Alternatives to PSU?

[The_Brimada]

I've been playing DFO(dungeon fighter online) for the past few months. Its built as a more casual type game, but I'm pretty much a casual gamer now so I don't have as much time as I used to. Work and a baby boy comin in 2 months time.

I don't really look into games much now but some of the games above do draw my interest.

[Tetsaru]

Well, I don't know of anything that can really replace the PSO/PSU experience other than newer iterations of the series. Lately I've been enjoying PSZ though. Who knows, maybe someone will manage to put PSU onto a private server... only time will tell, but I figure it'll happen eventually.

Right now, I'm just waiting on the FF14 Beta to come out... and it looks like they're still accepting applications.

Occasionally I'll play Mario Kart and Brawl on the Wii, if enough people are available online.

Other than that, I've been working on/looking at the following (mostly) PS3 games to keep me busy:

- Bayonetta (just started it)
- Fallout 3 (haven't played yet)
- Devil May Cry 4 (haven't played yet)
- Little Big Planet (TONS of replay value due to new levels always being built, slowly working on my own, but it takes FOREVER)
- Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (usually get my ass kicked in it, but it's probably my favorite fighting game to date)
- Pokemon Diamond (you can put SOOOO many hours into these games getting your team just right; HeartGold/SoulSilver are supposed to come out soon)
- The World Ends With You (friend's borrowing it, haven't played yet, but I heard it was good)
- League of Legends (fun little RTS/RPG-ish game some of my friends and I have gotten into lately; relatively new and still updating, but it's F2P unless you want to buy certain things from their store for your characters)
- White Knight Chronicles (Feb. 2)
- Dante's Inferno (Feb. 9?)
- FF13 (March 9)
- God of War 3 (March 16)

[Kent]

Also @Kent. Don't hate on die-rolling games. I'm a proud player of D&D and there's nothing wrong with it. I've also logged somewhere around 6000 hours on Neverwinter Nights, which uses the D20 system and personally I prefer those types of games because it shows you exactly what's going on so you know exactly what to fix or improve on. And without D&D, there would be no such thing as the RPG. In games like WoW and PSU all of the die rolling still takes place, it just doesn't show you. Attributes like ATP and EVP are just different ratios for "damage die" and "armor class"

Don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with stat-driven RPGs like that - but I was specifically talking about instances where it plays like something very different. With Borderlands for instance, it improves the gameplay so much merely from the fact that if your bullet hits an enemy... it hits them. You don't have to go through all that manual trouble of landing an attack just to get the die roll to happen.

In games where things like manual dexterity aren't pertinent to determining such things, yeah, they're fine, because there's nothing else being done by the player, other than issuing the command. In a game like PSO it works, because PSO is a very mechanical game in the way it works. Borderlands is literally the gameplay from a first-person shooter, and it could be argued that a similar intent was used for Morrowind and Oblivion, just those were a critical failure rather than a critical success.

Generally-speaking, the more action required by the user to cause a random number roll, the less of an overall impact that random number should have. Removing things like "accuracy" is generally the easiest way to go about reducing the overall random impact.

[washuguy]

Wow, that`s going to be awesome!!! I wonder if there will be a feature where you can yell into the microphone fore three hours to go super saiyan.

XD i hope so, but i'm gonna be a majin though

[Boxblaster]

XD i hope so, but i'm gonna be a majin though

The Saiyans are long gone by the time DBO takes place. I cant wait for a release of this game. I've been eying the Majin as well, as they're new and interesting, but I like some of the Namekian classes as well.

[Kion]

In DBO, I wonder if there will be a `bad guy class` that mods stamina by 9000%.

Dragon`s nest looks cool. Maybe i`ll go with that or JP PSU. Just a matter of when i can get a new computer that doesnt suck.

[Kizeragi]

Mostly sticking to console games. Such as Mass Effect 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (demo) and soon Final Fantasy 13. I'm also going through all the games I didn't complete so I can finish them.

For MMO's, I play Wonderland Online and Aion atm. Wonderland is a nice free to play game (alot like Golden Sun imo) there's also an Item Mall with advanced gear which costs RL money, you don't need to use it though. Aion is pretty damn epic tbh, I'd definately recommend giving it a try.

Also, if your patient.. The new Monster Hunter game, Monster Hunter: Frontier, which is an MMO also, is due for Xbox 360 and PC for the end of this year. It'll most likely be epic, so definately a game to watch..

Still 2 months until PSU is over for us PC/PS2 players anyway, so no rush.

[Niered]

4 pages in and noones suggested Demon's Souls yet?

It cannot be stressed enough that Demon's Souls is one of the most deeply rewarding games ever created, not to even mention the fact that its probably the best Action RPG I've ever played. If your looking for multiplayer, its got you covered, though you can easily play the game completely offline.

And the replayability is insane. It would take you at least (if you did things perfectly) 4 run throughs of the game in order to obtain every item, spell, and miracle. It took me about 40 hours for my first run, and granted after that it gets faster (but not easier, quite the opposite really). Add in that the max level is 712 and I've just barely passed 100 with 60+ hours at this point and you can see how this game will take a long time to complete.

Don't let the elitists that play it ruin it for you either. Theres alot of talk about how difficult Demon's Souls is, and I think its scared away alot of potential players. The thing is, its not cheap. Its not like you die because of anything other than your own screw ups. When you die, you know why, and you learn from it. Thats the beauty of Demon's Souls, its an RPG where grinding will not instantly give you the upper hand. You will need to get better at it, and the game will teach you how.

I know in your OP you stated you dont like medieval stuff, and normally i'm totally with you on that. Its been done to death, but in Demon's Souls, the environments dont feel like "Generic Medieval Dungeon A" or "Generic Lava Filled Caves X". The level and enemy design is amazing, and it really is one of the most realized fantasy games I've ever played.

So do yourself a favor and at least rent it to try it out. If you find someone who doesnt like Demon's Souls, its generally because they gave up on the game before they even beat the first stage, which is a shame.

[amtalx]

Mass Effect 2

This. I just finished my first play through and I'm going back for more. Less than a month into 2010 and we've already seen GOTY. Great. ITS ALL DOWN HILL FROM HERE.

[Kylie]

I was going to say a brick wall, but all of these options are good too.