Recent games you've played. Recent and Recenter Edition!

[Shea]

The mini-review thread is back.

Talk about games that you have recently played, but much like my movie threads you must write at least one sentence about the game.

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Castlevania The Adventure : Re-Birth

I have the original CV:TA and I have to say that this remake is probably the best remake I have ever played. Keep in mind that I said "best remake", and not best CV or best game.

Other remakes have been pretty damn good, like Metroid Zero Mission, Mega Man Powered Up, and Maverick Hunter X. Hell, Bionic Commando ReArmed is almost perfect. So, what makes Castlevania The Adventure : Re-Birth so special? Simple. All of the other remakes are remakes of GOOD games, whereas CV:TARB is a remake of a game that can be filed under ABSOLUTE SUCK.

The first CV:TA was an abomination of a handheld title released in '89 that, to this day, most CV fans are ashamed of. No subweapons, piss-poor framerate, losing your whip upgrades every time you get hit, poor controls, and the fact that your character moved as fast as a wad of melted plastic, made this game a travesty to say the least.

CV:TARB is not only a remake, it's practically an entirely different game! Damn near nothing from the original was retained, and thank God for it. It is also a retro revival as it does not utilize the Symphony of the Night "Metroidvania" gameplay style that has become the norm for the series. Instead, CV:TARB focuses on Castlevania's roots as a platforming action series, and I for one am thrilled for it. After Order of Ecclesia, I almost gave up hope for another original recipe style CV that wasn't just a bland makeover of an already great game. Thankfully the guys at M2 seem to know what it truly means to remake something, and not just rehash it.

Hey M2, if your looking to turn another shitty CV game into gold, you can always try your hand at Castlevania 64 or Simon's Quest. We, the faithful, will await your creation with open arms.

Available now on WiiWare for 1000 Wii points (a.k.a. 10 bucks.) (With a price of only 10 bucks, you have absolutely no excuse not to nab this if you own a Wii!)
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Contra Re-Birth

I'm not gonna lie, I suck at Contra, but I still love the games for their manly craziness. Contra:RB seems to be more of an homage (read that as "semi-sequel") to Contra 3 that features the abilities to carry 2 weapons at once and wall and ceiling climbing from Contra 3, but with a far improved laser weapon.

The story has you traveling in time to the 1970's, and... you wouldn't know it, because you're on some kind of space station in the first level and not once do we see a time machine in the whole game. But that's okay, because there are so many things in this game that don't make sense that if I try to count them all I might just spontaneously human-freeze right here.

I really shouldn't have to explain anymore should I? Of course not, it's fucking Contra! All you need to know is that you blast the ever-livin' crap outta aliens, and yea verily, it is good. Another piece of retro greatness from Konami and M2. Nice work guys!

Available on WiiWare for 1000 Wii points (a.k.a. 10 bucks.)
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[tak197]

Playing Band Hero on DS. It's prety good, except thebeginner level ondrums is way too easy. Literaly it's "hit any drum pad button you want, just keep rhythm". I still have one song to 5-star on it, and the only reason i haven't done that ye is cuz the song jumps around tempo

[RobertMc123]

I recently, finally, got onto Xbox Live and as such got myself Modern Warfare 2 and promptly forgot all about the boring single player campaign and am completely addicted to Free For All Multiplayer.

Also I am playing through Dragon Age and waiting for the next bit of DLC hitting Xbox Live tomorrow.

Also as a side project I am working towards my second playthrough of Mass Effect in preparation for Mass Effect 2.

On the PS3 I have been playing Far Cry 2 (why was this game so overlooked when it came out?) and Borderlands which I have been neglecting of late.

[RobertMc123]

I recently, finally, got onto Xbox Live and as such got myself Modern Warfare 2 and promptly forgot all about the boring single player campaign and am completely addicted to Free For All Multiplayer.

Also I am playing through Dragon Age and waiting for the next bit of DLC hitting Xbox Live tomorrow.

Also as a side project I am working towards my second playthrough of Mass Effect in preparation for Mass Effect 2.

On the PS3 I have been playing Far Cry 2 (why was this game so overlooked when it came out?) and Borderlands which I have been neglecting of late.

[Evil Jim]

The week of Christmas I bought Peggle Dualshot for the DS & finished it a day or so ago. I played Peggle for the first time in August briefly at a friend's & decided to check it out. I can see how it can be addictive for some people but once I finished every level I have no desire to go back & complete everything 100%.

After a brief break I'm back to playing Captain Forever, the browser-based space combat & ship building game similar to fl0w. For more on Captain Forever you can read my thread here.

[Shea]

I got 2 Gundam games recently.

The first is Gundam Vs. Gundam Next Plus for PSP.
Oh my god! This is a Gundam fan's messy sticky wet dream.
A grand total of 66 playable characters from every single animated Gundam series! (Even Victory!)
Plays like a mix of Quake 3 and Virtual On.

But with one important carry on: this game is fucking BRUTAL! I'm not kidding around, it's hard as nails! But that doesn't keep this game from being fun!

GET THIS!

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The next game is : Gundam Battlefield Record U.C. 0081 for PS3

If you remember a while back I reviewed Gundam Crossfire and I said that it didn't deserve the hate that it got. It had problems, sure, but it was still passable. But what happens when you take Gundam Crossfire and Journey to Jaburo, take out ALL of their problems, add online multiplayer, and drench the result in awesome sauce? You get 0081.

I honestly thought that a Gundam sim couldn't be done right. I thought that it was a waste of time to even try after I played Crossfire and Jaburo. I am happy to say that I was wrong, and it has officially been done correctly as of now.

[Vigafre]

Two games I got over my winter break were Halo 3: ODST and Scribblenauts.

First, Oddst.

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I think Halo 3: ODST was worth what I spent on it ($50 USD). The campaign is a little short, considering I beat it in two days. The last time I beat something that fast was when I played The Force Unleashed. However, I have a higher affinity for the Halo series because that was the only XBox game I played for an extremely long time. The story, I think, fits well into the Haloverse, and fills in the timeline between H2 and H3 quite well, and the audio files around the city of New Mombasa fill in how the city fell to the Covenant VERY well. City fighting isn't all to hard, but it's a hell of lot more fun if you play co-op. Otherwise it's kinda slow. The pacing's fine, but it kinda feels lonely (as it's really suppose to), and having a friend just makes it better.

I played Firefight for the first time yesterday. I rolled Easy mode because I had no idea how hard it would be, and I was playing by myself. I must say, it was quite fun. I should have put it on Normal, as I was owning quite hard, but I enjoyed it. The rising difficulty made it a lot more tactical (but on Easy, only slightly), and once the bonus round comes around, which turns on ALL skulls, it's a mad dash to stay alive (my god, there were so many plasma grenades).

In short, it's a worthwhile game, just don't buy it at 60 bucks.

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Scribblenauts: Well, I can't talk too much about it. I like it, yet I suck at puzzles. It's fun, no doubt, especially in the intro screen, but the actual modes threw me for multiple loops.

The two sections of levels, puzzle and action, should have been switched. The puzzles are MUCH easier than the action stages. In each "world", I'd solve all but like two puzzles and only like two action stages. The action stages require a little more thought than the puzzle ones, which doesn't make much sense.

The dictionary is meh. Yes, there a lot of good things in there, but most of it is worthless/repetitive. Many items do the same thing while others do nothing at all. It's good that they have that many words, and all the basic and living items are cool, it's just that most of the inanimate ones are worthless.

Overall, it wasn't worth the 30 bucks I spent on it, but if it was about 10 dollars cheaper, it would have been.

[Shea]

I got 4 games recently.

1. Viewtiful Joe 2
You know how awesome Viewtiful Joe was? Nothing's changed. Still awesome.

2. Devil May Cry 1
Until Lords of Shadow hits, this is probably the best we've got for a 3D Castlevania game. One problem. The control scheme absolutely FUCKING SUCKS!!! And you can't change it. Shit...

3. Legend of Zelda : Spirit Tracks
I would probably like this game a whole lot more if I could roam around Hyrule on foot. I don't know why but being forced to move from place to place via boat or train or whatever is just aggravating.

4. Okami
A game I really liked on the Wii becomes one of my favorite games of all time on the PS2. Sooooooo much easier to control on PS2. Does the PS2 version of Okami have it's flaws? No. Okami is perfect.

[remmi]

i recently got kingdom hearts 358/2 days i found the game play to be really fun but the problem i had with the game was the story its not bad its just the 100 scenes of dialog of the three main characters eating sea salt ice cream on the top of a train station clock tower.

[wartjr2373]

I got a few new games recently:

Wario Land: Shake It! (Wii)
If you're a platforming fan, even if you don't like Mario, you should definitely check this game out. Level design is fun and intuitive, and even if it doesn't have any really unique gameplay mechanics (shaking gets old after the first level), as an old-style 2D platformer, the game is a blast. The levels, for the most part, aren't terribly difficult, but if you aim to collect every treasure and clear every mission, you'll find yourself quite challenged. One point of interest about the gameplay is that the checkpoint is always at the end of the level, at which point you must return to the start of the level (often taking alternate routes) within the time limit.

Missions are probably my favourite part of the game, because they add a ton of replay value. Every level (of which there are about 40) has between three and seven missions. Typical objectives are:

Collecting x amount of treasure.
Clearing the level with XX:XX left on the timer.
Clear the level without taking damage.

There is often level-specific missions as well. These missions add something lacking from many other platformers, namely replay value! Another thing about the game I was delighted to find out is that the bosses are actually rather difficult.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
There probably isn't much I can say that hasn't been said already. This is, without a doubt, my #1 PS3 game. I quite enjoyed Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but this game blows it away, in the story and the gameplay. If you own a PS3 and haven't played this game, you are doing it wrong!

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
I can summarize this game like this: Fun enough while I wait for the eventual release of the new Wii Zelda game. Since Zelda went 3D with Ocarina of Time, no handheld game has been able to hold up, IMO. While I quite enjoyed the Oracles, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks, they don't hold a candle to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Others may disagree, but that's my opinion.

That said, Spirit Tracks is definitely an enjoyable title. The train travel system can be tedious at times, but it is better than the boat system from Phantom Hourglass. As Shea said before, however, I would prefer simply being able to explore on foot. Restricting free-roaming to towns and dungeons is kind of annoying. It kind of worked for Wind Waker, but Nintendo needs to take a step back from all this vehicular nonsense. There are more than a few games I liked about the game, though. The game was actually somewhat challenging, for a Zelda game. Also, the sidequests were fun, if somewhat tedious. The dungeon design was pretty good, and in general the gameplay outside of the train travel was up to par. Overall, it's a good game.

Those are three of the five games I got for Christmas, as I haven't had a chance to play the other two yet.

[Dorian]

I've been late for the party with the Current-gen, so at the beginning of December I finally got myself a fancy-ass new computer (would have gone for a console, but computer was my first priority. School-work etc). Anyway, I've been playing through games like a madman.
In terms of "recent" games, first up would be:

Borderlands:
One of the best shooters I've played in a while. I'm not all that into the competitive side of FPS, so Modern Warfare and the like don't really appeal to me, but the whole loot/RPG aspect of this game were what compelled me. Totally worth the price of admission.

Also just last week I finished off Dragon Age:
I cannot stress how awesome this game is. Every playthrough seems to be different, with even small choices affecting everything around you. Loved it.

And now I'm continuing me journey through the backlog of current-gen games, with Prince of Persia "4". So far pretty excellent.
Anyone got good recommendations for current gen games on the PC?

[WickedBoy6]

I've been playing a lot of DFO (Dungeon Fighter Online).

It's really fun, and takes one back to the side-scrolling brawlers of the glory arcade days. You play as one of five separate characters in the world of Arad, a peaceful world ravaged by monsters and demons. Each area has dungeons one could fight in, much in the same vein as Final Fight and Double Dragon. In fact, it's very reminiscent of the Dragons of the Double variety, but with much more RPG elements.

There's a variety of customization, from moves, buffs, innate, equipment, and even the character's appearance - though with real money, ugh. It levels up easy, the RPG elements don't interfere too much with the brawl elements. The only problem I have with it is the same problem most brawlers have: pretty repetitious.

I definitely give this game a 4 out of 5. It's a great-looking brawler that harkens back to some of the best Arcade mirrors of their time, and the RPG elements work very well. It lost a point for repetition and the need for real world money to customize the avatar, but it's still a very engrossing and addictive game. Try it out.

[Cureless_Poison]

Currently I'm playing through Metal Gear Solid 4, I had wanted a PS3 for months but haven't had the funding. I got my parents to agree to get one since I wanted it for it's gaming capability's and my parents wanted a blu-ray player so everyone wins.

And once this Tuesday comes around I'll be playing through Dante's Inferno for 360.

[Elomin Sha]

Bayonatta, War Tech and Dante's Inferno.

[Shea]

Ruff N' Tumble for Amiga.

This game just doesn't work on a keyboard. It's like trying to wipe my ass with a rabid bobcat.

Also the screen is too small and I can't see what I'm doing half the time...
Fuck it. I'm going back to Jim Power and Turrican.

[Vigafre]

I bought Saints Row 2 almost completely off of Graham's description of the game, and I'm loving it. I like it because it's basically GTA without all of that I don't like about GTA. (Granted, I should have said GTA IV. It's the only one I played.)

The two friends I'm playing it with say it's actually really similar to GTA San Andreas. Sometimes they would mention something that's in San Andreas, and then it would happen in Saints Row.

[Sieg Reyu]

Saints Row 2 is pretty balling. I thoroughly enjoyed making my Harley Quinn type character. She was ca-raaazy.

[Mister Fiend]

While playing Bioshock 2 last night my friend messaged me on Steam and asked what I was up to. I replied "Looking for little girls so I can kill their daddies and kidnap them."

[Shea]

Mega Man 10

This game fucking rules!
I've been waiting a long time for this and it was worth every passing second! One warning though : If you thought Mega Man 9 was hard, you will shit your pants on this game's normal mode. Even if you beat this games ridiculous and extremely unfair normal mode, they have the audacity, the balls... to give you a hard mode! Son a bitch!

By the way... Fuck Blade Man, fuck him right in his tail rotor!