Last game you played?

[lacelazier]

Just "finished" Pokèmon X! And now I'm waiting for PKMN ORAS c:

[Taleweaver]

Bayonetta 2. Takes the Ridiculous Level up to 11, and it's perfect like that.

[Starshine]

Skies of Arcadia

[Caveat Lector]

Re-playing Don't Starve in Adventure Mode, this time as Wilson. I just love these characters too much!

[akemicchi]

I just got Dynasty Warriors 8 the other day. Because of it, I managed to get my brother into the Musou series, hohoho.

As for a game I've recently finished, it'd be Atelier Rorona Plus. It was my first Atelier game, apart from Mana Khemia. I really enjoyed it-- loved the alchemy/synthesis system and the characters/scenarios. The battle system was super tedious, though. I got Atelier Escha and Logy with DW8, too, but I haven't played it yet. Can anyone recommend which game to get from the Atelier series to play next? Should I do it in order or...

[Starshine]

Most recently i played more SEGA games this week, Segagaga and Shenmune.






Battle:


I loved playing Segagaga, it explained how Alex Kidd, once best known as RIVAL towards Nintendo's Mario, was replaced from being SEGA's mascot by Sonic. Segagaga is mixed kinda like a RPG and a Visual Novel, one of the characters even makes fun of her portrait image not speaking. The game was only made for the Japanese and basically references the fall of the Dreamcast. I felt so sorry for Alex Kidd, but at least he recently made a few cameos in a few SEGA racing games. If Sega wanted Alex to be the star all they have to do is upgrade him... he's too cute for a 38 year old.



In other words, the game is about running SEGA, basically fighting against a rival company called "DOGMA" aka "SONY".


Shenmune is a fighting game made by SEGA, and let's just say this reminds me of GTA, only without killing innocent people in the streets and more or less martial art related.




Let's just say playing these games made me really appreciate SEGA, because to be honest i forgot all about them, only Nintendo has been on my mind most recently. Shame it won't be released world-wide as it's been several years but a fan translation of the game is in progress.

[Caveat Lector]

Halfway through The Path. I like the basic concept, and I don't mind slow games or dark games or "explore and discover" games (Gone Home, which I loved, comes to mind), but this one...it gets a bit repetitive once you realize what you're supposed to do and how to do it. A lot of the symbolism felt pretty obvious early on--I prefer symbolism that you know is there but lurks just under the surface and is only obvious once you actually stop to think about it. But most of all, I just don't like the whole idea of

basically leading each girl to their death, and possible rape (at least, with Carmen--and that...yeah, not going to bother). It's not what's done, it's how it's done, and here, it's just not done in a very compelling manner and I can't bring myself to really care. So far it just leaves me going "...what was the POINT?". There are other works I adore and keep analyzing and theorizing about, and turn them inside out, but this just invokes an overwhelming apathy. Or maybe I "just don't get it".

There are dark games with mature themes that I have enjoyed much better, basically. Can't say this is one of them.

[171]

I had finished Digimon World 3 once again. The game's long, but I was satisfied. It's one of my beloved childhood games.

[Caveat Lector]

Just finished re-playing Gone Home. Dem feels.

(Also: OMG DOES ANYONE ELSE OTHER THAN ME REMEMBER VHS TAPES?)

[Caveat Lector]

Re-played and beat Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand. It's almost fascinating in some ways to see how the exhibit technology in the early 2000's is so vastly different from today. In this game, you put on headphones to listen to specific narrations of exhibits, play games that require direct contact in some way (like a model of a little Mayan guy playing basketball, and you have to position him to toss the ball in just right, instead of a computer model), and (biggest sign of aging) actually use a mouse and keyboard to answer quiz questions and you had to go through the museum to look up the answers.

[Taleweaver]

Re-played and beat Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand.

The Nancy Drew series is a weird mix of hit-and-fail titles. Some of them are among the best-written adventure games, plot-wise, while others just throw together random, disconnected puzzles and struggle to weave a story around them somehow. (I'm looking at you, Shattered Medallion, where Nancy Drew becomes the star of a Survivor-style Reality TV show.) There are some genuinely creepy titles ending in Scooby-Doo-ish revelations (Shadow at the Water's Edge, others where the metaplot is so dark that one could almost consider them post-modern (Warnings at Waverly Academy, for instance, with its Macchiavellian high-school girls) and eventually others that suddenly accept the existence of the supernatural, or at least strongly imply that it does exist (Ghost of Thornton Hall, where "a ghost did it" is actually a more believable explanation for most of the events than the one the game offers as scientific truth).

My favorite title is probably (aside from J-horror Shadow at the Water's Edge) Alibi in Ashes, where Nancy has to somehow prove that she didn't commit a crime, and you actually get to play her friends, and they're actually useful.

[Caveat Lector]

Oh...Shattered Medallion. Such potential, and such...wasted. I mean, we had Sonny Joon making an actual appearance in person (also funny you should mention him, Taleweaver--Secret of the Scarlet Hand was his first mention in the series!), George and Bess coming back, and it was a game set in New Zealand, and...it ended up being another puzzle-based mystery. Minus much of the mystery. And on top of that, a crucial part of the mystery is solved for you off-screen. (Though Bess's lines made me laugh, and I did love listening to the "confessions" in the confession booth--oh, and using a mini-submarine and OH New Zealand...) My least favourite game in the whole series is still Creature of Kapu Cave, and Shattered Medallion does have its redeeming qualities at least. It just could've been so much better, especially as an anniversary title. The Silent Spy felt like it would've been more appropriate as an anniversary title for #30 since it directly involved a key aspect of Nancy's canon back story, and brought back an off-screen character to play a much bigger role. And oh, dem feels...

(Side note: I'd have to say my favourite anniversary title is Secret of Shadow Ranch, and I could make a whole list of all my faves in general, but off the top of my head...Stay Tuned For Danger is my favourite of the earliest games, Treasure in the Royal Tower, Secret of the Scarlet Hand, Haunted Carousel, and Danger on Deception Island are my faves of the "golden age" games, Phantom of Venice, Warnings at Waverly Academy, and Shadow at Water's Edge for the later age games, etc.--more will probably come to mind later, but those are the ones off the top of my head)

Oh, and I agree on Ghost of Thornton Hall absolutely...(SPOILERS INCOMING)

"Carbon monoxide poisoning-induced hallucinations", huh? Yes, you're probably right about that, chief! That's why Jessalyn could summon a ghost to kill me! *beat* Oh wait.

I love this game and how gothic and dark its atmosphere is, though I always got the feeling that the writers for this game came up with a much darker back story for the family--both the entire family in general and certain individuals--that went beyond anything they'd be allowed to explicitly show or tell on-screen in a game that's supposed to be rated E or E10. In some ways, it makes me kind of wish they did go there, but in other ways it makes the game creepier. I need to replay it one of these days.

I've got Labyrinth of Lies on my wish list, so yay!

...

Also, I'm currently installing the original Sims 1 games and expansion packs! Yay, nostalgia!

[Taleweaver]

Silent Spy had a beautiful plot and would be on my favorite list if not for the dumbest villains ever. I mean, is that the best Secret Service could get? Nice to get some backstory on Nancy's mom, though, and the Mission-Impossible-influenced parts (plus the history lesson on secret code throughout the ages, including the Da-Vinci-Codesque device) were great fun.

Creature of Kapu Cave I somehow... pushed aside. You're right, that one was pretty awful. I didn't care much about Shadow Ranch (the setting somehow didn't click with me), and Royal Tower felt like a Myst game to me, in the bad way that there seemed to be too many puzzles just for the sake of there being puzzles, but the rest of your assessment, I can agree with.

Best supporting cast was probably in Deadly Device. So many great nerds!

[Caveat Lector]

Tried out the Lego version of Harry Potter for years 1-4 (at least a little bit of it)...it's really cute and a lot of fun, and funny, although I do miss the cries of "Fliiii-pendo!".

[Caveat Lector]

Well, I only survived for 17 days in This War of Mine. Such a powerful game.