So what're you playing nowadays?

Currently playing Rayman Origins, the answer to people starved for solid 2D platforming. Absolutely gorgeous hand-drawn visuals, and quite true to the original game that started it all, meaning it can be quite hard at times too. Very entertaining.

I'm also playing some Ys 7 on the side, which is good, but not as great as some people make it out to be. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it's just kinda, I dunno, standard. It doesn't click with me as much as Felghana did anyway.

Still have to stary playing Skyrim, just received my Skyward Sword bundle, and KOF XIII should be on my doorstep tomorrow, with FFXIII-2 hitting in 2 weeks, so I'll be busy until April next year, probably...

Amazingu wrote:

Currently playing Rayman Origins, the answer to people starved for solid 2D platforming.

WTF, no rabbids?

Tried out all of the new courses in Mario Kart 7.  Some of them are cool, and the game is fine, but I have little to no motivation to play it again given how many more interesting games I have to play.

XLord007 wrote:

Rayman Origins (PS3)
-Absolutely beautiful art and animation, but the controls take some getting used to.  It's also a bit on the challenging side which may be a problem for the kids this is presumably targeted at.

The same goes for the original game, which looked cute as a button was hard as diamond nails.
Don't be fooled by the looks, it's way too hard for kids.

I should point out though, that, for some reason, the demo contains some levels from very late in the game, so they're more difficult than the first half or so of the game.

Two more demos:

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Episode 1 - Ice Station Santa (PS3)
-Incredibly slow moving point and click adventure game.  I got bored in the middle of the demo and quit.

Akimi Village (PS3)
-I'm not really sure what the point of this village building RTS is, but you basically enslave these little blue guys at the behest of an elderly raccoon and make them build things for you.

Ashley Winchester wrote:

This may seem like an odd question, but am I the only one that finds Final Fantasy IV to be an odd game? For some reason I find Final Fantasy I and II more Final Fantasy-ish than four even though that's really far from the truth in II's case.

There's just something about IV that's wierd.

I think I know what you're saying, but I have the same thing with FFV, not IV.
Something about FFV is just really oddball for some reason.

Then again, if you look at the series post-SNES, what really constitutes "Final Fantasy-ishness" anyway?

Ashley Winchester wrote:

This may seem like an odd question, but am I the only one that finds Final Fantasy IV to be an odd game? For some reason I find Final Fantasy I and II more Final Fantasy-ish than four even though that's really far from the truth in II's case.

There's just something about IV that's wierd.

Did you grow up with it? I played FFI first but IV is really the game that defined Final Fantasy to me (at least at the age of 11).

Still working on Skyward Sword, just entered the fourth dungeon. I've gotten better at the motion controls but my impressions of the game are still neutral. It's fun or I wouldn't still be playing it but it's hard not to be disappointed by some of the bland locations and especially the endless padding. I hope you like fetch quests!

For all the build-up about the orchestrated music, it's a let-down. Oh, the orchestrated tunes are largely good. It's just that there's very few of them and the rest is fairly nondescript midi. At best, it's unoffensive. At worst (like the third dungeon or most of the volcano music), it's incredibly obnoxious. Like Twilight Princess, there's so much music in this game (hundreds of individual pieces) that the good stuff gets buried under the filler.

(Since I have a homebrewed Wii, I was at least able to use some cheats to shut off the handholding. Text speed is twice as fast now and Fi keeps her mouth shut, which is refreshing.)

Six more demos:

Elevator Action Deluxe (PS3)
-Never played the original, but this didn't do much for me.

Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone (PS3)
-Intentionally(?) lousy voice acting and nondescript twin-stick shooting. Not as good as Dead Rising.

Happy Feet Two (PS3)
-Dancing penguins are fun.  Clumsy controls are not.

Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (PS3)
-The graphic design makes it nearly impossible to tell what can and can't be interacted with, spells are difficult to aim, and nothing seems to work as it should.

King of Fighters XIII (PS3)
-Still not as fluid as Street Fighter, but I love the gorgeous graphics and it's fun to play.

Winter Stars (PS3)
-As dull as its name.

SonicPanda wrote:

I picked it up recently purely due to my personal Support-Anything-Connected-to-Pocky-and-Rocky mandate

Are you selling pins and bumper stickers?

Two more demos:

Sonic the Hedgehog CD (PS3)
-I never had the chance to play the original SCD version, but this version plays well and looks great in 16:9 on my HDTV (which is something I can't say for other retro Sonic ports).  Wish the demo was longer, but really enjoyed the little they let me play.

Trine 2 (PS3)
-So pretty.  A fun platformer with physics-based puzzles, Trine 2 reunites the three heroes from the first game for another adventure, and the demo is quite enjoyable.  I decided to pick up the original game since I remember liking the demo for that one and it's currently on sale for $5 on the PSN.

Tried two games at a friend's house:

Cave Story 3D (3DS)
-Plays just as good as the original, but the polygonal graphics do not capture the spirit of the original's art style are are quite ugly.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3)
-I only got to try local multiplayer which is pretty much the same as every other CoD game except that many welcome features from Black Ops' local multiplayer have been removed.  In Black Ops local, everything is unlocked from the start  where you have to painstakingly unlock weapons and perks in MW3.  Also missed are the bots from Black Ops.  Most maps are too big for four players, and being able to add bots in Black Ops made it a lot more fun.

Given the recent accolades bestowed upon them here, I decided to give Rayman Origins and Sonic Generations a shot.  I'm opting for 360, but are there any discernable differences between the PS3 versions?

Other than that, I recently discovered bliss in the form of Jetpack Joyride and VVVVVV.  (Had I known the latter to be this much fun, I would have picked it up on Steam a long time ago.)  Both titles are perfect companions for on-the-go gaming.