Games: What games are you currently playing? [OT!]

**Hell Knight** · July 20th, 2005, 06:10 AM

Bought World of Warcraft. We agreed with mom that I can play it monthly, but first hafta open a bank account so I can play it only a few weeks l8er. Till it Guild Wars and unreal tournament

**Xellos** · July 20th, 2005, 01:23 PM

Just got Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

Playing that, Atelier Iris, Warcraft 3, and WoW.

Oh, Kirby Canvas Curve occasionally too.

**One Classy Bloke** · July 20th, 2005, 06:38 PM

IRT HK: Be sure to use the Horde as your main. Horde kick ass.

**Nevan** · July 21st, 2005, 01:50 AM

I haven't had time to play much except Halo and Halo 2 for like five games at a friend's house between today and yesterday.

**mrwiseman** · July 23rd, 2005, 02:48 PM

*STAR OCEAN 3 SPOILERS*

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I've been playing some more, now I'm about to see the Queen of Aquaria. I've arranged PAs to see my favorite characters' endings, but like always, I have to let Albel go, because if I say what he likes, I'll fuck it up with pretty much anybody else. So I'll hopefully be watching Nel's, Cliff's, Maria's, Sophia's, and Mirage's, even though these 5 are still somewhat hard/risky to get done, as Cliff is quite problematic and Maria and Mirage can't be left unattended. Sophia is easy as heck (you gotta be an ass not to get her) and Nel's easy if you know how to not screw up with her.

In the end, I think Fayt should hit Sophia, he likes her best and they seem to be the game's couple. Can you imagine how would Fayt and Maria be in bed? (Hint: a symbological experience.) And I guess Cliff would want to get Mirage himself, even though he doesn't think he will. Albel would like Nel in a way (probably in the honorable way of lower brain), but he won't be getting any. As a matter of fact, his affection for Nel is 5 points higher than the other way around (according to this guide), even though this is irrelevant for the game. Finally, Nel is obviously attracted to Claire and vice-versa, in fact I think they're both lesbians and use the mansion bedrooms every time she says she still has a lot to discuss with Claire in Arias. They engage in hot girl sex, Nel being the dominant one. Not that I'm complaining, and note how Shion's VA gets to do the lesbians :P .

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Wait, do you think I was gonna post this without saying how great Welch's ass is? Well, Welch's ass is the bet thing ever, there you go

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**One Classy Bloke** · July 27th, 2005, 09:28 PM

Finally got round to playing FFXI. So far it's been fun. But the best aspect of it is the community. It's a hell of a lot nicer than WoW's. That said, i'm still prefering WoW, but we'll see.

Now for the skillful balance of two MMORPGS at once.

**Cataferal** · July 28th, 2005, 02:27 AM

Just installed Guilty Gear X2 #Reload Korean on my PS2. This is widely considered to be the most up-to-date version of the Guilty Gear series so far, featuring a completely remade soundtrack, a Korean dub, and a couple of new stages and moves. Im not very keen on the Korean dub myself, but fortunately Arc System Works included an option allowing you to revert any of the aforementioned changes back to the standard Reload version. Worth having, although it means i have to unlock everything again.

Ive also been playing Final Fantasy X: International. Similarly, this appears to be the best incarnation of FFX, which not only includes all the features i treasured from my original PAL version, but also plays it in the original 60Hz frame rate. I found this to be a rare enough combination as is, but what pleased me most was the the option to play the game in either full english or japanese. Thanks to these improvements, i now feel motivated to replay the game.

Additionally, ive obtained two classic japanese fighters, developed by SNK Playmore. Ive included a review for each, for anyone interested in 2D fighter alternatives to Guilty Gear or Street Fighter:

Gurao: Mark of the Wolves - After playing this, me, Raij and OCB came to realise that we had taken the fluidity, animation and sheer gameplay depth of the Guilty Gear series for granted. This features a much more traditional 2D fighter pace, moving very slowly and featuring a lot of long pauses in combat. Ideally, these pauses would serve as an ample oppurtunity to rethink your fighting tactics, however theres very little depth in the games mechanics to really strategize over. You have 4 attack buttons to link combos with (high and low punch, high and low kick), and a power bar, which when filled, gives you the ability to pull off a special attack. There are certainly a couple of chain choices to make, but the fact that theres not enough variety in moves means games become a little stale after a while.

That said, while this game may seem fairly shallow by todays standards, in all its simplicity it does represent the "old-skool" style of 2D fighters nicely. This is a game that'll appeal to long term 2D fighter fanatics looking for a nostalgia trip. The rest of us, however, will see that the sprites adorn respectable frame rates, the music is catchy, and the characters are all somewhat varied, but at the end of the day they are all limited by a very basic game engine.

Final Score: 6/10

King of Fighters: Neowave - I expected more from this. As a game released in 2005, i was insulted to find that this plays exactly like Gurao, a game originally released 6 years ago. The only notable addition to gameplay would be the "Roll" ability, triggered when two attack buttons are pressed together. Also, games are prominently played as Team matches, with pairs of 3 duking it out either side instead of just a simple 1 v 1. Sadly, as far as the gameplay physics and interface are concerned, thats all thats been improved.

On a positive note, to respect the tripled number of players featuring in a match, the character selection was multiplied accordingly; instead of 20 fighters, there are now a whopping 60 to experiment with straight away. While not as vividly varied as Guilty Gear's roster, i was impressed to see that the majority of KoF's fighters are all unique and have their own style. Furthermore, the graphics present them all fluidly, and the backgrounds, while rendered in 3D, dont seem to clash with the 2D visuals (a common criticism of Capcom's recent fighters). Generally, this fighter seems to have a lot more to offer in terms of characters and visuals, although its just a shame that SNK Playmore continually refuse to renovate this tired games engine once and for all.

Final Score: 7/10

Anyway, on a final note, i bought Advance Wars for the GBA, and i should get round to playing it today. I figured it'd be an easy way to get back into handheld gaming (something ive neglected over the last few years) thanks to its apparant addictivity. This, and all the aforementioned games, should be more than enough to keep me occupied over the summer.

<font color="#345E81" size="1">[ July 27, 2005 11:32 PM: Message edited by: Cataferal ]</font>

**Xellos** · July 28th, 2005, 04:38 PM

Finally getting around to beating Chrono Cross. Stupid dragons...

**Dreamer7000** · July 28th, 2005, 07:35 PM

Started Resident Evil 2 again, with a goal to beat all game modes ^^

Altho I have graphic and compability problems, it's still nice enough to play it.