So, what're you playing?

[Rasix]

That only works until the bat mobile crashes into *spoiler deleted* and wakes up half the house.

[Sky]

I meant taking down the wife.   

[Yegolev]

If you get even the worst the FF ever made, it'll still be better than what's available.

Are you talking about X-2 or Dirge of Cerberus?  Must be X-2 because I actually made it to the end of Cerberus.  Personally, I'm not discarding the idea that I'm burned out on the vanilla JRPG, which is what a lot of these newer ones are.  FF wannabees for the most part.

I have to play Batman with low volume also.  Friends give good reports on wireless headsets, the pricey ones anyway, but I don't care for them in any form.

Almost played some LotRO with the wife today but work is interfering.

[Rasix]

Are you talking about X-2 or Dirge of Cerberus?  Must be X-2 because I actually made it to the end of Cerberus.  Personally, I'm not discarding the idea that I'm burned out on the vanilla JRPG, which is what a lot of these newer ones are.  FF wannabees for the most part.

Ohh, I forgot those 2 existed.  I'm really only counting mainline ones (excluding 11).  Which, I'd consider 8 to be the worst. I haven't played 2 (Japanese numbering), however.

A vanilla JPRG is bad in itself for this current generation.  Could you release the first FF or Earthbound or Chrono Trigger today and have anyone but the fanbois of yesteryear loving it? I'm not so sure (Earthbound, maybe, it's quirky).   I too likely need something more than the vanilla JRPG, but all of the ones I've played being bad in other major areas hasn't helped.

[Yegolev]

I have the DS ChronoTrigger and, well, it's better than much of the modern JRPGs I have had the displeasure to play.  I did not play it the first time around so I am not being nostalgic.

I think FFVIII is popular with the women.  Due to ANGST, no doubt.  My wife calls that one her favorite behind XII. vOv  Me, the combination of Squall and moon-monsters and the flying school and the ridiculous bit about how they all went to school together was just WAY too retarded for me.

[Murgos]

Got an hour or so to play X3TC last night.  Got out of the pickle with the 4 Khaak corvettes, once the Argon fleet got their attention I was able to destroy them in detail.  Shields were down to ~35% by the end but nothing too nail biting.

Total payout for that mission (Patrol over 3 sectors) where I killed about 12 Khaak corvettes and several dozen smaller vessel was about 1.3M once you added in the bounties and took about 2.5 hours all told due to reloads and whatnot.  In comparison, immediately afterward I took an assassination mission with an 11 minute time limit that paid out 2.4 M, so yeah, combat patrols are not that efficient money earners.

[Rasix]

There's a lot of money in Khaak.

[Cyrrex]

I have the DS ChronoTrigger and, well, it's better than much of the modern JRPGs I have had the displeasure to play.  I did not play it the first time around so I am not being nostalgic.

I think FFVIII is popular with the women.  Due to ANGST, no doubt.  My wife calls that one her favorite behind XII. vOv  Me, the combination of Squall and moon-monsters and the flying school and the ridiculous bit about how they all went to school together was just WAY too retarded for me.

How good was XII?  I have an above average liking for Final Fantasy games, but I never played that one due to circumstances somewhat out of my control.  I don't have a BC PS3, so I occasionally have the urge to buy a used PS2 and a used copy of XII to see what I've been missing.  Worth it?

[Rasix]

Don't know if it's worth buying a PS2 alone for FFXII.  I do think it's one of the better FFs.  I sunk maybe 70+ hours into it.

The combat is very MMOish.  There's a lot of "scripting" you can do to fire off abilities of party members once certain conditions are set.  The story is pretty much FF's take on Star Wars. The male character with effeminate hair that people like to bag on really isn't the main character at all.  I rather liked the side quests compared to other FF offerings.

It's pretty easy to cheese the final battle though if you over level it. This tends to happen because you'll pick up a lot of exp if you complete the hunting side quests and level grinding really isn't a bother.

edit: Like caladein said, if jrpgs are your thing, there are some pretty great options available on the PS2.

[caladein]

I liked XII quite a bit.  Rather novel combat and advancement systems and a really angst-free story for a modern Final Fantasy.

That said, I would probably buy the PS2 more for Persona 4 (and 3: FES if you don't have a PSP) than FFXII, but it's up there.

[Velorath]

How good was XII?  I have an above average liking for Final Fantasy games, but I never played that one due to circumstances somewhat out of my control.  I don't have a BC PS3, so I occasionally have the urge to buy a used PS2 and a used copy of XII to see what I've been missing.  Worth it?

XII and IX are probably my least favorite games in the main FF series.  Shadowhearts: Covenant was probably my favorite JRPG on the PS2.

[Kageh]

I too am in the camp that liked FFXII. Played about 80 hours or so on it, didn't finish yet. Technically, it was the one FF iteration where character advancement was a very noticeable improvement. Also, the party micromanagement, which tends to drag a lot once you overlevel encounters in most FF games, was slimmed down considerably with the rule-based system, and you could script some very efficient stuff. Story was among the better and rather straight-forward ones IMO.

I still have to start on Rogue Galaxy which I bought on sale a couple weeks ago, looking forward to that one.

Hardware-wise, I switched playing my PS2 games on my PC with pcsx2, and I find the multisampled graphics to be well on par with the top PC titles. You need to go through a bit of a bother to configure controllers, sound and all that, but the result for the titles that work make it worth the effort.

[Yegolev]

The first thing I will say about FF XII is that is is a mainline FF but actually part of the FFT Ivalice thing.  If you played either of the FFT games, the story is more along those political multicharacter lines.  Also, the setting is from that world, specifically the FFTA variant.  I don't recall any overly-annoying characters, either.

Secondly, the combat... you will either like it or not.  Some people complained that you could set up scripts so the fights would win themselves, but it is really an ingenious system that is not as mindless as some make out.  Really it automates things rather than remove control over combat.  Besides that part, it is important to note that there are no random encounters; you see monsters on the screen and can engage or not.

I think I might rank XII above my previous favorite, IV, depending on what mood you catch me in.  Other important info is that I believe VIII is the worst and IX is pretty good.  I did not like X very much and did not finish.

[Teleku]

Speaking of which, I just (re)bought FFVII over PSN for download to my PS3.  Been about 11 Years since I played it, about time for a replay.  FFVII was probably my favorite as well, right up there with FFVI.

FFVIII was a big blow to me for the franchise (though I finished it).  I only made it about half way through FFIX, and haven't touch a FF since (well, I played FFXI for a bit, but that doesn't count as one).

[Rasix]

We could get all gamefaqs here and have a FF ranking thread. 

I didn't care for 7.  I found it tedious. I finished 9, but it was bad.  The ending (specifically the end battle) was worse than the rest of the game. 

[squirrel]

I'm playing Titan Quest Immortal Throne.

What? It was $5 and I never played it when it came out.

It's fun.

[ghost]

I just bought a PSP Go.  Playing some FF Tactics and Shin Megami Tensae persona.  Likey so far.

[jakonovski]

I know I promised to play Fallen Earth, but Aion's pretty steelcase box art seduced me. Now I grind like a good Korean.

[Tebonas]

Stopped with my EQ2 binge and playing Risen now (had to wait 3 hours until Steam finally let me download it, but thats another story). Good old RPG from the Gothic makers. Nothing special yet, but I still haven't found the first city. It seems to reward exploration, though. Thats always a plus for me.

[Azazel]

I'm playing Titan Quest Immortal Throne.

What? It was $5 and I never played it when it came out.

It's fun.

It is indeed a good game, especially if you can get some coop happening, but even solo it is a good game and well worth the cost of entry.

Played some more LotRO over the last few days. I reckon if they keep the lifetme sub price down at 200 for a few weeks I will definately lifetime sub to it.

A little more coop Burnout Paradise, Saints Row 2 and some SP Wolverine and Motorstorm. Also Fallout 3 as well.

[jakonovski]

Ye gods, I just spent 5 hours playing L4D on expert with friends. We got to the third safe room.

[Hoax]

Persona 4 has been mostly on hold though I play it enough to not forget where/what I'm doing.

League of Legends owns my soul.  Been playing lots.  Like Schild said, if they make it much better its going to be a rough couple of months.  I'm now starting to look up people from like 5+ internet years ago who I played DoTa with, I need an even bigger friend's list since last night the f13 crowd's game was full at one point.

I've sorta been jonsing for some fps action, not sure what/who/where I'll play but I'd like to.

Not looking forward to but looking forward to buying Demon Souls and Borderlands.  Still haven't found a work-study job.

[lac]

I've been playing some Risen the last couple of days. I'm not sure how long it will entertain me, the combat system feels very arbitrary and it's starting to annoy me.

[Tebonas]

What do you mean by arbitrary?

I don't really enjoy it myself, but I find it less annoying than the Gothic system.

[lac]

The combat system is a bit unresponsive. Whenever I react to an attack its too late and the attack will land. It also feels random, you either attack or block but you don't have an actual interaction with your opponent.

[Hawkbit]

Took 4 old PS3 games into Gamestop as they were offering $20 extra on 4+ PS3 trades this weekend.  Probably paid $75 for them total, got almost $50 in trade.  Bought Call of Juarez PS3 because it was only $30 and dumped the rest on my Demon's Souls preorder.  Gonna check out Juarez in a bit.  Can't complain too much if it sucks for $30. 

Also, dude at GS says Demon's Souls doesn't have a street date (?) so they're not getting it on Tuesday.  Someone remind me why I give these douche bags my money?

[caladein]

Also, dude at GS says Demon's Souls doesn't have a street date (?) so they're not getting it on Tuesday.  Someone remind me why I give these douche bags my money?

Because you feel like giving GameSpot interest-free loans instead of getting games from Amazon via Release Day Delivery?  Maybe a really cute chick works there?

On topic though: Fallen Earth... so very much Fallen Earth.

[schild]

Getting Demon's Souls early doesn't matter since the servers aren't up til Wed.

[FatuousTwat]

The combat system is a bit unresponsive. Whenever I react to an attack its too late and the attack will land. It also feels random, you either attack or block but you don't have an actual interaction with your opponent.

I've been playing, and I'm having the same problem. You don't really have an opportunity to counter. You see a mob attack, you go to do a counter or block, but your animation is so slow that it's always too late. You have to counter before they swing, but there is nothing to telegraph when they are going to attack. It's just random.

My strategy was to cheat in 9999 skeleton summon scrolls, have him take aggro and attack the mobs from behind. When they start to attack back, block. It's weak, but better than using godmode I guess.

Other than Risen, nothing much. The last patch in DDO made the lag even worse, if it's not fixed the next patch, I'm gonna delete it. I think as soon as I'm done with Risen, I'm gonna start a new fort in DF. There is kind of a dry spell for me until the end of the month.

[Tebonas]

I just hold the block button and attack out of the block if I see an opening in the enemies defenses (usally after he attacked me). That way I manged to win all the arena fights with Sword 1.

The problem I have with Risen is more a permanent feeling of deja vu. Factions that are eerily similar to Gothic games (Old Camp/ New Camp/ Brotherhood vs Rebels/Order/Mages). Factions fighting over Ore vs Factions fighting over Artifacts. Hell, the fucking town Alchemist gave the exact same quest as the town Alchemist in Gothic 2. I'd have to check but I wouldn't be surprised if it even the same amount of healing herbs you had to gather.

Despite this, I'm liking it. Even if I can't find out who are supposed to be the good guys here.

[Endie]

It took me a fortnight or two to register this fact, but I'm not playing Hearts of Iron III.  If I listed the reasons it would look like the patch notes for a major WoW release.

[Sir T]

Playing Overlord II, and really enjoying it. its a fair bit more polished than the first game, and to me has a nice sense of fun about it. Only think I dislike is that your spells have a retarded context thng rather than you simply pressing a key to chose a spell, with the result that I hardly ever use majic. I also like the alignment is now "utter bastard/mass murdering psychopath"

[Murgos]

Still playing way to much X3:TC.

My Marine boarding crew is still in training, they have been for four or five play sessions now.  First there was the scouring the universe for high starting stat individuals phase.  For some reason you can't train combat skill, it is either native ability or it goes up via OJT, so it is extremely important to get skilled Marines to start with as there is very little more frustrating to have you boarding crew shoot their way into a hull only to be taken out by the internal defenses just short of the ships core.  Next is the actual training phase, you select one of three skills Hacking (as in computers so you can get control of the ship), Mechanical (which makes it easier to cut through the hull) and Engineering (which seems to effect the overall damage the ship takes during capture).  And then as they complete training they get some bonus value added to their score (0-100) in that skill.  The problem is that as each Marine finishes each training segment they go idle and you get a message.  So if you are trying to train someone from 0 to say, 60ish you may have to send them back to training that skill 5 or 6 times.  Do that for all three trainable skills for 10 or so Marines and you see where it can become hellish.

Fortunately the next patch is supposed to address this and other issues with boarding parties.

The consequence of the above for me is that I got tired of waiting for them to finish training and raided the piggy bank to just go ahead and buy (gasp!) my first capital ship, the Teladi M7 Shrike.  Fitting it out with guns and shields cost me about one third again the hull cost so I'm hurting for cash, good thing this puppy should be a good earner for Invasion missions.

[Yegolev]

X3 getting patches after this much time is enticing... for some reason.  Been trying to avoid X3 because I have responsibilities to think of.

I think I'm about 75-80% finished with Arkham Asylum.  Currently trying to finish Mana Khemia.

[Hawkbit]

Also, dude at GS says Demon's Souls doesn't have a street date (?) so they're not getting it on Tuesday.  Someone remind me why I give these douche bags my money?

Because you feel like giving GameSpot interest-free loans instead of getting games from Amazon via Release Day Delivery? 

Off topic, but I gotta ask anyways.  Is release day delivery something special?  I was going to buy Borderlands from Amazon for release day but I don't see that as an option.  Is it just buying 1day shipping on a preorder?