Topic: What Games Are We Playing

[snesmaster]

I have been playing Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2, I'm almost to the end.  Then I plan on doing the .Hack games next on the PS2.  I beat the first game, but have not yet played any of the others in the series.



On the PC I have been playing Plants Vs. Zombies.  That game cracks me up

[RT 55J]

I stayed up late last night and dusted off my old save file for FF6 Advanced. I completed the dungeon right before Thasama (whatever it's called).

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"its a good day to do what has to be done by me and help my brother to defeat the enemys" - John Freeman

[RT 55J]

Today I just finished replaying Super Metroid Redesign, which my favorite ROM hack, period. With a tad bit more polish I can easily see it passing off as a commercial release. Granted, the difficulty would also need to be lowered, considering the fact that nearly half the game can be considered masochistic in some way (Hell's run, the post-grapple beam segment, the pre-Phantoon area, the guardian hunt, Tourian, the escape sequence. Need I go on?).



Anyways, my time and percent are 10:21 and 83.7%, which is about half the time of my first playthrough (and a higher percentage to boot). Much of the improvement comes from knowing where all the guardians were (seriously, some of them are nigh impossible to find without a map) and just knowing where to go in general. I'm most proud of my performance in the Tourian segment. I managed to get past the Metroids without saving states or rewinding. Even so, I doubt I'll ever be as good as the hack's creator, Drewseph, who recently did a single-sitting 100% playthrough in 6:50.

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"its a good day to do what has to be done by me and help my brother to defeat the enemys" - John Freeman

[JonLeung]

I finished both The Conduit (Wii) and the "main" portion of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (WiiWare) yesterday, which is funny since I also started both on the same day, Sunday.



The Conduit was okay, I haven't played a decent FPS in a while (I can't remember if I played any since BioShock last year, though that was actually on the PC), and the Wii controls made it easy to get into it.  If only FPS fans didn't all seem to be graphic whores, you'd think we'd be seeing many more FPSes on the Wii.  But I thought the game looked okay, if maybe a bit generic.  I pretty much agree with any review out there, which all seem to say the voice acting and controls are both top-notch, and some of the weapons look neat, but the single-player campaign is short and somewhat clich?.  So, sure, it was fun while it lasted, just not groundbreaking.  I would like to try multiplayer one day, but as there's no split-screen local multiplayer, if any of you guys do play it, let me know.



Final Fantasy IV: The After Years was also okay.  I've only played the "main" or "first" part, which ends with a "THE END" screen which clearly isn't the end, so I guess at some point me and/or my brother will be buying the other chapters.  Though you mostly play as Ceodore (Cecil/Rosa's son), the story didn't actually seem to be about him, and after the first area, you don't get a sense of any characterization.  There are a few loose ends - but I guess that's to be expected when there are all those other chapters still to go.  It was a little more enjoyable than I initially expected, considering that I went into it knowing that it's originally a mobile phone game and thinking it looked too much like an amateur RPG Maker creation.



I'll probably tackle some of the other things I've been meaning to do that I mentioned in my previous post before starting anything new (Tales Of Monkey Island (PC) is tempting...), but my brother is picking up Street Fighter IV (PC) today from Best Buy so I know I'll be spending some time with him on that.  I expect to get a faceful of Hado(u)kens.

[JonLeung]

I seriously suck at Street Fighter IV, apparently.



Started making a focus of finishing off some of that old stuff.  I suddenly decided to get the remaining Pok?mon the morning of Sunday before last, not knowing or remembering that just the previous day was the official release date of Arceus in Japan.  Anyway, I now have at least one of each of the 493 Pok?mon in Pok?mon: Diamond Version (DS).  Thanks to my brother who plays tons more than I do, who did the online trades for all those promo legendaries.  I'm not going to bother with the alternate versions of Shaymin, Giratina, or Rotom until I get a game that supports them, but it's not going to be Platinum...most likely Heart Gold or Soul Silver.



Nextly, I've been building up experience in Final Fantasy VI Advance (GBA).  I didn't realize how quickly I could build experience in that one forest with the dinosaurs (or at least it's more quickly than I was expecting).  If I had known that I probably would've done it before going through the new Dragon's Den (or whatever it's called) and fighting that Kaiser Dragon at only about Level 60.  I mindlessly grinded while watching some movies like Shooter, Night At The Museum, and The Incredible Hulk, and so now I only have Gau and Celes to get to Level 99.  Once I have all fourteen characters mazed out, I'll check their equipment, but then there's not much else to do to prepare before taking on the Dragon's Den a second time as well as that other new dungeon which is pretty much a gauntlet of 128 battles where you can encounter nearly everyone again, even bosses (it's an opportunity to steal items that would otherwise be a one-shot deal).  After I do this, I wonder if there are any remaining GBA games that I really need to play.



I did start one new game yesterday: Wii Sports Resort (Wii).  It's fun, and I expect it would be more so with friends.  My brother can kick my butt in the Swordplay Duel, but it's still quite enjoyable.  The single-player game where you fly around in a plane and try to find 80 landmarks around Wuhu Island is addicting, and I played it several times in a row and got 60 of them so far.  I'm not sure how seriously I'll try to obtain all the Stamps in this game (Cycling is kind of difficult - who pedals with their hands, anyway?) but the important thing is that we now have two Wii MotionPluses for future releases.

[DarkWolf]

I recently bought a DS.  First couple of games I bought were Chrono Trigger, Meteos, and Populous DS.  Meteos is freaking addictive.

[JonLeung]

Only recently?  You have a lot to catch up on.  I wouldn't have put Chrono Trigger and Populous on my to-play list...  You are going to play the Castlevania games, the Trauma Center games, the Ace Attorney games, etc., right?

[DarkWolf]

Quite possibly the Castlevania games.  Probably not the other two.  I had never played Chrono Trigger before (I did not own a Nintendo system until N64) and it was fairly cheap.  Besides, I still have some GBA games that need finishing.

[JonLeung]

DarkWolf Said:

I had never played Chrono Trigger before (I did not own a Nintendo system until N64)

GASP x 2

[Maxim]

Best-selling videogame franchises I have literally never played (based on this):

- Final Fantasy

- Pokemon

- Dragon Quest

- Tekken

- Mega Man

- Street Fighter

- The Sims



Chrono Trigger isn't big enough to be on that page but I never played that either.

[JonLeung]

Maxim Said:

Best-selling videogame franchises I have literally never played (based on this):

- Final Fantasy

- Pokemon

- Dragon Quest

- Tekken

- Mega Man

- Street Fighter

- The Sims



Chrono Trigger isn't big enough to be on that page but I never played that either.

GASP x 6



It's 6 out of 8 because I never got into Tekken...and Dragon Quest and The Sims lose half a gasp each since I only seriously played the first of those...and maybe a couple others, but certainly not the recent ones.



But Mega Man?  Are you serious?  0_0



Well, then again, if Maxim and DarkWolf grew up with Nintendo, maybe we wouldn't have all their Master System and Genesis contributions.  



Maybe we could try to compile a list of "essential series" that we think everyone should have familiarity with...or something like the top 20 games for each console.  I can't imagine that there are people who owned a NES that didn't play Super Mario Bros. 3, for instance, and you could probably name a couple dozen more.  I was already thinking about making an "Essentials" list topic, as I'm sure there would be lots of discussion and controversy, or a topic about how we grew up to be the gamers we are today, since I often forget some people play vastly different games than I do.



I'm a long way from even considering ever having kids, but if I did, I'd probably scare them off from video games, because if they showed an interest at all, I'd probably bombard them with games I feel they ought to play.  Maybe I'd, like, make Mega Man flash cards and teach them whose weapon beats who at an early age.  >_>

[JonLeung]

This seems to be turning into Jon's Journal Of Games...



Today I took care of another monkey on my back by completing the Soul Shrine and the revisitation of the Dragon's Den in Final Fantasy VI Advance.  At last I can say I finally finished the best version of the best Final Fantasy game with 100%.  

[TerraEsperZ]

My desire to finish a game with 100% is one of the reason why there are so many essential games that I haven't played, most notably in the RPG/JRPG genre. It just requires too much time investment, which is also the excuse I use in order to leave so much junk around my apartment like books, boxes and DVDs. I want to it perfectly in one sitting, but that would take too long, so I end up never starting.



...Yeah, I'm just lazy



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Current project: Little Samson (NES)



Upcoming project: New Ghostbusters II (NES)

[Maxim]

TerraEsperZ Said:

My desire to finish a game with 100% is one of the reason why there are so many essential games that I haven't played, most notably in the RPG/JRPG genre. It just requires too much time investment, which is also the excuse I use in order to leave so much junk around my apartment like books, boxes and DVDs. I want to it perfectly in one sitting, but that would take too long, so I end up never starting.



...Yeah, I'm just lazy



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Current project: Little Samson (NES)



Upcoming project: New Ghostbusters II (NES)

You accidentally a word.

[Zetta]

Lately, I've been playing the following games over the weekends.

Persona 4 (very sparingly, I've had that game for over 8 months now and still haven't beat it)

Murumasa (just got it yesterday for the Wii)

Mega Man Powered UP

And a ROM of Little Samson and Psycho Fox