What games are you playing 2014?

[Clear Tranquil]

Customization isn't as bad if you play as Colette and steal some L3 EX Gems from the first Sword Dancer to unlock some Compound EX Skills for characters from early. Mainly helps well Colette with early access to Life + Spirit Up (always works on bosses!) Cross Counter, Pow Hammer counter, Super Guard, EXP plus, and the likes but also other decent stuff like Hard Hit and Nimble Mage for Raine and actually well Kratos can get Super Blast from it, forgot about that, hmmm he's probably the best off then. Titles you can get good growth from for example from using Colette's Little Pickpocket  from as early as L10 (by unlocking from using Item Thief over and over then running away), if she's using that the whole game she can give Presea a run for her money, and I believe Lloyd gets some solid title options too~ Equipment customization isn't extensive or anything, fairly simply really but I actually preferred that over the huge work/effort/time sink that is Tales of Graces dualize system, and you can get materials earlier than usual by using Colette's steal and build up cash by stealing/selling Black Silvers from Balacruf Museum so. Kind of Tales of Obscura though~

[Luther Lansfeld]

Super Mario World 2 - Kamek is awesome. Why isn't he in Mario Kart? Anyway, just beat the minifortress of World 2. World 2-1 was actually pretty tough, but the next three weren't too bad.

[Meeplelard]

Super Mario World 2 - Kamek is awesome. Why isn't he in Mario Kart? Anyway, just beat the minifortress of World 2. World 2-1 was actually pretty tough, but the next three weren't too bad.

I've seriously been wondering the same thing forever.  You'd think a recurring Mario villain/henchman, who is also effectively the Arch Nemesis of Yoshi, who is plenty memorable, would get into Mario Spin Offs regularly.  Certainly a better idea than the likes of BABY DAISY or a bunch of generic mooks we keep getting (I don't mean the likes of Koopa or Shy Guy; they're at least notable, iconic characters.  I mean like some of those Super Mario Sunshine one shots they tried to make popular)

[Luther Lansfeld]

need DLC kamek

let's do it nintendo

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Child of Light - Holy -shit- is this game beautiful.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Re child of light:
Seriously I want to see another game that uses this graphics engine. And battle system. Basically I'm saying Ubisoft take my money.

[Cotigo]

Dark Souls: Beat Sen's fortress. Iron Giant for easiest boss in the game. I didn't even get hit.

Used my last payday to ascend my Pyro fist and now I am a fiery god of death. Very little takes more than two hits of Great Combustion, and a lot of things take only two from regular combustion. Now running two copies of combustion and I never have to worry about spell charges, will probably keep this up until I can upgrade my weapon to Lightning. Its damage is shit now with my stats. Current loadout is Toxic Mist/Fire Orb/Combustion/Great Combustion/Combustion, taking out the second combustion and Toxic Mist for Great Chaos Fireball for bosses and such. Stopped running Firestorm because even with the wolf ring I always, without fail, get knocked out of the cast anytime it would be a good skill to use. Maybe this is a better skill for Dex Pyro.

Doing a lot of PVP in the Forest Protector Covenant. Most people are goons trying to get in at a low level and die easily... until I run into the handful of people who are actually good at PVP who just instantly stab me in the back as soon as I try to cast anything. Oy. Good thing most pubbies are mooks.  Forest Covenant PVP, as it turns out, is a good way to get studying done, as an aside. I spend so much time idling that I may as well do something else while I wait.

Onto Anor Londo next. Already at the second bonfire. If the cathedral area is any indication of the stage's design MO I am going to fucking hate this place. Pretty, though.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Mega Man X8 - Playing this on hard mode primarily as Zero (I also use Axl, but only as a switch-in PC, and in particular he has no health upgrades). Mostly an interesting experiment since I don't use Zero nearly as much as the other two. Unsurprisingly there are some things he does well even if I think he's overall the worst. His spear weapon (which sadly includes Gigavolt Man'o'war's stage as a prerequisite... ugh) is actually really good and I've really used it much before.

Anyway, currently dying repeatedly to the final boss chain, the true Mega Man Xperience.


Fire Emblem Awakening - Lunatic Mode. Just beat chapter 20! Also cleared all the paralogues I've opened to this point, although to be fair that isn't very many (Morgan, Cynthia, Yarne, Tiki). This mode's pretty hard, yo.


Suikoden Tactics - I started this in my latest attempt to play random PS2 RPGsI missed which I've always meant to play. It's kinda slow and dull so far. And dear god the voice acting is bad. Not all of it, but enough. Game's not as easy as I was expecting (Rita got OHKOed on her joining map, how wonderful) although obviously still the easiest thing I am playing at the moment.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Challenge Mode for Suikoden Tactics: use Pablo on every map and keep him from getting killed! Might make it on par with FE lunatic mode. Dear god is he bad.

[Fenrir]

Zenny I hope you're using the "Well what is it?" emote often.
If you restart AGAIN I really strongly recommend the Great Club. One of the most fun weapon in the game for sure and you can grab it right away.


Soul Sacrifice Delta: I bought the expansion pack for a game I only liked a bit, because there's all that new lore, man.
I think I might actually like all the lore in this game more than Lost Odyssey's dreams, for all that there's less emotional impact.

[NotMiki]

Onto Anor Londo next. Already at the second bonfire. If the cathedral area is any indication of the stage's design MO I am going to fucking hate this place.

You poor, poor bastard.

[Cotigo]

Hey speak of the devil:

Dark Souls: FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.

Seriously, like 15 goddamn deaths on that ONE PART and then 0 for the rest of the Anor Londo run. Like, WTF am I supposed to do there? (Rhetorical question, I looked it up after the fact.) I only finally got past the archers because of luck. When I got between them their arrows synced up and I could dodge both in a single roll, then the archer I approach switched to his sword and killed himself (fun fact: In the PC version, they fixed this for the most part. Blighttown is actually kind of annoying because enemies don't just kill themselves... thank god they didn't fix it here.)

Ornstein and Smaugh were easy enough, but admittedly I summoned the Sunbro so Smaugh's second form rarely ever focused on me.

Lotec... Laurtrec... L.... Goldboy ran straight into two Great Chaos Fireballs and that went about as well for him as you would expect.

Got my Lightning Halberd and it still sucks compared to my pyro fist but it is passable secondary damage now. Toxic Mist is kind of useless when I'm not PVPing. Speaking of PVP, apparently there is a glitch where if you walk backwards and attack from the front it counts as a backstab. This is stupid and I hope they fixed it in Dark Souls 2. Fortunately for every asshole who has figured this out there are 20 mooks who don't know what they're doing so yeah. Gonna switch from Forest Protector to Darkmoon as soon as I can since I imagine there is more PVP to be had there than in the forest.

Downgraded the Occult club per Fenrir's suggestion and taking on the catacombs next. I tried it once without, and admittedly it was on my 2nd run through, but I don't even want to bother with regenerating skeltons. 2 Spooky 4 Me.

Probably will do the Duke's Archives next, since apparently there is a glitch to farm humanity and I want to take the shortcut to Lost Izailith and collect a pyro spell I probably won't use because holy hell Firestorm type spells don't work with low dex.

I should have my pyro fist upgraded fully after a couple of bosses. On the one hand, yay. On the other hand, I will not be able to make my fire more overpowered afterward and that will make me sad. Oh well I can always restart for a fourth time, rite guys

[Grefter]

Noting that I have literally no idea what the fuck I am talking about.

I don't think there is much boost to the Pyro Flame after you Ascend it?  Once you get it to Ascended +1 it is at A scaling Fire and doesn't go up past that (I think Cid has commented on that in the past?), you just get +6 to Magic Adjustment (so 6% boost on base damage?) for 4 levels and +10 for last level.  So 28 more Magic Adjustment for like 150k souls?  Feels like NG+ souls dump to me.

[Sierra]

I actually don't have any idea precisely how pyro damage is calculated per upgrade in DS1, but more offense is always the best thing to spend your resources on. Maxed pyro hand is totally a legit thing to have on NG.

Re: Darkmoon covenant, it's cool in theory but I always had a ton of trouble actually getting matches. Again, can't comment on PC connectivity here, but on PS3 my time trying to invade as a Darkmoon Blade was heavily weighted towards sitting around and watching failed attempt after failed attempt. The trouble (and actual appeal, for me) is that you'll only be invading people with sin, which your average player can dispel by paying Oswald, which means your prime invasion targets are Darkwraiths (whose sin can't be absolved). But Darkwraiths tend not to sit still since you know they're constantly invading other people, so I found it relatively rare I could actually get a match. You could just sit around with the invasion ring on but bleh Dark Anor Londo (I hate the reduced lock-on range there).

Unless they changed the mechanics of this for the PC port, the best bet for invading remains the Darkwraith covenant because that way you can hit anyone at or above your level in any area. You just have to, you know, beat one of the game's most infamous bosses immediately after O&S to access it...although personally, I've never found the Four Kings to be that huge a deal. You've got, what six attunement slots? That's totally enough (it's all I had going in there with a SL50 pyro). The fight is wholly about DPS and Combustion-class spells have got you covered there. The worst part is just getting to them because ghost houuuuuse!

Backstabbery is FAR less prominent in DS2. There's a fair amount I dislike about DS2 PVP, but at least they nuked the tendency towards backstab-fishing that dominated DS1 PVP.

Speaking of DS2 oh hey they patched it again. Tossed the game in to check on what:

-Oh wow they totally nerfed the Avelyn. It's now weaker, slower, and inaccurate. Hardly even worth using anymore.
-Abyss Seal is now only marginally more powerful than the crappy Sunbro ring.
-Haven't tested, but apparently Great Resonant Soul got hit with the nerfbat too. GEE YOU GUYS DIDN'T FIGURE OUT HEXING WAS BROKEN DID YOU
-Never personally used it but apparently Santier's Spear is less crazy now?

[Cotigo]

Grefter: Eh, at the point that I'm at any level ups cost 22000 souls themselves, may as well get more damage. Only one more level to go and then I am tapped for the game, though. It will probably be plenty. I will just have to accept that I can't OHKO *every* enemy with Great Combustion. Life is hard guys.

Cid: So, I already placed the lordvessel and the darkwraithes are locked out for now but whatever NG+. I want to play around with the other covenants and get the good ending this time anyway. Once I finish farming for the Chaos Servant shortcut and pyromancy I'll switch to Dark Moon... perhaps the PC connectivity is better, but maybe you're right. In the case that you are I may go Gravelord Servant to try that out (or whatever it's called, the Nito coventant) but probably just finish up the game and unlock Darkwraithe in NG+.

Progress: I realized I hadn't taken on Yiff the wolf yet in the Basin, and I had too much damage for him.  The big pussies outside of his boss area made up for it though. Then I finished the catacombs. Fuck that place, that was tedious as hell. I apparently also missed all the content for the place by doing it too late, too? Whatever, next play through. In lieu of going down into more spooky skeletons, I wing over to the Duke's Archives. Got wrecked by the plot battle and lost 23k souls because I didn't realize it was a plot battle. >_< Broke out of jail, halfway through the level and I decided I should get some sleep tonight for a change. Probably gonna check out the Painted World next because I'm in the area and it looks like I can farm humanity there.

[VySaika]

Guacamelee - Picked this up because I wanted a platformer. Quite a lot of fun so far, though the best part isn't even the gameplay, it's all the lucha-tized references to video games, movies, internet memes, you name it, all scattered through the game(mostly in the towns as posters).

Not to say the gameplay is bad, mind you. It's pretty good on the platforming aspect. The combat is...either easy or very hard with few middle areas. Also a criminal lack of bossfights so far.

But overall, fun game. You get to play as a luchador, suplex skeletons, piledrive demons, transform into a chicken, travel to the world of the dead, all that normal lucha stuff. Pretty great.

[Sierra]

The only thing special about hitting the Catacombs early is that Patches is waiting for you there instead of in Tomb of the Giants later. You only missed a chance to get killed. And yeah the Catacombs are terrible and running them early is pain. The only good reasons for doing that are: if you're a cleric and you really really want Wrath of the Gods early; have some interest in accessing Gravelord Servant (or just using the sword you get with it) immediately; or for some reason think ten estus flasks aren't enough and absolutely must have twenty from the start of the game. Few if any of these things are worth climbing back out of that dump on foot.

Gravelord Servant is another super cool in theory but hard to tell if it's actually doing anything thing (yeah covenants not universally a resounding success in DS1). If the black phantoms you generate in other worlds are really doing their job, nobody will live long enough to find and fight you (and they are fucking terrifying if you ever get hit with them). But you could just place your sign really obviously if you're just looking for matches I guess.

Ending is entirely decided by a last-minute decision (the Darkwraith covenant leader gives you the game's most notable infodump but doesn't actually determine your ending) so whatevs there.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Capturing shit in Crusader Kings 2 is confusing. I don't think I'm doing it right. But I killed a lot of enemy troops so I'm good at that, at least.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Trails in the Sky - Anime rival has shown up again to be a petulant, childish douche, so happy

Super Mario World 2- World 4! Halfway done~

Mario Kart 8 - Got Gold in 7/8 of Mirror Mode. Once I complete that I will start working on 150 cc three stars.

[Fenrir]

Catacombs are also good early if you want to do a shield only run. (You insane person) or grab a great scythe!


I died again in a "Welcome to the CLUB" playthrough. Stupidly.

Earlier, I got hit by Toxic on the way back from the Great Club, and I was too far from any bonfire to survive the poison, and I had no Homeward Bone either.

This means that for the first and last time EVER, the "Dark Souls" item has been useful.

It's like a Homeward Bone (you go back to the bonfire) except you lose all your souls and humanity. So it's like dying. Except you can't get back your souls and humanity that way, so it's actualy WAY WORSE than dying. Awesome item.
But - You have it from the start and it has infinite uses? Hurray?

Actually this means that could actually be useful in regular gameplay and not in a weird no death challenge for real.
Say you die, lose 35 humanity and 67 million souls, then on the way to get your soul back you get hit by Toxic like I just did. You have no toxic restoration item no estus no homeward bone (Jesus man how did you get in this mess with million souls stored?)
SO then you can use the Dark Souls item and I ASSUME (not 100% sure) that the first lost soul with the 35 humanity is still there when you get back. And if you had died instead it would be lost forever.


... Maybe this item only exists to get you out of horribly glitched places if you have no homeward bone, as the game autosaves everywhere and there is no reverting back to an earlier save. But the game's no fun; I haven't encountered any of these horribly glitched places except in Dark Souls 2. (and it was only a (major) graphical glitch)

[jsh357]

The Darksign can also be used for item duping if you're in to that.  It is very useful in challenge runs or when farming enemies that give crappy souls (Blighttown slugs)

[Grefter]

SL1 no pyro run!??!?!?!?? Free Homeward Bonezzzzz

[superaielman]

Brave New World: Played several games of this.

Takeaways: I like this more than Laggy, donno if I like it more than plain old GNK.  Every single change made to the game seems to be squarely aimed at: limiting warmongering and limiting the power of runaways civs. This is a net benefit to to the player on higher levels, but yeesh. It definitely encourages playing tall and peacefully.  The big problem with that is that Civ 5's diplo system still sucks, even with all the tweaks put in.

Cleared with Poland and Portugal. Poland was as insanely overpowered as you'd expect from their UA. Portugal I played on a contentients map and they were okay.  After running trade ships, I get why they nerfed ocean tiles. You get an insane amount of food from ships on internal trade routes, same goes for gold on extenal ship trade routes. Exploration and Piety now duke it out for worst policy tree to me. Piety tree is still junky outside of reformation beliefs and exploration only really offers much from the opener and finisher. Order is pretty powerful as well, hard to not love the building purchasing discount policy.


New wonders seem pretty irrelevant.

[Meeplelard]

Mega Man 4 Gameboy:  This game saddens me.  It has just about everything needed to be a good Mega Man game.  Unique stage designs, bosses, while reused Robot Masters, aren't bad, good weapons, physics...ok, still using the MM2 latter climbing which is annoying, but I can overlook that, and even has the shop found in later Mega Man games which is a nice touch, and the Energy Balancer on top of that!

Yet, I struggle to call it a good game for one fatal flaw:

Lag.  A lot of NES and Gameboy games had that slowdown issue if things got too complicated but it never felt as bad as it did here.  If there were more than 2 sprites on the screen, the game's framerate would drop dramatically, and game would be so hard to play.  If this was something that only happened in extreme circumstances? I'd overlook it, but getting to that 3+ threshold, it's so easy to accidentally get into that state and it really destroys what could have been a legitimately good Mega Man game.

I guess MM5GB is up next.  I hear that's suppose to be the best Gameboy one by far, but trying to not get expectations up too high because I'd rather be simply unimpressed than disappointed (though ideally, I should end up satisfied.)

[DjinnAndTonic]

Poking around with Lightning Returns because I actually really liked FF13-2 and morbid curiosity. It is as terrible as I thought... Which is really too bad, there's something there worth salvaging, but the main plot is Just. So. Dumb. The non-main plot is actually kinda cute. Lightning goes around being a snarky general do-gooder, which is completely at odds with the stupid in the main plot.

Gameplay is kinda fun, for all that I still don't like solo RPGs. I don't think I'll be finishing this one, but I might follow the LP.