What games are you currently playing?

[Shrooblord]

The first game I'd buy instantly if I ever did get a 3DS would be Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright. I've been looking forward to hearing from that games for four years now and finally, after three years of already being released in Japan, it decided to come to Europe too.

[Rayfist]

I trolled Ad once with Duck Hunt dog, he's my new troll character

[rolesfamily]

Saw my friend today. We're currently playing through Zelda Ocarina of time on the N64

I've never even played a Zelda game before in my life, so this is a new experience indeed!

[Bradandez]

I just unlocked ROB and I think he's one of my favorites!

[Earth Gwee]

Finally got back to playing New Leaf again after two months.

[Haruka]

I've been playing Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, Tomodachi Life, Pokémon White 2 and Pokémon Sapphire whenever I can.

[Rayfist]

Alright, hey guys. I'm going to just do a quick little review on Smash Bros for 3DS for those of you that are still wanting it and awaiting it, do give a read if you can, this is coming from a huge fighting game fan/Smash veteran. Spoiler free, no worries.

First off, believe what most tell you, it's better than Brawl for the MOST part. The graphical style while still kind of goes for the realistic looking textures, has made it a lot more colorful like Melee, and a result is a perfect blend of the two. However, why is it I feel the 3DS version is lacking a tad bit? Really in terms of content, I feel Brawl had more to offer, and that's what disappoints me most. Target practice? None. Custom level builder? None. Lots of important aspects of Smash Bros missing here. Luckily Home Run contest returns, and it's better then ever.

One of the biggest highlight's of this game for me, is the much bigger focus on competitive players like myself who often don't want to play with items. Those who want a battle of pure skill and nothing more, Sakurai has you covered. You can play a "Final Destination" layout version of each stage making it flat and cheap deaths such as stage hazards are completely removed and absent. I'm glad this wasn't a repeat of Brawl, because when the game first got announced that's what I was worried about. Brawl's biggest flaw was that it gave the middle finger to competitive players and aimed nearly entirely at casuals. Which is why veterans of the series like me were a little disappointed. You can tell Sakurai had this game aimed towards both audiences which is the way it should be. With "For fun" mode and "For Glory" mode, it makes it all the much better. One thing that worries me though about For Glory is that it keeps a constant record of your wins and losses (God I hate when fighting games do that), so I have a 75% win rate, as some of the people I've fought online in For Glory are absolutely fucking insane.

Another subject I want to tackle- the items in this new Smash. Occasionally when bored, I will play with items on for the hell of it, the final Smash's can be fun to use every so now and then. However, I need to rant that this is THE most unbalanced abundance of items we've ever seen in Smash. You can argue, items were often always the cause of "cheap" deaths in Smash. Which normally, is fine, but here it's insane to the point of being incredibly unbalanced. All the items I feel like has been ridiculously nerfed, sticky bombs especially. If there's one thing we DIDN'T want it was for the items to be nerfed, if anything we wanted it to be less nerfed than Brawl. And because of this, I COMPLETELY avoid items now in normal battles, which before was something I would do fairly often here and there. The only time items were on for me was when it was mandatory, such as in classic mode. And wanna know what the #1 cause of my deaths always were in classic? Never an actual opponent K.O.ing me, not at all, the cause was having an item used on me on last minute! I even get K.O.'d even on LOW percentage! That just really tells you how ridiculously unbalanced the items are this time around. Final Smash's are as far as I'll go as to being the only items I turn on in battle, yeah they're pretty unbalanced, but if I'm fighting against someone who is really rubbish it's nice to turn the battle around and throw a challenge at me.

I also want to mention that the stage deaths this time around are pretty cheap too. For example in Gerudo village, you'll see Twinrova from Ocarina of Time appear and shoot fire onto the stage on the ground, once that happens you don't see anything pop up from the ground, but out of NOWHERE, the fire pops up from the ground after the first 2 seconds of it being there. This would really piss off first time players as that kind of stuff really is cheap and unexpected to the player. Again, you can see that Sakurai put a LOT of time and effort into focusing on both casual and veteran players, but the biggest flaw of all here is the fact that the problems we had with the items and stage deaths in Brawl are still completely present, if not more at times. Sure we have the option to turn them off, but unfortunately, this isn't the case with classic mode. As I've said before, every now and then I don't mind having items on occasionally, but now it's gotten to the point where I don't want them on at all. One of the achievements in this game requires you to complete classic mode on the hardest difficulty, and with items on, that will be indeed quite a challenge, luckily I managed to do it after several tries.

The stages is another thing I want to talk about, the themes of them. While some are really beautiful and cool looking such as Rainbow Road, and some are just awesome- Gerudo Village. I can't help but feel with some of these stages they got lazy. Remember how usually in a Smash game we'd see often one 8 bit level that you can play in? In here there's quite a few of them. Kirby's exclusive stage was the classic gameboy Kirby game, which was cool and all, but seeing this as Kirby's main stage just seems a little bit like some lost potential. Why not give us a fully pledged 3D Kirby stage? Why an 8 bit level, why is this the MAIN level to represent Kirby in this game? And my main character- Captain Falcon, and his stage, while cool, also feels lazy. It's simply the 16 bit F-Zero SNES game thrown on there in the background, you can hop onto the cars mind you but otherwise it's nothing great. And to top it off there are EVEN more 8-16 bit stages. I feel that was some lost potential there honestly.

I also want to point out, the online, the one thing I was looking extremely forward to, is as slow and painful as it was in Brawl with up to 4 players often. Whenever I play with friends I always ensure we both have a stable connection, but this isn't the case when going up against random people. I understand this is a handheld device but wow, I thought they'd really work to improve online, only to see it's as slow as it was in Brawl, and just a repeat. What a missed opportunity. However if you CAN get the online to work, it's a pretty awesome and fun experience with friends.

Really not much more for me to critcize, the new roster is very subjective and for the most part, I actually may go as far as to saying it's the best roster they've thrown at us yet. Hell, to be quite honest, I'm not at all bothered by some of the clone characters. I love using Dr. Mario a LOT more then normal Mario because they took off Fludd from him. Sure, there are some really questionable characters in the roster such as Duck Hunt Dog or Wii Fit Trainer, that I personally think would've been better off as Assist Trophies. Zero Suit Samus and Samus as well as Zelda and Shiek are now two completely seperate characters rather then being able to transform mid battle, which to be honest, I'm not bothered by, it drifts focus on to that single character to give them there own unique abilities that they've never had before.

One more thing I forgot to mention, the absence of an Adventure Mode really depresses me. While sure, the Subspace Emisarry wasn't all that fantastic in my opinion, I would've loved if they actually tried to do something new with it, maybe give us a more "Nintendo" themed adventure with stages from Mario and Donkey Kong? Anything would've been fine, but instead it's gone completely.

With the huge amount of characters in this game, there's one for everyone this time around to fit different play styles, and THAT'S how the character roster should be. However, with a huge amount of characters also comes a huge amount of balancing Sakurai has to do, and for the most part, I actually really haven't found any balancing issues with the characters surprisingly... well except King Dedede, I still think he's insanely overpowered personally. Admittedly there are some characters I REALLY miss that I wish could have returned such as Solid Snake (Considering the absence of Metal Gear games on Nintendo consoles though it makes sense.), or Ice Climbers who oddly enough are a few of the veterans from Melee that don't appear in this game. Luckily for the most part, mostly all the veterans return. I also think the focus on more female characters is great, I feel Smash was really lacking female characters so I'm happy to see more make it in. Yeah I'll be honest, there was just a little bit of missed opportunities with the character roster, and I REALLY feel there was a little TOO many Mario characters this time around, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Rosalina, Bowser Jr., and Yoshi. (I'm counting Yoshi since while his series is seperated from Mario- it's still part of the series.), but really, it's not bothersome at all when the roster is so huge that there really is a character for everyone.

Classic mode this time was really well done also, far better than Brawl, and while a little on the short side, I really enjoy being able to forge your own path and choose who you want to fight next. And for that this I may call the best classic mode we've seen in Smash by far (I may like Melee's slightly more, but that's not saying a whole lot.) And the fight with Master Hand at the end of classic mode- well, I'm not going to spoil anything but I will say, it is by far the BEST final fight with him in any of the Smash games, I'll only go as far as to saying that.

Again, if you're playing with items off and flat stages on the game is very balanced and well done, however I feel there were a lot of areas with missed potential. I know many people have said this game serves as an "appetizer" towards the main meal (Wii U version), but I wanted to look at it as something more then that, I didn't want to view the game as "A smaller version to keep us waiting towards the bigger version", I wanted it to be far more then that and honestly, that's exactly how I'm viewing it sadly. I REALLY hope the Wii U version fixes a lot of the small issues I had with the 3DS version, such as the online performance and such. However the big boy comes out in November so we shall wait in anticipation until then.

I had fun with Smash on the 3DS, the concept of being able to play Smash on the go is great and I'm sure if I ever have a friend with me on a trip, it'd be great fun, but it doesn't come close to touching Melee sadly, nor Project M ( A fan mod for Brawl to make it more balanced like Melee). But it does well at what it is, and for what it is, it's not bad by any means. The 3DS version I feel was really overhyped, oddly enough I've been seeing the Wii U version get less hyped, so it's no wonder a lot of us were disappointed.

Edit: TOTALLY forgot to mention my opinion on Smash run! Sorry guys! Here it is: To be honest, it's pretty fun actually. I'm not sure why these reviewers were saying "It's a waste of time" or "A really boring useless feature", personally I had fun with it. It's a lot like City Trial from Kirby Airride where you have 5 minutes to play around in a huge area, killing enemies and grab as much powerups as you can. Sometimes the game will be a total dick and throw a curveball at you, but hey, Smash Run isn't exactly what I call "Balanced" but it's still great fun, and to see it lacks an online mode is a shame.

I give it an 8/10. If you really want to get this game asap, please don't rush, it's not a big deal at all and you're not missing out on a crapton here honestly, it's the Wii U version you should be concerened about, if it lives up to the hype.

[Hoozang]

I'm going to just do a quick little review

r u fukin srs

BTW, started playing Garden Warfare.
Pros:
+Very fun gamemodes and maps.
+Nice customization system.
Cons:
-I can't play splitscreen which is a very downside. The worst thing is that is EXCLUSIVE to PS4 and Xbox One.
-No one of my friends has the game

[Adsolution]

I agree with Rayfist's review, except I found the character roster to be a bit of a mess, personally. Sure, they have a character for everyone, but I personally think they did a lousy job doing the expanded roster justice. Half of the extended roster comprises clones like Lucina and Doctor Mario, and you have far too many similar characters reigning from the same franchises. Why are there 4-5 characters from Fire Emblem? Sure, most people have heard of it, but I don't think enough people have played it to warrant more than two. Kid Icarus is similar, we have three characters from there now, that's completely unnecessary. Dark Pit should be a skin for Pit, so two would be fine.

Brawl had the most balanced roster when it came to sieving out unnecessary fighters and retaining a good mix of franchise characters whilst expanding it at the same time. It removed all the clones Melee had an issue with, and introduced a bunch of new characters. I wouldn't have as much of a problem with Duck Hunt Dog if he weren't one of the few 'inventive' choices; I don't mind a few stupid-inventive characters (like ROB and Game & Watch from Melee/Brawl), as long as they're balanced out with many more good new, inventive additions. Mega Man, Pac-Man and maybe Little Mac are arguably the only good awesome additions from their own franchises, and that doesn't equate out in my opinion. I didn't used to care so much, but the overwhelming amount of stupid characters from virtually nonexistent Nintendo franchises who have absolutely no reason to exist as fighters have actually made me somewhat annoyed that even third-party characters like Rayman and Krystal (my two most-wanted, though I won't really complain about the latter) didn't make it in.

I'm glad DLC is a thing for the new Smash Bros games.

[Rayfist]

Well it's certainly fascinating to see other opinions. Duck Hunt dog is only fun just to be me a major dick though really. However Sakurai did complain on his twitter about those bitching about clones saying that we wouldn't have any new characters anyways even without the clones.

I do think the roster discussion though was probably the most flawed part of my argument after really looking back. The lack of Ice Climbers and Solid fucking Snake (REALLY wanted to see him return!) saddens me.

Um... I don't think Krystal is a third party character though. You know now that I think of it, I think with Platinum's joining of Nintendo Bayonetta would actually fit quite well in the game personally.

[Adsolution]

Well it's certainly fascinating to see other opinions. Duck Hunt dog is only fun just to be me a major dick though really. However Sakurai did complain on his twitter about those bitching about clones saying that we wouldn't have any new characters anyways even without the clones.

Essentially, admitting that the extended roster is mostly filler, which it is.

I do think the roster discussion though was probably the most flawed part of my argument after really looking back. The lack of Ice Climbers and Solid fucking Snake (REALLY wanted to see him return!) saddens me.

Right, that's another thing, why in the world did they remove Ice Climbers? I heard something about there being some technical limitations of the 3DS version, but that to me sounds like a load of crap they could have worked out. I loved fighting them. Snake as well, though I never cared for him as much, there was little reason to take him out.

Um... I don't think Krystal is a third party character though.

Firstly, she's a first/second-party character. Secondly, think of the staff: It was the primary weapon used in Adventures, and that would be Krystal's main weapon, obviously, because it's her staff. The fire shot, the ice shot, and the gravity booster thing are all perfectly suited; literally everything about Krystal and the staff fit the playing style of Smash, not to mention she's had probably the most time in the light next to Wolf and Falco over the course of the last three games, and is literally the only character in the entire Star Fox franchise shown to actually be inherently capable of melee combat, which is the core element of Smash.

I know you haven't played Adventures, so I advise you to do so and then picture Krystal's Assault design (not the Adventures one) wielding the staff the way Fox does but more stylishly, then tell me she wouldn't be an excellent smasher.

[Rayfist]

Lol, the only thing I can remember about Krystal is the odd fascination so many furries have for her. I think she'd be an interesting newcomer. However I do think Bayonetta would fit perfectly in this new title.

[Adsolution]

She would be great as well (lol Sakurai). Do play Adventures though, that's honestly the next thing I want to watch you play through.

[Rayfist]

I'll purchase it in good time, still a lot of Gamecube games I want to add to my collection.

[Dart]

Looking at the roster, I really don't get why Bowser Jr., Duck Hunt Dog, Shulk, Dark Pit, or Lucina made it into the final roster. Don't get me wrong, they're amazing in they're respective franchises but they really don't feel to me like they belong, the clones especially feel forced.
But I really want to know how the hell Shulk mad it into Smash, is his game really that popular? It just seems to me that there are far more interesting characters that could have been put in... like Rayman, or Zero, I'd even have taken Isaac from Golden Sun over Shulk.

[Adsolution]

I don't have a problem with Bowser Jr, I think giving people the chance to play as every koopaling as a skin is pretty cool. Things like that are what make me okay with some of the less-necessary characters.

they're amazing

[Rayfist]

Complaining about Shulk being in the game? Are you for real? Xenoblade Chronicles was a Wii Exclusive game, saying he was out of place is ridiculous. Though I would love to have seen Megaman X as an alternate skin for Megaman but I'm greatful enough with Megaman making it in.

Shulk also has a really fascinating playstyle, I can understand people disliking Wii Fit Trainer and Bowser Jr. making it in, but Shulk is definetly one of the higher up characters next to Megaman and Pacman. He has a really interesting learning curve that makes you switch between different elements mid-battle and can really end up for an awesome match.

[Dart]

they're amazing

I think this is the typo you are looking for:

...Don't get me wrong, they're amazing in they're respective franchises...

That's a bad typo, even for me

[Adsolution]

Lol, yes, that's what I meant to quote. I guess I can boon myself for that misquote, but it was a funny typo, especially given that almost no one uses the most complicated version of the homophone "they're" to refer to the incorrect one.

[saerleiya]

As I dscovered Dragon Age at Pax Prime with several presentations about the last one (and my bro' asking me if I could gather some intel about it), I decided to try and play through the entire 'wannabe' trilogy (Inquisition will be released in one month).

I have stated the first one and played only a few hours so far. The beginning of the game can prove a bit slow-paced and limitating at first glance, but it seems Bioware had improved some game mechanics when compared to KOTOR: it's a bit faster when you are engaged in combat, which requires you to be very aware of your group situation, because one of your members can easily be isolated and killed in a matter of seconds. And after that, you have to finish the fight without him.
I also found myself in lot of trouble at some point by toggling an option which forces the other members of my group to stand still on a position without giving a damn about what I was doing (or even what the other ones were doing), resulting in my group getting decimated by simple bandits I took care of quickly the next time I met him.

The story seems okay so far: the classic "evil creatures attack your country, you are a powerful member of the only order which have been aware of their real threat this whole time, you defend the peons". But it's only the beginning, and I already had two big tests to pass, and in one of them we were three, one died during it, the other chose not to try it and got murdered by my commandant (ROFL). The game is really bloody: if you kill people at short distance, you will receive a lot of blood on your clothes (and face) and it won't go off until you reach the next zone (or after a certain amount of time, I'm not really sure). Well, I knew this would have probably happened, according to the look they gave to the game in the introduction or the main drawing(s), but it seems a lot darker than many other games Bioware produced.

Wait and see .