What Games are you playing 2015?

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Mass Effect 2 - Finished Garrus and Kasumi's loyalty missions, decided to be nice to Sidonis because reasons. My newly acquired Sniper Rifle made pretty easy work of the Kasumi boss.

Armor-piercing ammo best ammo.  Get the squad power and ride it for the rest of the game.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Mass Effect 2 - I've been continuing to hack through the different Loyalty missions. Dealing with different people's emotional and personal problems is quite fun and interesting and you get to know all of the characters, but obviously Mordin's is the best. It addresses a lot of really key and interesting ethical issues that all of us scientists think about and discuss, even those of us who don't work in sensitive fields. The micro-morality vs. macro-morality is a tough issue, and I found myself emphasizing with both Mordin and Maelon during their argument. I really liked when Maelon points out that he could hardly argue about the morality of the genophage to his famous teacher, because it felt a little naive of Mordin to expect him to. I was definitely a little sad by the end of it.

[Grefter]

Have you been talking to Mordin between Missions?  Literally character of the year for multiple years.

[Sierra]

Especially make sure to talk to Mordin after initiating Garrus romance. It could save your life!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Especially make sure to talk to Mordin after initiating Garrus romance. It could save your life!

Pound sign anaphylaxis

[Meeplelard]

About the game itself, it's been said. It's gen 3 with gen 6 mechanics, but still covering a large amount of gen 3 sensibilities. Considering gen 3 and gen 6 are my favorites in the series by a healthy margin, this is in no way anywhere near bad. One thing I particularly liked was the game handing you access to a lot of Pokés from later gens, unlike what happened in FRLG. Though, given the fact the game uses RSE's level curve, the game would've broken even worse than XY if I turned the Exp. Share on.

To be fair, HGSS did allow for Gen 3/4 aspects to be incorporated into the main game too, for all that there weren't a lot available.  Mostly Gen 4 Evolutions were available (this is excluding trading of course, where if you do that, anything goes!)  My second playthrough, for example, I had Mamoswine on my team, whose req is "Piloswine with Ancient Power."  A few others are available this way, like Ambipom.

Though yeah, ORAS was best about it particularly because enemy trainers would actually use some later Gen pokes, as well as things like Budew showing up in the wild.  I know it screws with Pokemon continuity, but honestly, I think we can all agree that gameplay advances matter way more in a game like this...well, ok, at least for things that aren't related to EXPANDING THE LANDMASS.

[Grefter]

Especially make sure to talk to Mordin after initiating Garrus romance. It could save your life!

Pound sign anaphylaxis

hashish auto-erotic asphyxiation

[AndrewRogue]

Have you been talking to Mordin between Missions?  Literally character of the year for multiple years.

It really is astounding how good EVERYTHING about Mordin is.

[Grefter]

Not me playing, but a friend recently started P3P and FES at the same time (he is weird).  I told him to start P3P as female route.  I kind of want to put together Fenrir P3P run together in Storify and link him it.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

About the game itself, it's been said. It's gen 3 with gen 6 mechanics, but still covering a large amount of gen 3 sensibilities. Considering gen 3 and gen 6 are my favorites in the series by a healthy margin, this is in no way anywhere near bad. One thing I particularly liked was the game handing you access to a lot of Pokés from later gens, unlike what happened in FRLG. Though, given the fact the game uses RSE's level curve, the game would've broken even worse than XY if I turned the Exp. Share on.

To be fair, HGSS did allow for Gen 3/4 aspects to be incorporated into the main game too, for all that there weren't a lot available.  Mostly Gen 4 Evolutions were available (this is excluding trading of course, where if you do that, anything goes!)  My second playthrough, for example, I had Mamoswine on my team, whose req is "Piloswine with Ancient Power."  A few others are available this way, like Ambipom.

Though yeah, ORAS was best about it particularly because enemy trainers would actually use some later Gen pokes, as well as things like Budew showing up in the wild.  I know it screws with Pokemon continuity, but honestly, I think we can all agree that gameplay advances matter way more in a game like this...well, ok, at least for things that aren't related to EXPANDING THE LANDMASS.

The funniest part is the plot itself retcons the hell out of RSE anyway, so it's all in the name of the game. I'm frankly glad they made that choice anyhow, it vastly improves the experience compared to the original.

[Shale]

I almost forgot the most important part of any Ace Attorney post:

Case 5 >= Case 3 > Case 1 > Case 2 > Case 4.

The big problem with the game in general is that 2 and 3 don't set up 4 as well as they ought, and none of them do the work necessary for 5 to pay off like the writers clearly wanted it to. That said, 5 in a vacuum was quite good overall, and what drags it down is more about earlier cases than its own execution, so those earlier cases come off looking worse than it does. Along with my earlier gripes about 4, both it and case 2 suffer badly from shoehorning Phoenix Wright's plot structure into the AAI cast and premise (the modern portions of 3 feels this as well, but less so and it's balanced out by the excellent flashback segments, easily the best part of the game), and Case 1 is just a reasonably well-done AAI case with few frills.

The game would be much much better if Blaise had showed up in Case 2, perhaps in Justine's place, and been a more overt factor in the Case 3 flashbacks. Set up his ties to Dogen and Roland, and then let us know that he's actively corrupt before he takes center stage. As it is the writers went out of their way to show that the PIC sucks, but going from there to "the head of the PIC is a corrupt murdering bastard" still takes some groundwork that they just didn't bother with -- not to mention the fact that every single case in the game is linked together by Blaise's past malfeasance, and they could have easily built that up over time.

[hinode]

To be fair, HGSS did allow for Gen 3/4 aspects to be incorporated into the main game too, for all that there weren't a lot available.  Mostly Gen 4 Evolutions were available (this is excluding trading of course, where if you do that, anything goes!)  My second playthrough, for example, I had Mamoswine on my team, whose req is "Piloswine with Ancient Power."  A few others are available this way, like Ambipom.

Though yeah, ORAS was best about it particularly because enemy trainers would actually use some later Gen pokes, as well as things like Budew showing up in the wild.  I know it screws with Pokemon continuity, but honestly, I think we can all agree that gameplay advances matter way more in a game like this...well, ok, at least for things that aren't related to EXPANDING THE LANDMASS.

The funniest part is the plot itself retcons the hell out of RSE anyway, so it's all in the name of the game. I'm frankly glad they made that choice anyhow, it vastly improves the experience compared to the original.

Delta Episode established that ORAS (and XY, by proxy) are in a different timeline from the original RSE, so technically they didn't create any continuity issues! <_<

Giving you the National Dex after the eighth gym (or the Kyogre/Groudon battle, forget which) was a cool idea. It adds some more options for the E4, plus it spices up Victory Road. The enemy Darmanitan there is really scary if you don't have a decently bulky Water or Rock type at the time *cough*.

[Fenrir]

My brother said that he was playing normally then could buy 50 rare candies out of nowhere. Balance

I am honored Gref but how would you find my posts? I had terrible results with the search function on this site.

[Grefter]

Search General Chat displaying posts by Fenrir containing P3 and sort by oldest thread seemed to find them all with only a bit of noise.

Edit - I am replaying Mass Effect as an Infiltrator.  I am using Sniper Rifles and am convinced this is actually less optimal than just building for Pistol.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

There wasn't really a reason to use a non-pistol weapon unless you were a soldier, then you can use an AR.  Fortunately they corrected that mistake in ME2, when they came up with the amazing idea that different classes could have totally different play mechanics.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I almost forgot the most important part of any Ace Attorney post:

Case 5 >= Case 3 > Case 1 > Case 2 > Case 4.

The big problem with the game in general is that 2 and 3 don't set up 4 as well as they ought, and none of them do the work necessary for 5 to pay off like the writers clearly wanted it to. That said, 5 in a vacuum was quite good overall, and what drags it down is more about earlier cases than its own execution, so those earlier cases come off looking worse than it does. Along with my earlier gripes about 4, both it and case 2 suffer badly from shoehorning Phoenix Wright's plot structure into the AAI cast and premise (the modern portions of 3 feels this as well, but less so and it's balanced out by the excellent flashback segments, easily the best part of the game), and Case 1 is just a reasonably well-done AAI case with few frills.

The game would be much much better if Blaise had showed up in Case 2, perhaps in Justine's place, and been a more overt factor in the Case 3 flashbacks. Set up his ties to Dogen and Roland, and then let us know that he's actively corrupt before he takes center stage. As it is the writers went out of their way to show that the PIC sucks, but going from there to "the head of the PIC is a corrupt murdering bastard" still takes some groundwork that they just didn't bother with -- not to mention the fact that every single case in the game is linked together by Blaise's past malfeasance, and they could have easily built that up over time.

Hmm, I definitely don't agree. Case 5 has a bunch of problems which affect the case itself, to me, namely:

-Killing a conscious person by dropping a balloon on them is completely unbelievable, even by Ace Attorney standards.
-Freezing a body to throw off the time of murder makes some sense... but even a half-assed autopsy report would notice all the tissue damage from the freezing, and as such there is no way they would misreport the time of death. Made even worse by the fact that they already used this "plot twist" in a better way in case 3. Both this and the previous point combine to ruin the "aha!" of solving the murder, which is so important to my enjoyment of an Ace Attorney case.
-Dogen breaking out of prison far no reason other to exposition at you. WTF? In general it felt like the case did way too much revealing of things at times which were narratively convenient, but unnatural.
-The case didn't really tie the cast together in a satisfying way, the way other final cases usually do. Courtney, Ray, and Sebastian are all borderline irrelevant, even if I absolutely loved the Sebastian Logic Chess.
-Nothing about the Fake President's character makes a lick of sense.

I think I'd go with 2 >= 1 >= 3 > 5 >= 4 but the only gap I feel remotely strongly about is the one in the middle. I can absolutely respect 3 as top; it's a good case overall (and it has Larry) but I found it to drag some and I didn't care about the villain as much as I did 1's or 2's (and I loved 2's setting). I'd probably need to replay the game to firm up my opinion there.

[Meeplelard]

Crisis Core Expert Mode: In Gongaga, then did some missions, and holy crap, I'm actually almost finished with the entire DMW!  Only a few more scenes for a handful of characters, and just need to get Tonberry and Magic Pot to activate, as well as Bahamut Fury once I actually get him.

[Shale]

Replying to Elf...

-Killing a conscious person by dropping a balloon on them is completely unbelievable, even by Ace Attorney standards.
-Freezing a body to throw off the time of murder makes some sense... but even a half-assed autopsy report would notice all the tissue damage from the freezing, and as such there is no way they would misreport the time of death. Made even worse by the fact that they already used this "plot twist" in a better way in case 3. Both this and the previous point combine to ruin the "aha!" of solving the murder, which is so important to my enjoyment of an Ace Attorney case.

I'm pretty much resigned to the idea that the mechanics of a PW murder will make no doggone sense, especially after how convoluted earlier AAI2 murders got. Both of those elements were telegraphed (John being rescued from a refrigerated warehouse, Simon mentioning that the balloon weighs several hundred pounds), and that was good enough for me. I enjoy the “aha!” factor too, but I don't try to get there by applying physics as we understand them, because down that path lies madness. If they set it up narratively, I'll take it.

-Dogen breaking out of prison far no reason other to exposition at you. WTF? In general it felt like the case did way too much revealing of things at times which were narratively convenient, but unnatural.

This seemed to hang together? If ever Dogen would have an opportunity to escape it's right after the warden got arrested, which would doubtless lead to some chaos at the prison, and expositioning at Edgeworth serves his goal of getting Simon “safely” behind bars.

-The case didn't really tie the cast together in a satisfying way, the way other final cases usually do. Courtney, Ray, and Sebastian are all borderline irrelevant, even if I absolutely loved the Sebastian Logic Chess.

I thought it did a very good job of rounding Courtney and Sebastian out as characters (Ray didn't need the help, he was firmly established by 2 through 4), although you're right that none of them are particularly relevant to the mystery of who killed the fake president. Their part in the case is more of an epilogue to Blaise Debeste's story, except the writers held back the threads connecting all the different elements of that story until Case 5 because of....reasons? Still, I'd much rather the epilogue showed up late than not at all.

-Nothing about the Fake President's character makes a lick of sense.

Can you go into more detail on this? I didn't see anything contradictory in his backstory or behavior; he's the Actual President's body double, realizes that because his job is to look and act exactly like the real thing, he can steal the president's identity without tipping anyone off. He does so, and pushes the original's allies and confidantes away so they won't see subtle changes, but struggles under the weight of his newfound responsibility, becoming the desperate old man we see after his Case 1 breakdown. Later he meets with Courtney about “his” son because to blow her off completely could be suspicious, and gets death-by-lion-balloon for his troubles.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Taking someone's place for 12 years is kinda crazy at the best of times. But... this man is a president. Presidents can not simply drive away their friends and hang out in their room or something. He'd have to "not remember" far too many supporters, businesspeople, diplomats, etc. to be even remotely believable. Being a president is no easy job and there's little reason to believe he'd be qualified at it. And there's also the fact that the writers want us to believe this guy is a cold-blooded multi-murderer in the backstory... yet a panicky mess in the Rooke murder case? I mean, yeah, people change, but the combination of the inconsistent characterisation, stupid motive, and unbelievable 12-year impersonation leaves little to like about the character and anything it touches.

The part about not being worried about specific physics is fair. I try to do the same, but sometimes things go too far and it doesn't work for me. Especially for things which are sensitive to the reveal. I got very little satisfaction in puzzling out anything that happened in the final case.

I felt Courtney's character was mostly done by the end of case 4. We learn she has a son in the fifth case, I suppose, but... that feels like an oddly deletable plot point. Sebastian's character arc certainly comes to a close in case 5, on the other hand, but he isn't that important to it. It's not the end of the world, just unsatisfying with how other final cases often tie up their core cast so nicely. I didn't really feel that about this one.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Hmm, I can't seem to get the Mordin dialogue on Garrus. Ah well.

Mass Effect 2 - Finally finished off all of the loyalty missions except Legion's. I saved Thane's for last, and probably for good reason because it was kind of lame Bungled it a couple times before finally getting it right because I lost track of him. The last time I got a weird glitch where I did the last thing where I found the target but it initiated the cutscene anyway, which was kind of annoying. Grunt's was as one expects from a krogan-related sidequest; filled with macho violence and eyeroll-worthy stupidity. Most of the others were pretty fun, though, for all that I wish more of them had little to no gameplay besides Samara and Thane's. I had a lot of fun using Tali's AI Hacking ability to wreck all of the geth on her sidequest, and finally getting to see the quarian Migrant Fleet was pretty cool. I've been mostly rotating between different PCs, but my favorites are Garrus, Samara, Mordin, and Miranda.

I'm probably going to tackle the Lair of the Shadow Broker next, and then finish off the game.

EDIT: And it looks like I have officially turned over Liara's picture. <_<;

[Fenrir]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALJCqdPqIrA

So at least 3 DLers (Ciato, El Cid, me) have been using FemShep and romancing Garrus I see.
(Probably more)

[Shale]

All the impostor did was arrange the assassination behind the scenes (and maybe pose for a picture of the “kidnapping”), right? The ruthless schemer who falls to pieces when it's time to get his hands dirty is a well-worn character type, as is the usurper who's in love with the idea of having power and completely unprepared for the day-to-day responsibility of using it. (See also: many actual heads of state)

And I may be misremembering this, but I thought that at the end of Case 1, when he's justifying the fake assassination gambit, the impostor tells Edgeworth that being president for so long has worn him down as a person and that he's losing support among the people; in retrospect it sure seems like he's talking about not being able to match the original.

[The Duck]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALJCqdPqIrA

So at least 3 DLers (Ciato, El Cid, me) have been using FemShep and romancing Garrus I see.
(Probably more)

umyeah

[Cotigo]

That reminds me, when I revisit ME2 I seriously need to save Tali's loyalty mission for last and bring Legion along. I hear it is fun times.

[Fenrir]

Yeah I was pretty sure you (duck) and Grefter did too