Which game to get?

[danzibr]

So Christmas is approaching and I'm looking for a game to get. Today I went to GameStop and saw a few games which look decent. I went to gamefaqs.com to see reviews, but... I'm not sure I trust them. I'm wondering if people here have any comments.

The contenders:
1) Record of Agarest War
2) Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
3) The Last Story
4) Any other PS3 or Wii game.

In particular Record of Agarest War looks cool. I like the multi-generation aspect of Phantasy Star III. To give an idea of games I like... many sorts. I've played Resident Evil 6 and Final Fantasy XII-2 lately. I like Disgaea and most of the Final Fantasy's. I also liked Dragon's Dogma. Fan of Metal Gear series. I also like things like River City Ransom and Castle Crashers. Really, if it's fun I'm down with it.

EDIT: Right, played Heavy Rain recently. Liked it.

[Terraoblivion]

If you don't have it yet, get Valkyria Chronicles. Easily the best PS3 game out there set in a bizarro WWII setting with interesting graphics explicitly done to try and evoke the look of old-school, hand drawn 2D cell animation. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8Mc8xZFC0) In terms of gameplay it is largely a tactical RPG, just a highly unusual one that is easier to show how works than explain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=SFWNJ_u5um0&feature=endscreen). Even if the guy in that video appears to not be very good at the game to put it mildly.

In general, it succeeds in pretty much all areas except for some late game balance issues where some classes become more useful than others, though that is pretty major. Also, seeing people discuss how to do various missions is hilarious because usually they will all swear by there being one, true way to do it and they're all different.

[warty goblin]

Spec Ops: The Line. It's the best game ever made for making you feel horrible. Everyone who plays games should play it.

If for some reason getting punched in the emotional kidneys for ten hours isn't your thing, I liked the Game of Thrones RPG. It's a slow burner for sure, but the last chapter has some serious guts, and the protagonists are genuinely interesting. It's yet another proof that stories are better when they star characters, not ambulatory blank slates or chirpy catch-phrase generation devices.

[danzibr]

I looked into Valkyria Chronicles a while ago. It did look neat. Is it... sort of like Final Fantasy Tactics? In the sense that you have mostly generic people (at least early on) which advance through different jobs? I read a little bit about it but I'm hesitant to search too much because some people don't give good spoiler tags.

[Terraoblivion]

You have story characters and more generic recruits. All are individuals with personalities, lines and faces, even if many of the recruits are pretty silly, though frequently also entertaining. All characters also have a class, which never changes. Alicia is always a scout, Largo is always a lancer and Rosie is always a shocktrooper. It's the same for recruits, Marina is not going to become an engineer, nor is Elysee ever going to fight with anything but an anti-tank lance. It doesn't really matter though, except for snipers there is never any chance of having too few of some class available and all members of a class level up together, so they will be properly trained too.

[danzibr]

Just to keep everyone updated, my wife bought me Xenoblade! The reviews were just too good to pass up. Plus the same dude made like... other good games. Looking forward to Christmas.

[Zetapup]

Day9 did a play through of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which might help your decision making process one way or another. You can watch it here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MngZF7uqQJs&feature=g-crec-lik).

[warty goblin]

Day9 did a play through of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which might help your decision making process one way or another. You can watch it here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MngZF7uqQJs&feature=g-crec-lik).

I like Kingdoms of Amalur a fair amount. There's a couple things a player needs to keep in mind:

1) On no account should you attempt all the sidequests. There's too many, it'll get boring. Use the main plot to propel yourself from region to region, but once you're bored with an area, roll on to the next one. This isn't really a game about deep questlines, it's about running around pretty fantasy landscapes stabbing things.

2) If you're at all good at button-mashy hack'n'slashes, the game gets easy fairly quickly. I suggest starting on Hard, or at least bumping up to Hard as soon as you have decent equipment. I also find playing mixed characters more fun than straight rogue/fighter/caster. The three play fairly differently from each other, but lack variety within an archetype. I'm playing a hybrid caster/rogue right now and it's really quite nice; staff combat has a very different rhythm than dagger fighting. Also the Destiny perks seem fairly cool, and quite a bit more dynamic than the straight stat bonuses the pure options seem to get.

3) Take a hint from your character's eyebrows: Your attitude towards everything should be sardonic amusement.