What Games ya Playin' 2012 - Suplex a Train Edition

[Dark Holy Elf]

Djinn: Charmander, of course.

No, I don't think so. You're totally Ditto.

[NotMiki]

NotMiki: Jigglypuff

I'm not that jiggly!

* NotMiki runs, sobbing, into the corner, pounding a tub of Ben & Jerry's

EDIT: Actually, typing that out reminded me of middle school, when I was bullied for being slightly overweight, among other reasons.

...

Where's that Ben & Jerry's...

[Hunter Sopko]

Pretty sure Eevee for me was the result of the dartboard.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Clearly I just think of Sopko as Fluffy and Cuddly and likely to get too close to a radioactive stone.

Jim is clearly Jigglypuff because he's the most likely to get on top of a soapbox with a Marker-Microphone and put people to sleep.

Djinn: Charmander, of course.

No, I don't think so. You're totally Ditto.

Hmm... maybe you're right. ;)

[VySaika]

Plusle? Cold, man. Cold. ;_;

Anyway, playing more Tales of Graces: Freindship is Magic. Up to unlimited sidequest works after cocoon. Which I had to fight the bosses of twice due to being a derp and not saving after then getting exploded by some random gimmick fight. Second boss was...I won't say hard, just really bloody annoying with too many defensive tricks.

Will prolly end up poking Tal/Xer in chat about sidequestan to make sure I don't miss anything good.

[Random Consonant]

Random: Exeggcute

Well that's a filthy lie :/.

[Nitori]

Nitori: Poliwhirl

manga adventures eh

I'm okay with this

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I'm a Jinx? Calling me ugly is grounds for a public execution, you know.

[Captain K.]

Captain K: Alakazam

'Stache powar.

Should MC be concerned that I'm her final evolution?

=======

Skullgirls:  great art and music, seems like a really solid fighter - if you're hardcore into fighters.  It's not casual-friendly at all, and there's a disturbing lack of polish on the things that aren't the game itself.  I mean, I can understand not having ingame movelists if it came with an instruction booklet.  But it's a downloadable title...

[Fudozukushi]

Plusle? Cold, man. Cold. ;_;

Anyway, playing more Tales of Graces: Freindship is Magic. Up to unlimited sidequest works after cocoon. Which I had to fight the bosses of twice due to being a derp and not saving after then getting exploded by some random gimmick fight. Second boss was...I won't say hard, just really bloody annoying with too many defensive tricks.

Will prolly end up poking Tal/Xer in chat about sidequestan to make sure I don't miss anything good.

It is death.  Destroyer of worlds.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I'm a Jinx? Calling me ugly is grounds for a public execution, you know.

Simply the first Ice-type I could think of. Your name is Snow, after all. Also, I'm saying you're Psychic! And a girl? Whatever, dartboard, man.

[AndrewRogue]

Andy: Flareon
Ashley: Vaporeon

Well. Our relationship can be quite steamy.

[OblivionKnight]

Andy: Flareon
Ashley: Vaporeon

Well. Our relationship can be quite steamy.

Pics, Nao

[hinode]

Trance absolutely has to be (male) Gardevoir. There is no other acceptable option.

Well, okay Kirlia might fit even better.

Also Gref is clearly a Geodude.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Cthulhu Saves the World: Beaten.
That only took about 8 hours. Cool.
Made some bad choices early on with skill choices, particularly with Umi. But once I figured out not to immediately Insane Strike everything, the game got a little easier. Paws is my favorite PC, because Meow is awesome for my "Insane-ify first, ask questions later" style of play, it seems.

Cthulhu's Angels Mode: Also Beaten.
Second verse, same as the first, only about 10x funnier (except for Molly... what the hell). Final Boss of this mode is the best final boss. Elona was pretty amusing overall. Dark Umi wins for best new character. October manages to just be there, despite ostensibly being the main character...

Angry Bridge wins for best random boss design.

Rank CstW plz. kthnxbai

[Pyro]

Tales of Graces F: Beaten the maingame, doing the L&L arc.

The core of the system is pretty good. Chain Capacity gives a great deal more flexibility than the typical normal combo -> Arte -> Arcane Arte mixup that is so overused in other Tales games. Most characters have Artes that function differently enough in terms of AoE/damage/typage/windup/recharge to make Chain Capacity pay off in terms of balancing various options for starting/ending/escaping from an attack sequence.

The implementation of A-Artes instead of basic physicals works well enough, and I can't really complain. I dislike the system that ties A-arte usage to spell time reduction because it really should have let any arte usage decrease subsequent cast times. As is the game's AI just can't take advantage of this system and it feels kind of unfair to Cheria/Malik. Still, having variable skills to mix things up in place of typical "stand there and hit a single enemy a bit" is a great idea.

The titles system is good in theory, poor in implementation. Being able to set the build pattern as you want is cool in theory since you can prioritize getting certain skills/stat boosts before others. The problem is in actually acquiring titles! It winds up vastly favoring PCs you are using to the point where you damn those you aren't using as much. The oddities of some of them like "Get inflicted with X status 5 times" are also silly, and I am chagrined by the fact that you have to use many skills hundreds of times for some titles. Silliness.

The plot started out as kiddier than most Tales games because everybody was a kid. This segued nicely into the adult arc by giving the characters some background and letting you see where they developed from. It also featured one monumentally stupid decision on the part of the MC! The beginning of the Adult arc takes this and runs with it, forcing Asbel to contemplate just HOW stupid his decision was and how things have gone south for everyone. The political nature of the plot from here till the 1/3rd mark works pretty well! It doesn't mesh too well with the less serious characters (Pascal), but it is a compelling enough narrative to keep me hooked. Then TALES PLOT kicks in and you're off to save the world. Yeah.

Characters are good but not up to Vesperia's level. I'll rant about em later.

I do have to complain about some boss' capability of raping your spellcasters from across the screen. This is just wrong in a game where spellcasters are your healing/revival. So yeah, I'll bitch about it because there's little you can do about it and it is annoying.

[Sierra]

ToGF opening chapter didn't really catch my interest, figured I'd knock out one of those games that have been sitting around a couple years instead, ran the first couple chapters of Bayonetta. How does she not dislocate her hips strutting around like that all the time.

[Fenrir]

Pokemon Nuzlocke:
Which pokemon you are doesn't matter. You're all dead.
Some punk named Brawly killed everyone.


Saints Row 3: Finished. Finished most of the good stuff in the game. (not including finding objects and doing every little task 250 times)
I like how I had enough money to buy everything / max respect juuust at the very end.
The highlight was Tron world, but most things from that point on are gold (except gangstas in space) I don't know what Volition could ever possibly do with Saints Row 4. I'll probably never be able to go back to Saints Row 2 despite the less attractive city now.

[AAA]

Saints 4: Gangstas in Time. Make it happen, Volition.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Lost Odyssey: The plot is less coherent now... Kinda having FF12 flashbacks. Not a fan of this latest Ice Dungeon now that I'm in Disc 3. However, Jansen's ability to talk smack like a boss and the various off-color humor parts like Auction House Chickens make the maingame story worth it. If only Cooke and Mack were less... there.
The Dream sequences continue to be exciting! Recently got The Butcher General one. I was genuinely trying to figure out whether anything was actually happening to him or if it was all in his head during that one. Despite the conclusion, I'm still not convinced one way or the other is definitive. Very cool.
Genuine point of confusion (possible spoilers?) : Is Aneira some kind of sentient bird or is s/he supposed to be like an angelic figure? The two Dreams about Aneira so far seem slightly conflicting here. And since this seems to be the one Dream that actually gets referenced in the main plot, I figure someone would know.

Gameplaywise, it seems like a game that would be easy/interesting to stat topic. The further along I get, the more obvious the build options for the Immortals become, and while they'll all be a lot more similar in a stat topic than they are in practice, they should still maintain a pretty notable edge over the Mortals and make a diverse cast with lots of options. Kaim or Sarah would make a pretty awesome Nyarlie's contender, too. I need to figure out how GC works, though.
There haven't been any plot bosses to really write about so far, though. All of the boss fights have been really fun and interesting(gimmicky?) so far, and despite the recent drop in difficulty, they would make decent duelists, but there's just no plot for like... ANY of them! They're all just tanks or random large hungry monsters or whatnot.

[Grefter]

There is like only one plot boss in the games and that is Captain FMP.  Aneira a non-human with wings and a long lifespan.  General rule of thumb is given the number of dreams that are relevant to the plot it suggests that everything they describe are legit and not metaphor.

999 - So this game has a good plot.  Then there is puzzles and shit and they bore me.  Not because they are bad or anything, but because the plot sets the bar too high and I just want to see that.  Probably my loss, but oh well.

[Meeplelard]

I thought the game was pretty straightforward about Aneira being just the last of a winged race of humans that have exceedingly long life spans relative to humans.  Its why he and Seth were able to connect on such a level, because he'd be the one thing that'll actually last (if still temporary) when everything else around Seth keeps disappearing, thus being the only friend she'll have throughout the ages.  I guess I should give a nod to the game for stating Seth and Aneira did NOT hook up, and were merely close friends, not falling into a cliched "lovers!!!" scenario.

[Niu]

The core of the system is pretty good. Chain Capacity gives a great deal more flexibility than the typical normal combo -> Arte -> Arcane Arte mixup that is so overused in other Tales games. Most characters have Artes that function differently enough in terms of AoE/damage/typage/windup/recharge to make Chain Capacity pay off in terms of balancing various options for starting/ending/escaping from an attack sequence.

I think any moves do. Just spells takes longer to cast if you start with them, so the reduction effect takes longer to be apparent if you starts off with only spells.
A-Artes is much fast to use, you can acquire reduction of 3 actions worth in a just a few seconds.

[Captain K.]

Witcher 2:  Enhanced for her pleasure Edition.  So I play the tutorial, and the game suggests I should play the main game on Easy.  Fuck you game, you're not the boss of me!  So I play Normal.  And then I'm trying to fire this ballista and there's 4 guys fighting me at once and they have shields and I die a lot despite using The Force on them.  Anyway I finally get through this.

So is throwing daggers really awkward on the PC version?  Cause it sucks here.  I'm assuming you could just point and click on PC?  Bombs aren't so bad because you just have to hit in the general area.

Also, I have a concern:  Is it safe to store my Witcher 2 soundtrack next to my King of Fighters soundtrack?

[Anthony Edward Stark]

As long as the Witcher soundtrack is far above the KoF soundtrack.

Also, you're about to enjoy 2011's GotY, so get pumped.