What are y'all playing? ver 2.0

#301

On Friday and Saturday I played Freedom Wars. Friday was co-op and Saturday was doing the story portion and farming for some loot/make weapons stronger. There is something about this game that makes me totally addicted. The weapon upgrade, modifying and forging system has a bit of luck involved with the modules, but it feels less repetitive and time consuming than say Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. The AI in the game is impressive. They all have their own personalities and something to say whenever a story bit comes up. When you level them up with the entitlement points, they truly become stronger and more aggressive. They even each have a different behaviour despite their ā€˜job classā€™. The weapons themselves feel great to use, adding guns to a MH genre is nice. The different forms of thorns and their abilities based on charge levels is also nicely executed. The game is easy to pick up and play, very suited for handhelds. Itā€™s a different feel to MH and has a different structure.

Yesterday I completed the first disc of Blue Dragon. And my, the first disc went with a bang. I truly enjoyed the last area and it was because of the story mostly! Allow me to explain myself. You know when there is a certain point in RPGs when you have NPCs trying to defeat the boss themselves, or trying to rescue their city/town? Usually they always end up failing hard despite being highly trained soldiers. Something similar was about to happen and the NPCs were like, we trained for this moment, with your help weā€™ll succeed blahblah! At that point I was like, oh boy. This is going to end in a tragic way. And as it started I kept fearing the worst. As it all ended, they succeeded surprisingly. Sure the boss barely managed to escape, but the soldiers with the help of the main characters and king managed to destroy the mothership that caused all disasters, the soldiers fought bravely, it was apparent how they were well trained and how they took command from the king. The scientists took years to investigate something that helped stop the disasters, they took years and it payed off. The way this part was directed was wonderful. The main characters did their part to shut down the 6 reactors but the NPCs also had their part that was just as important carried out successfully. And there were 5 boss fights that I enjoyed tremendously in that section. I like to see more of this, Iā€™ll be head over heels if disc 2 and 3 are going to good like that.

#302

I beat Assassinā€™s Creed Unity. Ubisoft needs to reexamine how they do final boss fights because theyā€™re becoming predictable in every AC game. It goes something like this (Unity included): The assassin protagonistā€™s mission is to infiltrate a heavily guarded fortress to kill the Templar Grand Master, and when he reaches him, he discovers that heā€™s able to wield a supernatural weapon (itā€™s powered by an Apple of Eden, ancient alien technology). A one-on-one fight ensues, and the strategy is to sneak around the area, not to be detected by the Grand Master, so you can inflict the finishing blow to him unexpectedly. If you do get detectedā€“even if youā€™re a couple inches away from himā€“heā€™ll blow you back several feet with a blast of powerful energy using the Apple-powered weapon. Rinse and repeat until you successfully manage to assassinate him. Iā€™ll note that I spoiled all that becauseā€“despite it being vagueā€“itā€™s what occurs when you fight the final boss. Very much a drag that Elise got killed off. I loved her character, even more than Arno.

Another thing Ubisoft needs to stop doing (among a list of complaints) is having very long collectible side quests in order to get the best armor in the game. In Unityā€™s case, it couldnā€™t be done relatively quickly without a guide to follow. You not only had to go in several parts of the city to examine certain sections of buildings for various symbols, but you had to figure out where they were located by reading riddles consisting of cryptic passages. Fuck that mess. The outfit you get is the Medieval Armor, Thomas de Carneillonā€™s Master Assassin Outfit. It doesnā€™t look very extravagant. Not unlike Arnoā€™s Master Assassin outfit.

Right now, Iā€™m playing through the DLC Dead Kings. Iā€™m doing royal crypt hunting for ancient treasures. I honestly forgot what it was Iā€™m searching for. The plot to this DLC is forgettable. Eh, at least it was free thanks to Ubisoftā€™s blunders with Unityā€™s overall performance. There are a couple new items you can use in this. You can light a lantern, and refill the oil while youā€™re in underground caverns. There is also what is known as a Guillotine Gun. Iā€™m most looking forward to using that. I hope itā€™s as brutal as it sounds.

All in all, I enjoyed Unity. Iā€™m going to jump into Assassinā€™s Creed Rogue soon. My plan is to beat all the ACā€™s before Assassinā€™s Creed Victory (if thatā€™s the official title for it, it hasnā€™t received a proper unveiling) rolls around.

Iā€™ve been chipping away at Tales of Symphonia. I killed Magnius and self-detonated the Palmacosta Human Ranch, then I went in the Thoda Geyser and broke the Seal of Water. I like this more than Tales of Legendia, but less than Tales of Vesperia. I think Vesperia canā€™t be topped for me yet, but I still claim ignorance because Iā€™ve yet to play several Tales games. I canā€™t, for the life of me, understand how to successfully perform the Unison attacks. Rather, I can do the button presses for some of my characters, but I think you have to do timed button presses for each of your four party members to unleash a group special attack? Iā€™m not sure. I canā€™t figure it out. The game isnā€™t clear on how to do it.

#303

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I managed to beat Chaos Rings in about 4.5 hours. The puzzle sections are cool, but it fails as an RPG. The most efficient combat strategy is to only use fight/heal and equipment/customization is not very important at all. The story was not bad and they did well to stick to a simple plot with infrequent cutscenes.

#304

playin 999

akane is so lewd, everything is sexual to her goddamn JUST FUCK ALREADY
then she has super obscure knowledge moments where she is basically a walking encyclopedia infodump

I really, really, already regret playing VLR first though

gameplay wise I think VLR beats its hands down, because math bullshit is not fun.

2d sprites are good though, though the 3d wasnt bad in VLR.

need dat 3rd game!

#305

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Thereā€™s a bit of graphical artifacting, the camera is a bit janky, and itā€™s a trip to the past using arrow keys and enter for actions and the game menu, but Iā€™m intrigued so far. Soul vampires, regular vampires, eldritch monsters, solid voice talent and writingā€¦ I am intrigued :smile:

#306

Good luck with the audio glitches, i had to stop playing because they made me constantly nauseous.

#307

Playing Grim Fandango.

Fuck this game has some obtuse puzzles.

#308

This is why I canā€™t be fucked to play 90ā€™s point and click adventures regardless of the writing. The puzzles go out of their way to be illogical and awful.

I play them with a guide or not at all.

#309

I got Infinity Blade II for free a long time ago and I started playing it now that I have a more powerful phone. Itā€™s pretty fun although I donā€™t think it will last that long.

#310

Starting to dip into Destiny (Xbone) today with a friend. Itā€™s fun, but at this stage I canā€™t say Iā€™m very interested in grinding for rare weapons or items. Will play out the SP content in co-op, see the multiplayer, and see if Iā€™m feeling the expansions after that.

#311

I think Grim Fandango just froze after three hours of consistent progress.

Iā€™m mad

#312

No auto save?

#313

Well i think i have just ran out of things to do in Destinyā€™s free trial.

#314

At least the trial is representative of the game.

#315

The second episode of Game of Thrones (Telltale) was even better than the first.

#316

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I really wanted to like Apotheon and I gave it an extra chance after reading positive reviews and comparisons with Dark Souls. The combat is a floaty mess with imprecise targeting and horrendous enemy AI.

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The combat system in Transistor feels much more rewarding. With my current seven unlocked skills there is already plenty of variety.

#317

I picked up Super Stardust Ultra and itā€™s almost identical to the PS3 game.

#318

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Rogue Legacy is amazingly addictive. Apparently, upgrades become more expensive every time you upgrade something and Iā€™m pretty sure I could have chosen a better path. Yesterday I managed to beat the first boss and Iā€™ve unlocked plenty of stat upgrades, equipment and enchantment runes.

I havenā€™t tried it on the Vita yet, but the cross-save synchronization seems to be working flawlessly.

#319

Oh yes i tried that too, loved it. Iā€™m far too careless to actually make any progress. Is it Spelunky like where you always start at the beginning or can you eventually move to different parts of the map instantly?

#320

The map feels much smaller than in Spelunky and, even though the enemies scale with your level, the first section of castle will become easy after a while. The other sections are always in the same relative position so if you want to get to the forest you can always dash your way through to the east.

Once you have unlocked The Architect you can lock down the castle design and revisit the same map as your previous character. You can instantly teleport to the bosses so this is the perfect way to either practice or force your way past them.

The barbarian is probably the best class to use in the beginning. More life means larger margins for mistakes.