What Games Are You Playing?

got bored and decided to reinstall skyrim and try out as many of the... erm... kinky mods as i can manage :oops:

never tried playing it with mods before so this is going to be very interesting to me
 
Grats on the Plat :)

Completed my next Plat on Persona 4 Dancing all night

I'm not normally good at that sort of game but after extensive playing my hands started hitting buttons by themselves... I did have dreams of blue rings that night though heh...

Anyway Maze of Life is an awesome song, and Time to make History reminded me of how much i enjoyed P4G.

Might do Final Fantasy X next but want to clear a light novel backlog first before more gaming
 
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Time to talk about a Japanese import for the first time in ages!

Hatsune Miku Project Diva Arcade Future Tone is my first non-classic Japanese PSN download and for the past day or two I've been playing around getting used to the menu layout and gameplay. So what's different about this compared to the previous Project Diva instalments you may ask? Well for starters this is a port of the Arcade version and that used a different mechanic for the gameplay. For instance the whole 'hold a D-Pad direction and button' is now gone as well as those 'Stars' which used the R3/L3/Touchpad and the 'long stretch with one button', and instead we have multiple combos that rely on pressing all buttons at the same time as well as half-arrows that simply use the PS4 slidepad or L1/R1 for preference, and HOLD buttons to grab more points. These mechanics are in a way, make the game much easier to play and are much more accessible compared to the other instalments with the multiple combos being the only issue many users will encounter on harder difficulties. Another note to point out is that this game offers button configurations so you can customise how you want to play the game, for instance I added Square and Triangle to L2 and X and O to R2 to help combat the multiple combos. It doesn't matter how you want to customise it as the game will not penalise you for it.

Now what many of you will probably wonder the most is its soundtrack. The game is split into three packages; Prelude, a free download that offers only 2 songs but you can acquire all of the trophies without any issue; Future Sound, a paid DLC pack that contains 127 songs from various Project Diva titles released on PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita; and Colorful Tone, another paid DLC that contains 95 songs from Project Mirai (Nintendo 3DS) and Arcade. Combining all of that (which in total costs 8424 Yen; each DLC pack is 4212 Yen) the entire game offers well over 220 songs for the price of one full-priced retail game, which is one heck of a deal for anyone who wants to play a rhythm game with a ton of replayability. I personally picked up Future Sound as I really liked the songs that Project Diva F and F 2nd offered. It's worth noting that not all of the songs from previous games are included but at least most of them from each game are there, including Weekender Girl, Nyannyannyan, Packaged, Last Night Good Night, DYE, ODDS&ENDS, Sadistic.Music∞Factory, Time Machine, Tell Your World, DECORATOR and many more.

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Now how's the difficulty? Well for starters because this is based on the Arcade release the difficulty is much harder than the console instalments. Hard mode may be a challenge but it's doable but Extreme and especially Extra Extreme is torture levels, thankfully the trophy list doesn't require you to play those difficulties with perfection. It is still easy to play and the tutorial mode is simple to understand, even without knowledge of Japanese. Speaking of Japanese, the navigation for this game is simple to understand and after going through the menus you'll be able to understand what each one does. Compared to the other instalments there is no Vocaloid Simulation stuff since this focuses entirely on the songs than anything else but character customisation is still there. In addition to the main play there's also practice mode, the option to play songs with no-fail switched on, and a PV mode which is like watching a music video - you can even take photos which will be displayed during the loading screens.

So. Do I recommend Project Diva Arcade Future Tone? Yes I do, but only if you are interested in vocaloid music because music tastes is sort of required for these types of games. I personally really enjoy listening to vocaloid music and this instalment has been a blast to play. For the price I paid I got my money's worth with the content plus for those worried about space; the main base takes up 11GB with Future Sound at 9GB and Colorful Tone at 5GB, so it's not bad compared to other titles on PS4. In addition the game also runs at 1080p 60fps which is a neat bonus for those who like that sort of techy notes. The graphics are also different to the other instalments and may bother people because of the designs but I got used to them after a while.

Full-song list here (via NeoGAF)
Photos 2 & 3 via Gematsu

Price:
Prelude - Free
Future Sound - 4212 Yen [~£31]
Colorful Tone - 4212 Yen [~£31]

Format:
PlayStation 4 (Japan)
Digital Only

Overall grade:
A
 
So I've been pretty good this steam sale, only bought Lightning Returns (please don't judge me...) and Mass Effect 2. I've played Mass effect 1 and 3 but weirdly skipped 2 so pretty excited to play it. I was kinda worried it would look awful but truth is it's hasn't aged all that bad at all (I guess it isn't that old), but I still wanted to chuck in some texture mods and sweetfx settings to improve the visuals anyway, I'm pretty happy with how it looks at this point.

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That said, it would seem no amount of modding can fix Miranda's face lol...

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No idea what's going on there.

Of course I've re-sized this image from the 1080 it was at to fit on the site better but you get the idea. I reckon I'll be able to tweek it a bit more and improve it further (mainly the parts that are really dark) but I'm kinda itching to get started proper.
 
Like Grav I've been playing Hatsune Miku Project Diva Arcade Future Tone! I got into the Miku games thanks to Diva f and f 2nd on the PS3, so I'm well versed in the world of Miku. :)

I bought the Colorful Tone pack to start me off (going to get the other later this month/when the pound improves again), and have been having a wonderful time with it so far. It's difficult getting the hang of the new hold notes and the difficulty level has definitely gotten higher since f/f 2nd, but I'm determined to master it anyway! I've cleared all the songs on hard and am now going back and trying to complete them on Extreme or better my scores on hard. The Hatsune Miku games are the type I tend to play in short bursts once clearing all the songs once, so it'll keep me entertained for a good long while yet. ^^

I've also been playing Tokyo Mirage Sessions since my copy turned up on Thursday. I'm currently on chapter 3 and have about 20 hours on my save. It's not the crossover everyone wanted for the SMT and Fire Emblem series but I think it has enough elements from both to please most fans and either way I am in love with what we have. Only minor complaint is that Atlus' idea of a Normal difficulty and mine do not mash and never have - The boss battles have been downright cruel at times >_>

The difficulty is usually a problem I have with Persona as well so I think it's more that Atlus like to make really hard JRPG's rather than being unbalanced. I'll likely be bumping down to Easy sometime in the future, but I'm sticking it out for now as everyday battles have been fine and no boss has caused me a game over yet!
 
Buzzkillington said:
So I've been pretty good this steam sale, only bought Lightning Returns (please don't judge me...) and Mass Effect 2
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I'd say Mass Effect 2 is probably the best one, it's lacks the unfortunate ending of 3 and the combat is more fun than the first game. It's not perfect, the third game probably had better "friendship routes" for some of the characters (especially if you count Citadel) and the story is still a bit silly at times, but overall it's probably the strongest entry (unless you really really liked the Mako, perhaps).

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a super remastered version of the full series released at some point (at least for the consoles). It should be interesting to see what the new game is like (it apparently has a new Mako, yay!).
 
Smeelia said:
I'd say Mass Effect 2 is probably the best one, it's lacks the unfortunate ending of 3 and the combat is more fun than the first game. It's not perfect, the third game probably had better "friendship routes" for some of the characters (especially if you count Citadel) and the story is still a bit silly at times, but overall it's probably the strongest entry (unless you really really liked the Mako, perhaps).

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a super remastered version of the full series released at some point (at least for the consoles). It should be interesting to see what the new game is like (it apparently has a new Mako, yay!).
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I actually strongly prefer the first entry. The second was a solid sequel (even if I was underwhelmed by it). I'm indifferent to the third one. I'm hoping that the new game shifts back to the RPG side, but I'm certain they won't.
 
Jatz said:
I actually strongly prefer the first entry. The second was a solid sequel (even if I was underwhelmed by it). I'm indifferent to the third one. I'm hoping that the new game shifts back to the RPG side, but I'm certain they won't.
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The original Mass Effect certainly had it's advantages. It probably has the best sense of exploration and discovery, the other games have their moments but get a little bogged down in the fighting.

It could be because they appear throughout the games, but I tend to think the original crew were also the best (at least the non-humans) since you can build more of a friendship with them than pretty much anyone else (other crew members tend to be restricted to "romance" or "ignore" options). Garrus was particularly interesting in the first game since you could influence him towards Renegade or Paragon ways of thinking but, unfortunately, that didn't seem to have a major effect in future games (though it's kind of touched on).

The way the first game handles "non-combat skills" is probably better as well, since you have to invest skill points in them and there's less of a need to consistently follow one path in order to use persuasion. The skills in general were maybe not quite as well designed as in later entries but they tended to include a bit more flexibility.

I think my main complaint against the first game is that the combat was a bit too easy and didn't often feel tactical, interesting or challenging (at least beyond the early levels). It wasn't terrible but in subsequent playthroughs it could start to feel like something you just want to get past to get to the good bits (maybe even during the first playthrough for some). I find the combat in the second and third games can be enjoyable in itself, which makes it a bit easier to go back to the games.

Saying that, I played the first game four times, the second one three times and the third only once. Maybe that means something.

I'd expect the next game to probably have similar gameplay to the third game but I really hope they at least bring back the exploration and character strengths of the first game (a new Mako is a good sign for exploration, at least). It would be nice if they could also find a better way to handle persuasion and maybe throw in some alternative skill choices that could make subsequent playthroughs more interesting/different by opening up new options.
 
Smeelia said:
The original Mass Effect certainly had it's advantages. It probably has the best sense of exploration and discovery, the other games have their moments but get a little bogged down in the fighting.

It could be because they appear throughout the games, but I tend to think the original crew were also the best (at least the non-humans) since you can build more of a friendship with them than pretty much anyone else (other crew members tend to be restricted to "romance" or "ignore" options). Garrus was particularly interesting in the first game since you could influence him towards Renegade or Paragon ways of thinking but, unfortunately, that didn't seem to have a major effect in future games (though it's kind of touched on).

The way the first game handles "non-combat skills" is probably better as well, since you have to invest skill points in them and there's less of a need to consistently follow one path in order to use persuasion. The skills in general were maybe not quite as well designed as in later entries but they tended to include a bit more flexibility.

I think my main complaint against the first game is that the combat was a bit too easy and didn't often feel tactical, interesting or challenging (at least beyond the early levels). It wasn't terrible but in subsequent playthroughs it could start to feel like something you just want to get past to get to the good bits (maybe even during the first playthrough for some). I find the combat in the second and third games can be enjoyable in itself, which makes it a bit easier to go back to the games.

Saying that, I played the first game four times, the second one three times and the third only once. Maybe that means something.

I'd expect the next game to probably have similar gameplay to the third game but I really hope they at least bring back the exploration and character strengths of the first game (a new Mako is a good sign for exploration, at least). It would be nice if they could also find a better way to handle persuasion and maybe throw in some alternative skill choices that could make subsequent playthroughs more interesting/different by opening up new options.
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I think the one thing I enjoyed in Mass Effect 2 was interacting with characters, but each conversation was separated by twenty minutes of TPS corridor sequences. The shooting and cover system in 1 was poor, compared to the sequels, but the sequels introduced dodgy hit boxes too.

I always found the praise Mass Effect 2 received for its tedious space exploration hilarious, especially when 1 had actual exploration on planets in a car (which, honestly speaking can get boring too but still a million times better than shooting probes into planets).

Totally. A good RPG always gives you a reason to replay it. I've played Mass Effect a couple of times, 2 only once and couldn't even be bothered to get half way through 3.
I've heard enough about 3s ending ruining the game for people, but I thought introducing characters like Kai Leng did way more harm. Why, if the Illusive Man had a guy like Kai Leng, did he spend countless resources reviving Shepard? I mean, Kai Leng can apparently pinpoint any life form so surely he could've told the Illusive Man where to find the Reapers. Kind of makes 2s story pretty pointless.

I hope so, but a lack of any gameplay footage and with under a year to go, I'm guessing they won't have time to fix any gripes fans will have. I'll be happy if the game has a decent sense of exploration and interaction.
 
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Having felt in the mood for an iron sight simulator, but also wanting to try and play a few more of the things lurking in my steam library, I decided to give the original Far Cry a shot. Between the daft plot and the equally silly voice acting, it' feels appreciably more tongue in cheek than its utterly po-faced sequel, but the gameplay is less varied and the setting is all too familiar - I did not realise how much the third game actually borrowed from this one aesthetically.

I might stick with it for a little longer, but I'll likely switch to something else soon.
 
Last Week I finally rounded off doing everything in Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward on PS Vita, it's only taken me over three years! Got my Second Platinum on the Vita in the process (10th Overall across PlayStation).

Now I'm back on Steins;Gate, around Chapter 5 of the game so getting into the real Meat & Potatoes of the story, pretty soon I will probably be at the point where I start getting some resolutions for stories of some of the characters, I can't help but think there's some stuff I've missed out on in my playthrough so far but I've gone too far to turn back at this point so I'll deal with it later! Delicious CG's are Delicious!
 
So instead of getting Final Fantasy X i saw Omega Quintet on sale so picked up that instead.

ye gods this game is insanely hard. Still, i'm ploughing through as once i start i don't quit until Plat. You can see the Neptunia influences (indeed quite a lot of the enemies/level bits are reused) but the gameplay is different and much much harder.

If anyone is going to pick this up on the sale i'd say beware these two words Order Break

Whoever thought of that mechanic should be tortured in hades!

Still, i like the concept and the characters are cute. And i guess if its hard the Platinum will be even shinier, right?
 
Played through the Street Fighter V story mode, it's exactly as bad as I assumed it would be, but because of that it was kinda goofy fun at the same time lol I got to see Juri and good god did they do a good job with her character model. Her and Urien's character models look sooooo much better than the rest in the game it's kinda jarring tbh. Anyway her moveset clearly isn't done yet, I for one really hope she gets her dive kick back. I'm now so hyped for her getting put in the game proper, same with Urien. I played some matches with Ibuki online too, she has insanely cool combos and is just really fun to play.

I've also been playing Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, I just finished Gwendolyn's main story and moving on to Cornelius's. The games a lot of fun but I had to play on hard from the start as it was really easy on normal. The updates to the gameplay they made for the remaster really do make it a much better game (and it was already pretty great) and it looks beautiful too. I'm really enjoying it and can't wait to reach best girl Velvet's story as I remember her being the most fun to play and wanna see what she's like in the new system. It feels like it's going to be a pretty easy plat too with everything unlocking in a playthrough, which is a nice bonus.

As a side note, the game is dual audio but I started it in English, I quickly realized that everyone's VA's voice someone in Bleach lol just thought it was kinda amusing trying to remember some of the more obscure ones voices. But, like Bleach actually, I switched to the Japanese voices after a while.
 
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Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness I had wanted to play it with the Japanese voice cast but the subtitles hurt my eyes, it's a good job the the English voice cast it good...can't go wrong with Crispin Freeman. Apart from that I'm loving it and the backgrounds are beautiful.
 
Update on my Platinum crusade...

about 60 hours in on Omega Quintet (would have played more but i went up a mountain or two (stupid Pen y fan) and got really drunk, then came down with a virus so i've been laid up, but i digress...)

anyway, finished the main story, which i really enjoyed, but now onto the grind, and Oh God, what a grind. 20% done with the hardest grind, and estimate another 40-60 hours of grinfing, and one very tough optional boss remains.

I will succeed, but it is painful. Overall the game was worth it, and if you aren't desperate to get every Plat then its definitely worth a pickup in the sale. If you do however, learn the following combo. Cremation, Absolution, Legato, Aubade Crush because you'll be spamming that bugger at the begining of every endgame fight four or so times!
 
I recently completely completed The Witcher 3, including both expansions ("Hearts of Stone" and "Blood and Wine") and all of the trophies (Playstation Trophies, not Monster Trophies... though I probably got all of those too). There are probably a few minor things I haven't done and I won't have seen every possible combination of options but I feel it's sufficiently completed.

I did enjoy Blood and Wine, it's much better than the first expansion. The story is quite good, although it feels like it sidelines a main character who seemed to be important initially (Dettlaff) by making their fate feel like a secondary concern to everything else. On the plus side, it gets major bonus points for having a great buddy character for Geralt to hang around with. My favourite moments in the main game tended to be the ones where Geralt is working/spending time with a friend and the best part of the other expansion is similar too. Geralt is a pretty interesting character anyway but I think his friends often bring out the best in him (or at least different sides of him) and they're generally pretty interesting themselves (even Lambert... well maybe not Lambert).

Blood and Wine also does a good job of giving a sense of closure (especially if you've completed the main game already). There's a nice message in the end credits relating to this being the last game that will star Geralt (not necessarily the last Witcher game, I suppose, but we'll see) and it does feel like the end of an era, in a way.

Overall it really is a great RPG. Plenty of fun sidequests (though not all are equal), a solid story, an interesting world and some great characters. The downside to games like this is that they're a pretty big time investment and it's not always easy to focus on just doing the best bits. I think it's well worth the time and effort, although I do wonder if I'd come back to play it again some day. That's often the problem with games in general though, there are always new games to play that build on the successes of the past and it can be difficult to justify the time to play something older.
 
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I've been playing more Overwatch because apparently I hate myself :/ I did my placement matches and got put in 59 which isn't exactly incredible but it's not awful either, I am now at 42 lol like I would say 50% of my matches have people leave, about 25% have people just picking stupid characters for the game type (Oh, we trying to capture a point? Torbjorn, Bastion & Hanzo it is!!!). I also find losing a match puts you down a level but it takes winning about 3 or 4 to get back up (I dunno if this is a plight saved for people who pick healers but it's brutal at times) so my rank has just plummeted and I'm struggling to play it now, which is probably for the best tbh.

Still plugging away at Odin Sphere, still enjoying it very much.
 
Dragon Age Inquisition, Borderlands Handsome Jack Collection (Co-Op with friends), NBA 2k16 and FIFA 16 (Co-Op with friends).

FIFA and NBA are what they are. Playing Borderlands Pre Sequel and it's pretty eh. More of the same, but clearly they cheaped out on the game. Less diverse maps and enemy types, along with forgettable dialogue and story. Dragon Age Inquisition is solid. Much better than DA2, but that isn't saying much. Liking the added tactics from the previous game, but the element of choice is pretty bare.

Counting down the days to Deus Ex.
 
I've been playing some more of my 360 backlog, cleared Star Trek (a cheap version of Mass Effect 2 basically, only without any dialogue options or exploration) and have now started on Dragon Age Origins. Having never played a DA before I wasn't sure what to expect, and it reminds me somewhat of KotOR (same devs I think so I really shouldn't be that surprised) only with mages instead of lightsabres.

I also tried Uncharted 3 on PS3 a few weeks ago, but grew bored of the constant slaughter and dropped it. Also tried Zelda Skyward Sword, and as usual with Zelda games I lost interest halfway through (the only one I've actually finished was Twilight Princess), so now my Wii has been packed away never to be seen again.

And I've literally just a few hours ago ordered a Xbox One, couldn't resist the £200 pricetag. My first foray into 'current gen' gaming, I was actually planning to only get a PS4 this gen but I'll just put that on the back burner until next year when Nier and (hopefully) Shenmue are released.
 
Fell back in love with PC gaming recently, and attacked my Backlog somewhat. Picked up Doom and RE:R2 but can't start them until I mow through some of the 60+ games I haven't even started yet (damn steam sales and bundles!)

Finished Resident EVil Revelations - Great game, probably my third favorite Resi after REmake and Resident Evil 2.

Wolfenstein: The New Order - Really surprised me with how good this was, expected a dumb shooter, but the gameplay, plot and presentation made this a stand out game. Can't wait to start on Old Blood and hope for a sequel!

Binary Domain - Blowing apart robots is very fun. About half way through the game. Good presentation, enjoyable combat.
 
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