What Game Are You Playing At The Moment?

[Junkenstein]

Originally Posted by Medium Brumski

Yeah, I bought it on a whim, cause it was Best RPG of whatever Year, if I would have done some research I would have known it wasn't for me. I think some of these games should have an extra description, like "story-driven RPG" so I know to skip it. I'm just simply more interested in game-play, tactics and ability development when it comes to RPG's, of any type, possibly a reason why I love Masters of Magic.

Edit: In reference to Dragon Age

I actually agree with your point. On a pure game playing level, Mass Effect 2 did better and other RPG's were far more pleasing than Dragon Age.

But.

Dragon Age uses the medium of a fantasy based RPG to put the player into a 360° world of moral choices, where every action has important consequences, every chracter has a role in the Big Picture, and none of them is completely pleasant or negative....

And it makes you do choices that are really hard to swallow.

It's a unique psychological expertience,m and shouls be jusged as that.,

[standardman]

Yeah, choices mean more in a well-defined world with consequences.

[Space Indaver]

DILEMMA:

Do I continue playing Atlantica Online (Final Fantasy style combat), or get either Age of Conan or Dungeons n Dragons Online? Either way, I want an MMO with active combat.

[Medium Brumski]

Originally Posted by standardman

Yeah, choices mean more in a well-defined world with consequences.

I think that's my point, when I'm playing a game, for the most part, I just want to chop off some heads without consequences.
Come on down, Dead Rising 2

[standardman]

I like those games too but sometimes I want to play a game that has something to say or can provoke a response outside of 'boom' or 'squish'

[Chmpy]

I think this conversation is really about why each of us play games. I like having a story in a game, but that's not why I'm playing it. As soon as the story oversteps it's bounds and interferes with the gameplay, I lose patience. If the story is engaging enough for me to play along with it then it has done it's job.

But standardman, or junkenstein, maybe you have more tolerance for the story than medium brumski or I do. Maybe it's even WHY you are playing the game to begin with. Dragon Age has a fairly engaging story, but after a few hours I got tired of the gameplay and as soon as the story slowed down a little bit I didn't feel compelled to play it anymore (even though I knew there was a great story ahead).

This kind of attitude has made it hard for me to play most RPGs in the past few years, but games with great gameplay can tell their story while I play my also-fun-to-play game. (Mass Effect 2 is a good example of this.) In any case I think it's more about the reason each of us likes to play games, rather than specific games being good or bad...

[standardman]

Originally Posted by Chmpy

I think this conversation is really about why each of us play games. I like having a story in a game, but that's not why I'm playing it. As soon as the story oversteps it's bounds and interferes with the gameplay, I lose patience. If the story is engaging enough for me to play along with it then it has done it's job.

But standardman, or junkenstein, maybe you have more tolerance for the story than medium brumski or I do. Maybe it's even WHY you are playing the game to begin with. Dragon Age has a fairly engaging story, but after a few hours I got tired of the gameplay and as soon as the story slowed down a little bit I didn't feel compelled to play it anymore (even though I knew there was a great story ahead).

This kind of attitude has made it hard for me to play most RPGs in the past few years, but games with great gameplay can tell their story while I play my also-fun-to-play game. (Mass Effect 2 is a good example of this.) In any case I think it's more about the reason each of us likes to play games, rather than specific games being good or bad...

It's about how interesting the story is and how it's told, really. I love a good story in a game but I loathe it when the game stops to deliver the story, which is why most Japanese games bore me to death. A good story in a game should be delivered using the medium.

Story isn't necessarily delivered in dialogue or walls of text, I think the best modern examples of storytelling in videogames are Half-Life 2 and Bioshock. Both used the environment to tell the story and rarely wrestled control from the player.

In Bioware games, in addition to giving the gameplay weight and meaning, the storytelling itself playable thanks to dialogue choices and consequences. If you want to go deeper, they even slowly unfold a literal encyclopaedia that makes you feel part of an existent world, rather than a series of levels.

[DudeEMETIB]

I finally played a good bit of Blazblue today, mostly multiplayer, but some of character stories too, and this game's really fun!

I might not end up buying Street Fighter, simply because the same type of "fighting" game I wanted from it, I can pretty much get from Blazblue's arcade mode....so I can open up my game selections to different genres/titles I'm looking to get.


I downloaded the demo for Batman Arkham Asylum and, HOLY FUCK NUGGETS! Why didn't I BUY this game last year!? Oh wait, I didn't have a PS3 last year....WHY DIDN'T I BUY IT BACK IN JANUARY!?

It sucks, I want mulitplayer games, like that's what I want most right now in a game I buy, but that game, the demo alone, was SO WICKED! I completely agree with you guys on how it really gets the feel of Batman right, and I'm not even very Batman-knowledgeable, but this was so good. And I love the Joker! I really didn't know much about this game, so I was worried the Joker would be based more on Nolan's Joker and not the classic Joker. Oh and the having Conroy and Hamill do the voices for Batman/Joker....win move.

My friend bought Okami today, so we were playing that for a bit, or taking turns on it....it's decent. He says he's heard it's a great game, I've never heard of it, but I don't doubt it.....felt a little slow to me....kinda like what Tony said above me, seems like a lot of Japanese the story and gameplay are too separate, and so they take forever delivering a story, them let you play some, then deliver story again....not a cool method imo, but the game does seem a bit fun.

I also played a demo for echochrome, and I want this game....but only if it's mad cheap and I rather play it on PC.

that is my recent gaming...oh and I started to play Half Life 2 for a bit now that I beat Half Life, and I'm enjoying the game much more this time around after having played the first.....

I think I'll buy Arkham Asylum and Dead Space next time I'm at the game store...but I go back and forth with my decisions everytime I think about it or walk into a game store....oh well.

I appreciate your thoughts/opinions on the games though.

[rhesusattack]

Originally Posted by DudeEMETIB

I downloaded the demo for Batman Arkham Asylum and, HOLY FUCK NUGGETS! Why didn't I BUY this game last year!? Oh wait, I didn't have a PS3 last year....WHY DIDN'T I BUY IT BACK IN JANUARY!?

Dude, definitely, DEFINITELY buy Batman. I played the demo way back when it first came out and was kinda unimpressed, but I ended up buying it anyway on sale later in the year and woo, what an awesome game. It's almost dripping with atmosphere, the graphics are sick, the combat is fun and awesome, the story is good, there's like 100 Riddler challenges, AND if you have any sort of fondness for the Batman animated series, this will be like stepping back into your childhood. Seriously great game.

[rhesusattack]

Also, I have been playing Magic the Gathering on XBLA and damn, I haven't played Magic since middle school or something. I am very rusty at that game and regularly getting my ass kicked by the computer. So, after I have gotten better, if anyone just feels like stepping all over me at the game, send me an invite.