As you may already be aware, July is Shameless Gaming month — a time for consolidation, to play all those games still in cellophane, or the ones you spent half an hour with before plonking Skyrim back in the disc tray. On Monday I discussed my own heinous Shameless Gaming plans — but I thought it might be time for a quick catch up. How are you all doing? What are you playing?
I’m so close to finishing Max Payne 3 I can taste it! If I didn’t have a weird Polyphasic sleep meltdown I would have it ticked by now.
After that… hmmm. I’m not sure. I have this strange inkling to try out Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Mainly because I think it would be fun to play at like 3 in the morning in complete darkness.
At one point I’ll make a serious attempt at Assassin’s Creed: Revelations as well.
What are you guys playing? Anyone ticked anything from the Shameless Gaming pile yet?
Ratchet and Clank is almost complete, and I'm two dungeons into The Wind Waker. My wife has a wicked bad throat infection rigth now, and we're surviving in separate rooms. She's taken the lounge room most of the time, so I haven't actually been able to get much gaming done. I've been getting plenty of writing done though, so that's a plus.
Got Beneath a Steel Sky installed and ready to finish at last. I've had this game for a loooong time and got pretty far into it. No better time to start it again after Dave Gibbons revealed he's collaborating with Revolution again. I surely hope it's BASS 2 and not Broken Sword.
Currently playing Shadow of the Colossus. Just wish the blighters would stop shaking and let me stab them.
Would you recommend the game to someone who's usually not into Japanese games?
It's a good game. Most of the reasons people gush about it are pretty valid. Just be prepared for some frustration. The camera has quite a few issues and I've been having issues aiming the bow (not sure if that's because they've upscaled things so the movement is choppy or because the controls aren't that great or if I simply suck at it). It's not a perfect game but overall it's a pretty damned good game.
I don't really know how the country of origin factors into it. There's nothing about it that makes me think it would have been made differently by a Western company.
Thanks!
From what you've seen which parts make you uncertain about the game? Shadow of the Colossus doesn't feel like an American game, but in a lot of ways it doesn't feel like any sort of game. It's a bit like Prince of Persia or Assassin's Creed, if the city was a giant monster and you didn't have to worry about guards.
It's a bit of a difficult game to explain.
My only experience with Japanese games with the exception of first party Nintendo stuff have been JRPGs. I've never played one I like. I guess I'm colouring all their games with this prejudice. :S
Man, this site needs an edit button. I've played Resident Evils, Metal Gear Solids and Silent Hills too, but find there's always something clunky and unituitive with how they play and the stories told weirdly and often incoherantly. I understand it's just a taste thing, though. I'm not calling them bad at all.
Well, the story is hardly 'told' at all.
As for RE/SH/MGS, those camera dependent/'tank' control systems come due to the limitations of running on the PS1. Gamers got used to it, so they kept it.
But that's not a thing limited to 'Japanese' games.
It's been a while since I played it but the controls were fine at the time. Although it may just be one of those things where I don't remember them being terrible because all the games played like that at the time (I swear, there's games I remember having excellent controls that are absolute messes when I try to play them now).
The plot is weird but it's sort of quietly interestingly weird rather than your typical Japanese drama weird. It's less of a story and more of a backdrop, like a lot of modern Indie games do (sort of like Limbo I guess). The whole game pretty much takes place in the middle of nowhere with noone around to interact with besides the bosses. It's really strange but in a good way.
Personally I started losing interest in Japanese games around the time when 3D graphics and movie-like storytelling moved to the forefront so I know where you're coming from. I think I can safely say it's not the Japanese sort of game you're concerned about.
Cool, thanks man!
I'm busy tearing through Ratchet and Clank at the moment.
Im more than half way through amnesia... you just HAVE to play it. I love it. but yeah lights out late at night only.
I ve not even started my shamelessgaming month yet so i best be getting to it. stacking and amnesia are first to go.
I'm kind of tempted to add Amnesia to my list of games to play.
There are a few problems though.
1) I've seen Let's Plays of it. Which means I've had a good chunk of everything spoiled and that's going to ruin the magic.
2) I'm pretty terrible at adventure games.
3) I'm a coward.
I finished Medal of Honor(2010) and I liked it.
I'm thinking of maybe finishing Space Marine and replaying Ratchet and Clank: A crack in time.
After that it's anybody's guess.
Space Marine is disturbingly fun. Something about the combat, the weightiness of it all, just works and makes the whole thing so damned enjoyable.
Yeah I really enjoy the melee potion of the combat. In fact I wouldn't mind a pure brawler with the chainswords.
As long as there are jet pack sections.
Plenty of jet pack sections.
Yeah, too bad they couldn't spend 5 minutes to include a "Local Only" search function
(seriously, it was going to be my War for Cybertron for last year)
Mee too on Space Marine, What is the campaign like, I played the demo and it was good...
It's fairly short (standard for a modern third person shooter really) but incredibly fun. Well worth picking up.
Finished Dear Estha, Psychonauts.
Also by a miracle, i pulled out my Playstation 1, undusted it, and found my old memory card which had my Chrono Trigger game save still on it! so i fired it up,and finished it. (i had saved before the final boss years ago... as in, i havent touched my PS since i bought my original X-Box at launch!)
also, my current shameless month game attempt is the old Dos RPG, Albion (Blue Byte Software 1995). Just installed DosBox last night and fired it up so im getting back into it.
I haven't played anything since Monday, I've been bringing work home with me the last 2 nights. Tonight I will try and make another dent in Prototype 2!
I am about 4-5 hours into KOTOR 2 (original xbox version).... I probably should also bite the bullet and just finish Torchlight so it doesn't just slip into KOTORs place.
I made it to the "final" boss of Torchlight and just found him vastly overpowered for my character. I lost a lot of my enthusiasm to keep grinding away just to level up enough to take him down.
As for my own efforts, I'm plugging away at Just Cause 2. It's so big though that I'm barely scratching the story/mission side of things and just wandering from location to location in an obsessive-compulsive effort to inch towards 100% completion.
don't worry you're not the only one, first time some friends and I played through we all reached him around the same time and got utterly trounced, there are some tricks that I can no longer remember that do make him more manageable even at lower levels however.
Just finished Borderlands and about to start going through the DLC, with my next main target being Uncharted 3 hopefully next week and Gravity Rush sometime soon. Sadly a month is not long enough to get through the shamepile i have :\
I'm done with my pile of shame! Alice:Madness Returns was my last game to finish, & its done!
Its all about fun gaming atm!
Alice: Madness Returns was better than it really had any right to be. Maybe it was the swishy dresses but I had a lot of fun playing that game last year.
... I need to start on my pile.
I think currently it's got God of War 2, Ico, Infamous 2, Psychonauts, Super Meat Boy, Braid, Bastion, Amnesia, SCP Containment Breach and Halo Reach if I ever get around to buying an 360
I've played pretty much nothing but Dragon's Dogma!
So what's this Shameless Gaming fad going around then?
i finished lollipop chainsaw, and i think i'm close to passing saints row 3
I may finally be on the edge of completing Dragon Age Origins, if I don't get distracted again by creating a new character, but so close. Closest I've been yet.
Between work and these bloody power outs I have even started to dent my pile. I think top of the list is Deus Ex: HR, The Witcher 2 and replaying FFIII for android. Oh, and probably a heap of D3, cos I just can't resist.
Started Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. The "one at a time" plan died in the arse on day 2.
Having recently finished Shinobi (3DS) then blasted through Cave Story 3D, I'm actually getting some kind of progress going on.
Nearly at the end of Pullblox, just got the bonus puzzles left. Then it's a tossup between Dillon and Mighty Switch Force. Also Pinball.
Console games can wait til after the assignment.
I'm regretting my decision to go with mostly JRPGs as they usually clock in between 30-60 hours, which, with my current lifestyle of about 10 hours per week , means I'm lucky if I finish 1, let alone the three I nominated. However, I'm progressing rather well through Generation 3 (of 5) of Agarest: Generations of War, and making solid progress through the Shadow Temple in Ocarina of Time. I'm planning to knuckle down on the weekend so I should be able to knock at least one game over.
Ive been putting off my secodn playthrough of ME3 (for the extended cut) because I'm having too much fun with Infamous 2..I've almost cleared my backlog
except for Arkham city which Ive completly lost interest in
I bought ME3 for a second time on the 360 to finish my console playthrough, but haven't started after hearing there's story DLC on the way. I know after that playthrouh I'm gonna rest the series a bit and not go back to it for a little while, so would love to play the new stuff first.
I haven't had a chance to even start yet. Curse you freelance work!
Well between the TDF and launching a new division I don't have much time for gaming. My first goal is to complete from dust and then I'll work out what to do from there.
i finally finished max payne 1 after 11 years... yeah... go me
Slowly making my way through Saints Row 3. Might switch over to Motorstorm for a spell tonight.
2 bosses down in lollypop chainsaw, Then it's a choice of no more heros or turok