What Games Are You Playing 2013?

[Luther Lansfeld]

Mass Effect - Just got Liara. That mission was pretty terrible. The car combat/controls are hilariously bad, a flashback to Suikoden IV sailing but worse because you can die. FAQed where to go because fuck that shit. After that... treat, I went into the base and fought the Krogan Battlemaster who I had trouble beating/was annoyed with due to the 45 second load time/cutscene. Decided to turn in game on ez mode for that fight. (Hooray for that option!) The boss fight was still about as fun as gouging my own eyes out to spite myself, but at least I didn't have to deal with the load time anymore.

Meanwhile, on my ship, Garrus honey, I know you're lonely, get into my bed. Not until the second game. Alas.

[AndrewRogue]

Man, I dunno what you're talking about. Mako has BEST controls.

*coughs*

[Luther Lansfeld]

I am told it is not in 2 except in DLC.

[superaielman]

Orcs Must Die!- Five skulled every map on Nightmare. I five skulled the DLC stages first. Triple Down was unpleasant but not too bad once I figured out the right weaver setup/got used to dealing with OMD1 heavies. Great gorge was just nuts. You only have two spots to guard, but one of those spots is a flier rift where they'll send 40 fliers in a wave at you.  IE: Use Autobalistas.  It took me some time to get used to OMD1. Namely, you drop three slots on magic and one on barricades and just build really simple kill boxes. I really hope a third game comes out, I adored both entries into the series. 

Also, the knowledge weaver is way, way better than I gave it credit for. Unless I'm using Guardians, it makes sense as the default weaver. It gives you a lot of coins thanks to spell magnification, and trap linkage means you have tons of MP to play with.

[AndrewRogue]

I am told it is not in 2 except in DLC.

One of the many reasons ME2 is the far superior game. >_>

[Luther Lansfeld]

Yeah, the main reason I haven't quit ME1 is because I want to play the others. If it was a standalone game I would have I think.

[Grefter]

Bioshock seems to work with a mix of linear time and multiple universe stuff.

Every choice plays out in all dimensions, but if there was never a choice then there is no branch.  So in the end Booker travels back to the Baptism and goes through with it but having reconciled who he is.  There is no Comstock because there is no Choice at the Baptism, there is no one to sell Anabelle to (and hopefully Booker doesn't gamble so much as to feel the need to do so).

Also Booker as an "okay" guy masking the Comstock connection from the player is pretty great.  You hear about some fucked up shit Comstock did before the Baptism.  Booker did those too.  He is not a nice man.  One more game positting that the answer to "What can change the nature of a man?" being Regret.

I don't doubt that at this point Booker is less horribly racist.  Being a drunken mess of an enforcer for hire to pay off gambling debts sure gave him some perspective on the plights of man.

Edit - Apologies for anyone that caught size tag fail edits.

Yahtzee described Mako like driving a fridge on a roller skate.  This is an apt description.  There is a physics bug that is useful though Ciatos.  Go to the Menu and you will lose all momentum.  This is far more useful than it sounds.

[Sierra]

Andy: I might be able to reconcile it if it was a revelation we had more time to digest, but getting it in the last sentence of the game speaks more of "Behold my twist ending and despair!" than of any truly necessary character development. There are some signs earlier in the game once you know to look for them, but nothing that really indicates how we got from moderately remorseful dog of capitalism to greedy, spiteful, omnicidal maniac, which is a problem. You can speculate about alternate reality Bookers and/or being led to a particular outcome via the method intended for Elizabeth that's described on that one voxophone, but I find this much too large a jump to be left to assumptions. Also, I just cannot make the chronology work in my head. Did Booker/Comstock really take just two years to go from relative nobody to having enough charisma and clout to build a floating city and populate it with a mass of zealous followers? Or did he start smaller and then go back in time to do it again more professionally and on a grander scale later and that's why Comstock looks so much older than Booker, so things just got worse and worse through repeated cycles? If hanging around Elizabeth for a couple years was what left him sterile, then why did he need to go back in time to get someone of his own bloodline in the first place?

You can approximate answers for much of this stuff, but it bugs me just because none of it feels necessary. Explicable character development needs to trump crazy plot twists. Admittedly I missed something like twenty voxophones, which annoys me greatly.

Other stuff that's belatedly occurred to me to mention now that I'm not frazzled from shooting dudes for six hours straight:

-It amuses me how casually they handwaved the whole "How does it fly?" question. Quantum mechanics? Good enough for me! Also quantum uncertainty as an explanation for ghosts, as good an explanation as any. Anytime there was an NPC around unsure of its vital status was some quality creepiness.

-Discussions about the grammatical implications of time travel? Aw yeah. You know, I can't help but wonder if Rosalind Lutece's brother is really just another her pulled from a reality where she happened to be male. He did just kind of turn up out of nowhere one day, as far as the public knows!

-Is it just me, or is enhanced Bucking Bronco + shotgun a totally broken combo? Any mob without heavy hitters can be completely neutralized that way.

-Last minute addition for Grefterpost: I came away with the impression that the Elizabeth horde genuinely drowned him at the end.

[Grefter]

You are spot on with Lutece's.

There was more to the ending after the credits.  Skipping them makes you miss it.  Yes it is a dick move.  Hit up YouTube.

Anything is a broke combo on trash dudes.

Edit - I would have to review the voxophone again but I thought it was the device and not the subject that caused the sterility.  So it is earlier in the timeline than the abduction.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Mass Effect- Spend my time doing quests and stuff. Got a bunch of money so I can give proper armor to my folks, as well as properly levelling up Tali and Garrus. I can't help it, I am too nice to be mean to people, I have lots of Paragon points now ^_^

[DjinnAndTonic]

Pokeymanz black: my friends are playing this so I finally opened the box. The plot actually exists which is more than I can say for any other Pokemon game I've played. Still not important to the enjoyment of the game. In fact it kinda detracts from the gym fights. It feels like "why am I fighting these sports guys when there's an evil organization to stop?" The addition of an actual threat to poke harmony feels weird and out of place in this already-flawed illogical world. It also makes me think about it for more than a fleeting moment and the house of cards collapses.

Really streamlined battles and social features though! Enjoying it more than soul silver.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Don't look anyone in the eye, they might try to take your money on the road. Children wandering the highways and caves, gyms which seem to contribute very little to society and wtf don't you people have jobs??? And let's not even get started on the ethics of putting big monsters in tiny balls because you have to catch them all. People in this world seem to have two stages of their life: collect monsters in balls and then sit in gyms or in obscure locations waiting for children to come fight them.

[Grefter]

<CIATOS> WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN THE CHILDREN MUGGING BUBBLE BURST.  YOU ARE STARING AT AN ECONOMIC CRISIS AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IT UNOVA.

[Meeplelard]

Pokeymanz black: my friends are playing this so I finally opened the box. The plot actually exists which is more than I can say for any other Pokemon game I've played. Still not important to the enjoyment of the game. In fact it kinda detracts from the gym fights. It feels like "why am I fighting these sports guys when there's an evil organization to stop?" The addition of an actual threat to poke harmony feels weird and out of place in this already-flawed illogical world. It also makes me think about it for more than a fleeting moment and the house of cards collapses.

Really streamlined battles and social features though! Enjoying it more than soul silver.

Oh please, every Pokemon game has a major crisis!

I mean, did you completely forget about EXPAND THE LANDMASS!?

And don't get me started on the implications of the world being ruled by Team Galactic.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I haven't played either of Gen 3 or Gen 4. But I was told that they were still basically plotless in the same vein as Gens 1 and 2, and FFTA2.

[AndrewRogue]

R/S/E had a pretty clear plot.

[Meeplelard]

Gen 3's plot is EXPAND THE LANDMASS vs. EXPAND THE SEA, and that accidentally triggers Doomsday requiring you to summon the Shenrong from DBZ to fix the entire issue.

Gen 4 is basically a Team comprised of Generic Evil Guy, Sailor Senshi and a bunch of Meeples trying to take over the world with EVIL REALITY BENDING POKEMON!  I think in Platinum, he summons both and causes Pokesatan to pop out and it tries to eat him or something.

[Nitori]

Super Mario 3D Land - 100%ed up to world 3, weird jumping but otherwise cool

[Fenrir]

Yes the Pokemon Ruby villain wants to expand the landmass because more landmass = more space to do things LOL. He succeeds, then realizes something like "OMG Water is actually important??"
Pokemon Sapphire Villain apparently doesn't give a fuck about Tuvalu

Star Ocean XF: I'm n ... 4-5?
Can't believe nobody objected to 3-11 being in the game. (that's the one where you have to use extremists to hook to pillars vs slimes with misery) I eventually finished it with Solo Extremist Layrinthia with 4 Peppy Acorns teleporting all over the place.
All four last classes are pretty great.
Emulator gets the same damage as Elementalist with more range + being able to use it after a turn is over.
High Cavalier is a bad class in itself but it gets Remain (And Quicken). I always use a Widespread Remain at the beginning of every fight. Intrude gets some use too (obviously less than in WA4)
Extremist is tanky and has Debilitate... Bosses were already terrible before, they didn't need that
Nightstalker is the obvious MVP with Secutor equipment and Accelerate. She burns all her VP before High Cavalier gets a second turn though.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I tend to solo that map with either Alexia (who has the temp status immunity move) or Labby, yeah. I despise it. (Not as much as the Clarissa solo map though.)

[Shale]

ShF3: Finished chapter 2. The last fight of the second chapter starts off with enemy soldiers sniping you from stationary cannons that are unevadable and have nigh-infinite range. Then you get a strike force onto the walls, kill them and take over the cannons, which you can use to kill the boss at your leisure because he can't actually reach the walls to fight back. And he has infinite reinforcements that you can snipe for cash, which is good because the shops stock weapons that were endgame-level in the other two scenarios and that shit is expensive. Ah, catharsis.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Does the game still have Egress?

[Shale]

And Angel Wings. That stage is basically farming Nirvana, yes.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Jesus -christ- that's degenerate.

[superaielman]

Mario Kart 7- FUCK OFF BLUE SHELLS