God, it's like I never left.

something something isometric CRPGs something something JRPGs suck

Yeah man Rage is a little dull

It never feels like your missions advance the story in any real way, and it generally feels like you could just stand around doing fuck-all and the plot would work itself out. Raiding an Authority outpost and killing their soldiers by the score should result in more than just having to leave town and go to a different, equally uninteresting town.

Also finished God of War III. It's a worthy end to the trilogy, even if it feels a little overstuffed and unfocused (like most threequels).

GTA 5 has been giving me wet dreams recently. I can not wait till this game comes out. To many good memories with the series. I'm personally a big fan of sandbox games, and I've always been a huge fan of the GTA series.

I prefer controllers for adventure games, platformers or hack n' slash games. Playing those kind of games with a keyboard/mouse setup is (usually) annoying. On another note, I've been playing this cool game called Arcanum, and it's a really neat little RPG. Anyone else familiar with it?

I played Arcanum last summer (or maybe the one before) and liked it a lot, although admittedly school got in the way and I never finished it after 60+ hours invested and a general high level of enjoyment. It started really rough for me (I went for a mech-oriented gunman and got raped by mere wolves) but when I restarted as a mage and got used to some of the balancing quirks, I got into it quite a bit. I love the steampunk/fantasy theme and all the conspiracy in the plot, and despite being fairly drab graphically, I found it very immersive. When I have more time I'm going to eventually give it a fresh restart.

Also has one of the most anticlimatic endings in recent history. It just ends when things are getting interesting.

Oh, modern gaming. Why are you playing Rage for the story? Rage is through-in-through a classic first-person shooter in that it's mechanics above all else, and some modern touches in all of the right places. They just released a new downloadable content pack (like, two years too late) that adds a new faction, missions and a nail gun that has a swappable front-end. If they give me any reason to go back to Rage, I will in a heartbeat.

Looking back on it, I can easily say I liked Doom 3 way more. Rage felt like some DLC for Borderlands or something, in scope. Lacked bosses and length. Decent for a cheap price though.

I grew up on classic shooters, and Rage doesn't feel like one. Games like Serious Sam and Painkiller get the classic FPS feel down, where the draw is just seeing how insane the battles can get and how long you can survive. Rage is very much a story-driven modern shooter.

Recently bought some Gamecube games from overseas and was wondering if a deodorant/perfume or an unusual smell (not smoke - I'm aware that ruins them) makes it still not an option to keep in your collection? I've looked online and it's all about the horrible plight of smoke, I've yet to encounter this lesser topic. Can I keep these games, will they have any effect when put with the others?

Anybody get Anarchy Reigns? Played a little bit so far, pretty neat for a brawler. Haven't taken the game online as I don't have live, but I'm liking it. Feels like Madworld Part 2.

Yeah the gunman can be a bit tough, I find myself having to kite a lot while letting my group (who are pure melee) beat the hell out of whoever I'm kiting. I haven't messed around with inventions or anything as I feel like it would be a waste of time since I am just stealing money or haggling for a good price in shops. I plan on making an evil mage once I've finished.

The game does a good job with immersion, I like how there's a lot of different ways to complete each quest, whether it be some short fetch quest or one of the main quests.

It looks like The Witcher 3 is being announced soon, 5th of February I believe. I knew it wouldn't take long due to them probably using the second games' engine and not making an entirely new one, but so soon? Just wow. Man, this game cannot come fast enough! Pretty excited.

Looking forward to Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, Rome II: Total War and Wasteland 2 as well. That's a lot of 2's.

You have a wonderful taste in vidya games, sir.

Thanks man! Hopefully it'll be a good year.

I'm actually a bit more excited about Cyberpunk. I need that game badly.

I bought a lot of Might and Magic games during the GoG sale (most of which I already own but hey, the compatability with Win 7 is flawless!) and beat M&M VI last saturday. Now doing the (mostly dissapointing) part VIII. I beat Worlds of Xeen and VII too many times so I skipped those for now. Might do a complete retrospective video series on youtube or something. Great cRPGs!

I can't wait for Cyberpunk, but I also haven't played either of the Witcher games.

Based on the Witcher 2's reputation, I only hope Cyberpunk is more well optimized. I want to appreciate all that eyecandy with the nice rig I [will have] just built!

Re: keyboard/mouse vs. controller

The new Devil May Cry is out today. It's supposed to be pretty good, minus the story? I might check it out. I loved 3 and 4.

My brother and I played the demo. The character of Dante is trying even harder to be "edgy" and "cool", so basically he's an umbearably twatty kid this time around, they're apparently allowed to swear now so it's just littered with gratuitous profanity (you don't have to be smart or witty when you can just say "fuck" instead), aaaand dubstep blares during a boss fight that consists almost entirely of quick time events.

So no, not a fan of what I played.

Not trying to play the devil's advocate here, but I find this "insolent punk" incarnation of Dante to be rather justifiable, in the sense that this is the youngest version of him yet, so he's more immature and a bit of a try hard.

Still prefer the old Dante though.

Which I get, and I realize that's the explanation for why he's so much saltier in 3 than in 1 or 2 (I haven't played 4, so no comment on that one), but if I'm not mistaken this is supposed to take place as if the previous four games never happened, it's an entirely new continuity. So they're reinventing their character who was already known as a half-demon smartass and ruthless killer of evil with a smile, and tried to make him a half-demon smartass and ruthless killer of evil with a smile for the woooorld of tomorrooow! I'd heard that was the mindset behind this reboot, to make Dante, and the series by extension, cool. Which blows me away because the entire allure of the series when it debuted was how stylish and slick it was, and Dante was the absolute perfect character to attach to such an idea. It's a classic case of just fixing what isn't broken.

You have a great point there, Bastard. There wasn't really a need to change Dante in any way, though I'm personally not bothered by his somewhat immature cussing and bratty behavior as much as other people.

Mmmmmm, all of this DMC talk got me in the mood to play the third game again (the best one of the entire series, me thinks). Time to get the dust off the old PS2, apparently!

Not that I ever liked DMC, but, yikes. Do not want.

Looks like a classic case of gamer entitlement! Haven't you read the reviews? It's saving the DMC franchise!

Now I'm not one to call the DMC franchise great or anything (I really liked 1 and 4), and of course players were subjected to industrial / nu background music for each, but wow does that sound far worse.

It looks like Bayonetta for girls. Like some teenage heartthrob bad boy. The opening cutscene shows him walking around all shirtless.

I'll stick with Bayonetta since I'm a straight male.

I found the constant cussing annoying too. It's trying too hard to be cool. Lolipop Chainsaw is another Bayonetta type game where it's just sex and button mashing. Unlike Bayonetta it's loaded with foul language but its tone is also silly. When you throw in "fuck" that many times in a game like DMC that tries to look cool it just comes off looking dumb.

New Devil May Cry is pretty cool. Reminds me a ton of the older ones. I haven't played enough to give a full impression, but playing the first two levels, it definitely feels a little bit streamlined in terms of the level design. I remember walking around some of the levels in DMC 3 trying to figure out what the hell to do. The music is still there, the combo systems are still there, you still hit guys up in the air, shoot them a bunch and then slash them a bit. You can still switch between like four different weapons to create combos. The style of the game is pretty cool, too, Limbo's design is especially awesome, but it seems like there's going to be a ton more variance in the levels and styles as I go on per the reviews I've read. It seems like they might've taken out the puzzles that were in the previous game, which is probably a good thing because I remember them being nothing but a hassle in Devil May Cry 3.

Also, Dante's character this time around seems younger and a bit more curious about what's going on around him rather than just what we've been shown in prerelease stuff. I know the vibe that came off from him was that of a know-it-all smartass and while there was that in the first level, that doesn't really seem to be the core of his character in this game. Those definitely seem like periphery elements of his character. The story is never really why I came to the Devil May Cry series anyway. It's still as ridiculous, corny and over-the-top as the previous games were from what I've seen, and I'm sure there's going to be elements of over-the-top seriousness the series is known for, too. If you like character action games, you should probably give this a shot.

Also, it looks like it's going to be quite a year for character action games with Anarchy Reigns, Devil May Cry and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. I'm not sure if Lords Of Shadow 2 is supposed to hit this year or not.

One of my friends said that Bayonetta looked like DMC for girls upon first seeing me play it. He became a hardcore fan a week later. I haven't played the new DMC but I'm not expecting much either. As of today, Bayonetta is the best title in that style.


...and this was my immediate response to that previous friend's comment.

In other subject, anyone played Rocksmith? I'm so happy with it, it made me take up the guitar once more after an 8 (or so) year hiatus.

Ninja Blade >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Ninja Gaiden 2/3 / Bayonetta / etc.

I don't know what happened to Japanese combo intensive action games, but I haven't really enjoyed any this gen nearly as much as I did the slew of great titles last gen (DMC's, first Ninja Gaiden, Onimusha, Otogi, etc). I honestly dug DMC4 a lot though, backtracking aside.

I'll probably sound like a massive pussy for this, but I could never beat Devil May Cry 1 or 3 (never bothered with 2, and I only rented 4). I'd get halfway through the game, reach a boss that I couldn't beat without using up all my red orbs on an extra life or health, and then get the shittiest possible mission score because I used said items, because I died, and because I beat him while my health was in the red, blinking area. So when I got the next boss after that, I had absolutely nothing on my side. That's about the point where I threw my hands up and said "Fuck this, life's too short."

I still own DMC3, so I might give it another go.

I actually beat DMC1 quite easily. DMC3, though...

Yeah I have a huge rant about how needlessly punishing DMC3 was, but I've neared the first one at least twice, and I'm really not all that good at games overall.

I've been on ICO lately. I really enjoy it apart from the forced combat sections, which suck horribly, but otherwise it's really engaging so far. I'm not sure how far in I am, but I spent about an hour total in the waterfall area, trying to jump on that wretched water wheel.

I've liked every DMC game (yes, even the second one) and I'm planning to play this new one when I can. I played the demo and it was pretty badass, introducing an interesting new weapon switch on the fly/combo system. I thought the boss battle was very memorable and no it didn't have that many quick time events (much less than something like God of War which is universally praised.) I don't think the series is really as punishing as a lot of people seem to think it is. The surmountable challenge of the third one was part of the appeal and things like the Virgil boss battles were very epic.

Just spent a wonderful couple of hours being trounced in Starcraft 2 1v1 matches until the game finally decided I was "skilled" enough to enter bronze league and then beat a couple of games by the skin of my teeth.

Just bought a Super Nintendo from a friend with the following:
Act Raiser
Alien vs Predator
Sim City
Super Metroid
Zombies Ate My Neighbors

I've also got Castlevania IV and Dracula X to play through as well.

The Super Metroid cartridge didn't want to load but after a lot of swipes of rubbing alcohol it seems good to go. Aww hell yeah.

I'm actually excited to pick up the new DMC. I never played the old ones, but I've played through the DMC demo many, many times. The combat is fun. I think I will play DMC 1 and 3, then pick up DMC for cheap either used on PS3 or during a steam sale. The retarded plot and angst overload doesn't bother me in the slightest. In fact, I find it somewhat charming.