What games are you currently playing?

[Rayfist]

I already got all the gems in Crash 1 for the N Sane Trilogy, just working at getting all of the gold relics.

[Bzzit]

Started playing Persona 4: Golden. it's super cool and the music is awesome!

[Rayfist]

Nice dude, I just beat Persona 5 not too long ago, I think it's a massive improvement from P4 in every way in terms of story and character, but P4 certainly has its own defining moments that make it really good too, it's definitely an RPG I'd like to replay to get those social links I missed out on.

[Darkykitty2]

neko atsume, cat evolution, neopets (yes i tried it based on your recomendation and enjoyed it alot), and animal jam

[Bzzit]

Nice dude, I just beat Persona 5 not too long ago, I think it's a massive improvement from P4 in every way in terms of story and character, but P4 certainly has its own defining moments that make it really good too, it's definitely an RPG I'd like to replay to get those social links I missed out on.

I was gonna get P5, but then remembered i still had P4 on Vita from when i got it on sale a few months back.

Will get round to 5 eventually cos I've heard nothing but good things!

[Keane]

Zeld: Breadding of Wilderness: Wow, this game was fucking awesome as everyone already mentioned. I think I've spent more hours playing this than any other game I've picked up in the past like, 5-6 years, and I still ended up going back to it a dozen times just to try and find a corner of the map I maybe hadn't found yet or maybe a little sidequest I overlooked. The art direction is so good too, even so many hours into the game it's still impressive to climb a mountain and take in the view, and being surrounded by nothing but the ambience of the environments and an occasional piano jingle really amplifies the atmosphere it's trying to convey.

I do have some gripes with the game and I don't think it's a perfect 10 experience - the combat has some severe flaws that become only more apparent the longer you play, and it comes to a point where even at the end when the game is trying to go out with an epic boom and throw everything it's got at you, it ends up just sort of fizzing out silently. And while most enemies do remain surprisingly fun to fight throughout the game, others do have some issues: The Talus, for example, can be easily tricked into getting stuck in its animations, which undermines the whole enemy as you can literally choose to just quickly get rid of it. The Hinox is an amazingly fun fight when you're weak at the earlier parts of the game, but later on gets pathetically easy. I also found the Guardians disappointing, I was really freaked out by them at the start of the game and then when I finally built up the gear and guts to take one on...oh, it's a lot less exciting than it looked in the trailer.

Still though, I think everything good by far outweighs the bad, and you should really pick up this game if only because the shrines alone are so much fun.

Mayro Kratt 8 Deluxe: The battle mode is surprisingly really good and I think it's a kind of fun that I wish the game aimed for with the racing itself too. It's got the best modes from previous games, the balloon and coin modes finally don't feel stale anymore (which they did in Wii, 7 and the original 8 ), and the new mode might even the best one.And although I still think the racing is inferior to what titles like Double Dash and Wii had to offer, the few new improvements do make them a bit more exciting and it's not like I just exclusively play for the battle mode.

I think this update brought back some of the much needed chaotic, dumb fun that a casual racing game should be, and it doesn't come surprising that a big chunk of it is essentially just bringing stuff from Double Dash back. It still begs the question why they've never considered just making another game like that when MK8, even the most definitive version, still feels like MKWii's competitive formula tweaked and mangled to work as a casual game. Now they've loaded it with more casual features to try and spice it up a little, but I really hope that if they want Mario Kart to be an accessible "pick up and play" type game that next time they just from the ground up build it to play that way.

[Rayfist]

Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2

(Gonna refrain from making this TOO long, will save that for other places to go more in-depth)
I can say with this, I've practically finished the duology at this point (just in time before Ad's visit.) It's been a great time with these games- really overall solid RPG's, and I really do love Atlus's attempt at making something more in line with traditional RPGs. Though this didn't stop them from still finding a way to include the very intricate and excellent moral values of the series that the mainline Shin Megami Tensei titles are known for. Seeing these characters evolve through out the first to the second game was certainly a trip.

What I really want to say most about DDS is the way they handled these adult themes. The concept of cannibalism and how the people of the junkyard, are forced to devour others in order to ensure their survival, seems like it could come across as edgy in a way and full of anime cliches, but the way the game handled these themes felt so mature. I say mature in a sense that it didn't feel overdone- the way the characters reacted, having little knowledge of any outside world factored in with them awakening to newfound emotions for that matter, is a large precursor to the character development that would extend across two titles. This is definitely not your run-of-the-mill RPG in terms of presentation and story.

Gameplay is the only thing I'm a little mixed on. I do think it's really interesting that you now have a more traditional party setup to work with rather than recruiting demons and transferring skills, or having to rely on magatama like in Nocturne. Here, you have access to whatever skills you have purchased from the "Mantra" grid, and can equip them accordingly for each situation, a really positive aspect of the gameplay here. I feel Nocturne should have definitely been that way- the fact that skills could forever be lost and never recovered make it a much tougher RPG experience, and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way. This new skill selection system feels incredibly versatile- which is very welcome in a Megami Tensei game. One of my biggest gripes with this system are a few things, you have your EXP for basic leveling (strength, magic, all that shit), but then you have the mantra EXP for the specific skills (ice, fire, electric, etc.), this mantra system has its own EXP bar and as such, it almost feels highly encouraged to grind for hours on this game, whereas this is largely not a problem with mainline SMT games. I found myself grinding on the final area in DDS 2 for literally 20 hours to get the skills I was comfortable with for the final boss. The other problem is how quickly the game rewards you to be extremely overpowered making these games by far some of the easiest Megami Tensei titles I've played. If you grind a crap ton (there's plenty of EXP bonuses that will make these a little easier), you're given defense skills that will allow you to almost completely cancel out enemy turns. It almost feels as if that game rewards you for grinding. It's for these reasons I feel that Digital Devil Saga has some of the best, yet also some of the worst gameplay of the Megaten franchise. It's different, that much is sure. Although the aesthetic of DDS is literally Nocturne (same engine and all) that doesn't stop DDS from being it's own completely different stand alone game.

If you're in the mood for a fairly casual PS2 RPG, with a lot of really mature themes handled incredibly well, and a really good story that doesn't push itself too hard, I'd highly recommend checking out these games as they can both be fairly short if you aren't going for any of the optional bosses (this game actually had some of my favorite optional bosses though of any of the SMT games.) You can still get them factory sealed, or pick them up on PSN, so I'd definitely recommend checking them out. Or if you really can't be arsed to play the game, I'd maybe recommend just checking out the cutscenes as the game has a really great story.

[Event-Bot]

Secret Agent Clanck, emulated on PPSSPP

[Ray502]

Right now I'm playing Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. Finished the first game, now on Cortex Strikes Back.

[Ambidextroid]

I'm playing Wolfenstein: The New Order at the moment and it's really good, the story is engaging and the gameplay is done really well too. I especially like the health pickups and ammo that can be found hidden around the map, it feels very reminiscent of old ID FPS games

[Rayfist]

With the Lost Treasures DLC now out for the N Sane Trilogy, I can finally say I've 100%ed the entire Trilogy now, unless you count the Platinum relics. Stormy Ascent was a REALLY fucking hard level, spent a good 3-4 hours just to get the gold relic, but I'll honestly take it at this point.

[Harold-_-]

Still playing chivalry

I've been getting addicted to Neverwinter tbh

[Ambidextroid]

I just installed Ikaruga which has been stagnating on my Steam library for a while now. I've never personally been a big fan of shoot 'em ups, but this one has an incredibly fun layer of strategy and coordination to it and for a game from 2001 it still looks really good.

[Rayfist]

For the first time ever, I've 100% completed Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage during Adsolution's visit. I still love the game, and I generally think it holds up far better than Spyro 1 which could be a tad displeasing to look at in some areas. However the game has also aged on me a bit in some areas- the minigames that I once remember enjoying as a kid, are jokingly easy, almost toddler levels of easy. The game is E rated but I was just kind of shocked at how effortless a lot of these minigames were, which is a fairly good chunk of the game. The levels themselves were really fun and colorful, I still love how each world in Avalar was given its own intro and conclusion, which really gave the game a lot of character.

We were in the middle of playing Spyro 3 but time got cut short- luckily we're able to continue over skype.

[Bzzit]

I agree Spyro 2 has really easy segments, but I find that game very re-playable and fun to 100%. Spyro 3 is my favourite one overall, despite it being weaker in certain areas compared to 2.

[Rayfist]

Yeah I'm finding there is a huge overabundance of playable characters rather than focusing on giving Spyro new abilities. Which shocks me because this game has the best platforming levels of any of the titles in the trilogy. I'm finding Bentley and Agent 9 both very sluggish, and not really needed tbh.

[Bzzit]

I actually like the majority of playable characters. I'm not a fan of Agent 9's debut level or Betnley's boxing though.

My gripes are as follows: A weaker final boss compared to Spyro 2 (which I thought was awesome); the super bonus round is pretty hit and miss compared to the one in Spyro 1; the pre and post cutscenes for each world are absent in 3, unfortunately.

I agree it has the best platforming levels, and i enjoy the other gaameplay challenges such as the skateboarding too. There's some great uses of Spyro's super abilities, like the super charge segments when you're tasked with catching egg thieves around a track, and his super flight segment where you fight the Chinese dragons.

[R4Y_ANC3L]

Rayman Legends for the ps3. Successfully rescued 700 teensies weeks ago and getting all gold cups were an Extreme pain in the ass But I did it Just gotta work on unlocking all characters now. There is a ps3 trophy that confuses me."splinter ray":It is said to Go through the mansion of the deep painting without crossing any dark sentry light nor laser. I did Go through the level undetected many times But the trophy notification does not show up. Is it a first time accomplishment trophy?Because Since I was blasted on the first day of playing the game,After that ,it never showed Since.

[PluMGMK]

Did you go through the broken (flashing) detector under one of the fish tanks in the left section? It counts even if it's off when you go through it.

[R4Y_ANC3L]

No. and really? ...How unfair. I think I know what to do now. As Rayman Would say to murphy:Thanks for the tip.I had no idea what was going on.