What are you playing today?

[Neo]

So how the hell are we going to set up a match.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

Been playing a lot of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Trying to get all the Star Coins. World 9's levels are some of the hardest I've ever played in a Mario game (with the exception of some frustrating, overly long Yoshi's Island levels, but still).

Also, my Wii friend code is 2949 4457 5999 4581.

I mainly play Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii online. I can play most any time of day except the early morning to early afternoon (6 a.m. - 1 p.m.).

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

Also, since the time expired on updating my post, here is more friend codes of mine:

Brawl friend code: 0216-5370-3060.
Mario Kart Wii friend code: 0302-7342-6234.

I go by the moniker Morn or Morn Blue online, just a heads up.

[Crisis]

I've been getting into Diablo II and Torchlight recently. They are genuinely the same game aside from art style. Torchlight is also much easier. I'd offer my opinion, but you know, it's Diablo. I'm the only one who hasn't played it. What I do like about Western RPGs in general is the breadth of gameplay styles they allow for. Diablo is obviously the classic example of this with every class and spec being viable, but I've also enjoyed Dragon Age and Demon's Souls (not a Western RPG, but it might as well be).

In between, I've been playing VVVVVV. I'm not sure how many people have heard of it; I only ran into it because it was on the Steam for Mac list, but basically it's a dirt cheap, indie platformer in the vein of I Wanna Be the Guy, where the gimmick is you only have 1 button and all it does is reverse gravity (and only for your character). It had the Holy Trinity of cheap price tag, Macintosh compatibility, and free demo, so perhaps it was inevitable that I'd buy it to fill the gap in my twitch gaming collection. It's not nearly as unforgiving as I Wanna be the Guy (it even has an invincibility option if you're a pussy) with only 1 challenge in the game that's wilfully designed to be unfair, and it's entirely optional. Gameplay is nothing to write home about; plenty of interesting ideas provide variation, but the game ends before it's really explored them in detail, and it even rehashes some of the harder puzzles in kind of an endgame "boss rush". But to its credit, the game manages to be both challenging and fair throughout the entire storyline. The graphics are cutely retro, but while not ugly, clearly the look was as much about saving costs as artistic direction. The music, on the other hand, is both retro and genuinely inspired. Check out the online demo and you'll see what I mean.

[Green Gibbon!]

I finally got Scribblenauts. For some mysterious reason, Amazon wouldn't ship it overseas before now. They finally sent it, but now they won't send the sequel.

Of course a game that lets you use damn near any noun object in the English vocabulary is going to have some unpolished corners, but I think the main problem is that every object seems to have the exact same weight. A safe feels as light and floaty as a marshmallow. Because of this, quite often very obvious solutions don't work and bizarre, "nah, that'd never work" ideas do. Which is kind of counterintuitive for a puzzle game.

But on the other hand, I can't lodge too many complaints against a game that lets me stop rolling bombs with a sasquatch or start up a car with an electric eel.


How is the sequel? Are any of the problems addressed, or is it just more puzzles? I don't think they could've possibly expanded the vocabulary, so I assume the existing selection of items has been tweaked to be more functional?

[j-man]

They added adjectives!

[Yami CJMErl]

Not only that, but most (if not all) of the control/physics/AI issues have also been fixed. Levels are also more concise (and homage-y, one is a direct take on Super Mario Bros.!), with the ability to buy hints if you're stumped. The only downside is that it has fewer levels than the first game.

It's rather ironic that you got the first gane now, though--I heard Konami (I think) had announced an actual Japanese localization of it, under the title "Flash Puzzle: Maxwell's Mysterious Notebook".

[Delphine]

I rented Singularity. It was mediocre; I finished it in two days, and there's absolutely no replay value -- there are three endings, but you can get all of them by reloading the last checkpoint. It was as if Half-life and F.E.A.R. had a dyslexic child together, and Bioshock was the godfather. The plot is fairly easy to pick apart and there's nothing to distract one from doing so. The Time Manipulation Device is interesting, but they half-assed it's implementation.

Also, the game starts with a helicopter crash which leaves you stranded and alone, which is really, REALLY starting to get old. There are better ways to start a game, guys!

[j-man]

Exhumed did it best, anyway.

[Green Gibbon!]

It's rather ironic that you got the first gane now, though--I heard Konami (I think) had announced an actual Japanese localization of it, under the title "Flash Puzzle: Maxwell's Mysterious Notebook".

It comes out in January. Apparently you can write words in Japanese or English.

Either way, though, I'm much too purist to play the Japanese version of an American game. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to play Donkey Kong Returns without an American Wii.

[Esrever]

How do you feel about installing the Homebrew Channel? It takes about ten minutes if you have an SD card and a copy of smash bros.

(EDIT: I ask because I believe there is a application you can run from the homebrew channel that lets you run out of region discs)

[Ritz]

Classy as hell. It's like Super Metroid meets Res-Q, with a bit of Lemmings thrown in (the AI can be a bit retarded at times). Actually, I could just as easily call it a 2D Ico! That sounds a lot more appealing, right? Impressively eerie, dynamic and labyrinthine.

I'll be playing this momentarily.

[gr4yJ4Y]

So how the hell are we going to set up a match.

Good question.

My schedule is pretty random and unpredictable... I honestly don't know what days I'm working until the night before and I work nights Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Saturday and Sunday night I'm usually out with friends/family.

If you guys want to play sometime during the day (before 6 EST) on Sunday I'm up for it.

[Arcade]

New Super Mario Bross Wii, the game is fun in single player mode...

[j-man]

So my graphics card blew up yesterday. Fortuitously, I'd bought Epic Mickey the night before. Bit too much hand-holding in the first couple of areas, but then it all kicks off and you're having a ball. It's almost daunting; seems like there's at least two ways to complete every quest, and three ways to traverse each level. The game looks and sounds great, too; it's a joy to just tiptoe around soaking up the bittersweet atmosphere of Mean Street, chatting to the forgotten locals. It's not quite as bleak as that infamous concept art, but a few of the areas come close, most notably the genuinely unsettling Mickeyjunk Mountain. It feels kind of like the fucked-up lovechild of a threeway between Banjo-Kazooie, Fallout 3 and Land of Illusion, with the heavier emphasis on Disney iconography making the more barren and twisted areas of the Wasteland feel even more tragic, especially when you consider that it's all Mickey's fault. Do you atone for your misdeeds, or revel in your mischief? YOU DECIDE, etc.

I give it a 72.5/86 and three thumbs up!!!

[Farmer]

Within a Deep Forest. One of my personal favourite platformers. Insane difficulty. Highly recommended.

[Green Gibbon!]

Any other thoughts on Epic Mickey? It looks like a decent enough platformer.

[Rob-Bert]

Donkey Kong Returns

Purist my ass. The American title is Donkey Kong Country Returns.

[Crisis]

I'm also curious about Epic Mickey. I watched The Escapist's video review. It complained about disappointing fetch quests and bland, repetitive platforming, while showing a video of exciting puzzles and visually interesting set pieces. I wasn't really sure what to make of it.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

I heard it has serious camera issues, like N64-era camera issues.


Which is fitting, really.

[Delphine]

I managed to get Fallout: New Vegas from Gamefly, despite nearly everyone with a GF account having it in their queue.

It's essentially Fallout 3 in a slightly different setting: post-apocalypse Vegas instead of post-apocalypse DC. They tweaked it here and there, but the main improvement is the way companions are handled. They're smarter, for one, so you don't end up trapped in rooms because they're crawling up your butt and won't move out of the way. They act more like individual people and less like armed pack Brahmin, as well.

Unfortunately the game is bugged all to hell, moreso that FO3 ever was. I've lost count of how many times it's hung on me when I open a freaking door. You have to save all the time not because the game is hard (it's really not, especially if you have two companions), but because it breaks all the damn time. There's a huge patch coming down, so hopefully these issues will be fixed. The game also feels smaller, although I'm not sure if that's because I have all the DLC for FO3, which makes the game pretty damn huge.

Basically, if you liked FO3 you'll like New Vegas, and if you didn't, you won't. Oh, and I hope you don't like Stealth Boys a lot, because there's like ten of them in the whole game.

[Crisis]

I'm playing Cataclysm, along with presumably half of the world's population. It's kind of weird to see an MMO expansion where the best part of the game is the single player. Virtually all need for cooperation has been removed from the overworld and a cutscene engine has been implemented, to make it seem more like a "proper" RPG, I suppose.

The new quests are a lot of fun but still not up to the level of a single player RPG. 5-man dungeons, that basically got the shaft in Wrath of the Lich King, are now a bit more challenging, which is to say they contain some challenge, as opposed to the facerolls of the last expansion. They're still totally linear and they're still completely rigid in terms of party structure (you MUST have 1 tank, you MUST have 1 healer, you MUST have x amount of dps to enter), and the bosses still have stupid gimmicks you have to learn once and then never use again, but the re-implementation of crowd control is a step back in the right direction.

I haven't tried raiding or PvP, but I can tell you right now that PvP will be imbalanced and that nobody cares about raiding.

[UCHU]

Sin & Punishment 2. Beat it on hard a while ago. I lost count of how many credits I used by the second stage.

[gr4yJ4Y]

Someone gave me (not Super) Street Fighter IV as an early birthday/Christmas present. I'm slowly getting into it. I've never been much of a Street Fighter fan (hence why I never picked it up) so a lot of the stuff I don't care much for (character designs, art style, etc.) have kept me from immediately jumping in. It's a solid game though. And I'm starting to learn the different play styles of each character. Maybe I'll move up to Super if I end up getting really into this one.

I'm playing Lock's Quest too. It's the first DS game I've played in some time and it's been a good return so far. It's pretty much a dressed up tower-defense game with some RTS elements. Before the battle you build walls, gun turrets, and set traps around the field. In battle you use the stylus to make Lock attack the enemy and repair what you built before battle. There's also a typical RPG overworld with towns and stuff, but it acts as a pretty shallow bridge between battles. It's not half as grand as the usual RPG. I'm having fun with it thus far and the game continues to add more stuff to build and do with each battle.

[Green Gibbon!]

a lot of the stuff I don't care much for (character designs

stuff I don't care much for (character designs

don't care much for character designs

Not only are you banned, but henceforth the mention of your name or allusion to your existence by anyone will be punishable by death.