Playin' any games today, Flying Nun? (WGAYP - 2011 Edition)

[VySaika]

6th gen: Finally the massive fundamental starter shift to Dark/Psychic/Fighting, Fighting type evolves to Fighting/Fire.

I would laugh my ass off if they did this. As much as I agree with three Fire/Fightings in a row being too much, I would still laugh so damn hard.

[hinode]

Pokemon White: Just started this up. Picked Oshawott purely due to the relative dearth of Water types in this game (big change from the usual for Pokemon) and named it Derpurai, thereby making a liar out of all the NPCs who will be spending the game telling me how much I love my Pokemon.

Not much to say yet, although boo to removing the auto-toggle for RunningShoes from HGSS.

[Meeplelard]

Pokemon Black: Beat the first gym!  Don't you love how the game basically hands you an Instant Win Pokemon against the Gym regardless what starter you have?  Its like they weren't even trying here.  At least all those Rock Gyms required you to look for something that could win if you chose the Fire Starter (and actually level them up a bit), and Falkner...umm..er...ok, bad example <_<

[Niu]

Tifa: REALLY shaky start.  Her HP Moves are kind of awkward versions of Jecht's, her brave moves have poor range and are hard to hit with, and her Feint Mechanic is unintuitive.  Then...she gets a few levels, and gets a lot better.  Falcon Kick Burning Arrow is a nice "get in on the guy" move and the existence of Feints means she can use it safer than most people who have that style of move.  Light Talon Attack Falcon Dive and Shoryuken Dolphin Blow are excellent compliments that let her deal with people camping above/below her, and Skrull Torch Rolling Blaze is just a nice easy to use HP Attack overall.  Reminds me a lot of JP Kuja, only not nearly THAT extreme, in terms of the "really bad at low levels, gets much better once she gets a few attacks", given nothing can be worse than relying on the ORIGINAL Seraphic Star just to win fights (GOOO NA version for making Flare Star an initial HP Attack)

Meep, you for get to mention how good is Blizzrdga. For a melee fighter, Blizzardga is such a good long range pressure move+assist combo starter to the point of not making sense.

Dissiadia 012- Recently discovered the true brilliance of Knight's Spear. Don't ever engage close combat with Ulty near the ceiling now, the charged Knight's Spear can lock the opponent into a hit the ceiling loop as long as a ceiling exists. Which can lead a extended assist combo loop that involves even more ceiling hit or rape with Hell's Judgment.

I am seriously considering to move her up into one of my mains now.

[Captain K.]

Pokemon Black:  Beaten.

Overall, great revamp of the series.  This was the first Pokemon game that actually felt like it was up-to-date; not something that could have been pulled off on the original Gameboy.  Constantly animated Pokemon in battles, the visual effects outside of battle, CUTSCENES.  Having an actual story was a great touch.  The stuff with Niu was pretty lame at the beginning, but it really came together nicely at the end.  Can't say more without spoilers, but the whole Elite 4 sequence was great.

By the way, smacked Reshiram twice (about 10% hp remaining) and caught him with a single Luxury Ball.  (Just checked Serebii, 45 Capture Rate, no wonder)

Took me two tries to beat Niu.  Second time I used level 39 Gigalith to solo his level 52 Zekrom.  Managed to beat Ghetsis on the first try.  Hydreigon was raping my team, then Sawk got a critical hit Brick Break on him.  Bulk Up buffed Sawk against Bouffalant, then swept the rest of his team.

MVP of the main game was Lilligant.  MVP of Elite 4+ was Sawk.

[Cmdr_King]

FUCKING Hydreigon.  Holy hell it's a beast.  It manages to out-uber Garchomps as big scary things that sweep teams (or, because I have no shame, revive chains).
Well, that's a slight exaggeration, Lance's Garchomp is still more terrifying.

[Hunter Sopko]

Ditto.

E4 is pretty damn competant this time around and covers it's weaknesses well. Had to attempt it twice since I just ran out of resources. They seemed way more durable than they should be...

N's team was amusing though not that tough. Made tougher by accidentally sending my Ground pokemon to the PC for Reshiram. Oh well, still not difficult.

Hydreigon is a beast, yes. OHKO'd Vanilluxe with a should-have-been-expected Fire Blast, then managed to KO Conkeldurr along with the meatsack I sent in so I could Full Revive. Then Hammer Arm completely owned it. Woo 175/178 HP/Atk at L51. Otherwise the final's team was pretty easily owned by it, Victini, and Serperior. Final party, sans Reshiram:

L50 Serperior (Tackle, Giga Drain, Leaf Blade, Coil) 146/107/106/84/115/132. Miracle Seed
L50 Seismitoad (Bulldoze, Drain Punch, Return, Surf) 174/117/88/92/92/82. Soft Sand
L51 Conkeldurr (Retaliate, Chip Away, Stone Edge, Hammer Arm) 175/178/123/76/86/70. Expert Belt
L48 Krookodile (Scary Face, Dragon Claw, Dig, Foul Play) 156/138/96/64/85/113. BlackGlasses
L48 Vanilluxe (Mirror Shot, Acid Armor, Mirror Coat, Ice Beam) 138/118/99/117/104/95. NeverMeltIce
L52 Victini (Confusion, Fire Blast, Shadow Ball, Zen Headbutt) 180/128/128/136/104/115. Spell Tag

[Meeplelard]

Meep, you for get to mention how good is Blizzrdga. For a melee fighter, Blizzardga is such a good long range pressure move+assist combo starter to the point of not making sense.

Again, Niu, you fail to acknowledge that maybe, just MAYBE the person hasn't GOTTEN this yet?  She's only level 25 or so; I have naturally not gotten all her moves.

Hence why this is what we call FIRST IMPRESSIONS.  Not everyone just cheaps their characters to level 100 using EXP Tricks or cheating devices, you know.

[Dark Holy Elf]

FUCKING Hydreigon.  Holy hell it's a beast.  It manages to out-uber Garchomps as big scary things that sweep teams (or, because I have no shame, revive chains).
Well, that's a slight exaggeration, Lance's Garchomp is still more terrifying.

Lance's Garchomp wasn't that bad. You have two ubers (one L70) who null ground, the option of Ice Beaming L70 Mewtwo, and it's kinda slow for a Garchomp (his Salamence was faster), which matters if you use fast disablers or Ice Beamers (and if you aren't using at least one of those for the freaking dragon boss, you're doin' it wrong). I don't disagree that it's scary, mind.

Cynthia's was definitely the one I remember fearing personally (it even hits weakness on that game's ubers, although I only use those in aftergames personally).

[Excal]

Mostly been playing Crisis Core of late.  Just got through the Junon sequence, so I have the Buster Sword, and am really just trying to get to the point where I can do the triple fusion before going on another mission blitz.  Though the game is taking its sweet time, so maybe I'll just head back to the Missions now that I've got me a Buster Sword.

[Meeplelard]

Mostly been playing Crisis Core of late.  Just got through the Junon sequence, so I have the Buster Sword, and am really just trying to get to the point where I can do the triple fusion before going on another mission blitz.  Though the game is taking its sweet time, so maybe I'll just head back to the Missions now that I've got me a Buster Sword.

Triple Fusion?  Pretty sure you can only fuse 2 Materia and an Item together at a time, never anything more.  UNless you mean get the item slot open, in which case, I think that's unlocked through missions anyway.

[Excal]

The Item is what I was thinking of.  Dunno why I thought it was a third Materia.  Probably because I have so damn many of the things.

[superaielman]

FF4 PSP- Beat the main game. It's FF4 GBA with better graphics/music and minus a thousand bugs or so. Ended up running a Edward/Yang/Twins team. The thunder/cat claw combo was still useful (Several enemies could be put to sleep, and those stupid evilmasks eat a 4x weakness to the thunder claw), and Yang's default claw already is anti undead.  Edward is also an awesome randomslayer for the final area, hits weakness on a shitload of annoying randoms and is super fast. It almost makes up for the paper durability! Almost.

Going to clear the game with the rest of the team, then hit up the lunar ruins. Undecided if I'll play TAY or not.

[Grefter]

DO IT PUSSY

Radiant Historia - Oh man the opening to this sewer sequence in Standard History chapter 2 reminds me of Chrono Trigger 2300 AD sewer with the back and forth between the dopey leader and the minion.  Not sure if it is intentional or not.

Oh hey enemies that spam MP draining, that is always fun.  Oh look a pack of 6 of them.  Congratulations on making me use the escape command a lot game.  Oh you can fail a lot.  awesome.  That is fine I guess.  Like it worked on the third try (had three turns in a row), but this game makes avoiding combat an absolute bitch.  I think I am over leveled as well (nearly 30, thought end game was 50-60?  I know there is like 6 chapters and I just hit Chapter 2... Raynie just got G-Fire).  Getting lost in a game where enemies respawn when you leave a room and come back makes for lots of experience gain by accident.

Oh well whatevers, It doesn't kill the game, it is still generally fun and pretty decent.  Just it likes to do dick moves (There is some more in this sewer level that is dickish, just been talking about it in chat and don't want to go over it more).

[Nitori]

SMTN - Yes Masakado I'm totally gonna protect the world now gimme gimme gimme my immunity to almost everything

[Fenrir]

Risen: Finished.

Chapter 1 was mostly about Darwinian surviving (steal, hoard items, fight what you can handle and run from everything else), then meeting everyone, doing a ton of quests, stealing every house in the game and choosing your faction. (like FO New Vegas there isn't really a good one)
Chapter 2 was exploring the entire island.
Chapter 3 and 4 were pretty much exactly like fighting lizardmen in 3D Zelda games. Remember? It was really cool, but there were so few of them. This time it's more complex and interesting, and there are at the very least twenty thousand millions lizardmen in the game. I've done basically nothing but fight lizardmen for the last 10 hours or so. Sure, some lizards fight a bit differently, but still!

Good stuff. This is a very immersive game, especially since that, unlike just about every other video game, it never gets over the top. Attacking a boar and getting his meat, buying a frying pan after selling all the mushrooms you found on your travels, then cooking a meal with all that on a campfire. Selling meals to get a shovel and travelling all over the world for buried treasures. Getting a pickaxe, mining some ore, getting a seal from a blacksmith with that ore, heating the seal in a forge, striking it with a hammer on an anvil, cooling it then sharpening it to get a new sword. All of this feels great, without even having to be complicated.
The game obviously can't keep that up for too long, so its last part is not very impressive at all.

[Grefter]

Have you played Gothic 1 or 2 at all Fen?  They are from mostly the same people and I believe the same people in charge (not same studio, same people, industry drama happened).  I would skip Gothic 3 because it is a buggy mess that is nearly unplayable last I checked (there is a Gold version on steam which might be doable, but not spending more money on that fucking game).  Gothic 4 just came out recently and is made by completely different people and has next to nothing to do with the series other than some basic system things.  So it was basically an RPG using the same core principles of Gothic system that could have been called anything at all as a new IP.

Risen is pretty much them going "lol fuck you we will make Gothic 4 anyway" and doing the exact same thing as above, new IP, same old systems.  Glad you enjoyed it, had heard it was pretty good.  Can't buy it here, for some reason it got refused classification here in Australia (Sex?  I dunno).

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - Okay so there is honestly just to much shit to do in this game that unlocks so fucking little.  The Shop Quest system is terrible.  It is kind of neat to go collect stuff to unlock new armour, it is terrible that these are a jumble of random items that you can sell.  It is horrendous that some of these are limited number items.  So the best way to handle the system even with FAQing it is to hold onto all your items until you have done all the quests.  By the time you have done all the quests you don't care about money.  So there is a whole pile of sellable items that have no purpose other than to sell and you won't ever sell them.  Fail.

Pretty much the game keeps up the trends set in the earlier 2 games.  You can just go through the game, but if you go out of your way to collect things just to do a bit of collecting you will get most of the way through the game and be like 3/4 through the collection quests, so you may as well finish them off right?  It unlocks the best armour in the game!  Okay.  So you do that.  Then you get to do all the bullshit side quest crap that has like 1/4 of the polish of the rest of the game.  Seriously the problem with like 90% of the frustrating jumps in the games is because it shifts to a dead fixed camera that you can't shift at all, if they didn't lock the camera in place you would be fine.  Even normally when they want to show you something specific in the polished sections you can at least move the camera a little just to see around.  The shitty jumps always glue it in place so you can't shift it.  Not uncommon at all to obscure the character or the target jump.  The worst of the worst is when it locks the camera in place for to long or to early, so you are trying to do a bit of climbing or jumping and you are just stuck looking at a platform you are either trying to reach or have just jumped off of.

I swear every single one of these games has had a really fun well polished starting act, then the further in you get the more you get parts where the camera just isn't right for a jump, or it jumps around at the wrong moment or some annoying bullshit that totally fucks up the platforming (which is the whole fucking point of the games is easy mode parkour platforming).  The worst ones are the bits that they haven't play tested particularly well because they are optional.  So frustrating because at least on PC you are looking at  8 digital directions to make your jumps, if the camera isn't right you need to start your run up from the right spots or your guy will gleefully leap to his demise.

The do special shit to get full sychronisation I think is still neat, but massively overly punishing in points where it is poorly coded.  Fun fact, there is missions where the condition is something that you meet at the very end of the mission, some of these are broken and don't reset if you die or restart from a previous checkpoint.  "Don't get hit in the flying machine"  Oh okay, get hit?  Crash land and retry. lol no u failed dude redo the entire level agin and try to do it rite this tiem nuub.  Nah fuck you.    There is more than a few missions that do this.  It is totally illogical and highly frustrating when it is something simple but you fuck it up the one time you had to restart because you got spotted (don't get detected! FUCK THAT!), lol no sychronisation for you biatch.   Every vehicle mission does this.  Vehicles control like shit.

There is two in particular that had me swearing for a good 10 minutes straight that were bullshit and not caused by the above..  One that is "Don't touch the ground while trailing this guy".  easy as, you just stick on the rooftops.  Oh hey at the last bit?  There is a rooftop that you can easily jump off on accident.  It is just before the end of the mission.  Awesome.  The other one was easy as fuck, use your assassin bros to kill your targets, that is fine.  It was a don't get detected by fucking anyone while trailing a guy mission.  A damned long one at that.  There is guards all over the shop and going in blind you won't have much idea of where they will patrol and your target keeps moving.  So you need to learn the level a bit.  So yeah, I used my assassin dudes, they killed things with throwing knives SYNCHRONIZATION FAILED.  Um okay.  CHECKPOINT.  Yay saved with it failed, half way through a long arse mission that has 3 more stealth sections to get through.  Nah fuck that.  That mission was pretty awesome.  There is a bit where if you follow the guy like you do everyone else you get put into a cutscene and then as it ends he walks back the way you are straight into your face MISSION FAILED WHY DIDN'T YOU KNOW HE WAS GOING TO DO THAT.  It is easier to just walk around the side, such total bullshit.

Also the puzzles for the Subject 16 puzzles I swear just get more and more batshit crazy with what you are supposed to remember and what you aren't.  They are at least worth doing this time if you are somewhat invested in the plot.

So yeah, it is just like the other games.  If you want parkour check the old ones out.  If you are invested in the story then hey you will probably keep buying them (which is uh bad honestly, there is a lot of really smart references, but it is all leading up to some Matrix level eye rolling).  I know I will be buying AC3 because I like climbing things and stabbing dudes.

I just wish instead of putting in some new fancy shit that is dumb as fuck (HORSE BACK ASSASSINATION WOOOO) they would just either polish up the jumping engine a bit better or making sure all the key places you interact with are working as intended, because this shit HAS to come up in QA, because you feel them playing the game once, let alone over and over during QA.  They are always in the last quarter or so of the game, so it stinks of crunch time get it good enough and ship it out instead of polishing it to make it a great playing experience.  As is the games are fun fun FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK fun fun FUCK FUCK FUCK okay I need a break.  I suppose I should try one out just doing barebones run, but that isn't really my style.

[Fudozukushi]

Demon's Souls: Ooooooooh yeah.

Started out with a Royal for RP purposes(not powergaming I smwear!)  Tutorial is the freaking tutorial.  It's not difficult until the Vanguard smashes your ass.  Which he did, despite clearly missing.  And it was the damn vertical attack too, so I could SEE it miss.  Dammit.

Death 0: Being three feet away from the Vanguard's Axe when it lands isn't far enough.  Not really counting since death in the tutorial is inevitable...

Well, whatever, time for Bolateria fighting.  Gotta keep things slow and steady.  Nothing too out-of-the-ordinary, clear the ramparts, open up the first shortcut fight and beat the red-eyed knight my first time playing.  YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.  Now that's a nice boost.  Hahahaha, go manipulating level geometry!  Continue forward, I choose to go the safe route of saving Orstrava, and get both a Knight Shield and Winged Spear as drops for doing so.  Too bad my Strength's too low to use either, damn.  I make the area safe for mah buddeh and get the useless telescope.  At the boulder trap, I someone manage to hit myself with it despite standing a good way aways again.  I hope this doesn't become a running theme.  I don't bother to brave the dragon's nest because hahaha, hell no to that.  Open the boss door and second shortcut.  The little Phalanx pieces go down easy to magic arrow or soul arrow or whatever I feel like calling it.

The Big Legion Phalanx isn't too difficult.  I run out of firebombs, but magic can carry me through.  Once all his helpers are gone I just turpentine up and burn him.  And finally I can level my stats.

Decide to go to Stonefang tunnel.  I have enough Strength to use the Winged Spear now, and it's nice against the enemies here.  On the downside, to do that I underlevelled my magic so I just barely miss out on killing most enemies in one hit.  Go through the level and stuff.  I open up the first shortcut and go meet Blacksmith Ed.  Upgrade my spear and head back up the lift, I see an item and roll and..... miss and die by falling damage.  Really!?  REALLY!?  My first death is to falling damage?  And not even respectable place either, just plan me being an unlucky dumbass?  ARGH.

Death 1: Falling off the lift near Blacksmith Ed like a dumbass.

Alright, back to the level blah blah blah.  Kill shit, rage at the Fat Ministers for doing too much damage for fatasses and get to the boss.  Also I see that at least three people have died on the lift leading to the boss because they didn't take things seriously.  I'd laugh but at least their excuse is that it's nearly Doom 3-level dark.

Boss is Armored Spider at the end of a tunnel.  It's kind of safe to play a range game against him, and as a Royal I do have a magic game!  I slowly chip him down to about 150 HP left, when he decides to breath fire down the tunnel.  I die because my spell couldn't hit him because he drew back or something I don't know it just killed me nearly instantly.

Death 2: Armored Spider breathing down my neck and everywhere around me.

Bah, head back this time I won't overuse my magic and have to turn it into an attrition battle.  Also I'm actually going to melee a bit.  Except when I get into melee range I suddenly forget the controls and waste a bunch of time and healing items staring at the oxymoron of a giant spider covered in armor.  I head back down the tunnel to play it safe, only to be followed by a flame breath again.  But this time, I live!  Then as I'm in the middle of using an item I DIE!  Oh joy, random hit detection from an attack it's impossible to see detail in.

Death 3: Why can't I escape bad hit detection?  Armored Spider mark 2.

Head back, actually kill him this time.  I head a bit deeper into the level to get a crystal gecko and some more ore before returning to the nexus.  I'm about a thousand souls away from leveling again so I choose to go kill Red-Eyes again.

Demon's Souls is a humbling experience.  Also I really hate bad hit detection.

Death 4: The red-eyed knight's spear extends an extra foot out in front don't you know?

Ugh and I just had my body back too...  I  head back kill him with great vengeance then go level up.  I also upgrade my spear a bit more, changing its leveling pathway too.

Total Deaths today(not counting Tutorial): 4!  I reckon this will be on the low end.
Total Deaths... total: 4! I'm not including the tutorial in counting ever again.

Next Time on Demon's Souls:
Not-Fudo: Why did you name your character the same as mine?
Fudo: Hahahaha!

Can Fudo conquer the nearly bottomless pit?  Will he let the score with the red-eyed knight stand at 2-1?  Will he let the score with the lift settle at 0-1?  And when will be the first time he rolls off a proper bottomless cliff?  Find out next time on Demon's Souls!

[Fenrir]

I don't see why Risen would be banned, it's tame compared to something like Fallout New Vegas.
I heard about Gothic, will get those the next time I buy a new PC since this one can't handle Minesweeper without crying. Now I'm mostly looking forward to Risen 2, which looks great (Pirate theme! Probably not a bad 360 port anymore! And you get to fight this: http://www.rpgfrance.com/dev/medias/images/galerie/risen2/risen2-8030311.jpg)

Mass Effect 2 Arrival: Weakest ME2 DLC by far, it feels as lazy as DA DLC.
The story has several of those incoherencies you see in weaker RPGs (Solo only all the way even though it makes no sense during the second halfGoblez's hand syndrome, enemies not killing you when they get the chance and instead putting you in a prison for no reason, easily escaping from prison)  This DLC is supposed to bridge ME2 and ME3, but there's nothing here that hasn't been seen in ME2's ending.

SPOILER?
The ending scene is:
Harbringer: "So yeah Shepard, if you haven't noticed we're really going to come invade your planets soon, srsly."

The only good part is a Renegade trigger where you just kill the main baddy before it finishes talking.
Environments are very bland, futuristic offices you've already seen a million times. Gameplaywise, it's still ME2, so I don't feel ripped off. There's one plot fight where you're supposed to lose against a ton of enemies, but you can actually survive and get an achievement for that. That part was great.

[Grefter]

I don't see why Risen would be banned, it's tame compared to something like Fallout New Vegas.

Don't try to understand why things get refused classification in Australia, it is pretty much a dice roll.

[Excal]

New Vegas: Completed.  Did the NCR path.  I am amused at the talk your way to victory option basically being  <Bluff> Just as planned!

May try another playthrough at some point in the future.  Likely an Explosions/Melee/Stealth type chick for the House/Yes Man endings, and then a big Brawler for the Caesar ending.

[Grefter]

Ass Creed Bro - These games continue to be stupid.  I mean I enjoy them in there way as I have stated plenty of times.  Seriously though, so many bad design decisions go into this.  There is a credit sequence at the end of the game that is unskippable as far as I can tell (Escape brings up the menu...).  You can keep playing after the credits.  The credit sequence I think ended up around 20 minutes.  With music turned off there is no audio.  Just 20 minutes of white text scroll on a black background.   Good thing I had IRC and my DS to keep me occupied.

Going back to the stupid though, the plot just keeps doing all the same old tricks in the book.  It is big propaganda stuff that is all pretty old hat and stale.  Deus Ex did it more over the top (smaller scale, but more over the top).  Illuminatus! did it best, because humor is the best way to do it.  When I am talking about it doing all the same old tricks, there is a sequence at the end of the game where the main character loses control of his body.  Yeah it does the Final Fantasy 7 thing.  Right down to you pushing buttons that changes nothing but slowly makes you go through the motion.  Worse than FF7 though, in that when Cloud is going to kill Aeris you have been mashing X to get through dialogue and it is pretty obvious you are back in some semblance of control.  Here it is in the middle of a cutscene.  So OH NO I DON'T HAVE CONTROL OF MY BODY!  Errrrr are you going to move this along game?  Bored bored bored.  Oh he moved.  Ooooohhhhh it was because I mashed the buttons.  Um okay.  Then after stumbling around you get to the end of the sequence THEN it says PRESS ANY BUTTON and the inevitable happens.  Yeah, it is dumb.  Really really dumb for a game that is so well researched and has so many smart references thrown in.  There is clearly smart people that care about the subject matter working on the games.  They just serve no purpose in the main narrative.  It is all just window dressing.  Fun window dressing that they do absolutely nothing to hold your hand through!  I like that, I can appreciate it.  Still, so very very dumb.

Favourite points of the game. 
Dagger of Brutus, you get this with the Armor of Brutus.  It is the strongest dagger in the game.  When you fight with it enemies get more likely to run away.  It has unique kill animations that are pretty much universally brutally stabbing dudes multiple times.  If it is only stabbing ones you twist the knife to just completely wreck dudes.  There is one where you stab upwards through the chin into the skull with a reverse grip, then step away from body pulling the blade horizontal down towards your waste.  Nice.

You can kick enemies to make them drop their guard, this makes BLOCK BLOCK BLOCK LOL guys much easier to handle and less boring.  It also means you can kick bosses in the dick until they die.  Nice.

In the "Congrats for paying for the game" DLC they sort of go "Oh hey Leonardo da Vinci liked dudes", I guess that is kind of neat.  A little out of left field (far from a new concept of course.  Just in a game about stabbing dudes in the neck his sex life isn't really a priority), but it is nice to see in a really mainstream piece of media.  Bonus points for him sort of bashfully coming out to Ezio and the response being "lol whatevs bro he is pretty sweet match for you".  That is pretty good.

The Crossbow honestly is just way to good.  The whole point of the game is that you can use Hidden Blade to kill dudes on the sly.  Crossbow is functionally a ranged Hidden Blade.  You have toooons of ammo for it.  I don't know if it was a good decision to add it, but it is damned useful.

Down sides.

Jumping puzzles still suck at times due to bad camera and shit.  I think there is less problem ones than in AC2 or at least the ones you come across are a bit more responsive than the worst in AC2.  Both were way better than AC1 generally speaking.

Disarming dudes with your fists isn't nearly as effective as it used to be.  This is better balance.  I don't know why they did this though since this series is anything but balanced.  Especially since they introduced execution streaks where you just kill one dude and keep murdering dudes until someone hits you (which you can parry and instakill dudes during).  It is weird.  It only really applies to heavy armour dudes or spear guys for things you fight a lot, you just have to taunt them first, so whatevers on that front.  You don't seem to be able to do it at all to the new more rare regular enemy, the Papal Guard who are supposed to be the best of all classes, they block, run super fast have armour and have a gun.  So you just shoot them in the face, problem fucking solved.

There is enemies in that "Grats on buying the game" DLC that dodge everything.  Not block.  Dodge.  So you are back to the old sit there until you can counter them to death zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Okay dude decided to attack now here is 10 seconds of murdering the 20 douches that attacked.   Bad encounter choice.  Seriously they will side step you when you have them backed into a corner.  It is annoying and dumb.

Things that were in AC2 that are still awesome.

Stabbing stuff is still fun.  Knife is still the most fun weapon to use.

The fact that the game is seriously mostly just a super easy 3D platformer.  This specifically coupled with the fact that you can hire hookers.  They come in a group of 4 and surround you, preemptively distracting guards.  It is like you are a Renaissance Megaman who learned Whore Shield.   I will miss this feature when you inevitably play as Desmond.

I uh dunno.  I really can't defend them anymore.  It is very much a try it out and see if you like it phenomenon.  It is very much a game about spectacle more than actual game.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Disgaea 3 being awesome.

Master Champloo explains his apparent psychic abilities to Almaz!
Almaz: (Master!? This is the monologue inside my head!)
Champloo: (Hyahya! I can communicate with ingredients through their heart! There is nothing I am incapable of!)
Almaz: (But I'm not an ingredient…)
Champloo: (Fool! Everything has the possibility of becoming a delicious dish!)

4th-wall-breaking and the sobering reminder that technically, anyone can be eaten... all in one line~

I <3 you, Disgaea.

[Yoshiken]

FUCKING Hydreigon.  Holy hell it's a beast.  It manages to out-uber Garchomps as big scary things that sweep teams (or, because I have no shame, revive chains).
Well, that's a slight exaggeration, Lance's Garchomp is still more terrifying.

I'm not the only one who spammed that then? Rocky Helmet and Fake Out with revival spam are hilariously cheap.

As far as I'm concerned, Random Challenge was completed yesterday when I got bored of grinding to beat Cynthia/new E4/Morimoto and just said 'fuck it, I want to start training for VGC'. Started transferring HG Pokes, including a load of Dittos in the hopes of getting an all-31 IV Ditto. Turns out, only one of them has ANY 31 IVs. Oh well, it's a start! Current team is looking quite odd - in testing via PokeSav, it's done decently, although I've not gone up against a Trick Room team, so cutting Tornadus from my team might not be the greatest of ideas, unless I'm replacing it with either Liepard or Mienshao.

[Cmdr_King]

Pokeymans: Racially Insensitive- Beat Adler.  There's still Morimoto and Cynthia, but at this stage I at least feel qualified to comment on what I was using.

Final team:

Shaymin (L67, Serene Grace, Serious, Air Slash/Magical Leaf/Growth/Synthesis)- Did you know Air Slash is hax on something as fast as Shaymin?  Yeah.
Tornadus (L52, Prankster, Adamant, Air Slash/Fly/Crunch/Agility)- I don't seem to have any good TMs to use with Prankster, which is too bad because it's cool conceptually.  Didn't do much at all in the aftergame as the level may indicate, but did his fair share for the first round of E4.
Krookodile (L60, Moxie, Quiet, Crunch/Outrage/Earthquake/Cut)- since he thought it'd be cool to replace half his skillset for no real reason in the UE4.  Anyway, obvious uses throughout the game, helped by the relative lack of water routes.  Didn't actually participate in the aftergame, but I thought he might prove more useful than the other lower levelled guys and stuck the Exp Share on him once Shaymin's hax got going.
Reshiram (L63, Turbo Blaze, Timid, Dragon Pulse/Dragon Tail/Flamthrower/Fusion Flare)- The odd thing wasn't that the offense was great, it's that even with the ten level disadvantage Reshiram was straight outslugging some of the E4.  The durability is apparently good despite being in Gen Rocket Tag.
Kyurem (L76, Pressure, Hasty, Glaciate/Dragon Pulse/Ice Beam/Endeavor)- Kyurem is so obviously incomplete and getting an upgrade in 'Grey' that it's kinda sad.  That said, the raw levels and slightly-below-Uber stats made it a great for tanking and letting me revive when I needed to.  I actually did the E4 in two runs, getting enough levels for aforementioned Hax, and Kyurem did better there honestly (for all a strong Ice Beam was helpful a few times here)
Cobalion (L54, Justified, Modest (... well that explains some things...), Sacred Sword/Realiate/Iron Head/Swords Dance)- Tank!  Fighting attack!  Not a lot else!

And things I dropped, in order of how long they stuck around chronologically.
Carracosta (L51, Solid Rock, Naive, Strength/Dive/Surf/Waterfall)- Skillset ate some nerfs in the aftergame, when I wanted to condence down my HMs in favor of more ubers (because the aftergame has an instant 10 level jump over the E4.  Dude.)  Notably lost Rock Slide.  Anyway, pretty good actually, reliable throughout the game and one of uh two water types I even saw.  Despite the pretty bad BST and particularly terrible speed.
Celebi (L57, Natural Cure, Rash, Grass Knot/Recover/Nasty Plot/Leaf Storm)- Celebi played the role of my trump card uber for the E4, since Reshiram is acquired immediately before the final bosses rather than before the E4 as per usual. Pretty good at it actually, Gen 5 is pretty light on Bug y'see and... well you can guess what happened when Celebi wanted something dead.  Dropped in favor of Shaymin because Skymin is cool.
Stoutland (L45, Sand Rush, Hasty, Strength/Crush/Rock Smash/Work Up)- Really good... riiight up until the E4.  He's not really BAD then, just... his damage more or less caps once you get HM04, and while the stats are a good mix of power and durability the inability to his weakness well gets worse as you go.  E4 having both Psychic and Ghost helped him stay useful then, but he dropped in favor of Reshiarm for the final battles.
Darmanitan (L42, Sheer Force, Jolly, Fire Punch/Hammer Arm/Belly Drum/Flare Blitz)- fire ape is strong.  Damage machine of death, here, and looking over the movesets almost certainly better than the Fire starter.  Dropped in favor of Cobalion once I got towards the end and thought "Oh yeah, I'm going to use FIRE DRAGON"
Serperior (L42, Overgrow, Gentle, Mega Drain/Leaf Blade/Grass Knot/Flash)- The 8 gyms are... utterly stacked against a Grass starter.  Having no off-type movepool to speak of makes it that much worse.  Smugsnake is perfectly valid in a vacuum, and grass is fine once you get to the end of the game (as seen with me replacing him with... a grass, who was replaced by.. grass), just doesn't work well in the interim.
Tranquill (L29, Big Pecks, Hardy, Air Cutter/Roost/Detect/Fly)- fly whore.  Replaced by superior flying type.
Liepard (L27, Unburden, Serious, Fake Out/Pursuit/Hone Claws/Cut)- So I figured a dark type would be cool.  Liepard just doesn't have the offense to cut it.  dropped for Krookodile.
Panpour (L11, Gluttony, Naive, Scratch/Leer/Luck/Water Gun)- basically required to complete the first gym.   Dropped in favor of... y'know I don't even remember.  I think I just dropped it around gym 2.

Game... has its strengths, and there's a good flow to it.  On the other hand, the aftergame is pretty halfassed, which I guess I should expect in the debut games for a new Gen, but it's worth saying.  People say it's a revamp, but I don't really see it.  Some good design choices that were long due (experience scaling, toning down on HM requirements, shrinking dungeons a bit) but nothing exactly revolutionary.  7/10, same general area as HGSS.