So, what're you playing?

[jth]

Finished Heavy Rain last week, great game even though I normally hate QTE's with a passion. I also realised today that I had a code for the DLC, going to play that tomorrow probably.

Finished White Knight Chronicles yesterday. The combat system was a joke and the story also got a bit ridiculous near the end, but otherwise it was much more fun than I expected after all the bad reviews it got. Haven't tried the online quests yet.

Started Darksiders, seems decent but most likely I'll be playing it only in short sessions every now and then.

Started FFXIII half an hour ago, doesn't seem too bad so far.

[Le0]

Playing:
Battlefield Bad Company 2

Should finish sometimes:
Bioshock 2
Darksiders
Crysis Warhead (New awesome GPU testing tool)
Dirt 2 (came with new awesome GPU)

Still packed:
MGS 4
Uncharted 2 (should really play this one)

[jakonovski]

Heavy Rain became one of those "SO demands to be present when you play it" titles, so I bought MGS4. It's every bit as camp awesome as I thought it would be. Beating it will probably take up all my free time for the next month, but that didn't stop me from also buying Borderlands. It was only 20 euros!

[Yegolev]

ChronoTrigger, DS.

Tonight, maybe start FFXIII.

Quinton, max out your ME1 character and import into ME2... if you had not already made that connection.  Since I only completed one ME1 playthrough, I have put a second one on my todo list in order to import it and see the changes in ME2.

[rrazcueta]

I just bought FFXI off steam for $7.50. I expect to be overwhelmed by my first MMO and my eleventh Final Fantasy title. (I skipped 10. Haven't done 13. Am not counting all the spinoffs.)

[Draegan]

First MMO and you chose FFXI?  Wow you're brave.

Anyway I hope you have a gamepad for your PC.

[rrazcueta]

What's wrong with FFXI as my first MMO?

Also, gamepading an MMO sounds good. I am looking for Windows 7 drivers for my DS3. Either that or I'll get a DS2 and USB that...

[Rasix]

What's wrong with FFXI as my first MMO?

Everything.

[stray]

I think FFXI was one of the few decent MMO's.. just a bit harsh.

[Rasix]

There's just a lot of options for newbie friendly MMOs and ones that would allow you a more gradual learning curve.  I'm not sure what FFXI is like right now, but pretty early you're likely going to hit a hard wall where it's "group to kill bunnies" or go home.   The ratio of jaded veteran to noobler probably isn't that great either. 

[Ingmar]

Yeah I can't think of a worse choice than picking a really old super grinder, not only do you have to deal with the grind, you have to deal with the fact that nobody has been your level for like 3 years.

[WayAbvPar]

Also, gamepading an MMO sounds good.

[MisterNoisy]

Just Cause 2 demo - I was already keen on JC2, but the demo has guaranteed I'll be picking it up on day 1.  This game is insane.

[Nightblade]

Also, gamepading an MMO sounds good.

FF11 was developed with consoles in mind. Back in the old days, I remember the game actually being easier with a game pad.

[Draegan]

Plenty of MMOs have free trials.  I'd try all of them before spending your loot on a game.

[rk47]

Enjoying Tropico 3 sandbox at the moment. Wow. Martial Law for 30 years, and no elections. Killed a couple of dirty rebels with my army while drilling for oil.
Mwa-Ha-Ha.

[Azazel]

What's wrong with FFXI as my first MMO?

Everything.

This.

Try World of Warcraft. I don't play it anymore, but there's a lot of reasons that it got to 13m subscribers or whatever it was..


Me?
Logging into LotRO every day or two to click the skinner button to get my tradeskill guild handin bullshit items done.
Playing rounds of BF:BC when I can log in and don't get frustrated.
A bit of Saboteur, with passive TV.

[Phire]

Managed to score God of War 3 early from a store willing to break street date.

I have been about 3-4 hours in so far and wow the presentation and graphics are incredible, it is on a whole different level than anything I have ever played before. Gameplay wise it is God of War and if you didn't like it before you will not like it now...that said I do enjoy the gameplay and find it incredibly fun to play.

Will post more impressions later.

[Quinton]

ChronoTrigger, DS.

Tonight, maybe start FFXIII.

Quinton, max out your ME1 character and import into ME2... if you had not already made that connection.  Since I only completed one ME1 playthrough, I have put a second one on my todo list in order to import it and see the changes in ME2.

Doh, I need to play more ChronoTrigger on the DS.

FF13 is my primary timesink right now.

Definitely playing ME1 first so I can import into ME2.

[jakonovski]

Also, gamepading an MMO sounds good.

1111333321111 --> aaaaccccbaaaa

Sounds fine to me!

[HaemishM]

Almost 30 hours of Xenosaga? Check. Fighting bosses where at least 1 of your 3 characters is useless as a damage dealer 90% of the time? Check. Deciding not to save between two VERY LONG boss fights with 1/3 of the party useless?

GODDAMNIT. Check.

[Rasix]

Your own fault.  We've given you many different outs.

Anyhow, FFXIII is consuming my time. Good timing as I was getting bored of WoW and needed a break.

[Lantyssa]

Folklore.  The story and paths are very linear, but the combat system is interesting.  I like how you can collect and power up your attacks.

[Ard]

Beat White Knight Chronicles and Heavy Rain.  It's been a good month.  Starting up FF13 here in a few so I can join the "me too" crowd.  Started back into Drakensang also, need to finish that up before 2 gets localized.

[Strazos]

Pretty much just BF:BC2, when I actually have time.
Was going to finish Dead Space, but I got RRoD'ed.
Not really sure what I should be looking to buy right now...

[Phire]

Just finished God of War 3! Back to Bad Company 2 and FF13.

[Tebonas]

Finished with Drakensang 2, so I was trying to kill time with the new Spectromancer League of Heroes until the Dragon Age expansion arrives. But I think I'll be calling quits on that after finishing the campaign once. There are three new Mage types, but the campaign is exactly the same (the campaign enemies don't even use the new cards). There is a new league mode, but the randomization of the cards you get makes that an excercise in futily. You get four cards from each of the five magic types per game, which you can play over and over again as long as you got the mana. Which cards you get is set randomly at the start of the duel. In addition to that there are enemies that block 10 of those 20 cards (changing per turn), or change around the cards once you play one of them. This game is basically a slot machine. With the core game they took the deck building element away from Trading Card games, now they take away the ability to strategize the hand you are dealt as well.

[NiX]

Assassins Creed 2
Just canceled my sub to LOTRO, but play once a week until it runs out.

[Yegolev]

Since I got back home, it has been just FFXIII and Shadowhearts Covenant.

Might do some LotRO today.

[Draegan]

So many damn choices.  Damn Gamestop for giving me money for my old systems.

Global Agenda:  I need to finish leveling my Robotic.  But GA took a back seat once I got...
BF:BC2 sitting there.  Campaign almost done and the multiplayer is teasing me.
LOTRO : Just bought the two expansions and leveled a Warden to 10.  I need to play more! 
Demon's Souls : Fuck this game is good.  Putting it on hold so I can dedicate time to it after I finish...
FFXIII: This game is turning out to be decent.

Oh the horror of options.

[HaemishM]

Xenosaga finally wore me down. So close to the ending, and I get absolutely dickslapped by a boss. Come to find out I've probably not leveled well enough or long enough to beat this boss as it stands, because I'm not an OCD weebo intent on catching every little powerup and I sure as fuck do not wish to replay levels I've already beaten. So close, yet so fucking far. The worst part was I enjoyed the story despite its very obvious anime shortcomings, and I liked the combat system despite it devolving into spamming one or two attacks per character.

So I'm off to another Japanese RPG, and I'd like opinions. My choices are: Front Mission 4, Final Fantasy XII or Persona 3: FES. I'm leaning towards Persona, but the call of experiencing a Final Fantasy is somewhat alluring. Thoughts?

[Sky]

Tried getting Tiger Woods 08 going, the limited resolutions were  1280x720, 1280x1024, 1680x1050 (and of course all menus at 800x600). I guess I should be happy that if I hadn't upgraded my monitor it would've been fine. Also, not being able to intuit where they hid the setting to change to 3-click swing. And an install time usually reserved for mmo.

I'm so excited to try to install Madden 08 tonight.

[Morfiend]

Finished Darksiders. Really good game. It was a big surprise. Gameplay was good, story was good. I felt it could have used a little more free roaming and a few of the items felt unneeded, but overall I really enjoyed the game. I highly recommend anyone who likes the Ocarina of Time playstyle to try this game.

After beating Darksiders, I went back and finished Mass Effect 1, to prepare for ME2. Finished it.

Got ME2 yesterday in the mail. Played it all evening. Damn its well done. The combat is a huge improvement from ME1, I wish my shotgun could hold more ammo. Playing as a Vanguard. I finished ME1 as a Soldier, and it was really quite a dull class, so I wanted something a more more involved. The vanguard is a neat hybrid, but the class specific ability, while cool, has been dubbed the "charge of death", since I often end up dead right after I use it.

So I'm off to another Japanese RPG, and I'd like opinions. My choices are: Front Mission 4, Final Fantasy XII or Persona 3: FES. I'm leaning towards Persona, but the call of experiencing a Final Fantasy is somewhat alluring. Thoughts?

Dont play JRPGs?   

[Rasix]

So I'm off to another Japanese RPG, and I'd like opinions. My choices are: Front Mission 4, Final Fantasy XII or Persona 3: FES. I'm leaning towards Persona, but the call of experiencing a Final Fantasy is somewhat alluring. Thoughts?

I haven't played much of the Front Mission franchise, so I can't comment on their quality.  Seemed OK, but nothing spectacular. Just played one of the titles briefly on an emulator.

FFXII is an interesting beast.  You may not get beyond the similarities in combat and other small quest similarities to a MMO rpg.  But it's just the framework for what is your standard Final Fantasy game.  The plot is straight Star Wars, as is some of the cast.  It may take a bit to get beyond what you thing might be the protagonist (the kid isn't) and the framework for this title, but once you do the gambit system is pretty well done and the hunting side quests are interesting.  If you do a majority of the side quests, you will over level the last battle by a significant margin.  It will also be pretty long, but moves at a decent pace.  I did some grinding in this title, but I actually didn't mind it at all.  Overall, one of the better FFs, IMO, but the combat system is unique to the series.  I think you'd be picking a good FF to jump in with here.  Although FFX is more what people expect in a FF, the plot may drive you absolutely up the wall. FFXII's is a lot more grounded.

Persona 3: FES (make sure you start with the first part).  I like Persona 3 a lot.   But there's some things you'll have to get beyond to enjoy the title.  First of all, it's very Japanese.  It doesn't try to hide it in any fashion at all.  I found it be very well done and added a lot to the story.  There's folks here that I don't think would last 5 minutes with it.  Also, it's very grindy.  You do a lot of grinding as traversing up the tower won't normally ever be a straight shot.  The game limits how much you can do per session through various mechanics.  Plus, you don't have control of your other two party members early on.  This is frustrating for the first few parts of the game, but the frustration does ease once folks have a greater variety of what they can do.   Just an aside, it's hard to classify this game as a pure JRPG.  Sure, it's an RPG produced in Japan, but it's just got so many non standard features it becomes something of it's own sub genre.  It's akin to a roguelike cross breeding with a relationship sim that produces something oddly compelling.  Like FF12, this one is a huge time sink.  Should take at least 60-70 hours to beat without doing all of the side content.

Personally, I'd suggest getting Shadow Hearts 1&2 if you can find them for a reasonable price.

[caladein]

So I'm off to another Japanese RPG, and I'd like opinions. My choices are: Front Mission 4, Final Fantasy XII or Persona 3: FES. I'm leaning towards Persona, but the call of experiencing a Final Fantasy is somewhat alluring. Thoughts?

Front Mission 4 is an okay, if really complex, SRPG.  I think a lot better SRPGs have come out since its release so I can't really recommend it unless you love yourself some SRPGs and/or mechs.

Persona 3: FES is a bit hard to recommend with Portable coming out in a couple months.  FES has the extra story bits, but its systems are basically unchanged from the base game.  Portable is on PSP (which may be a bad thing) and doesn't have the extra story bits or cool animated cut scenes. It brings in some battle system changes from Persona 4 which means playing it won't make you want to jump in front of a moving train sometimes.

If you've played 4 and not 3, I really wouldn't play a version of 3 other than Portable... and then just catch the Epilogue and Episode Aegis stuff on YouTube after you're done.  Of course, if you don't have a PSP than the more-than-occasional fits you will throw when the enemy AI decides to be cheap and your team's AI useless are well worth it to play a really, really game.

That leaves Final Fantasy XII, which I liked in almost every way.