What games are you currently playing?

[Malacite]

Some of the star oceans were pretty grindy. But IMO it's still a tie between iRO and Phantasy Star Online.

[Jarre]

GTA4 liking causing carnage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

I don't think it gets more grindy that Nocturne or Digital Devil Saga, but that's just me.

The encounter rates can get up there with Skies of Arcadia and FFIX, but SMT Nocturne has the demon-collection/fusion to make the constant grinding more worthwhile while DDS favors a FFX-esque design where the encounter rate - along with its affinity for throwing you at extensive dungeons and towers - a bit tedious.

[Kailea]

I am playing "the wipe clean and redo your whole arcade cab software" game ;p

Its fun! *holds gun to forehead*

[cidbahamut]

I'm playing DayZ.

Is that thing still in beta or is it just that god-awful?

[DakAttack]

Is that thing still in beta or is it just that god-awful?

I think it's still in alpha, although it somebody said it was in beta, I'd believe it.

[Malacite]

Really wishing I had a better PC now...

Armored Kill is out soon for BF3 (Sept) and it's just going to be silly playing those gigantic vehicle maps with only 24 vs 64 players...

Console Limitations

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

I hate when things release back to back. Kingdom Hearts 3D, Persona 4 Arena and The Last Story are all one week after then other.

So yeah, Kingdom Hearts 3D is a rental now. To be perfectly honest I never really kept any KH game, so I don't know why I'd start now. I've often avoided renting for no good reason other than I could avoid renting. Atlus games I tend to keep, The Last Story has just been deeply anticipated all this time. Kingdom Hearts has always been fun, but the more i think about it they're just not "keeper" games.

[Feba]

I got a library notification yesterday for Kingdom Hearts.

Apparently I've been in the queue for so long that I don't even have the same name anymore.

[Malacite]

I lost interest in KH after KH2. I dunno why, I was really into it at first and then it just kinda fizzled out.

[Nandito]

Yeah, same here. I think it's because I preferred how simple KH was. KH2 afterward; it's "Organization XIII" this and "Heartless of a Nobody who's actually that person" that. Bleh. Where'd the light-hearted fun with tiny dark overtones go?

Anywho, I picked up Vanquish since I'm still waiting on Binary Domain's price-reduction and I wanted some mindless shooting fun. I think I succeeded getting that and more by choosing Hard mode from the start. It hits a perfect balance from boosting around picking off the weaker targets but then playing a bit smarter once the heavy-hitters show up. Only a bit. I mean, I still just Boost-Divekick-Shotgun-To-The-Face them when I can. Graphics are awesome from it's lighting to the particles flying everywhere; the only slowdown I get is from the actual bullet-time in the game.

I kind of wish they had put in a secondary-fire function on the weapons since there's only so few to choose from. Because of how the upgrade system is (Full Level Upgrade drop from enemies, otherwise slowly gain exp on that weapon by picking up its ammo when it's already full), I pretty much only bother with Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Whatever-I-pick-up.

Worth the 15 bucks new, since I can already see the lack of replay value.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Yeah, same here. I think it's because I preferred how simple KH was.

Simply terrible? I can't even bear to play it a second time ten years later. It seriously was not that good of a game.

The gameplay of the series has improved but it never quite gets up to par with the best of action RPGs. I really just play it for the rare crossover moments where SE and Disney properties actually pan out. Riding Disney nostaligia alone wouldn't have kept the series going, so I so actually appreciate the expanded cast and convoluted storytelling. If there was none of that they wouldn't have finally come to create great characters like Aqua, Axel or Terra and just had a load of terribly boring ones.

Sora, Riki and Kairi are seriously not interesting enough on their own. They are Twilight-level boring people. Though oddly Sora and Neku sharing a scene actually does work. Then again, I hate them both so its the dichotomy that's more interesting than they are.

Had Aqua been the lead of the series from the start, the series would have been so much better but I guess strong, mature female leads aren't marketable for SE.

[Malacite]

I'd much rather play Crisis Core or Seiken Densetsu over KH.

[Icemage]

I'd much rather play Crisis Core or Seiken Densetsu over KH.

I haven't played Seiken Densetsu so I can't speak to it, but while I do like Crisis Core, it's clearly an inferior game to Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep in terms of gameplay. I'm not a fan of Crisis Core's "mash X to win" combat. I suffered through it because the rest of the game was well designed, but the combat? Not so much, especially when compared against the technical brilliance of KH:BBS (which I feel is by far the best game in the franchise by a large margin, both in story and gameplay).


Icemage

[Armando]

I haven't played Crisis Core. I loved Birth By Sleep's gameplay for the most part, but they really fucked up again by making Shotlocks and a couple of other attacks fully invincible. I also really disliked that dodging became a stamina game (Can you cartwheel 20 times while the boss finishes his attack?) instead of something you time judiciously. And comparing the dozens of attacks against each other is impossible without GameFAQs.