[Guillotine]

[Talbain]

[Mr. Mechanical]

Yeah, Bioware-style dialog trees are dinosaurs now and Alpha Protocol is the best version of that type of game design and it's not even a Bioware game. I've come to think of Mass Effect and its like as sort of very interactive visual novels.

I almost said Choose Your Own Adventure but those books actually have different outcomes based on your choices. In Mass Effect all roads lead to Rome but you get to set the road signs.

I like how my Shepard is looking more and more like the Terminator as this game goes on.
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[Ymer]

Just finished Metroid Prime. Had to look up 3 missile expansions (hole behind the vines in the temple corridor, the one with the X-ray platforms in Magmoor caverns and one you power bomb to get in the first Phazon Mines corridor) but otherwise got 100%.

Thought the backtracking got a bit heavy when you get the Ice Beam. Combined with that being around the time the time when the world stopped being "magical" for me and instead of seeing ancient ruins I see textured polygons that impede my progress it wasn't a perfect experience but still worthwhile. Couldn't quite beat the mystical adventure I had with original FDS Metroid but I doubt anything can ever touch that insanity.

I have now also learnt that apparently the American version of the game didn't have this fucking guy which would've been an immediate point reduction:


https://vine.co/u/1004756037402001408
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[Intentionally Wrong]

I've been playing Hearthstone idly; my dedication/skill is low enough that I can't reliably rank up or go infinite in arena, but I can at least knock my daily quests out every two or three days to keep the F2P cash rolling in. I can't ever accumulate more than 400 dust before I get impatient and craft shit I don't really need. It's a problem.

My computer isn't really good enough to stream with any quality, but I'm probably going to start streaming LISA this afternoon. My channel is here, and I will probably cross-post this to my dedicated youtube account. If my first attempt is any indication, this should be wonderful for fans of the crud aesthetic.
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[Tokyo Rude]

[Mikey]

I'm not sure what to make of The Binding of Isaac, yet. The aesthetic leaves me completely cold. Isaac is so pitiable that it makes me squirm. The controls feel responsive, but the corresponding movement on screen seems slippery, it's a weird disconnect. Many of the items are completely opaque in their applications/behavior.

I'm halfway tempted to read an FAQ and just have it all spelled out for me.

[John Mc.]

Hey Rudie I can see that being the case. Viewtiful Joe quite seems more the high score action kind of game, and it has a groove to the action wherein I am beating guys (dare I say) stylishly. I'm up to episode three and I must say that it's fantastic. I even destroyed those damn helicopters (thanks Mr. Mechanical!).

I think that playing through this and the sequel will complete my Kamiya discography with the exception of Bayonetta 2. I will probably be looking into that soon!

[Rud31]

[Ymer]

He does a little intro and ending narration to the game as well. It's ridiculous.
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[Dark Age Iron Savior]

After putting it off for years, I finally played a couple hours of Contact. I really wasn't expecting how much it would remind me of Shining Soul II, or a number of other evocative things about it. It's possibly I'm not ready for it....

[Mikey]

Goddamn, I thought X-COM: EU was tough, but I am awful at keeping people alive in The Banner Saga. Think I'm in for a restart of my campaign and I'm barely into it.

[notbov]

the MMO part of ESO is pretty bog standard: you go around, do some quests, it tells a story, you are the most important person in the world. the main TES influence comes in the character building. there's 5 archetypes that you pick from when you create your character, which determine 3 sets of active and passive skills you can unlock and level, like talent trees. the curveball they throw here is that the 6 weapon types (sword and board, 2H, dual wield, bow, destruction staff, healing staff) also have their own sets of active and passive skills, as do the 3 armor types, as do the guilds you can join (the in-universe Fighters' Guild, for example) and Soul magic for soul gems, along with passive skills for every profession (I think there's 6-8 of these) and your race and apparently you can unlock vampirism and lycanthropy at some point and the game doesn't tell you how to mix and match all of these skills (which you have to pay to unlock in skills points, which you get for leveling up and certain quests and collectibles), so you more or less make some nonsense up that hopefully synergizes or does what you want since the game still has the holy trinity (which are more reflected in the weapon skills than the class skills), but this also means all of the archetypes are just starting points and you can do whatever goofy nonsense you want within that sandbox (no training alchemy up and making a super jump potion and then you're flying all over the place, but like making a heavy armored, 2 handed-weapon sorcerer). it's a pretty refreshing change from the usual "everyone at the level cap is 99% the same" stuff and probably a fair treatment of TES leveling within the context of a theme park MMO.

also, there's a ton of loose shit you can steal and no guards to hunt you down for it (they're actually patching in pick pocketing soon, which should be hilarious)
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[RadRad]

On a little mobile kick right now.
Here are some of my impressions of the following games...

Five Nights At Freddy's
Playing this game on my phone, with loud volume, at night, before I go to bed.
I on the 4th night.
This game is simple, great and effective with its tension/horror. The cheap jump scares, the tension that builds up when nothing is happening, its just great.

Crossy Road
This is the new Ridiculous Fishing.
Love the art style, the loop of gameplay design, the unlockables, even the way it handles ads and rewarding you and your time.
I freaking love this game.
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http://www.iamthefourth.com/

[evnvnv]

i finished BoF2. the final boss has my first name, and i named the protag after my cat. so... that's something
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The text will not live forever. The cup are small

[Loki Laufeyson]

fight human oppression!
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http://lunaticobscurity.blogspot.com/ - newest post: Snezhaja Koroleva (Arcade)
http://lunargarbagehell.blogspot.com/ - newest post: Batman: Digital Justice

[Talbain]

Slowly working through Assassin's Creed 4. The ship building and exploration is charming, despite the story being dull so far. Just arrived at Nassau and over the course of a couple days, completed it.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

[Talbain]

Yeah, that's how I feel too. It's the kind of game I can complete in small chunks. And so far it chunks itself pretty nicely.
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[John Mc.]

Well, Hideki Kamiya made a man of me (again) and I beat Viewtiful Joe. I love how going into a boss you just can't see any way that you could ever beat him, and then 40 minutes later you are just styling hard on them. Fantastic game, and has that whimsical bent that just makes me grin from ear to ear.

Had to work over the weekend, which mainly entails sitting by a phone and waiting for disaster to strike. In between disasters, I played the first GBA Fire Emblem. I normally don't like tactical RPGs, though this one is oddly engrossing. I like the (seeming) simplicity of the battle system, though trying to keep my army alive is becoming trickier. I worry I may be too OCD to see it through. I'm up to chapter 19 now, with my army intact. I'm not sure how many more times I can scream "GOD DAMNIT, FLORINA" and remain sane, though.

[allensmithee]

[Felix]

divinity original sin is phenomenal

best turn based combat in years, world design and tone and writing on par with witcher 2

[Felonious Monk]

[Talbain]

I don't remember where I stopped but I do remember the difficulty being balls hard given that I'm playing Original Sin with just the two main heroes. Enjoying it a lot though. Fireball is ridiculous if well-placed.
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[Robosaurus]

I downloaded Chariot on a whim because we haven't gotten a good co-op thing going in my house for a while. We've only played a few hours, but so far it's pretty good. My girlfriend keeps forgetting to anchor the casket down, so that's entertaining.

[Mr. Mechanical]

Played Fez for a little bit on steam. I like it! So far I've managed to collect 5 cubes and 2 anti-cubes, along with two treasure maps. This is a cool little world to explore and poke at.

I heard Phil Fish swore off making games because of the haters and that's a shame if he really does. This is a cool game. He probably has more cool games in him.
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[John Mc.]

Is it just me, or do the Ocarina of Time ports to the Gamecube not really work very well? Like, the action isn't quite as robust as I remember. Maybe nostalgia is just failing me? I tried to play the Master Quest but I mainly found every part about playing it grating.

I tried playing Odama. It is a very interesting, daring game with some cool thematic elements and what seems like some sound production qualities. Unfortunately, it is almost unplayable. There's just too much stuff in it. This could have been a really really great video pinball game without all the faux, poorly-responsive strategy elements. Maybe I'll give it a little more time. It really feels like the people who made this actually gave a damn about it; perhaps I'm just not getting it...

Edit - Oh god these are the Seaman guys. Yeah, I'll probably just need to work on this one some more...

I started to play F-Zero GX, which rules. Trying to do the story mode, and up to chapter 3. This is going to be more of a marathon though with having so many tickets to earn, so I'll probably play some between other games.

[scratchmonkey]

I have never passed the first level in F-Zero GX story mode. I seem to remember there was a boulder section that got me every time.

[notbov]

that's the second chapter (the race with Goroh). the first is the practice race where you have to pick up orbs, which, if I recall, went in difficulty like "easy, kinda hard, AV Demands Perfection From Your Damned Hands"

that's a pretty good description of every chapter's difficulties except for the actual F-Zero race which is some fucking bullshit on top of the game actually actively cheating even on normal.
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[scratchmonkey]

I feel a little better that I made it to the second chapter and also that I missed some egregious rubber-banding. Racing games that pull that stunt leave a bad taste in my mouth.

[John Mc.]

I kind of thought that everyone can boost now, and do, so one has to take that into account. Not sure though. There is a good bit of boosting I do toward the end of every race. I can imagine things getting fairly insane past novice...

[Felonious Monk]

Still playing Divinity OS pretty much exclusively.

I've managed to kick the crap out every other enemy in Cyseal but i'm stuck on Braccus Rex, who manages to kill at least one or two of my gals immediately on every attempt. Wondering if this is one of those Butcher-type fights and i should just roll up to Silverglen and level up some?

And i still haven't found Unsinkable Sam's collar although i swear i've looked every damn place for it.

[Felix]

B.R. is an awesome difficulty spike but he's also an example of excellent game design in that you're likely to get murdered within one turn on your first attempt but you should be close to winning by your third. I won at level 9 without too much trouble.

tips:

separate up your party beforehand so that when the fight starts they can't all be hit by the same AOE

use summons as meat shields / AI distractors. 3/4 of my guys can summon and even though I typically only use one or two of them, being able to send a couple of those summons off to distract enemies for a couple turns when you don't particularly care about the summons dying is almost as good as stunning or blinding the enemies

if you're using Jahan (which you should be -- a friend of mine decided to make one of his two mains into a pure wizard so he didn't recruit Jahan, and he had a much harder time because Jahan's starting skills are incredibly situationally useful in the first third of the game and beyond that he can be customized into whatever build you want), don't forget that you can rain out any burning floors, the twins are weak to freezing (Jahan should be able to learn freezing touch with his starting water skill of 2), and the skeleton is weak to blinding (which you can inflict with headwind). Teleport is also incredibly useful to either pitch someone to the back of the room or pull someone towards you for a quick death (the blob is a good choice, just like the first time you fight him), though you'll probably only get to cast it once.

most of the good status heal spells (cleansing water and purifying fire) aren't available to you until level 10, but marksman gets the low-level ones, and you should have them just in case.

fortify, oath of desecration, and haste are really good buffs

[Felonious Monk]

My mains are a battlemage and a ranger with a side of telekinesis, with Jahan and Wolgraff (who i've been training up in marksman skills) bringing up the rear. All are at level 8, i guess? I'll go buy some summon scrolls and remember to separate the party before my next attempt on BR. Thanks for the tips, Felix!

[Felix]

yeah, you'll be fine. my mains are a high-level marksman with low-level earth and water magic, and a wind/fire/witchcraft 1h str-based battlemage, with jahan and madora for pure wizardry (earth/water/wind) and pure melee respectively. close enough.

my battlemage was consistently much worse at every aspect of melee combat than madora up until shields with 20% block started turning up and now with that and a few points in shield specialist she's a really good tank. it's a pain to keep her strength acceptably high for accuracy and weapon requirements, though, because I mostly want to level up her int.

also, everyone has 9 speed for 8 AP/turn, except jahan, who has the glass cannon perk that gives him double AP every turn after the first but knocks 40% off his maximum health. given that he starts with a needlessly high constitution stat but has a hard time doing much with <6 AP at a time, I highly recommend it.

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

I am forced to mildly reassess my long-held opinion of Smash Bros. Brawl's infamous Adventure Mode, due to the fact that my 8-year-old stepbrother, for whom I got the game for Christmas, seems to have loved every second of it, possibly more than the competitive, fighting game-y modes. Maybe those of us picking it apart and noting the insidious presence of Kazushige "Kingdom Hearts II" Nojima's authorial hand are missing the point: that actual little kids who squeal when Yoshi or Lucario come onscreen were in fact this mode's target audience, and people who can actually recognize Solid Snake are a periphery demographic. Also, maybe the ultra-floaty platforming physics are more tolerable if you have a taste for Kirby.

I just wish playing it wasn't necessary to unlock all the characters.
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Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[allensmithee]

i went up against a group of koreans in yakuza 2 and they all fought like vamp

those jingweon mafiosa are serious dudes !!
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[jodeaux]

About to fight the final boss of Dark Souls 2 before I tackle the DLC. I don't think one boss took me more than 5 tries, and most only took 3. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the game because it was an easier challenge, but the boss battles - for me - were the highlight of the first game. I loved how the music would just swell to this manic crescendo in that game, the intensity was much higher during those battles.

This game suffers the same way Ninja Gaiden 3 did. With its true creator not involved in its production, it just lacks some that "something" and it's hard to put my finger on it because mechanically it's the same game as Demon's and Dark Souls. There is some unquantifiable magic in Dark Souls that didn't make the transition for whatever reason, although it still was one of the best games of 2014.

I think the reason the Souls games work for me is because they're the closest thing to old school survival horror we have right now. Certainly much more than "survival horror" games like Alan Wake and The Evil Within. The souls games encourage you to proceed with caution as you explore every nook and cranny of a hostile environment, while you gather items and manage your resources to beat the area boss. The obvious emphasis on exploration and atmosphere is still something only the souls games seem to be interested in refining and we haven't had that sort of philosophy in AAA gaming since the original RE games.

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

What Ninja Gaiden 3 lacked (just the Razor's Edge edition, never mind the original) was a sensible health system, thoughtful level design, and someone in charge of the boss fights who understood the concept of "fun".

Not very abstract, imo
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Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Talbain]

If I think about that magical "something" it was personally lost for me after Demon's Souls. Dark Souls 2 is mechanically better than Dark Souls in pretty much every way and that's effectively what I appreciate about it. Dark Souls had a better sense of mystery than Souls 2 but it didn't really do anything I felt Demon's Souls didn't do better. Not only that, but the characters in Demon's Souls are just ridiculously memorable. Maiden in Black and Astraea and Yurt and Allant stay with me... and I can't honestly remember any of the characters from Dark Souls off the top of my head (worth noting I haven't played Demon's Souls in years). I remember the sunbros and I remember the stupid "Y" action but I don't actually remember... ah, it was Solaire, that was his name.
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[Rud31]