What are you all playing?

I'm almost done with my second playthrough (New Game +) of Valkyria Chronicles. I'm in the last chapter and have almost every medal. By the way, there's an extra, short chapter (one of those Ellet Reports) only accessible in New Game +, look for it after chapter 11. It doesn't add much, but it was fun to get one more story tidbit while replaying the game.

I'm also still going strong with my NG2 mentor playthrough. I'm at the end of chapter 5. It actually got a little better, as this chapter toned down on the ranged enemies and the explosions, so I have been experiencing less slowdowns and unfair situations.

Started playing Alan Wake for the 360. Kinda like it, but it's scary. Found out that all the DLC is free, so that's pretty sweet!

Haha, but for real; Do you have any games on your 360 that aren't games that comes pre-installed on every Windows computers after 2000.

I had been playing a lot of Sleeping Dogs lately.

I've got every achievement in Valkyria Chronicles (Woohoo!), so I'm moving on from it. Such a great game. Now, when will Sega stop pulling a Konami and just port/localize the sequels?

Yesterday I started Sonic Lost World. It is crap. I can see how someone could like the game, but, to me, it's absolute, irredemeable crap. The controls are all wrong, and I mean both the controls themselves (Sonic needs a button to run, seriously; the spin dash is useless and... there's a button to kick enemies? Which only works when you're airborne, otherwise it does a roll that has no function; he also has an inventory button now, because why not?) and the way Sonic moves/controls. See:

- Sonic is slow. I don't mean "slower than in previous games"; I mean "walking simulator" slow. Slower than ANY character in a 3d platformer game I've ever played.
- The jumping doesn't carry the momentum, which is especially obvious in the 2d levels. It doesn't matter if you're going faster or slower: your jump will always have the same slow speed, which is confusing to say the least. In any other Sonic game, there's a difference between jumping from a standing point or jumping after gaining speed. Here, there is not.
- When you're holding the running button (all the time, as even then he's still slow), you can't go near any wall, or he'll to a slow, annoying "running up the wall" animation.
- He now holds onto ledges. Which just makes things slower.
- Even after fully exploring the levels and getting everything in them, the level design is still confusing to say the least.
- The auto-aim is completely unreliable. Sometime the reticle will mark all the enemies, sometimes will only get a few of them, sometimes will get them in inverse order (so you can't reliably do a sequence of jumps on them to get somewhere).
- Some random enemies have to be killed by being kicked, but the game never tells you about that, so you'll just jump on them and lose your rings. Total trial and error.
- The bosses don't stop talking - and not just when you're fighting them; they'll talk through the entire level. So, imagine those terrible platformers from the 90s, like Bubsy. That's what we have here.
- It's never clear when you can or can't hit the bosses. You'll jump on them and hit, you'll jump again and lose rings. In any other game they would be blinking or something; they do blink here sometimes, but even when not blinking they still may be invincible.
- Every cutscene in cringeworthy. Should be renamed Sonic in the Cringe World.
- There's a "Candy Level". You know, the kind that you would find on the worst mascot platformers of the 90s. It's especially jarring in Sonic, as its levels (except for the bonus ones) were never so abstract and stupid in concept.

This may as well be the worst Sonic game I've played until now, along with Sonic 4 Ep. 1 - thankfully, I haven't played Boom, Shadow or 2006. The fact that this came after Generations was such a great game (still my favourite 3d platformer ever) just rubs salt on the wound. Generations had so great controls, why would they have to completely scrap them?

EDIT: The music is also crap.


Man, it seems I got myself into a terrible sequence of very disappointing sequels (NG2, HM2, SLW). I hope the next game is better, as I'm between Ys VI, Dark Souls 2 and The Witcher 2.

By the way, only now I realized Sonic Lost World can be abbreviated as SLoW. It makes sense.

I can play borderlands 2 with you.