whatchu playing now

yeah, dang. i keep presuming at some point i'll get fired and have to move back in with my mother and THEN oh boy

I did finally crack open Bayonetta today. Damn, that's some entertainment. Basically, everything they did in God Hand but even more blown up.

Splatoon is so much fun, every part of it feels incredibly polished, from the balance to the controls to the soundtrack to the mini NES squid games that you can play while waiting in the lobby. It's like they mariokarted the shooter.

I tried playing Super Mario Sunshine last night for the first time. Um..... ehhh..... Sorry if anyone likes it but it is easily the worst mainline Mario game I've ever played. Chasing that kidnapping evil Mario was fun for about 10 seconds and when I couldn't get him and had run through the level for the 6th time in a row, just shut it off. Yuck.

The intro cinematic is funny, with the Princess seeing weird shit in the distance, with Mario going to jail, etc. Also I am playing on emulator on PC, I wonder if I am missing out by not using the GC controller.

Never really liked 3D Mario until Galaxy tbh. 64 was fine but I'm too old school when it comes to the plumber.

i remember that intro level being stupid, but at least get to the hardcore "space" levels before you dump the game - that's where the game really shines (get) IMO
i think you are honestly missing something without using the original GC gamepad, but that's almost always kind of a problem with emulation when it comes to unusual controllers. but those first-party GC games really feel fit to those kidney beans and triggers

Yeah it said to 'lightly' press a button to shoot while running, which I couldn't get to work. Do I need to eff with X-Input controls for this?

invisible inc

i'm messing w/ watch_dogs right now which is nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be. the nice thing abotu playing overhyped, underdelivered games a year late is that you kinda adjust your expectations and have a lovely time.

xp Invisible Inc will totally be mine... the second it hits a humble bundle.

it's so good.

+ so difficult

xp adam the only analog buttons on the GC pad IIRC were the back triggers (I'm assuming this is referring to the water/jet pack cannon using Right Trigger?) - you may need to configure your emu to recognize the analog triggers on your pad, assuming they have them

It's not all grim compulsiveness with these games. I mean, I was really enjoying ME3, but put it aside when reports started coming in of the underwhelming/incomplete ending (since fixed), the inevitable slew of DLC (now over, though I haven't worked up the enthusiasm to buy the most expensive one, and it'll take a while since Bioware/EA never put that shit on sale). Far Cry 3 was fun, but I put it aside when my aging PC started having overheating issues; I've since been able to finish it up. But Final Fantasy XIII...okay, that one's pure Stockholm Syndrome at this point, with the determination to not leave another goddamn unfinished game on the stack. I like thinking about the design of the games I play, and I have a history with leaving games, books, etc unfinished due to anxiety/depression that definitely contributes to me wanting to finish it despite it not being very good, but I'm almost definitely going to sell it or give it away once it's finally over.

stupid question on invisible inc: i know that i can quit a mission early if i'm about to lose, and bank XP (by choosing Retire Agency and then restart mission/day?). but do credits carry over as well? i thought they did but i just quit a mission early and the money didn't carry over. the difficulty is pretty steep (for me, but i suck at games) so i need some help!

credits do not carry over, XP to unlock new starting chars / programs do

such a good game

ah, thanks!

btw u don't have to quit the mission early to bank the XP. i think losing at any time banks XP (which is awarded based on the number of missions you've completed that run)

i've mainly been quitting early when i lose a team member and can't revive them or drag them to the exit, and it's clear i'm outmatched (ie a waste of time to keep going). do you play with regular settings? even on beginner mode i'm returning into severe trouble early on, like 4-5 missions in!

Can anyone recommend any Turbo CD/PC Engine CD games? I was playing "Gradius II" earlier and it was really cool, especially the music.

xp i just beat it on experienced for the first time tnite. guess expert is the next step.

the main skill of the game is how to move through the bases without the guards seeing you. my first few playthroughs i relied heavily on stunning guards but near the end of each game there are just too many guards and too many things that need power and not enough characters. you need to know where a guard is going to pass and where you can sit safely so he passes by you, and then save the stunning/killing for more dire situations.

Ground Zeroes is on PS+ this month. Loaded it up, sat through a ten minute unskipable cutscene, finally got control of snake, went into the menu to invert the y axis, couldn't find the option, searched for five minutes, still couldn't find it, then my wife came home, so I turned it off.

Apparently you need to set up controller options at the main menu before you start the game.

don't think it's unskippable is it? press the left touch pad

great game

xposts to Adam B.

I think it's just for regular PC Engine, not CD, if that makes a difference, but play SPLATTERHOUSE if you haven't already.

Oh I know me some Splatterhouse! The Genesis one has one of the coolest intros ever.

Left touch pad? Goddamnit I pressed every other button on the bloody thing.

this looks great
http://www.pcgamer.com/her-story-review/

rps gave it a great review too

looks cool.

Anyone play the first 3 episodes of Life is Strange? I feel like I might be put off by teenage romance scenes if they're in this.

yeah, definitely interested in Her Story. may be falling victim to empty '90s FMV nostalgia though.

Life is Strange looks very cool, but I'm waiting for it to end and hear final verdicts from others

Hand of Fate
Endless Legend
Wasteland 2
Crusader Kings II

her story was good. very much more an interactive fiction than a 'game,' but a well-written fiction that is edited + paced almost perfectly and that tells a somewhat lurid, engaging story. nb it is very very short. i saw almost every clip after 2 hours and spent one more trying to find the last few (i'm still missing 5 clips). i think the acting job is good enough - it didn't bother me like it apparently did internet cinephiles.

$5 for two well spent hours seems okay to me. will try.

Finally dug out Nier and gave it another try. I was already interested the first time around, between the art direction and good word of mouth, but I quit after like 30 minutes, probably either job stress or depression shit or both. I'm maybe 4-5 hours in now, and god, I love this game. It's so well-written and localized I refuse to believe this came from the same hemisphere as FFXIII, let alone the same publisher.

Though yeah, that fishing minigame. The otherwise A+ localization fails utterly there, because the instructions it gives you are 100% wrong and will make you fail every single attempt. If this were a Suda51 game, I would assume that was intentional; Taro Yoko seems weird, but not the kind of director who's going to be an asshole just to make a point.

...okay, he's KIND OF an asshole for the main character's bizarrely slow ladder-climbing.

PC: Batman Arkham City that's right I said City (clearing up all the collectables on my umpteenth retry, when I have no brain left at all and need something to do with the TV on in the background)
PC: Hexcells Infinite (something to do with my hands while listening to computer audio)
WiiU: Lego City Undercover (cleared the main storyline, just spending an hour clearing all the collectables from each area)
PC: Lego Marvel Superheroes (spoilers: it's a lot of fun)
iPhone: Two Dots (nearly burned through the extra levels released on Monday)

Went to a stag do with a game-loving groom, played:

Nidhogg*
Johann Sebastian Joust*
Mount Your Friends*
Proteus
Spelunky
The Stanley Parable
SpeedRunners

*stag tournament games

Inspired me to actually sort out my Steam account, so now I'm playing Limbo properly for the first time. It's great. Debating getting Her Story but despite being a massive fan of IF I'm still not entirely convinced by the premise.

guys!
The Executive on iOS.
go get it.

Self-described as a cross between Elite Beat Agents, Zelda II and Street Fighter II. $3... ugh fine I'm sold

it's fun! and there's a clicker counter game buried in there too!

this is quite good:
http://www.hanakogames.com/closet.shtml#demo

Looks interesting - it's the Long Live the Queen people

Played an actual Intellivision for a bit today. "Burger Time" is the killer app on that system, that game is amazing. I guess they remade it with stupid busy 3D graphics but this version was super charming and fun to play.

I had one - that's why I spent much of my childhood at the houses of friends with the 2600. Does your thumb hurt from the damn edge of that analog disc on the controller?

Mordy I see you've fallen into the paradox k-hole with ck2. How do you like it?

i like it, and EU4 as well (which i think i like even better). so far i reformed the kingdom of ireland which is i guess what they recommend for all newbies and now i'm trying to decide where to play next. i thought about getting the sons of abraham expansion which has some options + stuff that interest me, but i feel like CK2 is kinda a - as these things go - more casual experience than EU4. i do like the focus on domestic/familial dynamics and dynasties. in my last game i married one of my daughters off to a foreign heir and she was shipped out. soon after my steward died and i needed someone new to fabricate claims for me. one trick i've learnt is you can marry yr daughter off into a maternal-descent inheritance line and then her new husband will move to yr court (instead of vice-versa). so i was bemoaning the fact that i married her off too early when i could've used her to lure a good steward in. then the king of norway (one of my allies) asked me to help him fight a war and, lo and behold, it is the family of my daughter's new husband. to blackmail me against entering the war they throw her in prison and at the end of the war i end up ransoming her for like 100 gp. anyway that brought her back to my court and i immediately used her to get a new steward. <- i dig any game that can produce this kind of procedurally generated complex storytelling

paradox k-hole is a good way of describing it. these games are def a world unto themselves.

i'm straight up afraid to get into those games tbh

i've put them on pause while i try to finish wasteland 2 which is a) a fantastic + wonderful game that harkens back to fallout 1 + 2 UI and b) the buggiest game i've ever played. it crashes literally every 20-40 minutes, its story beats are constantly bugging out of order, and if it wasn't as good as it is i would've quit a long time ago.