Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[DomaDragoon]

Darn it, I have a hard enough time doing the Shoryuken motion, let alone up moves and circles. And they're making it harder? Sad face.

Lego Indiana Jones: Been playing this almost exclusively. Cleared Raiders, on the last mission of Temple, and Chapter 5 of Crusade. Just picked up the *4 multiplier. Hooray!

[Niu]

Kingdom Hearts: Atlantica. Goofy and Donald's underwater costumes WILL HAUNT MY NIGHTMARES FOR YEARS TO COME.

Wait until you see KH2 Lion King Sora before you talk about nightmares.

Nightmare? why? It is cute, and perfect for furry.

And you still ask.

I do have too, what's is wrong with something so innocent as this?

SO4-

1. Niu sees certain PA scene
2. Niu's yaoi meter explodes
3. Niu is reaching to hall of his Japanese contacts to fetch for Erumat/Edge doujin that ought to spawn sometime between now and the summer comicke.

[Xeroma]

Darn it, I have a hard enough time doing the Shoryuken motion, let alone up moves and circles. And they're making it harder? Sad face.

Zuh? SF4's move input recognition is the most lax and forgiving in a long, long time in capcom fighters. It's easier to do moves than in SF2, definitely.

[Ryogo]

I maxed out Chie's and Yukiko's Social Links today too. And am dating both of them. Like that could happen in real life... >_>

All I can say is... you'd be surprised at how realistic that is... Especially when you consider that Souji is portrayed as an attractive male.

-Djinn

I just meant as in the two best friends never finding out about each other dating the same guy. You'd think one would mention it to the other at SOME point.... >_>

Darn it, I have a hard enough time doing the Shoryuken motion, let alone up moves and circles. And they're making it harder? Sad face.

Yeah, the Shoryuken motion was always the bane of my Street Fighter existence too. I've gotten better at it though! But if they're making it harder in SF4, I may be screwed

EDIT for Xeroma: Or easier?... Damn it, I need to try the damn game for myself. Curse you not having money/having to wait for the PC version!

[Shale]

Damn it, I need to try the damn game for myself. Curse you not having money/having to wait for the PC version!

I hate you all!

[AndrewRogue]

Andrew has a PS3 controller, which automaticlly makes it 10x better than the 360 controller for fighters.  Unless I'm missing something from arcade sticks that makes you suddenly awesome at the game, it's mostly Andrew sucking. >_>

L4D With Trips: We died a lot. I swear the game hates me with special infected spawning.

Unless the PS3 version has significantly different controls, SF4 is very particular about motions. You can't do the same QCFx2 motion you've been doing for years, you have to make like... a 1/4 circle. It's kind of hard to explain. You release it back in to the center position or something, I guess is how I would put it.

A stick is much easier that way.

So it fails and forces you to buy a 40 dollar controller?

That's what I was waiting for to know about SF4.  Now I don't have to get it.

Honestly, if that sort of off-handed thing is enough to make you disregard it, you probably didn't want it in the first place and could do without spouting off something you know very little about and just not buy it. Or actually try it out yourself. :p

Honestly, Xer has got the right idea and I'm really not sure what Rob is regerring too, unless the QCFx2s I've been doing for years are just the wrong ones and Rob has been doing his in a different way. >_> The general inputs are pretty easy, although some of the time frames in which to cancel or link moves can be pretty obnoxious.

To make it clear. MOVE INPUTS ARE NOT HARDER IN STREET FIGHTER 4 AND YOU CAN DO THEM JUST FINE ON A D-PAD.

SF4: Finally made some headway after getting help from Xer. Although I can't use it quite right for everything, certain combos are made viable by buffering (Bison's J.hk, hp, Double Knee Press -> Knee Press Nightmare comes to mind). I'm getting a little more capable at some strings, but a lot of the trials I'm beating through a bit of luck combined with a bit of effort and smashing my face into a wall repeatedly.

Beat Normal Trial for M. Bison and Sakura. Have unlocked everyone but Gouken and Seth.

I just meant as in the two best friends never finding out about each other dating the same guy. You'd think one would mention it to the other at SOME point.... >_>

Well, actually... it does come up in an obscure dialogue. Honestly, I just subscribe to the view that Chie is still of Yukiko's princes. ^_~

[Captain K.]

Zuh?  Turn order is different for boss fights than random battles?  FAAAAIILLLL, P4.

[Yakumo]

What I want to know is how you never noticed this when you played it. <_<

[Cmdr_King]

He was probably used to Persona 3's turn order, which is the same for bosses but is TOTALLY RANDOM after Minato's initiative for randoms.

[Ryogo]

What I want to know is how you never noticed this when you played it. <_<

I just didn't pay attention to the turn order that went during the fights... I was too focused on, y'know... KILLING THE GIANT THING TRYING TO KILL ME.

I never said I was the most observant person there was... >_>

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

P4 - Um. So. Kanji just wants to be FAAAAAAAAAAAAABULOUS~.

[Idun]

Nice.  hm, for all that the outside environment is nice, FFXII does caves and underground areas well (the fact that most of them are filled with monsters probably beyond your level helps with the atmosphere, to be sure)

Yeah, FFXII actually does a great job in submerging the gamer into a linear dungeon, that seems expansive. Even though you're relegated to pathways rather than clumped fields that you can explore, the design and varying changes in terrain remove that aspect of redundancy (IE Shadow Hearts). That's something I really like about the game. The enemies aren't exactly an issue, even if they're a bit more leveled than I am unless it's a fast ass enemy that kills me before I run to another screen to heal. Luckily that hasn't happened.

The presence of storyline in FFXII seems to pale in comparison to the sheer amount of questing available for gamers. I suppose that's why I get frustrated. Getting a storyline whose quality isn't of significant interest to me in short hiccups is pretty frustrating. Square's attempt at immersing gamers into the position of a supporting character, giving us panoramic experience to the storyline since FFVII is annoying. Maybe it's why I feel less connected to the story - not being the main character and all. /End rant

[Excal]

I was not aware that Cloud and Squall were supporting characters.  Hell, at some point FF9 even becomes Zidane's story.  So, this seems more like something done since FFX, not FFVII.

PS4: Air Castle beat, Lassic almost managed to get me on this playthrough, getting me down to just two people alive at one point.  But, I pulled out some Dews, and managed to salvage the fight.  Just need to go rock Garuberk and then I'm done with Dezolis outside of shopping.

OG2: Reached Chapter 26.  Conditions for Ashsaber should be met, so I'm looking forward to having one of those on my team this time, and I'm still five kills short of getting the Wurger R.  This should be easy, but the enemies seem to really hate the idea of targetting Arado, and he lacks chain or map attacks for the multikills.  So, I may need to suck up the loss of my second mastery point here, but I'm going to do what I can to lure enemies to their death by Arado here.

[Talaysen]

Zuh?  Turn order is different for boss fights than random battles?  FAAAAIILLLL, P4.

P3 did the same thing for the plot bosses.  I'm not sure why this is a new thing here.  >.>

And at least P4 made something worth a shit for speed at any point in the game, unlike P3.

[Dark Holy Elf]

PS4 - Sa-Lews Therin Telamon is kicking my ass with his saidin-tainted wind and lightning spells. Wow, wasn't expecting to have more trouble with him than Dark Force 3. Some bad luck mixed in there, not to mention a perfectionistic desire in me to beat him without using any truly valuable resources (so I guess he's not better than DF3, really). Still.

FF6 vEvil - Vargas is a bitch. Moreso since he's not close to a save point. Upside is I levelled while failing to reach him and one extra level (got to 9/10/10) was the push I needed. At least one Pummel ends the second form, because the first is just bad news. Shock Wave's OHKO damage probably wasn't needed, there.

Mt. Kolts in general stands up to Edgar way better than it has any right to considering nothing immunes status. Brawlers are particularly obnoxious. Fortunately I have Sabin now! He's better in early Eviltype than in vanilla FF6, since the MT damage of other PCs is less impressive, so his big ST boomstick is more appreciated. livinlarav needs to play this game.

EDIT: Though, make no mistake: despite the game fighting back, Edgar is still the man, the myth, the MVP.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

So, Star Ocean 4! I am a few hours in and I am enjoying it thus far. It rather reminds me of the original Star Trek in that I just got my mission, which was "GO HAVE COOL ADVENTURES IN SPACE!" Of course, I understand that Trek is one of the big influences on the series, sooo...

As usual, there's minor things about it in particular I enjoyed:

The revamped Calnus design has that weird roll bar thing like on the Calnus from SO2, but going over instead of under. Continuity porn.

The jRPG Vulcans are more likable than I had first thought. While they are more advanced than Earth, they don't seem very stuck up about it, and since humans are apparently the first comparable form of life they have encountered, they seem to think meeting aliens is pretty awesome, as opposed to the usual "Oh hey. Yeah, this was your first time? I guess I'm glad to be the one."

One of the jRPG Vulcans has decided he will sample the exotic charms of a human female, and apparently a bunch of them really fucking love ping-pong.

Ronixis and Claude are apparently descended from Space Chuck Yaeger. I guess that would explain how Claude gets promoted like eight times (Ensign to Captain is like eight promotions, right?) in the very short span of time between SO2 and SO:BS. SPACE NEPOTISM.

Hey, you finally explained why your space guns don't seem to work. I'm reminded of Star Trek: First Contact here. You know, how the Borg can't be hurt with lasers, so Picard and Worf solve the problems with a machine gun and a crazy sword/knuckleduster thingy? Except that instead, it's a space chainsaw. WTB .45 automatic?

[Grefter]

For what it is worth, from someone who doesn't play a lot of fighters and the ones that I do play don't use the arcane bbfbfbbfbfbbbaqcfqcb move style combos (Talking SC style more directional combination presses) stuff, even eased a bit, SF4's QCFx2 or charge back then forwards stuff can kind of generally just fuck off.  Anything that involves flailing in a circle and needing to be done during something else to prevent you jumping headlong into your foe is awkward feeling and unintuitive even if they were the fighters you started on, they just aren't the fighters I have played seriously in a very -very- long time.

[Hunter Sopko]

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology- Started this up. Neat little game. All the male designs looked stupid, so I made a female character. Too bad there don't seem to be lances in the game, as I'd planned to mess around with those since I stuck to Axes and Swords primarily in ToE. Decent VAing.

[metroid composite]

TF2: Unlocked one new Scout weapon (the new shotgun).  The rocket jumping properties of the weapon were exaggerated in previews--seems to be at best a double jump.

Other unlockables...Bonk Energy Drink looks useful in public games to get around sentries, not  useful in organized 6v6 play.  Also doesn't actually improve your speed, just temporary invulnerability (during which you can't shoot).

Sandman...seems good.  Really good.  I don't have it unlocked myself so I can't comment on how hard it is to aim, but it's a downright nasty uber counter (the medic stops healing when hit on the head, which means the uber target stops being invincible).  Just in general, if you land a baseball the target is probably dead.  You don't have to hit in the head (as was speculated by a couple people).  I know a fair few Scouts who said they'd never give up their double-jump, but the potential on this thing seems really scary.

[Ryogo]

TF2: Unlocked one new Scout weapon (the new shotgun).  The rocket jumping properties of the weapon were exaggerated in previews--seems to be at best a double jump.

Other unlockables...Bonk Energy Drink looks useful in public games to get around sentries, not  useful in organized 6v6 play.  Also doesn't actually improve your speed, just temporary invulnerability (during which you can't shoot).

Sandman...seems good.  Really good.  I don't have it unlocked myself so I can't comment on how hard it is to aim, but it's a downright nasty uber counter (the medic stops healing when hit on the head, which means the uber target stops being invincible).  Just in general, if you land a baseball the target is probably dead.  You don't have to hit in the head (as was speculated by a couple people).  I know a fair few Scouts who said they'd never give up their double-jump, but the potential on this thing seems really scary.

I had trouble installing that update last night. The Valve servers kept getting overloaded and the download would restart now and then. Plus it was slow as hell, and UNB decided to have a crappy night with the internet all yesterday. That said, I've yet to do anything with the scout. I have like, 4 kills, and thats it. Sucks because I got the "Three Intel Captures in one game" one week before the achievements were announced. Now I gotta try and pull that feat again XP

[Hunter Sopko]

TotW:RM- Played some more. Decent gameplay for a Tales handheld. Not as in-depth as TotA but servicable. If you liked the skits, though, this is the game for you. The scenes between all the different Tales characters are awesome. Can't think of one so far that didn't amuse me in some way. About to BREAK THROUGH to the next town.

[Cotigo]

TF2: Unlocked one new Scout weapon (the new shotgun).  The rocket jumping properties of the weapon were exaggerated in previews--seems to be at best a double jump.

Other unlockables...Bonk Energy Drink looks useful in public games to get around sentries, not  useful in organized 6v6 play.  Also doesn't actually improve your speed, just temporary invulnerability (during which you can't shoot).

Sandman...seems good.  Really good.  I don't have it unlocked myself so I can't comment on how hard it is to aim, but it's a downright nasty uber counter (the medic stops healing when hit on the head, which means the uber target stops being invincible).  Just in general, if you land a baseball the target is probably dead.  You don't have to hit in the head (as was speculated by a couple people).  I know a fair few Scouts who said they'd never give up their double-jump, but the potential on this thing seems really scary.

Aw.  Force-A-Nature isn't as good as implied? Damn.

Yeah, the sandlot seems silly.  Sure, you give up your double jump, but giving competent scouts total Uber-denial?  Ridiculous.  Also, if so inclined, the Force-A-Nature gives you another jump anyway. Still, I am not a competent scout so it may be better for me to keep the double jump, especially with how much slower the Force-A-Nature is.  Supposedly.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology- Started this up. Neat little game. All the male designs looked stupid, so I made a female character. Too bad there don't seem to be lances in the game, as I'd planned to mess around with those since I stuck to Axes and Swords primarily in ToE. Decent VAing.

There is one Lancer in the whole game - Eugene from Tales of Rebirth. I'm not sure why they didn't make Lancer a selectable class (arguably Jade and Moses are Lancers, or at least have Lance-based abilities they could have programmed into the game). It's amusing that the only PC whose game never made it to America is also the only character with a completely unique class.

-Djinn

[Idun]

I was not aware that Cloud and Squall were supporting characters.  Hell, at some point FF9 even becomes Zidane's story.  So, this seems more like something done since FFX, not FFVII.

I never said they were. It was probably the wrong wording of "since."I think what I was getting at was the tendency to minimalize the first-player importance (traditionally the main character) to overall themes or important plot pieces in relation to the game's world. Rather, AFTER FFVII, bits and pieces begin to show be a tendency after FFVII in Square-Enix's FF series where the main character becomes an outlet for experiencing what's going on in the world instead of it tying significantly into the first-player character. This then becomes revealed in Final Fantasy X, making Tidus a frustrating character for me even with all the monologue. In FFXII, the complications of making the main playable character a supporting character explicitly embodies my criticisms of this tendency, in as far as relation, and characterization. It becomes much less about the supporting character than it is the main character making my experience feel less involved rather than bandwagon-y.

FF9 reminds me somewhat of FF3 US as far as characters are involved. The storyline didn't surround just one person, but how all of them were affected by whatever was going on, with a bit more focus on a love story and the antagonist's focus. That is all. (Edit, which unclearly means that I saw tendencies in FFVIII, IX, but specifically X as representing my criticism the most before XII )

[OblivionKnight]

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology- Started this up. Neat little game. All the male designs looked stupid, so I made a female character. Too bad there don't seem to be lances in the game, as I'd planned to mess around with those since I stuck to Axes and Swords primarily in ToE. Decent VAing.

There is one Lancer in the whole game - Eugene from Tales of Rebirth. I'm not sure why they didn't make Lancer a selectable class (arguably Jade and Moses are Lancers, or at least have Lance-based abilities they could have programmed into the game). It's amusing that the only PC whose game never made it to America is also the only character with a completely unique class.

-Djinn

His name is PANTHRO, damnit!