What are you playing?

[ExedExes]

The game of the moment for me is Advance Wars. Why didn't I get this sooner? I thought it looked amazing in 2001 and even the training missions are fun.

[BurningDoom]

Heretic on PC, I'm have a nostalgic blast! (No pun intended.) I used to love this series because the fantasy-elements really made it stand-out amongst the sea of Doom-clone FPS back then. And it's still a blast to play today! I got it in a package deal on Steam for $9.99 along with Hexen, Hexen II, and the 2007 Hexen game.

[ExedExes]

Heretic on PC, I'm have a nostalgic blast! (No pun intended.) I used to love this series because the fantasy-elements really made it stand-out amongst the sea of Doom-clone FPS back then. And it's still a blast to play today! I got it in a package deal on Steam for $9.99 along with Hexen, Hexen II, and the 2007 Hexen game.

I could never get Heretic to run on my 486 back in the day. I had to get a Pentium 75 The Dragon Claw is the go-to weapon in that game, but the Elven Crossbow was good when you found a Tome of Power. Hexen was one of the first DOS games I played on a CD. I remember using the Hammer to break all the windows and burn the trees in the first stage. It was stuff never seen before in FPS!

[BurningDoom]

Playing through Champions: Return to Arms on PS2. Obviously I'm playing it alone in 2013, not linked in online play.

Very similar to the first game, which isn't a bad thing. I like my hack-n-slash action-RPGs. And this one follows in the same vein as the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance series.

However, the story feels very generic and not intriguing at all. Not that story is usually a huge factor in these sort of games, but this one really doesn't try at all. You have this hub that you enter areas from where there's this mage-chick that tells you you're her champion and you're fighting on her behalf. Pretty dull stuff. At least the first game took place on a singular world where you traveled to different areas because it had to do with an actual plot.

But the gameplay makes up for it. So far, Champions of Norrath is the better game of the two. But I'm not all that far into it, so we'll see how this goes.

[jinx]

Playing through Champions: Return to Arms on PS2.

I played this game back in 2007, and absolutely loved it. It was great having my mother's ex-husband around, because he loved playing these kinds of games and this sort of game is much better played with a friend. By it's self, it's still a blast and I suggest it to anyone who likes this sort of game.

Unfortunately, I played Return to Arms before the original Champions of Norrath. This made it difficult to go back and play the first one, as I felt it was missing a lot of mechanics and polish the second one received. Of course this was strictly due to the fact that I played the second one first, and probably would have enjoyed playing it just as much if I hadn't.

I've been checking my local gaming store for a copy every so often, hoping to grab it for a good deal. Although not one my favorite games of all time, it's definitely one of my favorites for the PS2. Can't wait to get my hand on another copy and play through it again.

[MrEco]

I just recently finished Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. The puzzles were quite fun, and I was delighted that they were all actually logic based (Well, okay, in some cases it was video game logic). But really it was a game I played for the story. Won't spoil anything, but let me just say that I normally find detective stories and murder mysteries somewhat boring. And this was anything but.

Right now currently playing through Resident Evil 6. Have one more chapter before I'm finished with Leon's campaign. I'm going in the order of Leon, Chris, then Jake. Also, honestly, the game has some flaws but it's not as bad as a lot of people make it sound. I think part of that might be from expectations, as many people were probably hoping 6 would be more of a survival horror game like 4 rather than a shooter/action game like 5.

[BurningDoom]

Playing through Champions: Return to Arms on PS2.

I played this game back in 2007, and absolutely loved it. It was great having my mother's ex-husband around, because he loved playing these kinds of games and this sort of game is much better played with a friend. By it's self, it's still a blast and I suggest it to anyone who likes this sort of game.

Unfortunately, I played Return to Arms before the original Champions of Norrath. This made it difficult to go back and play the first one, as I felt it was missing a lot of mechanics and polish the second one received. Of course this was strictly due to the fact that I played the second one first, and probably would have enjoyed playing it just as much if I hadn't.

I've been checking my local gaming store for a copy every so often, hoping to grab it for a good deal. Although not one my favorite games of all time, it's definitely one of my favorites for the PS2. Can't wait to get my hand on another copy and play through it again.

Really? I liked Champions of Norrath much more. But then, I'm not using Return to Arms biggest selling point, the online play. So maybe that's why.

But the story seemed to flow much better and if felt like you had a reason to be fighting through the hordes of minions in Champions of Norrath. In Return to Arms, it's like they just designed all these cool areas, but then the story was a generic after-thought and they used this generic portal hub thing to get them.

Gameplay-wise, everything seems exactly the same, to me. Except it is a bit more challenging than the first game (which is probably because the game was intended to be played online and I'm playing it alone).

[elmagicochrisg]

Been testing Steel Battalion for the original Xbox taking turns with a friend.

It's quite an experience... ^^

After that we played a few rounds of Cannon Spike on Dreamcast.

Stranded at the last boss though...

[jinx]

Parodius Portable for PSP.

Played this for a while today while chilling on the sofa with my daughter, and I actually remembered to bring my PSP to work today so I'm definitely going to play it on my break. This is a great time killer and I love that it has several different Parodius games and game modes to choose from. It's also nice that they give you a few different screen sizes from original to full-screen and a few in-between.
After giving my PSP a break for a few years, I think it's time to start digging into the library again.

[Gamerforlife]

Samurai Warriors Chronicles - 3DS



I started playing this today. It's awesome getting to play a bona fide Warriors game that has everything I would expect from a console release, in the palm of my hand. And it's not a port either, which is even more awesome. Built from the ground up for the 3DS. The 3D effect is pretty cool when it's used outside of actual gameplay for menus and cutscenes, etc. Overall, the game has a great visual style and the music is excellent. During actual gameplay, the in game graphics for the environments and characters aren't amazing, but they never really have been in this series and I've never really cared.

No stupid English dub! Woohoo!

I'm amazed how people say that simply mashing one button is all there is to these games. The first level alone really tested me, as meeting the bonus objectives for each mission with a level 1 character without any fancy equipment required skill, strategy, and speed. I had to retry a few times, and that's just stage 1 on normal difficulty!

Reviewers should try not playing on easy mode and actually try to accomplish the various challenging, optional objectives that they put into these games if they're going to criticize these games for lack of depth or challenge.

On a side note, I found it interesting that the name I chose for my female avatar is a name one of the other characters in the game already has. At first, I was annoyed to know the name I picked was taken, but then found it amusing that Koei created a female character with the exact same name that I chose. Great minds think alike. I kept my avatar's name. I'll just have to try not getting confused when I'm receiving battle notifications in the game for either my avatar or the other similarly named character in the game.