Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Dunefar]

RKS: Freudia Demo.

So yeah, this came out with Comiket last night. It can be summarized into a few points: Lag sucks, oh God the stages are harder and Zorne has turned into a tit ninja of leaping doom. That is all.

[Niu]

FF Fighter that is Nomura ARPG in Disguise-

Ulti can never beat Kuja, the end, unless you play against someone really bad with him.

[AAA]

L4D-Started Versus Mode and wow, am I bad at it. Playing as the Infected is such a switch from doing co-op campaigns. Every team I've played with has gotten creamed by the opposition. So far I've only gotten the achievement for the Hunter and Ground Cover purely by accident. This going to take some practice before I can get competitive.

Initial thoughts:

The Hunter is all about picking the right moment to pounce. A bad hunter pounces the group randomly, does a negligble amount of damage, and dies immediately. A mediocre hunter waits until either the group is busy fighting the horde or other special infected or one of the group is stranded from the others and then pounces. A good hunter does the above but also keeps harassing the survivors in the meantime by hopping around, keeping them distracted and hopefully wasting their ammunition. The problem is figuring out just what the limit is on the Hunter's pounces and avoiding gunfire.

For the Smoker, the right position is everything. Height is good. Something that blocks incoming fire is even better. If you get in the right position and wait for the right moment you can do serious damage before being killed. On the other hand you're slow, easily noticed by being taller than the Horde and constantly making coughing sounds, and die fairly quickly.

The Boomer is easily the hardest of the special infected to use. He's slow, frail, has to get right up on the survivors before he can do any damage, and his vomit ability has an absurd recharge time. Again, positioning is key. Suiciding yourself is a tactic, but since I'm going for the achivement finding good choke points so that all the survivors are bunched up is essential.

The Tank is straightforward. You punch things. Then you punch them some more. You can utilize a little strategy by trying to knock survivors off ledges for the instant kill, but mostly you just rumble forward and murder things until the combined firepower knocks you down. Avoiding molotovs is a useful skill to learn, otherwise you have 40 seconds to do as much damage as possible. The concrete throwing move looks useless, too easily dodged, has too much of a charge time. You're a sitting duck out there.

[Yakumo]

Hmm.  I've gotten pretty bored with BvS lately.  Any of the players want a season 4 alt?  I only finished as a Sannin twice but I'm on the third bloodline that needs it.

[Grefter]

Fallout 3 - turning things to goo with Harkness's laser rifle. Ran into a problem though as I can't seem to repair it, normal rifles don't repair it. Is there some other type of laser rifle and if so where can I find one?

That is exactly the kind of problem I am having with the repair system, couple it with the incredibly high rate of item decay and it is just fail.  I am going to find a mod to turn that shit off.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

No, I want a character where they get multiple types of chainsaws throughout the game, starting with a regular low-power shrub-trimmer and ending up with a BattleMech-scale chainsaw that runs on a 400-rated fusion engine that can strip nineteen tons of armor plate in under ten seconds. That is why RPGs fail me.

And Air Tonelwhatever I will not touch because the save game points in Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden praise it, thus making it a game I probably won't enjoy. These same save points praise FF7 and Chrono Cross. Bad company to be in.

And Grefter: try http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=334. It's one of my favorite mods so far, what with the whole modular approach. Dunnow if I'd say it's my favorite FO mod EVER, though. The one from FO2 that that converts all magazines to a single shot is pretty fun.

Also: Harkness' rifle is a PLASMA rifle, not a laser rifle. That might be your problem.

[Hunter Sopko]

No, I want a character where they get multiple types of chainsaws throughout the game, starting with a regular low-power shrub-trimmer and ending up with a BattleMech-scale chainsaw that runs on a 400-rated fusion engine that can strip nineteen tons of armor plate in under ten seconds. That is why RPGs fail me.

Play BT:Dark Ages </mockery>

[Grefter]

I might try that if I for whatever reason feel the reason to replay it.  Don't see that happening though.  Found a mod that eliminates durability, I even took Repair as a tag skill and I am fine with this and am not restarting for more optimal skill choices.  The game is waaaay better now that I don't feel penalised for getting into fights.  Ammunition means something again because it is that I have to worry about running out of rather than running out of guns to shoot the ammo with.

[Rozalia]

Also: Harkness' rifle is a PLASMA rifle, not a laser rifle. That might be your problem.

Yeah you're right. I didn't think they were any different as Harkness' rifle is the only plasma rifle I've come across so far.

[Ryogo]

Also: Harkness' rifle is a PLASMA rifle, not a laser rifle. That might be your problem.

Yeah you're right. I didn't think they were any different as Harkness' rifle is the only plasma rifle I've come across so far.

Also, you could just head to a repair shop. I mean, it's not THAT hard to get the caps if you just pillage everything around you and sell it.

Also, Shishkebob and the dart gun for the win. Making the makeshift weapons was my favourite part of Fallout 3.

[Sierra]

VC: The Ghairlandio battles are pretty cool. I have to admit to getting righteously pissed off at the game on the second one, though. The setup itself is imposing but fair, and I'd taken four out of five enemy camps within ten turns on my first attempt...and then a lancer somehow OHKO'd the Edelweiss from full HP, game over (you get a game over if your commander gets killed. The fact that your commander is in a tank alleviates this somewhat, but this is still my primary cause of resets). Whuzzuh. How the fuck is that possible? I know they didn't hit the radiator, because the tank was backed up against a wall; it was also surrounded by gunners, so anyone trying to circle around it would've been shot to pieces. I dunno, maybe a totally uber Potential the enemies had activated or something, but the lancer swarm had taken plenty of potshots at me head-on before and never done something like that. Anyway, my response was ragequit...and me kicking myself for not saving midway through the battle (it was 4AM. I kept kicking myself at the end of each turn for forgetting to save, and then forgetting again at the beginning of my next turn).

Other stuff:

-I want Selvaria's gun. Now.

-Selvaria herself is a pretty pitiful individual, I've gotta say. Alenia-level devotion to a callous overlord, coupled with actual godlike power. You could do better, girl, seriously.

-All classes upgraded to elite status, levels at 12/13. I have flamethrowers and grenade launchers now. YES.

-Attack Down is still utter bullshit.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

No, I want a character where they get multiple types of chainsaws throughout the game, starting with a regular low-power shrub-trimmer and ending up with a BattleMech-scale chainsaw that runs on a 400-rated fusion engine that can strip nineteen tons of armor plate in under ten seconds. That is why RPGs fail me.

Play BT:Dark Ages </mockery>

MW:DA actually closed down not too long ago. I'm quite surprised it went on this long, since I heard about it's numbers dropping off sharply like... four years ago.

[Veryslightlymad]

IT'S THE POST NO ONE WILL READ!
NBA2k9

Started a new game on my PC as the Minnesota Timberwolves, because making the Pacers good wasn't nearly hard enough.

Apparently, making the Twolves good is even better. I fired the head coach and got a head coach that, while amazing, NEVER gets his name right in the voice acting. Everyone either calls him by the opposing team's coach's name, or "Clay Williams", when his name is "Cory Clemens". It drives me nuts.

I bamboozled the Pistons into giving me Tayshaun Prince, and then I bamboozled the Thunder into giving me their draft pick, which turned into #3. I gave away PEANUTS for these.

So my coach's one defect is that he has no real defensive mindset, but to make up for it, I have THREE lockdown defenders on my team. Brewer, Prince, and the #3 pick I got off the Thunder, Art Simon. (I love the random names in this game. They ACTUALLY SAY THE NAMES. <3)

I set my offense up to be an inside-outside game, where I toss into Prince, Jefferson, or Love for post-up oppurtunities, because all three are good in the post (in this game) and all three have a tremendous knack for passing the ball, so they can hit anyone but Jefferson or Brewer for an easy 3pt shot, and Brewer's quick enough to close to mid-range, where he's deadly.
I run an alternate lineup with Telfair, Simon, Brewer, Prince, and Jefferson, and I run teams off the court because I have THREE lockdown defenders and a speedy point man with great handles. Worst case scenario, I use Jefferson and Prince to post up their defenders, Jefferson with power and finesse, Prince with ridiculous speed and finesse, because no PF is going to keep up with my athletic small forward, but hahaha, he can still guard them because he has huge-ass arms. My ridiculous rookie is also deadly from mid-range, just as Brewer is, so I can still do my inside-outside crap or some fun offball movement plays.

I had a huge number of bonuses given to me, mostly because Kevin Love was a great rookie (for me!) and I spent those bonuses mostly to up his potential from a C- to a B, which means developing him becomes easier, AND he naturally develops somewhat faster. Undersized, Unathletic Kevin Love is suddenly spinning around defenders and dunking on them, in addition to having an hilarious high-post game. He's essentially a poor man's Dirk Nowitzki in my game.

In short, in ONE season, as opposed to two, I turned my franchise around and am a legit threat to, not only go deep into the playoffs (which I did last year from sheer dumbass luck with injuries to my opponents), but to actually win an NBA Title.
The Timberwolves. Projected Finals MVP if I do win? Either a sophomore Kevin Love, or Tayshaun Prince. Wrap your head around THAT nonsense.

[Grefter]

I read it because you said I wouldn't.

Guitar Hero whatever tour - Yeah we finally caved and picked up a GH game in my familly.  It is pretty fun but frustrating for mixed reasons.  Picked up World Tour and GH3 because I thought the world tour track list was worse than it actually was.  No real loss though.  We are just playing on Easy and the challenge of the songs is a bit hit and miss sometimes.  There is a set where you play 3 Tool songs in a row, Parabola, Schism and then Vicarious if I remember correctly.  My little brother did it, almost perfected Parabola first time playing it, barely scraped through Schism cause it had shit all over the freaking place pretty fast, then Vicarious was back to pretty easy again.  Weird, but whatever, the Tool stage is totally awesome and it is three great songs.

[Rozalia]

Also: Harkness' rifle is a PLASMA rifle, not a laser rifle. That might be your problem.

Yeah you're right. I didn't think they were any different as Harkness' rifle is the only plasma rifle I've come across so far.

Also, you could just head to a repair shop. I mean, it's not THAT hard to get the caps if you just pillage everything around you and sell it.

Also, Shishkebob and the dart gun for the win. Making the makeshift weapons was my favourite part of Fallout 3.

I've got 15K caps so money isn't a problem. The repair shops can't repair the rifle to full, only half way so they don't help much.

[Grefter]

Not to mention something like that is a pointless bullshit timesink and really breaks the flow of the game if you badly need to do it in a long dungeon which I can totally see happening due to how much damage it takes just to kill simple shit in Fallout 3.

[NotMiki]

DDR:X

Not too shabby.  They redid the numbering system, which is a bit jarring.  Loosely speaking, 8-9 is the new 7, 10-11 is the new 8, 12-14 is the new 9, and 15-20 is the new 10.  Horatio, the highest I've yet to unlock, is 15 and slightly out of my reach, so should be a good challenge.

Music's good on the whole, definitely a step up from Supernova 2 though not as good (as far as I've unlocked) as Supernova.  Rhythm is fresh!  The most complete combination of syncopation, jumps, and tricky step patterns yet.

Only truly bad thing about the game is the announcer.  He... the things he says... they're painful.  You ever see that preview of Species, where the scientists are saying of their half-alien demon-she-beast, "We made her female so she would be more docile...controllable."  The Announcer will make you feel like you're the dude saying, "You don't get out much, do you?"  And you might add, "Not since the early nineties, anyway."

[Sierra]

VC: Chapter seventeen. I'm going to assume that there are twenty because that is a nice, round number. So yeah, might finish this up this weekend. Also: I found Fina! She was right in front of me all along.

[Veryslightlymad]

I read it because you said I wouldn't.

This is pretty much why I posted the remark; I figured it was the only way for ANYONE to read it.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I just finished my Blazers season not too long ago. We lost three games all year.

[Veryslightlymad]

Are you playing all of them, or do you sim? I try to play the ones that look competitive, and I sim anything if I'm obviously better than the CPU or if the CPU is obviously better than me.

A 79 win season is still impressive either way.

[Rozalia]

Hmm.  I've gotten pretty bored with BvS lately.  Any of the players want a season 4 alt?  I only finished as a Sannin twice but I'm on the third bloodline that needs it.

I wouldn't mind having an alt.

[Ryogo]

VSM Basketball game post

Yeah, my roomie and I have been playing MLB: The Show '08. It's an awesome baseball game for PS3.

Be a Pro mode in this game ROCKS. You start off getting drafted and going through Spring training, determining where in the league you start. My roommate and I had a race to see who could make it to the MLB first. He was on the Cincinnati Red's AA team, while I was with the Seattle Fail-iners AA. I got called up to AAA right before the season ended, and then for the 8 games there I kicked ass with 5 homeruns, 13 hits (Two of my 8 games were me pinch hitting), and 10 RBI's. Because I did so well, Seattle rewarded me with a call to the September Call-Ups, even though my ability stats were crap. So on a fluke, I went from AA trash to playing on the Seattle Mariners in a week and a half of game time. Needless to say, my roommate was pissed. He couldn't pull off what I did at the end, so I won the race

Really fun game though. I enjoy trying to break all the records in the MLB, negotiating my salary for my coming years, and the goals they give in game are realistic and give the game some added kick. Take a strike, sure. Drive the run in, ok. Or when you're doing terrible, the classic "Just PLEASE Don't Strike Out".

[Shale]

Elite Beat Agents: Perfected Jumpin' Jack Flash on Sweatin', and La La on Hard Rock. Sweet.

[Tide]

Persona 4: Hard mode. Why? Because of a) Tal b) Finali c) Hatbot

I join the duo in their treck through P4 hardmode, having hax'd through the bath house boss (whee level 23) and the optional shortly after. Now...strip club boss wasn't bad. But FRUE strip club boss is wtf hax. Lol 544 damage to MC. So didn't see that coming.