What games are you playing 2014?

[Sierra]

Ivory King is fucking unbearable on NG+ (or worse NG++, where there are even more red phantoms).

I tend to skip the outskirts even on NG. There's a nice hat. There's a ring that let's you be sexy even as a phantom. I'm not convinced they're worth it.

[Fenrir]

Every other enemy in the DLC is pancackable with only one hit and the bosses aren't too tough.
Fume Knight + scares me a little more.

Hmmm I really want to invade people in the outskirts at one point.
I'm a jerk.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I think I hate this game.  Circle jerking itself about hurr hurr video games so shitty you guys here I will show you by making a shitty video game.  Also why is the haunted mansion Resident Evil for no fucking reason?

Hey now, you're the crazy person who did sidequests in a Cavia game.
That said Nier is pretty... bare bones I guess is the word I want?  even at the best of times so calling it bad is pretty defensible to say the least.

It is Resident Evil because the Nier they made is not the Nier they set out to make.  The original game concept was like... you move in and out of different Fairy Tales or some such, and I think the idea was going to be that each story was its own genre and atmosphere and hence the weird mishmash of stuff from different games in there.  Honestly I really like that about Nier even in the final product where it's downplayed, but I may also be a sucker for Nier's soundtrack.

Yeah, they do a lot of different genres of things.  Have you gotten to the text adventure yet?

[Sierra]

Every other enemy in the DLC is pancackable with only one hit and the bosses aren't too tough.
Fume Knight + scares me a little more.

Hmmm I really want to invade people in the outskirts at one point.
I'm a jerk.

I did that once.

I couldn't find the host and he psychically used a seed of a tree of giants at the best/worst time.

[hinode]

Pokemon Colosseum: Just confirmed that both my Espeon and Jumpluff have Hidden Power Steel. >_<

[Cotigo]

I just have to imagine Fenrir wearing a Daft Punk helmet while listening to Eurotrash dance music, playing DS and yelling about the club every once in a while while his roommates do his best to pretend that that isn't a thing that is totally happening all over the place.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Super Mario 3D World - Has finally decided in World 3 and 4 not to be uber-easy, so the game is starting to get quite fun. I've mostly been using Princess Peach for mad floaty powers.

Hyrule Warriors - Chain chomp get. I think this might be one of the few references the game makes to LA.

[dude789]

Pokemon ORAS: Started this up and went with Mudkip as the starter. Pretty solid so far although it has the same problem of adding some cool new features while removing other cool ones that all the other pokemon games do (trainer customization is gone, and roller skates might be as well, but the pokenav has some cool stuff.)

One of the most notable changes is that when you're out on the field every so often a pokemon tail or head or something will pop out of the grass and you can sneak up on it to fight it. Some have generic sprites so you won't really know until you fight it, but for others you can tell which pokemon it will be. Sometimes it's against a normal pokemon, but other times it's against a much higher level pokemon with a move it wouldn't normally have. A lot of people have said they caught a level 5 Taillow that already has Brave Bird, and the tutorial example they use is a level 5 Poocheyna with one of the elemental fangs. Normally other pokemon in that route would be around level 2 or 3. I didn't find the Tailow, but when I was wandering through Petalburg woods I found a level 15 Shroomish with Focus Punch. I'm kinda curious to see how the level scaling works with these guys because right now it's looking like it's 2x the level of the other randoms. It would be kind of awesome to be able to encounter a level 80+ pokemon in victory road for example.

Anyway, Roxie got destroyed by the uber shroomish who was even able to use Focus Punch successfully because Nosepass used Harden at the wrong time. Team is currently Marshtomp, Shroomish, Ralts, Lombre and two others. I don't know how long I'm going to keep the Shroomish, but I kind of want to make a Sub/Leech Seed/Spore/Focus Punch set since the game basically handed it to me. It even has Poison Heal for toxic orb shenanigans. 

[Fenrir]

Story of my life Zenny
Story of my life.


I need to point out that what prompted me to go through the Dark Souls 2 DLC (Playing Dark Souls 2 was a problem) was El Cid telling me that there's this bell you can wear on your head and that makes you immune to headshots (which is a really useless side effect) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCUk9V4__zE
No regrets.


Oh I've been playing FF6 Eviltype on and off, and Umaro has become this unstoppable god of destruction. Like I just sent him to the Coliseum right after getting him and got 4 sets of Marvel Shoes? Then I ditched the Marvel Shoes because I didn't really need them and got 4 Exp Eggs instead.
In battle I basically just let him do all the work because it's easier that way. The three other characters play Triple Triad and eventually heal. I always use Umaro and switch the others in anticipation for Kefka's Tower. He's like level 60 now.
Before Umaro, Edgar has been the WoB god he usually is.

ATB would be way better if you could see the enemy bars. As it is, enemy actions feel very unpredictable and random at time. (See Necron from FF9 or Chadarnook here) So I don't feel it's a system very well suited for really difficult challenges? (like say, Penny Arcade 3's insane mode) This is still a fun patch since it's really not very difficult.

In retrospect, things I learnt regarding FF6 that I didn't realize because it was one of my first RPGs:
- The Fanatic Tower boss was such a massive dick move from Squaresoft
- No one is going to get the Paladin Shield and learn Ultima from it unless they grind like hell
- Sorry Mog but the gold hairpin is cooler than your useless water dance and early availability
- I'm 2 cool 2 wait for Shadow. I'm not helping the bastard who left me before boarding the phantom train way back then.

Meanwhile, things confirmed:
- The Opera House scene is still really awkward.
- Fuck Cid and his dumb fish. Maybe he'd survive more easily if he didn't wear that giant yellow raincoat while sleeping and marinate in his sweat.
- Cool mohawk Strago. You're still my fav

[Meeplelard]

Mog > the Gold Hairpin.  Mog's really darn good in the WoB beacuse Dances don't suck there, and he's average level +5, making him a tank to boot.  Gold Hairpin is awful; you're wasting a relic slot to...cast Osmose one less time per 2 MP Cycles in effect? 

The best use of the Gold Hairpin is being an early Dragon Horn, and honestly there are other ways to get that when you actually care about it.


SPEAKING OF FINAL FANTASY STUFF:

Curtain Call: I did a map where I missed a boss, and got 2 Turquoise Shard Bosses along the way, meaning I unlock Celes and then...get stuck with a situation where Paine is the best option left...and there's still 2 other characters!  What the hell Turquoise shards?

[Fenrir]

I dunno, I don't find him groundbreaking at all even with the level advantage. He has no magic at this point (which is terrible) and his dances aren't really awesome compared to other skillsets. The Floating continent is pretty much his only dungeon, and out of the three characters I could choose, I had a lot more useful ones than him.

Casting Osmose less is not awesome but convenient enough!

Edit: Oh wait you can get him before the Sealed Gate, nevermind then.

I still prefer the hairpin

[SnowFire]

Neither Mog nor the Hairpin are all that useful TBH, so pick whichever.  But Mog's battle intro animation is fun, so there's that.

Also Eviltype savagely nerfed Osmose, although it's barely noticeable since it still refills like 2/3 of your max MP (eventually all of it once you pump your Magic), so whatevs.

[superaielman]

Mog's quite useful in the WoB ET  thanks to dances being buffed appreciably. The durablity's nice in eviltype as well.

[Grefter]

I just have to imagine Fenrir wearing a Daft Punk helmet while listening to Eurotrash dance music, playing DS and yelling about the club every once in a while while his roommates do his best to pretend that that isn't a thing that is totally happening all over the place.

So on that same note does everyone else assume Zenny play games just in his underpants and a motorcycle helmet like the Biker from the second mode in Hotline Miami?  Otter obviously wears the other hotline Miami masks of Jacket, but wears a business shirt with no tie and top button undone.

Post I was going to respond about Nier got munched so here is a delayed response CK

It isn't the side quests that bother me. I still kind of like them.  While they are shitty terrible grindy things they are hard work in a post apocalyptic world, especially if you are trying to do good.  They are pretty consistently little stories about family and are on point.  They are consistent and flavourful but have really diverse outcomes even if the activity is variations on kill or fetch quests.

On the other hand the main plot just had me revisit the starting dungeon just to pointlessly violently have one of the characters die that was just fucking resurrected so that they could be removed again.  It decided to follow it up with another dungeon revisit (which is okay) that ended in being told to go away and come back later where FAQ tells me I get to run through the dungeon again.  The plot here involved killing off a side character in the time skip and showing that Nier hasn't visited then in this whole time.  This is Nier who has spent 5 years looking out for the nearby village he lives in, who has built deep relationships and lifelong bonds with people he barely knows, who the concept of family is so key that he will go on a five year crusade to get back hai daughter.  That Nier won't check in on two Orphans who he knows have no parents.  He won't visit the only place that can upgrade and maintain his weapons.

Also I can't tell which genre the underground lab was supposed to be riffing on.  It felt like it was trying to be isometric action/strategy games like Syndicate or Crusader series.  If it was I am thoroughly confused for two reasons.  The ability to rotate the camera kind of threw me off (though some games did have that...), but even more so, those kinds of games haven't been culturally relevant for like 20 years.  The only people that remember that kind if shit is weird grognards and 30+ year old PC gamers like me.  Better talk about them in a PS3 Rpg?  It can't be that.

[Fenrir]

Hmmmm this means Zenny's theme music would be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwrjNgOZo2I
Yeah ok I'm fine with it.

IIRC Nier only cares about his daughter basically (And Kaine because *link to Kaine's artwork*), he doesn't really give a shit about anyone else, but I could be wrong about that.
Really I don't know what the mansion thing was copying but it was pretty cool. My favourite part of the game. Also great music.

[Cmdr_King]

Ah, more annoyed with the gratuitous grimdark than the quest.  Yeah is fair.  Longer post when at home, but Summary is it kinda works but I can't fault someone hating it.

[Cotigo]

I just have to imagine Fenrir wearing a Daft Punk helmet while listening to Eurotrash dance music, playing DS and yelling about the club every once in a while while his roommates do his best to pretend that that isn't a thing that is totally happening all over the place.

So on that same note does everyone else assume Zenny play games just in his underpants and a motorcycle helmet like the Biker from the second mode in Hotline Miami?  Otter obviously wears the other hotline Miami masks of Jacket, but wears a business shirt with no tie and top button undone.

Hmmmm this means Zenny's theme music would be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwrjNgOZo2I
Yeah ok I'm fine with it.

ok guys where's the hidden camera

[Meeplelard]

Bayonetta Wii U: Shock and awe, Grace and Glory are still assholes, Jeane remains fun fights, and finally got Panther Mode so these running segments are now easier.  Also, Form of Bat now available,!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Super Smash Bros. Wii U - Stood in a stupidly long line to pick this up, but successfully acquired it! Played about 10 matches and experimented a bit with the 3DS-as-controller for it. Worked pretty well, actually. Also imported my Mii fighter into the game.

Super Mario 3D World - Did some green star collecting and finished half of World 5. ~

[Dark Holy Elf]

Lunar 2 - I got beaten up by a bunch of kids. Still a pretty fun replay, not much to say about it.

Mario Kart 8 - Got three stars on all the DLC tracks. They were a pretty fun mix, with three being solid homages to other series, three of them being retro tracks (bonus points for Rainbow Road SNES and Yoshi Circuit GCN being two of my favourite tracks in the series, and both are done pretty well), and two new tracks which I am kinda lukewarm on but I wouldn't call them bad. Anyway will probably shelve this back into "mostly multiplayer" territory but there is always an excuse for that.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - Speaking of multiplayer, this came out. It seems a lot like 3DS, perhaps even more than I was expecting? But it's super-pretty, and I do prefer playing multiplayer on one big screen. Not much to say about it, I've just played one round of matches so far, but I will say that I heartilly approve of Score Display being unlocked from the start (also Bowser Jr.) and the ability to change item frequency was a big omission from 3DS so I'm glad to see it's fixed here.

Hyrule Warriors - Broke the 70 hour barrier, still enjoying it a lot. The amount of content in this game is pretty insane (128 adventure mode maps, another 128 on the DLC package we already have... wouldn't be stunned if there is more down the line) so it's obviously going to be a "play until I get bored of it" rather than "play until completion". But that shows no signs of happening so far. Anyway, I now have all L3 weapons for my mains (Zelda, Sheik, Cia, Link, Impa, Lana) except the Great Fairy and baton. The L3 Summoning Gate map was a bitch, but now I can summon chickens with maximum power~

[SnowFire]

Heroes of the Storm - Is anyone in the DL playing this other than metroid composite?  Blizzard is in some ways making this even grindier than League of Legends, but gives you a *gigantic* XP boost if you play with a friend, +50% XP.  They really, really want you to play with friends to the point that solo-queuing is basically pointless.  (They also love opaque huge numbers for some reason.  It's not enough to get 70 XP; no you're earning 67,856 XP for some reason.)  Also the money-grab scent is strong here, stronger than with League.  Sure, who wouldn't want to ride into battle on a rainbow unicorn, but for *20 bucks*?!  No.  (Sure, Rito has 2 "Legendary" skins that cost more than that, but they're total revamps of all the animations of the character and are hugely different.)  League champs tend to cost 5-7 dollars for the expensive ones, and the cheap ones are unlocked via in-game currency; HotS seems to like to charge 7-10 bucks for its expensive champs.

Opening cinematic & tutorial are amusing enough, though.  Raynor vs. Diablo, yes.

[Fudozukushi]

I blame not having an authenticator for not getting Heroes access.  Also my fuck-stupid battletag chosen by someone else because it's a shared account.  Hopefully with Beta coming in January I can get in.

[OblivionKnight]

I've been meaning to install it, and plan to.  So yeah, once I have some free time (around Thanksgiving - going home, in the middle of nowhere, so plenty of free time).

Speaking of games...well, there's a lot here, but most recently on my mind is the NEW AND IMPROVED SUMMONER'S RIFT IN LEAGUE OF LEGENDS.

Only 20 or so games into this, but I have an decent idea of how it plays compared to the old SR.  From an aesthetic standpoint...I've heard people compare its style to Disney, and I do have to agree it does kind of look like Disney.  The colours are brighter, it looks happier, the jungle monsters are cuter...having said that, it doesn't really detract from the game at all.  I do kind of miss the wraiths, but now it looks more like a jungle with jungle monsters. From a gameplay standpoint, the lane that's changed the most is the jungle.  Jungle was my worst lane to begin with, but I could do reasonably well with a few junglers (Amumu, Fiddlesticks, Vi, Hecarim, Sejuani).  Jungle now is overall much less of the same thing, same routes, same timings, etc.  It now seems varied a bit - there are more buffs that have a bit more variety, ranging from a ward, healing, bonus damage, etc.  There's variety in the jungling routes now, other than blue - small camp - small camp - home - red - gank.  Junglers also don't feel so damn polarizingly powerful, as in able to completely control a game by themselves.  They still play a huge role, but it feels like there are more choices now.  Granted, jungle is much tougher, hard to clear completely, and some junglers seem really weak if they don't have good sustain, clear, and mitigation.  I have to say, though...the dragon changes are extremely dominating, and control the game.  It feels like, while there are hypothetical strategic choices in going for objectives or dragon, the benefits of dragon far outweigh getting even 3 towers down.  It seems like every game, whichever team controls the dragon wins the game, towers and inhibitors be damned.  The buffs are crazy, and while I know the dragon is technically more difficult the more buffs you get, the downtime between dragon respawn is more than enough time to get the items and levels to kill it much more easily the subsequent times, especially considering the bonuses it gives.  I like the idea, but it really feels like it needs toned down to some extent.

Anyway, still mostly filling most roles, but best in the mid or top lane. 

[hinode]

Pokemon Colosseum- I managed to catch Suicune on the first Net Ball I toss, and Entei/Raikou weren't too bad either. On the other hand, Murkrow took 3 resets and about 15 Ultra Ball tosses before I got it (I'm abusing the hell out of the infinite ball glitch, so the actual Ultra Ball count never decreased <_<), go figure.

[Dhyerwolf]

Bravely Default- Now for the C8 Boss pain. I ran with the suggestion last time of making a defense build, and I'm sure glad I did (for all that using Desperation seemed to be kind of pointless offensively. Grab Dual Shield from Knight, run Templar, Dark Knight secondary, switch between Dual Shields and weaponry depending). Onto the pain...

Ominas/Holly/Heinkel/Barras- Way easy. Went in with little thought and won. No one here was scary enough.
Ancheim Bosses- Pain in the ass. Profiteur ITD at this point is laughable, but Jackal and Khint were doing a lot of damage with a tendency to brave. I don't think I was running the defense build here yet, although it would have been good. Luckily not too much MT, but yeah, this was a nasty fight
Florem Bosses- Eh. Rampart shone here. Not of them were overly impressive.
Swordmaster Team Fight- FUCK THIS. Ugh, this took way too many tries. Praline is extremely annoying, but even rushing her first still leads to Kami entering the fight. Kikyo, is one of the easiest alone, is such a massive pain in a team. She loves to use the initiative move and kill off someone who already took damage. Really can't underline how much tries I needed. Need to rush Praline and still be in decent shape. This is where the physical build shone. Completely necessary to beat this fight.
De Rosso-Yulyana- There's only two of them, and DeRosso is easy to predict at this point.

Eternia Central
Fight 1- Not bad at all. Profiteur gained a new trick, but one that was easily gotten around. Defense build great again here..
Fight 2- Not bad either.
Fight 3- Another hideously painful fight. Defense build was very badly needed. Again, you need to rush Praline (and with ST or else face Alternis' wrath). Praline just becomes such a monster in team battles.
Fight 4- What. The. Fuck. Jesus, there is no good way to protect against Fire Bane. I was hoping the anti-status move would get, but no such luck. I haven't beat this yet; also blah to Fire Bane overriding the anti-Fire equips. This fight...my best idea is so wait, save up SP, rush Qada (which joy, leads to him getting nasty, so I'll need to run a Ninja strat despite it being completely pointless for everyone else in the fight) and...use SP right after Qada uses Fire Bane and pray. If I'm lucky, the turn order on turn 1 would be Spiritmaster->Mephilia/Ominas->Qada. Maybe slowing down Qada might do it (if it effects on the same turn order). Regardless, this fight is evil as fuck.

Even the strategy guide best advise is to equip 20% and 30% up Mdef and run 3 Spiritmasters (yeah, I have two, so 3 is not happening). Even some moves that halve damage really are not enough due to Fire Bane Mephilia doing like 9500 MT damage.