Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VP2 - Wild STALKER appeared! HRIST used SIXTY-THOUSAND DAMAGE GUNGNIR THWAPS! It's super-effective! STALKER has fainted...

So, um, yeah. 8k MAG Hrist+Psychosoma is sorta ugly.

[AndrewRogue]

Five days a Stranger: Solid game. Surprisingly responsive for an adventure, enjoyable story and a surprisingly cool cast.

Seven Days a Skeptic: Okay game. Liked it better than 5 Days in some respects, but two particularly egregious issues (the chase sequences, which have an issue where the chaser can suddenly appear out of any doorway... including the one I just happened to try and walk to leave through, and the ending, which has a WTF plot moment) dim my opinion of it.

Trilby's Notes: Great fun. A little less intuitive than the games above, but everything else was a lot more fun. Final sequence was a bit too long and frustrated me to some degree (I had the right command, but you have to wait a while to use it), but it was still an excellent end.

God Hand: Is really, really hard. Despite innumerable stumbling blocks, I've made it up through the Devil Hand 1. The dialogue is so hilariously wince-worthy, the design is awesome, combat is fun and some of the scenes are so bloody priceless.

Devil May Cry 3: Started again on a whim. It is still fun!

Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core+: Forgot how ugly story mode bosses could be. Oh lord. Otherwise, BUTTERFLY TRAP!

Puzzle Quest: Nearing the end of the game by occasionally booting it up and rocking out.

World of Warcraft: Let my account lapse for the time being.

Etrian Odyssey 2: Retired my entire party. Am levelling back up.

Suikoden 3: True Water Rune get.

Mana Khemia: Beat the bonus dungeon. Randoms were hell, bosses weren't so bad. Mace girl was the best, I think.

Monster Rancher 2

Day X, Month Y

Sad, sad, terrible news everybody. After weeks of blood, sweat and tears, Nitori managed to become the S Rank championship. Unfortunately, the success did not come without a cost, as the poor thing literally gave it her all. She died immediately after she was crowned. So loyal to me, to the very end. ;_;

Ash and I will be finding a new monster soon, hopefully. We'll see what happens.

[Magic Fanatic]

God Hand - Beat Stage 5.  The boss gave me all sorts of problems, and in a fit of panic, I finished it off with a combination of Home Run God and...  God Stomp 2, I wanna say.  I don't like the Samurai Joes, though.

[Xeroma]

Marathon Infinity - ACME STATION IS MEEPLINA. ahem.

[Dark Holy Elf]

That would be the stage that stopped my Total Carnage difficulty replay of the trilogy. Enjoy!

[Tide]

Wild ARMS 4: The speedrun, the third.

Well, I think time wise, I've cut my previous time short by around 24 minutes? Maybe more. Run looks to be good since I think I can make ti Valley of Oblivion at 4:00 if all goes right. Problem right now is...

*flames burst from background as Tide raises his fist in anger* PROTOTYPE GEAR!

Winning the fight isn't hard - Raquel can pretty much solo it if she has to (seriously. Biggest threat is ID from Radious Breath but she can do it). Getting everyone out alive? Ha ha. Ha .

The problems:
- No one can outspeed Prototype Gear
- ONE physical attack from Prototype Gear at long range OHKOs Yulie. Through the Tiny Flower.
- Prototype Gear gets 2 Radious Breaths right off the bat, each with 60% chance of ID. The chances of both Arnaud and Yulie surviving TWO shots is 16% per character over a 2 turn period. Now...getting both of them to survive it ._.
- NO Revive fruits. Yulie is the only one who can revive. And well...see point 2.

Yeah...this fight is driving me nuts. Will think about it later.

[AAA]

Half-Life 1-Finished. Final boss was a pain in the ass. Actual game itself was pretty darn good, if frustrating at times. Health and armor is oddly spread out, sometimes I'm drowning in the stuff and sometimes it feels like I go across entire levels with barely a healthpack. Ammo was fairly plentiful, which is good because I blow through it really fast. I'm assuming the ending where you work with the G-man is canon.

Quake Live-1000 frags yaaaaaaaay

System Shock 2-Thanks for the link, Sage! I haven't done much, just did the tutorial and the stat building part. I am now a Marine with a focus on heavy weapons and a boost to strength and Modify, thanks to Hatbot.

So...is there no way to backpedal or move to the left or right in this game? Apparently W is still forward but S just makes me crouch. and A and D just move the camera.

[Xeroma]

You have to change the controls for the classic wasd setup.

[Hunter Sopko]

Heading into the Deep Twilight Ruins. Plot's okay at this point. Didn't get as much out of the Arshtat and Ferid scene as everyone seems to. ::Shrugs:: Oh well. The three battle sequence was alright, but I really wish they let you at least position your party members. Battle 2 I ended up with my mages in front, and Battle 3 I ended up with my close range fighters in the back.

Lyon walked off with a Boost Rune. Mrf. Since I only had 2, that kinda reduces what I can do with Miakis physically. Shigure's speed just makes him too good with the other Boost Rune at the moment, so I just popped a Power Rune on Miakis and threw on a Counter-Strike Rune for now. Thinking which magic rune to put on her. Probably a Thunder when I get my last piece. Threw the Mother Earth Rune I finally assembled on Freyja, so having fun doing combo magic now.

Still using Kyle, Shigure, Lun, Zerase otherwise. Lun's still a surprisingly good utility player between physicals and a Rage Rune. Surprised I'm keeping her this long.

[Shale]

So I was up to stage 19 in SRWK, on track for the Fafner and Godannar secrets, with Hiroshi kicking ass and enjoying Mazinger Z no longer failing at life. Then the power flickered and I lost all my progress for the day despite having saved about fifteen times, because No$GBA is retarded. So...back to 15?

Bleach: Dark Souls - Unlocked everybody. Fun game. None too balanced, but the engine is solid. Wish I could get netplay going.

[Magic Fanatic]

BvS - Robo Fighto is somehow fun.  Huh.

God Hand - Stuck on Revered By Demons.  THE PAIN AND THE OW.

RSO - I ought to build more decks.  My Hourai Elixer one is scrapped, and I've been considering a Meiling deck.

[Clear Tranquil]

I just went all out full throttle with the Double Edge/Boost/Power combo for Miakis, Norma, Kyle et al, that was on a replay though. Bit risky since it makes your fighters into a bunch of glass cannons but when they can defeat things fast enough ... plus there was that formation skill that did tons of damage off of those runes ...

Infinite Undiscovery- Lost in a forest. If I don't find my way out of here soon I'll probably be L40+ by the time I'm finished >.> That would mean Michelle would have to catch up on lots of lost levels as well, she's already trailing behind. Eugene and Rucha are pretty good too though. Apart from the mages haven't really tried out any of the other characters except from Aya who is a staple member of my team.

[Bardiche]

LFT: Defeated Wiegraf and Elmdor. Pretty frustrating.

Tried it with Squire Ramza with Punch Arts first. Wiegraf outdamaged Ramza too badly and I kept fumbling the counter-attacks. So no go.

Knight Ramza with Punch Arts. Still the same result. Couldn't heal enough since Wiegraf outdamaged me.

Monk Ramza with Battle Skill. Wins! Punch Arts Chakra now outheals Wiegraf's damage, so I can punch him once, lick my wounds, then punch him again later on. No Auto-Potion changes my strategy significantly.

So he changes. Uh.

Summoner with Time Magic. Speed Save, Short-Charge, Move-MP Up. Knows Leviathan, Odin, Golem, Fairy, Mog, and then an assortment of the weaklings. Haste2, Slow2, Stop, Don't Act.

Agrias with Punch Arts. (Chakra) All Holy Knight skills. Weapon Guard, EXP Up, Move+1.

Thief with Punch Arts. All Thief skills, all Monk skills. Abandon, Maintenance, Ignore Height.

Knight with Jump. All Knight skills, all Jump levels. Weapon Guard, Equip Spear, Move+2.

Strategy 1:

Ramza runs up to Velius. Speed Break.

Thief runs up to Velius for twin stabs.

Velius runs up to Summoner/Agrias/Knight, Confuses them, Summoner Slow2s my team and Agrias kills Ramza with Crush Punch. Ouch.

Strategy 2:

Ramza runs to the back, casts Chakra to restore his health to full. Velius runs up and tries to punch Thief, but misses. Thief gets to his back for twin stabberies, Agrias Lightning Stabs (Silence!), Summoner Haste2s, Knight Speed Breaks Velius.

The Demons walk up and nuke Agrias and Thief with Dark Holy and the Dark Flare things. Velius nukes Ramza. No more revivers. Crap.

Summoner unleashes Odin-ly hell to take out the demons in two goes, and on the third unleash kills Velius. Knight dies just before Velius does. Ramza's just about to crystalise but I win!

---------

Then comes Elmdor, and they kill Rafa before I even get a turn. wtf

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VP2 - This time, Ethereal/Dirna for Godlike went down without resets. Wondering if I should call it a day for now and play something else.

[AndrewRogue]

Then comes Elmdor, and they kill Rafa before I even get a turn. wtf

Welcome to every version of FFT, ever. >_>

[Bardiche]

Then comes Elmdor, and they kill Rafa before I even get a turn. wtf

Welcome to every version of FFT, ever. >_>

I must've completely blanked it out of my memory, thinking that everything post-Velius was easy.

[AndrewRogue]

Its the entire Riovanes Castle sequence that is the problem. Roof of Riovanes is particularly obnoxious as, with the wrong set-ups, you pretty much insta-lose. Even with the right set-ups, sometimes the AI likes to just screw with you.

[Grefter]

The problem?  Riovanes is the best part of FFT!  One option is to make someone a softer target than Rafa to the AI.

[Bardiche]

The problem?  Riovanes is the best part of FFT!  One option is to make someone a softer target than Rafa to the AI.

Yeah, I won that battle by stripping my Knight naked and turning her into a Squire. It was more delicious to kill her instead of Rafa. Then they Petrified Ramza and Summoner nuked them with Odin. Elmdor went orz and ran.

[Grefter]

Elmdor went orz and ran.

That is quite possibly the most elegant description of FFT original translation I have ever heard.

Daravon squeezes the juice.

[Magic Fanatic]

BvS - Ran into a bug with the new Robo Fighto game.  Reported it, and I got credited my Ryo back, the prize, and some extra.  I'm actually doing really awesome there.

God Hand - Finally got past Revered by Demons.  After getting my ass kicked after the second encounter with the Mad Midget Five (they were easy with liberal application of Head Slicer), I got my ass kicked some more in the next area, and now I'm getting my ass kicked by the Psychic Midget.

This game must be out of bubblegum.  On the upside, I have now found a way to make fighting the Samurai Joes fun.  Go go Drunken Sweep!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

ULDUAR

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VP2 - Well, I didn't. Odin and Gabriel remain beautifully worthless (whee one-turning Gabriel off sub-70 AP strings).

[Grefter]

ULDUAR

Indeed.  Did my first healing on a druid in there on brother's alt when we needed a third healer on main run night.   We got Razorscale and XT down, going to work on Ignis on the mains on Sunday.  Tonight we continue the alt run which got Razorscale down.  Progression on non-trivial content is awesome.

[Meeplelard]

MK: Isolde beaten!  ONLY 2 CHAPTERS LEFT MWAHAHAHAH! *strangles self*