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

[Sierra]

El Cid, if God bores you, switch to Dog!
You won't keep your allies for long anyway. (Not a spoiler) I loved Dean Domino, personally.

Man, I couldn't do that. But yeah, all the allies are pretty cool when you're actually talking with them as opposed to getting canned voiceclips chucked at you ad nauseum.

In the casino now. The sounds at the main door are...not encouraging. Eh. Let 'em come, the holorifle is extremely badass now that I've managed to repair it.

As for DA, yeahhhh, dragons are unrelentingly harsh. Nastiest enemies in the game, shock. Other than packing a lot of fire resistance and being geared up to win a war of attrition, there's not much to say. I don't think there's any easy way of dealing with them. Apparently people usually keep them tied down with Shale? But I lacked a Shale, can't comment.

[Captain K.]

Welcome back, Fenrir!

I've been out of town lately and thus not playing much except some more DQ9 grinding.  Got Zoma leveled up and got all of his drops.  He didn't drop the last one until level 80, the cheap bastard.  Also got another Alchemiracle, the Sol Invictus gauntlets.  Woo, 30 defense, most useful gloves ever.   </sarcasm>

[Rozalia]

Rozalia: It's been a lot more than that, actually. Three years?

Oh really, I was sure it wasn't that far ago but my sense of time isn't the greatest.

Pokemon White: Couldn't give a damn about this game on the lead up to it but now its here I can't resist it, damn those pokemon. Just got my first badge, pokemon are:

Tsunami (Oshawatt) Lv13
Lillipup Lv 13
Pansear Lv 10

Slaves/Others I'm not using but are on me
Purrloin Lv5
Patrat Lv2
Munna Lv8

[Twilkitri]

Big Brain Wolf -

Mediocre Layton-alike.

At least one puzzle had blatantly incorrect instructions, dialogue had noticable spelling and formatting errors. At one point it started refusing to stay visible unless I ran it from within the Compatibility Troubleshooter. Seemingly lost one puzzle forever - you can reload old chapters, but loading the chapter it was in starts me off after it's no longer accessible, possibly I could load the previous chapter and re-end it and maybe it woudl continue from the start of the next chapter instead of just going back to the chapter selection, but I haven't tried this and I can't be bothered doing so - which you would really think is against the point of the genre, and especially undesirable when the game only has 60 puzzles in total. The 'training' exercises were boring and pointless and as far as I can see just put in to make getting hint keys painful as opposed to the Layton style of flooding you with access to hints.



Etrian Odyssey 2 -

Floor 8. Remembered that I wanted to complain about not being able to use my EO1 password, which I put down to the games being from different regions due to Atlus sucking.



Grandia -

Just lost the invitation to visit the ruins. That was highly uncalled for.

The battle system looks more complicated than I can believe it actually is.

The dialogue so far has generally been so dumb that I love it. Hopefully this stays the course.

[Grefter]

Oh it will certainly stay the course.  The dialogue will only get more stupid as you go on.

Lego Harry Potter - I know next to nothing about Harry Potter.  Hermione just set Snape on fire.  I generally have no idea what is going on.  I am playing this noting that I am not the target audience.  Generally speaking it is pretty good.  This is exactly the kind fo game I would have loved to play as a kid, there is nearly endless shit to get, it is pretty forgiving and it is an IP directly marketted to kids and the game actually gives 2 fucks about them.  Good game that isn't meant for me.  I will keep playing and see how it goes.  Plan to write something about it.

[Fenrir]

I guess I could use Shale's Stone Aura yeah, but I haven't gotten the other passive skills in that skill tree. Since I didn't consult guides, my skills are all over the place. This turned out well for Allistair (focused on sword+shield) and Morrigan (focused on Sleep/Horror/Waking Nightmare, ice spells and now healing), but not for Shale and the MC (useless rogue skills!)
I'll get a few levels and come back. Add Alistair as the ubertank and Morrigan asa pure healbot and this sounds like an alright plan.

Lego Harry Potter is perfect as a coop game even if you're not the target audience, if you have a girlfriend who's a HP fan, but I guess this is too specific. We... Even got all the achievements.

[Meeplelard]

From what I understand, the entire Lego game series is basically aimed towards that approach.  Its a game that all ages, children and adults, can enjoy, etc.  Its just there for simplistic fun and from what I understand, most of them succeed at that.   Also generally parodying the product they're based off of for some amusing cutscenes without any actual dialog (I say this based off Lego Indiana Jones mostly, mind)

[Grefter]

Yeah the point pretty much was to go into a game in a genre that I can handle that I am not the target market for (so no Football Manager or the like) and see how I take to it.  So far?  Better than bad games of the genres I do like.

[Niu]

Dissidia 012- Lightning turns to be pretty good. Has enough moves to cover all range decent zoning option. This makes her extremely good at indoor terrain. Just Cura makes a a bit broken. She can play this hide and seek while gaining brave, and combined with the suppressing the weak, she can make sure she is the only one that is gaining it while running around.

Yuna is some what tricky. It takes a while get a hold of the range her brave attacks covers. It often turns out longer or shorter than expected. Especially her aerial moves. But her HP attacks are all decent, except Mega Flare. All covers large range and serve counter offensive purposes.

Needs to test out Kain more. He seems to be those with awesome brave attacks but HP attack is some what errrr. Outside Jump of course, that move is unbelievably good.

[DomaDragoon]

Wait, so Fenrir and Ko... aren't the same person? Well then. Good to see you back for however long, Fenrir, and don't feel too bad - between name changes and an attention span on par with most species of flies, I don't know who half of these people are.

In any case...

Toy Soldiers: A tower defense wargame with shades of third-person shooter. Just completed Chapter 4 by flying a Sopwith Camel and shooting down a bunch of red planes. Root beer was optional.

[Excal]

Actually got to play games today, so Mass Effect 2

I have mother fucking Scotty.  That is all.

Ok, that isn't all.  I've managed to finish exploring the Omega system, and have found the two PCs there, so I have options now.  I think I like the new skill system, the old one was a little wee bit ludicrous with all the options you had, and this one is more refined.  I'm growing to love the new upgrade/inventory system as it's a clear upgrade over the one in Mass Effect.  Finally, I still don't think I'm a fan of the ammo system, though I suppose it does a lot more to get you out of the habit of just getting comfortable with one or two guns and then using nothing else, and getting you thinking of what the benefits of each weapon is.

[Cotigo]

Oh yeah.

ME2: Beaten. Good game.  Almost certainly going to have to replay since the final decision is likely to have huge implications for ME3.  Or at least it had better, none of the "It doesn't matter if you killed the council or not" crap.

Vast improvement from ME1.  To address Excal's point:  Ammo was almost never an issue for me, heavy ammo aside.  Sure, I ran out of ammo on some guns but then that just made me switch to a different gun.  Hell I didn't even have to use my SMG ever and it was more managing between Pistol/Shotgun/Heavy and then sniper rifles when I got them.

[Fenrir]

All those years and I hadn't forgotten you, Doma. *sheds a tear*

Ammo wasn't much of an issue for me in ME2 even in insane mode, but I used a soldier. You can't just use  the sniper rifle all the time though.
Which makes me realize that insane mode Adept must be crazy hard because of the ammo system, on top of everything else!

Anyway I killed the damn dragon in Dragon Age.
The battle system issues are starting to get on my nerves.
Shale and Alistair have both the same A.I. setting, but Shale rushes on to fight enemies while Alistair stays close to my character.
My archer, sometimes takes like one freaking hour to shoot a single arrow when I'm controlling her, and I have no idea why.
Alistair sometimes just doesn't want to use the skills I tell him to use either.
It's a mess. Oh well. I was warned, PC version is better.

[Idun]

Started Radiant Historia.

DS died. Have not found my charger.

Just went to the bar and pwnd the cloaked man.

[Hunter Sopko]

Pokemon Black- Picked this up and played through a bit. Seems like a step forward and a step back at the same time. Interface-wise, no menu on the bottom screen? WTF? Who thought that was a good idea? On the other hand, everything, from text to battles, goes so fast that I haven't even turned off animations! Sweet.

Step forward and step back is how I feel graphically as well. Large, blocky pixels are ugly as sin. Feels like I'm playing an early PSX game. Some of the backgrounds are nice, though they can look awkward sometimes due to previously mentioned problem. Text borders on godawful as well.

Pretty much everything I plan on using seems to be getting a nickname. I'll be using it interchangably.

Picked Smugleaf as my starter. Patrat is awful, so it's Lillipup's (heretofore referred to as "Wigglepup". Would've been Wigglepuppy for full Ralph Wiggumification, but one letter short...) time to shine. Hits pretty good for an early Normal. Purrloin ("Poecat", due to black, Purloined Letter and the tail looking like the pendulum from Pit and the Pendulum). Poecat is okay, but I doubt it'll last, sadly. Rounding out my current team is Panpour ("Wonkey". Wonky water monkey).

Bianca is <3 <3 <3. Fun ditz. Rare to see those. Other guy is other guy. Team Plasma is hilarious and awesome. I'd say Hero was pretty dumb, but older woman inviting him up to her bedroom? I'd go...

First gym was a neat little twist on things, if still pretty easy. Poecat ended up in a buff/debuff off against enemy Lillipup, wound up getting it low before it got overwhelmed. Smugleaf finished it off. Wonkey wasn't leveled enough to take on Fonkey (Funky fire monkey), so Wigglepup just ended up Leering and SMASH as it kept buffing.

Team Plasma failed pretty badly, so puffy dream pokemon saved for now! Stopping there for the night.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Whoever finishes Radiant Historia first needs to do an in-depth spoilerific review so I can get my fix, this game looks like everything I wanted Chrono Cross to be.

[Dhyerwolf]

You want a Niu review of it right now then?

[Nitori]

Bioshock 2: Stanley Poole is a douchebag, so he got bees to the face

God Hand: More games need that type of ending sequence, also 1.6 average literally worse than Elfboy

[DjinnAndTonic]

You want a Niu review of it right now then?

I'd be willing to translate some Niu-ese for it, sure. The game just has my attention.

[Captain K.]

Pokemon Black:  OHMYGODTHENEWPOKEMONARESOCUTEIMGONNAEXPLODE

Last Remnant:  Wow I am dying so much in this game.  I feel like I'm doing something wrong, but checking some FAQs I don't seem to be.  Bosses and rare monsters are just so ridiculously powerful compared to the randoms that there's no balance.

[Niu]

You want a Niu review of it right now then?

I'd be willing to translate some Niu-ese for it, sure. The game just has my attention.

I DID just got my copy of Radiant Historia Design Material this Tuesday. If you can find someway to stop me from playing Dissidia, I am perfectly willing to write a fact center topic for it.

Last Remnant:  Wow I am dying so much in this game.  I feel like I'm doing something wrong, but checking some FAQs I don't seem to be.  Bosses and rare monsters are just so ridiculously powerful compared to the randoms that there's no balance.

1. Spam item
2. If your characters are dying, let them be. And revive them with low hp and they are more likely to perform their big specials
3. Spam status move, if only to keep the morale in control

If you have trouble spamming the move you need, start controlling your skill set now make them stay small.

[Rozalia]

Pokemon White: Just beat the third gym, love the way those Plasma goons sometimes scream plasma when they lose.

Pokemon are:

Revolver (Renamed Dewatt) Lv26 Water
Yorkshire (Herdier) Lv26 Normal
Pantsman (Scraggy) Lv26 Fighting Dark
Vulcanus (Durumak) Lv28 Fire

I have to say that Herdier for something you'd expect to be crap is actually pretty badass. Take down so early in the game means he curb stombs everything earlygame with ease without having to rely on weakness hitting.

[Nephrite]

Radiant Historia:

Beaten, didn't get the special ending, will be going back for it.


Thoughts on it (Spoilerz):


Stocke is one of the best main characters in a really, really long time. To give you an idea, in one of the last scenes of the game, an enemy has one of his allies hostage, he just walks up, uses his stealth ability and more or less stabs them in the back. No dramatic fight, nothing, he really doesn't have time for anyone's shit and it's great.

Raynie and Marco do their job of being supporting characters without being offensive. Stocke also does a great job of bonding with them without immediately falling in love for Raynie.

Aht is loligoat and fails at life for most of the time because of her constant whining about things Stocke already knows and just tries to keep the truth from being said.

Gafka is kinda there but is interesting.

Eruca was a really great character too, her determination (in both stories) makes perfect sense.


The villains were really great too. Hugo seemed like he was going to be a much bigger player but got cut short. Dias and Selvan, while you never fight them (sadly) made impacts on the story in their own way too. Heiss... I wasn't really expecting that. The entire game I figured the wielder of the Black Chronicle was Selvan or something, then I thought it might be an alternate universe Stocke... which I guess is sort of what Heiss is.

The time travelling got better after a while, once I remembered it was basically just what Chrono Trigger did except with two timelines instead of multiple different spots. I really enjoyed the world, each different country felt very unique, with Alistel having what amounted to religious motivations eventually, Granorg going through a revolution and so on.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Sweet! Radiant Historia review!
*reads*

...Awww. I was hoping for more examples of the Time-travelling bits.

[Sierra]

Dead Money: Finished. All the companions lived. Had major second thoughts about this once Dean told me the whole story, but killing him for something that happened two hundred years ago wouldn't have accomplished anything. Missed some Dog backstory apparently (I always kept God in charge) and some villa history, but eh, close enough to complete. Managed to haul out two gold bars and so much pre-war money that it actually totaled more worth in caps than the gold. Regaining my missing inventory once back in the Mojave proper? Took five solid minutes of acquisition messages. I wandered off and did chores while I waited (you can move around and do stuff normally while these messages are up--I just wanted to see how long it would take).

Anyway, pretty excellent. Villa exploration could be grindy at times since you're basically just killing the same enemies, but at least they're creepy enemies. Distinctive sound effects are key to making your enemies unnerving, I think. Although radios are more terrifying than zombie goasts, really. Finale was tense and took a couple tries (first time I stumbled a bit and needed a moment to realize I had to run the long way...and as a result ended up with a headsplosion right at the elevator door). Allies are all fun and the villain has note-perfect VA. Really impressed there. He's obviously completely insane, but so driven and focused that he makes it work for him. Apparently the voice actor for the part also played Wilhelm, George's bumbling boss in Seinfeld. I cannot reconcile this in my brain. It hurts to try.

Fair bit of breadcrumbing for later events in there, too. Looking forward to future installments.