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

[Dark Holy Elf]

I can't even begin to list the things wrong with this. I will just stop at my first statement.  The fuck are you doing, playing RPGs on a console? It's a goddamn RPG, you want to be able to use a mouse and load mods, not dick around with a controller and be dependent on Xbox Live to let you play the game.

Why the fuck would you need a mouse to play an RPG? It's not a genre based around quickly locating targets on a map like an RTS is or anything. There have been hundreds of successful RPGs made for consoles, and last I checked even you liked some of those. Don't let the design team of Dragon Age  2 off the hook for making a shitty interface just because they only knew how to program for one platform; shitty design is shitty design. If they were too incompetent to make a good interface for the X-Box, they shouldn't have released it for the X-Box.

[Grefter]

That is actually a problem with DA1 more than 2.  It is one of the reasons I don't reccomend it on consoles, the interfacing is just plain poor.

From my understanding in the sequel they changed the control scheme on 2 on consoles to play much more like an action game where you just direct the character and choose attacks where the PC version kept the more mouse oriented control scheme.

If it didn't work again though, certainly something you should hold against the game.  PC version controls pretty well though.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I can't even begin to list the things wrong with this. I will just stop at my first statement.  The fuck are you doing, playing RPGs on a console? It's a goddamn RPG, you want to be able to use a mouse and load mods, not dick around with a controller and be dependent on Xbox Live to let you play the game.

Why the fuck would you need a mouse to play an RPG? It's not a genre based around quickly locating targets on a map like an RTS is or anything. There have been hundreds of successful RPGs made for consoles, and last I checked even you liked some of those. Don't let the design team of Dragon Age  2 off the hook for making a shitty interface just because they only knew how to program for one platform; shitty design is shitty design. If they were too incompetent to make a good interface for the X-Box, they shouldn't have released it for the X-Box.

You're right; there are RPGs that work on consoles. How many are isometric?  Did you ever play the port of Diablo that was on PlayStation? What about the console versions of KotOR? We've known that you probably want to be using a mouse for, what, fifteen years? If it's a menu-driven game your life will be easier with a mouse and keyboard.

Lemme put it to you this way: I certainly COULD play Civ 5 with an Xbox controller. Doesn't mean I ever will.

[Shale]

Plenty of RPGs work on consoles, but BioWare's offerings, which are more RTS than RPG where combat is concerned, are not among them.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

DA2's attempt to remedy this with auto-targeting on consoles is indeed a problem, but then again, when the PC version support mode you are the one at fault for buying a different form. Perhaps you would like to grouse about the Game Boy port of Mortal Kombat, as well?

[Captain K.]

Nah, Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat was the first version where you could play as Goro.  That by itself lets me overlook its wretched controls.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Clearly the XBox version of DA2 could have been saved if you were able to play as the Dragon.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Nah, Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat was the first version where you could play as Goro.  That by itself lets me overlook its wretched controls.

Alternatively, the Genesis version of Street Fighter 2, where you switched between punches and kicks by pressing start.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Nah, Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat was the first version where you could play as Goro.  That by itself lets me overlook its wretched controls.

Alternatively, the Genesis version of Street Fighter 2, where you switched between punches and kicks by pressing start.

BUT THEY RELEASED A SIX-BUTTON GENESIS CONTROLLER JUST FOR THE GAME

[Excal]

Eh, KoToR controlled just fine on the XBox.  Played 1 and 2 and had no complaints.  If DA has issues, then it's something wrong with the game, and not the medium. 

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Eh, KoToR controlled just fine on the XBox.  Played 1 and 2 and had no complaints.  If DA has issues, then it's something wrong with the game, and not the medium. 

I played KotOR1 on the Xbox for a while and just couldn't take it. It's partially because I played the PC version first, but the cursor and the menus drove me up a goddamn wall.

BUT THEY RELEASED A SIX-BUTTON GENESIS CONTROLLER JUST FOR THE GAME

I did not now that. But I'm somehow unsurprised that Sega's solution was that everyone needed to buy some new piece of hardware.

[Shale]

That controller became pretty much the Genesis standard in the later years, and they added two shoulder buttons to make the Saturn pad.

Edit: 4,000!

[Fudozukushi]

I forgot the three-button genesis controller even existed until this line of thought.

[Cmdr_King]

Of course, KotOR was a turn-based game with fluid turns, rather than an actual action element, so targeting concerns mattered a lot less.  Certainly less than the omni-present lag (disclaimer: I played on a 360, which from what I can tell is software-based emulation)

Considering how some fighting game players insist that it's sacrilege to play without a proper joystick, perhaps sega figured the rest could be just as easily suckered into superfluous hardware.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

It's not that you CAN'T play it with a controller, it's that the experience is just worse in every way.

[Rozalia]

Pokemon white: Tried my hand at that breeding business starting with Galvantula as my first poke to attempt all this on. After many hours I got:

BlackTiger (Galvantula) Lv 60 Modest Compoundeyes (+30% accuracy)
Bug/Electric

Hp: 169
Attack:87
Defence: 95
Sp.Attack:194
Sp.Defence:83
Speed: 191

Thunder
Energy Ball
Bug Buzz
Volt Switch

Relying on STAB Thunder to hit the enemies for massive damage. Energy Ball and Bug Buzz are there to hit weakness on things that resist thunder and Volt switch is there to get Galvantula the hell out of there if needed.

IVs being:

Hp 24
atk 0
def 30
spA 30
spD 10
spd 31

Evs are:

Hp evs: 4
sp.A evs: 252
spd evs: 252

All that and it was only one poke!?! What the hell this is a long process, ev training and leveling up is easy but Ivs are a pain. Anyway the pokemon I have ideas on using are:

Scrafty: Those three punchs look like good moves for him to have but they are egg moves and I'm not to acquainted with the whole egg group business so I might pass on. Ability is also a hard choice.

Excadrill: Combined with Sand stream the thing seems to be an extreamly fast hard hitting killer. Stats are generally good but if I have him I then have to have...

Tyranitar: I'm guess IV wise I build it as 252 hp and atk? I've seen some speed builds where you focus on dragon dancing and then sweeping but I can't tell how effective that would be. I just want a Tyranitar that goes well with the team and isn't stuck doing its own thing.

The rest: Eelektross is the only other poke that I have interest at the moment. It seems like it could be quite versatile in a fight and it can be one of the hardiest things about.

[Pyro]

Radiant Historia: Beaten. 235/236 events (didn't beat the Master superboss)

Radiant Historia is a good game because every element of it manages to be at least above-average. The over-arching plot that focuses on jumping back and forth between two different time streams is unique and well-executed. The combat takes a gimmick (moving enemies) and runs with it quite well, making even easy random battles sort of like a puzzle to figure out "how can I do this efficiently?". The PC diversity in combat is also very satisfying, for all that items render some of the healers a little less noticeable. The game's art is enjoyable enough for a DS game, while the music is wonderful (Yoko Shimomura pulls off a great soundtrack). The characters are developed well enough, and even relatively minor characters are given backstories.

Good times.

[Meeplelard]

Suikoden Tierkreis: God damn do I hate the name of this game!  

But more importantly, game is complete!  naturally, A MEEPLE RANT!!!

Well, what's there to say about the game?  Well first off, lets discuss the gameplay...

Its brilliant!  I mean, you make a party of 4, put them in a formation based on a 3x2 panel, going with Medium, Long, and Short Range weapons!  This is totally new and original!  Oh, and then in battle, you give character commands, and they act once per round based on speed!  But wait, the speed is slightly randomized, SO YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PREDICT!  That seriously blew my mind and I needed to plan everything wtih the worst possible outcome entirely.  Screw consistency, relying on arbitrary lucky factors?  Yeah, that's where its at!  Oh, but attacking isn't the only thing you can do.  YOu can DEFEND, USE SPECIAL SKILLS, USE ITEMS!  If you want, you can also Run, but beware, it might backfire.  Also, combo attacks exist for some parties.  THIS BLOWS MY MIND!

As far as character diversity goes...well, plot related powers.m M You can only use 4, but you get a whole large pool of actions, and some are just flat out better than others! They're universally better than your physicals too...so why not spam them?  Cause they cost this thing called "MP".  That makes yo have to care about not using them!  Yeah, who wants to use all their abilities?  4 is all you need!  And some are support abilities too!

This is incredibly deep gameplay, and unlike anything I've ever seen.  I wish more games were like this.  Its totally badass and awesome.  How can anyone argue?


Unfortunately...the plot is a different story.  Ok, so the game starts off with you naming the main character.  Cool, I guess that means a silent protagonist, right?
WRONG!  He talks.  He talks a lot!  More than any other character!  That...how dare they?!  Do they not know immersion?!? YOU CANNOT MAKE THE MAIN CHARACTER TALK IN A jRPG!  That's just wrong!  What a horrible start right there.  Now the game's narrative is ruined cause I can't assume the guy is an avatar with implied dialog, but he's an actual character.  Fuck you, Tenkai Star of this game!

And then...the game starts off with some cryptic nonsense?  What happened to "Go out and do stuff, you'll save the world eventually" plots?  I don't want there to be mysterious stuff, I want a nice random adventure!
Ah, but the game didn't feel fit to be a jerk there.  See, the main character wasn't the only character to be given a voice.  No, it seems every character has a personality.  They also show degrees of change and development.  I mean, seriously, what the fuck?  And they even have BACKSTORY, CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS, and all that toher stuff that goes into characterization?  God damn it, well, there goes all the fanfic potential of THIS game, seeing as I can't randomly fill in the blanks, cause there are none.

But back to the plot, ok, I can let the weird shit early slide, but...then it decides to tell me the game has a big religion.  Ok, cool, maybe this will be neat.  EXCEPT NO!  THE RELIGION IS EVIL!  AND YOUR TEAM IS FIGHTING AGAINST IT!  I found this massively offensive.  It was bad enough having Jesus on my team in Xenosaga 3, but now you're telling me that predetermined fate is total bullshit and we need to fight against it?  What kind of sick moronic plotline is that?

...oh, right, Tales of the Abyss worked with it too.  But TotA never said "its wrong!", they just sort of said "its there", and your characters did whatever the hell they felt like anyway.  See? A big factor of the world being pointless and undermined.  That's brilliant!  Characters should not react violently to major world shattering crises.  
Now, I could let this slide if they didn't feel the need to use the massively cliched, over used, out of left field MULTIPLE WORLDS nonsense.  So now you're telling me to EXPAND THE SETTING and take things on a grander scope?  So basically, now you're saying I can't even make ALTERNATE REALITIES cause the agme itself has CANON Alternate Realities?  Geez, game, ruin any fun one can have with your plot why don't yo.

And then the villain.  Making him show a degree of humanity?  Trying to make him believable and almost sympathetic, yet still detestable and clearly wrong?  Giving him...actual motives?
THAT'S ALMOST AS BAD AS THE MAIN NOT BEING A SILENT PROTAGONIST.  Please, if you want to make the villain talk and be a regular face, then there's only one way to do it, and that's by making him a totally bland, baby eating EVIL!!! monstrosity.  Haven't you seen Dragon Quest game?  All their villains are like that, and that's a hugely successful series! Now look at Breath of Fire games.  Myria and Fou-lu are both clearly NOT that, and thus must obviously suck, and BoF series is basically dead.  

LEARN SOME HINTS KONAMI!!!

So god damn it, the plot is an attrocity and a train wreck.  And don't get me started on making a Suikoden a WAR STORY...

The only saving grace for characters in this game is Beardsley.  Very few scenes, no build up, and then you kick his ass arbitrarily in a big tower out of nowhere.  THAT'S how you make a good character!  No personality, no development, and no purpose in the story.  Now if only they did this with all the other characters in the game, this could have been alright...

So amazing gameplay followed by the most offensive plot this side of Xenosaga 3, with a few alright tracks, this game gets somewhere around 7/10.

[DjinnAndTonic]

*reads Meeple rant*
...I'm sorry I ever doubted you, man. ;_;

[Captain K.]

I can't tell if he liked it or not.  O_o

Black:  Third and fourth gyms were way too easy.  Hope they didn't peak at Gym 2.  Current team is:

Herdier lvl 27 - damned good, STAB Normal is really good in this game.
Sawk lvl 27 - colossal attack stat destroys things
Lilligant lvl 27 - waited until she learned Giga Drain before evolving.  And she gets the god powerup next level.
Boldore lvl 27 - not as broken as the above 3, but Rock Blast still wrecks things
Pansear lvl 26 - sucks, but I picked the wrong stone accidentally so I can't evolve him yet.  Mainly use him for catching.
Dewott lvl 26 - kind of meh.  May replace him with this Basculin I just got.

And just in case I forget to mention it later, reusable TMs is the greatest thing in Pokemon history.

[Cmdr_King]

Perhaps it's something that changes based on starter, but I found a Fire Stone in the southwest corner of the Desert Resort (that's an area you reach from Route 4, to the west under the highway)

[DomaDragoon]

Pokemon Black: At big city of the coolness and lots of streets, I find that poor little MC has had her Pokemon stolen and hooked up with some little woman with lots of hair. Way to go, MC. I rescue her Munna from Team Plasma, then go to the most unhygenic gym to date. Not that hard, though I was a little underleveled. I'm now in the Desert Resort place killing enemies and levelling up. Oh, and I too found a Fire Stone in the place that the Cmdr. mentioned.

Catches since the last post:
Sandile: Hook
Darumake: Rei
Dwebble: Zoidberg

Current team:
Cottonelle (L 20 Cottonee - Growth/Leech Seed/Razor Leaf/Mega Drain)
Grilla (L22 Pansear - Scratch/Bite/Dig/Flame Burst)
Freddy (L22 Munna - Psybeam/Moonlight/Rock Tomb/Hypnosis)
Bert (L23 Tranquill - Roost/Air Cutter/Detect/Quick Attack, Scope Lens)
Tien (L23 Sawk - Leer/Retaliate/Focus Energy/Low Sweep)
General (L24 Dewott - Tackle/Fury Cutter/Water Gun/Razor Shell, Mystic Water)

[Dark Holy Elf]

I can't tell if he liked it or not.  O_o

I'm pretty sure the rating he assigned the game at the end of the post is the only part of the post that isn't complete (and awesome) bullshit.

[AndrewRogue]

Dragon Age 2: Still dicking around, getting coin up so I can go underground.

Generally speaking, I'm comfortable enough at this point to say this is to Dragon Age as Mass Effect 2 was to Mass Effect? Quite literally, in many cases (I'm looking at you, Dialogue wheel!) They've definitely taken everything they learned in ME1/DA1 and applied it to this game. In general, the gameplay is smoother and much, much faster. I still miss the overhead view, but I'm getting used to not having it.

PC cast is growing on me as they carve out their niches.

Honestly, enjoying the game a hell of a lot at this point.

[Lord Ephraim]

Pokémon White:

It's pokémon. I can't really think of anything that separates it from the rest. Oh wait...




Also don't pick the female trainer, unless you want to stare at this all game long:

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5665/1283741738355.gif