Phoenix Hatchling companion pet from World of Warcraft.
It is Wednesday question time yet again:
- What games are you playing this week?
- Would you recommend those games to other Border House readers?
- What games have you ranting?
- Are any of those games listed ones that you want to see covered on the site?
I have not been playing a lot of games recently, except for World of Warcraft. I have gotten into the pet battle system in the new expansion, and otherwise have been going back and check out some older content.
So, what have you been playing?
I picked up Shadow Hearts for the PS2 for a mere £1, knowing nothing about it. It seems to be a nice comfort gaming old-style turn-based RPG at first glance, but I’m only a few hours in and there’s already been homophobia, misogyny and some incredibly dubious stuff that’s being played for laughs about the male lead character wanting to touch the main female character while she’s unconscious.
I think I’ll probably just go back to Final Fantasy VI. This game can go jump in a lake.
Oof, that’s unfortunate. I have one of the Shadow Hearts games sitting on my shelf (the series came recommended by a friend whom I trust), so I wonder if later games handle it better.
I will admit that I loved that series, BUT it is not without a giant stack of problems. It was definitely a case of enjoying a problematic game. For example, the shopkeepers being played for laughs always bothered me a lot.
Sorry I didn’t reply to these, I’ve found myself gainfully emplyed for the first time in years and have been too tired for the internet! Grrrugh.
I’ve continued to play Shadow Hearts as people really do seem to recommend it, but the shopkeeper/acupuncturist character frustrates me so much! I was really pleased when he showed up, as I thought “brilliant! an actual homosexual character!”, but then the game just descended into ‘gay panic’ bullshit and it made me feel sad. I suppose I’ll just deal with it in the same way I deal with HP Lovecraft stories, and treat it like the main characters are SUPPOSED to be bigoted jerks.
I got into PlanetSide2 last week, so i have played that a bit. I enjoy it with friends, but not at all on my own.
) . I have decided to craft one of the Mystic Forge weapons, so i am gonna have to start farmin’.
Got to level 22 in Borderlands 2 on my Mechromancer. Just hit a story point i didn’t care for, but it’s certainly a matter of taste. Still really enjoying the game – i am using Gaige’s Ordered Chaos tree, and the Anarchy mechanic is pretty fun.
Still playing Guild Wars 2 as well. Not as frequently now that i have hit 80, and the WvW on our server is now a mess (huge guild moved over and now they dominate the WvW and there is nothing to do, and no challenge
I’m playing Deadley Premonitions. I’m about an hour or so in and am rather enjoying it. It both manages to be genuinely creepy and often funny. Though, my experience might be enhanced by the advice from the friend that loaned it to me about how to avoid the frustrating parts.
… how is it Wednesday again already?
Well, I’ve made a little progress in Dragon Age Origins (I just picked the dog up on my way to Lothering) and would probably have made more if I didn’t stop to talk to everyone and everything in this game, particularly, of course, my party members. Way too much interesting stuff to discover here. :3
I have also finished the Hero30 mode of Half-Minute Hero (on Steam), which was a lot of fun with all its branching paths and optional allies. If only I could think of a good name for that scenario’s protagonist, I could start EvilLord30 right now… (I had one back when I named the hero, but unfortunately I didn’t write it down and now I forgot, so I’m trying to remember what I was going to name him. The heroine from Princess30 will inevitably be called Lymsleia though. No surprises here.)
Other than that, I have reached Dragon Roost Island in The Legend of Zelda: WindWaker and can’t wait to meet Medli and the others again. (I’ve played the game before, but wandered off somewhere after you get the third pearl. That was… a while ago though, so I restarted.) I’m taking bets on how long it will take this time for me to get the Windfall Island background music out of my head again…
I really should restart Wind Waker, too, since there’s no way I’ll ever figure out what it was I was doing before I put it down for three years. Now I’ve got the Dragon Roost Island bg music going through my head…
Oh Zelda music, why do you have to be so memorable? And every time they sneak one of the older tunes (especially something from ALttP, since that’s the one I remember the most from my childhood) into a new song, I just want to burst with nostalgic happiness.
You two remind me that yy Windwaker plathrough has been dormant since
2003
;_;
I’ve been playing the heck out of Final Fantasy Dimensions, which is full of charming little references to other games and continues to play almost exactly like FF5, which is fine with me.
Other than that, I got sucked back into Glitch, where I am gleefully racking up piles of Stuff for no better reason than that there is Stuff to collect.
(Quiet week for me, gaming-wise, because I was out of town Thursday – Monday and thus relatively non-gaming.)
I’ve been playing Lili, on iOS! It’s fantastic. The combat system is unique, though it could use more consistency in its difficulty settings. And the story is great: you play as a grad student researching “vegi-magical flora” for her thesis. The idea of a female grad student as a main character for a videogame is so great I’m surprised no one (I can think of) has thought of it yet.
Is this the one by BitMonster? From a quick App Store browse, I’m guessing so, but I wanted to make sure.
Still playing World of Warcraft, and gotten to one of the most disturbing areas I’ve encountered in any game, ever, and seemingly not intentionally so. Having a choice of places to go next after clearing Dustwallow Marsh, I went for Thousand Needles, as a relief effort there seemed more important than my alternatives.
First off, there’s the new Speedbarge. Previously, in this area, neutral gnomes and goblins ran a raceway, but the entire zone was flooded during the Cataclysm. The gnomes and goblins have been forced onto a massive city-ship where they depend on each other for survival, but tensions run high, both because of the races’ historical animosity and the fact that their new isolation has forced them to align with the Alliance and Horde for support. What’s the one thing you can do about this situation? Start a racially-motivated bar fight! … I wish I was making that up. You get a quest to do so, and have the opportunity to do it at any time.
But that’s actually mild compared to what comes next. Also in this zone is a questline where you try to trick a group of initially non-hostile centaurs out of their land because of its value to the Alliance, then take the land by force when that falls through, with very deliberate parallels to the United States’ western expansion. It’s not portrayed positively, but you have no choice but to do this if you want to complete the zone — there’s no alternate questline where you work to come to a genuinely fair arrangement with the centaurs, or even side with them instead out of protest at your side’s corrupt behavior.
That bar fight quest is so frustrating. That is why I had my mage leave that area. No thank you! I am sorry to hear that it only gets worse.
I’m still going through the zone, since I was already there, but I’m not happy about what I’ve had to do. Fortunately, the current questline after I’m done with the Speedbarge-related quests seems to be less objectionable: pushing back the fascist and corrupt Grimtotem tribe — which used the opportunity of the Cataclysm to invade a neighboring Tauren village –and try to drive them out of Thousand Needles in a joint Alliance/Horde action against their common foe.
I’ve been playing Tokyo Jungle because of people’s suggestions last week. Although the game is fun, the mating mechanic drops the ball by making the player character a male who needs to attracts different grades of females. Also, the multiplayer mode is vastly more difficult than single player because of the need to eat twice as much food and mate twice as often, while food amounts remain the same, and you cannot both mate in the same area. I’ll keep playing until I unlock all the challenge animals and the storyline, though.
One strategy for multiplayer is to have one animal be an herbivore and the other be a carnivore. That way they aren’t fighting for the same food sources.
Does this also allow you to complete both of their unlock challenges?
I platinumed inFamous 2. My first one. That is quite a bit of work, but I really like this franchise. Both endings were satisfying even though the pacing seemed off. I felt like the final act of the game seemed rushed.
In time for Halloween, I am playing inFamous: Festival of Blood, which I bought last year. While it uses a lot of the mechanics of inFamous 2, it has switched things up in terms of User Interface. I look forward to beating this short gem.
inFamous 2 is one of the saves I lost when my PS3 hard drive died. Maybe I should try playing it again. It was fun to shoot up the buildings. The climbing felt more fun than in the original.
Sorry to hear about your PS3 hard drive. My brother’s original PS3 YLOD over the Christmas holiday. It is frustrating to lose that kind of data, especially when your non-gamer family and friends don’t understand.
The vertical poles were a great addition to make climbing buildings easier.
Also, there is a gay bar, Boyz Toyz, in the alleyway behind Hush theater in Smut Triangle. A nod to how several queer drinking establishments in conservative areas have the main entrance in the rear to maintain the patrons’ discretion. I found it while hunting for all the shards in New Marais.
Been playing tonnes of Fire Emblem (not fantastically up on its gender representation as a whole but has plenty of Women Done Right) and Pokémon Pinball (you can’t *judge* me, you’re not my real dad)
Which Fire Emblem game?
We would never judge! Did you not see that I am playing World of Warcraft again because PETS? PETS! Cute adorable pets! If playing a game makes you happy, then go for it.
I love Pokemon Pinball, I played waaaaay too much of it way back when. Are you playing the GBA one?
My boyfriend and I have been helping each other with our story quests in GW2, which has been fun. I’m also trying to level up my cooking skill using only what I find and gather myself. It’s really slow going, but it’s exciting when I finally stumble on an herb I need or a new fruit. I found grapes yesterday! Huzzah!
I also had some extra cash this month, so I treated myself to Beyond Good and Evil and Soul Reaver 2. I’ve been meaning to play Beyond Good and Evil for a while now, and so far it’s just as awesome as people say it is. It’s like a really charming, smart Saturday morning cartoon. I’m only a couple hours in, but it’s so engaging it’s hard to put down.
SR2 is as cheesy and melodramatic as I remember the first SR being, which is how I prefer my vampires so that’s fine. I like that you actually get to use the soul reaver whenever you want this time, but I’m not sure whose sadistic idea it was to punish you for it by making it take your health power-ups and hurting you if you use it too long. From a story standpoint, I guess it makes sense, but it is aggravating.
Soul Reaver 2 is the one with the time travelling, right? As a Zelda clone, that game was so much fun!
It is! Despite my griping, I’m enjoying it a lot. It’s like Terminator with vampires…sort of. Poor Raziel, I hope things work out okay for him, but I have a feeling they won’t.
I am so jealous that you are playing Beyond Good and Evil for the first time, because it is so wonderful.
It’s sooooo goooood! I’m kicking myself for having put it off for so long. The characters are all so charming, and it feels like there’s cool stuff to find everywhere you go– the game really rewards you for exploring.
And photographing!
I’m steadily progressing through Chrono Cross. I’m now about to start the quest for the six dragons (or turning Serge back into Serge, not sure which comes first), but first I’m going around obtaining some level 7 techs and other higher level trappable elements. I’m sad that I missed cute little Razzly though. Maybe the faeries would have been nicer if I’d rescued her? In trying to even things out, I’ve been keeping the two weakest characters in my party. Currently that’s Riddel and Irenes.
The “recruiting X means not recruiting Y” mechanism in CC makes me so grateful for New Game Plus, because I absolutely cannot do without Glenn but I wanted Razzly and the others, too
Glenn always wins, sadly. He sort of was my sister’s first video game boyfriend so he’s, err, practically family.
I’ve mentioned here before on WAYPW that I am critically weak vs. knights. I saw that Glenn existed and that was it for me forever. Hi Glenn, you are my favourite.
Haha, yes, if you like knights, I guess Glenn would be your choice. You still get the stories of Karsh and Dario and Radius and Garai though even if you don’t take the route that recruits Glenn.
I’m not sure I’ve ever taken the Glenn route myself. I think I must’ve at least once because I remember having Doc, but I always find it impossible to refuse saving you know who, even if I know they’ll be okay eventually.
Speaking of saving, I just did the Marbule quest, and as always Nikki’s concert was just so wonderful *sniff*
XCOM: Enemy Unknown, in half-an-hour bursts because I have very little time right now :[ Is no one else playing it? I seldom buy games new, but I decided to splurge and preordered the special edition of this one; it’s awesome so far. (Loved the original X-Com too.) The international nature of the game is also great, but Firaxis has a solid track record in this respect, so it’s not very surprising. I don’t even want to rename/customize my squaddies, it’s so cool that they’re from all over the world.
(they couldn’t get a German-speaking voice actor for the first tutorial mission set in Germany, though *gigglesnort* *shakes head* Au weia…)
How’s the new version on gender equity? Old X-COM was ~25% of the recruits would be women (determined by randomly-selected first name, IIRC; 25% of them were feminine names).
[It's too shiny-shiny for my hardware, but I liked the old version and hope they get most of it right.]
No idea, the RNG must’ve been acting oddly, because my squaddies are almost all Black men. (From all over the world!) I can look at the actual script files tomorrow provided I don’t forget, the folk at Firaxis usually make their games quite unobfuscated.
I’m kind of surprised the game runs on my computer, and quite nicely at that – these days I only buy parts if something breaks, or if I get hand-me-downs from someone. (My brother likes to throw video cards at me.)
BTW, the artbook talks about women’s armor design, but I only glanced into the artbook, I’m afraid of spoilers. I’m planning on throwing myself on it after I finish my first playthrough, which at this rate will last until an actual alien invasion…
Thanks for the advice, but since the current tower *doesn’t have* a video card, I’m confident I can’t handle those graphics.
(Anyone know where I could get a Win2k disc? Old tower handled rather a lot using that OS.)
I dug up my source for the old naming system. If anyone wants it, the name list is linked under “Soldier Name Stats”: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Starting_Stats
Womens’ armor is another good area to check on. Original had boob!coveralls but once the actual armor started getting made, it was pretty egalitarian. (The face-covering suits only have one model–good!)
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Armour
Sorry–I posted a reply a few days ago but it appears to have gotten caught in the spamtrap. (I linked to the X-Com wiki.)
But unfortunately Firaxis didn’t follow Civilization example but rather Bioware’s Mass Effect and despite soldier having different nationality and ethnicity they all speak English with American accent, only your scientists speak English with European accents, really disappointing and doesn’t make too much sense.
To come up with a lame excuse, that may have something to do with the fact that the game, as good as it is, basically had to be unexpectedly thrown together when it turned out that, oddly enough, even the fans of X-Com who weren’t immediately turned off by the mere idea of an FPS X-Com reboot were turned off when the people in charge of said reboot mocked the original series and called turn-based strategy games irrelevant and outdated.
Funny how this game was highly anticipated and is acclaimed by both critics and gamers now that it’s out, and most people have forgotten that the FPS project exists, given how irrelevant this game’s genre apparently is and how little the old series matters.
Still should have taken the time to put more appropriate voices in if at all possible, though.
… Erm, “poor excuse” would probably have been a word there. Bad ableist language that’s so ingrained in our vernacular that its ableism doesn’t set off immediate alarm bells. x.x;
I’ve been playing Code of Princess and really appreciate the humor. The outfits still bug me a bit, but Ali’s is kind of charming (I really want to cosplay her). I’m trying to meet Sister Hel~.
We also just downloaded Mighty Switch Force, Anonymous Notes Ch.2 and Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. They’re all a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to try Dillon’s Rolling Western as well.
On the Wii, I’m hopping back and forth between HM:Animal Parade, Elebits and Arc Rise Fantasia. ARF is becoming increasingly fun (and these love shapes are tearing me apart in the best way possible), but I miss my loli martial artist. ;u;
Been playing the Hell out of X-Com. I echo everything above – squaddie generation is pure RNG and in two playthroughs I had 3/4 women of various colors. Specialization is RNG too – for some reason ALL my heavies are women. Highest ranking squaddies are a Saudi Arabian woman with a REALLY BIG plasma heavy gun and something else spoilerish.
Unfortunately the “all american” voice sets break the immersion which bothers me a little, but what can ya do? Kudos to Firaxis for this game so far, it’s tons of fun. And hard.
The testament of Sherlock Holmes. It’s so gloomy and the murder is particularly gruesome but I’m enjoying the game and it’s all so beautiful it’s hard not to stay in the middle of the street and stare at everything. I haven’t played the previous games in the series but I’ll be considering them after I finish this one. I find it quite hard without a walkthrough though, especially the puzzles.