[djtiesto]

Emerald Dragon SFC, it's a fairly charming game, graphics remind me of Lufia 1/2, and music is pretty good. Battles are like a faster version of the early Ultima games, you have a limited amount of movement and you can move/attack a few times per turn as an action meter goes down. The problem is... there are just too many of them! And you can only control the lead character, the rest are AI, who do things like heal, cast buffs, etc.

Plot is slightly original for the time, you're a dragon who discovers a human child shipwrecked into the dragon's dimension... and then she returns to the human world, calling for help. But dragons can't survive in the human world so you turn into a human, and slowly uncover the reasons why dragons died out in the human world, or something. And there's an evil empire of demons to fight.

[Wervyn]

Seems like most of what I'm playing these days are games in various stages of pre-release. It may seem like early-access roulette but I think most of these show a lot of promise.

• CrossCode - Demo only at this point but a really polished one, with a couple hours of playable material in it at least. I think I mentioned it not too long ago in another of my incredibly infrequent posts, but basically, it's old-school SNES action RPG meets some super slick modern gameplay mechanics. It's a great showcase of the state of the art in javascript as a gaming platform. They just started crowd funding, so try it out and support them if you like it.
  
  
• Kerbal Space Program - I doubt this one is going to be news to most people, but I picked up KSP seven months ago or so and it's still crazy fun. It's also representative of another trend in most of the games I've seemed to be interested in of late: games for engineers. I love that it's basically a rocketry/aerospace toolkit that then says: "Okay, here's some parts, now figure out how to get to space. Now figure out how to land on the moon. Now figure out how to land on other planets. Now figure out..." Just the logistical and engineering challenge of figuring out how to do practical, physically consistent (to a large degree anyway) spaceflight, effectively teaching myself basic rocket science in the process, something about that is intensely satisfying.
  
  
• Infinifactory - I guess another common theme here is Minecraft-alikes. Granted, the way I play Minecraft (and I'm still playing that too), it's also a game for engineers, and hell, that's actually Zachtronics tagline. And given that Minecraft is actually a clone of previous Zachtronics title Infiniminer, it's probably clear where the inspiration for Infinifactory actually comes from. In any case, after loving SpaceChem (I'm in that 2% of people who actually beat that game), I couldn't not pick this up. Even though it's technically "Early Access", it's basically a finished game now, with everything else to follow just being more extra blocky factory goodness.
  
  
• Space Engineers - This one I just picked up over a Steam sale last weekend, so we'll see if it ends up having staying power. Right now this is definitely the least polished on this list, and the most likely to end up being a novelty to me. That said, it does hit all of the areas that have been attracting my interest lately: open-ended engineering problems with a Minecraft blocky sandbox paradigm, IN SPACE. Fun times.

"Everything is better in space."

[CJA]

Wervyn, on 26 February 2015 - 06:24 PM, said:

CrossCode - Demo only at this point but a really polished one, with a couple hours of playable material in it at least. I think I mentioned it not too long ago in another of my incredibly infrequent posts, but basically, it's old-school SNES action RPG meets some super slick modern gameplay mechanics. It's a great showcase of the state of the art in javascript as a gaming platform. They just started crowd funding, so try it out and support them if you like it.

I really liked what I played of CrossCode. I think that they should sprinkle a few more puzzles about it--for example, dialogue-heavy parts like the ship could really go for a hidden puzzle room. (Though really there is a room like this at that point anyway.) It froze when that guy in weird garb appeared, which I just assumed was the end of the demo.

This post has been edited by CJA: 27 February 2015 - 01:23 PM

[Wervyn]

Huh, interesting on the freeze, that's definitely a bug. Did you play through the browser or download the stand-alone version? After the guy shows up there's a boss fight with a Giant Enemy Crab (with obligatory weak spot), followed by an escape sequence, and that's the end of the story demo. There's also a Puzzle demo with a decent selection of content (now with fun puzzle boss fight at the end, too), so don't despair over the lack of puzzles before you play through it; and an Exploration demo which shows off the leveling and combat mechanics a lot more, and has a "find all the hidden chests" quest going on with it.

"Ha-HA! Balls."

[CJA]

Well, I didn't miss much it seems. And yeah, I saw the puzzle mode. I hope that if they get this game off the ground (which looks sort of iffy, seeing the indiegogo funding level right now), they will incorporate these puzzles into the game proper and have the puzzle mode be a sort of community submissions zone where you shoot for high scores or most levels completed or something, similar to Portal 2's Perpetual Testing thing, which I have to admit I haven't tried yet... but yeah.

[Dr Lancer-X]

hand of fate is p. fun. it's kind of FTL meets high fantasy tabletop card game meets 3d brawler. nice short (lunchbreak-sized) play sessions and a decent level of difficulty towards the end.

[Wervyn]

I thought it was pretty clear that the whole game is planned as one large actiony-puzzly RPG, there aren't going to be separate "modes". The demo is more using that to showcase a broad selection of implemented gameplay in a way that a simple "first 30 minutes of the game" that is Story Mode can't easily do. I do hope it starts getting more support though, it seems like they might be hitting a marketing wall (interesting in that they didn't have any trouble getting through Steam Greenlight in 7 days), and evidently it seems possible that people are missing some of the content or concepts. I expect they'll keep going with it even without a successful campaign, they just want the opportunity to work on it full time and thus finish the game within another year instead of another three.

"Oh this is just Serenity all over again."

[Dr Lancer-X]

Wervyn, on 03 March 2015 - 12:41 PM, said:

interesting in that they didn't have any trouble getting through Steam Greenlight in 7 days

greenlight is not the gatekeeper it used to be. bit of a mixed blessing there. it's easier than ever to get on steam, but steam is not the guarantor of success it once was.

[djtiesto]

Wild Arms: Alter Code F... to continue my WA series playthrough. It's OK, but a relatively unnecessary remake of the first Wild Arms, with the equipment system removed, some balance/gameplay changes (for the worse), decent polygonal graphics everywhere (instead of sprite based maps and polygonal based battles), and some remixed music that doesn't sound as good as the original. Stick to the original game.

Also picked up a ton of retro stuff to play, I've always had a bit of the retro game collecting bug, but hanging out with some new kids who are also into it, along with Nash getting back into it, has gotten me forking over even more money on the stuff. Some stuff on my plate:
-Castle of Illusion (Genesis)
-Golden Axe 2 (Genesis)
-Whomp Em! (NES)
-VICE: Project Doom (NES)
-Mega Man Legends (PS1)
-Quarth (GB)
-Rollerball (NES)
-Adventures of Lolo 3 (NES)
-Kwirk: The Chiller Tomato (GB)
-Psychic World (Game Gear)
-Terranigma (US SNES Repro)

All while waiting for Type 0 for PS4 and the FF15 demo

[djtiesto]

Played through the FF15 demo, its OK... now doing a replay of Terranigma via a repro cartridge. Man, I forgot how good this was. I'm in the Africa stage now...

[djtiesto]

Axiom Verge, a great indie Metroid clone for PS4...

[Exophase]

djtiesto, on 09 April 2015 - 10:19 PM, said:

Axiom Verge, a great indie Metroid clone for PS4...

Looks like it's coming out on Windows later, I'll probably check it out then.

[Puella]

Werv and I are trying to get back to our playing-games-together roots. We have a lot of stuff going on simultaneously. We're still on Xenogears & Thief, and he watched me play through the CrossCode demo! *cough* New avatar *cough*

WERVYN HACK: "THEY STILL NEED MONEY FOR THEIR INDIEGOGO PLEASE GIVE THEM MONEY: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/crosscode"

I finally finished playing through Stacking (didn't collect everything though), and I'm also playing through Okami-Den on the DS (very slowly, much to Wervyn's frustration). Speaking of games by DoubleFine, Broken Age 2 is out later this month. Looking forward to that!

"When Wervyn was going to space camp I was memorizing Return of the Jedi. Who's the REAL quote master?!"

[djtiesto]

Weird, in the 'what are you playing' thread on another board, someone was mentioning Okamiden today... and those are probably 2 of the only times I've ever heard mention of the game. That one guy liked it, thought it was a nice expansion to the PS2 game (which I have yet to play)... what do you think of it?

[Puella]

djtiesto, on 12 April 2015 - 08:55 PM, said:

Weird, in the 'what are you playing' thread on another board, someone was mentioning Okamiden today... and those are probably 2 of the only times I've ever heard mention of the game. That one guy liked it, thought it was a nice expansion to the PS2 game (which I have yet to play)... what do you think of it?

I REALLY like it so far. It has a lot of cut scenes, but I'm playing for the story anyway, so that works out It's a sequel to the original game, and readjusted to play perfectly on the DS. It'll make more sense in context with the original game, so play that first. Okami is INCREDIBLE, probably one of my favorite games just for art style and creative game play alone. If you have a chance to play either of them, DO IT!

[djtiesto]

My brand-spankin' new CIB copy of Rescue Rangers 2!!

[Otto Germain]

I've been thoroughly addicted to Crypt of the Necrodancer. Highly recommended, if for the soundtrack alone.

Also, Darkest Dungeon is worth looking at... dark, challenging, stylish rogue-like.

[Perry Steven]

Atari 2600 homebrew games. Some of them are really good, like VCS-tec-Challenge.

[T-Bone]

Attempted to play Resident Evil 5 again since I could never get past the first stage with the black hooded figure with the giant axe. I still can't get past him. This has got to be one of the hardest games I have ever played

[CJA]

Fallout 3. I finally got "into it," by which I mean my character has INT 10 and Nerd Rage!

[zzo38]

I play Pokemon Pinball (and other pinball games, including many flipperless ones) and Pokemon de Panepon. Also many of the DOS games I have written myself I still play, too. Also some NES/Famicom homebrews and GameBoyAdvance homebrews; I like some of those too.

[Dr Lancer-X]

I just finished The Witcher and The Witcher 2 (well, one playthough of The Witcher 2, but there's two distinct routes so I'll have to replay it sometime) - both of them were thoroughly enjoyable, very well-designed games.

I'll need to either upgrade my hardware or overclock my already-overclocked Xeon even higher* to play the third game in this series, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it just as much if not more when I do.

*it is very hard to cheaply upgrade the CPU on a socket 1366 motherboard :(

[djtiesto]

Been playing a bit of Tomba, not sure if I really like it... just feels rather clunky with its controls and 2.5D platforming doesn't work as well as purely 2D, imo.

[CJA]

Tetris Ultimate is the XBOne iteration of Tetris. The good thing is that it's just Tetris with minimal nonsense. The problem is the trite Ubisoft UI that looks like it was lifted straight out of Assassin's Creed, and really weird music that doesn't work at all. It feels like it was going to be a minigame in AC Unity or something, honestly.

LISA: MEH I bought this out of a nostalgia crave and it's been pretty disappointing so far.

Terraria: I paid enough attention to get iron ore this time, but lost interest again.

TF2.

[Lachesis]

i've been playing Abyss Odyssey and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

i'll probably have abyss odyssey on my laptop during mzxcon weekend if i can get my video driver working by then. if anyone has it or is willing to bring a controller (DS3 ok) and wants to try co-op ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[djtiesto]

Metroid 2 on my Super Game Boy. Still in the early stages of it but its been freaking me out - repetitive areas that are real easy to get lost, Metroids around every corner, and random noises for its "soundtrack" (even after having a great main theme). Interesting game, though obviously not on the level of what came later...

[Dr Lancer-X]

djtiesto, on 02 August 2015 - 02:25 PM, said:

Metroid 2 on my Super Game Boy. Still in the early stages of it but its been freaking me out - repetitive areas that are real easy to get lost, Metroids around every corner, and random noises for its "soundtrack" (even after having a great main theme). Interesting game, though obviously not on the level of what came later...

I love the soundtrack so much. Also, things like the spider ball made it one of the most explorable early Metroid games. I legitimately prefer it as a game to both Metroid and Super Metroid. (I've never played anything after those 3)

[Lachesis]

Lancer-X, on 02 August 2015 - 01:12 AM, said:

I love the soundtrack so much. Also, things like the spider ball made it one of the most explorable early Metroid games. I legitimately prefer it as a game to both Metroid and Super Metroid. (I've never played anything after those 3)

this. metroid 2's chozo ruins is my favorite metroid music ever probably. i found the game, as a whole, a lot creepier and more effective atmospherically than the other entries in the series (especially the latter ones). seeing the metroids gradually grow and become more horrifying and deadly was pretty great

[djtiesto]

Yeah, the atmosphere in the game is great...

Anyways I started playing Mother 1 (Earthbound Beginnings) on the Wii U Virtual Console. It's the only one of the 3 Mother games I haven't played. It's grindy in that 8-bit way but for some reason I'm enjoying that...

And I've also started Suikoden Tierkries, which isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It's missing the political drama so popular with the other Suikoden games but still has the cool castle-building and character recruitment elements. Encounter rate is a bit high (but not as bad as Mother 1!!!). A much better game than Suikoden 4 and I think I like this more than 3... (I did like Suikoden Tactics though, aside from the poor storyline the battles were challenging as hell).

[Dr Lancer-X]

Mother had a really big map.. there's a 16384x16384 PNG of it around somewhere. Insane for a NES game - they're 16x16 tiles so it was a 1024x1024 map (the ROM for the full game was like 300k). It's also bigger than Earthbound's map (although less detailed)

In terms of balance, it is among a certain crowd of early RPGs that clearly did not get a playthrough in its final state before release because nobody would consider it acceptable - but there is something compelling about struggling against a broken system. I don't think it's really worse than, say, Romancing SaGa in that respect.

EDIT: The game also had an amazing soundtrack - probably the best on the NES.