Topics

181

Modern Video Games / The "New" 3DS

« on: January 14, 2015, 01:24:43 am »

While we are likely to get confirmation for the release of this in the morning from the new Nintendo Direct coming up if the leaks are found to be true, this should be out pretty soon.  I will say first up, Nintendo doesn't know how to name anything anymore.  Wii? Wii U? New Super Mario Brothers? New 3DS? Why can't they bring back the "Super" name? Super 3DS.  Doesn't that sound infinitely better? lol

Anyways, it looks like it may be out on February 13th in North America alongside Majora's Mask if the leaked ad is proven true.  While I'm not huge into the handhelds, I normally would rather just play on a console, I am thinking of upgrading from the 2DS to the New 3DS XL.  I feel like I'd play more on a bigger screen.  Will probably see if I can sell my 2DS this week to get myself money to put down on the new hardware.

What are everyone else's plans or thoughts on this?  I'm unsure of how the exclusive game aspect will pan out in the long run.  That splits the user base and will make those who can't or won't upgrade upset, though when you think about it, I imagine the exclusives games wouldn't likely get made in the first place if it wasn't for the new hardware.  I feel like the exclusives will be a rare thing for now, with it being more about the games that can play on the old 3DS, but get bonus features if you have the New 3DS.

182

Off Topic / Japanese Rock/Metal

« on: December 31, 2014, 01:12:23 am »

Looking for more good Japanese related Rock/Metal stuff, especially after coming across another band that could come to be a favorite of mine.  Kinda looking for slightly newer stuff also, though it's proving so damn hard to get albums from a lot of these bands.

Doll$Boxx - A newer band that unlike Babymetal, is an actual band that has a lot of mixed influences.  Rock, Metal, Electronic, Pop, it's kinda all in there and so far with the songs I've heard, it's very enjoyable.

Babymetal - Can't have a thread like this without the surprise hit of 2014 that is Babymetal.  No joke, their debut release is on of my favorite albums of the year.

Maximum the Hormone - Just a ridiculous band.  They mix up just about everything into their music.  They feel kinda like the Japanese version of System of a Down lol

Kiryu - Not a band I know well, but I've been trying to get their music so I can get into them more.  And yes, I know about their real weird j-pop spinoff group lol

Supercell - While I initially came across the band cause they did an entire album with the voice of Hatsune Miku, they have a few songs I like on this album.

Versailles - Another band I don't know well, but I really like this one song lol

Sex Machineguns - Don't know too much about the band again, but they play some good straightforward heavy/power metal lol

Of course there are others I know such as Loudness and X Japan, but I'm sorta wanting to get exposed to sorta newer bands, or at least newer albums.  Also recommendations for getting Japanese releases would be helpful as I really want to get the new albums for Doll$Boxx, Kiryu, and Maximum the Hormone.  These are instances were I don't have a problem finding a torrent to get the album, but it's gotten harder to do that reliably recently so I'm out of luck at the moment for certain albums.  It was nice being able to easily get Babymetal through iTunes, but I can't find any of this stuff on either iTunes or Amazon.

183

Modern Video Games / 2014 Favorites!

« on: December 23, 2014, 06:51:42 am »

End of the year time, bring out those favorites! Seemed like a very mixed year, where a lot of AAA hyped titles were disappointing or faded quickly, but there were lots of good smaller titles, or how Nintendo just seemed to kill it this year.

Shovel Knight - Awesome game I helped to Kickstart that turned out to be way better than I expected and it really embodies the best of the NES era of gaming from Duck Tales to Mega Man to Castlevania, but does it in its own way that makes it stand out.  Can't recommend the game enough.

Bayonetta 2 - While I never beat Bayonetta 1, I decided I was going to dive right into Bayo 2 and I loved it.  It's just batshit crazy, which is what Platinum does best.  It's simply a spectacle to behold that always continues to get bigger and more crazy.

Hyrule Warriors - To be honest, while most of the Dynasty Warriors stuff outside of the combat itself is real "meh", having that crazy action mixed with Zelda became something that was a whole lot of fun.  There's just so much to collect and accomplish in the game and I'm still playing it off and on today to try and unlock new alternates of weapons and skins.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - To me, its just a mostly solid fantasy RPG.  The combat is abit kinda bland hotbar auto attack, the AI isn't so great, and the PC had some quality issues, but I enjoyed the story and setting and the character interaction with your companions made me want to continue on as I learned more about Iron Bull who is a badass, or Cassandra's enjoyment of a certain type of book, or that Blackwall has a mysterious past, or that Sera is an ass, but a lovable one lol I put like 75 hours into the game at something like a 90% completion and I actually want to go back through with another class type, try some of the different story paths, see where that takes me.

Honorable Mentions

Mario Kart 8 - Always a solid kart series, but it's not something I play regularly on my own and after playing Sonic All Stars Transformed, I really want to see the next Nintendo kart game to basically be Smash Kart like the Sonic game or Diddy Kong Racing 2 lol

Smash Bros - I know people are nuts over the game and it's a good game, but I feel most of the extras in the game are pretty poor and it's again not something I want to play a lot on my own.  Local multiplayer with some friends sure, but I don't do that often.

Wolfenstein: The New Order - Solid shooter that does a good job at mixing the old school and new school shooter action, combined with some entertaining characters and wild story.

Might've missed a game or two that I feel I could include as I played a lot of games this year, but some stuff just didn't hit me as being as good as I wanted, like Dead Rising 3 on PC or Far Cry 4 and I haven't played games like Mordor, Alien, or Borderlands: Pre-Sequel.  Also some titles like Metro 2033 Redux, while a great improvement on the original and I love that series, it is just not technically a new game.

184

General / Games you like, but not really because of the "GAME" part...

« on: December 03, 2014, 01:31:34 am »

In this online world of Youtube and Twitch, I'm sure a lot of us have watched videos of games, or just watched friends play games, or had different reasons for liking something, even if you didn't like playing or even wanting to play the game. 

One game in particular I like, but never want to ever play, is Five Nights at Freddy's.  I think it's a terrible game.  Like the core gameplay aspect makes no sense and is really cheap in it's difficulty and has a real artificial challenge to it that takes away from the actual setting, but I love kinda everything around it.  Making animatronics into terrifying monsters, the background and lore of the games and just how much people try to figure out the history of things is really interesting, and for the first watch or two of the actual gameplay, it can be kinda funny to watch people get freaked out if they aren't overplaying the scare.  I will not play this game, but I want to see them continue releasing games and building on the weird freaky idea this one guy has lol

You could like a game purely on style or because of one character, or because of the story, but this is about stuff you just don't want or like playing, though there's still something you really enjoy about the particular game.

185

Modern Video Games / The Seasonal Game Rush!

« on: November 07, 2014, 02:11:50 am »

While I wait for Smash to come out at the end of the month, and having just finished Bayonetta 2, I've been wanting something kinda different to play, but there are so many games out right now and about to release, I just don't know anymore.  I've shoved the Borderlands Pre-Sequel away as a Christmas gift from the family when they asked me for something I'd like, so that's one I'm likely to get then, but till then, that leaves a number of games. 

Mordor and Alien: Isolation I've decided to wait on a half off sale as I don't feel like I'll get enough out of the games for the full price.

Evil Within went back up for me when I heard they patched the PC version to properly allow the borders to be removed and an increase in FPS, but after playing like an hour or two of the game on a PS3 rental, I'm still not sure I'm sold on the game.

Lords of the Fallen sounds like it's basically a less hardcore Dark Souls, which I'm fine with, I just haven't heard much on it at all other than it is just okay.

Far Cry 4 was in the lead and is coming out on the 18th, but things have become weird as they removed the game from Steam.  I know it uses Uplay, just like Far Cry 3 did, but I'm unsure of its status now.  I was gonna just wait for it to launch to see if they pulled any shenanigans with the game and to get a PC port report on it from someone like Totalbiscuit or Jack Frags, but I'm unsure of the game at the moment.

Anyone have anything else to bring up that came out recently? I've almost been tugged into Call of Duty, with the talks of the improvements to the series, which I'm liking, but dammit...I know I'm gonna get in there and have problems again with it like I have had with all the past ones for years now lol  It's fast paced style has been ramped up even more and I just don't want that, so sticking to my position on that.

186

General / Horror Games!

« on: October 27, 2014, 02:09:55 am »

Tis' the season, so what are a couple of your favorite horror games?

Dead Space  2 - While not the scariest game, the constant dread you have through it is pretty great, fighting off hordes of necromorphs that can only be killed by hacking off limbs and crushing their corpses with your boot, I mean, they don't pull any punches with that intro at all.  I like a game with good atmosphere and I feel this game does everything right.

FEAR - No specific game, though mainly the ones before FEAR 3, these games could get down right spooky for sure.  I like that is a violent FPS game, but then your mixing all this visual horror throughout with Alma constantly showing up.  It keeps the heart rating moving lol Sadly FEAR 1 has not aged well at all as I'm come to find out, though it's still rather creepy.  I might take the time to beat FEAR 3 eventually.

At the moment, I'm drawing a blank on others I'd feel would fit here. I love zombie stuff, but Dead Rising, Dead Island, anything like that isn't scary.  I'd also like to put Silent Hill 2 through 4 here, but I never beat those games cause they freaked me out years ago and could barely touch them lol

*EDIT*
Fatal Frame - I knew I was forgetting something! This game scared the crap out of me and my buddies years ago.  It has the best mechanic for putting you into the terror by making you stare at the ghosts coming at you.  Look into their faces or die! One time my friend had a huge subwoofer under his bed that he didn't realize it's volume was way up and when a ghost showed up, it rumbled the bed and shook it good, freaking everyone out lol

187

Modern Video Games / Smash Bros!

« on: October 23, 2014, 11:46:29 pm »

The Nintendo Direct was today and it seems like they are putting a ton of stuff into the game.  A number of very cool things that you can read about here...

http://www.destructoid.com/all-the-smash-bros-wii-u-facts-differences-from-3ds-version-282973.phtml

-You start with 40 playable characters on the Wii U, though there are some left locked.

-The game looks better in HD with all that resolution. And the screen size also allows for eight-player Smash, which is a special mode restricted to particular stages and offline play. There's some giant stages, like Palutena's Temple, Hyrule Temple, and an expanded Battlefield to host multiple fighters. Five- and six-player fights don't seem to have the same restrictions, while seven-player fights are missing.

-There's also a giant new stage with instant kill sections and a Donkey Kong stage with foreground and background bits of stage, both of which can be fought in. Of course, the Wii U version features more stages, some of which are laid out differently than the 3DS ones. Some old favorites return along side some new ones (Windy Hill Zone, Mario Circuit, 75m, Wii Fit Studio, Norfair, Onett, etc).

-The Miiverse stage, which will come after release, gathers up Miiverse posts about whichever fighters are playing in the background of a Battlefield sort of stage.

A lot of the 3DS modes, save Smash Run, are playable, often with changes and multiplayer options. Target Blast is up to four player with a larger second bomb. There's two-player co-op or four-player turn-taking Home Run Contests. Trophy Rush is two player now as well, while Multi Man can be played by four players. And there are so many new, HD trophies.

Ridley will join the battle on his stage. Beat him up and he'll fight for you. Keep beating him up and score a point for KO'ing him.

-In addition to time and stock, coin battles are back. There are also stamina matches where your hit points count down to zero. Special Smash is back, too, with all sorts of rule customization. Change speed, player size, all that good stuff. And you can mix and match. Item Frequency and the ability to turn individual items on and off are back, too.

-You can customize what music plays during battle or menus. There's about four times as much music on Wii U as there is in the 3DS version.

-Classic Mode now allows for two-player co-op--good for getting two trophies at a time--and your battle advancement is based on how well you fought your previous match. Rivalries and other random events happen as well. All-Star Mode now works in a reverse chronological order and there's a new rest area. It's also playable with two players.

-As mentioned, Event Mode is back as well, beyond the expanded Challenges. Two-player event battles have their own section. One other solo mode, Special Orders, has you taking tickets from Master and Crazy Hand in increasingly difficult scenarios. There's also Master Fortress, a new form the Master Core shadow swarm can take.

-A Smash Run-inspired, four-player board game called Smash Tour is basically Mario Party with Miis. You're still trying to gain power-ups, but you're also collecting characters. The final battle affords you 1 stock for every character you've collected, in order.

-There is also a Masterpieces mode which lets you play bits of old-school NES/SNES games that Smash characters appear in. Think of the NES carts in Animal Crossing with time limits that encourage you to buy the applicable game from the eShop if you're having too much fun. I expect to play a lot of these snap shots.

-Of course you can use a lot of controllers for Smash Wii U, including the GameCube controller if you have an adapter. The video also recommends a Wii Ethernet LAN adapter for smooth online play. Voice chat is cut off during online battles, but possible at character select.

-There's also a photo mode that lets you stage your trophies and take cool snaps, which will later be distributable online. Online tournament hosting is being worked out still, but regular 64-player tournaments are possible.

-With the GamePad, you can also draw your own custom stages, which is going to be sweet as heck.

-Oh, and Mewtwo is coming next year if you register the 3DS and Wii U versions.

Tons of cool stuff in the game.  So much to do really.  Mewtwo also shows there is likely to be DLC for the game.  I'm cool with that, even a season pass for the game as Nintendo has shown they make sure to put in a lot of value into them so far with the likes of Hyrule Warriors and Mario Kart 8.  I could see them adding new levels, characters, trophies, and challenges.

188

Modern Video Games / Hyrule Warriors

« on: September 18, 2014, 04:00:21 am »

Finally it is coming out next week and I'm pretty excited for it.  It seems to be about as good as I was expecting it to be according to a review I watched, which it will probably be nothing really amazing because it is the repetitive Dynasty Warriors gameplay, but overall still a pretty fun game with a lot to collect and accomplish in it.



It's also been released that the three villains of the game will be added for free to the game as playable characters in the next update.  There will be monthly DLC which will include kind of a little bit of everything with each one, ranging from game modes, new adventure maps (Which I believe is the Zelda NES map, so maybe more based on like A Link to the Past and others?), new characters, and new costumes.  It's basically a season pass thing where if you pre-order it, you'll get Dark Link right away.  This is for the Japanese version right now, so not sure if any of that will change when the North American version is released.

http://nintendoeverything.com/hyrule-warriors-first-screenshots-of-the-new-playable-characters-dlc-details/

189

Modern Video Games / Final Fantasy XV!

« on: September 17, 2014, 09:48:44 pm »

As much hate I slap onto Final Fantasy XIII that I feel it rightly deserves, I've been excited for Final Fantasy XV for a while now, back when it had the terrible title of Versus XIII.  New footage of it has come out of TGS and it's looking nice.

I love this modern/fantasy mixed setting.  It looks to be a much more open game than we've had before with the series, at least I hope so.  The combat looks to be a more serious take on what we got in Kingdom Hearts and I like a good action game.  It's probably why I don't like Final Fantasy XIII's combat, because it is trying to be more actiony and exciting, but it never actually becomes that.

If this turns out right, this could be the game that pushes me into finally getting a PS4.  I'm waiting for a build up of games and within the next year, maybe two, they might all come out.  Bloodborne, Deep Down, Final Fantasy XV, maybe even Kingdom Hearts 3. Some pretty serious Japanese game releases.

190

Off Topic / Anime/Manga/Etc...

« on: September 01, 2014, 06:03:40 am »

As we were starting to take up the other thread with pure anime talk and with it becoming more than just what we watched, figured we could do with a discussion thread for everything Anime related, tossing in Manga if you read it, to I guess even if J-Pop, J-Rock, or whatever else Japanese related.

I last posted my anime list I put together.  Should have most of what I have watched, though I'm sure I'm missing stuff here and there, particularly older anime I'm spacing on.

http://myanimelist.net/animelist/KamikazeKeeg

191

Modern Video Games / Sony Press Event Roundup

« on: September 01, 2014, 05:15:33 am »

*EDIT* I seem to have not realized this isn't from TGS lol I kept seeing "Pre-TGS" stuff, but this stuff mostly just came out of some Sony Press event happening.  That isn't "Pre-TGS" when it's over two weeks out! Editing title.

We can use this to round up anything of interest coming out of the show.

Already there is the confirmation of the Resident Evil: Revelations 2, which will apparently have a new story and protaganist.  Teaser trailer is just live action stuff, involving something with wrist bands that say if you are infected or not.  It's very vague lol It's been confirmed to be released on pretty much every platform other than handheld and Wii U and will be out early 2015.

Bloodborne is out in Japan come February 5th, which means not too long after that will be the international release.  First quarter at least.  This game is a big pull to the PS4 for me, though I'm still needing more.

Yakuza Zero set in 1988, will be released in spring 2015.

Dragon Quest Heroes coming to PS4 next year.  It's being made by the Dynasty Warriors guys and will be a hack and slash like that.  Probably could be comparable to Hyrule Warriors I guess.

192

Hardware and Tech / Good "Behind the Head" headset?

« on: August 25, 2014, 04:04:14 am »

I've had these big Logitech gaming headphones for awhile now and while they have good sound, I still can't wear them too long without my ears starting to hurt.  I really prefer ones with the band behind the ears, but I never really see any good ones around that aren't just cheapos like I've had in the past.  Kinda looking for recommendations in like the 40 to 75 dollar range if possible, maybe squeezing it out to 100 bucks.  Nothing crazy fancy, just hopefully something that might fit comfortably for long lengths of time.

Seems like all the good gaming headsets are the big over ear kind and I think I just have a noggin to big for those comfortably with my ears stuffed into them.  Another option might be more of the "On Ear" type that rest on the ear rather than trying to envelop my ears, but that's if I can't find any of the first type I talked about.

193

General / Gaming shows you enjoy!

« on: August 17, 2014, 12:02:43 pm »

I figure a good portion of us generally watch game related shows online, whether it is just a lets play or a review or a full retrospective on something, we like games, so we like to watch stuff about games.  Figure we could share some shows we enjoy as I seem to come across new stuff every so often.  Maybe expose someone to a new show.

To start, I'll post Game Sack, a show that is more about showing off multiple games within a certain topic, for a larger review of upwards to 30 minutes and sometimes longer.  It has two hosts with their own tastes, playfully one being more of a Nintendo guy, the other Sega, but they show some nice depth into the type of games they'll play, learning more about games you might not have heard of.  Very good production values also, especially through most of their back catalog which is nice for a show as for me it gets abit tough to watch a show with shoddy production even if the host might be entertaining.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrGameSack

Another to add will be The Completionist.  I've followed him for awhile now and really love his show.  He prides himself on quality production and with all the game review shows out there, one that is dedicated to a games completion and all of its secrets really stands out to me.  Videos are anywhere between twenty to thirty minutes, there's good humor mixed in with his friend Greg and I find them both to be real genuine people and the kind you want to meet cause you'd think of them real cool to hang with and just talk about games.  Also the man has one of the beastliest beards in gaming.  It can get pretty epic lol
http://www.youtube.com/user/ThatOneVideoGamer

I'll post a few more later on once the ball gets rolling.

194

Modern Video Games / Hideo Kojima, Guillermo Del Toro, Norman Reedus, Silent Hill

« on: August 12, 2014, 08:22:38 pm »

That might just seems like a mish mash of pop culture right now, but that actually means that there is a brand new Silent Hill game coming, designed by Hideo Kojima, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, starring Norman Reedus.  If you want to turn a series around, that's how you freaking do it lol

http://www.destructoid.com/the-next-silent-hill-is-coming-from-hideo-kojima-guillermo-del-toro-279512.phtml

195

Modern Video Games / Resident Evil Remake HD Coming to Most Consoles...

« on: August 05, 2014, 04:19:07 pm »

http://kotaku.com/resident-evil-is-getting-an-hd-remaster-1616229484/+brianashcraft

Basically it's the 2002 remake in HD, with some slightly updated features, including a control scheme where if you keep going in the direction of where your analog is going.  It's not the perfect scheme, but I like they are altering it.  I really had a problem with the pre-Resident Evil 4 games due to their controls, I couldn't stand them at all, so any change to that might make me like them as I only ever beat Dead Aim and Resident Evil 3, though I've played pretty much every single RE game other than maybe Survivor.