Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Ultradude]

Maple- Participated in an all Marksmen Zakum run tonight. Was loads of fun. 14 showed, 10 survived. Took 19 minutes. Two screenshots to share. One is the best action shot of them...

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8769/maple0107.jpg

And the other is a swarm of Articunos, for the Meeples.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9672/maple0069z.jpg

"my bird is gonna mate with urs"

Best quote of the run?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

OGS: EF - Hmmm, one hour in and the trainwreck is already fierce. The game tries to take itself about as seriously as Super Mario RPG, though, which is a plus. Battle system is mostly potential right now, but it took NxC basics and revamped them into something faster and more fluid, which I approve of. General interface is also inoffensive at worst. Doesn't seem bad at all.

[Hunter Sopko]

MK- Up to Chapter 6 Week 5. Nothing much to comment on. Using Vayne, Jess and Anna for my usual party. Only Flay gets regular usage out of the rest of the cast.

[Grefter]

WoW- More Yog"Sarron.  Phase one nerfs are a godsend.  We still having trouble with it though, can do pretty well.  Might help to have mains/main raiders in there though.  That said the alt we had in there and the person not one of our main raider bother performed admirably.  Had some really good shots at it.  Just have to consistently get through the phase so we can start working on the real parts of the fight.

Edit - Oh yeah and Affliction is -terrible- for Phase 1.  I cast Curse of Elements, Corruption, then just Shadowbolt.  Still had stuff killed to soon cause of Corruption.  So CoE, SB spam.  It is like playing Burning Crusade Destro.  Oh well, performs though, so whatever.

[AAA]

So this is what I've been up to in Quake Live:


I also have the award for collecting 100 defense medals, but that one's really easy. Next up, winning one more Duel so I have the "Win 5 games in every game type" award. I also have 3600 frags and roughly 2 days total playing time. Not bad at all.

(ps an "Excellent" medal is given when you frag two people in two seconds, and an "Impressive" medal is when you score two hits in a row with the railgun. It's harder than it sounds, trust me)

I've also started playing Condemmed: Criminal Origins, which to be honest kind of sucks. The gameplay is slow, tedious, and boring. Storyline's standard 'catch the serial killer' affair and the G-G-GHOST moments have been more annoying than scary. I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this, and even 10 bucks might have been too much. At least it's really short. Probably finish it off today. The best thing so far is the atmosphere of the department store level, which was actually creepy.

[Idun]

Beat the first boss in Sahasrara that I was having extreme trouble with. I put DDS down a while because I didn't feel like grinding. So, before work today on a fucking SUNDAY, I grinded. Got to level 51, and I have to say, even if I did designate the last few levels to MP to get everyone off my nuts, I didn't notice a significant change. Perhaps the fact that it isn't maxed out is the response to this. But either way, gaining those levels gave me more Atma points and more Mantra skills that I could obtain. Initially the grinding was just for Gale, since he's weak to Electricity and the boss chooses Elec over Ice is you status prevent Ice and gets too many turns. But Gale officially had Elec Resist then, and the battle ended in less than five minutes. I'm under the conclusion that regardless of whoring out the MP stat which would make battles certainly go by faster, having stat resisters and their weakness STILL fucks them up regardless of the MP stat. That said, since I was balancing out Serph, his MP stat is less than 55, but I noticed only a 45HP- increase in attacking that boss with Agidyne and Fire Amp (both Gale and Serph). I think it's time I can try to balance Serph out now since it's really not affecting my gameplay, by the way I've been playing the entire game, at this point. Debating on moving about 0 Elevation now, since I have to work at 4. Uninterested in any battles in Sahasrara, and I'm inclined to just retreat from them. But I think it's the excessive retreating that's fucked me up since I was at a stalemate in C136 w/ progress on the Mantra system.

[Sierra]

WAXF: Played through most of act 1 by now, I think. Has too many gimmick maps, which can be annoying sometimes. I don't really care for precisely one reason.

"Why is Labyrinthia so excited about changing my clothes?"

[Shale]

WAXF: Played through most of act 1 by now, I think. Has too many gimmick maps, which can be annoying sometimes. I don't really care for precisely one reason.

That's the class system for me, though. And I really wish the gimmick maps wouldn't center around "use this class or DIE." It gets in the way of actually building my team.

[NotMiki]

Beat P4.  game is very good.  Makes a nice complement to P3.  I don't really see the argument that P4's god points diminish P3, really.

*vague spoiler I guess warning*

Still waiting for a SMT game where the final boss doesn't want to help humanity by doing terrible things to them.  Can't there be a final boss that is just a total jerk?  Also, the last few layers of the mystery were very satisfying.  I can honestly say I didn't forsee the stuff past Heaven.

[Dhyerwolf]

Play P3 again and see if you still think that! That's when you really notice the change.

[NotMiki]

oh, P4 is a vast improvement in gameplay, no doubt, but that's to be expected.  I judge games based on what they were at the time they came out; the fact that P4 makes major improvements in many important areas wouldn't matter if the thing it was improving on wasn't in many ways great to begin with.

[Cmdr_King]

I thought SMT reserved the role of "total jerk" for YHWH, and thus if you want one for a final boss you're looking for SMT2?  Unless SMT2 had a different final boss I've forgotten.

[Xeroma]

The judeo-christian god isn't even SMT2's final boss IIRC.

[Niu]

Uhhh, YHWH is SMT2's last boss.

I don't know this well do or not, but Devil Survivor's last boss is an insentient tower of doom.

[Xeroma]

Huh. Thought it was Lucy/Satan. Goes to show how well I know that game.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Huh. Thought it was Lucy/Satan. Goes to show how well I know that game.

That is one possible ending, if you decide to be an evil fanatical holy Templar.

The chaos ending, you kill YHWH.

Canon, neutral ending? You kill both.

Djinn is very satisfied with SMT2.

[TranceHime]

TacticsLayer: Goddamnit NinjaStudios program your maps bettar.

11:26:13 (TranceHime) Fucking HELL NinjaStudios
11:26:31 (Hello-HatthedralWaddleDee) Did they make a pineeapple PC?
11:26:32 (TranceHime) Making your HOMEROOM TEACHER a possible candidate for gothloli cosplay
11:26:35 (TranceHime) :|
11:26:46 (Hello-HatthedralWaddleDee) ...
11:26:51 (Hello-HatthedralWaddleDee) Why do you play those games.

[Luther Lansfeld]

PW2- Finished!


SPOILERS!
.
.
.
.
.
.

So this case is absolutely crazy. At the beginning you have lovably stupid defendant, the seemingly plotting Adrian, kidnapping, cryptic messages from Edgeworth... I was really shocked to figure out that Matt was not only guilty, but he was a jackass villain of epic proportions. It really turns the formula that Phoenix Wright sets forth in its games on its head, and leaves you with an ethical dilemma that really makes you think. It addresses an issue that the other cases simply haven't -- the idea that yes, your defendant is despicable and evil, what are you going to do about it? And really, until the end, you are wondering what Phoenix will do. It just really struck me as beautifully done; painted the perfect picture of the consequences that would be faced in either direction.

I feel like the case has a really great, hatable villain, a real egomaniac asshole,  which I don't think the series has done very well up until then. Manfred and Gant are just too unrealistic to really take seriously, at least to me, and most of the other villains are of questionable importance.

Wend Oldbag is as priceless at being an irritating old hussy as she has always been. I have no idea what is up with her weird uniform though. Adrian's pretty interesting as well, and her presence shows that both of the guys were kind of pricks, not just Matt.

The ending was kind of cheesy, although I enjoyed watching the bastard claw his face off. Phoenix hangs out with the biggest mooches.

My only real problem with the case is just some of the unintuitive parts, as is the case in most of the cases so I'm not really going to sweat over it. Locks in particular were a little iffy at times. Gameplay is not what the series is about and I abused a FAQ, so I really don't care. <_<

I just can't praise the case enough for how much of a twist it gave me. I really thought we were dealing with 1-3 mark 2 here.
.
.
.
.
.
END SPOILARS

I'm wanting to do a full series synopsis and order the cases, but right now I am too lazy. Maybe tomorrow.

[Dark Holy Elf]

WAXF: Played through most of act 1 by now, I think. Has too many gimmick maps, which can be annoying sometimes. I don't really care for precisely one reason.

That's the class system for me, though. And I really wish the gimmick maps wouldn't center around "use this class or DIE." It gets in the way of actually building my team.

For what it's worth, you can usually get by without using "that class" for any given map (with a few notable exceptions, such as puzzle maps)... other less obvious strategies usually exist. Though yeah, the game is certainly encouraging you to give different classes a try.

Speaking of which:

XF - Up to 1-12.

[Excal]

It helps that after Act 1, they lay off a fair bit on the use this class or die maps.  Especially once you get to the point where you'll typically have two or three people with that skillset ready to go anyways so you can just slap it on to whatever it is you're building and continue on your merry way.

[Ranmilia]

Finished Persona 4.  Long post with thoughts and ramblings to come.  Short version - 10/10 (on the meter of "Can this stand up to FFT/Earthbound/other games I like", answer is yes), kept me thoroughly engrossed.  Easily the best RPG I've played in years, one of the best games at that rate, and gives me hope for the future of the genre. 

[Taishyr]

XF: Got back into this, finally passed PRISUN ESCUPE. Clarissa does not have common sense, that is all.

P4: Still at the beginning of the frue final dungeon, haven't played it since I got there.

N: I BEAT AN ENTIRE COLUMN FUCK YEAH ahem.

[Twilkitri]

Tierkreis

Just left Mt. Svatgol.

The heck were hidden passages doing in there? Now I'm afraid that I missed a heap in previous areas. I thought that the world had moved on from such lamery.

At least the prizes from them weren't anything special, such as there aren't any Stars unlike some instances of the series I can name. To be fair I'm using a guide for Stars anyway, but the vast majority of them so far have been inoffensive. Chein on the other hand was considerably offensive.

The overarching story is great. I am salivating with anticipation to see how things all come together. It's a shame that the characterisation on the other hand is passable at the best of times and inane at the worst.

The voices don't match the script sometimes; personally I have no problem with that, especially in the numerous instances where they're doing it to cover to player-entered terms. But a couple occasions a segment of dialogue has been changed drastically for no apparent reason, especially since the surrounding segments haven't been, and the dialogue ends up not making much sense. Unsure what the deal with that is. There have been some similar problems in the script where NPCs have spoken about plot events I have been about to do but haven't done yet, and Anya seems to have acquired an inability to keep up on current events and keeps reeling off her initial arrival line.

I'm not sure if they wanted me to care about the most recent fusion, but if so, they chose the completely wrong way to go about it.

I have to say that I like the marks system, although it seems that there is a little too little variety. Mostly due to the number of people you have to go over. Needed to be less party-usable PCs.

[Yoshiken]

Ciato (and anyone else who's done Case 2-4 for that matter...), just wondering how long it took you guys to notice what was wrong with the picture at the end of... Day 1, I think. The picture of the Nickel Samurai leaving the hotel room. I remember watching my sister play that case, and I think she took several hours of trying random things before having to look it up. =P

[Shale]

KH2: Yay, Roxas is gone! Sora has new clothes and a neat-sounding limit mechanic that I'll have to play around with later. It took roughly 15 minutes for me to remember why I enjoyed KH1 so much, which is, not coincidentally, the time it took to gop on the train and run into Pete.

The battle system has been a decent evolution to the first game's so far. Gonna have to get used to the new timing of Sora's attacks, as well as the reaction commands, but the former should come pretty quickly and the latter actually seems like a decent addition to the system, not just an excuse for QTEs. Other stuff...Cure draining all MP was the most jarring change from what I'm used to, but I guess it makes sense now that I can use as many potions as I want without re-equipping.

WAXF: Finished Act 1. Party is Felius, Rogan and a generic as physical tanks/bruisers, Clarissa as support (Fantastica with Dandelion Shot secondary), and Levin, Labyrinthia and another generic as spellcasters (the generic with the spells tacked onto an Excavator because I like free items). All the casters have been Sacred Slayers for the last few battles because they're so absurdly awesome for undead-smashing, and Labyrinthia and Levin will probably stick with the class to mastery for Widespread. It's not as good a skill as it sounds for Elementalists, since enemy resistances are so spread out that it's rare for the same element to deal decent damage against  two enemies, but that's not a problem Lightning and Blast have. Plus the healing is badass.