What are you playing?

[Segata]

I'm playing Metal Warriors on SNES and Transformers War for Cybertron.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Bogus' happy stories of Dragon Quest Builders in the Slack chat have finally convinced me to hop into it. It's really fun! I can't wait to hop back into it tomorrow. I have but a town of dirt right now, and to be honest, it might be a town of dirt forever

[Ack]

I've been messing around with the Genesis port of Golden Axe in anticipation of next month's Together Retro. Unfortunately, I'm just not that into it. The controls feel still and sluggish, particularly movement, and the AI absolutely refuses to ever get on the same line unless it's sure it can either gang up on your or land a sudden running shot into your face. It's a game I want to like, and I appreciate certain design elements (the encounters with thieves in camp each night was a great idea) and a lot of the visuals (I love the fleeing townspeople). However, there are little things like throwing enemies into others doesn't work or the AI being great about never getting in line with you but will simply walk off a ledge any time it gets the chance which are just frustrating.

[Gunstar Green]

Into the Breach, the new strategy game by the team behind FTL is out and it's every bit as polished brain-bending as I'd expect from them (and freaking difficult). It's part Advance Wars, part Chess and part Pacific Rim. Good stuff. I've only managed to beat two of the areas so far and I've unlocked a few of the mech squads. My mind can only take so much in one sitting though.

[Segata]

Transformers Fall of Cybertron. So far this looks nicer and controls much better than WFC.

[Ack]

I'm playing Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II for the first time and it holds up really well, besides some bugs that I think are windows 10 specific. The arcadey physics, fun weapons/powers and dated animations help create some great moments. Most seem to view this as an FPS but I've mainly been playing in TP view and it's also a good 3D platformer, and even swimming is pretty fun since Kyle moves like a fish in water.

Just wait until you have to deal with the lightsaber duels. Those can be a make or break point.

[Gunstar Green]

Picked up Gundam Breaker 3 since the price on ebay seemed to drop sharply with the new game coming out in the west. It seems like they're changing up the gameplay pretty drastically so I wanted to play this one and the Asian version is completely in English (with embarrassingly better translations than Gundam Versus in my opinion considering that game saw a western release).

I'm having a lot of fun just messing around with the Gunpla customization which is pretty mindblowing in its level of detail. You can get lost for hours tweaking tiny things. So far I think I like it better than the Dynasty Warriors Gundam games because the loot collecting makes it addicting.

[Jagosaurus]

Into the Breach looks interesting. Will look into it.

I'm having a ton of fun with Dead Rising 2. I remember this getting great reviews and one my buddies enjoying it. I'll be honest, it looked a little shallow to me but I was wrong! The light RPG elements, inventory swapping, & weapon combinations really add some depth to it.

I do have 2 complaints:

1. Save System and Inventory Saves:
You can't save anywhere which is okay if there were 5 or so save slots due to the timed nature of the campaign. You have 3 save slots and you can really screw yourself over, more on that below.

Also, I wish you could store weapons somewhere, similar to the weapons/items box in Resident Evil. I understand they don't want you walking around with a ton (or at least having to level up to get there), but it sucks having to choose which weapons and items to lose when saving and turning off console. Chuck will only retain weapons on his person after shutting off a console. They do not remain scattered around the map.

2. The overall pace as it relates to the story line completion on a timer:
The game gives you the illusion you can run around and goof off between cases/missions. This is absolutely possible at times... but you better manage your saves well. I almost just really screwed myself over.

Turns out one of the cases was fairly difficult (really amped up compared to previous) and required me to do some serious time consuming prepping (combining items, finding shotguns, etc). I had spent "the day" just doing side quest and having fun until my notification went off. Mistake! I had saved too close to the main story line mission deadline. I could get to the site with plenty of time but not with enough time to prep properly.

Luckily I had a save point not too far back (end of previous case) & I only lost an hour or two. I was halfway into the game and almost had to start over! Back tracking is a bummer, starting over... might've caused me to shelf it I frustration.

Essentially, I would manage you 3 save slots as follows to cover yourself:
Slot 1: Saved somewhere near end of previous mission or immediately after
Slot 2: Saved near location of next/current mission/case but run straight there. This will allow you prep time if difficulty cranks up, you need weapon and item combine time, time to clear areas of zombies (to carry large weapons easily), etc. Very valuable if slot 3 becomes a lost cause.
Slot 3: Your go to slot. Run around, be crazy, goof off, level up, complete side quest. Revert to slot 2 if you screw yourself.

I just think it's odd pacing that can be jarring and combined with the save system, it can be frustrating if you've seen all the videos of people just goofing off. This is not completely the case if you're trying to beat the story. It's a mix of leveling up during these fun side quest but with careful attention to your time, prepping, & saves. Takes some trial and error to figure it out. Once you get it... you're in for some fun. Don't let above deter you. Just wanted to save you any headaches

[BogusMeatFactory]

I've been playing a bunch of mobile games as of late. I just finished up, The Million Onion Hotel from the folks that made little kings story, Chulip and more. It is an absurd game puzzle game where you have a grid and onions appear. As you tap on them it marks off that point on the grid. Make a line and earn bonus points and time. There are boss fights, a absurd story and it is an absolute blast to play again and again to get a higher score.

There is no free to play shtick to this. It costs 4 dollars and there is no microtransactions. I highly recommend it for people who love puzzle games and who love absurd premises.

To give you a taste, if you get a two line combo or higher, you can summon the space cow which allows you to pair people up to make love and have fruit and hearts explode on the field. If you do well enough in space cow mode the watermelon kid can appear and have hearts explode out of his melon head.

That barely scratches the surface I assure you.

After beating it, I saw they had a free to play game called Dandy Quest and decided to check it out. It is an energy based dungeon exploring rpg with a twist.

The story revolves around Yamada, a salary man unhappy with his job who decides to program his own videogame. You are tasked with debugging the game and testing all the new features that he comes up with. He also wants to make the game in hopes of having his new neighbor fall in love with him. His boss from the mega corporation also hacked his code and is trying to steal it, so you have to battle him!

The actual gameplay is very puzzle oriented. The goal for you as the player is to explore every unexplored grid in a dungeon level before going to the exit, but you have to do so without entering a previously explored block. You get gear you can upgrade and useful items you can use in the dungeon.

I know you may be thinking, "Free to play?! Energy based?!?!" Well, your energy pool increases as you level up and you only use energy to enter a dungeon. So far, I have not seen any traps to encourage you to pay money, nor any situation where purchasable resources that you receive in game would run out. I'll see how it goes, but the game itself is very very witty, well animated and full of that absurd charm.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Started Dragon Quest Heroes on PS4 today (the Dragon Quest Musou game) and it is SO fun. The English voice acting is all over the place, with the female lead being pretty good and the male lead being pretty bad so far, but it just adds to the colorful campiness of DQ, and the game is CRAZY pretty and runs really well so far, so it's all good
I'm thinking that will be my console game while DQ2 is my handheld game. That just relies having the time outside of the house to play games though Xp