What Games are you playing 2016?

[The Duck]

Undertale winning the GameFAQs contest and the resultant gamer salt made me feel better than everything from the actual game.

[Fenrir]

Agreed.

[Cotigo]

Agreed.

[Fenrir]

I did check the gamefaqs poll forum every day afterwards for a week or so just for fun.
Who are all these people who actually think that FF7 and OoT are inarguably the best games ever anyway? Aren't they all 30? Why are there so many of them?


Invisible Inc: Ready for the final mission. Difficulty 8 =
I am stressed. I don't want to lose this.
I still haven't found one lethal weapon. I did go through all the weapon missions whenever I could and everything!
Draco's final stats were 1 speed, 2 hacking, 5 strength and 2 anarchy. On screen, these stats look like a giant middle finger raised at me, which is extremely appropriate. I only used him to carry items and unconscious bodies.
Everybody else has maxed stats and a bunch of cool stuff. I can't do much against those 4+ armor enemies though.

[Dark Holy Elf]

OoT is the Greatest Game Ever and none shall question this.

Undertale totally won another GameFAQs poll yesterday, incidentally (best PC game of 2015), so there was a fresh round of salt.

[Grefter]

What is the correct response in Jeopardy when you pick Video Games for 1000 and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time shows up?


Nothing, because it being 10/10 game of the year every year is unquestionable.

[Meeplelard]

FF Type-0: Pretty much grinding so my levels of at least 3 characters are on par with the next mission level.  Finally decided to start using Secret Missions too because it sounds like free EXP for one character when not playing.

My team I'm looking at is Ace, Queen, and one of King or Cater, with whoever I don't use being a back up alongside Rem and Trey.  This game very much favors ranged combatants, just Rem seems mobile and fast enough to make up for it, while Queen has Judgment which seems completely bad ass (and both seem good as mages so they can compensate for the ranged thing some.)

[jsh357]

After having finished it, my overall feeling on The Wolf Among Us: *shrug* Perhaps it helps if you've read the source material, but this story felt like a mess to me, though it certainly wasn't a bad game. The end of the game was especially confusing. I chose the violent solution to the conflict (which I don't normally do but actually felt justified in here for once) and suddenly half the cast turncoated on me despite some of them having asked me to be murdery in the first place. Over and over, this game presents the player with a range of choices that are either meaninglessly similar, lack an option that reflected the choice I would have made, or offer so little time to make the decision that I ended up with the default (silence) over and over. There were glimmers of brilliance throughout the game, but little follow-through, and without any real gameplay besides quicktime events, the story has to really hold up. I think that, at least to me, Telltale's typical trappings are starting to show their weaknesses the more of their games I play. They are going to have to make some serious changes before I'd consider playing one of their future projects; it's not that the formula is bad, but you can only pull it off well so many times before everything starts looking the same.

In fairness, I haven't played their Game of Thrones, Borderlands, or Minecraft games, but I have no interest in any of those franchises.

[SnowFire]

Neat stuff, Elf.

BD: I can't REALLY complain because oh god replaying Bravely Default would take forever and I'm not gonna fault anyone for speeding things up, but surprised you skipped out on Vamp & Conjurer Asterisks, since even if you never use them they seem like plotty bosses you're "expected" to fight.  If you're gonna suffer through C5-8 and not beeline the other ending then call it a day, at least.  Vamp should probably have been easy - he likes his easily disrupted combo too much - but C6 Conjurer might have been interesting.  (Although I wonder what would happen if you go to Vamp castle without the asterisk in C8?  C7/C8 have custom fights there normally IIRC, but I have no idea what happens if you don't have the asterisk yet...)  Also, congratz on beating out Bugzilla, interesting strats for both forms there, and not too surprised she was insanely nasty for your team.  I'll say that I was surprised at how much use some of the swordmaster counterstances ended up being - obviously highly dependent on the fight, but I was expecting them to be even more niche.

Radiant Dawn: Nailah making Ciato's endgame list?  Furry confirmed, next you know we'll have some crazy person using her as a forum avatar.  Glad to see a metric where there's a reason to use Lucia, though, it's a darn shame how she has no time to *catch up* to her fellow non-Edward trueblades when she's supposed to be the experienced one.  Can't wait for the tales of the Bro Emblem followup.  "Haar, please come to the aid of the helpless sky princess!  She can't do anything!"

Undertale: Elf's thumbs up would make me reconsider, except I have another friend whose advice I trust who basically said "I respect Undertale and can see why people like it, but it's a horrible chore to play."  Basically he Pacifist'd it but hated the bullet hell parts and wanted to just speed up to let me spare you damn it.  So I have an excuse to keep on not playing it, for awhile at least.  We'll see.

[The Duck]

After having finished it, my overall feeling on The Wolf Among Us: *shrug* Perhaps it helps if you've read the source material, but this story felt like a mess to me, though it certainly wasn't a bad game. The end of the game was especially confusing. I chose the violent solution to the conflict (which I don't normally do but actually felt justified in here for once) and suddenly half the cast turncoated on me despite some of them having asked me to be murdery in the first place. Over and over, this game presents the player with a range of choices that are either meaninglessly similar, lack an option that reflected the choice I would have made, or offer so little time to make the decision that I ended up with the default (silence) over and over. There were glimmers of brilliance throughout the game, but little follow-through, and without any real gameplay besides quicktime events, the story has to really hold up. I think that, at least to me, Telltale's typical trappings are starting to show their weaknesses the more of their games I play. They are going to have to make some serious changes before I'd consider playing one of their future projects; it's not that the formula is bad, but you can only pull it off well so many times before everything starts looking the same.

In fairness, I haven't played their Game of Thrones, Borderlands, or Minecraft games, but I have no interest in any of those franchises.

Agreed, I think playing more than one Telltale series takes the sheen and novelty off of the experience. My first was the Walking Dead and I found it really effective. Then I watched a friend play A Wolf Among Us and it didn't seem to have the same punch and I think that it was mostly due to knowing the trappings of the series, mainly that most of the interactions don't really matter. I hear Tales of the Borderlands does make use of some Borderlands-y mechanics for its gameplay but I am not interested in that world at all. I do hear that other people who aren't that into the setting did like it and it isn't quite as juvenile as the main games. They're doing Batman next, which probably won't work for me. I kind of hope they'll start doing stuff from original IPs like Life is Strange. I do think the format can work with greater consideration, more branching paths, less railroading, and more hidden variables from things like conversations that actually impact later events.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I skipped all the asterisks I had no use for and would do it again! BD's quite long enough, its extra length is its biggest problem for playthroughs like this compared to FF5 (and it's already pretty common for fiestas to skip much of the optional content in that game, too). That said I don't think either of the bosses you mentioned would be a problem anyway. I dunno about you, but I found Yulyana crazy-easy on a normal playthrough and I doubt a challenge where I had access to Absorb Magic would change this. (I suspect that the Venus sisters would be the tricky part of that quest if anything, just like the Ice Dragon is considerably tougher than DeRosso. MT stop is still the worst.)

I wasn't really sure how useful swordmaster stances would be; I didn't even know if they countered MT and if they didn't they'd be pretty junky! But yeah when paired with draining and an enemy who is over-reliant on one damage type they were actually quite effective. (And once you get access to either Vampire Castle or start the B ending you can get draining for every job.)

Lucia's at least on by far the most Exp-rich path, so catching her up isn't that much of a chore or anything. There's still no reason to do it besides "I just want to, damnit" or an enjoyment of seeing really high crit numbers (the other trueblades have not discovered true friendship).

Re Undertale, that's a very fair criticism, and if you yourself don't like bullet hell at all then that's probably the single best reason I can think of to want to avoid the game. If your opinion on the genre is closer to "not really interested in it, but it's inoffensive to me" (which is closer to mine, for the record; I've never been able to get into a Touhou game) then yeah it's absolutely still worth a look.

[NotMiki]

Re Undertale, that's a very fair criticism, and if you yourself don't like bullet hell at all then that's probably the single best reason I can think of to want to avoid the game. If your opinion on the genre is closer to "not really interested in it, but it's inoffensive to me" (which is closer to mine, for the record; I've never been able to get into a Touhou game) then yeah it's absolutely still worth a look.

I like Touhou games so take this with a grain of salt, but I think the similarities between Undertale comba and Touhou are, for the most part, superficial.  There are bullets and you dodge them, but that's it.  The memorization, the long levels, the high stakes if you get hit, the reflexes and long-term strategic thinking, the general degree of difficulty...none of that is present to any great degree in Undertale.  You have hit points, you have frequent save points, you have healing items, and most of all you have combat sessions that are very short.

More than that...Undertale combat is a clever illustration of what's going on with the enemy.  It enhances the charm of the game.  My favorite example of this is when you are fighting a dog, one of his attacks is...a sleeping dog that doesn't move.  But!  If you move, it barks at you (by which I mean shoots bullets shaped as the word "bark" at you).  Good stuff.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I largely agree but I do think that if someone really dislikes that sort of gameplay it will cause problems for one's enjoyment of the game. It is there, it isn't trivially easy (obviously it is for a genre veteran, but that's not who we're talking about here), and it takes up a lot of playtime, including during some of the game's most dramatic sequences.

[Captain K]

Huniepot:  Kyanna is best girl.  She actually seems like the real women around here.  Although Kyanna isn't a latina name.

"I gotta call my babysitter, cause I don't think I'm coming home tonight."

YES

==============

Divekick:  Picked this up on the Steam sale also.  I like Mr. N and The Baz.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

After having finished it, my overall feeling on The Wolf Among Us: *shrug* Perhaps it helps if you've read the source material, but this story felt like a mess to me, though it certainly wasn't a bad game. The end of the game was especially confusing. I chose the violent solution to the conflict (which I don't normally do but actually felt justified in here for once) and suddenly half the cast turncoated on me despite some of them having asked me to be murdery in the first place. Over and over, this game presents the player with a range of choices that are either meaninglessly similar, lack an option that reflected the choice I would have made, or offer so little time to make the decision that I ended up with the default (silence) over and over. There were glimmers of brilliance throughout the game, but little follow-through, and without any real gameplay besides quicktime events, the story has to really hold up. I think that, at least to me, Telltale's typical trappings are starting to show their weaknesses the more of their games I play. They are going to have to make some serious changes before I'd consider playing one of their future projects; it's not that the formula is bad, but you can only pull it off well so many times before everything starts looking the same.

In fairness, I haven't played their Game of Thrones, Borderlands, or Minecraft games, but I have no interest in any of those franchises.

Agreed, I think playing more than one Telltale series takes the sheen and novelty off of the experience. My first was the Walking Dead and I found it really effective. Then I watched a friend play A Wolf Among Us and it didn't seem to have the same punch and I think that it was mostly due to knowing the trappings of the series, mainly that most of the interactions don't really matter. I hear Tales of the Borderlands does make use of some Borderlands-y mechanics for its gameplay but I am not interested in that world at all. I do hear that other people who aren't that into the setting did like it and it isn't quite as juvenile as the main games. They're doing Batman next, which probably won't work for me. I kind of hope they'll start doing stuff from original IPs like Life is Strange. I do think the format can work with greater consideration, more branching paths, less railroading, and more hidden variables from things like conversations that actually impact later events.

I think the thing that makes TWD work is that the Telltale formula fits the overall style of the source material: a group of people stumble from one dilemma to another. The things they encounter are mostly shit being sprung on them, and interpersonal relationships are the one thing they have true agency in while they try to deal with their shitty circumstances.

[Scar]

Pokémon omega ruby

Weeeee

I am running most of my Pokémon to lv 50 and then switching them out for newbs to give me some flexibility.

The best Pokémon I've caught and trained has been a flygon, maybe it's just a personal fav of mine.

Things were going good until groudon.

Lv 50 Pokémon against him...not so good. Immune to thunder, no paralyze....wait grass types can....oh wait he can rest. Poo.

Needless to say I needed some incredible luck to catch him...definitely did not want to go thru that again.

Looked at his nature.

Calm.

Oh. What's that do?

Minus attack?

Fuck!

[Cmdr_King]

Persona 4: Dancing All Night- Finished story mode.

I think the two P4 sequels sorta split up what P4 was.  If you liked the characters and the straight to the point psychological drama of the TV World dungeons, see Arena.  DAN then takes the overarching plot and themes and runs with it. 

You'll probably be unsurprised to learn that I think P4A is the better game game overall.  Still, the game is extremely charming, goofy as fuck, and knows exactly what it is.  Among other things, they managed to make Nanako more adorable.  The new cast is a bit on the shallow end, but... I think it works in context of looking at the idol industry, although how accurate it is or how scathing they're really being I couldn't say.  It's worth noting that the dialog does feel a cut below the average for P4... buuuuut maybe I'm just forgetting some of the earlier games.

Unlike fightans games I actually feel like I have a sense of the gameplay.  It's fundamentally solid, but there's some problems.  There's a lot of visual noise in the center of the screen, and a lot of times I felt like it was distracting from seeing the notes.  Jim noted that playing on an actual Vita would probably be easier than using a TV like he did, and damn I feel him because the game took quite a lot of adjustment even with a small screen and not having to scan as much distance to find things.  That aside, while I feel like the adjustment from other games I've been exposed too is sorta high, I'm definitely gonna try and do some free play to at least see all the songs. I'm so-so on the remixes that I've heard, and actually enjoy when the game is putting straight versions of existing songs.  Might be some of why I'm lukewarm on the gameplay, in addition to all the storyline songs being locked to Easy so it's hard to actually find the natural rhythm of the songs, but that's always true on Easy in these games.  Still, playing even a few on Normal has been pretty fun so yeah, definitely gonna toy with it for a while yet.

I might evaluate it again later, but leaning towards 7/10 for now.

[Niu]

FF Type-0: Pretty much grinding so my levels of at least 3 characters are on par with the next mission level.  Finally decided to start using Secret Missions too because it sounds like free EXP for one character when not playing.

My team I'm looking at is Ace, Queen, and one of King or Cater, with whoever I don't use being a back up alongside Rem and Trey.  This game very much favors ranged combatants, just Rem seems mobile and fast enough to make up for it, while Queen has Judgment which seems completely bad ass (and both seem good as mages so they can compensate for the ranged thing some.)

That reminds me, the level of the enemies in the final chapter, including the last boss, is base on the party level average.
In other words, you can control how hard the last chapter is by manipulating your character's levels.

[Fenrir]

Every single day there is a new stupid thing about FFType 0 we can find

Invisible Inc: Finished the campaign on normal. The last level was intense as hell.
The game showered me with unlocks. So many unlocks. Not sure what to do next.

So how is the dlc? The new items and daemons are cool, they're balanced and keep the main game from being too repetitive. The new characters are nice, but there's so much choice already! The extended campaign is bloat. The original game's brevity was a strong point, and it made choices more meaningful. By the end of the extended campaign you'll have had so much time to prepare that all your characters will be maxed out and you'll have 95% of the items that you vaguely want.

Endless mode sounds dull for similar reasons.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Bravely Default: Finished this up after a near 3-year hiatus.

The repetitive final chapters are a lot less awful when you've got some distance from having just completed them. They are still pretty awful. I actually quite like the story behind them and the concept is fine, but actual implementation is awful no matter how many time-saving tricks the game gives you (including turning off randoms, sceneskip, and an airship for fast travel).

The cast is still brilliant, I even warmed up to Tiz and Agnes, and most of the asterisk-holders are quirky and memorable.

The twist is handled well. The writers don't -quite- expect you to be surprised by it, but they still play their cards close to their chest until they're ready to drop that bomb, but they don't drop it with any fanfare or melodrama. It's not until the -characters- (or specifically one character) find out that the drama bomb happens, which actually makes the transition a lot smoother and more emotional rather than 'cheap Shyamalan twist moment'.

Really the only bad parts of the game are those final two cycles, specifically the aptly-put message of this webcomic (thanks Magic) : http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=091514

Despite that, it's definitely a 9/10 or better game for me. Everything I wanted in a Final Fantasy despite the name.

[Meeplelard]

FF Type-0: Pretty much grinding so my levels of at least 3 characters are on par with the next mission level.  Finally decided to start using Secret Missions too because it sounds like free EXP for one character when not playing.

My team I'm looking at is Ace, Queen, and one of King or Cater, with whoever I don't use being a back up alongside Rem and Trey.  This game very much favors ranged combatants, just Rem seems mobile and fast enough to make up for it, while Queen has Judgment which seems completely bad ass (and both seem good as mages so they can compensate for the ranged thing some.)

That reminds me, the level of the enemies in the final chapter, including the last boss, is base on the party level average.
In other words, you can control how hard the last chapter is by manipulating your character's levels.

That's...honestly really good to know.  While I don't like people giving me hints, it's nice to know the game won't dick me over in the final dungeon.

I have to question why they didn't just do this in every single story-dungeon.  Side Content? Yeah, sure, make it set levels because it's optional, but storyline content having a suggest level, and consistently HIGHER than what my party is regardless of what I do is poor design.  The fact that the final dungeon does this shows they put forethought into it and then said "Screw it."


I also went back and fought Clash on the Big Bridge again, this time beating the lose-able fight...only to learn you get no benefits from it.  Seriously what the heck game?

[Sierra]

Kuwabara, kuwabara

MGS3: The Fury is just Grefter, right? He came back from space and had a vision of the world set ablaze. I don't see any argument here.

Man I dunno why I had so much trouble with this fight. I don't remember it being hard, but I died like eight times here. I don't remember what the trick is to tranqing him, when I shot him it did jack all. Probably have to rupture his suit before nonlethal starts working, but patience for that was not found. After I got punted off the cliff one hit away from killing him I just said fuck it and stopped caring about experimenting.

The PS3 edition of the game has a trophy for seeing all the cutscene first-person views that aren't indicated as such onscreen, right? So since I noticed that, I've been spending cutscenes holding down R1 all the time. The only SEKRIT things I've noticed have been other characters mimicking Ocelot's gesture behind his back whenever he walks offscreen. Worth the bother.

Oh yeah, Ocelot's camo > others for the mountain sequence. I'm surprised to find that ugly thing actually has a real practical use ever, but apparently a heinous mishmash of leopard/tiger/cow patterns is really the best disguise at high altitudes. I was happy to wear it just for the comedy value.

[Captain K]

Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes:  I finished in the top 100 on my server for the day.  It's all thanks to the power of Greedo.  I leveled him up so that now he shoots first.

[Grefter]

Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes:  I finished in the top 100 on my server for the day.  It's all thanks to the power of Greedo.  I leveled him up so that now he shoots first.

You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them. You were to bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness.

Everybody betrayed me! I fed up with this world.

[Captain K]

Do not want