What Games ya Playin' 2012 - Suplex a Train Edition

[Captain K.]

Black 2:  Started.  Picked the girl because she has Princess Leia Star Puffs while the boy is apparently wearing a shag rug on his head.  Picked Tepig as starter.

And then I made a movie that grossed 268.8 billion dollars.  Take that Avengers.

[Bobbin Cranbud]

Brigandine

I really need to get Grand Edition. I am finally finding this game boring to replay even though it's one of my all-time favorites. I blame knowing there's a better version. :Y Did anyone ever find out of GE's multiplayer works over the internet if you use an emulator? I would certainly pick it up in that case.

Anyway, Norgard playthrough going about like my Norgard playthroughs always do. Grab the island from Esgares as soon as possible, advance against New Almekia as far as possible without widening the front, stomp poor Leonia since they end in the best chokepoint to attack multiple enemies from. Then sit there trying to get Esgares weak enough for a computer player to finish them so I get better, or at least different, knights, grow frustrated, and finish them (and shortly the game) myself.

Brangien felt like my MVP (all of the assassinations, all of them) but it was probably Vaynard.

League of Legends

Almost 30 (hit 27 tonight). I guess the lack of a third Quintessence is an issue but I don't feel like I'm at a meaningful mechanical disadvantage anymore.

I do however feel like I've hit a wall in terms of my improvement as a player. I have a good grasp of the game's tactics and can play jungle or support to a reasonable level of proficiency with many characters. But I can't last hit despite a fair amount of practice and I invariably lose my lane if I try to top, mid or AD Carry bot. Switching to smartcasting is probably the only way over that wall (since it's not like my reflexes are going to get magically better).

Nunu is still my favorite. I can take him top and only lose a little, take him jungle and either do well with a normal clear of do a cool quickdragon strategy with a support, or help my AD carry a lot as a support myself. I also like supporting as Taric, and jungling as Amumu and Cho'Gath. I own a bunch of others but they're the only ones I'm good at.

[superaielman]

I really need to get Grand Edition. I am finally finding this game boring to replay even though it's one of my all-time favorites. I blame knowing there's a better version. :Y Did anyone ever find out of GE's multiplayer works over the internet if you use an emulator? I would certainly pick it up in that case.

Multiplayer is a blast, even 1 player. You can do things like change alliances and give yourself as much time as you want. You don't have to worry about fighting the snake of chaos or Bulnoil either. You can either buy it legally (Good luck) or pirate it. There *is* an english patch for GE, but it only works for the first disk.

Anyway, Norgard playthrough going about like my Norgard playthroughs always do. Grab the island from Esgares as soon as possible, advance against New Almekia as far as possible without widening the front, stomp poor Leonia since they end in the best chokepoint to attack multiple enemies from. Then sit there trying to get Esgares weak enough for a computer player to finish them so I get better, or at least different, knights, grow frustrated, and finish them (and shortly the game) myself.

Brangien felt like my MVP (all of the assassinations, all of them) but it was probably Vaynard.

Brangien's the best archer in the game, and that's already a pretty powerful class. Not surprising she dominates. Vaynard's better than her but not by a massive margin, since he has some durability concerns in normal Brig (GE makes him resistant to fire which helps a fair bit).

I want to play OMD2, the new DLC looks fun. They brought back The Tower for Endless mode and finally gave the players a way to revive fallen Guardians.

[AndrewRogue]

Deus Ex: Stayed a while in France, raided an old house, accidentally lost 15 minutes of progress by laser swording an explosive barrel, introduced Mr. Gunther to my old friend Mr. GEP, found some gold, met the Illuminati, raided Area 51, and now have to do something with computers, I think.

So, is XCOM really super superior on PC? Limited funds and some coupons meant I grabbed it used on PS3 at Gamestop yesterday (since I wanted and had coupons!)

Speaking of.

XCOM: Still in the tutorial. Saved some person who got abducted by Aliens. Getting a decent grasp on the game so far. I assume the tutorial can be skipped in future plays?

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Deus Ex: Stayed a while in France, raided an old house, accidentally lost 15 minutes of progress by laser swording an explosive barrel, introduced Mr. Gunther to my old friend Mr. GEP, found some gold, met the Illuminati, raided Area 51, and now have to do something with computers, I think.

So, is XCOM really super superior on PC? Limited funds and some coupons meant I grabbed it used on PS3 at Gamestop yesterday (since I wanted and had coupons!)

Speaking of.

XCOM: Still in the tutorial. Saved some person who got abducted by Aliens. Getting a decent grasp on the game so far. I assume the tutorial can be skipped in future plays?

Superior visually and in control scheme.  Also, it's compatible with the Steam Workshop and there's a mod kit forthcoming.

The tutorial can be disabled in the options menu.  I think the box is just labeled "skip tutorial."

[AndrewRogue]

Mmm. Lame. Not sure I really feel its worth the effort of returning and the extra bucks given my finances at the moment. =(

[Shale]

"Superior on PC" doesn't mean "craptastic on console" anyway, unless we're talking about an FPS.

[Fenrir]

Or an RTS.

X Com Enemy Unknown was made with a controller in mind anyway, some PC players actually use a controller to play it.
No "Glorious PC Gaming Master Race" can apply here.

[Grefter]

Console will be fine.  Better to play than to not.

[Sierra]

What the heck's wrong with FPS on a console? I played Half-Life 2/both Bioshocks/Human Revolution on console, never had any control or technical problems with any of them.

[AndrewRogue]

Mouse control is superior.

I suppose the biggest disadvantage of console XCOM is I can't stream it as the DL takes on aliens.

[Grefter]

Well there is a reason that I only ever saw Aim Assist on a shooter once before we started getting tons of ports.  Mouse control just allows for more quickly paced precise reactions.  You can make shooters work on console, but they are a different beast there.  It is no real surprise that people that cut their teeth on PC shooters don't like jumping to them and are dismissive of them (note reaction to the change will be less jarring if your FPS play dates back far enough to have played exclusively with keyboard.)

For reference, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight was super carebear with its shooter elements what with it mostly being about lightsabers and force powers.  That and Star Wars games that weren't flight sims aim for a wide audience.

[Just Another Day]

I seem to recall reading that the XCOM console and PC control schemes were generated independently of each other (luxury of a genre where mechanics transcend control scheme), so neither is a copy of the other -- both are the original intent.

Finished Classic (the "perfect game" that I need to feel good about a second playthrough), bashed my head against Impossible Ironman for a bit, but it might actually be beyond me at the moment. I get very sad whenever a little soldier dies, which means I'm very sad ALL THE GODDAMN TIME RIGHT NOW. So I'm putting it off for now. Might do a Classic Ironman to get used to the somewhat different decision making process. Or a straight Impossible to get used to the pain and sadness. Haven't decided.

[Grefter]

I honestly find the game a bit RNG even on Classic, but I will be doing a decent Classic run sometime when I am in the mood (speaking of carebear).

[Just Another Day]

Yeah, I think Impossible will be fine after the first third or so of the game (once hit rates climb above the 65-70% ceiling, and an enemy critical doesn't mean a dead squaddie and rolling panic), but for that first third I'll just need to come to terms with the fact that I can lose a team to bad luck even if I make no poor decisions, and that some countries will just poof away no matter what.

[Shale]

Man, I remember the days of having to “mouselook” with a keyboard. That sucked too.

(Also: Graphic adventure games without a mouse. I SHAKE MY CANE AT YOU, WHIPPERSNAPPERS.)

[Grefter]

Lemmings without a mouse bro.  Lemmings without a mouse.

[Cmdr_King]

For reference, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight was super carebear with its shooter elements what with it mostly being about lightsabers and force powers.  That and Star Wars games that weren't flight sims aim for a wide audience.

Wait, you mean playing as the empire in unshielded deathtraps and working for Grand Admiral Thrawn wasn't meant for a wide audience?  My world, it is crumbling.

Mind you later versions of that game had cheat options in the menu and the only penalty for using those was harshly scaling your score down.  Save Emperor personally, still only a Lieutenant. 

(Also: Graphic adventure games without a mouse. I SHAKE MY CANE AT YOU, WHIPPERSNAPPERS.)

That sounds like approximately the worst.  I guess the hotkeys for SCUMM-style game at least make sense (L to Look, U to Use, etc), but even then just moving around.

[Shale]

The absolute worst was one game where I couldn't get out of the first screen because a single tap of the keyboard moved the cursor so far that it was impossible to pixel-hunt - it would go right past the object I needed to click on.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Lemmings without a mouse bro.  Lemmings without a mouse.

OH MY GOD WHY

* Jo'ou Ranbu sobs at the flowing stream of deathly memories.

[Bobbin Cranbud]

I really need to get Grand Edition. I am finally finding this game boring to replay even though it's one of my all-time favorites. I blame knowing there's a better version. :Y Did anyone ever find out of GE's multiplayer works over the internet if you use an emulator? I would certainly pick it up in that case.

Multiplayer is a blast, even 1 player. You can do things like change alliances and give yourself as much time as you want. You don't have to worry about fighting the snake of chaos or Bulnoil either. You can either buy it legally (Good luck) or pirate it. There *is* an english patch for GE, but it only works for the first disk.

Well, AFAIK the only way to get it legally is on the Japanese PSN store*, which is more an expenditure of effort than money. If I was going to pirate it I would do that as well, I just wanted to know if it was worth said effort to do both.

The translation patch still only works for the first disc? Bummer.

Still, that sounds pretty fun. Setting everyone allied against me would only exacerbate the "game gets progressively easier" issues but it would definitely make it more of a challenge!

*Or on Ebay for hundreds of dollars. lol

[AndrewRogue]

XCOM: This is ridiculously fun. Like. Stupidly so.

Current date, 4/11/2015

Things go well. Europe is having a bit of a fit. I am not quite sure how I will manage their panic. Trying to get some satellites in the air. May have excavated too much space too quickly. Funds low. Wondering why the world is funding us so poorly.

The Rogue's Squad. Base of operations: AMERICA. FUCK YEAH.

Lt. Rob "Kong" Delgado (Heavy)
Sgt. Ashley "Axle" Lefevre (Support)
Sgt. Reiska "Vandal" Hill (Assault)
Cpl. Sopko Gray (Support)
Sq. Ciato Campbell (Sniper)
Sq. Laggy Ghalib (Heavy)
Sq. Hatbot Evans (Heavy)
Sq. Djinn Amar (Sniper)
Stelas Weiss
Twil Gesperatto
Smashy Willis
Kilga Halvorsen

Former Members

Sgt. Scar "Zulu" Rodriguez (Sniper) - Killed in Action. Operation Cold Sleep. 4/4/15. Wishes the Rogue's Squad carried Med Kits before this.

[Luther Lansfeld]

"Zulu"??

[Dark Holy Elf]

Better nickname than my sniper Pierre "Emo" Thomas.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

"Zulu"??

Nicknames are given after a certain number of kills, randomly hosed from a pool specific to your class. My guy's nickname was "Banzai" as an Assault.  Had Chops as my other Assault trooper. There was also Garrote and Snake Eyes on the long rifles, Bulldozer on the HMG, and Whiskey, the support medic.