What Games Are You Playing 2013?

[DjinnAndTonic]

I chalk it up to different cultures between the east and the west, and NIS always exacerbating it. (+extremely drawn out story sequences)
I know an autistic guy who always interacts with others to reassure himself. The game kind of sounds like that.
Its life lessons are lost on me.

Life lessons? I was mostly talking about the one-liners and its general perception of how terrible society is to the point its comical. I also liked the Reporter chick's general veiled bitchiness. The superhero trope parodies were hit or miss, but I generally enjoyed them, particularly the random Prinny Wife that gets assigned to you in the home base.

Your anecdote about the autistic guy doesn't really seem to make sense as related to the game's episodes? I guess you're talking about Darkdeath himself?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

FE13 - Donnel no longer gets 2HKOed by everything when paired up with Kellam and got a D in Spears! He's still trashy oh boy. Only four levels to go, at least, and I'll have a Second Seal for him and Panne both when the time comes. Only four levels to go!

[AAA]

Mass Effect 1 DLC: Shatter the sky is a pretty fun mission and has payoff in the later games, I would recommend it if you have the money to burn.

Mass effect 2: In addition to what snowfire said, Lair of the Shadow Broker is pretty damn good, especially if you choose to romance Liara. Arrival sets up ME3 and has an interesting stealth section but is otherwise skippable, also the ending is lame.

ME3: Leviathan is ok. Not really worth the purchase unless you're a diehard fan. Citadel is fucking awesome, buy it if you're at all interested.

[VySaika]

etrian odyssey 4- Just finished the first Maze, levels are L18-19. EO is a Wizardry type dungeon crawler. I'm enjoying the game overall, but I have some problems. Or see below:

The good: Gameplay, challenge- Class balance looks decent too. It's tough and gives you the option to play on easy if you don't want to deal with permadeath. I approve.
The bad: 'automap', writing- Writing is obvious. Game can't write worth a lick, and I doubt that it'll change. The writing is incredibly stock when it's there, which is not often.  It's not a big deal though, I don't play dungeon crawlers for plot. The automap is garbage. Oh goodie, It 'maps' things but you have to mark thing like doors, passages, etc.  That isn't gameplay, it is an annoying gimmick. Have an option for a full automap for those who want it, and let the pen and paper crowd fill it out.  You're forced to fill it out or memorize dungeons (You don't beat dungeons in one go), and as it's FPS you really need to fill out the map.
The ugly: The art. DEATH TO LOLIS.

Permadeath? What the fuck man, there's no permadeath in EO games. Someone dies, you can take them back to town and get them revived at the clinic(in this game, the clinic is at the inn) or just use a Nectar. You know, a consumable item that even in area 1 you should have several of.

Also, the point of the map is so you can put your own notes about shit on it with the little red arrow marker, as well as putting your marks about secret passages on it. If you're wanting an auto-map to even fill out the secret passages and shit for you, I'm just going to point and laugh.

[Fenrir]

The ME1 DLC is very Mako oriented. I wouldn't recommend it.
I found all three main ME2 DLC pretty good, Kasumi's is indeed very short though.


I didn't really find the one liners in ZHP very funny.
Anyway SRS POST. I'll talk some more about my dislike for ZHP's story (and the typical NIS story in general) because I realize I wasn't really clear.


ZHP didn't really percieve society as terrible. Most characters were awful at the beginning but Table Flipper's sheer qualities made them ultra nice and happy.

Note: I gave the main character the name "Table Flipper", one of the random selections NIS gave me. As it turns out it was an incredibly poor choice, because Table Flipper is always turning his other cheek.


Anyway ZHP is overly mean to Table Flipper, then it goes on lengths about Table Flipper's determination despite everything, and then it praises Table Flipper endlessly.

The repeated nature of this narration made me think of that autistic guy blaming himself constantly for ridiculously minor things, saying that he needs to change, saying that he is changing, saying that he has changed and it's awesome, over and over. (He's pretty brilliant otherwise but yeah, as expected, social interaction and self reflection are not his thing)

The game forces unreal expectations upon Table Flipper and constantly bullies him (he's supposed to be you, because silent main) Then Table Flipper fulfills these expectations because it's a videogame. But what about you, who just played a videogame for 20 hours? WHAT ABOUT YOU!!??? You saw the main character becoming awesome and lauded, but you're still the same guy that everybody finds pathetic!
- You find a new motive and are ready to tackle real life with newfound determination. But then the real world is a harsh place and you could fail for reasons entirely out of your control. And  you realize that you can't actually just throw yourself repetidely at something to succeed.
- You become depressed because you're still a failure and can't motivate yourself at all.
- You reject the game's dumbness entirely
- You just don't give a fuck (this is most likely)

ZHP is trying to say "Anyone can be awesome and special! Yay!" and instead is saying "What are you doing with your worthless life?" It could have made younger me depressed without me realizing it, and sent me in the worst possible direction compared to now.

ZHP:  It could be a danger to society that should be kept away from impressionable minds.

I give it a 6/10.



There's a good reason why ZHP is this insane.

ZHP begins with the world ending and literally no one giving a shit about it. Why? Because uh... It might be funny? And because we all saw the world being threatened in billion other medias anyway. BORING.

There's a distinct difference between comedies like the Simpsons and NIS games. NIS games are buried so deeply into a sub-culture of tropes of mangas, videogames and animes often self referencing and out-crazying each other that they don't have the slimmest connecion to the acts and emotions of people in real life.

They are nearly as abstract as the story of L block in Tetris. It's also why I very rarely find them interesting or genuinely funny.

[superaielman]

etrian odyssey 4- Just finished the first Maze, levels are L18-19. EO is a Wizardry type dungeon crawler. I'm enjoying the game overall, but I have some problems. Or see below:

The good: Gameplay, challenge- Class balance looks decent too. It's tough and gives you the option to play on easy if you don't want to deal with permadeath. I approve.
The bad: 'automap', writing- Writing is obvious. Game can't write worth a lick, and I doubt that it'll change. The writing is incredibly stock when it's there, which is not often.  It's not a big deal though, I don't play dungeon crawlers for plot. The automap is garbage. Oh goodie, It 'maps' things but you have to mark thing like doors, passages, etc.  That isn't gameplay, it is an annoying gimmick. Have an option for a full automap for those who want it, and let the pen and paper crowd fill it out.  You're forced to fill it out or memorize dungeons (You don't beat dungeons in one go), and as it's FPS you really need to fill out the map.
The ugly: The art. DEATH TO LOLIS.

Permadeath? What the fuck man, there's no permadeath in EO games. Someone dies, you can take them back to town and get them revived at the clinic(in this game, the clinic is at the inn) or just use a Nectar. You know, a consumable item that even in area 1 you should have several of.

Also, the point of the map is so you can put your own notes about shit on it with the little red arrow marker, as well as putting your marks about secret passages on it. If you're wanting an auto-map to even fill out the secret passages and shit for you, I'm just going to point and laugh.

The intro said that there was permadeath. *Shrug*  The map doesn't put things down ilike doors and item resource spaces, so yes. I have a serious problem with it.

[Grefter]

EO mapping is kind of a thing.  I honestly just grab a map online before I do the dungeon Super and it is kind of fun in a weird way sitting down and transcribing a map.  On the other hand I ostensibly do data entry for a living (doing less and less each year...), so the concept of copying one thing from one place to another being something I don't mind doing is not a shocking thing.  Suggest trying it for a level and see how you like it.

[Grefter]

WA:XF - So years after starting this pretty early on, playing the first few levels and going "FFT dudes should like this" and putting it down I have gone back to it.

Jailbreak was annoying because it was late and I just wanted it done and kept fucking up.  Mostly because the guards are slower than I thought and forgot they hadn't moved on yet.trololol walked into line of site.

Level after jailbreak?  This level is shitting me (on my first try).  I had Felius go Gadgeteer, others still in base class.  Tony sacrifices himself to distract the 3 dudes at the back.  Felius liberally throws around Heal Berries.

What does Clarissa do?  Clarissa misses.  Everything.  All the time.  Okay I will just check Rob Turn works on the big boss chick.  75%?  Score.  Miss. 

Hahaha random chance you card.

Lets try that again while she has raped the shit out of something.

More 75% chance.

Why you do this to me game?

You know what?  Fuck this.  Labrynthia has plinked the Fantastica over there down to 20 HP and you do 22 damage to her on your physical and I need to reposition you to actually get Rob turn off.

71% chance to hit.  Oh you want to miss that as well?



Okay.  Lets go for that Rob Turn again.

You know that one that is 75% chance to hit.

Yeah lets do that again.  Oh you missed.

[Pyro]

I think you pissed off the deity of Video Game RNG, Grefter.

Offer up more sacrifices in a Fire Emblem game or something.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I'd recommend using Levin's Cancel Strike to tie down the jail boss, higher odds running off a faster PC. Given positioning, Clarissa generally serves me better as a Gadgeteer in that map due to being far closer to the villagers so you can heal them. Keep Dandelion Shot OC at least for Sacrifice. Alternatively, if you have a spare booc or two, Elementalist both Levin and Clarissa and attempt a blitz on that side of the map.

[Grefter]

Levin couldn't get down there to cancel strike because he hadn't killed the dude that is all up in his grill.

You see he missed his opening Cancel Strike and then got hit and lost his Detonation.

Edit - at 74% hit rate just as an FYI.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Detonation is pretty useless anyway. Only applies to passives. You may just want to Blast the grunts as well, they're pretty frail.

Also, you should never ever get within ten miles of a 100-sided dice.

[Grefter]

Just keep it in mind when I bitch about FE in future.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Bosses that are not Bed of Chaos are not as lame as Bed of Chaos because they are not Bed of Chaos.

~

Mass Effect: Borrowing the trilogy from the elder sibling. I am running a soldier who shoots things. So naturally I immediately spent all my level-up bonuses on charisma/intimidate. Then I got lost for a couple hours on Babylon 5, except I don't think Babylon 5 had a strip club.

How much of the series DLC is worth caring about?

It is a canon fact that Babylon 5 had a holo-brothel. I believe it was in Red Sector.

[Shale]

I recommend playing a game that doesn't actively try to make you miserable.

[Grefter]

Like Shining Force 3 on hard?

[Ryogo]

I've mostly been playing a cross between Dota 2 and SMT: Soul Hackers. Managing my demon personalities is a helluva task most times. Rageworthy when they won't do what I tell them to do, or all of their abilities are the opposite of what they like to do.

On a side note, apparently my last post here was in March 2009. Holy crap, I didn't realize it had been so long. Trying to remember why the hell my avatar was set to Razor Ramon now.

Also, a big hello to everyone. It's been quite a while.

[Grefter]

Really been that long?  Because man, I saw name and avatar and went "OH yeah Ryogo, whats he been up to."

So apparently both of us have had busy lives the last 4 years without noticing...

[Ryogo]

That's what my last post's timestamp says. Damn.

Haha, I've been putting away at university still. A change of majors and me being a general 19-year old idiot kinda set me back a bit. I moved out of residence, got really busy with exams, and then I dunno what happened after that that made me not come back. It might have been embarrassment from having to drop out of mafia and feeling like a dick. I vaguely remember that. Oh well, back now. Forum hasn't changed any but the site went through a huge re-haul, I see.

Do you guys not do the tournaments on the main website anymore with the write-ups and stuff? If so, that makes me sad.

To keep this remotely on topic: As always, I'm buying too many games with not enough time to play them all. Soul Hackers is eating up most my time, though my friend gave me BioShock Infinite for my birthday and I've been on that non-stop these past couple days. Think I'm finally nearing the end though without going too spoiler-iffic. I've gotten all my powers, achievement progress for collecting items are nearing the end, etc. Outside of that, way too much Dota 2. Like, unhealthy amounts. I've got a problem.

[Sierra]

Mass Effect: Suddenly it's Blaster Master. The Mako handles with hilarious awkwardness. It's not quite Big Rigs, but it's pretty close. What's that you say, you want the Mako to ascend an eighty degree slope? Oh, you better believe we can do that, baby.

Apropos of nothing:

Shepard: "You do realize this place is falling apart?"
Random Krogan: "Yes, exhilarating, isn't it?"

I have had enough of you! The random planets you land on generally look pretty terrible, the same vague texture shaded different hues with nothing to distinguish them but sometimes mountains. And yet, the skies look pretty nice! Looking up and seeing this gigantic red sun taking up a third of the horizon, with actual effort applied to animating whorls of plasma? Stuff like that's pretty neat. I actually like poking around the star systems and reading planet descriptions and the like, I guess just because Space Exploration! is a very Cid diversion. It reminds me of playing Star Control 2, if planet landings were actively painful to undertake.

So guys I don't want to alarm you all but it turns out there might be some hazards in telling law enforcement officers that they are not in any way accountable to the law. I know, I didn't see it coming either! Shepard's position is comically absurd. So I'm an elite special agent who can take whatever measures I deem necessary to complete my assignments? Except I'm a famous special agent, so everybody knows I work above the law and they come to me with all their personal inconveniences because they know I won't be held accountable in any way if resolving them gets messy. And since this is an RPG I always say yes just to get that blinking quest flag out of my log.

Total thumbs-up for Ashley's girly armor.

[Shale]

Like Shining Force 3 on hard?

That's me using the game to hurt myself. I could set the game to normal whenever I want, but XF doesn't have a "good level design" mode.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

SRWD doesn't have a good level design mode either and you did what essentially amounts to a challenge playthrough of it anyway. >_>

[hinode]

SRWD has Big O though, which compensates for a lot of gameplay problems.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Or would if it was a better PC.

[Grefter]

XF has Edna Snow as a villain, I am okay with this.