What are you playing?

[o.pwuaioc]

Illusion of Gaia, the "bastard child" of the Soul Blazer series. Does anyone actually agree with that sentiment? I thought SB was pretty basic in how it played, IoG isn't much different, but it's much prettier to look at, story seems better and playing as other characters is cool.

Definitely not. I for one would place IoG higher than SB. The puzzles are harder, the story is deeper (although...different), the additions, although not always necessarily useful, just more, and more of Soul Blazer isn't a bad thing.

As for myself, still strumming through GBC's Revelations: Demon Slayer, but with intermittent Super Mario Land 2 to break up the grinding. As far as consoles go, I'm about to pick back up Mega Man X4 for the PS1, which I never finished, and StarTropics, which I'm not happy about starting over on (since I switched from rom to physical cart).

[D.D.D.]

Playing GTAIV when tired; played through once before so no biggie.
Also playing Xenoblade still... Feels like I need to grind a bit more still.

[coastercrazy10]

Twisted Metal Black, I'm liking the game, it haves an incredibly smooth framerate, great explosions, a fantastic plot, solid controls BUT is it me or the default difficulty is fairly hard?

I found it moderately difficult when I was younger. Not sure how it compares to the PS1 Twisted Metal games though.

Found myself sucked back into Jak & Daxter last night. One of my favorite games for the PS2, I can't believe how good it still looks and plays. Shame the rest of the series strayed so far from where it all started.

<3 Naughty Dog

-Ben

[KillerJuan77]

Twisted Metal Black, I'm liking the game, it haves an incredibly smooth framerate, great explosions, a fantastic plot, solid controls BUT is it me or the default difficulty is fairly hard?

I found it moderately difficult when I was younger. Not sure how it compares to the PS1 Twisted Metal games though.

Found myself sucked back into Jak & Daxter last night. One of my favorite games for the PS2, I can't believe how good it still looks and plays. Shame the rest of the series strayed so far from where it all started.

<3 Naughty Dog

-Ben

I played Twisted Metal 2 some weeks ago on hard and it's way easier than Black on Normal.

[Croooow!]

Found myself sucked back into Jak & Daxter last night. One of my favorite games for the PS2, I can't believe how good it still looks and plays. Shame the rest of the series strayed so far from where it all started.

I'm playing through the first one for the first time and I'm incredibly impressed. The gameplay is everything I could want from a 3D platformer and I think the games graphics will age very well. From what my brother has told I should just skip II and III though, that's a bummer. The last thing I think when playing the first one is "Man, I wish this was darker, edgier, and more like GTA".

[BoringSupreez]

Found myself sucked back into Jak & Daxter last night. One of my favorite games for the PS2, I can't believe how good it still looks and plays. Shame the rest of the series strayed so far from where it all started.

I'm playing through the first one for the first time and I'm incredibly impressed. The gameplay is everything I could want from a 3D platformer and I think the games graphics will age very well. From what my brother has told I should just skip II and III though, that's a bummer. The last thing I think when playing the first one is "Man, I wish this was darker, edgier, and more like GTA".

Jak 2 and 3 are great games, but they are totally different than the original. Worth playing, but I like the old N64 style collect-a-thon kid-friendly platformers better than the gritty GTA style the later games take on. There are many people who think that 2 and 3 are leagues better than the original, though.

[coastercrazy10]

Jak 2 and 3 are great games, but they are totally different than the original. Worth playing, but I like the old N64 style collect-a-thon kid-friendly platformers better than the gritty GTA style the later games take on. There are many people who think that 2 and 3 are leagues better than the original, though.

My issue with 2 and 3 is that they incorporated gunplay and made it a critical element in the game. It was around that time that a lot of FPS were coming out and I didn't like seeing the departure from the incredible platforming that made the first game great. Sure there were some good platforming sequences but I personally think the gunplay detracted from the platforming. Were they branded as something else I'd be fine with it, I just wish they were more platform-ey. Agreed though, still great games. The first one will always be my favorite though.

-Ben

[Lodestar]

Illusion of Gaia, the "bastard child" of the Soul Blazer series. Does anyone actually agree with that sentiment? I thought SB was pretty basic in how it played, IoG isn't much different, but it's much prettier to look at, story seems better and playing as other characters is cool.

Definitely not. I for one would place IoG higher than SB. The puzzles are harder, the story is deeper (although...different), the additions, although not always necessarily useful, just more, and more of Soul Blazer isn't a bad thing.

I don't disagree with any of this, though IoG does seem to be critically overlooked. I really like how mystical everything is, it's all so strange and intriguing. I'll probably play Terranigma next since I never finished it.

[Xeogred]

Well I was posting my thoughts on and off about Gaia when I just finished it up a week or two ago. To be honest, I thought it was decent at best. I had a lot more fun playing Soul Blazer despite how simplistic and plotless it was. The dialogue/plot in Gaia I thought was just awful, most of the dungeons had tons of backtracking and maze-like designs, the music wasn't that consistent, and it just had a lot of trial and error game design figuring out what to do at many points throughout the game.

I didn't really compare it to Terranigma in my mind while I played it, but yeah. I thought Gaia was the weakest link of that trilogy by far personally. Was worth playing but I don't know if I'd replay unlike most other SNES action/RPG's.

[Balasubbie]

Dipping my toes in Chrono Trigger (SNES). Only starting, but it strikes me how a lot of AAA SNES titles have positively stellar soundtracks. I've been whistling the Guardia overworld theme for much of the week.

Also, been playing through the 4th gen TNMT sidescrollers: Hyperstone Heist (MD) and Turtles in Times (SNES). It occurred to me repeatedly how limited and technically repetitive
the gameplay was, but I didn't once find myself bored or frustrated in either one. Challenging, but still breeze-throughable enough to not have you gnashing your teeth at
any stage. I want to get my hands on the 1987 arcade effort somehow. It's on XBLA, I think.