Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Lord Ephraim]

Even if it's a demo, I really didn't dig RE5 either. Controls were sluggish even compared to the freaking classic controller (RE4 Wii) and co-op means more ammo management since the CPU can shoot worth shit.  I tried both 360/PS3 demos; PS3 is a bit better since the d-pad doesn't blow. (switching weapons)

MGS4: Played and finished. Not going to mention plot because it's MGS plot and thus is pretty fucking bonkers.  If Kojima and Nomura ever get together to write a script, the result would cause mental trauma to just about everyone, Niu not excluded.  Gameplay is pretty sweet, definally got the right idea between gameplay-to-cutscene balance........for only the first two Acts.  Acts 3-5 are about 3 hours of cutscenes, a "stupid follow the goon" mission, a couple of rail shooting parts, one or two areas of ACTUAL stealth (aka the good stuff), and some bosses.  The final cutscene was the most bullshit copout I ever seen in a video game.  But at least the era of Solid Snake is finally wrapped up.

Now with my PS2/PS3 backlogged caught up, maybe I'll finish Luminous Arc 2 or Star Ocean 2 remake (need to grab wisemen art. RANK MICHAEL.)

[Veryslightlymad]

Heroes of Might and Magic 3:

I have gotten my revenge on the Dragons, although it was largely because of my willingness to buy my OWN dragons. And Angels. You know what kills 7 dragons? TEN FUCKING DRAGONS. And about 5 Angels. That'll learn those little SOBs.

The glory is, I now have an absurd income, and two cities that produce the same kind of units. If I can hold onto this new city, I should be able to slowly conquer the map.

[Niu]

Played and finished. Not going to mention plot because it's MGS plot and thus is pretty fucking bonkers.  If Kojima and Nomura ever get together to write a script, the result would cause mental trauma to just about everyone, Niu not excluded.

By this statement, I believe you do not know the relationship between Nomura and Kojima....

[Anthony Edward Stark]

RE5 demo.

The chainsaw guy in RE4 you could at least escape from. You have to fucking KILL this one, and... yeah, he takes more hits to the eyes than Frank Horrigan.

This.

Dear lord. I belted that got with 10 or so rifle rounds and a couple of hooks and the son of a bitch still didn't die.

Apparently he's more manageable in co-op, where you can rifle blast him in the face and then empty a magazine of SMG ammo in to him while he's stunned. Also, found a few more things that helped.

One, his weapon has honest-to-god collision detection. If he comes at you in a narrow hallway or you step sideways as he swings, it hits the wall and leaves him open.

Two: EXPLODING BARRELS.

[AndrewRogue]

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter- Finished the Ice Road and the boss fight at the end.

Let it be known. It's still a pain. Finished without a D-Dive though. Mainly the entire boss fight is a check to see how well you understand the game at this point. Regardless, as long as you are solidly stocked on items, don't bunch wrong and such, you should be fine. Zeon is still an absolute beast.

[Grefter]

Saint's Row 2 - I bought this because you can spray shit all over stuff.  Done that, now I have a poorly optimised GTA Clone to play.  Oh well, guess it can't be any worse than PC Version of GTA 4.

Still it was almost worth the price for the shit spraying because of how cathartic it is.

Laughing scene may have meant to be forced, but fuck me if it isn't painful to listen to regardless.  Doesn't help that it backs onto a bunch of scenes with Tidus generally being a cock either.

[Sierra]

MGS4: Played and finished. Not going to mention plot because it's MGS plot and thus is pretty fucking bonkers.  If Kojima and Nomura ever get together to write a script, the result would cause mental trauma to just about everyone, Niu not excluded.  Gameplay is pretty sweet, definally got the right idea between gameplay-to-cutscene balance........for only the first two Acts.  Acts 3-5 are about 3 hours of cutscenes, a "stupid follow the goon" mission, a couple of rail shooting parts, one or two areas of ACTUAL stealth (aka the good stuff), and some bosses.  The final cutscene was the most bullshit copout I ever seen in a video game.  But at least the era of Solid Snake is finally wrapped up.

Seconding all this. MGS4 is 40% of a good game, really, and that 40% is all in the beginning. Kinda sad.

[Lord Ephraim]

Played and finished. Not going to mention plot because it's MGS plot and thus is pretty fucking bonkers.  If Kojima and Nomura ever get together to write a script, the result would cause mental trauma to just about everyone, Niu not excluded.

By this statement, I believe you do not know the relationship between Nomura and Kojima....

I expected them to be old college roommates.  You telling me there's MORE?

[Shale]

Final Fantasy III DS: Beat the Crystal Tower, beat Xande, beat three of the Dark Crystal guardians, got all the Ribbons...and then lost to Cerberus. Which meant all that other stuff I did no longer counted and I was back outside the Crystal Tower. Very possibly done with the game, because that is bullshit.

[Bobbin Cranbud]

MGS4: Played and finished. Not going to mention plot because it's MGS plot and thus is pretty fucking bonkers.  If Kojima and Nomura ever get together to write a script, the result would cause mental trauma to just about everyone, Niu not excluded.  Gameplay is pretty sweet, definally got the right idea between gameplay-to-cutscene balance........for only the first two Acts.  Acts 3-5 are about 3 hours of cutscenes, a "stupid follow the goon" mission, a couple of rail shooting parts, one or two areas of ACTUAL stealth (aka the good stuff), and some bosses.  The final cutscene was the most bullshit copout I ever seen in a video game.  But at least the era of Solid Snake is finally wrapped up.

Seconding all this. MGS4 is 40% of a good game, really, and that 40% is all in the beginning. Kinda sad.

Whereas I thought the final 60% of MGS4 more lived up to the promise of the beginning, and that the final 40% cemented it as easily the greatest game yet of its generation, not to mention one of the best ever.

The way the story was wrapped up was, to my mind, masterful.  It was "bonkers" - but it was not only well executed bonkers (like MGS1), it actually explained and codified all the bonkers in the series into an internally consistent plot.  It retroactively redeemed MGS2 by making its shitty incoherence a necessary step for the glorious culmination that was MGS4's finale, and MGS3 by making its digression to an entirely different era directly relevant to the series' ongoing storyline.  How the final cutscene could be construed as a "bullshit cop-out," I can't imagine; absent it, the story would have been both emotionally unsatisfying and left with significant unresolved plot points.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

So... what you're saying is that the ending is a mad scramble to retcon a bunch of shit, because Kojima got tired of making MGS games at MGS2?

[Shale]

I find this new information totally shocking and unexpected. Yes I do.

[Meeplelard]

Final Fantasy III DS: Beat the Crystal Tower, beat Xande, beat three of the Dark Crystal guardians, got all the Ribbons...and then lost to Cerberus. Which meant all that other stuff I did no longer counted and I was back outside the Crystal Tower. Very possibly done with the game, because that is bullshit.

I wouldn't blame you if you gave up here.  Pity you won't see the Cloud of Darkness, but yeah, Tower of Syrcus is complete Bullshit in FF3DS due to lack of save points.  Forgivable on the NES for a number of reasons, but for the remake? No, and you have Japanese Purist Fanboys to blame for that who voted "No save points! STAY TRUE TO THE ORIGINAL!"
(but isn't the point of a remake to take the original game and work out kinks so its better and thus, NOT like the original beyond a surface level?)

Would you believe that Cerberus was arguably worse than Xande, aka he could only attack once every 2 turns, in FF3o?  Yeah, one could say he got a bit of an upgrade <_<

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Played and finished. Not going to mention plot because it's MGS plot and thus is pretty fucking bonkers.  If Kojima and Nomura ever get together to write a script, the result would cause mental trauma to just about everyone, Niu not excluded.

By this statement, I believe you do not know the relationship between Nomura and Kojima....

Angry yaoi?

XS2 - After Baal Zebu, Phobos Rigas was just a wimp by comparison. Hey, he gets brutal as his Fear level raises! ... then he reaches max Fear and fails forever. Awesome.

[hinode]

Final Fantasy III DS: Beat the Crystal Tower, beat Xande, beat three of the Dark Crystal guardians, got all the Ribbons...and then lost to Cerberus. Which meant all that other stuff I did no longer counted and I was back outside the Crystal Tower. Very possibly done with the game, because that is bullshit.

In theory it'd help to do Cerberus first of all the guardians, since that way you only have to reclimb the Crystal Tower (and you can at least loot it all first) and beat Xande, who sucks. However, considering you have Cloud of Darkness who is much worse at the end of all this, I wouldn't blame you at all for just giving up, since the whole chain really is pure bullshit.

[Meeplelard]

Wild ARMs XF: Up to Chapter 1-5!  Not much else to say or something.

[Cmdr_King]

Sam & Max Season 1: Finished.  Interesting game.  On the whole very well put together, in particular the times I couldn't figure out the solution to a puzzle, it was because I'd missed an item altogether, not because the logic was obtuse.  Important quality in an adventure game.

The only complaint I have is that it lost some steam as it went.  While Abe Lincoln Must Die! was charged things, and the internet 1.5 segment was very cute, there was something missing.  Maybe it's just that meeting the cast the first time around was the real highlight and the subsequent stuff happening was merely good?  I dunno.  It does make me want to play Season  now, if nothing else I want to see how that Sale To Canada went, and how this effects the status of the President...

[Grefter]

Season 2 is good, I kind of disagree with it having lost steam.  It takes a while to build up and while Abe Lincoln must die is a masterpiece, Reality 3.0 and the final episode really do go out of their way to be completely different.

[Dhyerwolf]

WA XF- 4-7 Part 2. Argh, I haaaaaate the win condition on this map. Get to the second to last enemy, and I crit him and kill him. Damn boring map that I'll now have to redo over for such a stupid reason.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Don't use regular attacks, for that reason. (And if you're using Command Critical, unset it.) It's not really rocket science.

[Tide]

If you're using physicals, stick with Allowance. Otherwise, I mostly twinked Blast and elemental magic to get enemies down to crisis.

[Sierra]

So... what you're saying is that the ending is a mad scramble to retcon a bunch of shit, because Kojima got tired of making MGS games at MGS2?

That's pretty much what I got out of it, personally.

~

MMXCM: Hm. Spider, Redips...Spider...Redips...could there be a connection?!

MEGA MAN PLOT is in effect. Yeah, game's just cornball nonsense, but I'm enjoying blowing shit up, I guess. Desert randoms were whores, though. Glad to be done with that area.

EDIT: Is it just me, or is there no save point in this game's HQ? Seems like a pretty glaring oversight, but none of the rooms next to the command center have one.

[Meeplelard]

I believe there's one if you go a bit upstairs or something.  Its in general proximity of the HQ, but its not in as obvious a place as you'd think.  But its there, trust me!

[Rozalia]

SO1 psp - Started this and its been an all right experiance so far, but I'm hating there being no side stepping.

[WanderingMind]

Almost done with the Sonic side of Sonic Rush.  I have to say, this game is somewhat of a disappointment compared to the Advance games.