The "What'cha Been Playin'?" Thread

[Punisher]

Playing two games at the moment, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Anarchy Reigns, both for the 360. KoA is like what the result would be if Skyrim and Dragon Age had a baby. That's probably the best way I could describe the game. It's got the quests and the guilds just like Skyrim, but a third person, fantasy environment very similar to Dragon Age. I heard about this game only because it was a project of Curt Schilling, and decided to research it a little and I'm glad I did. Already almost forty hours in and there is still plenty left to do, and whole areas of the map I've yet to explore.

Anarchy Reigns I gave a try because it's the sequel to Mad World, and I loved Mad World. AR got some pretty horrible reviews though, which made me a little wary, but the people who reviewed it must not have played Mad World. Anarchy Reigns plays just like it, and actually the control is a little tighter. I miss the black and white graphic novel look, as well as the announcers, but otherwise, it's just like Mad World.

 

[defunctzombie]

Finished up the Fire Temple on my Ocarina of Time cartridge, and did a thing or two in the water temple (Got a few keys, that's about it). I was thinking about starting a new file and trying to complete the dungeons in a different order - something like this:

Never did that with Ocarina, but I used to do it all the time in Link to the Past. After the first crystal, I'd go straight to the 4th. After that I could get the new sword and breeze through the others. These days, I prefer to skip the sword and tunic upgrades. It makes Ganon more challenging since you can only hit him with spin attacks and he does 3 hearts damage.

 

[Magus]

Anarchy Reigns I gave a try because it's the sequel to Mad World, and I loved Mad World. AR got some pretty horrible reviews though, which made me a little wary, but the people who reviewed it must not have played Mad World. Anarchy Reigns plays just like it, and actually the control is a little tighter. I miss the black and white graphic novel look, as well as the announcers, but otherwise, it's just like Mad World.

I hear people didn't really care for this game mainly because it focuses so much on the multiplayer side while the single player campaign suffers. I don't know if that's the case or not since I don't have it.

Dynasty Warriors 7
Completed Shu's (or is it Wei? Liu Bei and Zhao Yun faction) story and am currently playing Wu's story. I won't lie, even though I say this game is the same and whatnot, I am still a sucker for mindless fun like this. Not to mention I'm a fan of the Twelve Kingdom's (and Samurai) stories. What I don't really care for is that you are assigned a character instead of being able to select a character. I guess I understand why for the most part, but coming off of Warrior's Orochi 3, I just like choosing my own characters. Nevertheless, this series is still great even though it can be overly cheesy at times.

Mass Effect 1
Playing this on the PS3 feels so awkward. Shooting with R2, while technically is the same as the Xbox's R-Trigger, it just feel so different to me because the controller is smaller. But for the most part I still love the game no different. I have noticed notable loading times, and while that don't really bother me I can certainly see it bothering people that cares about such things. Anyway, my Shepard is currently a soldier although I probably could've went with an Infiltrator this time, but I think I'll have my fem Shepard portray something other than soldier or vanguard.

Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition 2012
I'm probably a broken record with this, but this is probably my favorite game ever. While I have no intention on being a tournament player, and I don't really tend to become competitive with it, I can still find a way to have fun with this game, and with Ultra Street Fighter 4 on the way I do want to start getting back into this game. I want to say that I finally found my main character (but each time I do so I end up changing because I see a video of something so good, or I get bodied so bad), so for now I'm just going to say that I'm currently going to be playing as Ryu, Yun, Evil Ryu. Ryu being my beginner character (using him opens the door to being able to use so many other characters). Yun being my intermediate character and Evil Ryu being my advanced character. I'm hoping I can stick with at least 1 of these characters but we'll see how long that last lol.

 

[Gatordragon]

I finally completed the "Mysterious Island Quest" in Kingdom of Loathing by wiping out both the Orc Fray Boys and the Hippies in the Hippy/Frat Boy War. By disguising myself as a frat boy, I annihilated all but one hippy on the battlefield and then I disguised myself as a hippy and took out all but one frat boy. With only man left on each side, I unlocked a special situation called the Last Stand. The remaining frat boy and hippy turned out to be the leaders of both factions: The Man and The Big Wisniewski respectively. They look around at the destruction the war has caused on the island and turn to face each other for a big final showdown (But first they make the weather stormy so it can be appropriate). Before they can fight, I step in and face one of them to fight instead. Being bosses, they were really powerful, but I came prepared. I used one of my flareguns I got from the pirates at the start of the battle. There was one thing missing for the climactic battle: giant explosions. By firing my flare into the sky, I signal the pirates from the nearby cove to fire cannonbombs from their ships; scorching the island. I managed to survive of course, but the faction leaders were killed and both the frat boy camp and the hippy camp were bombed back to the stone age (Literally. They become primitive cavemen.). Lesson learned: NEVER mess with the pirates. As a result of wiping out both the sleazy frat boys and the smelly hippies, the Council of Loathing awarded me with the highest medal of honor: the Order of the Silver Wossname. It's an accessory that enhances my attributes when equipped. Totally worth it.

I've also finally slain my class's nemesis, Gorgolok the Infernal Hellseal: the bane of Seal Clubbers everywhere. After him a while back, he sent out hitmen to kill me. The final one dropped a map that led to my nemesis's hidden volcano hideout. I managed to find it and make my way into the volcano and fight him again. He fled deeper into the volcano, where I had to do a frustrating puzzle to get to him (I used a walkthrough of course). I found Gorgolok at an ancient Seal Clubber altar gaining power from it. He was slightly more powerful and demonic this time,but he went as easily as before. After I beat him, he went all super mode on me by calling on a demon overlord to give him strength; becoming Gorgolok the Demonic Hellseal. He was one of the few monsters in the game that was actutally animated and he looked like a eldritch shrimp. He was definitely the most powerful enemy I've faced so far, but fortunately, I got powered up too. A heavenly light shines on me and turns my legendary epic weapon, the Hammer of Smiting, into the ultimate legendary epic weapon, the Sledgehammer of the Valkyr. Using my new weapon, I had to first smash through his bone shields before damaging him directly. After defeating him the third and final time, he tries to gain more power from the altar, he overloads it. The explosion caused the volcano to erupt and I made it out in the nick of time. I got a couple great rewards from it: Gorgolok's claw, Instant Karma, and a gem called the Heart of the Volcano. It's fun to fight powerful bosses.

Now I'm on my final main quest: to defeat the Naughty Sorceress and free King Ralph XI from his imprisment. It's called "The Final Ultimate Epic Final Conflict" for a good reason. When the entrance cavern is full of puzzles that need items from around the kingdom, you know it's going to be an extremely difficult quest. Even with my walkthrough, I need to gather more supplies just to get through the her lair.

 

[Punisher]

I hear people didn't really care for this game mainly because it focuses so much on the multiplayer side while the single player campaign suffers. I don't know if that's the case or not since I don't have it.

I heard this criticism too, but I wouldn't say that's the case. The single player is a little longer than it was in Mad World if you try to complete all the missions. That doesn't make it a long game by any means, but with all the mulitplayer content, it's a much more complete package than Mad World. It's worthy sequel in my opinion.

 

[Gatordragon]

Well, I finally completed the final main quest in Kingdom of Loathing. The hard part of the quest was to get through the Naughty Sorceress's tower. I had to solve all kinds of puzzles using items, familiars, and my ol' noggin. Before I fought the Naughty Sorceress, I equipped my best equipment and stocked up on healing items. Honestly, the battle wasn't as hard as I thought, though it could be because I prepared well.

The battle with the Naughty Sorceress was pretty neat. Her picture was animated, which is rare. She starts the battle by removing all my buffs and weakening my pet familiar, Clubby the adorable seal larva. She hits hard and she can block my skill moves, but she went down fast when I connected with my best skills.
Of course, being the final boss, she was just getting warmed up. After her first defeat, she turns into her true form: a round mass of muscle with eyes, teeth, and tentacles, everywhere. She's tougher in this form and always blocked my skill moves and items, but once I learned my regular attacks consistently hit and do a lot of damage, I knocked her lights out.
However she still wasn't beaten. Even my adventurer got annoyed that she had another form. Vanishing in a puff of smoke, the Naughty Sorceress turns into her true true form: a floating sausage. Yep. Don't laugh, because she was incredibly powerful. Fortunately, I created a weapon before the fight that would mean her defeat: the wand of Nagamar. This would counter all of her spells with a spell created from an anagram. Basically, I used it to turn one of her attacks into NUKE SAUSAGE FROM ORBIT and annihilated her once and for all.

After the battle, I found the Kingdom's ruler, King Ralph XI imprismed in a prism. I smashed it and rescued him. He thanked me and an odd astral portal was left where the prism was. I returned to the Council of Loathing, who congratulated me saving the King and rendering them obsolete. However, the monsters of the kingdom were still angry and aggressive because I went around beating them up in my quests. The Council think the only way for peace to return to the Kingdom of Loathing is for me to leave this plane of existence. That's where the astral portal comes in.

With nothing to lose, I entered the astral portal and ascended to Valhalla. Before I was let in, I was given 111 karma to spend there and was turned into an Astral Spirit. As an Astral Spirit, my attributes were infinite, but so is everyone else, making it moot. There were some shops in Valhalla that I spent my karma on. I made my Hibernate skill permanent, got a pack of astral energy drinks, and a pair of astral pants. Then I went into the reincarnation building to begin life anew in a kingdom in an alternate universe. There were many challenge paths to choose from: Bugbear Invasion, Avatar of Boris, Bees Hate You, etc., but I chose Zombie Slayer because it sounded interesting. The description says I have to keep the kingdom from succumbing to the zombie apocalypse.

Now here's where it goes off the rails. As my spirit returns to the mortal plane, I hear a voice telling me that he won't let me ruin his plans and has something else in store for me. I wake up in a pitch black area feeling wrong. Then it turns out I'm in a box and I push my way up and out of the ground. I look around and see that I'm lying in my own grave and I'm a zombie! Oddly, I'm intelligent and can talk, but I'm very hungry. I accidentally bite the first guy I meet. As it turns out p, the whole kingdom is in the aftermath of a zombie invasion. The guy I bit turns into a regular zombie and can only say "Graaaaagh". Apparently, I'm a Zombie Master: an intelligent zombie that can mentally control other zombies. My starting skills are Infectious Bite, which infects my enemies and may turn them into zombies for my zombie horde, and Recruit Zombie, which allows me to find zombies for my horde in exchange for turns.

This is going to be one unique experience. It's not everyday you place as a zombie. I'm still exploring places to see what's different, which is a lot.

 

[Daxdiv]

Today, I finally accomplished something I have never done in a Pokemon game, catching all the mons there are. All 649 of them, all before X/Y hits the streets all in White 2 Version. It required a lot of usage from my Gen IV games to even Gen III to get them all. Even used one of my broken DSes to use Pal Park in Gen IV. So busted, that sometimes the time resets, so I had to wait a day to get some of the others over to my game.

But I'm actually kind of glad that whenever I get Y and the PokeBank opens, I'm gonna to have an easy time to get them all in. It does kind of make me wonder if they'll have some other reward for completing the dex in Gen VI. White 2 gave me 3 different rewards, for seeing all the Pokemon in Unova has to offer, I was given a pass to go to this island where a Shiny Haxorus lived, then for catching all the monsters Unova has to offer, they gave me a charm that increases eggs left at the daycare. As for catching every single Pokemon barring event legendaries, they give you a Shiny Charm which increases the chance to get a Shiny Pokemon from the wild and breeding. Hey, at least this stuff felt worth while other than getting some stupid diploma which always felt like a bragging rights reward. Increasing eggs and getting shiny are pretty good rewards if you're into breeding and getting Shiny mons.

Hell, even before I got that gem, when I was trying to grind up my mons to complete the dex, I encountered a shiny Throh near the Transfer lab. Sucks that I can barely tell the difference between a regular and shiny Throh, but I welcome Ernie with open arms and will probably interact with him in the Aime, along with my other legitimate shiny mon captures, like Torkoal, and Geodude.

 

[Neo Yi]

Got nostalgic, so I bought Crash 2, 3, and Crash Team Racing for my PS3. I actually own the physical PS1 copies, but my PS2 won't last forever, gotta have backups!

I've been playing too many current gen, so it took a bit of time to get back in the groove of a D-Pad (for some reason the PS3 version of Crash 2 does not support the Analog despite the original PS1 being able to.) Man, Crash 2 has some frustrating moments (backtracking, grr argh) and other annoying game designs, but it's still addicting and plays like a dream.

 

[Gatordragon]

In Kingdom of Loathing, I've finished my run as a Seal Clubber and now I reincarnated myself as a Zombie Master using the Zombie Slayer challenge path. I thought since it's October, I should get in the Halloween spirit. The Zombie Slayer path is very different from the normal in several ways. First of all, you're a zombie, but one that can command other zombies to do your bidding. Instead of magic points, skill moves use zombies in your horde. Your skill moves revolve around your hunger (buffing yourself), anger (combat prowess), and zombie minions (special moves). My current favorite skill is the simple infectious bite ability you start with. It costs zero zombie minions, poisons your enemy, and has a chance of turning them into a zombie for your horde after you defeat them. As a zombie you can only eat brains; which sometimes drop from enemies after you beat them. The stronger the enemy, the better the brain. The best ones are the Boss brains (which drop from bosses, of course) and Hunter brains (which drop from Zombie Hunters). Hunter brains are most desired because eating one gives you a zombie point to spend on new skills.

Speaking of which, Zombie Hunters are special enemies you encounter whenever you level up. All but one are parodies of fictional characters that faced zombies (the exception is a simple feller with a hunting rifle). For example, after reaching level 2, you'll encounter a Zombie Hunter named Norville Rogers. Zoinks, try and guess who he is. My favorite Zombie Hunter so far is the Peacannon, which is a parody of the Peashooter from Plants vs. Zombies.

To get in the Halloween spirit, I've been playing Garden of Fear on my iPad. I got this game during the Summer and I've never beaten it because I eventually got too scared to continue. You play as a guy in a dark labyrinth who must find his way out before the monster lurking in there finds you. There are several doors at the ends of the labyrinth, but only one leads you out. The rest send you back to the middle of the labyrinth. You can tell if the monster is nearby if you hear it's loud, limping gait. You're going to learn to hate that noise, especially when he starts running. If you fear the monster is close, just hide in the alcoves and hope it doesn't see you. Oh, and turn off you flashlight. You also have some chalk to mark where you've been. You'll need it.

 

[Miyamoto Musashi]

Lego Batman 2
Warming up in anticipation of Lego Marvel

 

[Gatomon41]

Going on a nostaglia trip and picked up Duel Masters: Sempai Masters (GBA).

Usually I don't pick up video game card games, but I am a fan of the anime, the actual CCG being out of print, and no there's portable Magic: The Gathering video game. Overall, your average "Collect Them All" quasi-RPG elements, though the Duel Master's card game itself is alot of fun.

It's like a simplified version of M:TG. You only have creatures and spells (which also double as Lands) to worry about, and it's fast and eccentric. The tide can change at any moment, making the duels unpredictable.

 

[Gatomon41]

Completed Duel Masters storyline, which was ridiculously short. In 15 hours, one can take the bad guy by a kid's card game beatdown.

On the bright side, I no longer have to worry about leveling up (the storyline was basically a way for the player to get used the the card game). I can now focus on collecting and developing decks and playing the real game.

 

[Miyamoto Musashi]

LEGO Marvel Superheroes
Easily my favorite LEGO videogame, but man is it riddled with glitches, some are amusing, others are annoying. How can I find that gold brick in central park?

 

[Gatordragon]

It's been a blast playing through the Zombie Slayer ascension path in Kingdom of Loathing. I've made it to the final quest again: to slay the Naughty Sorceress. To get through her tower, I took all my items from my previous ascension out of storage. I've nearly maxed out my skill tree, so I'm incredibly powerful, especially with my zombie minions backing me up. Getting to the Naughty Sorceress will be no problem. After I ascend my second time, I'm going to play through the Avatar of Boris ascension path. I'll talk more about that later.

On my iPad this week, I've been playing mostly Gunner Z, Candy Crush Saga, Combo Crew, ShadowGun: Deadzone, and Pocket God: Ooga Jump.

Gunner Z is a rail shooter where you ride around in an APC and shoot zombies and raiders. It's pretty good, but the downside is when you buy an upgrade, you have wait a few minutes to actually use it. You can use in-game cash to speed it up, but I like to wait it out.

Candy Crush Saga is so widespread, I think it needs no introduction. Everyone I know plays this game. If I go to the library, there I always at least one person playing Candy Crush one of the computers. I'm currently on level 92. It's sometimes about chance, but knowing how to line up Candy to make power-ups takes skill.

Combo Crew is a beat 'em up where you go up a tower and must fight every enemy on each floor. The game is normally $1.99, but it went free for a weekend and I jumped at the opportunity. The gameplay is unique because instead of using traditional button controls, you direct your fighter using swipes across the screen to tell them who to hit and rack up big combos. It's very responsive and I have little problem controlling my fighter. The three original fighters are Parker (a catboy gamer), Gina (a master at hairjustsu. I think she's Brazilian, but who knows?), and Dolph (a big tough movie star). You can also buy fighters from other franchises, such as Viewtiful Joe, Ryu, Chun Li, and Blanka. However, they cost real money, so I'm not getting them.

ShadowGun: Deadzone is a multiplayer online third person shooter; a rarity among iPad games. On top of that, it's free. I've gotten pretty good at this. The game is pretty generous when it comes to in-game money, so it's not hard to save up money for that upgrade or weapon. I can even play with people who have this game for Droid or PC. I don't have a headset, but players look out for each other during team deathmatch and use teamwork regardless. This game helps me get my multiplayer fix since I don't have my Xbox 360 with me right now and can't my multiplayer Xbox 360 games (or any Xbox 360 game for that matter).

Pocket God: Ooga Jump is an endless distance jumping game made by the makers of Pocket God, Bolt Creative. I'm a big fan of Pocket God, I have both of their previous games and read their digital comic book series of the same name (It's a good comic that costs $0.99 an issue, but the schedule is inconsistent). It's been so long since they made a game, so I'm happy that they're making games again. You play as a pygmy who tries to go upwards by jumping on floating platforms while dodging deadly obstacles. Death by the obstacles can get pretty graphic for the game's stylized artstyle, but that's typical for the franchise. It's a nice game, though the obstacles aren't that hard. I hope they amp up the difficulty in the next update.

 

[Wonderwall]

Been playing Arkham Origins since it was released last week. Before that I had spent a few weeks with Valkyria Chronicles. AO is really good game that I've talked a lot about in it's talkback thread. VC is a really great game that I had missed out on when it first came out but I had heard about it for about 2 years as it would show up on a lot of sites "Best PS3 games/ RPGS/ etc" lists. Yea really cool mix of strategy and RPG and pretty engaging story as well. Definitely an underrated game or buried treasure.

 

[Gatordragon]

Welp, I completed the Zombie Slayer ascension path in Kingdom of Loathing. The Naughty Sorceress was a little harder, but I had a skill that allowed me to have my zombie horde block her attacks. After beating her seconds form, she was replaced by the true mastermind, a powerful necromancer named Rene C. Corman. He was the one who caused the zombie apocalypse by going back in the past and spreading the disease. After beating him, I found the temporal rift he used and went back in time to tell the past scientists how to make the zombie cure. They use on me and it turns me back into a human. Afterwards, I ascended to the astral plane to start another game.

Now I'm playing through the Avatar of Boris ascension path. In this path, I am the reincarnation of the legendary warrior, Boris. My strength and hunger are legendary, but I have a low alcohol tolerance. I can only use my trust axe, Trusty, as my weapon. Instead of a familiar, I have my bard Clancy. It's pretty good so far and the skills I can acquire more than make up for my weak, but reliable axe.

 

[Gatomon41]

With the world of Duel Masters conquered, I head off to save Japan in Onimusha Tactics (GBA).

Like a simplified but easier to play Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced, you control an army of ninja, samurai, a kabuki actor, a half-human monster girl, a miko disguised as a dancer, and a bandit to fight the monster army called the Genma. Like a cross between zombies and pokemon, the Genma want to conquer Japan and turn it into a feeding ground. It's my job to stop it.

 

[River26]

The latest game I tried was Knack. It's really fun. Not like your typical adventure game.

 

[Dragnatek]

Valkyrie Profile the PSP version of course since I don't have the type of money for the Playstation version. Since I'm going for Ending A I'm using the game guide so that I don't do something I'm not suppose to do. In this game if you want the best ending your not suppose to visit some places until the right time. So I don't want to mess up. Just started the third cycle.

 

[Michael24]

Been playing Batman: Arkham Origins, but spending half the time on boss battles is sucking the fun out of it. Literally took about 90 minutes to get past Deathstroke yesterday, and now after fighting Bane on the rooftop over and over for nearly an hour, I've given up for the night. I mean, Bane himself isn't enough of an obstacle? They need to give you Joker henchmen and aggravating camera movements to deal with as well? ARGH!!

I'm starting to remember why I'm not much of a current gen gamer. Games these days just seem to be way too frustratingly difficult than being challenging fun.