What are you playing?

[JoshuaJSlone]

Haven't tried Google Earth yet. Thanks to SteamVR acting as a middleman, most things built for Vive and its controller will automatically work for Oculus / Touch (and vice-versa I guess), but Google Earth apparently specifically blocks it. Just read of a workaround so I'll have to give it a go.

[Ap2000]

Diablo 1 came out exactly 20 years ago!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VscdPA6sUkc

[JoshuaJSlone]

Only a few hours left to get in those last-minute Steam sale purchases. My haul this time: The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, LogiGun, Superstar Dance Club, Oh...Sir!! The Insult Simulator, Creeper World Anniversary Edition, The Thrill of the Fight, House of the Dying Sun, Disgaea PC, SUPER Island God VR, Verde Station, Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition, Mini Thief, Artifact Adventure, ARCADE GAME SERIES 3-in-1 Pack, Kyoto Colorful Days.

[Ap2000]

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="JoshuaJSlone" data-cid="203786" data-time="1483367963">
Only a few hours left to get in those last-minute Steam sale purchases.
</blockquote>

I bought exactly one game, because the Steam sale has been mostly shit ever since they got rid of daily deals.


That one game is event[0], which ran quite terrible and the text interpreter was quite disappointing, so I gave it back.
 
 
However, I ended up buying Virtue's last reward on the 3DS eShop, which also had a sale, but that sale was even worse. SMB 3 for 3,50€ was ok, though.

[JoshuaJSlone]

The old system of temporarily deals pretty much shot itself when they introduced refunds. People could buy anything they wanted at the beginning, and refund it if it ever became cheaper. Personally I prefer the convenience now, especially versus those crazy times when they did like 4 or 8 hour flash sales. Plenty of stuff still ends up 75-90% off, so works for me.

[arcobaleno]

After I got my phone back in early December, I finally downloaded the Love Live! School Idol Festival game to give it a try, especially since, hanging around idol circles, I've heard so much of it. It's not all that bad, but it really takes freemium to a new level. In the beginning, I had a massive amount of LP that I could play lots of live shows and win gold/points because of all the story events and such, but now that things are drying up, it's kind of a pain.
 
My sense of rhythm is getting trained more and more, though, so I like that.
 
But yeah, really, would I say I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't an idol fan, or... more importantly, a fan of the anime? Mmmm..... ...not really, I think.
 
I also toyed around with some other mobile games, I REALLY love Jetpack Joyride, it's extremely fun, I also got Neko Atsume, which is pretty cute (finally got my yard upgrade not too long ago!!), and then I tried out some Werewolf Tycoon, which is just simple fun as well. The casual games are nice to blow time, but I might look into more non-casual games in the future.

[WonderBuono]

I couldn't get into Neko Atsume. I love cats but... meh, I quit after two days. (Back when I had an iPad.)


Now that I have my new phone I'm ready to finally play Kingdom Hearts Unchained x. I hope it's good.

[Meikochi]

Actually arco, to me, at some point I had the feeling to be back to the stage you describes, ie have a lot of LP and lots of goals to achieve. Not sure when though and it begins to be a bit far in my memory ; I stopped playing around level 120 last year, I'd say roughly in June, because I had really no place anymore on my phone.

I really enjoyed it and would recommend it for people who like rhythm games and pop music. Unlike H!P game which I wouldn't recommend because of its not so great drawings and which has the same or less functions (events and so on) than LL, done in a worse way.

I also really liked Jetpack (I came to a high level as well before loosing all my datas).

[showraniy]

I got a PS4 and FFXV, and so far, I loooove it. It's everything I've ever wanted from a recent-gen FF and more.


There's a lot to the battle system though, and I can't get the hang of blocking to save my life.

[kitaoji]

I spent some time last year playing a Train Drive ATS, train simulator.  iPad only and the free version doesn't explain anything to you, but after two weeks or so of puzzlement, it started to make sense.
 
It basically mimics the Tobu and Keio railway lines, from the train cabin and the engine to the PA system (they hired the actual lady who does the voice announcements on the Tokyo Metro), and after months of playing I have a much better appreciation for the stuff that streetcar operators have to go through.  The precision needed for stopping the train, however, is just insane (down to 0.005 meters or less) to feel like you've made any progress.
 
Bad part is that true to the real world, the game copies the ATS (automatic train stop system) that it's impossible to derail a train.

[WonderBuono]

Well thanks to you arco I downloaded Love Live today too. Seems cute.


My ID if anyone wants to add me: 478702732


I'm not really sure what having friends does in that game but I guess I'll find out?


I also got Mystic Messenger and omg I'm already addicted.

[arcobaleno]

I've heard good things about MYstic Messenger, I'll have to try it out. XD
 
Adding friends is basically just totally for goal purposes and nothing less. Like one of your first goals is "Add 5 friends!" and even shy me took forever but now I just send random requests to "guests" who helped me during a live show, which they'll explain a bit of. After you reach a number of friends, you get your reward for achieving the goal, etc.
 
My ID is 746968855! By which I mean I already sent you a stalker request. :v

[WonderBuono]

I knew that was you! Hehe

[Elpis]

Nintendo Switch presentation was yesterday and it was interesting. It sort of reminds me of the Wii so I'm getting some sort nostalgia from this but it is a lot different. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 being revealed for it is probably going to be my reason to get it. I just hope they don't do that crap they did with the NES classic, the amibo and pretty much everything else they release nowadays by limiting the supply. I won't be able to get it right away which has me concerned.


The Zelda trailer also looked good as well.

[Ap2000]

The Zelda trailer was boner-inducing.
The best Zelda trailer since the TP reveal.

[Meikochi]

I was looking for a short solo game to let our a bit my exams' stress and found out about Raft, a survival game in early production. You're alone on your raft surrounded by a few sharks and you have to survive and build a wider and nicer raft with debris from the water. And it's actually not bad at all : you don't have that much to do but enough which made me spend 1 hour yesterday and today building my raft (I'm building a house with floors on my raft haha). So it did entertain me while not getting too time consuming.

[kira]

So for my birthday I bought myself a PS4 so I could play Final Fantasy XV (and KH2.8 that came out today)... The combat takes a lot of getting used to, but I actually really like it. I haven't made it very far into the game but it's a lot of fun so far.


Square Enix is supposed to have some kind of announcement at the end of the month and I keep reading about some rumoured I-IX collection, but I somehow doubt that's going to happen, not with the VII remake.

[Ap2000]

This just made me shout out joyfully: Ni no kuni 2 is coming to PC on the same time as the PS4 version.

[JoshuaJSlone]

Lately I've been really into the Creeper World series on PC. I played 3 a few years ago when it was the only one on Steam, and enjoyed it quite a bit. Last year the developer added its predecessors, and I recently ended up playing them consecutively and now back onto 3. They're all different enough that I'm actually switching between all of them, as 1 and 2 have an interesting feature where you can generate maps for specific dates--so it's a fun thing to play the daily map and see how your score matches up to others online.
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Mizura" data-cid="204193" data-time="1484322383">I just hope they don't do that crap they did with the NES classic, the amibo and pretty much everything else they release nowadays by limiting the supply. I won't be able to get it right away which has me concerned.</blockquote>I think the NES Classic caught them flatfooted. It seems like something they tossed together because Wii U was dead and they didn't have much else going on for the holiday season, and probably based expectations on what similar Atari and Sega machines have done int he past. At this point it seems likely it's the top-selling device of its kind, but it's hard to find any kind of solid numbers. Switch we've already known for some time their estimate is 2 million worldwide through March, which now does seem a little shorter since we know it's launching early March rather than mid or late. It's less than 3DS had launching at a similar time, but then 3DS launch ended up with too much supply really.

I actually managed to get three preordered the night of the presentation (for reasons that are mostly boring)--will probably cancel two, but I haven't yet in case I can redirect them to others who had more trouble. Nearly did for a brother and a friend, but they managed to get their own.

[Ap2000]

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="JoshuaJSlone" data-cid="204602" data-time="1485586158">I think the NES Classic caught them flatfooted.</blockquote>
I don't think so, I think that was completely calculated.
It's the same bullshit toy manufacturers (used to) do.

[JoshuaJSlone]

Where's the advantage for them? The argument usually given for a forced shortage is it encourages people to snap up further shipments more quickly, but keeping things at a trickle during their biggest sales time of the year would be a pretty fucked-up fail of that strategy.

I didn't think that thing was going to be so big, either. I figured the people who cared a lot about old NES games would already be doing so in more convenient ways either legitimately or illegitimately, without the hassles of using another HDMI input for a device with a fixed selection of games.

[Ap2000]

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="JoshuaJSlone" data-cid="204636" data-time="1485669180">I didn't think that thing was going to be so big, either.</blockquote>
That's exactly it.
They kept being in the news and everybody was talking about it. It just drove up demand.

[JoshuaJSlone]

One of my favorite NES games was River City Ransom. I was a backer on a western-developed Kickstarter sequel... over 3 years ago. Well, it finally did come out, and I'm pretty happy with it so far from the first few hours.

If you haven't played RCR, it was a beat-'em-up with a ~chibi style and RPG elements like increasing stats by purchasing items. That really set it apart from the Double Dragons or Final Fights of the world, and for a long time there wasn't much like it, though in the last decade or two increasing stats seems to have wormed its way into a ton of genres.

ANYWAY, this sequel largely tries to be an improvement on a similar formula. It's still got a generally NES graphics style, though with it being widescreen, having significantly smoother animation, and many more things going on on screen at once it won't be confused for a legit NES game. You still increase stats by buying items but it caps them based on character level, so unlike the first game you can't easily grind one area in the beginning, buy 50 of the same food item, and have a totally maxed out Punch stat or whatever. This game also allows for up to 4 players versus 2 in the original, though I haven't had a chance to give multiplayer a try yet.

[JoshuaJSlone]

Having played the Zeldas from Link to the Past through Twilight Princess, I was getting pretty burnt out on the standard Zelda formula. Breath of the Wild is pretty different and I'm loving it. It doesn't have the same setup of ~8 dungeons with a special item found in each, but is instead a very nonlinear experience. They give you most of the special abilities soon into the game, and from there you're left to explore the map and progress as you wish. It's even possible to just ignore pretty much everything past the opening, so people have legitimately beat the game at about an hour without cheating. I think there are still some large dungeons, though with I think about 30 hours in I haven't been in one yet--the large open world is the star, and the shrines scattered throughout act as mini-mini dungeons, giving you some kind of puzzles or combat trials to go through.

[Elpis]

I've been enjoying the Zelda game as well. The open world format is really well done. The only other real open world experience I have is from Bethesda games and they have a different (and buggy) feeling to them.


I've put in about 8 hours into the game and I've definitely barely scratched the surface of it. It's definitely more difficult than most that I've played but because it's nonpinearity it's not discouraging because you can go do something else.

[Vikitty]

Mass Effect: Andromeda is currently preloading. I have been staying spoiler free aside from the hilariously derping animation compilation videos that have been going around LOL.
 
Also started playing WOW. God help us all.

[al kusanagi]

After having nothing new to play I'm now on a huge PS4 streak going from Nioh to Horizon: Zero Dawn to Nier: Automata, and then Mass Effect tomorrow with Persona 5 a couple more weeks away, in addition to my daily hour or two of Overwatch on PC.

[Anderei]

Picked up Persona 5! Will be playing shortly.

[JoshuaJSlone]

I ~finished up Zelda a few days ago. Still plenty of stuff I could do, but I was at the point where most of what was in view seemed like more hassle than fun. Gather rare insects for armor upgrades I don't need. Sit around long periods of time in-game to try to gather the right parts from dragons. Try to find my way through annoying labyrinths. So 110+ hours and 95/120 shrines was good enough for me, and I finished things up for now.

Started up I Am Setsuna. but so far it is a disappointment. The appeal was that it was a retro-style RPG from S-E, with systems very close to Chrono Trigger's. However, so far it's like if Chrono Trigger was much more linear and had more boring characters, story, settings, and music.

[Anderei]

I've heard a lot about the story being a huge let down and that's one of the reasons I never picked it up.