Just started GREED: Black Border an okay futuristic Diablo like game, but in terms of story, level and monster variety there is not much. But an okay little game if you like Diablo, good music and graphics.
Also trying Age of Conan, so far I am not impressed.
Mostly playing Dead Island and From Dust right now. However, I do get in some Madden from time to time. Still playing 11' though. Didn't really see much need to get the new one.
After playing through Machinarium (good!) and Teen Agent (not so good! but free on GOG.com) I'm continuing to play through my huge adventure game backlog by working on Simon the Sorcerer.
I've been "playing" Simon as well, but I got stuck about 2 months ago and haven't started it up again since. The game world is a bit annoying and confusing to traverse.
I get the game is about your decisions effecting what happens, but when one of your decisions MASSIVELY DEFECTS YOU against a boss battle in a game where they are incredibaly cheap and unfair ALREADY, you have problems!! And I dont have a save to actually go back and change my decision!
Just got my hands on the LittleBigPlanet GOTY Edition. Even if you already have the regular version (which you certainly should if for no other reason than it was free in June), this might be worth getting if you can get it or rent it cheap or free - I got mine from the library. It includes some extra costumes, all the Metal Gear Solid levels, and 18 "exclusive" community levels with video introductions by the creators.
The 3 "community" levels I've played so far are outstanding. Very long and diverse, lots of attention to detail paid, effort put into giving them "narratives". Some of the creator names I recognize from having played their other levels online, where these levels could not be found. If I were to rank all of the levels I've played, these 3 would probably all be in the top 10, with one of them likely being the very best.
Took a break from Assassin's Creed to play DJ Hero 2. It's...different. It's harder than any other rhythm game I've played so far, but I'm kind of liking it.
As for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, there's only one memory between me and 100% synchronization. Unfortunately, it's the last War Machines memory, and the 100% condition is to not take damage while in the tank. I've had to restart the memory more than any other. Once I finish it, I might go back to the Lairs of Romulus to collect the last couple Borgia Flags, or since I already have the Auditore Cape anyway, I might just skip it and go straight to The Da Vinci Disappearance.
Just finished Shadow of the Beast on my Minimig, a little board this Dutch (I think) guy designed quite some time ago, that is basically a small board acting pretty much exactly as a real Amiga, only using an SD card instead of a floppy drive.
It uses real (9 pin) Amiga joysticks though.
There are some compatibility issues with certain games, but only a few... the vast majority work perfectly.
Anyway, the cool thing about the Minimig is that you hook it up directly to a TV, using a VGA cable... so it's a really convenient way to play Amiga games on TVs, and hooked up to a stereo as well (I'm getting really nice sound, using a very nice sound setup here).
One thing I like about the Minimig is that, just as on a real Amiga, you can't use savestates... using those can be so damn tempting at times, especially in difficult games such as Shadow of the Beast.
So in that way I'm glad it doesn't offer me the option, though it would have been convenient for other things though.
The new version of Psychonauts on Steam once it downloaded. (there are rumors that they changed the Meat Circus Level and added neat Steam features and there is a MAC version now)
and
The Binding Of Isaac once the patch that lets me change the controls is released.
Planescape: Torment. I "die" a lot. Mainly because I also seem to have a nasty habit of accidentally pissing really powerful people off. Knew I should have gone for a higher Charisma score...
Finished first Episode Of Back to the Future, and have started in Alien vs Predator.
Done with Marine and Alien, just got the Predator left and so far the Alien was most fun.
Have all the houses and have upgraded them all with the exception of the memorial and the lost and found
Loving the game so far.
EDIT:And on my run and gun gameplay of Deus Ex Human Revolution, the boss battles are a bit easier now that I know a few secrets(such as the freaking rocket launcher before hand, how did I miss that?) and ways to freak out the AI.
I managed after a few playthroughs to get all the way to the final boss.
Then I died.
Normally I would totally rage about that, but in this game it isn't so bad.
The game is short, but its very, very easy to die.
Even with my super-powered Isaac, I came very close to dieing a lot.
(and the only way one gets another chance is to find a green 1 up mushroom. If one can find it!)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but only to get snapshots for what I'm working on right now. Also Rock Band 3, because I drum sometimes to blow off steam. And tonight I'm going to play Portal 2.
Still playing Planescape: Torment because I made a mistake early on and pissed off some people that I really needed to keep talking to me so that I could finish some quests. Sooo....I had to redo about five hours of gameplay to get one essential item.
I think I understand the complaints about dead ends in the King's Quest forum now (though technically I could have just killed all the people who refused to talk to me in order to move on...but so much lost XP!).
Second playthrough on Deus Ex. Some of my actions that I did differently are in fact changing things up a bit(
the cop that you blackmail has attacked me
). Mainly making the bosses A LOT easier. At least Im learning their weakness now for my big no kills(minus bosses) playthrough.
EDIT:On my no kill playthrough now.
I finally got past one of the bosses. Its a shame I had to look up in the mini-guide for the solution, but even when knowing it was hard!!
Firstly, what you need to do is go up the ladder, (which I didn't know existed! (as its very dark and you wouldn't see it unless its pointed out to you!)), kill the skeleton crossbowmen, (make sure to roll as soon as climb up, as one is on top of the ladder and will attack as soon as you finish climbing) then walk just enough so that the boss appears.
Then you need to run back to the ladder and climb.
Once up there, do not dawdle, as the boss can still get up there and get you.
Once he's directly below, do a plunging attack, (to thats right bumper or R1 while falling), then run away.
Once he catches up to you, dodge past his attack, then run back to the ladder, and repeat.
You may need to do this around 3 or 4 times.
Sounds easy but it is not.
If the boss hits you he will take off a huge chunk of health, and he is massive and the game is a little buggy at times.
Still died after that.
The game is sneaky, as when you get a little further there is a bridge.
You start running down it, then a massive dragon suddenly shows up and toast it!
So you have to be ready to run away once it starts.
Then run towards the middle of the bridge and run down the staircase.
Fortunately at that point the game allows you to return to the fireplace via a ladder, but that is not exactly comforting...
This weekend was GOG's free "Broken Sword Director's Cut" time! I still own the original as a PS1 game, and I played it once back then. Didn't really think about playing it a second time, but I had obviously forgotten what a fantastic adventure it is. Great atmosphere, I had a lot of fun...
Playing Legend of Zelda: Ocraina of Time(if anyone asks, the n64 version that is part of the collection on the gamecube) . I forgot how amazing this game is.
I managed to slay the miniboss (not the dragon, an armoured hog-thing (that you can only damage by stabbing its bottom! (that thank god hasn't respawned!))), but I'm still getting my ass handed to me by the stronger enemies.
The Skeleton with lances are pretty annoying.
Amusingly easy to kill out in the open, since you can simply circle them till they attack and score and easy backstab critical kill, but in a corridor they are a nightmare!
The new enemy soldier guys are horrid too.
They can kill you in about 3 hits, and are big and hard to roll past.
I keep being killed at the exact same spot now.
Now that I have a Great Axe, things are much easier.
I can kill regular skeletons in one regular hit with the right timing, so farming souls is very easy now.
But the cost of upgrading stats is rising sharply.
Also managed to get and keep enough humanity to kindle the spawn point, so I have double healing items which makes things a little easier.
Though getting away from fights to heal is difficult so that diminishes the benefit.
All in all, the game has its cheap points, and its frustrations, but once you get past that its fantastic!
Its certainly no combo fest. Its all about learning how each enemy behaves, (e.g. a skeleton with a sword will charge as soon as he sees you, but a skeleton with a spear will slowly inch his way towards you until he decided to maniacally thrust at you for a big chunk of damage, and the zombies are quicker than the skeletons so can catch you with a hit before you can hit them, but they are weak and easily killed with 1 or 2 hits), and adjusting your playstyle to match.
Trying to finish up the DLC with my cousin.
Got to chamber 9 of the new campain and we were cracking up at
The moral of the story is that all of the humans are dead and I need your help. Mainly because there were hundreds of them, and they all died in a week. Someone must have started them off with neurotoxin immunity tests:p
Played a little "Outcast" as gog.com had a sale. Never played it before, and I must admit, I don't like it much (but haven't given up on it yet). Sometimes I think whenever people speak of some specific game as a "timeless classic", it's wrong 90% of the time. Video and computer games age, they seriously age. Rediscovering classics you played 15 years ago is a great thing, but discovering a "true" classic that you love even though you've never played it before - that's quite hard to do.
In other news, I had to give up reviving "Anachronox". The serious 40-second lags, the massive clipping and movement infunctionality in the cutscenes and last not least the malfunctioning controls, I could stand it all on W7 64 bit. Unfortunately, a gamebreaking bug appeared out of the blue and, as they say, "it was super effective". I hope a patched version is on gog.com one day.
Comments
Also trying Age of Conan, so far I am not impressed.
I've been "playing" Simon as well, but I got stuck about 2 months ago and haven't started it up again since. The game world is a bit annoying and confusing to traverse.
The 3 "community" levels I've played so far are outstanding. Very long and diverse, lots of attention to detail paid, effort put into giving them "narratives". Some of the creator names I recognize from having played their other levels online, where these levels could not be found. If I were to rank all of the levels I've played, these 3 would probably all be in the top 10, with one of them likely being the very best.
Haven't even touched the Metal Gear levels yet.
God help you if you are playing BTTF for the puzzles.
As for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, there's only one memory between me and 100% synchronization. Unfortunately, it's the last War Machines memory, and the 100% condition is to not take damage while in the tank. I've had to restart the memory more than any other. Once I finish it, I might go back to the Lairs of Romulus to collect the last couple Borgia Flags, or since I already have the Auditore Cape anyway, I might just skip it and go straight to The Da Vinci Disappearance.
No I have read all the bad things about the puzzles, I am going to play for story and because I have bought them.
It uses real (9 pin) Amiga joysticks though.
There are some compatibility issues with certain games, but only a few... the vast majority work perfectly.
Anyway, the cool thing about the Minimig is that you hook it up directly to a TV, using a VGA cable... so it's a really convenient way to play Amiga games on TVs, and hooked up to a stereo as well (I'm getting really nice sound, using a very nice sound setup here).
One thing I like about the Minimig is that, just as on a real Amiga, you can't use savestates... using those can be so damn tempting at times, especially in difficult games such as Shadow of the Beast.
So in that way I'm glad it doesn't offer me the option, though it would have been convenient for other things though.
I love how the single player is so decidedly single player although you DO compete with people all over the world. If only I were better.
and
The Binding Of Isaac once the patch that lets me change the controls is released.
Done with Marine and Alien, just got the Predator left and so far the Alien was most fun.
EDIT:And on my run and gun gameplay of Deus Ex Human Revolution, the boss battles are a bit easier now that I know a few secrets(such as the freaking rocket launcher before hand, how did I miss that?) and ways to freak out the AI.
OH. MY. GOD.
This game is fantastic!!!
I managed after a few playthroughs to get all the way to the final boss.
Then I died.
Normally I would totally rage about that, but in this game it isn't so bad.
The game is short, but its very, very easy to die.
Even with my super-powered Isaac, I came very close to dieing a lot.
(and the only way one gets another chance is to find a green 1 up mushroom. If one can find it!)
Bloody awesome
Awesome game.
I've been playing it soley for hours and hours.
Beat the final, final boss now.
Not horribly difficult since I had some very good powerups.
I think what makes the game so great is that it has the accessibility of Zelda and the randomness of games like Rogue.
Its kind of like Star Fox 64, in the sense thats its a great game to sit down and play for a few hours at a time.
It is hard though. No joke.
Not hard in the cheap instagib way, but its hard to survive in the long-term.
You have to really learn the enemy patterns, preserve your keys and bombs, and just get very, very lucky! XD
Y U NO SAVE
When its very clear that thats THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE GAME!!
Its supposed to be hard, if you suck so badly at the game, then go back to playing your barbie and petz games.
If your face is like the above when you lose the game, then this game is not for you.
If not, then remember:
I haven't played that in forever. I should have another go at it sometime.
I think I understand the complaints about dead ends in the King's Quest forum now (though technically I could have just killed all the people who refused to talk to me in order to move on...but so much lost XP!).
Woo! I love that game.
I wish I was playing it right now.
EDIT:On my no kill playthrough now.
I finally got past one of the bosses. Its a shame I had to look up in the mini-guide for the solution, but even when knowing it was hard!!
Firstly, what you need to do is go up the ladder, (which I didn't know existed! (as its very dark and you wouldn't see it unless its pointed out to you!)), kill the skeleton crossbowmen, (make sure to roll as soon as climb up, as one is on top of the ladder and will attack as soon as you finish climbing) then walk just enough so that the boss appears.
Then you need to run back to the ladder and climb.
Once up there, do not dawdle, as the boss can still get up there and get you.
Once he's directly below, do a plunging attack, (to thats right bumper or R1 while falling), then run away.
Once he catches up to you, dodge past his attack, then run back to the ladder, and repeat.
You may need to do this around 3 or 4 times.
Sounds easy but it is not.
If the boss hits you he will take off a huge chunk of health, and he is massive and the game is a little buggy at times.
Still died after that.
The game is sneaky, as when you get a little further there is a bridge.
You start running down it, then a massive dragon suddenly shows up and toast it!
So you have to be ready to run away once it starts.
Then run towards the middle of the bridge and run down the staircase.
Fortunately at that point the game allows you to return to the fireplace via a ladder, but that is not exactly comforting...
Also, I've been playing around with custom maps and sounds in Left 4 Dead 2, and had an interesting glitch.
Truly a epic, epic game.
I'm getting just a bit further than I was before.
I managed to slay the miniboss (not the dragon, an armoured hog-thing (that you can only damage by stabbing its bottom! (that thank god hasn't respawned!))), but I'm still getting my ass handed to me by the stronger enemies.
The Skeleton with lances are pretty annoying.
Amusingly easy to kill out in the open, since you can simply circle them till they attack and score and easy backstab critical kill, but in a corridor they are a nightmare!
The new enemy soldier guys are horrid too.
They can kill you in about 3 hits, and are big and hard to roll past.
I keep being killed at the exact same spot now.
Now that I have a Great Axe, things are much easier.
I can kill regular skeletons in one regular hit with the right timing, so farming souls is very easy now.
But the cost of upgrading stats is rising sharply.
Also managed to get and keep enough humanity to kindle the spawn point, so I have double healing items which makes things a little easier.
Though getting away from fights to heal is difficult so that diminishes the benefit.
All in all, the game has its cheap points, and its frustrations, but once you get past that its fantastic!
Its certainly no combo fest. Its all about learning how each enemy behaves, (e.g. a skeleton with a sword will charge as soon as he sees you, but a skeleton with a spear will slowly inch his way towards you until he decided to maniacally thrust at you for a big chunk of damage, and the zombies are quicker than the skeletons so can catch you with a hit before you can hit them, but they are weak and easily killed with 1 or 2 hits), and adjusting your playstyle to match.
Got to chamber 9 of the new campain and we were cracking up at
A lot of the things the Orcs say is really funny, and the way the traps works together makes it really fun to watch.
In other news, I had to give up reviving "Anachronox". The serious 40-second lags, the massive clipping and movement infunctionality in the cutscenes and last not least the malfunctioning controls, I could stand it all on W7 64 bit. Unfortunately, a gamebreaking bug appeared out of the blue and, as they say, "it was super effective". I hope a patched version is on gog.com one day.