What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Niu]

OS-Chapter 2 of Velvet's scenario. Oswald's final boss actually wasn't that bad, I was suprised. Pretty easy to massacre with Unlimited POW and Painkiller. Is there something about Velvet I'm missing, or am I right in thinking she's the worst character in the game(so far)?

She's completely invincible while swinging on her chain.  Also, use her homing chain a lot (hold down the attack button).  It's really strong and hits multiple enemies.  Her close-range attacks are cast-worst IMHO.  They almost never knock enemies down, even with crits.

AWDoR:  More than halfway through the Trial Maps.  Screw you, Jay Islands.

Adding to that, the homing attacks also kill those undying slimes.

[AAA]

Good to know.

OS-Chapter 4. Velvet's distance game is better than I thought, which should make taking down swarms somewhat more bearable. Also, now with Odette and Brigan out of the way, annoying bosses should be somewhat limited. At least until another Patented Annoying Ass Wise Man Boss Fight which I imagine is coming.

[Captain K.]

Also, now with Odette and Brigan out of the way, annoying bosses should be somewhat limited. At least until another Patented Annoying Ass Wise Man Boss Fight which I imagine is coming.

Should we tell him?   

Also, WA3's graphics are indeed dated.  They look like early PSX-level.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

WA3 - Just got to Jolly Rogers. Having fun with the game so far, although I gather the game will start picking up gameplay-wise a bit later, even if I got Mediums to tinker with. Jet is a complete crybaby trying to pass off as an asshole, Clive wins, Gallows amuses me and Virginia is so naive it hurts my soul. But then, she hands Jet his ass in a silver platter, which is okay by me. I like the dialogue so far, it feels eerily natural most of the time. The times it isn't happen when the game is subtle like a pissed-off aiel every time the bird metaphors start flying. Dear god, those are kinda painful. But the rest of the writing satisfies me enough where I care (i.e. characterization and interaction). Looking forward to it.

[Pyro]

Should we tell him?

All I will say is to go into Titania very, very, very well prepared.

[Luther Lansfeld]

FE9- I've been playing this a bunch. I got to Chapter 22. Last battle was BABY-EATING BANDIT and the Priests. That staff is sexy. My Mist sucks, she is eight points behind in HP and six points in RES. ;_; My Ike is still a monster. I'll talk more later, I am just lazy.

[superaielman]

Dis2- Nine hours later, I think this is the game I've been wanting to play. Well then! Start of chapter 4, average level is 22 right now.

[Meeplelard]

FE10: Just beat Part 3 Prologue.

Managed to get all the good stuff in Part 2 Endgame.  Also, Elincia's Gambit is a sexy chapter.  Says something that I really like it cause I normally don't like survival chapters.

MMZXA: Got all the forms! Also my 3rd SUbtank!  Yeah, should be getting close to the end of the game or something.

Model ZX is cracked out in this game.

[Nitori]

FFXII: At Nam-Yensa Sandsea. The sheer pointlessness of Vaan and Penelo in the actual plot is quite weird, but I suppose they had to start somewhere; why there is the question. They have relevance in Revenant Wings kinda, at least~

As for gambits, I don't really have anything fancy set up beyond heal if low and attack otherwise, since I don't really have anything else to put there yet. Oh well.

Defiant of Shrine Maiden: Touhou RPG, yay~. So uh you go around beating up various weird guys and there is some sort of scheme of which Cirno appears to the head mastermind of. I have Reimu, Marisa, and Youmu for party members so far. Reimu MT nukes things, Marisa can Spark one thing very, very dead and then MT nuke things, and Youmu needs a turn to use anything good. It is actually rather fun aside from the whole "It's entirely in Japanese and it actually matters."

*Hopes Merlin ends up Godlike~*

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Xenogears, in my opinion, isn't really a game I really got in to until I met Bart.

[Twilkitri]

Played through Normality, which is something I've wanted to do for about 10 and a half years. It was really not worth the wait.

First the good. The 3D controls are arguably better than those of Grim Fandango/Monkey Island 4 >_>? This means nothing when the likes of Discworld Noir and neo Sam & Max exist anyway. I guess the story was generally passable, except the exceedingly unclimactic ending. Graphics were okay but considering that I like FF7's out-of-battle character models that is to be salt-taken-with presumably.

Hm. Where to begin. The ending fails completely. Assuming that no-one cares about spoilers; you've gotten the good genius's spare brain, and you've been accosted by the evil genius who goes to capture/destroy something it - and then the good genius effectively dies and his spare brain zaps the evil genius and takes over his body. That's so wonderful. You can take an some objects on the screen in iconic form and use them on other things, that you need only twice in the game, both nearish to the end... and the keyboard use command won't let you do it, you need to use the mouse's apparently speshul version for some ungodly reason that completely threw me for a while. I will grant that this may be an artifact of the way I acquired the game in a manual-less fashion in which case it is arguably my fault and not the game.
Some of the puzzles. Are stupid. To get past the bouncer you have to divine that him calling you a rat/vermin/etc means that he is scared of rats. For a different sort of stupidity, you can't walk out the door of the 50c shop with anything because it sets the shoplifting detectors off. You have to sit the things you want on toy gliders and throw them over the detector, as opposed to say just throwing the stuff over in general.
There are too many things you can get which don't actually do anything for you. On that note, there are PUZZLES you can solve which don't do anything for you. You can smash the box you find under the bollard with the hammer to get a key, which you can use to unlock the resistance's fridge. This is completely unnecessary! I personally can't tell whether this is a brilliant innovation in adventure game design that never really caught on or just lamery.


I give it: So not worth the 87% the magazine review gave it.



Slowly eating my way through SRWC2:3. I'm currently up to 750-odd turns so I'm really not likely to get the sekrit levil. Up to the final level of Scene 5 in any case, against Meganoids and The Boom. If the game goes the way it's been going a regisaur is likely to turn up as well, although I did have to fight one during a mid-level of Scene 5.
Alteisen Riese is barely an improvement on the Alteisen, Rein Weissritter is barely an improvement on the Weissritter but the Weissritter was already godly anyway. Why the heck does Shiro Amada have better melee AND ranged than Kyosuke at a lower level? In any case maxed Weissritter's Howling B (for all it started off reasonably close to that anyway, so that's not saying much) and gave it three version-ups. Fun fun fun. Dancougar easily wins best super robot for this game, and Elshank is currently winning the worst-battleship-I've-ever-used award. Should be getting Zerokage soon so that should be interesting.

[Sierra]

Should we tell him?

All I will say is to go into Titania very, very, very well prepared.

Napalm is your friend. That is all.

SN: Another world awaits me! Yes, at Drazil, which is like Logan's Run meets Soylent Green, administered by the Crimson Corporation. It's fucked up. *Spoilers* is a badass PC, I must say. Nothing lives through her normal attacks, and she hits a whole row. Anyway, will probably finish the game this morning, since I'm home sick.

[Niu]

Also, now with Odette and Brigan out of the way, annoying bosses should be somewhat limited. At least until another Patented Annoying Ass Wise Man Boss Fight which I imagine is coming.

Should we tell him?   

Also, WA3's graphics are indeed dated.  They look like early PSX-level.

Early PS1? That's harsh. PS1 certainly can't handle that level of cell shading WA3 has.

[Captain K.]

Considering they look exactly like FF7 graphics, yes, yes it can.

[Meeplelard]

Um, no, they don't.  WA3's graphics are much cleaner, less blockier, and generally a lot more fluid than FF7's.  Compare FF7 Battles to WA3's (FF7 battles not looking ugly as sin the way map sprites do), and you'll see WA3's is clearly a massive step up.

Not to mention FF7 was pretty much top of the line by...a lot when it came out in that regard, IIRC. Similar to how FF8 Graphics were pretty O_o level (particularly the FMVs) at its time.

"Early PSX Level" would be, say, Dragon Quest 7.

[Crystalgate]

Xenogears: I'm currently at the point where I'm supposed to rescue one of Bart's relatives.

The insect/gear hybrid was surprisingly tough. It managed to depleate more than half the HP of both Fei's and Bart's gear before I toke it down. Once I upgraded the gears at Bal's cave, they became a pushover though.

It seems I should have kept a "running away" talk count. I think that count is at 2 so far. Regardless, while this game has some less amusing scenes, the core plot is so far interesting.

[Cotigo]

Ah.  Hyperbole.  Some people don't get it.

Unless Captain is not being hyperbolic as his last reply indicates and is in fact actually saying WA3's graphics are FF7 level, which... come on, man, that's stretching it.

[superaielman]

Disgaea 2- Chapter 5, level 28 or so. Smashing everything in plot battles, going to item world for challenging fights. It's a fun balance so far. Getting a second mage was a godsend.

I ran into an invincible level late into my last item run, so I sat Tink on a panel and had him kill a bunch of enemies. That caught him up fast. Looks like a good PC for a Disgaea monster- range is good and the offense is decent. Rest is garbage, but hey.

Speaking of which, Tink is fucking hilarious and gets plenty of camera time. Score!

[BaconForTheSoul]

All I can say it it's about damn time Super!

Settlers of Catan.  Apparently it's an old game, but my roomate taught me and 2 of our friends how to play last night.  It's pretty fun, even if Kenny beat me on our first real game by half a turn about 30 turns into the game.  Bastard.  The board is new everytime and there are numerous ways to try and win, so I can see us playing it quite a bit.  The only major con is that it's a game that I can't beat my roomates at everytime I play it, which makes me feel inferior!

[IhatethisCPU]

Finally got around to finishing Kuon. Only paid $17.98 for it, and I've enjoyed it more than most of the RE games.

There was one traumatizing moment in real life, when I glanced out of the corner of my eye while playing through the Yin phase and noticed a bull snake coiled next to the water heater. I stood up and quickly sidled out of my room, if you must know.

Twenty minutes later, after my exit, I glanced back in, watched the snake leave through the hole next to the water heater, went over to the PS2, found a save area, and saved. Then I went back to the title screen, reset the PS2, removed the memory card and Kuon, placed them in the case, and then placed both in a dresser, and then went downstairs to sleep on the sofa for about a week afterwards.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

WA3 - Hello, chapter 2! Hello, Prophets! Hello, actual upgrades to my ARMs! Yay, the game's options are starting to widen now that I can use magic without building FP. Going to farm gems for a little while until I have enough to buy horses and then it's back to business.

[Mad Fnorder]

No More Heroes- Beat. Took about 15 hours.

Well. Kind of hard to pin down what makes this game awesome. For starters, the aesthetic is consistent and hilariously over the top. Then again, I like over the top alot. Genuinely a couple of laugh-out-loud moments, too, especially in the Frue Ending. Base gameplay is satisfying, and there's some technical things I wish it explained a little more, but when you figure them out, are amazing. That's one general thing about the game's flaws- the little to do on the overworld, having to drive back and forth for mission select, so on- I guess I'm willing to forgive them entirely because my gut tells me they're, for the most part, INTENTIONAL. It makes this sort of Lo-fi, punk-rock-esque game that Suda 51 aims for.

So, in short- Gameplay generally fun, plot/cutscenes awesome, a bit short, wholly satisfying.

Besides, where else can you stab a guy, kick him in the face, throw your sword in the air, do a flying power bomb, and have the sword land in his torso?

[AAA]

OS-Hey it's Titania well fuck doing all this map here comes the boss it can't be that bad can i

THE FUCK

THE FUCK

THE FUCK
FUCK YOU VANILLAWARE. WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM WHY IS EVERY BOSS EITHER A GIANT PUSH-OVER OR THE MOST ANNOYING THING EVER HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF MODERATION YOU STUPID FUCKS

URRRRRRRRRRGH.

And then I did the Epilogue. I didn't even bother trying to do well on the boss there, just threw on all my Painkillers and won the battle of attrition.

Fuck you Vanillaware.

[superaielman]

All I can say it it's about damn time Super!

Settlers of Catan.  Apparently it's an old game, but my roomate taught me and 2 of our friends how to play last night.  It's pretty fun, even if Kenny beat me on our first real game by half a turn about 30 turns into the game.  Bastard.  The board is new everytime and there are numerous ways to try and win, so I can see us playing it quite a bit.  The only major con is that it's a game that I can't beat my roomates at everytime I play it, which makes me feel inferior!

What can I say, I'm slow sometimes about games. But Disgaea 2's been pretty solidly awesome so far!

And play Grim Grimoire Trips, it is awesome and you can slaughter Fairies by the thousands.

[OblivionKnight]

Settlers of Catan.  Apparently it's an old game, but my roomate taught me and 2 of our friends how to play last night.  It's pretty fun, even if Kenny beat me on our first real game by half a turn about 30 turns into the game.  Bastard.  The board is new everytime and there are numerous ways to try and win, so I can see us playing it quite a bit.  The only major con is that it's a game that I can't beat my roomates at everytime I play it, which makes me feel inferior!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!