What are you playing right now? V

[Nate]

Monkey Island 4 is eh. Tales of Monkey Island has its ups and downs, but is on average quite good.

I've heard about the ending from Nate and I thought it was awesome.

Would you have thought it was awesome if I hadn't lowered your expectations?

[Phylum]

I know what happens at the very end, but I'm not sure if that's what you mean. I don't think it's that bad, but I haven't seen it in context.

I love the music to death. If I ever make a retro adventure game I'm going to use MIDI music. I found some piano transcriptions of some of the tunes, which are conveniently basic enough for me to learn, but challenging enough to push my crappy keyboard skills up a notch.

[Nate]

You can download the soundtracks for all the (non-Special Edition) Monkey Island games and several of the other Lucasarts adventure games on this website.

I recommend The Dig and Grim Fandango.

[Strike Witch]

Playing Code Of Princess for 3DS. It's a JRPG mixed up with a streets of rage brawler. Fun timewaster.

[Mac Sirloin]

Dark Souls



Last night I finally upgraded Lanselot Sloan, neutral knight, who came from the swamp and stopped at the forest to defend it from invasion because he doesn't really care about starting a giant arson across Lordran or whatever, into something capable of wielding the Golem Axe. A big smelly willy of a weapon that fires airblasts and doesn't afraid of anything. Just like that, PvP became an issue of blowing people off of cliffs and chunking them to pieces with a big-ass axe. Now I need armour that will absorb a lot of hit without making me stagger.

[Dynamithix]

Aww shit son, I've been playing Dark Souls too a lot and I mean a lot. Played for roughly 20 hours the last weekend and have been getting most of the weapon upgrade achievements, both on the PC version and the Xbox version. Also finally started the Artorias of the Abyss DLC and killed Sanctuary Guardian, was pretty easy. I made a sorcerer character on the Xbox version and started collecting all the miracles and sorceries since I'm missing that achievement and it's not too hard to get them all. I also played a lot of co-op with my friend, helped him out in the beginning and showed him a few good weapons, brethren before wenches motherfucker.

I also downloaded the Soul Sacrifice demo for the Vita. Weird game. I heard some say it was similar to Monster Hunter, but I don't think it is really. It's about killing disturbing looking huge monsters with all kinds of different magic abilities and special weapons and then either sacrificing or saving their true human forms. If you sacrifice them, you get a huge magic level boost and maybe some items (?), but if you save them, you get their human forms as your NPC partners and get a big life level boost. I like the character/enemy design, the art-style and the different styles of magic abilities but the game also feels very limited. It's not open world, the magic abilities won't last forever unless you constantly re-new them and there don't seem to be any different sorts of missions other than slaying bosses or optional monsterslaying missions. The story is told through a weird demonic journal who can speak. As I said, weird game.

Oh yeah and Mac, would you say Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is a good game to pick up on the PSN store? I was considering it, but I'm not sure if it's up my alley. I wouldn't have any other friends to play it with and I haven't played the other games in the series, how easy is it to get into? It looks good.

[Mac Sirloin]

The way things are looking, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite might be the last MH game on a Sony console. But it's still the best in MH game in the series, has literally 500 hours of raw content and I believe it has thumbstick camera support on PS3/Vita.

So yes, get it get it get it.

wait typing up a full thing on its playability and whatnot

Extremely easy to get into, with or without friends. But assuming we can get the PS3's cross platform party program to work I can probably help you out from the beginning. MH is purpose built for lots of multiplayer adventuring with a heavy dose of pre-hunt planning, but the single player missions are, well, single player for a reason. The learning curve isn't too steep for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd sets of missions, but after that it's fairly unforgiving and some of the monsters are pretty ludicrously powerful. There are a lot of great guides to the game online by people who worked much harder at it than I do, but there are some basic things you should now:
Get an electric and a poison weapon early on, preferably something like the sword and shield or dual swords because they hit very very fast and built up statuses like nobody's business. The Lance is never a bad choice because it offers the best defensive options but it plays a little differently to the other weps. Greatswords are overrated until you're about halfway through and can grind for the ones that do insane raw damage like 1200. Until you've mastered the art of rolling and have super amazing defense lobster armour, stick to a very defensive style of play. Always always always have paintballs before you start a mission. Monster Hunter is all about grinding, much the same way Dark Souls can be, but it's a bit more lenient about keeping you from losing all your progress if you die. Typically you have 3 attempts ina given mission, die once you get knocked out, die twice you get knocked out and the monster relocates, die thrice and you lose. Most missions start out with a set of healing items you don't have to purchase so you can save your money but it's handy to carry mega potions. Try to check the wiki before taking on a monster, learn its weaknesses, patterns and body language.
(inhale)
It's a really great game and totally sucks you in. As I understand it they used the MMoRPG model of KILL XENOBEAST 400 TIMES FOR GAUNTLETS OF BUTT and that becomes totally addicting. Just don't hack the game to give yourself every single item, that literally takes any iota of fun out of the experience. Worth the money. Buy it. Why aren't you buying it? Buy it!

Oh, and you'll want Hermitaur armour. As soon as you fight the red crab enemy, fight it again and again until you get his full armour set and you'll thank me. You don't have to thank me, but it'll be a handy equipment to have for the midgame.

[Dynamithix]

Shit, that sounds pretty awesome. I'll pick it up next week, gotta finish my Dark Souls playthrough and get to playing Vanquish soon.

[Wings of Fire]

I finally have Fire Emblem Awakening. I've only been waiting about five years for it.

[Mac Sirloin]

I've heard good things about that game. A friend of mine has been playing it nonstop on his 3DS for months.

not half as good as Tactics Ogre though

[Hazel-Rah]

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

[Crashpunk]

So I went out and randomly got this:



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...

[Mac Sirloin]

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.

[Wings of Fire]

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

[Phylum]

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.

[Manco]

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.

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.

[hedjeroo]

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.

[Vyrien]

It's amazing.

[Phylum]

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.

[Nate]

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

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

[Phylum]

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

[Mr. Bungle]

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.

[Varrok]

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/

[Crashpunk]

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

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'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.

[Mr. Bungle]

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/

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

[Wings of Fire]

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.

[Strike Witch]

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.

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.

[Manco]

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

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

[Mac Sirloin]

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.

[Strike Witch]

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

Nope. They're about the same.