This Old Neon Forum

This is a topic I liked having back in the days of the VC-forums (don't think we have one here). Just an easy way to post either some impressions or progress on the games you're playing.

I just beat Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright yesterday, so I was wondering what I wanted to move onto today. I'm pretty far into Dark Souls 3 but I'm right at a boss and don't feel like tackling it just yet. I decided to open up my copy of Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright that I got for Christmas and give it a spin. I hadn't opened it until now because I was trying to finish up the final Layton game (which I did) and the Ace Attorney Trilogy before moving onto this one. But I beat the first game in the trilogy last week so I figured may as well just start this game now.

I'm just a couple hours into it, but I'm liking what I'm seeing. It really is like two games so far in one story. The Layton sections appear to play out pretty closely to the games, and the Phoenix Wright segments play exactly like the games (at least the trial segments). Will be interesting to see how it plays out once the characters stories merge together.

When any of my friends around, I tend to be playing Destiny. It's less for Destiny's sake at this point and more for hanging out with my RL buddies, who are all also still playing the game. If I'm going out on the town, I'd rather lock down a table with a bunch of my friends than wander a bar with strangers.

If no one's around and I have a couple hours free, I'm working my way through Dark Souls 3. Great game so far. This one definitely isn't amenable to quick 15-minute bursts. I need to hunker down and turn the lights off and really sink my teeth in.

About those 15-minute bursts, I'm using short periods of downtime to complete the daily challenges in Pokémon Picross (I still haven't paid a cent on this game) and take at run at my high scores in Tetris. I've also just picked up Downwell on PS4, which is a pretty fun take on... something. Not sure how to classify this yet, as I'm too terrible to have gotten very far.

Those are the only games I'm actively playing, but I do have the PS4 Valkyria Chronicles remaster sitting on my shelf, and I'm paused in the middle of The Witness (which was to be my Talos Principle follow-up, but I'll get back to it when Souls is done). The plot in the new Fire Emblem game was too cringey for me, so I've sidelined it for now.

My main game at the moment is Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus. I played the original but was more than interested in revisiting it. I doubt very seriously I'll be able to complete it, as much as I'd like to...

In the background, I'm occasionally playing Far Cry Primal on PS4, grinding near the end of FFV, and cleaning up trophies in the third chapter of the Jurassic Park game on PS3. I kind of stalled on Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. I've gotten to a boss that I haven't figured out yet...I also haven't given up yet but I'm not trying frequently. Am in a similar boat in Dead Space 3 for my Survival run...

Nuclear Throne: basically every single day.
Bunker Punks: been playing it compulsively until I finished it. While I wait for updates I randomly play a couple of levels anyway.
Doom, Doom II, Quake: after finishing Doom legitimately (at Hurt me Plenty) for the first time after 23 years, I'm revisiting almost every day, one or two levels of the classic id shooters.
Pokémon Picross: gotta hoard those damn picrites.
My Nintendo Picross - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: finally got the hang of Mega Picross and it's going to be completed soon enough.

Kong Wen wrote:When any of my friends around, I tend to be playing Destiny. It's less for Destiny's sake at this point and more for hanging out with my RL buddies, who are all also still playing the game. If I'm going out on the town, I'd rather lock down a table with a bunch of my friends than wander a bar with strangers.

Definitely know what you mean there. Smash and Monster Hunter are the go-to games for my group.

Kong Wen wrote: If no one's around and I have a couple hours free, I'm working my way through Dark Souls 3. Great game so far. This one definitely isn't amenable to quick 15-minute bursts.

Totally, which is why I'm okay with putting the game on the backburner here and there - need to have at least an hour available if you want to actually make some progress. I've also been trying to play this one casually with a few friends but we can only ever get two of us together at a time, the game never seems to want all three of us to play at once.

Kong Wen wrote: Pokémon Picross

neuzd wrote: Pokémon Picross

Surprised you guys are still going with this one! I shelfed it once I downloaded Picross e6, which I'm still working on (on the last page). I did like the sense of progression the Pokemon version had though.

The Shoemaker wrote:Surprised you guys are still going with this one! I shelfed it once I downloaded Picross e6, which I'm still working on (on the last page). I did like the sense of progression the Pokemon version had though.

I've completed e1-e6 multiple times. To be fair, I'm not really playing Pokémon Picross—just the daily challenges, which by definition take less than 2 minutes and aren't really picross puzzles. It now takes me about 14 days of that shit to unlock new puzzles. At that rate, it won't be long before I stop entirely. But it's OK to crack those dailies out really fast before falling asleep or hopping in the shower. Better than paying money to unlock the rest of your game, anyway!

I've mostly been playing Stellaris, Paradox's new 4X / Grand strategy hybrid. The release version is a little rough, and I think I started playing with too large a galaxy because I've been bogged down doing a ton of micromanagement. The opening of the game was pretty fun, and I can tell there will be a core of decent strategy there once a few patches iron out the issues. It's definitely not where it needs to be strategy wise, but the anomaly-exploration system is a solid foundation for the start of a game.

It's been a couple weeks since I last played, but I'll be continuing Dark Souls III once I get more than a guaranteed half-hour of game time. It's been fun so far (only about 7 or 8 bonfires in), but it's too early to tell how it compares to the rest of the series.

When I've been traveling (which has been a lot lately, less for the next month) I've been mostly playing Final Fantasy Tactics (the PS1 version on Vita). Got to the really notorious fight (Velius) and discovered, as usual, how under-leveled I am. Even the classic dual-punch monk is having trouble, so I'll be leveling for an hour or two before I retry.

Mostly playing iOS games. Currently involved in a Ascension tournament on another forum, but it looks like I'm out of it soon. On 3DS and Wii U I'm mostly replaying 2D Metroid games, but I've been checking out Lost Reavers solo also.

Niahak wrote:When I've been traveling (which has been a lot lately, less for the next month) I've been mostly playing Final Fantasy Tactics (the PS1 version on Vita). Got to the really notorious fight (Velius) and discovered, as usual, how under-leveled I am. Even the classic dual-punch monk is having trouble, so I'll be leveling for an hour or two before I retry.

Good man! It's funny, I've played through that game an uncountable number of times, and I've approached that fight in a different way almost every time. I can distinctly remember my Lancer, Monk, Squire, and Chemist runs. I also remember my brother getting to that fight—he had a bad habit of only using a single save file—and he kind of screwed himself into a corner. He worked it out, and he needed a miracle scenario where he had to get a critical hit and Velius had to miss at least once (maybe twice!) in order to get through. He stuck it out rather than start over... but then he was out of the frying pan and into the fire with the fight on the rooftop!

Playing Rabi-Ribi. It's kind of like a cute metroidvania on Steam. It also has aspects of bullet hell in there, and the game can be quite difficult.