What Game Are You Playing Right Now?

[Cloud500]

I'm about 15 hours into Final Fantasy IX. It has everything a good Final Fantasy game should: likeable characters, fun battles, towns/dungeons to explore, and great music from Nobuo Uematsu. I honestly haven't enjoyed a Final Fantasy this much since I played VI. I especially like the fact that the main characters aren't obnoxious, whiny, or emotionally damaged, which unfortunately many people seem to like these days.

Why can't you make another game like this, Square-Enix?

[Nate]

FF9 is truly an amazing game among the FF series (not as good as Tactics though!). I think people were turned off by the character design, and that's why it doesn't get much love. And admittedly, the character model graphics are fairly poor, too pixelated and hard to make out (the maps are wonderful though).

The reason Square can't make another game like 9 though is because they've given up on making games that resemble anything remotely good...look at 13. The focus is completely on "OOOH LOOK SHINY GRAPHICS, HEY CHECK OUT THESE ATTRACTIVE CHARACTERS. STORY WHAT'S THAT?" I think that's another reason 9 isn't as well loved. It didn't try to make an OMG DEEP story, it had a simple story that it told well, with fun characters and some interesting things to say on the nature of the world (like Vivi and the Black Mage Village, and Steiner's change of heart). It was very subdued. Yeah there was a big war going on on Gaia, and the Necron stuff at the end was pretty lame, but overall it just wanted to be simple and focus on the characters. And you can't have a simple story with character focus if you want BIG EXPLOSIONS WHOA...just watch any Michael Bay movie for proof of that.

EDIT: I wouldn't say none of the characters are emotionally damaged though. Zidane hits it pretty hard near the end, and Steiner goes through a little too, though he's usually played for laughs and "Ha ha look how dumb and incompetent he is!" I'm actually a bit annoyed by some aspects of what they did with Steiner's character, but I won't get into that here.

[Fish and Chips]

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Skies of Arcadia Legends

Okay, so I technically finished Strange Journey forever ago, I just never mentioned it in here. Excepting the final boss, good game. Gamespot is run by incompetent hacks.

And I am loving Skies of Arcadia.

and the Necron stuff at the end was pretty lame

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[Straylight]

I have just completed God of War 3, which was visually the most impressive game I've ever played so far. I've also just started playing World of Warcraft.

[Nate]

Yes I know that it doesn't make it any less lame. I'm not saying Necron came out of nowhere, I was saying it was lame in context of the whole plot and feel of the game. It's like it was added in at the last minute just so Kuja couldn't be the last boss...which I don't know why he couldn't have been, it would have been pretty satisfying.

Plus up until that point FF9 had managed to avoid the whole "Friendship and love can bring people back from the dead!" thing. Otherwise Brahne would still be alive.

[ST. Attidude]

Y'know, FF9 always stuck out to me like a marble in a pile of rocks and seeing Vivi in KH2 certainly repeaked my interest in trying it out...I think I'll try that game out before FF7...

[Htom Sirveaux]

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse - Episode 3: They Stole Max's Brain! Still as much fun as the first two.

[the_wolfs_howl]

I've mostly just been playing Vagrant Story. Finally, some answers! In medias res is a great way to start a story, but it sure is confusing for a while I'm really starting to like Sydney; he's as creepily intriguing as Sephiroth, if not more so. And the translation! The writing! THEY USE FREAKING METAPHORS!!!!!!!!! *dies of happiness* The gameplay is really clunky, though :/ I've practically forgotten what good gameplay is....

I also picked up Elite Beat Agents again one day when the computer was off, and brushed up on my skillz again. And I unlocked the secret dancer! You know you're obsessed when you go beyond the Divas.

[GrubbTheFragger]

Playing a whole lot of WoW. I really have nothing better to play at the moment

[Atria35]

Nancy Drew and the Ransom of the Seven Ships. Siily and juvenile, yes. But I'm really really bad at puzzle games, and this gets me excercizing my mind!

[Cloud500]

Dragon Quest IX

So far I'm really enjoying this game. At its core, it's a standard Dragon Quest game which isn't a bad thing at all. The story isn't terribly engaging (at least right now it isn't), but I like how each town is like its own little "episode." Visually speaking, it's one of the best looking games I've seen on the DS.Visible equipment is definitely a plus as well. I would have liked for this game to be more character driven, but there are plenty of NPCs to talk to and apparently you'll have access to guest party members(characters from previous DQ games making cameos) so it's not too much of an issue for me. There seems to be a lot of skill customization/quests/etc. so I think I'll be playing this for a while.

[Davidizer13]

Picked up Medieval 2: Total War last week; I like it as much as Rome:TW. It's got a hugely different feel, though - there are a lot more types of non-combat units, archers/missile units and spies/assassins are less effective, it seems like you lose more troops in battles, pretty much every faction fields spearmen, making cavalry less usable most of the time, and the Pope is a lot more of a pain than the butt than the Roman Senate ever was - after all, the Senate didn't order you to send a general and a considerable force on wild goose chases to the Holy Land, only to find that someone beat you there.

Also, I miss my Hastati and the spears they threw before charging.

[Okami]

Fable II, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Just playing little pieces of each on a daily basis...the only one I've finished before is Fable II, but this is my first time with Xbox LIVE.

[ich1990]

Found a Wal-mart special on 360's that was too good to pass up, so I have been playing Mass Effect as of late. So far, it has been a superb Bioware game, with all of the elements I have come to know and love from that game studio. The one thing that I don't particularly care for, is the way that the game makes you feel like the center of the universe. There seems to be very little included within the game that isn't directly affected by your existence. I would have liked to see a little more of the "day to day life of the people", as I think it would have been much more immersive.

I still have a long ways to go, however, so I will withhold judgement for now.

[Nate]

I also have been playing Dragon Quest 9. I like it so far. It's predictable, but Dragon Quest games are not known for being deep epics, just a whole lot of old school fun. And that's precisely what this is.

I applaud the removal of random battles. I'm not against random battles, mind you. I don't hate them, but if a game has random battles, I've always felt there should be an ability or item that removes/eliminates them later on in the game (like FF6's Moogle Charm or Wild Arms' EXCELLENT ECN system). So while I love Dragon Quest games to death, I admit it is tiresome going back to a low-level area and being plagued with encounters that are a flat-out waste of time since you can't avoid or lessen the chance of battles.

So having this be a DQ game that employs a Chrono Trigger/Cross type system is welcomed. Although I could do without the useless unnecessary arrows in battle, and more OPTIONS would be nice (such as, oh, the ability to make text scroll faster, or pump up the battle speed).

[Jingo Jaden]

Demon Souls.... Demon Souls.... What to say.... other than it is slightly challenging.

Pretty nice aesthetics.

[Htom Sirveaux]

Puzzle Quest 2 for the DS. Pretty snazzy.

[the_wolfs_howl]

FINISHED VAGRANT STORY!!!!! ^_^ Loved it. Some of the most awful gameplay I've ever experienced, but I loved it nevertheless. Shows you how much of a sucker I am for story, huh? Though of course the ending is so confusing you have to go read five story guides to make any sense of it

...And now I'm leveling up in Xenogears. Again -_- C'mon, Esmeralda! Learn your Deathblows faster! (And incidentally, I am very annoyed with Esmeralda's yells in battle. Guess I'm too used to the manly grunts and yells from the male, adult characters....)

[mechana2015]

I picked up a game called Trackmania for free on steam and have been dinking around with it quite a bit... it has the chance to build your own tracks in it too. I think the full name is Trackmania Nations Forever.

[OfficerSting]

Currently, I'm playing Cave Story on the Wii.

Worth every point.

[MomentOfInertia]

Rented inFamous, great fun but very dark.
I'm gonna wind up buying it eventually I think.

[Abi-chan]

Kingdom Hearts. Yes, I've played it before, but never beat it. xP

[Bobtheduck]

I started wanting to do a second full playthrough on Heavy Rain, but I can't avoid trying to get all the "good" choices... Except one. I tried to get Hassan shot, but can't figure out how to do it. The robber will either fight me and lose, or he'll shoot me.

On the other hand, I've done some of the individual chapters over, and they have played out differently everytime... I only just discovered that taking the coward's way out in the Lizard ends with things worse for you.

[MomentOfInertia]

Little Big Planet.
Its wonderful, but now I can't get to the PS3

[ST. Attidude]

Just finished Super Mario World and bought Donkey Kong Country for my Wii...ah, those vivid memories.

[shade of dae]

Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I'm just at the tower, and so far it's been a great game. The art is fantastic, the story is a lot of fun, and the puzzles are challenging. But...

Whenever I hear the words, "Frankly... I'm ashamed.", a small part of me dies.
I feel sorry for Luke. Layton probably pulls that on him to get him to do his chores.

[the_wolfs_howl]

More Xenogears leveling up :/ Oh, and I realized that the green-haired girl's name is Emeralda, not Esmeralda. Lol, confusing. I'm beginning to think I'll give up on leveling people up once I get this last deathblow for Emeralda.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Since this summer I've been doing much more gaming than I have in the last two years, I've played Mass Effect 1 and 2 and Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, so now I move on to Dragon Age Origins to play more BioWare stuff.

[Htom Sirveaux]

Resistance: Fall of Man. I don't know why this is, but I'm having way more fun with this game than I expected. Soon as I beat it, I'm totally getting Resistance 2.

[Esoteric]

Just finished Uncharted 2. Safe to say 'awesome' is an understatement.