What are you currently playing? [2]

[Aiko Heiwa]

Playing freeciv. In case you don't know, it's basically a freeware version of the Civilization games.

I feel like such an asshole. I'm the Roman Republic and I've been allied with Turkey since about 800 BC and it's currently AD 1535.

But, during the past century or so in game, Turkey went from having a land area of 157,000 square miles to one of 21,000 square miles. With only 7000 square miles actually being inhabited.

So, I broke our alliance and sided with our long-term enemies, the Japanese and the Manchu.

God I feel like a total ass.

In a way, it's understandable. I mean, Turkey has only two cities under its control left (Tver and Hatay), whereas the Roman Republic has pretty much the entirety of mainland Europe, pretty much all of north and central Africa, and literally the whole of eastern South America (and a little bit of western), and what-in-the-real-world-would-be Cuba. (For the record, Rome's land area is 1,237,00 square miles, with 183,000 being settled)

Man, I'm feeling sorry for Turkey just because of its population though. Out of 830,000 citizens, only 270,000 stayed loyal to Turkey when it split up.

Rome's population is 3,770,00 too.

[Monk Ed]

Tonight's "beat" was Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, completing a playthrough that began either 2 or 3 years ago (I don't remember which year I bought the game). Specifically, I beat the one game on the UMD I had no interest in when I bought it: the main game, the one you are forced to play at least a little of before they'll even let you touch the ones advertised on the back which are supposed to be the real draw.

A month or more ago I beat the unsatisfying bad ending, which was bad enough and sparse enough to count as a non-ending. But this time I got the complete ending with all maidens saved. And, with this one last victory, I've beaten every game on the disc with their best, most complete endings.

This game became such a pleasure over time. This one and the original Rondo of Blood. The original Rondo set me on the path to appreciating the classic CV formula. (That and this video.) The flaws I used to see in these two games, such as Richter's severe lack of abilities compared to his SOTN incarnation, became features once I was made to understand their role in the design and began to notice how much more fun it was to have to analyze my enemies and approach them carefully, especially the bosses.

Beating Dracula was a genuinely satisfying challenge. I was taken completely by surprise by

SPOILER: Show

his final form. Namely, that he even had one, a third one. I would not want to spoil even its existence for anybody, because it was such a pleasure for me to be surprised by it. It felt like something created specifically to trick, surprise, and please me, someone who had beaten the original Rondo first. That final form, being such an unknown quantity, forced me to learn and adapt to a whole new ballgame as my final challenge, right when I thought I'd seen everything the game had to throw at me, having already beaten Dracula before on the bad-ending path. Learning a whole new boss's patterns reminded me of so many good times with classic sidescrollers, especially Zero's difficult close-range fights in Megaman X4. Feels like they just don't make 'em like this anymore. What's more, his final form actually gets harder and harder as you wail on him, adding several new attacks to his pattern!

I even liked that I had to completely restart all the fights over when I lost. Far from becoming frustrated, I looked forward to trying to beat his first two forms ever more efficiently. I even got good enough at them to be able to (sometimes) beat them without taking a single hit. Then I got better at advancing the final form to its final, most challenging stage, with all those hazards flying everywhere.

All just today! In just one day I felt like I'd learned and grown so much as a gamer.

When I finally defeated him, I did it with some of the slickest moves I feel I've ever pulled off in a video game, flip-flying everywhere dodging fire erupting from the ground, bats, and two unkillable homing red orbs, finishing him off with a turn-and-strike in midair with a flying cross, with one hit of life left to my name.

Downright awesome experience.

...Or maybe it was a backflip followed by a strike, and maybe the strike was a whip attack, but whatever it was, I remember it being so very, very awesome.

I already know I'm not done with this game in the long run. Because the core gameplay is so solid, every excuse to keep playing feels meaningful. I'm curious about what getting 100% will be like, and what playing as Maria straight through is like, and what the secret "Stage 5`" is like, and the Boss Rush, and everything else this game has to offer. I could even see myself starting up a whole new game fresh just to see what it's like to play straight through, maybe doing such things as not saving Maria, because apparently if you save everyone but Maria you get the "fair" ending. Actually, I can't wait to try that!

I get the feeling I may find myself coming back to this more frequently than even SOTN. I never thought I'd see the day.

UPDATE:

Tonight's "beat" was Metroid: Zero Mission, completing a playthrough that began last summer and petered out on 2011/09/10.

Evidence suggests that I was going for 100% in under 2 hours for this save, but gave up when that became mathematically impossible. The save is still there, so after all this beating-a-different-game-every-night business I may go ahead and go for the 100% even if I can't do it all in under the 15 minutes I'd have left; at the very least, it'd be good practice for when I try the 100%/under 2 hours for real.

It seems kind of weird that I was unable to get it, though, because I've done it before, and that was on my actual physical cart (which I still have), without the benefit of save states. I still remember how absolutely crazy I felt afterwards too, come to think of it. ...Maybe going for that combination is not the wisest thing to do after all.

UPDATE:

Third in a row? Guess so.

Tonight's "beat" was Lost in Blue, completing a playthrough that began as far back as ... 2005, I think.

This game has a serious re-learning curve for anyone who drops it for too long, and I think that's the biggest reason it's taken me this long to get around to beating it. Even though I was really close to the end (like, I had actually prepped for the final run to that place you have to go to finish the game in one of the various ways possible), it took me most of today's and yesterday's gaming time just to relearn the game and the island enough (with FAQ assistance to boot) to get to where I could even survive long enough to make it to that place. Maybe it's no surprise that I dropped it again and again over the years.

But once you get a real feel for the game, it becomes so much fun. I fell in love with this thing for what was really the first time only just as I was getting ready to beat it.

I actually think this game might be more fun with a guide than without. Not a walkthrough, but just tips and stuff. The game does not have enough room for error to make experimentation fun, and there's a lot that remains hidden from the player throughout the game, and most importantly, I started really appreciating it after I read a bit of a guide.

I love the ending. Not necessarily the leadup to it, the final stretch where

SPOILER: Show

it turns out that there are other people on the island, namely a hideout of organized criminals. It felt completely out of left field. What I think I had been expecting was that the mystery of those ruins you have to explore would become deeper, because that all looked quite interesting. I'm surprised that once you're done with the ruins they have nothing to do with anything after that. You'd think it'd make the kids (even more) famous after their escape from the island.

But rather the ending, where

SPOILER: Show

it becomes clear that the two have fallen in love, and the girl, Skye, goes on to write about their adventure, and then after she's famous (which doesn't take long, it's only like what, a year later?), she meets him again. The part where Keith is looking up at the giant outdoor screen in some city on a winter day, then closes his eyes, then suddenly finds Skye to be holding his hand just like old times, was downright magical. I almost wanted to cry. Paging through the book she wrote with the A button while the credits roll on the top screen continued that feeling and made the whole thing romantic and dreamy.

It really is a charming little title, and I'll definitely have to try out its apparently numerous sequels once my finances improve.

Lost in Blue makes 20 games beaten in 20 days, and it's gotten to the point where, if I'm not out of nearly-complete games to beat, I'm at least close enough to where I'm better off quitting of my own volition. As the hardest game to pick back up and finish, and yet one of the most emotionally satisfying endings of the set, it also feels like the perfect game on which to end something that felt in retrospect almost like a dream.

[Guyver Spawn]

I have been playing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 since last Friday and it's a great game. I wanted to buy Devil Survivor Overclocked but my Gamestop does not have it. I do feel like that I enjoy the first game a bit better but the game is still awesome though.

[Mt Olympus]

Just started up Star Wars: The Old Republic... got sucked in from a free 7 day trial they sent me GREAT GAME!!! I've also been playing DOTA2 beta which takes up so much of my time :)

[Final Messenger]

Been playing Final Fantasy VIII, man I forgot how much I hated the whole draw system. I would much rather have MP than having to draw magic from enemies, also one other thing I really did not like about VIII was the over dependence on summons, I find myself never using physical attacks and just keep on using the infinite amount of summon attacks and having to make weapons and having no weapon shop is stupid. Other than those grips I do really like the game mainly for the story. I wound up getting to the end of disc one today which was one of my favourite moments from the game.

[CJD]

I've also been playing DOTA2 beta which takes up so much of my time :)

Well done, I applaud your taste.


Been playing TERA all weekend so far. (Actually been playing every BETA weekend but whatever). As an MMO I really enjoy it. Get's a lot of detractors because of it's questing being boring, but I fail to see how that's a problem when 90% of MMO's have the same questing. Otherwise the combat is fun, first MMO where I don't mind running the same instance like 5 times (I actually look forward to it).

Sadly, I'm afraid it won't succeed. What with the stigma of being a Korean MMO (As unwarranted as the fears of "Grinding" may be. like seriously, zero grinding up to level 38 so far), and with Diablo 3 coming out literally 2 weeks after launch, the game just won't maintain the numbers of other MMO's.

Ah well, I'll enjoy it while it lasts. I can be found on Arachnea as Etcetera if anyone else is playing it. Let me know you're from here and I'd be happy to help anyone if they need help.

[InstrumentalityOne]

Been playing shitloads of Monster Hunter 3rd Portable again lately.
I hate this game.
I seriously do.


Fuck you, Gigginox
For taking no Thunder damage, poisoning me and the most unsettling pin down attack ever.



Fuck your shit, Jinouga, seriously.
You're a lower rank Monster than a fucking Barioth but yet you manage to be even more annoying.


Fuck you, Uragaan.
You just suck and trip over your own back spikes.


Fuck you, Rathalos.
I wear -20 Fire Res armor sets and you still manage to be mauled to death just like that.


Fuck you, Qurupeco.
Because... fuck you.


Three Nargacugas Extended Mission? Pffft.
You think you're tough shit because you're a fanged Wyvern like the Tigrex?
Well imma real happy for you but you ain't got shit on the Tigrex.

[Mt Olympus]

Well done, I applaud your taste.

Thanks I have 2 spare beta keys if you're interested.

[liquidus118]

Thanks I have 2 spare beta keys if you're interested.

If CJD doesn't want them could you send them my way? Me and a friend have been dying to play it for ages.

[Final Messenger]

Taking a break from final fantasy VIII to play some more persona 3. There is one boss I still need to beat, but she is just so hard why are JRPG secret bosses so hard. FREAKING Elizabeth!!!!!! Casting two megidolaon in a row and one shoting me….

[child of Lilith]

Hey. At least she's easy on the eyes.

[Final Messenger]

Well that is true, at least while I’m being bested I have some eye candy to stare at.

[Monk Ed]

Lately I've started Shadow Hearts: Covenant, a-k-a Shadow Hearts 2 according to the game's own title screen. (Why in the world is the title on the game box different from what's in the game itself?)

I first played this game well over a year ago, when I ordered it and the first game but it came in the mail first and I was just dying to get a taste. I skipped cutscenes except when I couldn't resist, but still managed anyway to get a large dose of the story, enough to spoil one or two facets that turned out to be true of the first game, including and especially a major character death (but in a way I'm thankful for that).

Now that I've played back up to the point I played in it the first time (just after getting to Paris), it seems that I had a lot of mistaken impressions from the first time around.

These involve huge spoilers from the first game, naturally.

SPOILER: Show

First and foremost, it turns out that Yuri was not, in fact, sealed inside the church like I thought. I came to that impression because I was trying very hard the first time not to pay too much attention to the words but couldn't resist ogling the sweet demon design and other visuals. Due to how I had chosen to skip cutscenes up to the point I'm about to describe, when I saw Yuri emerge from that round glass whatever-it-is inside the church to face down that what's-his-name who betrays Karin, I naturally assumed that Yuri had simply been sealed up till that point.

Another big mistaken impression I had regards the character whose name turns out to be Jeanne. Due to how I had skipped previous cutscenes, the first I ever saw of her was in the Graveyard scene that happens early in the game where she has a cryptic conversation with Yuri and mentions off-handedly that she died. At the time I had no idea who she was or what she was talking about, but when you juxtapose that scene with Gepetto explaining Yuri's history to Karin and mentioning that his lover (Gepetto's late wife's niece but practically his own daughter) died, I pieced together at the time that the girl who appears in the Graveyard must be some kind of reborn child spirit form of that lover (Alice -- I didn't retain Jeanne's name at the time) representing a possibility of resurrection and therefore Yuri's redemption.

Now that I've seen this game up to this point the proper way, with all the cutscenes and having beaten the previous game, it's interesting to see how incredibly wrong my first impressions were.

It's ... kind of sad, though, in a way. It means that the hope I played the first game with has been dashed. When I played the first game and lived through the pain of Alice dying because she had sacrificed her soul (a chilling thought) to save Yuri's from the after-effects of trying to fuse with the Seraphic Radiance (which actually means Yuri's own folly killed her!), the light I held onto was that she might be resurrected in the second game. That hope looks like it's fading ever more into the distance, but maybe I can live with it. Yuri could always find new love, after all, which does nothing for how sad it is to lose Alice (for her own sake, not because it means Yuri doesn't have her) but if she really is gone then there isn't much more that can be done about her so I might as well focus on the surviving lover's hopes for happiness.

But in a way, this way is also more interesting, because now I'm full of even more questions. Is Jeanne really dead? Jeanne was the girl Yuri had been protecting for yet-unknown reasons, so for her to die so quickly, and off-screen with absolutely no fanfare to boot, would be truly bizarre storytelling, which I would not put above a series like Shadow Hearts but it still means a lot of answers are needed. I mean, they haven't even explained yet just who Jeanne is or why Yuri is protecting her! (Beyond the fact that he's protecting the whole village, but she seemed to be special.)

[InstrumentalityOne]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=WT_rJBCgUYU&feature=endscreen

Who thought that a GTAIV and Call of Duty crossover machinima could be actually funny

[Kenshin Sephiroth]

Currently still roaming the wilderness of Skyrim, killing bunnies and collecting potatoes.

[arkiel]

Tribes: Ascend. My inner manager thrills every time I make a gold rampage off a generator killing field

[CJD]

Thanks I have 2 spare beta keys if you're interested.

Already in, thanks for the offer though.

[InstrumentalityOne]

I've been totally addicted to F18 Carrier Landing lately.
Go check it out if you own an Android.

And I'm giving Silent Hill another try since I am such a big pussy and pussied out like a true pussy.

[Ornette]

HTML5 canvas and web sockets: http://browserquest.mozilla.org/

[child of Lilith]

And I'm giving Silent Hill another try since I am such a big pussy and pussied out like a true pussy.

Here's hoping you make it this time. You're in for a real treat if you do.