Let's Play Some Motherf*$&ing Games: 2010!!!!!!

[Meeplelard]

Unlimited Saga: I am almost getting a hang of things.  Problem is, the game is ridiculously boring and unengaging and I'm not suer how long it even is.

I'd say where I am, but honestly not sure; game doesn't exactly have a PLOT to for me to keep track of.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Suikoden Turkeys: I've stopped caring about getting all 108 stars because needing a walkthrough for a handheld game is ridiculous since the only time I play it is when I'm nowhere near a computer.

Despite that, the story is still pretty strong and I like the direction it seems to be moving. It does a good job of introducing plot elements without giving away all the important surprises immediately.

[Shale]

FFV Advance: Cleared out World 3. Got all the summons, weapons and bonus spells, just picked up the three new jobs and will play around with them a bit before jumping Voidward. Builds are:

Bartz: Mastered Ranger, Blue Mage, Monk, Bard (I was out of things to master, sue me), got 2-Hand from Knight. As Freelancer, uses double-handed Excalibur to Rapid Fire things to death, with blue magic for backup.
Lenna: Mastered White Mage, Thief, Blue Mage, Samurai. Probably using White and Blue magic for the last fights.
Krile: Mastered Red Mage (finally!), Time Mage, Summoner, White Mage. Mime with Doublecast, Summon and White Magic FTW.
Faris: Mastered Ninja, Mystic Knight, White Mage. Double-sworded Flare Sword with a white magic backup sounds good to me.

[SageAcrin]

Unlimited Saga: I am almost getting a hang of things.  Problem is, the game is ridiculously boring and unengaging and I'm not suer how long it even is.

I'd say where I am, but honestly not sure; game doesn't exactly have a PLOT to for me to keep track of.

I don't know why but as described this game reminds me of some kind of desert journey-fatal to those that don't understand it, merely unpleasant as hell, boring, and only a low chance of death for those who do.

[Magetastic]

Meeple: No, no. It definitely has a plot. Just... you can't tell what is furthering the plot, and what is useless sidequests.

[Rozalia]

I was busy all last week so I could only log on for like 5 minutes every day. Gamewise I played bits and pieces of a few things I normally wouldn't as I didn't have much time.

SO2 - Rena Mode. Claude is a jerk, Celine and Ashton are unimportant and Rena just happens to be friends to be friends with the greatest swordsman in all of Expel? I don't think the name has come up yet but I'm guessing its Expel due to Rena's race.
Game thus far has had one king introduced. Will it be like the previous game where you meet various kings before defeating a great evil and then for the plot to randomly send you to another planet where you must battle a completly near unrelated super soldier who has plot hax making him immune to everything but swords and can blow chunks to randomly become a huge mutant angel who could have really been dealt with by the Terran alliance as they have a massive Space fleet while the super soldier man doesn't? Punctuation you say? SO1 plot!?1 doesn't deserve it.

Persona 3 - AKA Pimplords adventure 3. Seta can take like what? Six women at the same time without problem, so can this P3 guy match up? Well he has as my friend calls it the "Emo walk" and the "Emo run" which the women in this game just can't resist. As a cool ladies man Minato will only hang out on sundays with the ladies and will reject all offers from everyone else. His first target is Yuko as Minato likes it exotic.

Resident Evil Code Veronica X -  Most people say this game has terrible voice acting but I say it has BRILLANT voice acting. Already finished part one because as someone who plays these types of games all the time its easy as can be. Alffred is awesome, Wesker has a cartoony voice but is saved by terminator eyes and his super pimp slap but the greatest award goes to Umbrella. While Clair is on a bomber flying away from the island there is a *thud* who turns out to be none other then the tyrant she faced minutes before. Yes folks clap your hands because Umbrella have finally done the impossible by creating a Tyrant who can teleport! *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP**CLAP*

[Grefter]

Not a fan of using Plasma Weapons at all personally.  I use Laser Rifles from start to finish, they are more than enough for Beginner.  They are less lethal than Plasma weaponry, but are just fine for taking out Aliens.  They are great at minimising damage caused by friendly fire on the other hand.  Flying Armour can take Laser Rifle shots like nobody's business.

Ditch the Heavy Cannon if you have anyone using it still.  I normally drop the Rocket Launcher pretty fast as well.  Replace them with Auto-Cannons.  Auto-Cannons rule. 

Plasma Rifles are fine to research, they unlock Plasma Beam as well.  You can make a truck load of money if you don't research Plasma Pistols though since Alien Artifacts sell for way more than a Pistol does normally.  Aliens will actually use these for a long time on Beginner, you won't see Heavy Plasma outside of Large ships on Beginner really.

OK is spot on the best ways to make money though.  If it is your first play through though and you want to skip the micromanagement and get straight to the meat and potatoes of the game though, cheating for money and/or Elerium is actually something I wholely support.  Skipping the macro level management and getting straight to the squad based tactics and giving you the resources to just try out whatever you want is pretty liberating.  It is a fine way to either start playing the game and get used to the main part of it or for when you are playing it for the 20th time and just want to get to the good stuff.  Geoscape is good and all, but after a while it gets a bit tedious.

[Cotigo]

SO2 - Rena Mode. Claude is a jerk, Celine and Ashton are unimportant and Rena just happens to be friends to be friends with the greatest swordsman in all of Expel? I don't think the name has come up yet but I'm guessing its Expel due to Rena's race.
Game thus far has had one king introduced. Will it be like the previous game where you meet various kings before defeating a great evil and then for the plot to randomly send you to another planet where you must battle a completly near unrelated super soldier who has plot hax making him immune to everything but swords and can blow chunks to randomly become a huge mutant angel who could have really been dealt with by the Terran alliance as they have a massive Space fleet while the super soldier man doesn't? Punctuation you say? SO1 plot!?1 doesn't deserve it.

That is almost completely accurate.

[DjinnAndTonic]

SO2 - Rena Mode. Claude is a jerk, Celine and Ashton are unimportant and Rena just happens to be friends to be friends with the greatest swordsman in all of Expel? I don't think the name has come up yet but I'm guessing its Expel due to Rena's race.
Game thus far has had one king introduced. Will it be like the previous game where you meet various kings before defeating a great evil and then for the plot to randomly send you to another planet where you must battle a completly near unrelated super soldier who has plot hax making him immune to everything but swords and can blow chunks to randomly become a huge mutant angel who could have really been dealt with by the Terran alliance as they have a massive Space fleet while the super soldier man doesn't? Punctuation you say? SO1 plot!?1 doesn't deserve it.

That is almost completely accurate.

Yes, pretty much this. You should really mark that with spoiler text for anyone else who hasn't played SO2.

[Magetastic]

SO2 - Rena Mode. Claude is a jerk, Celine and Ashton are unimportant and Rena just happens to be friends to be friends with the greatest swordsman in all of Expel? I don't think the name has come up yet but I'm guessing its Expel due to Rena's race.
Game thus far has had one king introduced. Will it be like the previous game where you meet various kings before defeating a great evil and then for the plot to randomly send you to another planet where you must battle a completly near unrelated super soldier who has plot hax making him immune to everything but swords and can blow chunks to randomly become a huge mutant angel who could have really been dealt with by the Terran alliance as they have a massive Space fleet while the super soldier man doesn't? Punctuation you say? SO1 plot!?1 doesn't deserve it.

That is almost completely accurate.

It is, except for the part where SO2 has no plot once you get past the child jerk-king. Or, pretty much, ever. You're basically just wandering around, 'cause, why not?

[Cotigo]

Eh, eff that.  Anyone who hasn't played SO2 yet shouldn't.  It's a lot of mashing L1/R1 and wondering in the back of your mind if everyone in the DL (aside from, like... Sopko?  And that's it I think) has severe trauma to the head.

[Shale]

SO2 is good fun if you've never played a Tri-Ace game before. Which was pretty likely back when it first came out, but not so much now.

[Lady Door]

World of Warcraft TCG, North American Continental Championships

Short story version, because eh. If people express interest, I'll do an elongated version.

Thursday: Andrew 3-0 in the Pet Collection event and scored a Spectral Kitten. Hurrah, $100.

Friday: The main event. Started off strong by scoring a win R1 to a no show opponent. Won R2, unfortunately, due to a rules misunderstanding that was realized after the matter and thus unable to be corrected. Went on to win the next two rounds legitimately (one of which was covered in CZE's blog: http://wowtcgcoverage.typepad.com/blog/2010/06/round-4-feature-match-cahshurn-harrigan-vs-andrew-bartosh.html (fear my contemplative face). Sitting pretty at 4-0, I was feeling pretty good, especially given that the deck I was playing was an accident. Unfortunately, Round 5 put me against a similar deck type. Despite threatening to regain control of the game almost every turn, I never quite managed. Round 6 and 7 went similarly for me and suddenly things were looking a lot less happy. Sitting at 4-3 with 3 rounds to go, I needed at least 2 more wins to be assured a spot. Round 8 saw me against another similar deck and I destroyed him. Round 9 saw me against one of the more popular decks in the meta and had me rolling him as he played out a little too fast and made a series of errors that I had no issues capitalizing on. Round 10 saw me against a variant of the deck. Very tight game, but I managed to pull it out, bringing me to a record of 7-3 and, along with fellow teammate Daniel Rossi, making it to Day 2. Hu-fucking-zzah.

Saturday: Day 2 of the main event, or Wherein Andrew's Day Grows Increasingly Worse, Leading To Him Playing Increasingly On Tilt Throughout the Day. Drafting today, rather then constructed. Pod 4 of 12, so I had the potential to squeeze into Top 8 with some good play. Can I do it? As it turns out? No. Was very unhappy with the draft to begin with, as the packs felt pretty weak and, while I was sitting on a solid curve and some decent cards, I had no major bombs. Managed to win R11 in a very close set of games. (And by very close, I mean Game 1 was very close, while 2 was a blowout in his favor, 3 a blowout in mine). Then it all went south. R12 was a complete blowout against me. R13 was similarly rough. I lost game 1 to a brutal curve ending in a bomb rare. Game 2 was looking good for me as I utterly dominated board position and was brutally winning the damage race (20 to 0), until a combination of a bomb uncommon and his bomb rare managed to utterly reverse the tempo of the game and let him pull out a win. 8-5. At this point, I'm feeling pretty demoralized, having been basically rolled in two games in a row (and having around 30 minutes between each round to dwell on it). Not a good thing. Going into the second draft, I'm feeling very out of it and it shows in my agitated body language and such. Still not happy with the draft either. And then things get worse.

I'm pulled aside by the judges during deck construction and interrogated and finally informed that, apparently, a judge and another player heard me signal the player on my left (saying blue or something similar) which is, unshockingly, super bad mojo. You have got to be fucking kidding me. After getting a statement from me a couple times and some questioning, they finally decide that I did indeed speak out loud but it was unintentional (ala I was talking to myself or something). So, I avoid a DQ without prize, but DO score a gameloss, meaning I start the next match down. Full tilt mode begins as I'm unable to compose myself. Immensely tired, desperate to win, feeling screwed out by luck and the similar, my play deteriorates rapidly, culminating in an utterly ingenious play decision that costs me card advantage and board position. Despite brainless play decisions, I almost manage to pull it out, but the card I need is one deeper then I can reach. I attempt to compose myself R15, but instead get rolled by an opponent who yanked a Death Wish (bomb rare) and played it successfully on Turn 2 twice. Oh joy. R16 is looking good for me as I manage to handily win game 1, but a mediocre hand fails to improve in game 2 and game 3 sees him rip the win off the top of his deck RIGHT before I can pull the game out again.

Despite the promising start, Andrew drops from 7-3 day 1 (30th) to 8-8 day 2 (79th), dropping out of most relevant prizes. Still, 79th of 245ish isn't that bad. Just... really wish I could have done better. Oh well. Next time. Next time.

Coming up, the rest of the weekend!

I was there too, though you'd never know it. <_<

My game record is far worse than his, though, so it isn't anything to talk about anyway. More important: gambling in Vegas, we actually left a little ahead in money, thanks to a friend's discovery that you can freaking play War. I mean, I know Vegas is all about monetizing and making everything into a bet, but I had no idea that that particular children's card game was a real gambling thing. It was terrifically fun to watch and play, and relatively low risk (your odds are pretty even, and our preferred table only had a $5 min), so hooray!

[Meeplelard]

SO2 is good fun if you've never played a Tri-Ace game before. Which was pretty likely back when it first came out, but not so much now.

I thought SO2 was brilliant when I first played it myself (especially compared to SO1, which I had played roughly half of.)  But after a point, my opinion started to drop of it.  Game just didn't age particularly well, and its got to be compared to higher standards.

ToPo had a similar problem.  A lot of what made the game cool and fresh...just doesn't hold up now.  There's far better, more polished options with similar advantages (ToV is flat out better than ToP in like every way, as far as I'm concerned, outside of Dhaos being a better villain than any of the ToV Lamers.  Though, if ToP did something right, it was creating a genuinely unique villain, let alone for the SNES era, and its pretty much always going to have that.)

So yeah, gonna have to go with that SO2 is just a game that didn't stand the test of time so well.  Its one of those games that seemed great for its time, but since then, standards have raised and it hasn't exactly kept up with them.

[Cotigo]

I thought SO2 was brilliant when I first played it myself

a lot of mashing L1/R1 and wondering in the back of your mind if everyone in the DL (aside from, like... Sopko?  And that's it I think) has severe trauma to the head.

EDIT'd Meeple's quote a bit because from all accounts SO1 is in fact way worse, if that's possible.

[Dhyerwolf]

SO2 is good fun if you've never played a Tri-Ace game before. Which was pretty likely back when it first came out, but not so much now.

Even better: Fun if you haven't played an RPG before! Was the first I played.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Does giving it a 4/10 count as having severe brain damage?

[superaielman]

Chrono Trigger- Just beat up Yakra. Game is as breezy and fun as I remember. Planning on using Crono/Lucca. No idea about the third so far.

[Talaysen]

Does giving it a 4/10 count as having severe brain damage?

Yes.

---

Spectral Souls - Going back to this.  Anderson and Hans are jerks.  That is all.

[Cotigo]

Does giving it a 4/10 count as having severe brain damage?

Yes.

Well, mild brain damage.  Not Super or OK levels, at least.

[hinode]

In fairness, I severely doubt that brain damage alone would be sufficient to produce OK.

[DjinnAndTonic]

SO2 was one of the earliest games to really incorporate a friendship/romance system between every PC, and it is still one of the least creepy about it. I know that as a high school student, I thought it was interesting that you could  play around with the PCs' relationships... and I still like some of the PA scenes (which I wish more games would incorporate).

The actual battle system hasn't aged as well as SO3 or newer Tales games, but it's not terrible. And the remake helps a bit.

Plot is still lolwhut, but I enjoyed the anime based on it due to its all-around light-hearted adventure nature (which worked out far better in the anime than the original PSX localization).

So... no, I'm not brain damaged. SO2 has some good points.

But, Zenny, I also wasn't being serious about spoiler-marking SO2 PLOT...  >.>;;

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Zenny was serious about the brain damage, though.

[Cotigo]

So... no, I'm not brain damaged. SO2 has some good points.

It's hard for some people to see their own flaws, even when they're so easy to point out.

[DjinnAndTonic]

* DjinnAndTonic sheds a single tear.

Why must you always abuse the ones you love, Zenny?

No, but you can't -really- feel that way. It must be the alcohol talking. Don't worry, Zenny, I still love you for you.