Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[AAA]

Mass Effect-Killed off Cereberus, then took care of the rogue computer on the moon, unlocked the Commando trait and put some points in it. Maxed out Pistols, been splitting up Talent Points between Sniper Rifles and Commando so far.

The amount of money you get from doing everything is insane. Just from hacking into lockers and crates I've gotten over a million credits worth of loot, with which I have bought some shiny Spectre Prototypes.

Story-wise, went through Vitemire, now the only thing I have left is Feros. Let Kaiden snuff it, then fought Saren. I'm not sure what was going on during the cutscene following that fight, as my game glitched and Shepard's character model was invisible (however, the pistol I currently had equipped was still visible midair), but I can guess. After which I was confronted by Ashley and Liara and chose Liara based on chat suggestion.

The only way I've ever died for some time now was due to those asshole snipers or being raped by rocket drones.

[AndrewRogue]

Mana Khemia: Beat the main game a while back and will do a few review at some point. Suffice to say, I considered it a good game. Not without some flaws, but overall, it was a really enjoyable experience.

Etrian Odyssey 2: Up to the 15th floor and fighting PLOT BOSSES. Mainly focusing on some testing for them, but I'm struggling pretty hard with this fight.

Suikoden 3: Finished everyone's chapter 2. Lot of stuff I don't remember in this game, and a lot of stuff that's really different than the manga portrayal. Also, forgot how absolutely awesome the opening animation was. Makes me wish there was a full movie.

[Grefter]

Trips, did you do the side mission where there is a crazy Biotic cult on a planet where they want you to arrest the leader of the cult without killing all the Biotics?  If so, did you do it without fighting them or with fighting them?

Cause if you did it non-violently, well here is what happens if you do it violently.  You walk through the last door in the place and get stuck in conversation with the leader.  You tell him to suck a dick.  Then you load out of the conversation with 2 rocket dudes opening fire right in your face.  Fuck that side quest so fucking much.

[Clear Tranquil]

*scratches head* The only "plot" battle that I remember is Fugue way back at the beginning, super. That's the only auto lose/game continues battle that I know about anyway~

Edit: Oh, did you mean Tuba?

Eternal Sonata (spoilers) -
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Mandolin Church catacombs, went back outside to save. Party is March/Viola/Salsa, I believe I've found my final party of choice ^_^ Great to have Viola back again and Salsa was definite MVP in the areas I was restricted to Salsa/Frederic/Polka/Beat. Recovery Gloves + Salsa's speed = win. Her HP was always constantly topped up and she mostly always stayed at max/near max HP. Had some durability problems with Polka though. Salsa and Frederic were staples, alternated between Beat and Polka. After selling the pictures Beat took of the last boss I now have over 300'000 G so I might not have to use him again for a while. Frederic's Spirit Pathway had it's uses.

Plot: I saw through Serenade from a mile away >_> Seriously that was so obvious with the stupidity she was spouting about not wanting Baroque to be the barbarians attacking Forte first, not knowing for sure if Waltz would attack, etc~ The Claves "twist" wasn't too unexpected either, she seemed the type for what happened to her (delicate/tragic looking) and for what she was ( her "is that all"  in battle was as arrogant sounding and annoying as all hell <_<)

[Meeplelard]

MK: Free Periods during Chap 4!  Decided to go GRIND MOAR! only cause Flay has a bunch of abilities he could learn and not the AP (first time I've run into this issue! Damn you Chap 4 for lacking actual fights or something.)

ToV: DESERT! Argh.  Hate.  Pain.  Death.  Still better than TotA Overworld dungeons!

[AAA]

Trips, did you do the side mission where there is a crazy Biotic cult on a planet where they want you to arrest the leader of the cult without killing all the Biotics?  If so, did you do it without fighting them or with fighting them?

Cause if you did it non-violently, well here is what happens if you do it violently.  You walk through the last door in the place and get stuck in conversation with the leader.  You tell him to suck a dick.  Then you load out of the conversation with 2 rocket dudes opening fire right in your face.  Fuck that side quest so fucking much.

Uh, I went through the whole base non-violently, but didn't have enough Charm/Intimidate to arrest the guy nonviolently, so Shepard shot him in the face and then I faced down the cult, but there were no rocket guys.

[Talaysen]

MK: Free Periods during Chap 4!  Decided to go GRIND MOAR! only cause Flay has a bunch of abilities he could learn and not the AP (first time I've run into this issue! Damn you Chap 4 for lacking actual fights or something.)

I hope you're not skipping the optional jobs...

ToV: DESERT! Argh.  Hate.  Pain.  Death.  Still better than TotA Overworld dungeons!

Pretty much!

Suikoden Tierkreis - This game is trolling anyone who wanted non-silent mains.  They gave us a talking main... and then gave him a VA that sounds like he drank four energy drinks prior to reciting his lines.  It is terrible and horrible and ow my ears.  The rest of the VA is like that as well but not as bad.

And the main's lines/personality sucks.  They totally did this on purpose didn't they.

Other than that, it feels like... early Suikoden.  Kind of lacking on the polish front and haven't seen much in the way of twinking options.  Characters can equip multiple types of weapons (but not ALL of them), but different weapons have different physical elements (slash/bash/strike), and enemies tend to be weak to one of these.  Magic so far has just been learned from a plot scene, though I only got one spell for each person from that.  The spells do seem to be based on character, which is nice.  Not sure how you get more though.

Oh yeah, I was talking about lack of polish.  In shops, you can buy equipment, obviously, but it won't tell you what the difference in stats is.  It displays the stats, and you can choose to "Try On" equipment before buying (ala FFT), but it still doesn't tell you stat CHANGES, so to figure out if something is better, you have to remember the stats of your old equipment before you select the slot to try on shop stuff.  Could be worse, but it's 2009 and it just doesn't need to be like this.  I think earlier Suikoden games did it better anyways.

Plot seems to be going the trainwreck route.  Kind of a bummer since S5 is one of the few games with a plot worth a crap.

So far it just seems kind of mediocre over all, but not necessarily bad?  I'm not really far enough in to give an accurate opinion though.

Tsukihime - Started this, but didn't get very far.

[Random Consonant]

Not sure how you get more though.

Plot.

Yeah, Tierkreis does feel kinda mediocre and trainwrecky.  But it has straw Calvinists or something!  Wait... that only makes things worse...

[Meeplelard]

Oh yeah, I was talking about lack of polish.  In shops, you can buy equipment, obviously, but it won't tell you what the difference in stats is.  It displays the stats, and you can choose to "Try On" equipment before buying (ala FFT), but it still doesn't tell you stat CHANGES, so to figure out if something is better, you have to remember the stats of your old equipment before you select the slot to try on shop stuff.  Could be worse, but it's 2009 and it just doesn't need to be like this.  I think earlier Suikoden games did it better anyways.

Really? Cause even back as far as Suikoden 1, the games would tell you an Up/Down Arrow, or have Green/Red numbers (Green = Good! Red = Bad! thing, obviously) indicating not only how the stats would change, but also HOW MUCH.  A downgrade in polish compared to Suikoden 1 is really just unforgivable, and I can't imagine why they thought it was a good idea.

[Shale]

Suikoden: Pioneering new advances in lack of polish since 1995.

[Taishyr]

Idly, a quick Etrian Odyssey 2 musing post:

Ronins: Synergize with Troubadours, Hexers, Landskigntrg
Protectors: Synergize with War Magus, Medic, pretty much anyone else
Landskugrd: Synergize with Gunner, Ronin, Alchemist
Gunner: Synergize with Troubadour, Hexer, Landskptjg
Dark Hunter: Synergize with Hexers, Protectors, Survivalists, War Magus
War Magus: Synergize with Hexers, Dark Hunters, kinda Survivalists, Protectors
Troubadours: Synergize with pretty much anyone (especially Ronin/Gunner/Landksugn/Hexers)
Hexers: Synergize with pretty much anyone (especially War Magus/Dark Hunters/Troubadours)
Medic: Synergize with Protectors, Survivalists, pretty much anyone else as well except War Magus.
Alchemists: Synergize with Landskirgwegf, Hexer
Survivalists: Synergize with War Magus sorta, Beasts, Dark Hunters, Protectors sorta
Beasts: Don't synergize except with Survivalists.

[DjinnAndTonic]

*scratches head* The only "plot" battle that I remember is Fugue way back at the beginning, super. That's the only auto lose/game continues battle that I know about anyway~

Edit: Oh, did you mean Tuba?

Eternal Sonata (spoilers) -
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.
.
.
Mandolin Church catacombs, went back outside to save. Party is March/Viola/Salsa, I believe I've found my final party of choice ^_^ Great to have Viola back again and Salsa was definite MVP in the areas I was restricted to Salsa/Frederic/Polka/Beat. Recovery Gloves + Salsa's speed = win. Her HP was always constantly topped up and she mostly always stayed at max/near max HP. Had some durability problems with Polka though. Salsa and Frederic were staples, alternated between Beat and Polka. After selling the pictures Beat took of the last boss I now have over 300'000 G so I might not have to use him again for a while. Frederic's Spirit Pathway had it's uses.

Plot: I saw through Serenade from a mile away >_> Seriously that was so obvious with the stupidity she was spouting about not wanting Baroque to be the barbarians attacking Forte first, not knowing for sure if Waltz would attack, etc~ The Claves "twist" wasn't too unexpected either, she seemed the type for what happened to her (delicate/tragic looking) and for what she was ( her "is that all"  in battle was as arrogant sounding and annoying as all hell <_<)

SPOILERS

I hope you liked Claves' death scene at least... you're going to be watching it like 4 more times...

EDIT: Sorry, my bad.

[superaielman]

Use small text for spoilers please, Djinn.

[AAA]

Mass Effect-Went to Feros, destroyed the evil plant creature, managed to make it out without any civillian casualties. After which I went about doing a ton of fetchquests, making me even more obscenely rich (5 million credits and counting) and giving me some nice levels. Shepard has now maxed out Sniper Rifles and is working on Commando. Also found all the Asari Writings and Salarian ID tags, and all but one of the Prothean Discs and Krogan Insignias. Also have 5 League of One Medallions in space somewhere.

Now I guess I go on to Illos, where shit presumably gets real.

[Hunter Sopko]

P4- Moved through to 5/22 from 4/14. About to head into the second dungeon. The first was amusing, the second looks epic. Game's giving me fits though since it's not progressing like it says it should. Oh well. I seem to be adjusting to the changes. Really liking the game otherwise despite that. Music rocks.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Mass Effect-Went to Feros, destroyed the evil plant creature, managed to make it out without any civillian casualties. After which I went about doing a ton of fetchquests, making me even more obscenely rich (5 million credits and counting) and giving me some nice levels. Shepard has now maxed out Sniper Rifles and is working on Commando. Also found all the Asari Writings and Salarian ID tags, and all but one of the Prothean Discs and Krogan Insignias. Also have 5 League of One Medallions in space somewhere.

Now I guess I go on to Illos, where shit presumably gets real.

Ilos gets QUITE real. There's at least... four different variables on Ilos that will change your Mass Effect 2 playthrough.

[Hunter Sopko]

P4- Moved slightly further! Should have gone farther, but I just lost 3 levels and 5 floors of the Bath House because Mr. Hitbox said I wasn't close enough despite pretty much not being able to get closer, PLUS suddenly facing the enemy means getting attacked from behind. So yeah, ambush by three Mage guys spamming their hit-all/strong Fire spells at every turn/1 More. Wiped. I think I got two attacks off.

I'm really starting to hate games that make you do lame swipes to determine Initiative/Ambush. Heck, I've even gotten ambushed after actually landing a blow on an enemy from behind. That at least didn't result in a wipe!

[Pyro]

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7

Zack just pulled of Octoslash in a swimsuit while wielding an umbrella, slaughtering the foolish mortals who stood against him.

I love this game so much.

[Grefter]

Uh, I went through the whole base non-violently, but didn't have enough Charm/Intimidate to arrest the guy nonviolently, so Shepard shot him in the face and then I faced down the cult, but there were no rocket guys.

Goddammit.  Did you do it early game by any chance?  Might be level scaling fucking me in the arse.  Twice (happened both PC and X-Box play through).  Oh well.

Free roaming side quest stuff essentially ends when you hit Ilos just as a heads up Trips if it wasn't blatant enough already.  Glad you are kind of enjoying the game anyway.

[AAA]

It was basically the first sidequest I did, so yeah that's probably it.

And I already guessed that the sidequest stuff stops, but I don't particularly feel like combing through systems for the last couple insignias/other shiny things as I'm already ridiculously rich and level 44.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

P4- Moved slightly further! Should have gone farther, but I just lost 3 levels and 5 floors of the Bath House because Mr. Hitbox said I wasn't close enough despite pretty much not being able to get closer, PLUS suddenly facing the enemy means getting attacked from behind. So yeah, ambush by three Mage guys spamming their hit-all/strong Fire spells at every turn/1 More. Wiped. I think I got two attacks off.

I'm really starting to hate games that make you do lame swipes to determine Initiative/Ambush. Heck, I've even gotten ambushed after actually landing a blow on an enemy from behind. That at least didn't result in a wipe!

If you got ambushed after landing a blow, then you had the Reverse Emperor Arcana on you. Just refuse the Emperor Arcana Chance in that case if you want to avoid that issue. Past that, just swing at the enemy before getting hit to not get ambushed (so, better learn to judge your distancing). There are equips that lessen the chances of getting ambushed if you get smacked later on, but they shouldn't be necessary.

Also: yes, early SMT difficulty curve is dumb. So, I see your point.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

FO3- So! There's a Dark Tower mod and it is BAD FUCKING ASS.

[Clear Tranquil]

Eternal Sonata- Aria Temple, second floor. This is a nice dungeon. Found a bow for Viola that increases EXP% for all, added to the fact that enemies in there give substantial EXP in the first place and niiice~ My main three characters have all gone up three levels each since I started Aria so far. Looks like it would be easy to become overpowered/powerlevel in this place. Salsa and Viola have over 9999 HP ;o (well Viola does have a Lace Veil on) Salsa's my highest at L32 though. Found a Bubbly Hat to increase her speed even more yay. Harmony Chains are fun, March's Super Nova is good for building up hits. Got White Dagger for Viola ^_^ Haven't experimented with counter attacks yet. Was the boss in Mandolin Church supposed to be such a joke? >_>

Plotwise not much has happened since last time, Crescendo is being stupid so we have to fart around waiting until he makes up his mind~

[WanderingMind]

I never had to worry about running out of money in Eternal Sonata until I got near the end of the game.

Finished Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII on Monday.  The last boss was a pushover.  I ended up using Dark Thundaga for 90% of the battle.  The other 10% were Curaga, physical attacks, and items.

Total time: 24 hours
Missions Completed: 44%

[AAA]

Mass Effect-Completed. Final level was 46, maxed out Combat Armor but still had 3 slots to go in Commando. Ah well.

First of all, that sex scene is about as tasteful as video games are gonna get.

Second, convinced Saren to shoot himself. I'm guessing they were going for the Fallout feel there. And, naturally it didn't take and we have a final boss anyway. Which can be summarized as follows:

"Huh, he's not so ha-MOTHERFUCKING MISSLE SON OF A FUCK! HEAL RUN RUN RUN RUN SHIELDS COME BAAAAACK! Okay, now to damage h-HOLD STILL YOU LITTLE SHIT oh wait he's dead okay then."

Also, HUMANITY! FUCK YEAH!

Damn good game. Sort of a combination of Star Control 2, Halo, and Baldur's Gate with most of the bad sides of those games removed, with some RPG-lite on top for flavor. The vehicle sections are monotonous, but not as bad as I was expecting. Shepard is basically the best way to do a personality-less main character. All the other characters are decently interesting but Bioware clearly wanted you to focus more on Shepard so they all take a back burner. Captain Anderson was a good conflicted secondary character, and Saren rarely shows up but does an okay job at villainly. Soverign's just "RARGH KILL TEH ORGANICS!!1!" but  you only really talk to him once so who cares.

8/10 sounds about right.