3's still has fun combat, but it's so full of mechanic holes in the gameplay that it's frustrating. III deliberately inconveniences the player throughout the playthrough (the underground tunnel exploration in order to fast travel around the city is the worst fucking idea of this generation of gaming). Trekking through the wilderness was less fun after the first time. Making money was also terribly inconvenient. You always were poor unless you skinned bears and shit. You can look up on Kotaku for more of a description. The naval combat in III however was a blast (it was mission oriented in that game as opposed to open-ended in IV).

In IV, you pretty much live on your ship when you aren't doing story missions. You can upgrade your ship on your ship and stop at tiny islands to stock up on ammo and stuff. Otherwise, I pretty much avoided any "major" cities for a good day at one point.

Oh and haven't played multiplayer since Brotherhood (just not interested in that component).

Wow Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's plot certainly took a turn for the worst near the end. Plot twist! Plot twist! Plot twist! Nevermind that it doesn't follow any sort of internal consistency. [ending spoilers] I haven't beaten the DLC yet, but The one thing the DLC did improve on the main game is the puzzles. There are at least two puzzles I'd consider pretty challenging, whereas most of those in the main game are just plain insulting.

In any case... the naysayers are completely right, this isn't Castlevania. No wonder it was some random game they tacked the Castlevania name on for the cash in, it shows really really badly. No classic Castlevania enemies or bosses or areas or songs or anything. The only link to the Castlevania lore is the Belmont name. It's a shame because they had some cool ideas and the environments are awesome... but in the end it's just another God of War knock-off with all the obnoxious tropes of modern gaming (QTEs, hand-holding, easy puzzles, traversal platforming, bad dialogue, stupid plot twists, cinematic battles!!1 ripping off SotC, etc). Castlevania deserves better.

Well despite the triple chorus of "no!" to my Alan Wake question I went ahead and got the franchise pack. Even if you guys didn't like it, I wound up only paying $4 for both Alan Wake and Alan Wake's American Nightmare, and enough people have liked them to be worth a shot I think.

Then why did you ask?

@Morrigan: I find it very strange that you even gave Lords of Shadow a shot. Personally, I liked it a fair bit*, but considering the kind of games you usually praise, I'm not surprised in the least that you didn't enjoy it.

*With that said, yeah, it's not really a Castlevania game. Take away the Belmont name and it could be an entirely new franchise.

Because other people said it was good in venues other than this thread, and I did weigh the opinions of those who said it was crap.

Next question for me to ignore: Ys I & II Chronicles: yay or nay?

I literally just made the decision not to buy it. I mean the amount makes it negligible if I do, but it doesn't look like something I'd invest in for gameplay. I'd rather not bumble my way into every enemy as if it were an auto-attack, even if the story, setting, and history for the game are worth it.

It was a Christmas gift. And, well, I heard interesting things about LoS2 and wanted to give the first game a shot since people who normally decry obnoxious modern games (Nightgaunt, some NeoGAF folks) gave it solid praise.

It's still baffling to me as to why they did, though. Combat is okay (minus the QTEs of course), art is awesome and the graphics are gorgeous, but that's really all it has going for it. Crappy writing ruins the otherwise stellar voice acting they hired, QTEs ruin the otherwise decent action combat, the hand-holding is absurd and insulting, puzzles are almost all too easy (with a few exceptions), and a forgettable score without any Castlevania personality make for a rather mediocre and very disappointing game.

As I said, I found it to be a solid title for the most part, though it wasn't mind-blowing or anything. I'm not nearly as annoyed as you are by modern gaming tropes, as "fun" and "challenging" aren't necessarily equivalent factors in my mind, but yeah, LOS has some rather noticeable problems going beyond the pure gameplay aspects (namely, the music and writing, as you mentioned). It's not really something that I'd play twice, now that I think about it.....

As for LOS2..... Well, the same team is working on it, so take from that what you will.

One of my all time favorite series, so I say yes. Fantastic music. The first two games, even with the remake, aren't super amazing by today's standards, but they're still great games, in my opinion, and worth playing before you move on to stuff like Oath in Felghana (if you haven't played it already).

I know that. But from what I found out, they "cut back" on QTEs (and the demo had an option to turn them off apparently) and the hand-holding, and now they're going into Castlevania mode (hopefully) from the ground up, so there is hope yet. Plus the vampiric abilities look pretty cool, reminds me of Legacy of Kain.

... I think I just really really want a next-gen Legacy of Kain game.

Edit:

Yes, it's very stupid and kind of insulting to put that in the DLC, plus it was shoddily handled anyway.

Uh, really? That's a bit of a surprise. Mind sharing a link that provides such information?

You and me both

Some info about LoS 2:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/672716-c ... 2/67616428

http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/castle ... -info.html

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=731767
(Bolding those that remind me of LoK, particularly Blood Omen)

"Stealth sections" sound like bullshit but then

I'm so desperate for awesome vampire action that I really want to like these games. LoS left me down, here's to hoping LoS2 will be muuuuch better. Hope they go the Metroidvania structure...

All of that sounds very, very intriguing. And you were right; stuff like Mist Form is straight out of the Legacy of Kain book. The Metroidvania structure seems to be one of their goals indeed, as the mention of "teleportation points" (no need for such things in a purely linear game) hints. Better keep an eye on this one.....

That's basically the conclusion I reached: neat but some aspects haven't aged well. Anyway, as HellBlazer so kindly pointed out, I've definitely got enough games to last me through the summer sale and have spent way, way too much between the fall and winter sale already, so I'm gonna pass on it for now but will put it on my wishlist. No more games for me this sale, unless there's some sort of absurdly good sale on a game I've really been wanting to play.

What!? Dracula was a vampire before being a vampire was cool.

Just finished Dead Island: Riptide. Suffers from the very same glaring problem of the first one, namely being repetitive as fuck. However this one being a good ten (or so) hours shorter helps a ton, I had a good time. That said the new character, John is exactly what the doctor ordered to make combat better. Murdering zombies in the hundreds with your BARE hands? Yes, please.

You mean he turned into mist before turning into mist was cool?

Well he kinda did.

.....well, yeah, true that

So I picked up my first PC game on disk in at least 5 years, and as such have entered the seventh layer of DRM hell. Holy fuck, how did PC gaming get this useless? I've had to sign up to some publisher's knock off fucking steam just to fucking install the fucking thing and I've had my download limit completely raped by a game I fucking paid for on disk, and I still can't play the fucking single player because I need to download ANOTHER fucking patch to play the fucking single player. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK PC Gaming, fuck it's corpse, I'm glad it's dying.

Edit:GAH FUCK, ANOTHER FUCKING UPDATE!!!

I haven't felt this much senseless rage in my entire life.

http://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/u ... es-market/ also http://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/i ... view-2013/

So, one of my gamepads finally stopped working after slowly falling apart over the last few years. Time to invest in a new one. You guys got any recommendations? It shouldn't be too expensive, I don't need any fancy stuff, but it should be robust and reliable and also be well supported. My other gamepad, a Logitech Rumblepad 2, has all of these merits (a lot of games only support x360 gamepads, but that isn't Logitech's fault & there's always x360ce), but before settling for one of their cheaper products I want to hear some other opinions. I don't believe in brand-loyalty, my father's new Blackberry smartphone was bought out of brand-loyalty and the OS just blows.

Did you mention you were out of gaming in general or just pc gaming? if the former, I have bad new for you.

Well, oddly enough I'm going to recommend... a Logitech F510 pad. Spares you the need in x360ce by having switchable input (either DirectInput or XInput + an emulation software for games without native gamepad support) AND you won't have to readjust from your Rumblepad 2 layout wise.

Mind that all of the features listed apply both to the cheaper F310 and the wireless F710; I recommend the F510 only because that's what I have and can attest to. The only con I can think of is that the trigger buttons are quite hard to press.

He never got to fire that gun. :'(

Thanks for the reply, yentass. Seems like the only difference between the F310 and the F510 is force feedback. Also the F510 seems to be discontinued or at least no longer advertised by Logitech & the F310 seems to be easier to aquire here for a reasonable price. I don't have terrible need for ff, so I guess if I go for another Logitech pad it's gonna be the 310 (Pretty sure though when I got the Rumblepad 2 which has the same features as the 510 minus the analogue triggers it cost about just as much as the 310 does now).

Going through Renegade Ops again and absolutely loving it. Shit blows up so good in that game.

Anyone else in here currently playing or have played Diablo III recently? Just curious on other people thoughts on the game. I'm playing it on Xbox which is a hell of a lot different than what I'm used to and I'm wondering if it's just it being on Xbox or if the pc version is leaving something to be desired as well. I like the game and maps but I'm finding that I hate the character builds (or lack there of) and the lack of control over your hero. Also really disliking the whole new blacksmith system and never having any money.

I played it on the PS3. I enjoyed it a good deal but had my share of issues too. The Blacksmith system was alright. You'll end up with plenty of money as the game progresses, especially if you play on one of the Master modes (I believe they were called, it's been a little while). Mostly from the ridiculous amount of loot that drops constantly. I rarely had time to get attached to a weapon or piece of gear past a certain point in the game, because it was getting replaced what felt like every 15 to 20 minutes.

I liked the new skill system, since it didn't penalize you for experimenting with things. But I did miss the ability to distribute stats to my characters.

Glad to hear that thanks. I'm hoping the expansion will be kick ass but who knows, I haven't really looked into it. The other thing I forgot to mention before it that it feels like there is no online community for the Xbox version. I knew it wouldn't be anything like playing on battle.net but I was hoping for something. It may also be that I'm just dumb and can't figure out how to make it work and I'm really hoping that's the case as playing on battle.net was the reason I played D2 so religiously.

I am playing Ys I & II Chronicles at the moment. I am only at the point after the opening cutscene of "I", but I must already say that the music in this game is really something.

Anyone who plays GTA V: for some reason I can't open up the contact list to detonate the bomb for the port mission. Do you have any idea how I can get through this?

That sounds like the most generic GTA mission ever.

It's not in your in-game phone...?

It won't let me pull up the phone during that specific part of the mission, but I'm supposed to be able to as my contact list is only on my phone. So there obviously is a glitch. There is no other way to access the contact list. I emailed Rockstar Games but it's annoying... I was looking forward to playing more of the game soon. Whatever, will just have to wait for the email...

The whole series has some really incredible music, especially Ys III and Ys IV. I actually just finished the remake of Ys IV for the Vita today. Wonderful game.

If it doesn't work right, and if you don't feel like waiting for R*, you can restart missions. I have the game too but my copy is at a friend's house or I'd load it up right now to help you further

I tried restarting a bunch of times but it didn't work. It looks like I might be able to start though from Franklin's perspective (I just noticed that it appears to be an option) as opposed to Trevor... Let's hope that works to get me past the glitch. And thanks for responding to this.

I am about done with "I" right now. It's such a short game! But, yes, the music is fantastic in this entry alone. The music reminded me of the Star Ocean franchise sometimes. The battle "mechanics" had the potential to let me down quite a bit, but I actually found myself not disliking it. Everything else is pretty solid, and I am looking forward to continuing this franchise! Out of curiosity, which game would you recommend playing after I & II? Origins or III? Or does it not really matter?