A positive thread about what you're currently playing

Very nice! I hope you have a great time enjoying all of the side stories, confidants, and different ways to progress through the game. Also be sure to find a romance option, as those offer more story to your favorite characters.

I'm currently doing my second 100% completion of World of Final Fantasy. It's been a hot second since it released and I'm enjoying the PC version with its DLC and Japanese VA.

Playing and actually enjoying Mass Effect Andromeda.

Yeah somehow despite the shit the game got im actually having fun with it and it has gotten its hooks deep enough form me to see what's going to happen next.

It has to be said im not really far into it, probably some 6-8 hours.

I realized it reminds me of the metroid prime games with the scanner and exploration of alien uninhabited worlds with evidence of a past civilization and strange technology.. but Mass Effect!

It is worth noting that the scanning and lore system is extremely lackluster when comparing it to Metroid Prime, but it scratches that itch.

Yeah the animations aren't great, the characters are quirky, but it has been a good ride so far!

Worth noting i got it for 6 bucks on PSN, and i had really low expectations, both of which may have coloured my opinion.

@musajoker: funny enough I tried doing the same thing not too long ago but got caught up on super Mario 2 and just skipped right to 3, no regrets.

I picked up Money Puzzle Exchanger after the GBE playdate and holy cow is that game fun!!!! I play it every day on the train and it's a highlight of my morning. (Tho boy that story mode is hard....)

I'm a little under 70 hours into Persona 5. And while the Shido palace is starting to grate on me, negating some of the goodwill I had towards the games relatively unobtrusive dungeons up until now, I'm still very much enjoying it. It's a Persona game, and turns out I really happen to like those.

I'm also a bit puzzled by decisions like the stat gating of essential phantom thieves s-links, which seems like a step backwards for a game that in every other regard seems like the most accessible modern Persona game. But generally speaking it's hitting all the right notes, giving me everything I expect and want from those games.

@sergiy: They fixed a lot of the issues. Last I played was about a year ago and it was stable and mostly fine.

The writing is the big problem. It’s...it’s very millenial-y. Dashing around large maps using my biotics to subdue foes, pretty fun.

Playing Vermintide 2 on Xbox Game Pass.

I liked whaf I played of Vermintide 1, but the melee felt sloppy to me at the time. This game feels much more weighty, while still being fast action with hordes. I’m having a lot of fun with it.

Yoku's Island Express is very charming, the pinball areas are great fun, and the environment diversity is pretty good too. It ends just about on time, I didn't feel like I needed any more or less of pinball-metroidvania.

I have been playing a whole bunch of Final Fantasy V thanks to the yearly Four Job Fiesta event. It's a great chance to explore a pretty underrated game and through a great method to see just how incredibly solid those job mechanics are even when compared to games that have since copied its systems.

Absolver is a damn fun time. Collecting moves, picking apart my movelist, even fighting random scrub NPCs.

Fighting online is sometimes very stressful for me in video games, but even the versus here is a ton of fun. It helps that fighting other players is practically no different than fighting the subbosses, so I can just treat them the same. The only difference is when we start having an emote-off and stuff, but that's all in good fun, far from stressful.

Ni No Kuni 2 is improved gameplay wise from the first, which I really enjoyed. The pacing of cutscenes then cutting to regular dialogue is a bit off though. 10 hours in, its starting to open up more

I'm now at 95 hours into Enter The Gungeon on Switch. I'm inordinately excited for the Advanced Gungeons and Draguns update. I've come 1 shot away from beating The Dragun before, but haven't come close to clearing floor 5 since. I am very excited about the more reasonable mode in the AG&D update because this game has been more brutal to me than my no summons clear of DS3. I still love the game, though. After 95 hours, the gameplay still seems super tight & fresh every run. I still prefer BoI over EtG, but it's definitely a close race.

Super Mario Run

Being able to play as my two favourite Mario characters(at least outside of Paper Mario), Toadette and Daisy, is great and a lot of fun. I appreciate Nintendo paying attention to Mario fans like me and giving us something. I like Toadette because I've already always liked Toads, and have felt like the Mushroom Kingdom is an interesting, and friendly seeming place that when I was a child I used to go out and pretend, as children do, that I were in this fictional place and immersed in it. And that place was often the world of Mario, or in particular the Mushroom Kingdom, I always wanted to do more exploring of it, I watched the TV show, and I loved the RPGs for attempting to do any world building at all and letting me explore it. Two of the most important inhabitants being Princess "Toadstool" Peach, and her citizenry of Toads. Toads just seemed nice and fun, and were always one of the appeals of Mario games outside of the gameplay. They give the Mushroom Kingdom personality, a people to defend and stick up for against invasion, and just make it seem like a friendly place that you wish existed and would like to visit. And I've always gravitated towards, if not female characters, very gentle and feminine characters. And Toadette is definitely both of those. Toadette is just plain adorable and has a nice personality, and is one of the few characters with both a defined personality, and such a nice disposition in the Mario universe. Also, her character design takes the cuteness of Toads to the next level.

As for Daisy, while I like the Mushroom Kingdom, and Princess Peach is one of the most defined characters in the Mario universe, much more so than Daisy due to being in so many more games. I got so tired of how many times she gets kidnapped and how much they rely on that plot device. I associate Peach with both good and bad things, the good being that she's the Matriarch of the Mushroom Kingdom, the bad in that I'm wearing of her being typecast as a damsel in distress.

The same was true of Daisy in Sarasaland. But by virtue of her not being as prominent as Peach, she isn't Nintendo's go to Damsel in Distress any more. Instead, in most appearances, which is things like Sports games, she's spunky and active and doesn't seem overly dainty. She seems like the most confident and hot blooded of the Princesses, and that is super likeable. Daisy fans sometimes get a bad rap, but I feel like there are lots of great reasons to like both of these very tertiary Nintendo characters who very rarely get the spotlight. Daisy doesn't seem like the type to get kidnapped very often, and there is a warm confidence to her personality that makes me like her as a Nintendo character. Princess Peach is cool, but she seems dainty to a fault for my tastes. And lots of video games are largely about competition. Daisy has competitive spirit, that makes her fun to play as.

Anyway, after years of mostly Sports and Party games, Nintendo is finally giving these characters a chance to shine. Such as the case in Super Mario Run. And Captain Toad and Toadette in the Treasure Tracker games, now on 3 systems. Now canon as a part of the "Toad Brigade", a thing I really like that Nintendo is going forward with. And Daisy finally in Smash Bros.

Anyway, while there is less to it than most Mario games, I do think it can be a bit underrated. Especially now that 10 Remix was added. Firstly, the soundtrack is great, rarely do you get to hear Nintendo related EDM, it kind of took a hiatus after Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix, but now is back in Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Maker, and now Super Mario Run. Every bit of rave sensibility that enters Nintendo games is good in my book. Nintendo can't be too Bemani. And the gameplay itself is a lot of fun and rarely frustrating. It's very fast, pick up and play, and rewarding.

While there's a limit to regular single player levels outside of 10 Remix, and I rarely play them any more. 10 Remix is great. And that mode along with Toad Rally make it quite worthwhile. I'm addicted to maxing out how many Toads I can get. And for being an endless runner, Super Mario Run still oddly feels like a Mario game. There is an odd tension in Super Mario Run, where you don't want to lose your Toads, but instead have more. Kind of like not wanting to rank down in Splatoon, or collecting points in Mario Kart 8, which go down if you lose the race. I keep wanting to play just one more round so I can have more Toads in my Kingdom. And there's a risk reward scenario of trying hard to get as many invisible stars/starmen as possible, but that can lead to hitting enemies or even worse, falling into pits. There is skill involved in trying to maximize coins.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

I think that Nintendo has officially reinvigorated my inner child, the one that liked to pretend to be living in the Mario World and going outside and looking for "Fire Flowers", or thought that Maple Syrup would give me Magical powers. I am officially not only back to being obsessed with Nintendo at the moment, but also especially Toad Brigade. They are just so cool and cute. I officially own three versions of the game now, the Digital version for Wii U, the Digital version for Switch, and a physical copy for 3DS. Three copies, I have three copies of this game now.

This game is just the most charming and adorable thing ever. I am obsessed with Toad Brigade. The only thing I need now is an RPG based on Toad Brigade, with the graphics of modern 3D Mario, but the worldbuilding of The Thousand Year Door.

I'm not going to claim this game normally has a lot of replay value. It is also slow paced and not with a lot of action for most levels. So I don't think it's necessarily for everyone. But, for some reason, I just keep playing it. The gameplay is fun, and the puzzles are legitimately great. But I've memorized all the little diorama's by now. But I keep coming back, because I can't get enough of how charming it is. It's a good game and is Nintendo Magic through and though. Nintendo truly is the Disney of video games. And Treasure Tracker is the theme park ride in video game form I just keep coming back to. I do highly recommend this game with the caveat it isn't a fast paced action game.

BUP.

F-ZERO and F-ZERO X

Quite the opposite of Treasure Tracker, F-ZERO is not a puzzle game or slow paced by any means. I have however, been on an F-ZERO kick the past few weeks simply because of the gameplay and track design. F-ZERO is a nostalgia ride, and while the gritty comic book aesthetic F-ZERO is now going for isn't really my thing. The racetracks and gameplay sure are. Big Blue 200cc is one of my favourite Mario Kart tracks of all time, and there's probably good reason for that. I often am not sure what to play and just look at my game library. And instead of settle on something of time involvement, I go for something pick up and play like F-ZERO oftentimes. Certainly has been the past few weeks.

Breath of the Wild

I own three copies of Breath of the Wild now, as well. Once digitally for Wii U, and both digitally and physically for Switch. I just buy great games too many times, I guess. I've completed this game several times by now, but now getting CEMU to work has me going for it all over again. First I played it on Wii U, and did literally everything, well except every single Korok seed, but I did max out my inventory and got over half of them. And I made it to half a million rupies before I put down the Wii U version. Then I did it all over again on the Switch.

But I recently got around to trying CEMU. And of course, one of the games I had to try was Breath of the Wild, with improved framerates and resolution. And it's more gorgeous than ever and I'm hooked. Nintendo hasn't been known to be the fondest of emulation. But given that I have bought the game three times, the amiibo for it, the official game guide, and other merch, I think I have the right to play the game in an emulator. Nintendo has gotten hundreds of dollars worth of my money out of this game. And it's so worth the trouble, to be able to play an improved version of the game. It runs surprisingly well. The other day I spent a full 20 hours in the game in CEMU.

Currently I'm on a self imposed "challenge" run, though the challenge is more just grinding than anything. I'm going for a no Blood Moon run. Every time a Blood Moon starts rising, I head to a shrine and wait it out. A little frustrating, they're happening every night now because the game has all the triggers for an emergency reset. But I think it would be really cool to just rid the world of monsters and not let it refresh. It's not really challenging, it just requires patience. I just want to do it because it's a sandbox, and that compels me to try doing things, just because I can. I also spent ten hours outside of the Great Plateau before getting the glider, which was nice because I was able to rid the Plateau of monsters and some of the area outside below before Blood Moons are even able to show up. It's fun getting to Hylia Lake before I was supposed to. But as the pre-glider fall box outside of Great Plateau is notoriously unforgiving, I wasn't able to get very far. Kind of wish that restriction weren't in place. If for no other reason than it makes avoiding Blood Moons much easier. I'd give up the convenience of using the glider for the added convenience of avoiding Blood Moons.

I sure am a big Nintendo fan for a PC gamer and JRPG addict.

I loooooooooovvvvveeee me some Samus Aran!

Just finished Samus Returns with 100%, and can I just say how good it feels to have a full, honest-to-goodness Metroid on 3DS? This game is freaking fantastic! Looks awesome, cutscenes are great and bursting with personality (the final boss cutscenes are AWWWWEEESSSSOOMMEE), the gameplay is fluid, and the design is off the charts!

Having seen footage of the original, the way they've expanded it is, frankly, astonishing. Every Metroid is like a mini-boss now, with its own attributes and attacks, which goes a long way to making them feel like a threat and less like missile sponges. This is probably the most dangerous Metroids have felt in any Metroid I've played. The world here is huge (they made the world density of Prime mobile and it works!) and stuffed with secrets, but the quality of life improvements make it all feel awesome.

The ability to color code unreachable items on the map needs to not only come back in Prime 4, but be made standard in every Metroid game released from here on out. It cuts down on needless backtracking so much! No more running back to an item space only to find that you STILL don't have the item required and you just wasted your time. Now you just take one glance at the map and see which ones you need to hit and which to ignore for now. And teleport stations are an amazing addition. Just walk into one and pop! You're right next to the item you would've walked back 10 minutes for in previous games! It makes the whole experience so much smoother. And being portable means that you can just take a chunk out of it on the bus or in the car, which makes it feel much less intimidating to get everything. This is definitely the Metroid that feels the best to 100%.

Bosses are great and require you to actually think instead of just aiming at/waiting for a weak point and pumping it full of missiles. In fact, combat in general requires a lot more effort on your part than any other Metroid I've played. You can't just blast your way through mobs until very late game, and Samus isn't quite as invincible here as other games. I found myself dying several times at certain points on the standard difficulty, which after Zero Mission was a complete shock, but actually very welcome. And thank goodness these developers took after Prime instead of prior 2D Metroids when it comes to endings. You actually get something for going out of your way to get everything, and it feels sweet.

This is a case of outsourcing a main IP to another studio that turned out amazingly. MercurySteam developed this apparently and though I've never heard of them before, they NEED to come back and make another Metroid game. Fusion remake, new game, I don't care. They just need to make another one as good as this.

Much better than Zero Mission, which was still a great game on its own, and up there with the original Prime for me right now (though Prime may edge it out in the end, the final boss on Hypermode was so good!). And definitely my current GOTY. I love this game!!

finished Shadow Complex Remastered (thanks, game pass!), ~7 hours

I can see why it's beloved, especially at the time to fill the metroidvania void. Graphics don't feel current gen, shooting is wonky, combat has some frustrations. But even now metroidvania rarely tackles the modern/scifi setting, and the formula works fairly well, I actually liked some of the backtracking setpieces (for instance, final boss).

8/10. It's a shame (to me who has little interest in mobile games) that Chair pivoted and focused on infinity blade instead). But maybe the warm reception of this prompted Microsoft to take a chance on Ori?

Picked up Mega Man Legends and Dark Cloud 2 for super cheap on PSN this week.

I can't believe I somehow missed Dark Cloud 2. It's been a lot of fun so far. I'm a little curious if the dungeon crawling gets tiresome at some point, but the camera feature and inventions seems pretty need. Overall, it's really enjoyable.

Batman: Arkham Origins

Way better than the third/last game, thanks to no bullshit batmobile.

I just started playing Arcania. It did not crash at launch. It has no loot boxes. I am struggling to come up with additional positive things to say about it.

I'm playing Deus Ex. (which Deus Ex?)... Deus freaking Ex. What amazes me is this game's pacing. I don't think people give enough credit to this game's sense of direction. The game is renowned for it's player agency, but in a lot of older games, players have a tendency to get lost. This game is 20 yeards old and I haven't gotten lost once. To be fair, I've played it once before but I don't remember getting lost then either. You always know where to go and what to do, but have meaningful choices about how to get there. That's how games should be.

The voice acting is horrific and the AI is even worse, but this is a positive thread and the pacing and agency honestly outweigh it all, even in 2018.

Finally platinumed God of War. I finished the story a couple days ago, loved it, but the unfinished side stuff was nagging at my mind, so I blitzed through it all over four or five hours. I found all 51 of Odin's ravens myself, amazingly (I'm usually awful at that type of collectible).

Anyway, I can finally dive into my PS4 backlog and knock one off the pile. I got Yakuza 0, Kiwami 1, Monster Hunter, Hitman, Uncharted: LL. Hmm... Eeny meeny?

Edit: Hitman won!

I am playing a season of NFL Blitz 20-02

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is one of the best games of all time.
Playing through it now for a 5th or 6th time, i'm actually beating each level twice, once to remind myself and again as a sort of speed run.

What a classic.

I have an enormous collection of unplayed/never played games on steam (probably like 90% of people) so out of 400 something, I chose around 50 games I'd want to play the most and did 3 tries on a random number generator to determine what should I play. The choice turned out to be Portal. So, I'm playing Portal for the first time ever.

I like it so far, the beginning puzzles have been fairly easy but it's the beginning so I'm sure it'll get a lot more complex. Seems it still holds up 11 years later. Graphics are still fairly decent maxed out, guess that's due to the art style/direction. Hopefully It's gonna be as good as everyone says it is. It's definitely addictive.

Just started Divinity 2. Boy did those hours fly by with the speed of light. I'm feeling super positive about the game and I already look forward to waking up tomorrow and starting it again!

I fired up Shadowrun for the Genesis for the first time in damned near a quarter century.

I regret nothing. It’s a little grindy in the opening, but still a fantastic game.

Far Cry 4. I originally thought that this was just going to be Far Cry 3 but prettier, but then I saw a black eagle attack, kill, and momentarily lift the caucus of a dead goat within the first hour of playing the game. Like... holy shit. Those birds really don't fuck around.

Also, I died getting chased by a honey badger. I can't say that I don't like memes, but I also feel the need to mention that I'm playing on hard and with no aiming reticle to defend my pride with being good with first-person shooters.

So, yeah. Fun game.

@slowpork: Do you mean Divinity Original Sin 2 or actual Divinity 2?

Also, speaking of classic style crpgs, I just started Tyranny. Great premise. Interesting world and characters. Lots of little details that I really enjoy. Combat has a ton of depth with a variety of unique characters and abilities to make use of. And Obsidian's character creation system is still my favorite in gaming. Tons of options and variety, most of which effects the story. Definitely worth playing so far.

Been playing FFX HD and I'm very surprised how enjoyable that game is. 40 hours in I'm actually realising that I like it even more now than I did back when I played it as a kid. Also has some pretty good music as it turns out

@raven10: DSO2 I've been interested in Pillars as well as Tyranny. Something about the carpg's that can make me play uninterrupted for hours and hours.

@slowpork D:OS2 is such a masterpiece and even a huge improvement over D:OS1 which was already awesome, enjoy! Shame a bit that you started it a month before the release of the Definitive Edition (31st august) which will be free for existing owners on PC (separate game in the library so no worries about the current one going away) and also premieres on consoles. Larian does amazing stuff with their Definitive Editions and it will have 1000s of big and small changes, improvements, additions and new content to already an incredible and massive game. If you're gonna want more after beating the old (current) version, really recommend checking it out! Personally can't wait for it! It was my GOTY 2017 and maybe definitive edition will be my goty 2018!

I finally broke down and bought Fire Pro Wrestling World. I think the PS4 release date made me really consider what I’d be missing by getting such a customizable game on console.

It’s pretty damned fun, if not a little fussy about non-grappling moves.

I’m still a Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 man, but FPW World is really cool.

Elex.

Elex is such a weird game.

On one hand it's awesome because of the blending of the fantasy, post-apocalyptic, and sci-fi genres into one game. Having all of these different levels of technology and ways of life, making you choose one, and having them all be viable choices is really quite something. Plus, it all takes place in the ruins of what would be our modern society. There's just something weird about looting an old, abandoned motel for energy drinks as a guy with a laser rifle and a Viking mage companion.

On the other hand it's exasperating because of the way they designed the enemies. From the moment you exit the short tutorial area you are in mortal danger. Nearly every enemy in the game has a skull by their life bar and they still do 20 hours later. I've never played a game, including the previous Piranha Bytes games, that basically forces you to avoid what constitutes most of the gameplay mechanics for such a long period. I'm all for having static enemy levels, but I think they need more levels in this case. It seems like there's the tutorial level enemies, and then the "you need to be a demigod" level enemies with nothing in between.

I've read that the difficulty eventually flips from you being one-shot by everything that moves to you doing the one-shotting. I guess that's why I want to keep playing it. I have all of this cool equipment and abilities, but they're like shooting a handgun at a tank. Technically you could win (maybe?), but the slightest mistake and you're paste.

That, and a whole lot of what you say and do has some sort of consequence. The game straight up tells you "this character will remember that" and "this decision will affect the story" right on the screen. It's cool to know how much makes a difference, but it also might be too much information. At any rate, I'm very curious to see how the story plays out.

It's such a weird, awesome, exasperating, intriguing, infuriating game! If you're okay with having to avoid most of the combat for quite some time, and with the fact it was made by a small 30-person team (meaning it's rough around the edges) give it a shot.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best!

Started playing Skate 3 after having never touched any of the Skate games. I hate it in the best way possible. It's demanding, rigorous, a game of practice and trial and error and fine nuance. Where Tony Hawk's Pro Skater makes skateboarding feel weightless--a game in which "commonplace" means stringing twenty-plus trick combos together--Skate makes every successfully completed move feel like a reward. A simple stairset is a challenge, and gapping it is the mountaintop.

I really like it, despite getting pretty frustrated at the process of having to rewire my long-conditioned Tony Hawk mindset. Once everything clicks, the game really works.

I made a thread and bumped it several times about Destiny 2 before, and right when I bought it. I was super hesitant to play it because of my lukewarm feeling of the first game. The first just felt so bare of content from what I played of it, which was only the vanilla version of it that I didn't really want to delve into any of the DLC (although I was curious about them), and it made me less interested in two. I bought it a few days ago, and despite the first night not being able to play because it seems my wifi connection wasn't being strong enough for some reason, where the game would just give me a multitude of error messages in which I just decided to reinstall it and play it later, I have enjoyed it quite a bit and feel it is much improved over the first. The environments are interesting, the gameplay is more solid Destiny (though to be honest, compared to other titles that have maneuverability options like double jumps, etc. it doesn't feel as up to date [like Titanfall 2, Halo 5, or even Doom 2016 which benefits from being fast]), and a fine story that may not be amazing, but is there. It also just feels like there's more content there.

I started playing Breath of Fire IV on my Vita recently. I have been a life-long fan of Capcom, but have never tried any games in this series. It has bright, charming art and a fun sense of style. I look forward to learning more spells with the characters and seeing how they can combo together.

Destiny 2 yah I know but I had an amazing time this weekend trying to get and masterwork Wisper of the Worm aka black hammer 3.0, man what a great time, yah waiting for the event to spawn in sucked, yah the heroic version was ridiculously hard and I am not looking forward to doing that X more times to get the full masterwork but man it was fun to have an entire community of destiny just pop into an invent and find stuff in it to get a super epic weapon. WotW stuff is my favorite part of destiny a community driven secret for a really cool reward more of this

I’m playing Everday Shooter on PS3. It’s the game I’ve owned the longest that I have yet to complete. I bought this sucker way back in 2007 when the PS3 was a wasteland, and now I remember why I never finished it. This game is hard. Real hard. I’m enjoying the addictive nature of it though. I finish one game and I want to play, just one more game. The lo-fi guitar soundtrack on each level is great, and I really enjoy the visuals in the game. I wish I had a better handle on the chaining system in a few of the levels though. The points dry up for me, and points mean more lives in this game. I have a feeling this might take a while to complete.

Finally sat down and decided to restart and finish Mark of the Ninja. Man that is a fun ass stealth game!