Games, Games, GAMES!! (Besides iDOLM@STER, of course XD)

[Cien Laguoire]

Got Dance Central 3 yesterday. Man, the songs on the top of the list have some pretty tough moves, I don't even want to imagine how I'll try to tackle the last song on Hard...

I would pay to see you attempt OMG on hard. You basically need to be Usher to pull it off.

Sakura, your RUF is hideous. And how did your GTR enter a space program?

I've been playing Medal of Honor Warfighter. Campaign story was disappointing, but the gameplay is really solid. Multiplayer seems pretty good, but the guns lack feedback when I score hits. Guess I'm more used to Battlefield 3's feel. I'm also loving being able to play as Canadian JTF-2 units.

[SakuraMaxX]

It ain't my RUF, it's the club owners and I like it :c

I've done worse than the GT-R.  The Aventador is shaped like a ramp so if I hit something hard enough it'll launch off my car.  Should've gotten a picture.

[animagic4u]

Been playing DDR: Supernova 2's stupid master mode. The missions at impossible cuz of cheap fake difficulty.
Also found out there's a Beatmania: IIDX Gold near by. Muuuust play.

[SakuraMaxX]

Obligatory TWO DEE ECKS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD

[satty]

http://imgur.com/oOdCD

Hehe, and that's all mine...mine!

Also got Assassin's Creed III, too.

[Cien Laguoire]

OH SHI-
ZOE HD is out now?! Now I gotta get both AC3 and that. D:

[Zerorush]

I'm still playing the multiplayer for Mass Effect 3 almost every day. Picked up Doom 3 BFG recently and I'll be getting Halo 4 this upcoming week.

[satty]

Well, in Assassin's Creed 3, I took 2 forts from the British and gave it to the Americans...in 1760.


I have sequenced broke history.

[baruhara]

Been playing a lot of browser games lately. I'm also re-playing Mass Effect to get all the achievemenets, and I still don't like it.

[Cael K.]

Beat Valkyria Chronicles just in time for Shiny Festa. Honestly... this is going to sound weird, but I have mixed feelings about VC.

The artistic presentation and basic gameplay ideas were all solid, and the level design was pretty good. The execution of the gameplay, however... Let's just say that enemy soldiers never pull the same cheese you pull on them for a reason, and most of the time I felt like the enemy was just letting me beat them up. I typically don't like abusable game systems, but at the very least I feel that some refinements in the numbers would fix most the brokenness. And without the brokenness, maybe the developers wouldn't feel shy about making the enemies smart.

I personally didn't enjoy the storyline - it seemed much too generic for my tastes. Most of the big reveals I felt were just beat over my head as well.

There were some good characters in the game, but I think they all could have benefited from better development (especially the villains). However, the two characters I didn't end up liking at all... were the two main characters. Very unfortunate.

Overall, I think there's some really good stuff here, but rampant gameplay abuses and a generic storyline make me feel like there was lots of missed potential. Maybe the sequels fix this stuff? Dunno.

[JNiles]

Beat Valkyria Chronicles just in time for Shiny Festa. Honestly... this is going to sound weird, but I have mixed feelings about VC.

The artistic presentation and basic gameplay ideas were all solid, and the level design was pretty good. The execution of the gameplay, however... Let's just say that enemy soldiers never pull the same cheese you pull on them for a reason, and most of the time I felt like the enemy was just letting me beat them up. I typically don't like abusable game systems, but at the very least I feel that some refinements in the numbers would fix most the brokenness. And without the brokenness, maybe the developers wouldn't feel shy about making the enemies smart.

I personally didn't enjoy the storyline - it seemed much too generic for my tastes. Most of the big reveals I felt were just beat over my head as well.

There were some good characters in the game, but I think they all could have benefited from better development (especially the villains). However, the two characters I didn't end up liking at all... were the two main characters. Very unfortunate.

Overall, I think there's some really good stuff here, but rampant gameplay abuses and a generic storyline make me feel like there was lots of missed potential. Maybe the sequels fix this stuff? Dunno.

I'm not sure that the AI was ever intended to approach human intelligence- they are faceless mooks to be cut down.  The developers seem to have compensated for their poor AI by scripting in some infuriating surprises.

Storyline worked great for me.  Invaders invade, pushing you and your ragtag army to the brink, then you turn the tables on them.  The Suikoden games (which I also enjoy) follow this plot line very closely.  Sorry to hear that you did not like the main characters.

VC 2 attempts to address the combat issues by spreading out the action across several mini-maps with double-sided checkpoints that can be captured from either connecting map.  In practice, this just causes a chain reaction of enemy gate rushes.  And it is easy to forget which map connects to which.  I recall smashing my previous PSP over an infuriatingly long sequence of takeovers.

The other big issue- the fact that everyone except the main group of characters can die and thus can't be included in plot scenes- well, your squad members don't die for real in VC 2 (they get hospitalized), and they each have their own little plot line.  The problem is, a lot of people were turned off by the idea of an army of cadets.

We never got VC 3.  I think Sega was upset over the volume of sales for VC 2.

[Cael K.]

I'm not sure that the AI was ever intended to approach human intelligence- they are faceless mooks to be cut down.  The developers seem to have compensated for their poor AI by scripting in some infuriating surprises.

Maybe at some point I'll collect my thoughts and write a review on it, but the way I feel is that the AI is intentionally bad because the developers didn't want to Game Over the player just out of the blue, or perma-kill their characters too much. I mean, I know I've killed multiple tanks in like 4 or 5 CP from the front, but the AI will never do that even when it can. Any soldier can be downed with 2 CP (grenade the sandbags, then head shot), but again... I think the AI was intentionally kept from doing this because then your characters would perma-die all over the place.

Which means I feel like victory in the game is an illusion. The basic premise is great, but my opinion... the game needs to penalize CP dumping really heavily, and increase survivability. Then the above won't happen, and you can step up the AI so that you (or maybe just I, I could be alone in these thoughts) feel like each win is earned, not given.

But that's my two cents. At the very least, VC3 sounds like it might be more interesting from a plot perspective, but I don't know if I want to make that expenditure to find out if things have really improved.

[JNiles]

I agree with your assessment about the gameplay.  I doubt it was ever intended to be more than second place to the storyline and characters.  It wasn't a problem for me, because I died over and over and came close to snapping my disk in half.  What you're asking for probably would have made it impossible for me to complete the game, turn-based or no, so I can't say I'm enthusiastic about the idea.

The sort of balancing you're talking about is generally more supported in games designed for and revolving around multiplayer.  For ball-busting AI, I hear the X-COM remake suffices.  In fact, that's the game VC was most often compared to when it came out.

[Cael K.]

Heh, well I guess it's good to know I'm not going insane as far as my thoughts go. ^^

Maybe I'll check out some gameplay vids of XCOM though, to see if it's more up my alley. I remember a friend who loved the series, but I didn't get into it at the time.

[SakuraMaxX]

While I think the Lexus LFA only looks its best when it's in its usual snow white color, I thought this was a neat design.