What are you playing now?

[Taylor]

arcana heart link is timing out for me.

Despite the name I'm way out of touch with japanese developments. Interesting to see another fighter contender (in it's 3rd iteration no less).

If it went down it's up now! There’s also a tutorial comic uploaded on the first page that goes through the unique aspects of the game if you can stomach it. Though the biggest feature is you pick one of 23 characters then one of 23 ‘arcana.’ The arcana is your forth attack button and changes how characters work; for example water gives any character 3-frame super command grab, whereas Magnetism gives everyone a homing projectile and during activation your opponent is dragged towards you.

Oh, and I found a good example of the Raizing games. This is Battle Bakraid's first boss done perfectly:

http://www.ikaruga.co.uk/files/fw/st_ba ... ntgain.avi

That said, in Battle Bakraid (and Pink Sweets Arrange) there is also score incentive for suicides because it resets the time-out on your multiplier (abd so do bombs), it's not just for keeping the Rank/Dynamic Difficulty/AI Director/Buzzword in check.

[Thrik]

On LittleBigPlanet 2 right now. This shit is great!

While the original was a decent platformer gameplay-wise, things are truly firing on all cylinders here. I've played a lot of 2D platformers between the Atari days and now, yet LBP2 is continuously throwing new mechanics and concepts at me that I've never encountered before — and it also incorporates mechanics like Bionic Commando's grappling hook better than any game has before.

The editor has clearly been completely overhauled because while I've not played with it myself, the levels have so much variety it's crazy. One minute you're playing a regular side-on platformer, the next you're in a Micro Machine-esque racer. You no longer just control a sackboy and/or use the sackboy to control other things with flips and switches; the controller can now be directly bound to anything, including a mouse cursor (hello point-and-click adventure games).

Add to that a built-in music sequencer, sound editor, sprite creator, etc and you've got something very different even if it seems superficially similar to LBP1.

The single-player campaign deserves particular mention because whereas in the original it was a fun romp but was more geared towards introducing you to the game's many mechanics and felt a bit short, here they've fleshed it out into a more traditional platform game. There's proper voiced cutscenes, more of a story, actual worlds that're themed rather than just a load of levels spread out across a globe, etc. Even if you completely ignore the editor and vast amount of quality community-built levels, you're getting your money's worth for this alone.

Basically if you in any way consider yourself a fan of side-scrolling platformers, get this game. It's the absolute pinnacle of the genre's evolution IMO, absolutely smashing the shit out of things like DKC:R and New Super Mario Bros.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbizX6nUaCo

[Sentura]

pretty much agree with thrik. i played it with some friends and it just keeps getting better.

[-HP-]

Holy shit, I always forgot about LBP2. I must buy that game!

[wilco]

I must admit, I got LBP1 the other day cheap, as I thought id try it out before looking at getting LBP2

Glad I did as I can't see the attraction, found it quite boring and seemed to be very much aimed at 5-10year olds Even my mrs thought it was silly and I thought she'd like it.

Just my opinion anyway ;-) obviously I'm talking about SP campaign, not got the time to play with the creation side of things, which may be where all the fun is at!

[wilco]

On a far more exciting note, my Crysis2 has been dispatched! sick! Bring on Friday ;-)

[Taylor]

I didn't buy the second due to the unresponsive, floaty jump of the first. How's that for petty?

[AlexM]

I didn't buy the second due to the unresponsive, floaty jump of the first. How's that for petty?

that's kind of where I'm at too. Although some of that stuff does look great.

Can you adjust stuff like air drag and acceleration in LBP2?

[Thrik]

Sackboy has the same physics as usual (necessary as all LBP1 levels are playable in LBP2), however anything else that you control does seem to be completely configurable with regards to its physics. As I say the big difference between LBP1 and LBP2 is that now level designers can bind your controls to objects, so in many levels — particularly community ones — you don't touch Sackboy and interface directly with a sprite, vehicle, or whatever.

With that said, I still don't have a problem with Sackboy's physics. It definitely felt floaty at first after years of Mario and Donkey Kong, but I soon adjusted and now it's actually my favourite physics model in a platformer. It works extremely well with the extensive use of physics and deformation in levels.

Also you have a stone-cold heart, Wilco. Any true man should have room for a cutesy game.

[wilco]

Haha true, maybe I shouldn't have been trying out after finishing heavy rain (absolutely loved that!)

[SamCom]

I picked up Stalker: Call of Pripyat again. I stopped my first playthrough before I got very far, but this time I'm hooked. Just seeing other stalkers and bandits wandering around, getting into trouble, how dark it gets at night, the rainstorms, the bloodsuckers, even inventory management (really!), it's awesome.

The little details like other stalkers looting fallen enemies and being able to buy the stuff they're looked off them later, the AI stalkers actually looking for artifacts with their detectors, it makes it seem more like an actual place. The blowouts add a lot of tension, having to rush to cover, and leads to some awesome fights between the AI when rival factions run into each other. It seems like the best parts from Clear Sky and the first game combined.

The only problem is you're not guaranteed to see something special like a blowout or AI fight every time you load up the game, you have to immerse yourself for an hour or two at least to get enjoyment out of it. It's not something you can play for 15 minutes at a time. Is it that way for everyone else?

[Orpheus]

Stalker CoP musta been made by another group than the first two games. I found a shitload of bad places in the maps. The buildings and layouts felt rushed. The quality just wasn't there IMO. Its a cool game but I still favor Clearsky more. I never found a single bad place in the first two games. In CoP you can see clear out of several buildings to a blue background.

[SamCom]

Really? I haven't seen any of that yet, maybe I haven't gotten far enough. I've moved to the second area with the train station yesterday after it felt like I cleared out the first area. For me, the one bit I ran into were hills that were just steep enough they couldn't be climbed, without being obviously marked as out of bounds. Clear Sky gave me more problems, but I think what put me off Clear Sky is when moving to the second area with the army base and their aimbotting machine gunners that took a few dozen reloads to make it past. Maybe my system wasn't cut out for Clear Sky when I tried it, either. Maybe I'll load it up and give it another try.

I almost want to try some mods, but I don't understand why they all have to be compilations. Maybe I just want better weapon sounds and skyboxes, and not the dozens of difficulty tweaks and Counter-Strike weapon reskins and whatever else they decided to mess with.

[Orpheus]

After I got my upgrade to 64 bit all the Stalker issues vanished. I dearly loved ClearSky. Hate the ending so I always stop just prior but even so the replayability remains. CoP on the other hand, the tasks are bulky I guess is a good word. In the previous two games you had smooth flow from task to task. With CoP you seem to stumble into tasks more than getting them assigned properly or in a sequence that makes sense. Also, the weapon and suit upgrades aren't as good as CS was.

All of them are great games but I truly wish that CoP had been better.

[Sentura]

i never got far in clear sky, but you are absolutely right about how dark it gets at night samcom. this isn't some half assed attempt at creating a realistic night. this is simply how night looks without light.

i think all the stalker games have a special place in my heart. not only because they have the best atmosphere, but also because (like it or not) eastern europe looks like that. it brings back memories from my childhood :nostalgia: