What Games ya Playin' 2012 - Suplex a Train Edition

[Shale]

Orcs Must Die! Into act two. The arena was great. Space for arrow walls everywhere, death from above courtesy of the archer guardians with flame arrows...nice.

Jamestown: this game is still awesome, but surprisingly short. Working on the challenges before finishing the main stages.

Cave Story+ - Grasslands. Didn't realize when I started that hard mode was an enforced 3-health run. This should be fun.

Serious Sam 3: Stage 4. Game's fun, but I'm looking forward to it getting more Sam-ish soon.

[Luther Lansfeld]

FE10- Part 3-Prologue. I'm trying to use Nealuchi in this playthrough. Doesn't come back until late though.

2-Endgame was interesting without using Brom. It put more pressure on me to blitz the map, which worked out pretty well. Turtling may not even be the way to go, for all that it is what I traditionally do. This is one of my favorite maps in the game and I let Elincia kill the boss for karma's sake.

I want my Dawn Brigade back. I don't want to do the boring Greil chapters.

[Fenrir]

Great Greed is hilarious. I'm convinced my best friend is actually Bio-Hazard Harry.

He probably is, Ciato. He probably is.

Metal Max Returns Solo: Can't help starting another challenge since the high school one has dreadfully boring gameplay now and Star Ocean 2 has the equally dreadful Lacour stuff coming up.



Better plot than Tales of the Abyss.

I am stealing fire extinguishers from every house in the game, because who would ever have an use for them in this kinda post apocalyptic world filled with tanks. Also I stole my dad's shirt because he's a jerk.

Much like Anachronox is a JRPG made in the west, this feels like a WRPG made in Japan. Kinda. Well, it's really non linear and the gameplay focus isn't on battles.
There's a tight economy and you need to really be focused to spend your money on equipment for your tank/character instead of useless junk (-> You can give money to your dad, some ruined school, some bird that eats gold, you can buy leather covered seats for your tank, you can buy expensive paintings for your house, etc etc) Obviously I'm really bad at this. But really, the leather covered seats were totally worth it!

I'm up to the old factory in the east.

[Fudozukushi]

(Incidentally, can you only get one of those "Agent of [deity]" passive abilities? I've done a couple divine quests, but of the powers the two quests purportedly gave me, only the first shows up in the active effects listing.)

There's only the two Agent perks.  Dibella with 10% bonus damage to opposite sex and Mara with +15 Magic Resist for no effort whatsoever.  I, don't know if they can stack or not, so I'll check it out myself tomorrow.

Yep, they should stack.  Agent of Dibella is under it's own effect, while Agent of Mara is under the Resist Magic effect.

[El Cideon]

Then I'll just attribute the fact of it not being listed to Skyrim being crazy buggy.

Cave Story+ - Grasslands. Didn't realize when I started that hard mode was an enforced 3-health run. This should be fun.

This realization is what quickly made me restart on Normal. Incidentally, I miss the days when Balrog said, "Huzzah!" instead of being a Kool-Aid Man stand-in. Maybe I'm just being nostalgic, but I find the original translation more charming. I definitely prefer the original music, but that I think is pretty clearly the Cid being an old person who doesn't like when things are different.

Wind Temple jumps own my face.

[Shale]

I find the translations pretty much equal aside from the Huzzah!/Oh yeah! thing. I do like the new music, though.

[Captain K.]

Dark Souls:  First time I've put this back in the machine since Skyrim came out.  So time to check out the big patch.

My divine mace+10 is doing a bit more damage.  I think the patch notes said 20%; that sounds about right.  Not an eye-raising improvement, but better than nothing.  Miracles on the other hand...  Great Lightning Spear is doing about 60% more damage.  That's fucking awesome.  Even regular Lightning Spear will 2hko a regular enemy.  Wrath of God damage doesn't seem to have increased, but it was already good so whatever.

I was having trouble beating Demon Firesage before the patch and still having trouble afterward.  So I started looking at my armor options for more fire resistance.  Wait a minute... I can wear Smough's armor without penalty now?  And it's better than my Elite Knight+10 set in every way?  Yes please!

So I smacked the Firesage upside his head and beat the Centipede Demon with Sunbro.  Also saved Sunbro's life - I think.  Well, nothing a little Prozac won't help.

[Xeroma]

Serious Sam 3: Stage 4. Game's fun, but I'm looking forward to it getting more Sam-ish soon.

Oh DOES IT EVER.

[Excal]

Been playing a lot of Hotel Dusk, reached the last chapter, and it's been pretty fulfilling. The issues I've been having with the game have been dropping since interrogation/conversations have become more central, and I've gotten used to how the game drops hints so there's less hitting every option to see what will move the plot on.

Only one character left whose deal has not been learned, and it should be fun to see how that works out.


However, while I'm at home, something else has overtaken it. Namely, a cheap copy of Arkham Asylum crossed my path. I do not know if my estimation of this game will drop with time. But I do not think it can get any higher.  It's just so damned fun, and the life bar is...  well, it looks a lot bigger than it is, which just means that you have to stay on the ball in combats. The best part is, usually you start fights with initiative, and how you start the fight matters so much. There's just something fun about lurking around a bunch of thugs figuring out how best to get the drop on them. As well, the Inverted Takedown is easily one of my favourite moves in anything like this, because there's something satisfying about dropping onto a goon from above, and then dropping him down to dangle helplessly while his buddies start panicking.

Currently on the hunt for Harley Quinn, though I've been leaving the Riddler stuff alone for the most part right now. That said, now that I have the fourth major tool, I might just start paying more attention to those challenges.

[MC50]

It's been a while, and I'm not sure what I've said before, but I'm going over a few games I've played recently here.

This is definitely disjointed. I'm just writing down whatever comes to mind. Probably a few spoilers in here also.

Xenosaga Series
 - Finished. It's been a while now, so I don't remember everything that happened.

I stuck with the same team in all three games.
Jr/MOMO/chaos.

Jr. Was solid in the first game, though having only physical damage sucked at some points, but was great at others (Those magic absorbing, flying...

things.) He was average in the second and third games, though not bad in either.

MOMO was mediocre in the first game, her HP was way too low. She was very good in the second game! She dealt lots of damage. The third game she was,

again, pretty good. I honestly remember the least about the battles in the third game, even though I remember thinking they weren't bad. I guess they were just forgettable.

chaos was OK in the first game, though I never got all his techs because come on. He was the knocker-downer in the second game, and... Probably... Did something in the third.

Battle System wise...
 - The first game was a bit repetitive, but not bad. It was slow, but I remember the battles more. The hardest part in the game (Actually, all three games) was the... Song of Nephilim, I think it was called? The one with the flamethrower soldier randoms. Those were the toughest enemies in the game. I think that was the only time in any of the games I felt like I just needed more HP, so I had to grind.

 - Second game... It seemed like it would be good if you played it "right." I don't think I did it completely wrong, my team was luckily enough to not

overlap on elements, and I only had one down/air-er. I did eventually get the hang of it, and didn't think most of the boss fights were too bad. Hated the randoms though. Just seemed stupidly durable. And I weep for someone with a, say, Shion/chaos/Ziggy team.

 - Third game had a simple, easy battle system. It was nice to be... Well, simple and easy, after the last game. I remember enjoying it, but I don't actually remember any fights.

Storywise, it just seemed like there were way too many characters. And they introduced more every game, and never gave any of them enough screentime. I was satisfied with the game after beating Dmitri, though the after that stuff was a bit... odder. I've got a pretty open mind though, and it was at least pretty and flashy.

I'm not sure exactly how I would rate them. I enjoyed them, but I hadn't played an RPG in a while.

Anyway, on to .Hack GU

Team, when they were all available, was Haseo/Sakubo/Antares. Swapped Antares out for Yata at the end.

Switched between pretty much all the weapnos for Haseo. Big sword was best in the first game. Enjoyed guarding to cancel my lag, it made me feel like a pro. Twin swords got way better in game two. Scythe took some getting used to but might have been the weapon I used most, Heavenly Wheel is great. Guns are solid as well, but you get them pretty late so it's tough to judge.

Plotwise/Pacingwise, I always felt in each game that they started out decently enough, got slow during the middle, and picked up near the end. Leveling up too much seemed to make the bosses too easy, so after a while I tried to stay underleveled.

The toughest fight I remember was against Kite and friends on the third game. I ended up just grinding out a few levels, though I might have been able to do it otherwise... Which of course made them too easy, as well as the last boss. Oh well.

Oh and Sakaki fails. Atoli screeching all the time in the fight against her avatar was pretty... funny, too.
I liked the avatar battles... Except the last one. That one was just really repetitive. I mean, they were easy, but I liked the change of pace.

Probably liked these more than Xenosaga. Haven't played the originals, but they look pretty different.

Also played Fate/Extra, Archer servant. Liked this game a lot, though I am a Type Moon fan. Rin Route. Lost once against Caster due to stunlock. Died to randoms about... three times? All were my own fault, though, for not paying enough attention, or leaving myself open for too long without throwing a skill or heal inbetween.

It seemed like the big secret to the game was "Heal even when you aren't hurt. And if you're making three blind guesses in a row, throw a skill in there." That pretty much worked most of the time.

Also died twice against Berserker, and twice to Saber (just because of NP, though I Rho Aias'd it afterwards.)

Last boss was a joke. Elixir/Fake Spiral Sword spam = Win. Actually that pretty much beat Saber to, I just got cocky and walked into an instakill.

Plot was good! ...Well, it kind of lost me at the end. But I was into talking to all the NPCs and seeing their updated text and such every round, so it must have done something to keep my interest. Probably the game I've liked the most of those I've played recently.

Also playing Wild ARMs 5. I'm at the four towers. I had been plodding along right now, but a lot of sidequests are open to me now, and I went up one of the towers with some difficulty, and ran into a huge Save Point Unlock guy that took forever to kill (Though I wasn't actually in any danger), and tried Persephone once or twice, realized if I could win I would exhaust all my resources, and climbed down.

Basically I need to either grind or do sidequests. What sidequests would be the easiest/most helpful? Or easy to get good badges and such.

Team is usually Chuck/Carol/Avril. Chuck = Moon, Carol = Sea, Avril = Sky. Though I do switch the others in when needed.

That's mostly it. I'm probably forgetting some stuff. I'll post more eventually when I think of it/play something exciting.

[El Cideon]

Skyrim: Will you eat a dude to get a ring that gives you health boosts from eating dudes y/n?

-N.

Quest failed!

[Captain K.]

I carry that ring around just to aid in my intimidation attempts.  "You see this ring?  You know what this means?  Yeah, I fucking eat people.  Now give me the information before I get hungry."

Skyward Sword:  finished obligatory fire temple.  The puzzles in this game are so illogical.  There's a breakable wall on the side of a cliff.  You would think you would need to throw a bomb at it.  But no, you're supposed to roll the bomb along the ground.  Now why would an explosion on the ground reach a breakable wall high up on the cliff?  No idea, but that's what every puzzle in this game is like.  They seem to reward goofing around and spazzing on the controller instead of thinking things through.  Granted there is an ingame hint system for when you get stuck, but that involves flying back to Skyloft first.

OoE:  New Game plus.  Getting all the boss medals except for Giant Enemy Crab, because fuck Giant Enemy Crab.  Only have Eligor and Dracula left.

Dark Souls:  Bed of Chaos beaten.  Only have Gwyn left.  But I'm going to grind for rare weapons and things first because I am a pussy and don't want to do it when enemies are harder on new game plus.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Being able to mention that ring and what it does in an intimidation attempt sounds like more role-playing than in all of Skyrim's actual game put together.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Odinsphere: Finally finished this game after forgetting it existed for like 5 years or something...
The End of the World sections were really impressive. Story was fun. The last few scenes of the ending were meh, but overall the Story is really strong. A nice Epic Poem-style storytelling.

As a result though, it turns out that nearly every named character in the cast is royalty, which mildly annoys me and simultaneously amuses me.

[Captain K.]

Plants vs Zombies:  54 flags in survival, eclipsing Doma's 45 flag effort.  The actual losing occurred around flag 50, with combined Red Gargantaurs and Zombonis.  Stuck it out the rest of the way through sheer willpower.  Had one scare earlier as well when dolphin zombies wrecked my pool glooms, but I managed to rebuild from that.

As threats go:  Zombonis > not being able to see your cursor when there's too much shit on the screen > Red Gargantaurs > dolphin zombies.  Nothing else is really threatening.

Got all the achievements for the game and bought all the houses, although I choose to live in the Clown House because BIG SHOES.

Might get Orcs Must Die since it's on sale, or perhaps I've had my fill of tower defense for the time being.

[Captain K.]

Dark Souls:  got all the rare weapon drops.  Hardest was the Channeler's Trident.  That took about two hours.  And uh, wow, I am loving the drop rate on Twinkling Titanite now.  It's like 80% with max item discovery.  I can +5 a full set of armor in about 15 minutes.

KoF13:  Mr Karate is a bit different than Takuma.  He actually has an air game now.  I'm liking the midair Heinshippu more than I initially expected.  The uppercut -> cancel is really nice.  Very safe.  But what he lost is combos.  Regular Takuma can destroy you if he gets a hit in.  Mr Karate not so much.  So it's a matter of options/mixups vs touch of death combos.

Haven't messed around with his counters much but they seem useful.

[Shale]

Orcs Must Die!: Into act 3. The game sort of grew a plot! Weird. Still loads of fun. Boosted paladins are pretty damned awesome, at least until kobolds start running wild - but that's what brimstone is for. Third map of the act coming up, just got ceiling-mounted ballistas.

[Fenrir]

Captain: Wow, you got really unlucky with the Channeler's trident. I got 1 of them without even trying, two others by farming for less than 5 minutes.
You can buy Twinkling Titanite now, from the Anor Londo blacksmith, and it's cheap if you farm souls in Dark Anor Londo (I sincerely doubt you'd go there though) or in the forest, behind the sealed door. (there's a hidden bonfire nearby)

Metal Max Returns Solo:
I thought tank battles would be hard, on foot battles easy. It's the opposite. I still can't beat an on foot battle from very early (Mr Muscle. Let's not even talk about the crocodile in the sewers), yet my tank obliterates everything. And I'm still in the starting tank. He's crazy. I still run out of money all the time despite having only one character and his tank to outfit!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Fire emblem 10 - Got through 3-7 and 3-8, the game's boring lowlight maps, as well as the very fun Crimea chapter. Now we have to 'save' Elincia from teh evilz.

[Captain K.]

Considering how many "Help!  I need the Channeler's Trident" topics there are on various message boards, I'm more inclined to say that you had an abnormal run of good luck rather than that I was unlucky.  As for buying Twinkling Titanite, rather pointless when it's this easy to farm.  I can save my souls for other things.

Not sure if I want to activate Dark Anor Londo or not.  Kind of toying with the idea of being super healz guy to help people with bosses in Princess's Guard.  Pity you can't be a Sunbro and Princess's Guard at the same time.

[Fenrir]

80% does sound ridiculous yeah. I believe it's still slower than soul farming but only on NG+.

I think usually the people you'll help will always heal themselves naturally and will not really wait for you to heal with Soothing Sunligh. And they won't learn to adapt to your healing because you probably won't meet them ever again after that one fight.
Sunbros seem better because every survivor gets a medal after every boss if there's a sunbro fighting + the soul sign glows gold + best emote in the game.

I'm tempted to replay to try out a build centered around that Faith weapon with ridiculous requirements (50 Str 30 Faith?). And a depraved run of course. Damn.

[superaielman]

Orcs Must Die!: Into act 3. The game sort of grew a plot! Weird. Still loads of fun. Boosted paladins are pretty damned awesome, at least until kobolds start running wild - but that's what brimstone is for. Third map of the act coming up, just got ceiling-mounted ballistas.

Ogres are a bigger problem for Paladins- physics trap those fuckers into pits whenever you can. Kobolds.. man, I didn't even think of Brimstone. And the dialog is great during the actual chapters; it's worth paying attention to while you maim ogres.

[Fenrir]

I think this warranted a new post.

Lufia 2 DS: This is Amon's new look.



He does 670HKO damage.

[Shale]

Ogres are a bigger problem for Paladins- physics trap those fuckers into pits whenever you can. Kobolds.. man, I didn't even think of Brimstone. And the dialog is great during the actual chapters; it's worth paying attention to while you maim ogres.

Ogres I freeze. Frost ogres... Ballista? Brimstone won't handle entire groups of kobolds before it had to recharge, but it thins them out enough to manage with magic or the bow.

[OblivionKnight]

I think this warranted a new post.

Lufia 2 DS: This is Amon's new look.



He does 670HKO damage.

Yeah, the Sinistral design in Curse of the Sinistrals is...uh...special.  Except for Daos and Erim, and...honestly, those are plot fights >_> 

BEWARE THE CLAM OF DOOM!