What are you playing?

[Note]

I'm currently mostly focused on playing Final Fantasy Adventure on the Game Boy, I'm a little more than halfway through the game and really enjoying it.

My girlfriend and I also have been playing some couch co-op games on and off, Castle Crashers: Remastered on the Switch and Champions: Return to Arms on the PS2.

[Syndicate]

...I'm really close to wrapping up Symphony of the Night and Horizon 5 stays in rotation b/c I want the free cars, and I play weekly w/some friends. I've been dabbling w/Super Turbo again, the actual arcade game is a bit more difficult than I remember

[Tiduas]

I'm lurking here on the forum now and then but thought it was about time I started to write something. I'm currently playing Visions of Mana (chapter 4 so far).

The game starts of extremely simple with its combat but has definitely improved somewhat through the chapters as you unlock more things. I don’t think the combat system will get a huge chance to shine throughout the game, but if you enjoy more simplistic systems, the game is quite enjoyable.

The most astonishing thing about the game are the environments. In all my years of gaming, I’ve never seen so many beautiful environments. Without a doubt, this is the most visually stunning game I’ve ever seen in terms of areas. Every location makes me think, "Wooooooow." It's absolutely insane what they’ve managed to achieve with the environments. I’m insanely impressed.

The story has actually made some attempts too. Even though I’m still not hooked, I’ve gotten interested enough to want to see where it goes. Having just played Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure before this doesn’t exactly help, since those game are all about dialogue and story. But as I said, Visions of Mana is slowly improving in that aspect too with each step.

If there’s one game you should play on a big screen, it’s Visions of Mana. You’re doing yourself a huge disservice if you limit the resolution in any way.

[pierrot]

I'm currently playing Visions of Mana (chapter 4 so far).

I was really excited for Visions of Mana a number of months back, and downloaded the demo, but wasn't very impressed. I haven't thought much about it since. The demo was pretty graphically inconsistent for me on PC, for no real reason. I also think the demo hurt my interest by throwing me right into a point that's likely a few hours into the main game. So there's just a lack of context for anything, which doesn't help with the story elements that are there. I played for maybe 30-40 minutes, got the mount for the fields area, messed around a little bit, and closed it down.

I assume they were just trying to highlight the gameplay in the demo, but if that was their sales pitch for the game, it didn't really make me feel like I needed to play the rest. The combat wasn't very engaging for me, either.

I am curious what your opinion of it ends up being after playing through most/all of it, though. I would probably only get it on deep sale at this point, anyway, but I might be somewhat more interested with some positive word of mouth.

[Tiduas]

I am curious what your opinion of it ends up being after playing through most/all of it, though. I would probably only get it on deep sale at this point, anyway, but I might be somewhat more interested with some positive word of mouth.

I totally get all your points. The reason I didn't try out the demo was that I heard it just threw you into the midst of things and I just hate demos that does that. I want to start as barebones as possible and gradually unlock and understand my way through it all.

But to be fair, if the demo didn't hook you I still think it's not much hope for the game for you. I see a lot of love for the game online, but they seem to love it from the start and I just don't. It's not bad, but it just doesn't do too much interesting stuff except for (once again) the environments being drop dead gorgeous.

Such a shame hearing your PC struggle with the demo. I needed to mod my installation with ultrawide support and the cutscenes keeps going down to 30 FPS (which can be alleviated by pressing F11 twice during EVERY cutscene), but other than that it runs mostly well on my temporary 4060 graphics card.

I'm heavily regretting putting down 60 euro for the game, for one third of that price, it would have been a whole other deal. I rarely purchase anything at full price anymore, but I figured that the mana franchise is one of these franchises that really need the extra push. And Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 for the SFC are both such huge parts of my childhood that I just wanted to support it somehow. I just wished it was an 9/10 for me rather than a 7/10. Not great, not terrible.

[pierrot]

Yeah, I would have really preferred it if the demo started from the beginning. I guess it's partly my fault; I assumed that's what the demo would do, similar to the Dragon Quest XI one.

Such a shame hearing your PC struggle with the demo. I needed to mod my installation with ultrawide support and the cutscenes keeps going down to 30 FPS (which can be alleviated by pressing F11 twice during EVERY cutscene), but other than that it runs mostly well on my temporary 4060 graphics card.

Now that you mention it, it might have just been during cutscenes for me, too. I was noticing a fair amount of frame pacing issues, but now I can't remember if they were actually during normal gameplay at all. I'm on a 2070 Super with a Ryzen 7 3700X, but I only play at 1080p, so I'm still a little bit over their recommended specs. I kind of wonder if it's any different on consoles (not that I have any of them, I just wonder if it's mostly a PC optimization thing). I could try it on my much more beef-spec'ed laptop, but I don't prefer to play games that way.

I'm heavily regretting putting down 60 euro for the game, for one third of that price, it would have been a whole other deal. I rarely purchase anything at full price anymore, but I figured that the mana franchise is one of these franchises that really need the extra push. And Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 for the SFC are both such huge parts of my childhood that I just wanted to support it somehow. I just wished it was an 9/10 for me rather than a 7/10. Not great, not terrible.

Ah, bummer. Yeah, I was almost all in on preordering after seeing one of the trailers not long ago, for mostly the same reasons as you. Then I happened to see a gameplay hands-on from a couple months before that which made me think, 'Yeah, it looks pretty good, but I'm gonna wait for release.' I had FF Adventure as a kid, and didn't play SD3 or Legend of Mana until almost ten years ago, but loved those. So I was pumped from the Visions trailer, thinking it looked like a 9/10, too. The gameplay footage, and demo probably just brought my expectations more in line with reality. I could see it being a solid 7/10. That's somewhat disappointing, but seems realistic.

[Jagosaurus]

Bought some titles disappearing from the XBox 360 in marketplace closure a couple months back so decided to dig into ...

Call of Duty Classic

This is a HD release of the first PC game which often gets confused for the COD Finest Hour first console release, but they're different games.

Wow... this one does not hold your hand. Be prepared to die a lot and quickly . Having fun with it though. Will report back as I progress through. About to finish the American campaign portion, leaving Brits and Russian sections.

[Ack]

Is this the first time you played the original Call of Duty?

If so...have fun with the start of the Russian levels! Let's just say it's the most memorable part of the game for me.

[Jagosaurus]

Is this the first time you played the original Call of Duty?

If so...have fun with the start of the Russian levels! Let's just say it's the most memorable part of the game for me.

-
Yessir. I recall playing Finest Hour and COD2 Big Red One at friend's houses around this timeframe, but really jumped in at COD3 on 360.

Looking forward it! The game can be brutal with the quick TTK but it is rewarding to get past points you're struggling with (so far lol).

[Ack]

Just remember, everything is a melee weapon! I played a lot of CoD multiplayer in college. You haven't lived until you've beaten your buddy to death with a smoke grenade.

And keep in mind, the first Russian level is one of the best FPS levels of all time. You'll know why when you get there. It is...an experience.