WHAT GAMES ARE YOU PLAYING THESE DAYS

[odditude]

KH2 Final Mix, critical mode, courtesy of II.5 ReMIX. "Get up on the hydra's back!" indeed.

[Agozer]

KH II.5 ReMIx here as well. No Critical Mode for me, normal playthrough first. Really digging the Final Mix additions and the slightly remastered soundtrack.

Also, Grand Theft Auto V on the PS4. Massive lifedrain.

[odditude]

Critical Mode is the real deal. Random enemies can deal enough damage with stray hits that you need to be controlled in any encounter. The high-rank Nobodies can deal hilarious amounts of damage, to the point that a simple group of Samurai or Dragoons needs to be taken very seriously (I was one-shotted the first time I screwed up Duel Stance). Minor spoilers for an 8-year-old game follow...

The fight with Xaldin* was a hilarious clusterfuck. I knocked him down to 1HP fairly quickly, and then couldn't get through his defenses long enough to land a combo finisher for the kill. At the same time truly embarrassing and incredibly awesome, Yoda^H^H^H^HKing Mickey came out* 6 times during the fight, 3 of which after Xaldin was already at 1HP. One time, I was revived and one-shotted a quarter-second later, only for His Highness to drop into the same attack, fall out of the combo because of his low height, allowing him to be killed by the subsequent hit* - dropping me right back into the beginning of the next iteration.

I'm enjoying the hell out of this.

Notes:

1. "That One Boss" - telekinetically wielding 6 lances, liking to put up a whirlwind barrier that deals damage on attempted melee hits, and generally fucking up your business. If you think Demyx is worse, it's only because you haven't tried Wisdom Form + Fire against him.
2. During certain boss fights, there's a percentage chance of Mickey dropping in as a playable character upon Sora's (your character's) death. if you successfully revive Sora, you're returned to the fight at full health; otherwise, upon Mickey's defeat Sora will be revived at ~50% health.
3. Mickey has the "Once More" and "Second Chance" abilities, which when combined mean that no single attack nor combo can defeat him unless he was already at 1HP at the beginning of the attack; he'll stay at 1HP for the duration of the combo.

[Agozer]

Wasn't the Xaldin fight already incredibly cheap on Normal with his six lances and that *god damn* barrier ability I don't want to remember that fight... it was already a bitch the last time I played all those years ago. Also, I couldn't believe how many times I had to restart the Demyx fight simply because, for some reason, I was sunable to defeat his 50 clones in under 40 seconds. Even with spamming Reaction Commands. Not to mention he calls his clones at least twice during the battle.

p.s. I find dealing with Duel Stance exceedingly difficult and luck-based. How are you supposed to get the cursor on The End? quickly enough unless you get really lucky?

[odditude]

Wasn't the Xaldin fight already incredibly cheap on Normal with his six lances and that *god damn* barrier ability I don't want to remember that fight... it was already a bitch the last time I played all those years ago.

Yeah, pretty much.

The proper way to beat him is to parry his lunges (negating his Aero barrier) and then counterattack. Once he starts to Jump, you have to kite him around, staying close enough to spam Learn while making sure you're airborne when he lands so the shockwaves don't hit you. Once he lands the last time, unload a full stock of Jumps followed by a full aerial combo to knock a few health bars off. As for the wind dragon attack, you can either interrupt him while he forms the dragon (good luck pulling it off) or just use Reflect to protect from the whirlwind. When he finally starts using his Limit Break (the results of which I already described), he's invincible while glowing - just get the hell away from him and be ready to Aerial Dodge back at him to start an air combo once his attack stops.

If you can properly do all that on your first attempt, you are a better man than I. You need to have near-flawless spacing and timing to properly avoid/deflect his attacks; once you get hit once, the whole thing tends to go downhill very quickly thanks to hitstun and camera screw.

Also, I couldn't believe how many times I had to restart the Demyx fight simply because, for some reason, I was sunable to defeat his 50 clones in under 40 seconds. Even with spamming Reaction Commands. Not to mention he calls his clones at least twice during the battle.

If you think Demyx is worse, it's only because you haven't tried Wisdom Form + Fire against him.

Seriously, Fire kills clones in one hit. With Wisdom Form, you just skate through them all - even in Critical mode, this left me with 25 seconds left on the clock for the initial run of clones. Also, Demyx himself is hilariously weak to fire.

p.s. I find dealing with Duel Stance exceedingly difficult and luck-based. How are you supposed to get the cursor on The End? quickly enough unless you get really lucky?

Put the cursor in the second or third slot so you have to move two at most, then get ready to twitch once it appears.

[neoblaze]

I am playing Beer Simulator 2015 except that it is not a simulator at all.

[dr-nix]

Don't have alot of time over for games these days, but what time i do have is currently spent on The Talos Principle.

[odditude]

got that platinum trophy in my Critical Mode KHII run a few weeks ago - that was definitely satisfying, although I beat LW by the cheese method because I was eager to start BBS.

watching multiple waves of mobs die to Mega Flare will never not be hilarious.

[Nedsom]

GTA V / Minecraft.

[joe_devore]

Unreal Tournament 2k4 (PC)
Steam Games....
etc

[Yuber]

I am playing Beer Simulator 2015 except that it is not a simulator at all.

Weed simulator 2015 is much safer, more fun, and simply a superior game. Beer Simulator can cause violent behavior, poisoning and addiction while Weed Simulator's only downside is the munchies and the awful censorship of it around the world.(censored to catnip) It allows you to view the world in 4k and in 3d too!

edit: Mostly been playing old arcade games like X-men(welcome to die version), the CPS2 Marvel VS games, TMNT(konami) etc. I'm coming back from a hiatus, and when I get back into games for real, I need to commit to finishing Dragon Quest VIII. I'm still at the beginning, and while it's an amazing game it's also very time consuming.

[odditude]

Just finished WWHD. I forgot how satisfying it was to plant the Master Sword in its final resting place.

[someone]

Most recent videogames I have played are Super Smash Bros WII U, and a lot of remakes people do for games on the old consoles. I just enjoy seeing peoples talent in coming up with something original, creative, and often insanely brutal.

I also just finished watching Sword Art Online. Its not a game, but its about a game, so it counts.

PS: I agree with Yuber. Although I don't smoke, and do drink on occasion I would have to say weed is safer. And some mushrooms. They are good to!

[Cammygirl192]

Donkey Kong Country 3. Of course, I'm using ZSNES because it feels more comfortable to play it on there, and there's a little less input lag.

(higan has the worst input lag, ZSNES has the least, apparantly)

[Gil_Hamilton]

The Windows port of Sayonara Umihara Kawase.

As always, I am currently in the "acceptance" phase. There are things in life that, no matter how much you love them, you will never be any good at. For me, that thing is Umihara Kawase.

[neoblaze]

I played the shit out of Stardew Valley but as I am closing in on year 3 I find myself insanely bored with it.

[franpa]

Why is Stardew Valley so uh popular? What's fun about it? It seems like it's just Farmville without the annoying social "features"... oh, that's why it's good?

[odditude]

Twilight Princess HD. Enjoying it much more than when I originally played it on the Wii; there's no control-related frustration (except when you go sailing off a ledge while pouncing in wolf form).

I put a ridiculous amount of time into Hyrule Warriors prior to this.

[kode54]

I had no control-related frustration with the GC version, either, which I pirated to play instead of my legitimate Wii version. I played it across a mixture of modded Wii and Dolphin, and finished it in the latter. The Argorok battle was broken with the hard drive loader I was using, where the mandatory disc in the optical drive would spin down, the hard drive would spin down and sleep, during the time it took to fight the first form of the boss. Then the game would lock up with ambient sound playing, waiting for the data to resume loading, which it never would.

I may yet buy a Wuu to see what all the fuss is about, the day I start using game consoles again.

[Agozer]

Bloodborne (+The Old Hunters) is pretty damn amazing. This coming from a fellow who struggles a lot in Souls games. Despite that, I went ahead and got Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin as well. Said game only hammers home the point that I'm quite poor at Souls games.

[odditude]

Ratchet & Clank (the reboot). It's phenomenal so far (just finished Blackwater City), and peppered with references to the originals and the occasional fourth-wall poke about it being a remake.

[Silensho]

Wario Smooth Moves and Castlevania Rebirth. Have not finished either yet. Not sure if I will.

[joe_devore]

Playing a bit of WoW

[franpa]

Ratchet & Clank (the reboot). It's phenomenal so far (just finished Blackwater City), and peppered with references to the originals and the occasional fourth-wall poke about it being a remake.

Is that the PS4 game? Does it let you invert both the X and Y axis for both camera controls as well as when aiming in 1st person mode? I noticed that the PS3 ports of the PS2 games let you invert both axis for the camera but stupidly only one axis for 1st person mode (And there aren't separate inversion settings for 1st person and 3rd person modes)!. It's been many years since I played the PS2 games, so I can't remember if they also had this issue, I think back then I was more tolerant of not inverting both axis, these days I must have both axis inverted when using a analog stick for aiming/camera controls.

[Gil_Hamilton]

I'm playing Pokemon Go.
Don't laugh, we all know you are too.