ticked on the back of Largo's door after I'd already searched that spot as part of another puzzle. It seems that it only appeared after a certain cutscene, but I didn't think to look back there when I combed his room again. I didn't see the crowbar, martini glass or bottle on the beach on Dinky island either, so that made Jungle exploration fun. Also, the puzzle with holes in the big tree on Booty Island.

All of this begs the question, what is the Secret of Monkey Island?

e: The highlight of the entire ending sequence with LeChuck was the Empire Strikes Back quotes. I really enjoyed those for some reason.

A Secret of Monkey Island™ is revealed in MI4. As for The Secret of Monkey Island™, Ron will never tell.

I played MI4 years ago and was bemused by the shocking treatment of the Giant Monkey Head. Monkey Combat was still fantastic fun, though.

I played the games in a weird order, actually. I went, most of 1 -> 4 -> 1 -> most of 3 -> 2

Can you get the Monkey Island games off Steam? Always wanted to try one, used to love those point-and-click kiddy games like Freddy Fish and Putt-Putt as a kid.

First one (HD Remake with original included):
http://store.steampowered.com/app/32360/

Second one (HD Remake with original included):
http://store.steampowered.com/app/32460/?snr=1_7_15__13

Third one and the foUrth one are not avaliable via steam

Tales of Monkey Island
http://store.steampowered.com/app/31170/

Thanks for the replies, Now I've got to get playing. :)

I've heard a lot about Persona 4, Totalbiscuit talked about it a lot, it looks really cool. And I can get past the Anime style, I actually really love it.

Nice. Might pick them up next Steam sale. I assume they are bundled during deals frequently.

I've been playing Fire Emblem Awakening for sixteen hours and I'm addicted help.

It's really really great. I'm so glad it wasn't a disappointment after the -urgh- remakes of the first two games.

Start with Persona 3, they're similarly structured and there's continuity between the two.



Also, I've started playing Crimson Shroud from the 3DS eShop. It's basically a dungeon-crawling RPG crossed with DnD, the characters and monsters are all little miniatures, you can roll dice to power stuff up, and it's very clever and hard.

Isn’t P3 kinda significantly harder in some spots though? From what I’ve heard, anyway.

I beat Dark Souls first playthrough. I'm sure I've gotten fairly good at the game but holy shit was the last boss a disappointment. New Game+ has been fairly easy so far but the Stray Demon is still a wily fucker.

Nope. They're about the same.

I haven't played anything new since finishing Tomb Raider (fucking awesome game btw), but I have been playing Pokemon White 2 a lot. I'm working on the Post-E4 stuff, and occasionally the Pokemon World Tournament, which I'm obsessed with because you can battle all the old gym leaders. I've also started EV training a Starmie (my first). It's tedious but I hope it's worth it in the long run.

Dragon Quest is owning me. I beat the first boss in the Waterfall cave and I'm currently at the this tower trying and find Jessica. The enemies have become much more powerful in a short amount of time which isn't fun at all but I suppose I need to spend more time grinding...

I also borrowed my mate's copy of New Super Mario Bros 2. It's alright, nothing special. I'm so glad I didn't buy this when it came out cause it's EXACTLY the same as the DS one or any other Mario game. The only difference being you get OCD about collecting coins.

Have you played the Wii U NSMB? It's fun but it's getting very old now.

Chris, are you using tension in the fights? It gets easier to buff up the Hero and Yangus once you have Jessica as a caster, but play around with some stuff depending on your skills. I can't remember when you start learning debuffs, but the game definitely gets easier after that.

Yeah at the Eurogamer Expo last year. It was pretty fun. I think the New Super Mario games are getting old now though. They should move on and make something different, maybe like a Super Mario 3D Land or Mario Galaxy on Wii U

Yes I psyche up the characters, Yangus is a beast after he uses tension. My hero uses the Boomerang which is amazing and it's even better once he's psyched up the attack.

I just beat that sea monster on the boat, I don't know how long it's going to take to get Jessica into my party, I hope it's soon.

Boomerangs are probably good this early in the game, but the one your probably using is pathetic. Don't invest too many points into them, because the Hero will probably be using spears for most of the game. Most post-endgame builds I've seen all use swords, but I never finished to game to find out too much about the best weapons.

Jesica will replace the functionality of the boomerangs, though, so definitely have your next weapon teed up and start putting some points into that skill.

Yeah I agree. The Boost Mode in the Wii U NSMB is a lot of fun but the game itself is just same old same old. I'm waiting for the day they scrap the NSMB franchise.

People need to stop buying them then. It's like Call of Duty / FIFA, people keep complaining that they're all the same but then people go and buy them. No sales = No sequels.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 was awesome. I doubt any Mario game would come close to that in terms of quality for a while.

I got up to the twist at the end of the penultimate chapter in Corpse Party and holy shit that was amazing.

Great game. The only shame is I had to wait two years to play it.

Corpse party yes, awesome game.

I'm interested to see which ending you get.

Seiko is the best girl

http://i.imgur.com/KtAhYVX.png
;_ ;

Clearly the best character.

What type of games are the corpse party games? Is it something that even I could easily get into? I have heard lots of good things about them.

They're top-down survival horror/adventure games that are carried heavily by their story. There are a few puzzle elements too.

Here's some gameplay:

Nobody will ever stop buying them though. it's a vicious cycle.

I picked up Soul Sacrifice and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, both are very fun. I also started New Game++ on Dark Souls two days ago, still need to play through the game once to get my final rare weapon for the full 1000 gamerscore. Yay.

Replaying Catherine.

Go buy it if you haven't already.

Game Dev Tycoon caused a tiny bit of stir in gaming circles lately - You play as a game developer. In an ironic twist, if you pirate Game Dev Tycoon via the torrent that the devs themselves put up as an experiment, your in-game company will fail through loss of sales due to piracy.

But yeah, I watched Crendor play it, then gave it a try myself. For some reason I find it fun even though it's basically watching bars and stats go up and down depending on your choices.

Also Kerbal Space Program is fun even though it's a bit unfinished while being difficult to master due to lack of in-depth tutorials: Designing a space ship that sent a crew into orbit, then to the "moon" and safely back without running out of fuel gave me a massive sense of acheivement since it took me 30 hours of play and several attempts to work out how its done - And that was with a rough text guide. Heh.

Replaying Pokemon Gold.

Because that game will never get old for me.

The funny part is that the game itself is a total ripoff of an iPhone game.