What games are you playing 2014?

[Sierra]

Things I learned from the Dark Souls artbook:

-Apparently at some point someone wanted the gargoyles in the iron golem fight to spit fire.
-Taurus demons have no eyes.
-The demon greataxe is actually a femur + hipbone still joined together by ligaments and shit. Ew.
-The Effigy Shield is 100% screaming Gigerface. I'd never actually looked at it before (because it sucks).

Not coincidentally, sorcerer NG+++ is go.

...

Well that was easy. Probably not even NG+++++++ would have much chance of standing up to a nigh inexhaustible stack of Crystal Soul Spears. (Admittedly I did call in help for Oreo Smalls and Bed of Chaos, because seriously fuck those guys). Two (non-invader) deaths with the only boss left being Manus: one running through New Londo post-4K to tell Ingway he's done a man's job sir (because that's just how I roll), carelessly get caught between two darkwraiths. Double darksword penetration. Also later I get killed by Demon Firesage somehow. Fucking really, Cid?

Seriously want to ram through a total co-op run before DS2 hits. Fudo, Fenrir?

~

So taking a bit of a break from FONV before jumping back to the DLC missions (because I just did those like a month ago on a different file). This one's Grefter's fault (all manifestations of my lack of impulse control are someone else's fault, you know?) I thought it was gonna be ages before I played this again, but reading BG1 posts, I start to wonder, "How well do monks work out in BG?" There aren't any NPC monks to try out, after all. So now I am discovering how well monks work out in BG. Running lawful good because gotta be lawful something, there's not much opportunity for creative evil in BG (like there basically isn't in any game without Obsidian slapped on it somewhere) and lawful neutral is for twits. Look forward to eventual epic punching match with Balthazar. Of course fiddled with stats until I could get 18 STR/DEX/CON. INT/WIS/CHA are pretty trash but come on you don't need any of those things to attain cosmic harmony. Punch, kick, it's all in the mind.

Intent for party lineup is to include no permanent companion that was part of my final group in the previous run. For BG1 so far this amounts to Jaheira (to run through the whole shebang), Khalid (because they're a package deal), Branwen (easiest cleric to get), Kivan (Grefter-recommended, ultimately Cid-approved), Safana (easiest non-Imoen thief to get). Pretty obviously my wish is to compile permanent party as early as possible. This leaves me pretty gimped on arcane magic, only having Khalid to provide any of it but he's a terrible mage and in practice the only spells he ever uses are Identify and occasionally Horror or Prot/Petrification...but that doesn't matter because archers. Holy shit you guys archers are fantastic in BG1. Why are they so good, man? Point the artillery at pretty much anything and it's dead in two seconds (well unless it has DR/magic or whatever the 2nd ed. name for that is).

Punching dudes is pretty rad, though the damage range gets so crazy. I can do like three damage or I can do 4-5x that from one hit to another, even excluding crits. The middling AC is also kind of a liability. I know it'll only get better as the game goes on, but still lagging consistently behind the people who can actually wear armor. It's a good thing I went for a ton of HP because MC eats up like all the party's healing. And god fuck poison in BG1, I wish that immunity kicked in at low enough levels to actually be useful. Still, there's something very satisfying about taking everything apart with your bare hands in such a loot-focused game. Also from the outset I already move like twice as fast as everyone else (which is actually a liability sometimes). I have to kill fast and bullets too slow.

Anyway, been more thorough clearing out wilderness areas than I was before. The game's less of an irritant going in expecting that so much of it will just be random wandering, and while the enemy respawn mechanic is still incredibly lame, understanding how it works makes this less of an issue. Now able to go to the city proper but instead contemplating the horrors of Durlag's basement. Oh, a couple notable things happened while I was out meandering:

-Uncarbonite Branwen and for a second it's like holy shit I just found my long-lost twin! Then the game thinks better of this plot twist and changes her portrait to someone else's, except in the status screen where it's actually a dude's portrait and even then it only takes up like a ninth of the frame for some reason. Um. I guess this is how the game deals with you selecting the portrait of someone you recruit later. That's nice work, Lou.

-Driz'zt shows up out of nowhere and he's all like hey guys help me kill this horde of hyena dudes! Then he runs around at Matrix speed one-shotting everything. Dude you did not need help at all. You were just kiting these losers around until you had someone to look all flash in front of, weren't you? Oh, look at me, I'm such a fancy badass! Fuck you and the apostrophe you rode in on.

-Wait, there's an NPC named Sendai in BG1? You're supposed to be a drow matron!

Clearly I haven't spent enough time in the past few months replaying games I've already played to death. I should round this out with more FFT and VP and SO3 and BoFV and SC2 and SOTN and augh

[superaielman]

I have lots of game suggestions for you Ciddy! (Note: Will not even jokingly suggest Eternal Sonata.)


The Walking Dead- Episode 4, just about to raid Crawford.

[Fudozukushi]

Seriously want to ram through a total co-op run before DS2 hits. Fudo, Fenrir?

I would totally be down for that if the PS3 weren't broke.  And I think I'm the only one with it for PC?

[Fenrir]

That would be cool but really too damn hard to set up. I don't have a lot of free time right now, we live in different time zones, and Dark Souls itself makes co-op a pain (Dark Souls 2 looks like it will make co-op easier though)

FF2:
"You see the Dreadnought's engine"
Yattaf : *raises arms, really excited* "Let's blow this thing up!"
Deader: "We can't. Not yet. We have to rescue the princess first."


I now get enough in battles to not bleed money even if constantly using spells and drinking ethers.
Really soloing this is the easiest challenge. You have no idea. Total opposite of Romancing SaGa 3.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Order of Eccelsia - Okay, this game is pretty rad. Enjoy the platforming and fighting mix and the game's bosses are so so mean. Reminds me a bit of a Metroidvania spliced with a Megaman X game (and I like it better than either overall).

[Grefter]

Enhanced Edition brings in a Monk (DLC in portable version), so they do fill that gap, he is just in Nashkel, so an easy pick up in that.

As a monk, I can't rec Shield Amulet nearly enough.  It is the secret to playing Kensai and is a good item for forever pretty much until you can start rocking Spirit Armor forever.  Bark Skin is a poor man's replacement.  Just sell and repurchase one you find to recharge it and have Armour on for nearly every fight.  It isn't Full Plate +1 but it will give a naked character a 6 point reduction in AC (and +2 to saves!) and it lasts ages.  Spirit Armor has shorter duration, but is like platemail and stronger save boost.  Those stacked with most armour buffs that Kensai and Monk get can easily make you have lower AC than your Full Plate and Shield fighters for a long time.  Carnival has a pendant for sale, but easy to find on a corpse somewhere.

Didn't need more than 16 Con on Monk.  2nd Ed strikes again.  You don't even start getting bonuses for exceptional Con until 20 because we couldn't have Dwarves regening 1 every 6 turns.  +1 save vs poison isn't a big deal (and I don't know if that  to was implemented in BG) and you have trouble hitting 20 Con.  On the other hand it does give you 2 point easy buffer for stats to sacrifice in BG2 plot sequences.  Mostly just saying 18 Charisma is a leisure, but it's a pretty nice one to have if you don't mind rolling for a while! which is pretty easy to do with characters not rolling for exceptional strength.

The damage range on your fists will matter less once you get Str manual from under Candlekeep so much to the point that I would be heading to BG and doing the main quest there ASAP and doing sides later (especially Durlag nonsense).

Poison in low level BG great, they are like highly random crits.  Roll to see if you got hit, roll to see if poison applies, roll to save lololllllolol got reapplied as soon as you drank antidote!!!  Now die just as much, not quite as fast but way more annoyingly.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Marvel Heroes is a pretty good game.  The company behind it is mostly people who left Blizzard North after Diablo 2, and it shows.  On the other hand, the IP they're using means less of the super-dark Diablo aesthetic and more of characters that actually pop on a background.  Also, a seven-key hotbar so you can use more than two abilities at a time.  The launch was pretty rough and so the metacritic score is kinda shit but kudos to them for sticking with it and making a lot of big improvements, because it's really a lot of fun now.  Iron Man plays kind of like a Vanguard from ME2, and Luke Cage can pull out cars to throw at people.  They also really capture the essence of Jean Grey in that you turn into Phoenix and everything dies when you look at it.

So that's what I've been playing.

[Fenrir]

Oh man they converted Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake theme to 8-bit and put in FF2?
And it's the "IT'S A TRAP" theme? Hahahah
Never recognized it before.

Why has no one used Ride of the Valkyries as a boss theme yet

[jsh357]

Oh man they converted Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake theme to 8-bit and put in FF2?
And it's the "IT'S A TRAP" theme? Hahahah
Never recognized it before.

Why has no one used Ride of the Valkyries as a boss theme yet

I'm pretty sure Little King's Story did.

[Sierra]

The damage range on your fists will matter less once you get Str manual from under Candlekeep so much to the point that I would be heading to BG and doing the main quest there ASAP and doing sides later (especially Durlag nonsense).

After way too many deaths to B1 boss and ultimately kiting them away one by one, that is exactly what I am doing (jesus and I entered that place two levels higher than last time). I forgot there actually was a STR manual in the game (dump stat for MC last time) or would've gone straight for it.

Not wholly decided on BG2 lineup. Mostly set: Jaheira, Nalia (because non-Edwin wizard), Jan (because non-fail Thief), Mazzy (because I need another heavy and I feel bad about leaving her in the pocket dimension last time), Unsure on last slot. I kind of want a more dedicated healer than Jaheira, but also a third person who can AC tank (I realize Anomen fits this description but Anomen is not fucking getting into my party). I am aware that Korgan is a fabulous engine of destruction, but avoiding ze evils this time and anyway drunken angry dwarf berserker is a majorly un-Cid archetype. Aerie can get the heals in but unfortunately she is also Aerie, and oh god I don't want to deal with 2x spell list at level 30 or whatever. I don't know. It's hard to resist grabbing Sarevok again because you guys he is so fucking metal (and I didn't manage his alignment shift last time).

[Grefter]

Mod change Aerie to a Cleric or something?  Find: Cleric since there is a few listed?  Viconia going through redemption arc is good if you haven't done it/not done it for a while.

CERND is a possible choice.  Maybe you should pursue that option.  Be one of the few, the many, the bored because Cernd is laaaaaaaame.  (Related, google for "Shapeshifter Baldur's Gate" brings up a thread asking if Shapeshifter has been fixed and is just a page long argument about the value of Jaheira.  Cernd so boring people can't even talk about him for 3 posts).  I would seriously think about turning him into a Totemic Druid, which is still not a great class, but is way more fun than Shapeshitters and one that I suspect you haven't played with before.

Edit - And if you don't use Mazzy this time I will cut you.

[Sierra]

I used Viconia last time. In fact, I've always used Viconia. It is kind of a struggle not to since she's plainly the best at her particular niche. And I couldn't entertain using Cernd even as a joke. I will probably just not talk to him and leave him in his cell if the quest lets you do that. [/Lawful Good]

I had 50,000 gold and nothing of consequence to buy with it, so I bought all the magic arrows in Baldur's Gate. I will probably still keep using regular arrows because oh my god you guys I might run out of the good stuff I only have like 3,000 +2 arrows on hand. Still this does present me with a slightly different plan for Sarevok than last time: 3x hasted archer spamming Fireball arrows because fuck you, game.

Oh, I forgot this bit. You're doing this fetchquest chain to get yourself cured of lethal poison, right? You need to get this book from a priest. Tell him you're dying and he's all like nah dude, pull the other one, it has got bells on it. So instead you offer him 500 gold and he goes, "500 gold?! Holy shit, you really are desperate!" I don't understand D&D economics.

[Grefter]

It is a Charisma check I believe, but yes, the game treats gold like it is a hard to get thing.  1000 gold pieces for Akheg plate?  Get before going to Nashkel only after a few side bits.  Rare gem?  7 gold.  Worth taking up an inventory slot.

Seriously try out Cernd.  He is less annoying than Aerie right up until you find out about child abandonment.  At least you hear about him abandoning his kid instead of hearing all about everyone everywhere forever abandoning Aerie every five minutes.  Especially if you get in a relationship.  Boring and class you never touched before is better than clingy and boring class to play if you don't handle BG spellcasting.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Xenogears: hour 2, completed the Blackmoon Forest.

This is pretty much distilled Xenogears. The forest is a short dungeon that in most games would probably lack 10 minutes, 15 tops. Here it takes the entire hour because the game insists on lots and lots of writing. (I'm observing rather than complaining.) We meet Elly, who certainly isn't the normal run-of-the-mill RPG love interest, and we get scenes of every pair of the three main characters interacting. There's a Fei dream scene which is kind of weird; Sophia is in it so I assume it's something Lacan-related but I don't recall specifically why this scene is here at this point.

Best scene of the hour is probably the one between Fei and Elly in which Fei breaks down about how he destroyed his village and foists the blame onto others, then Elly (who is of course responsible, which we learn just a few minutes later if we couldn't figure this out) lays into him and calls him a coward for not taking more of the blame himself. We then see her lines a second time spliced with some memories of her own bloody past. Really lets you know there's going to be interesting character stuff here.

Least favourite scene of the hour is probably Elly getting DiD'd twice in a row. It's okay in isolation; shows Fei still cares about people and has things that motivate him despite being down, but it's still an annoying cliche.

Also man, Citan talks a lot when he's on-screen. He makes some crack about this at some point so at least he/the writers are self-aware! I wouldn't be surprised if he has the most lines in the game despite being only the #3 character for importance. Also loved his interaction with Elly: our first look at Citan, international man of mystery.

Also a dinosaur got punched in the face by a robot. I could totally have taken it without the robot; it would just have taken a while!

[Grefter]

Also man, Citan talks a lot when he's on-screen. He makes some crack about this at some point so at least he/the writers are self-aware! I wouldn't be surprised if he has the most lines in the game despite being only the #3 character for importance. Also loved his interaction with Elly: our first look at Citan, international man of mystery.

We must have played different Xenogears games.  I thought it was a really aggressive and interesting take on storytelling to make the POV character the boring B Plot character with the shitty love story while your hero disappears for a chunk of the game.

An interesting experiment, but XG would have benefited from having a more traditional storytelling structure of the spy stories that are its roots.  It would have been interesting seeing the take on a James Bond character who is a scientist and a married man (to another brilliant scientist!) instead of bogging it down with dudes that hates Gears and fighting.

[superaielman]

The Walking Dead- Finished Season 1. Episode 5 was about what you'd expect. I marathoned this (I stopped at the event where Mark gets shot for the longest time and finished the rest in about a week). Good stuff.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

The Walking Dead- Finished Season 1. Episode 5 was about what you'd expect. I marathoned this (I stopped at the event where Mark gets shot for the longest time and finished the rest in about a week). Good stuff.

Did you realize you could stop choking the guy?  Because the thought of not killing him didn't even cross my mind.

[SnowFire]

Least favourite scene of the hour is probably Elly getting DiD'd twice in a row. It's okay in isolation; shows Fei still cares about people and has things that motivate him despite being down, but it's still an annoying cliche.

Pretty much, although my complaint is a little different.  The Fei / Elly love story hits a few too many cliched let's-be-forced-to-fall-in-love situations for my tastes, the forest arc damsel-in-distressing being part of it.  To back up a second, some dude tossing Rohypnol into someone's drink at a bar is like a negative 5 out of 10 on the romance scale.  The same is usually true with your average fantasy love potion, although this sometimes gets played straight.  Anyway, if you have a "destined" romance, it's important that the story actually sells me on the romance part and doesn't have "destiny" just play the part of a love potion.  XG gets perilously close to "and someone spiked Fei & Elly's drinks and now they're just totally hot for each other because" combined with repeated "stuck on a desert island / boat together because the plot said so" parts.  I still can't complain TOO much because your average VG romance is even worse, and both Fei & Elly end up good characters, and there are some nice touches when not being cliched (talking Elly out of bloodthirsty drug-induced rage is a tad unbelievable but is sweet) so I'll cut XG some slack.

If I'd been in charge, I'd have eased off on the cliche situations and had the destiny elements be more limited to straight "knows your name already" and less "instantly sharing secrets with each other because of our Speshul Connection."

[superaielman]

Rob: Why would I stop choking him? I will get 400 days at some point (Looks interesting).  Also I left the arm in episode 5. I don't think it wouldn't made a difference?

[AAA]

It doesn't.

Don't replay TWD, the illusion of your choices actually mattering is paper thin.

[superaielman]

I was aware of that, just was wondering if the arm choice mattered at all. I can't imagine how long it would have taken to make TWD with several true branches (Going off with Lilly for one). The only way that type of pathing could work would be in a pure text based game, and even then it'd still be a metric ton of writing.

[Grefter]

FeixElly OTP

You mean it is kind of creepy that they have an inexplicable predisposition to falling in love with each other?  I agree completely.

Replay it if you enjoy seeing execution of minor differences.  Don't replay it if you have some kind of attachment to the purity of a personal story.    I think outright never replaying stuff like that is the same stance as refusing to read a mystery novel again or not watching something like Memento a second time because you know the twist.  It is a different experience the next time, especially if you watch things for the craft as well as the raw experience the first time through.

[AndrewRogue]

Dark Souls

With Dark Souls 2 right around the corner, the only logical answer is to finally replay Dark Souls since I hadn't actually done a second full play of it. Grabbed the Artorias of the Abyss DLC (another thing I'd been meaning to do, fuck you Sony store).

Forgot how quick the early game flows if you know what you're doing. Despite being fairly rusty, the progress of Harkan has been pretty smooth. Cleared up to Bell Gargoyles and unlocked the path down to the Lower Undead Burg. Decided to do a spellsword style build using thrusting swords/shields since my previous play was all Zweinhander all the time.

Magic is pretty awesome. Rapier is taking a bit of getting used to. Rescued Rickert and grabbed Heavy Soul Arrow and Enchant Weapon.

Think I'm gonna track my deaths just for kicks. Didn't think about it until after last night, so these are a bit hazy.

1: Missed the platform I was trying to roll down to.
2: Landed on the aforementioned platform, only to remember that was the tunnel where the Black Knight hung out.
3: Trying to practice parries against the Hollow Warriors in the Taurus Demon area.
4: Aggro'd the Balder Knights in the chapel and decided to take the fight outside because of the channeler. Forgot the Hollows outside were still alive.
5: Was trying to get from point A to point B, forgot there'd be rats at the bottom of the ladder. Whoops.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Rob: Why would I stop choking him? I will get 400 days at some point (Looks interesting).  Also I left the arm in episode 5. I don't think it wouldn't made a difference?

Well, I didn't realize it at the time but watching it, it's really obvious that he's completely unconscious and not moving at all.  Of course the thought of him walking out of the room alive didn't even cross my mind at the time, which is a testament to how mad the game made me at him.

400 Days is actually the one chapter that I found gets more interesting on a second playthrough.  It's a series of vignettes that interweave in ways that are sometimes obvious but sometimes subtle, and you won't notice all of them unless you play it a second time and pay really close attention to the environment.

Not that it's not an enjoyable experience the first time, but they were clearly looking at doing something different with 400 Days.

[Sierra]

Magic is pretty awesome. Rapier is taking a bit of getting used to. Rescued Rickert and grabbed Heavy Soul Arrow and Enchant Weapon.

If you're lucky enough to get a Balder Side Sword drop, it is an amazingly good match for weapon enchanter build. Basically any high-DEX light sword with that setup is optimal melee DPS in Dark Souls (well until you hit AotA where everything laughs at multi-element offense).

~

Seriously try out Cernd.  He is less annoying than Aerie right up until you find out about child abandonment.  At least you hear about him abandoning his kid instead of hearing all about everyone everywhere forever abandoning Aerie every five minutes.  Especially if you get in a relationship.  Boring and class you never touched before is better than clingy and boring class to play if you don't handle BG spellcasting.

Alright, I'll give it a shot, geez. But I can't make any promises about what I'll do once I get to ToB!

Anyway, trial detonation arrow barrage carried out on goons at top of Iron Throne building. It's so beautiful. 24d6 before anyone could even cast a spell or move to melee -> mop-up operation. Of course, I can't go hog wild with these things because there's a finite supply, but somehow I imagine 60x hasted Fireball is more than I'll need to muscle through the game's bitchier battles.

19 strength! Why is there even fractional strength in the first place 2nd ed. I don't get you at all.

BG1's dream sequences are sooooo booorrriiiing. I know I can skip them, but since I have like no recollection of them at all I figure I should let them run and see if that was just me being prematurely senile or what. Wander off to do laundry or something within five seconds every time.