What Games Are You Playing 2013?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Edit - just because he has seen you naked doesn't mean he is romantically into you Snow.  No he isn't going to call and yes this is why you are a slut.

Of course he's not going to call, men give me their numbers, not the opposite. Also, I expect better from you than slutshaming.

EDIT:



grefter.tif

[Sierra]

Dark Souls - Well, I figured out pretty quickly this is the type of game I'd need to FAQ to enjoy, fortunately we live in an era where such things are possible! The setting also feels very bland so far - I suspect the underuse of music is to blame - which is not something I expected to say of a game where you start off as an undead. Otherwise, the game seems like it will be fun once I get into it, but I haven't reached that point yet. It really does remind me of Zelda 2.

I'm just going to suggest one thing I should've started doing way earlier than I did: read item descriptions. Most of the stuff I was baffled by and looked up online (principally smithing) is right there in the descriptions of the relevant items. Basically everything of mechanical importance is genuinely documented in-game, there just...isn't necessarily a neon arrow pointing to it all. Past the tutorial zone, they expect you to put the pieces together yourself, but at least they give you enough to work with as far as gameplay is concerned. The real FAQ-bait in Dark Souls is NPC arcs.

How far are you/what class are you running? (Fair warning: I have played this game far more than is sane or healthy, have it functionally memorized, and will sperge on about it endlessly if given cause to do so.)

[Dark Holy Elf]

Warrior, and currently doing the Undead Burg (so, pretty early). Feel free to sperge all you want, I don't really care about spoilers.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

FE13 - Chapter 6, AKA Battle Before Dawn for Dummies. I'm starting to regret picking Kellam over Stahl.

[Niu]

*looks up

MY EEEEYYYYEEEEEZZZZZ!!!!!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Sexy pic Snow.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I've been playing Sleeping Dogs.  It's a lot of fun.  Kind of GTA with the melee combat of Arkham City with a plot based on Hong Kong crime thrillers.  Definitely worth the $10 I spent on it.  I think the two different experience meters that measure your performance are an interesting mechanic; basically you have "triad" XP that comes from wrecking people's shit and busting shit up, and "cop" XP that starts out full and goes down in missions as you do things like run over fire hydrants, mow down pedestrians in your car, or shoot a cop in the face for getting up in your business.  Each type of XP is linked to different skill upgrade trees.  Since the premise of the game is "you are an undercover cop deep with the Triads" it makes for an interesting mechanic, since you are motivated to try and not do things like run down people or spray gunfire through a crowded mall, but you DO want to beat the shit out of as many enemy gangsters as possible.

Anyway Eidos games seem to go on Steam sale a lot so it's probably worth picking up next time it goes on sale.

[Dark Holy Elf]

God Hand - Beat this. Finished with exactly the same 1.7 ranking as last time, which is disappointing (only 73 resets instead of 90, at least!), but I was really bad/rusty when I picked this game up again, and it wasn't until chapter 5 that I felt like I really found my groove. Flipside, once I found it, I really found it, for the most part. I had lots of trouble with the final battle my first time but this time it was fairly straightforward.

Dark Souls - Beat Tauros Demon. Initially imposing but I came back with a reinforced +2 weapon and he wasn't too bad. Seems like bosses in this game appear more imposing than they are. Starting to get into the swings of things with combat, I just have to remind myself that I'm not playing God Hand or Devil May Cry or Kid Icarus and that dodging doesn't work as well as blocking in many cases. The FAQ-bait nature of the game continues though, as I get to a dragon who seems to just knock me back off the bridge and I assume I'm not supposed to go that way yet. Check FAQ, apparently I am, okay. I can see how I'd have figured that out myself by fucking around, but I doubt I'd have had the patience to fuck around with him since he's like ten minutes away from the nearest bonfire. This is more a "I'm not 15 any more" observation than an actual criticism, mind.

Idly, is there any way to actually pause this game? I haven't found one. It's not a game-breaker since enemies don't stalk you until you wake them up, but it feels like an annoying oversight. Real life calls sometimes, punishing you for that is fake difficulty.

[AndrewRogue]

Don't think so. Artifact effect of online play, sadly.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

The FAQ-bait nature of the game continues though, as I get to a dragon who seems to just knock me back off the bridge and I assume I'm not supposed to go that way yet. Check FAQ, apparently I am, okay. I can see how I'd have figured that out myself by fucking around, but I doubt I'd have had the patience to fuck around with him since he's like ten minutes away from the nearest bonfire. This is more a "I'm not 15 any more" observation than an actual criticism, mind.

That you don't think obtuse game design is a valid criticism says so much about you.

[Dark Holy Elf]

It's obviously a design intent. I'm not sure what I think of it personally in this case but it's certainly not something which can brushed off as strictly good or bad.

I'm surprised at this comment coming from you, since I always thought you were of the school of thought that games hold your hand too much.

[Captain K.]

You're not allowed to go to the bathroom while playing Dark Souls.  Ever.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

It's obviously a design intent. I'm not sure what I think of it personally in this case but it's certainly not something which can brushed off as strictly good or bad.

I'm surprised at this comment coming from you, since I always thought you were of the school of thought that games hold your hand too much.

I hate mandatory tutorials and lack of player agency.  I'm 100% okay with making the game more convenient for the player.  I like being able to save my game anywhere at any time rather than relying on save points, for example.  A gating mechanic being really obtuse which also requires a large amount of backtracking to reach is a time sink I'm not okay with.

Also the pause thing is fucking awful.  If I wanted a game that required me to live by its timetable I'd be in a raiding guild in WoW.

[Sierra]

Dark Souls - Beat Tauros Demon. Initially imposing but I came back with a reinforced +2 weapon and he wasn't too bad. Seems like bosses in this game appear more imposing than they are.

Yes. Fear is the mindkiller, etcetera. I thought you couldn't actually upgrade weapons until after killing Taurus Demon and getting to Undead Parish, though? Confusion. (Incidentally, the expected approach to that fight is "Try a plunging attack.")

dodging doesn't work as well as blocking in many cases.

Dodging > blocking > raw defense. Or at least that's been my experience. Admittedly proper dodging requires some knowledge of enemy attack patterns, so block -> poke is a pretty reliable strategy early on.

The FAQ-bait nature of the game continues though, as I get to a dragon who seems to just knock me back off the bridge and I assume I'm not supposed to go that way yet. Check FAQ, apparently I am, okay. I can see how I'd have figured that out myself by fucking around, but I doubt I'd have had the patience to fuck around with him since he's like ten minutes away from the nearest bonfire.

What, the bridge wyvern? There's a shortcut to the Undead Burg bonfire in the middle of the bridge.

And yeah, lack of pause is a side effect of the game being meant to be played online, was always my assumption. Wouldn't have killed them to make it an option for offline mode at least. I am guessing they figured no that ruins immersion. In practice it only matters if you're in the middle of a fight.

[Dark Holy Elf]

You can upgrade weapons just by heading down the stairs from the starting Firelink Shrine bonfire, down an elevator to a place with a bunch of defenseless undead until you find some blacksmith in a prison cell (who apparently is fine with doing blacksmithing there...?).

Yes, I'm aware of that "shortcut" (isn't it the only way to get to the Undead Parish? Certainly the only one I've found), but to get to it you need to withstand an attack from the dragon who at first glance I assumed was a roadblock.

Dodging eats up a heck of a lot of stamina and what it does to the camera has gotten me into trouble if I'm planning to do anything after it besides running away. I dunno, guess I need to practice at it more.

[Sierra]

...Man, I totally forgot Rickert existed. Shows how often I bother with magic weapons.

Pretty sure the dragon only flies down the first time you set foot on the bridge. If he does that every time...well, if you're quick, you can turn back at the first scorchmark and run back to shelter just before he breathes fire (which of course requires advance knowledge that he's coming, so yes, he's kind of a dick move). Once he's on the other side you can run to the midpoint and go down the stairs to trigger the bonfire shortcut/take a non-dragon path to the Undead Parish. Running all the way across the bridge in the face of dragonfire isn't strictly necessary, although there are some attractive prizes for doing so. If you can bait him down onto the bridge (shooting an arrow/just waiting thirty seconds or so usually does it) it's actually possible to run past him before he manages to get a bead on you.

[AndrewRogue]

The dragon will, theoretically, jump down everytime.

You just have enough time to sprint/roll for the stairwell without getting fried.

[Meeplelard]

FE5: FINALLY REACHED THE SORTIE SCREEN SCRWE YOU!

...that said, I have finished another game awhile back, before FE13 even, and thus I must POST ABOUT IT IN ABRIDGED MANNER TO ANNOY EVERYONE!!!


...or so I wanted, but it seems I don't remember enough of the game's character names, plot progression, etc. and there aren't any good guides of it so...brief review?

Gravity Rush:  Fun little game that's kind of exactly what I needed to play.  It's different, outside of my norm, gimmicky, and not overly long, so yeah.  It's not amazing or anything, and has some question design decisions (moving the Vita during plot scenes screws the pictures, text bubbles take some time to spawn in NON-loading manners, so you can easily miss plot scenes, controls on Gravity Slide...), but it's fun enough and kind of addicting.

Characters and plot are fun enough too.  Kat's a fun amnesiac whose not really emo about it...hell, she's actually extremely "^_^" if you know what I mean.  Raven, the Shonen-Rival (even though they're both magical girls...just shut up and go with it) is more like-able than expected because the "rivalry" is short lived, and the Kat's actually willing to work together with Raven a lot, and Raven submits to the partnership earlier than expected.  Syd is the "incompetent male side-kick" that these Female Protagonist games have (though he's nowhere near as good as Luka from Bayonetta), and the Made UP Language just helps sell the unique setting.

One thing I don't like though is the aesthetic.  They have a nice, cool world idea, and...the color scheme is basically just a lot of brown, red and black.  Brown being anything urban, Black being VOID, and Red being EVIL COSMIC HORROR NEVI STUFF.  It gets tiring and fast. 


In any event, unique little game and I'm glad I played it.  I just needed SOME Variation between FEs, DMCs, etc., and this game gave me just that, so I could recover before a potential burn out.  Also, it provided the only interesting DLC character for PSABR, given Kat's Gravity gimmick is unique, cool design, and fun character (as opposed to...two more guys with guns and another God of War character no one wanted...)

[Grefter]

All that discussion of dragon dicks in Dark Souls and no one mentioned that the truely dick part of it is that it is a "You played Demons Soul right?  Because remember that bit in the linear game where we did this?  Well here we did it in a far less linear more free roam style game.  What do you mean you didn't see it coming?" thing.

Even further baffled by this game with how much Elf seems to be... not hating it (? don't want to presume "like" at this point).

[Dark Holy Elf]

I'm pretty sure I'd be hating it without FAQs, for what it's worth!

[Grefter]

Should I be happy that you understand so well the value that kind of foreknowledge can bring a game or disappointed that you are finding any joy and making me think about Dark Souls again?  Not sure.

[Fenrir]

I now can't access this site (and only this site) with my connexion. Dunno where that comes from. I'll probably have to post a lot less from now on because of this.


Dark Souls pause: Start -> Left -> Quit, or just turning off the console.
Continuing will put you right back to where you were before.
I don't know what happens if you do that during a boss fight. Probably Not Good Things.

The uncertainty was an important part of the game for me, as it felt challenging in an interesting way. But I like my games not necessarily being very clear about everything. (I totally had to faq to get to the undead burg, which I'm really ashamed of now. I just kept dying to skeletons)


FF4 TAY:
MURDERED Shiva and Ramuh.
I didn't like the gathering quest at all, but the stuff on the moon is better. Like regular FF4, enemies stop being nice around the moon. I had to change my plans for a fully gimped party full of crappy ninjas.
At this point the game gives one line to each character in the team during every event, just like in Golden Sun, just so that you feel your favourite character being there actually matters (It is an horrible idea in practice)
And for some reason you can put brainwashed Cecil in the team. THis is awesome. Every character usually says something generic like "What is going on??" or "This power...!" while brainwashed Cecil only ever grunts. Priceless. Best lines the game.

Party:
- Cecil: His stats are pathetic. But good equipment + Cover makes him solid defensively. He's a better, more defense oriented Cid right now. Cid -> -_-
- Edward: Sings shit.
- Porom: Rosa - . Hurray. I use her as a pure buffer in battle, as Edward handles all the healing. Haste/slow are too valuable to not use a white mage at all.
- Palom: Bio on everything.
- Yang: I seriously needed at least one of the game's ridiculous physical powerhouses.


P3 Yattaf solo:
- Akihiko: "I heard you've seen Junpei lately..."
- Yattaf: "What? Junpei?? Hahah, don't get the wrong idea"
- Akihiko: "Ok, I trust you"
*Later that night, wild Shinjiro/Yattaf sex*

El Cid I only just realized that your avatar is an older Mitsuru.


Hermit: Pure lightning/pierc boss = Walled by Cu Chulainn. Everything about Hermit is terrible anyway. I used Auto battle and the Vita got into screensaving mode twice. That's how easy it was.

Arcane Turret x 3:
They have defense lowering, strike attacks, Mind Charge + Ziodyne, and Eerie Sound which might as well be a wasted turn. They're weak against ice.
These tanks are durable and the damage quickly adds up; Yattaf cannot possibly win a straight slugfst.
I tried going in with a Koumokuten with Strike Res, Counterstrike, Diaram, Cruel attack (Inflicts a ton of damage on downed enemies) + A bufu card, and evade trike equipment.
Unfortunately Bufu does no damage and turrets are lethal enough that I had to heal 4 turns out of 5. Last time, I was down to one turret when it pulled an Agidyne ouf of nowhere, killing Yattaf in one hit.

New strategy: Same as the gigas pretty much. I "grinded" up to level 47 (which took a grand total of one fight against colored enemis with an exp up card) which gave me access to Parvati, AKA Ice Goddess.
Then, Bufula on one tank *extra turn* Bufula on another *extra turn* Mabufula *extra turn* Mabufula. At this point everybody is dizzy, so Yattaf can switch to Koumokuten and bring one to low HPs with Cruel attack. At this point Yattaf could go back to step 1 having only lost 100 Hps out of 400 or so.

Level: 47

[Fudozukushi]

Quitting during a boss fight just sets you outside the door in your latest shape.

[Sierra]

El Cid I only just realized that your avatar is an older Mitsuru.

P4A Mitsuru, yes.

And in fairness to the dragon bit, the bridge is covered with scorchmarks. You should be able to guess something's up.

[Grefter]

... fairness ... Dark Souls ...

Nope.

ToG fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff - Side questan.  I fought 3 wyverns in the Valkines.  The wind one I beat on Normal in 7 minutes.  The fire won I beat in 26 minutes on Easy, the Water one I beat in 7 minutes on easy. 

What the fucking fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.  The curve on those fights is completely shit and suck a bag full of dicks.