Topic: What Games Are We Playing

[Rew]

So while everyone else is gorging themselves on Galaxy 2, my progress on the Zelda marathon continues apace!

Since the week after Easter, I have gone through (with 100% completion) Zelda 1, Zelda II, A Link to the Past (original), Link's Awakening (DX), Ocarina of Time (original), Majora's Mask, Oracle of Seasons (unlinked), Oracle of Ages (linked), Oracle of Ages (unlinked), Oracle of Seasons (linked), A Link to the Past / Four Swords, and Ocarina of Time: Master Quest. Whew!

Up next is The Wind Waker, then Four Swords Adventures, The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess (GameCube), Link's Crossbow Training, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and at last The Legend of Zelda (Wii).

[JonLeung]

Still trudging through "The Answer" segment of Persona 3 FES, whenever I'm not playing Super Mario Galaxy 2.

In that, I got 50 Stars today, bringing my total to 190!  I'm doing the Green Stars in reverse order, so I only have the ones BEFORE Beat Block Galaxy left to get.

[JonLeung]

Well, I beat my record of yesterday's 50 Stars by getting 51 today, bringing my total to 241!

I really should've gotten that last Comet Medal while I was in that final Galaxy.  Now I have to do it again before even attempting the Prankster Comet take on the stage for Star 242, of which I'm already concerned about what that will involve...

[JonLeung]

I JUST GOT THE FINAL STAR BWAHAHAHAHA

[Rew]

A WINNAR IS YOU.

[alucard]

Right now I am currently working on New Super Mario Bros. Wii, about halfway done with World 3. I am also working on Resident Evil 3: Nemesis for the Gamecube which I have beaten before, but wanted to play again. I am also planning on starting Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga soon, I just bought that game and have never played it before.

[Peardian]

I'm still chugging along in SMG2 with 188 stars. It's hard to make progress when you can only play every other weekend before noon.

[JonLeung]

I finally finished (Shin Megami Tensei) Persona 3 FES!  Five months to the day...what a fricking long game.  BWAHAHAHA!

It's also three months since the end of the in-game "The Answer" portion (which was April 1, 2010), and I started the game on Feb. 1, the day after The Final Day in "The Journey" portion.  I was actually lent the game on The Final Day, but didn't start it until the next day...but it's still a freaky coincidence.  I'm sure I mentioned it before.

I guess I should hit up some Transformers: War For Cybertron, where I'm halfway through the Decepticon campaign, and I finally started Pokémon: SoulSilver Edition with some seriousness and am about to face Morty (one of the Gym Leaders).

As a hype-up to Metroid: Other M, I'm "making" my brother play Super Mario Galaxy 2 and get a minimum of four Stars a day which means he should have all 242 by the day before its release.

[TerraEsperZ]

Haven't finished Super Mario Galaxy 2 on account of still missing 4 of the first 120 stars (and thus the possibility of find the remaining 122) and it doesn't look like I'll be going back to it for a while. I'll most likely be buying Transformers: War For Cybertron for the PC as soon as I can, seeing as the Wii version, entitled Transformers: Cybertron Adventures, is a rail shooter where transformation happens automatically at specific points in the various stages. Once again, the Wii end up with a decidedly inferior version of a popular game; thank god for the PC port. At least the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed was somewhat decent and had very similar gameplay as its next generation cousin despite being quite inferior to it.

[Peardian]

Just got 240 Stars in SMG2 thanks to my brother sleeping in extra late~

Oh and 9999 star bits, too.

[JonLeung]

Just finished Transformers: War For Cybertron yesterday.  I played mostly on Normal difficulty, but then redid the last checkpoint on the Decepticon campaign's final boss on Hard just to make it look like I did it on Hard.  But then I forgot to turn it back to Normal difficulty and did a few missions on the Autobot campaign on Hard without knowing it.    I guess I underestimated my ability.  But then on the final boss on the Autobot campaign I wussed out and switched it to Easy.  I didn't do much multiplayer, so I didn't take as much advantage of the "double XP" promotion this weekend...ah well.

Right now, though I should be playing other stuff, MySims Agents on the Wii is my guilty pleasure.  It's like a super-cute point-and-click adventure game...  

[JonLeung]

While I did enjoy MySims Agents (Wii), the ending was a little...underwhelming.

Basically, if you didn't know how the game works, it's like an graphic adventure game, though with an emphasis on clues (as opposed to using items here and there), with the occasional puzzle and platforming elements.  It isn't like the traditional Sims, or even MySims or MySims Kingdom, though it does feature many of the same MySims characters.

There is a furniture-arrangement portion at headquarters, which is really just to increase the particular "Interest" level of Agents that you can send out on Dispatch Missions.  Basically Dispatch Missions are adventures that you send others to do, so all you get are humourous text messages via your cell phone as they make progress on those.  In the meantime, you can be doing your own thing, but there are considerably more Dispatch Missions than cases that you personally investigate.

So after completing the "main game", there's nothing to do but hang out at HQ finishing up the Dispatch Missions.  When you clear all 50, then you get a 51st Dispatch Mission, which gives you one of two "true" endings.  The underwhelmingness comes from the fact that you still don't participate, so you're literally hanging around HQ for the last couple hours of the game sifting through text messages.  Seriously?  I would've thought they could've opened up a final area or something.

I think a decent ending is important for a game that has its story as its focus...but other than that, I guess it was an okay way to spend a dozen hours on (technically it's fourteen hours, but the last two as I mentioned weren't that exciting).  Now I should probably hit up some other games...like I said, this was a guilty pleasure, because I don't think this was geared towards experienced 30-year-old gamers...

[bustin98]

What system do you have the Transformers game for, Jon?

[JonLeung]

I bought Transformers: War For Cybertron for the PC.  I haven't done any multiplayer since that earlier time I mentioned, and I'm not sure if I want to go back and find all the Autobot/Decepticon emblems.  Being a completist, not to mention a Transformers fan, I suppose I eventually should...

I finished Trauma Team (Wii) this past weekend.  IMO the best Trauma series game.

By having six different doctors with different specialties, there's variety in the gameplay.  First Response, featuring Maria Torres, is very intense action, whereas Diagnostics featuring Dr. Gabriel Cunningham and Forensics featuring Dr. Naomi Kimishima test your intellect and reasoning as you try to identify a disease or solve a murder mystery.  Each character is likeable for different reasons, and their stories are all very interesting, and then after getting through them all, there's a final series of episodes that feature them all working together to stop a freaky virus (but not quite as ridiculous as GUILT or Stigma from the Trauma Center games).

Sure, there is some suspension of belief necessary - each character's story features one of: amnesia, a ghost, a superhero, ninjas, a supercomputer, and psychic abilities - but at least you couldn't have seen this before on your favorite medical drama TV show.  Also, the in-between cut scenes show a lot more action than the Trauma Center games' talking profile pictures.

Though it's only a bit over 20 hours and I don't think I'll replay it for all the medals and such, I definitely reccommend playing it through at least once.  The story alone should put Trauma Team on anyone's top five list of the best Wii games this year.  Seriously!

But I decided I should dust off the PS2 and start catching up on missed games.  Since I want to eventually play Resident Evil 5 (PC), I should play the games I missed.  I started some Resident Evil: Code Veronica X on the PS2 (the original Code Veronica is a decade old!) and it feels weird having to learn the "tank" controls again.  I keep walking right into zombies and sudden camera changes mess me up.  I thought I handled them pretty well when I played the first three games so maybe it'll just take a day to get back into it.

I'm still playing Pokémon: SoulSilver Version (DS)...recently just got into Kanto, and got my first two badges there...yeah, I'm a little behind.  I remember when I had the drive to play these games until late each night, but my playing of this latest one has been very sporadic.  Even when I have the time, I just don't feel like it.  Maybe because I've played Silver before...my attitude might change back when Black/White come out.

I also got Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (PC), but for some reason I'm not as eager to play it as I was for the other PoP games.  We'll see when I get to that, but it'll probably be after I catch up on the Resident Evils.

Before someone asks...I'll likely play StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty (PC) at some point, but I'm not in a hurry to pick it up this week.

[alucard]

Still working on replaying Resident Evil 3: Nemesis for the Gamecube, I am about halfway done. Also still playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and am on World 4. I got Dragon Quest 9 right when it came out and have been playing that a lot, but am still early on in the game.