What games are you currently playing?

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

What about Vesperia though?

I heard the PS3 port may be Japan only... > _ <

[TheGrandMom]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Only RPG on 360 I care to play is Lost Odyssey, everything else they've raped the dignity of for download content or the games have since gone to PS3 with extras. SE has shelved Lost Odyssey for PS3 release it seems, at least for the immediate future. Last Remnant is on Steam, so I can check it out on PC down the road.

If you ever do get a chance to play it Kitten, I HIGHLY recommend it. One of the things I loved about it was that it gave an obsessive compulsive like me many hours of enjoyment learning everything. lol I also enjoyed the story of course.

Tales of Vesperia is another game I'd recommend too. Unfortunately, I didn't finish it yet though. I got interrupted by my grandsons moving in and now that they are out I have a glut of games to work on and its fallen by the side. I just might have to get back to it after I finish up FFXII again.

[Tickmeoff]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

For me, plague has always increased its damage every tick.

Right now, I'm a little disappointed with my Istarelle. I'm finding that pretty much everything but the Flamelurker is weak to physical attacks, whereas only half is weak to magical. Plus, the Istarelle doesn't scale as well as you'd think, with it having an S rating and all. Definitely not as well as the Stick Compound Long Bow +5. The Sword of Moonlight starts out with the very same S in faith that the Istarelle has at +5. I think it'll make a pretty good PvP weapon.

Not surprisingly, quality still puts out awesome numbers.

Having an "S" ranking doesn't mean the same thing for every weapon, which is probably why other weapons with "S" rating seem to scale better. I believe "S" can range anywhere from 190% to 250% bonus based on the given stat so it's likely Istarelle's "S" is on the low end of that range.

I never saw much point in Istarelle, anyway. Large Sword of Moonlight likely has a much higher "S" bonus by the time it is +5. Aside from that, I never liked Istarelle because it's basically a Mirdan Hammer with less damage, less range, no blunt damage and requires colorless demon's souls to upgrade. I don't want to cheat the game by duping or glitching, so given that you only get 10 colorless souls per play through I opted to spend them on Adjudicator's Shield and Large Sword of Moonlight.

I never noticed plague damage increasing over time, but given how rare plague is I guess I never actually looked at it to see. I think the only place where you can catch it (aside from pvp) is world 5 anyway, so I probably just cured it most of the time if I wasn't actually in the plague baby swamp on purpose.

[Firewind]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I did Gin and Haru's path first, Metatron - overbearing Law enforcer that he is in SMT - wrote me a nice little threat for my neutral ending.

Most of my demons were well-built after the first run, so I guess I can consider going with Yuzu and Amane next.

Still think Yuzu is the flakiest female ever to grace an SMT-related title, though. I hear one of the endgames ends up being fighting all seven Bels on the same map, heh.

That would be Amane/Naoya's path (they both have the same battles just a different plotline). Amane was my first path...Good lord that one was tough especially since Belial suddenly gets an ability that hits the entire party for 200-300 damage that he can use every turn with a normal action and it takes 3 turns to reach him and you fight him and Baldr at the same time and he's spamming that Drain attack in your whole party on top of it..Unless you abuse the hell out of Victory Cry or have Atsuro and MC as total glass cannon builds you will be out of MP by the time you get to fight Beelzebub.

And Metatron tends to chew you out if you get anything other than the Messiah ending and even then he still yells at you. His reaction in the worst ending is probably the best though.

To be honest I found Yuzu to be one of the more belivable and realistic characters in the game (even if she does hold the idiot ball for her path). Her actions throughout the game are very much like you would expect a frightened teenager to act in that situation. That and it would be easier to name all of the teenagers in the world who aren't melodramatic and pessamistic.

[DakAttack]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Having an "S" ranking doesn't mean the same thing for every weapon, which is probably why other weapons with "S" rating seem to scale better. I believe "S" can range anywhere from 190% to 250% bonus based on the given stat so it's likely Istarelle's "S" is on the low end of that range.

I never saw much point in Istarelle, anyway. Large Sword of Moonlight likely has a much higher "S" bonus by the time it is +5. Aside from that, I never liked Istarelle because it's basically a Mirdan Hammer with less damage, less range, no blunt damage and requires colorless demon's souls to upgrade. I don't want to cheat the game by duping or glitching, so given that you only get 10 colorless souls per play through I opted to spend them on Adjudicator's Shield and Large Sword of Moonlight.

I never noticed plague damage increasing over time, but given how rare plague is I guess I never actually looked at it to see. I think the only place where you can catch it (aside from pvp) is world 5 anyway, so I probably just cured it most of the time if I wasn't actually in the plague baby swamp on purpose.

Well, the Istarelle is one of the few weapons with stat bonuses from strength, dexterity, and faith, so I thought it would make a good weapon if I started pumping points into faith. Well, the bonuses from strength and dexterity are worse than minimal. Oh well, it's still pretty handy just by being a spear.

I never put any thought into the adjudicator's shield. It doesn't actually shield you from much, so I would think you'd be losing more HP just by blocking something than it can make up for with the HP regen. I've started to put colorless souls into the dark silver shield. It's only at +2 right now, and the lack of hitres is getting me killed every once in a while. I don't think I've yet had an opportunity to put that 100% magic resist to good use.

I'm still on the fence about normal shields and large shields. I don't think I parry and riposte enough to warrant me using a small shield anymore, but I still enjoy doing it every once in a while. The large shields should provide a lot more hitres for deflecting bigger enemies more often.

[Tickmeoff]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Adjudicator's Shield is pretty useless for actual shielding purposes. It exists only to be worn on your back when you are 2 handing a weapon so you at least get some bonus effect from your offhand. I rarely fight without 2 handing my weapon so the only shields I use are Dark Silver and Adjudicator's just for the passive buffs.

Purple Flame Shield +10 is usually considered the only shield worth using for actual guarding purposes. If you like to parry/riposte a good alternative is the Knight's Shield +10. It's only 2 or 3 less hit res than PFS +10 and it's a small shield. Then you can carry the Dark Silver Shield in your other off hand slot in case of magic blocking emergencies and you are pretty much covered.

[Armando]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Doing Challenges in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Crit builds are stupidly effective.

Also the challenges for the final boss make up for the relatively easy storyline battle.

[DakAttack]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Adjudicator's Shield is pretty useless for actual shielding purposes. It exists only to be worn on your back when you are 2 handing a weapon so you at least get some bonus effect from your offhand. I rarely fight without 2 handing my weapon so the only shields I use are Dark Silver and Adjudicator's just for the passive buffs.

Purple Flame Shield +10 is usually considered the only shield worth using for actual guarding purposes. If you like to parry/riposte a good alternative is the Knight's Shield +10. It's only 2 or 3 less hit res than PFS +10 and it's a small shield. Then you can carry the Dark Silver Shield in your other off hand slot in case of magic blocking emergencies and you are pretty much covered.

Yea, my other shield is the Knight Shield +10. I can understand off-handing the Adjudicator's shield, but the bonus it provides isn't swaying me to pump colorless souls into it. But hey, what do I know? I have a Penetrating Sword +4 and a Dark Silver Shield +2. The Dark Silver Shield isn't really a waste though, the lack of guard break reduction while blocking wont be as noticeable while attacking with a spear in tandem.

It would be nice to find a weapon with better defensive stats, or perhaps an upgrade path for it or something. It would make dual wielding and two-handing a little safer. Plus, shouldn't you be able to attack while blocking with a weapon? Like something similar to the spear? That might make dual wielding a little more realistic as well.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Doing Challenges in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Crit builds are stupidly effective.

Also the challenges for the final boss make up for the relatively easy storyline battle.

Haven't gotten around to unlocking that yet, but I do appreciate that the final boss wasn't some hour-long endurance run this time. Not terribly hard, but then Leechgrave and Protector of the Sky were the endurance fights and pretty nasty ones if you didn't do everything right.

And now, your moment of zen:

[ame="http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1924722"]The Tetris God - CollegeHumor video[/ame]

[Lmnop]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

A quick note on Wet: while it's definitely a textbook Darker and Edgier video game, it has remarkably little sexual content. Some obvious undertones (like the 50s style pickle commercial that plays), but for the most part, it's actually rather free of it. If this game is selling sex, then FFX-2 is hardcore pornography.

Onto business:
*deep breath*

I rented Demon's Souls this past weekend. Yes. I actually did it.

I enjoyed a lot about the game, but was vastly annoyed just as I thought I'd be. If you want to know more about the game or want to argue against my point, read the following spoiler. Else, see what I hate most about the game after the break.

The game

Let's just put this all on the table at once. The following traits are all fine and dandy, but I wish exactly 1 of them were removed:

-Almost every encounter requires thought. No Diablo's click'n'kill. Not a Final Fantasy random encounter that you'll just mash X through to have everyone attack -- even Vivi.
Removing this would make the following game traits much more bearable, but ultimately, would've ruined the game.
-Death results in the loss of all souls unless you can find the bloodstain of where you died.* I don't actually mind this. One thing people love about the game is that it encourages you to avoid death!
-Every death resets all mobs in the stage. Removing this would've made reclaiming your body a breeze. Would've made for an un-annoying experience, definitely. But, once again, we love our amped up difficulty!

And finally...

-No checkpoints. Winner! This is the one trait this game needed to lose and didn't. Everyone wants to say that running the length of the game time and again is good as it encourages the player to stop dying! But seriously, this is called Artificial Difficulty and you fucking know it.

Not to mention that whole "game-logic" thing. Wherein the player isn't sure if the game is coded to allow certain actions which may or may not kill them. Example: Latria tower (I think. World 3) has narrow paths on the outside of the railings where a player can hop down, walk around, collect loot. So when I see nearly identical bits of precarious walkway and fall to my doom trying to walk along them, I've been punished very heavily for figuring out a detail that would've been intrinsic to a human actually in said situation.

Bottom line: "harsh gameplay" doesn't need gimmicks. They took some SNES era game-extender tricks and rammed them into the ground and got lucky when someone marketed it just the right way.

Easy fix: include a couple checkpoint-type items. Things players can choose to attune their souls to (FFXI Home Point). Include 1-to-2 of these in every section. e.g. 1-1 would have one near Ostrava [i think that's his name] and maybe another near the dragons. Tower of Latria 1 doesn't need them so much as collecting keys makes much of the map dismissible. But I'd still like to see 1 somewhat near Rydell. Latria 2 could have one in the swamp.

I have a bunch of other concerns/hatreds of the game, but let's move back to the positive:

I see a lot of stuff in the stats that I love for all the reasons I love them in Armored Core (you know, that huge franchise by From Software), and if you actually have a direction for your character, it's quite rewarding to get them doing what you wanted.

My Wanderer killing Tower Knight and then beelining for Sage Freke to learn Warding (Total Protection) and grabbing a Fragrant Ring for MP regen sure worked out nicely.



*And the game only keeps track of the last stain, so if you die trying to reach it, all souls associated with that stain are lost forever.

[DakAttack]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Yep, it's harsh. Demon's Souls isn't even all that difficult, it simply punishes you with death no matter how large or small your mistake. Knowing this, there are ways to prepare, such as spending all your souls before leaving the Nexus, or finding a safe place to farm when you're close to affording the next soul level. You can't even assume that because you've done it a million times successfully you'll do it successfully the next time. It's all part of the fun.

I don't think check-points are necessary. The stages of each world are already rather short; their length only stems from your caution against plowing through. Of course, death adds to the length by requiring you to start over, an artificial addition, but it's not that bad. The game requires mastery and it requires it through repetition.

I think once you've mastered combat, the game becomes a struggle with the environment. Can I walk there, can't I walk there? I don't know how many times I've attempted to grab the colorless demon's soul in the executioner's grounds and have fallen to my death because of the way I turned around on the beams. I've slid across perfectly flat terrain before, too. I've also fallen through several holes in the floor that were put there on purpose, and I've seen my friend leap off the side of cliffs to attack flying gargoyles(seriously dude, wtf?).

Watch out for the large fallen ones, in world five. They'll kill you in a single swing, and seem to be equally resistant to all types of damage. To make it worse, the entire map is an assemblage of small planks and there's a game mechanic in place that prevents you from seeing and attacking enemies in subsequent 'sections'. This can make kiting difficult, but if you can pull them up to where the old shop lady is they'll be unable to follow you all the way and they'll simply amble against a wall.

[Callisto]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I just picked up a few new and used games, including L4D2 on 360(CalliTehRDM if anyone wants to add me), F.E.A.R. 1/2 and Dead Space on PS3, and a friend let me borrow Wet and Halo ODST on 360.

I've plowed through everything but ODST and L4D2 so far so still working on those, L4D2 is hard as hell, ODST I think has fantastic music but it makes my eyes hurt badly, it's always way too bright or way too dark.

Both F.E.A.R. games and Wet were the same to me, loved the actual games but was incredibly disappointed by the last fights/endings. I don't know what the hell is up with games no longer actually having large, difficult final fights/bosses. Even Dead Space's was pretty easy, but at least there was something big to fight at the end.

Also always looking for people to play in NHL10 on PS3, Nalso is my ID.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Dak pretty much covered it.

Demon's Souls is about encouraging mastery, a trait few games possess these days (no Trophies/Achievements are not the same thing, as they often set a bare minimum). Its something a lot of games could stand to start doing.

[Tickmeoff]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I think you are overestimating the length of each area if you believe the game should have checkpoints. When you become more familiar with each stage you will realize they can all be done in a few minutes with a proper weapon.

Alright, maybe not world 3 since you have to run around collecting keys and opening shit, but the others are all surprisingly short once you know where to go. World 4 in particular has incredibly short levels, but they compensate with enemies that are pretty difficult to deal with if you aren't prepared.

Pretty much every area also has a shortcut you can open later in the level that more or less functions as a checkpoint. 1-1 has the two tower gates at the beginning of the level that you can open up once you make it to the towers legitimately (both actually take you to the places you mentioned, near Ostrava and near the dragon's nest), 2-1 has the elevator just behind the merchant at the start of the level, 3-1 is considerably shorter once you've found all the keys and disabled the huge machine of arrow related death, 4-1 you can just roll right over a wall at the beginning of the level almost directly to the first boss, etc. Not quite checkpoints, but they did give you ways to avoid running through the entirety of a level every time you die.

[Neverslip]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Been forced to continue playing CoDMW2 multiplayer by my RL friends. I die alot... but at least now sometimes I have a positive kill/death ratio...er, sometimes. I got thru the single player on Veteran pretty easily... way easier than MW1. If more than 2 could do the Spec Ops, I'd be interested in rolling with my buddies on those but blah... always more than one are on and it's cool rollin around ... we all work mainly for a clinic so we chose H1N1 for our tagz. Topical but deadly... now we see so many and get people leaving cuz 6 people on the other team with H1N1 makes people leave... though some of us are amateurs. I'm addicted to the heartbeat sensors.

Borderlands... Brick Level 30... way fun game. I really wish my buddies woulda gotten this one instead. I'm PL'n my buddy who did happen to get it up to my level. Bought the Zombie DLC but am saving it for when my buddy catches up.

FFvii (PSP)... yeah I finally am playing that which many consider the greatest rpg of all time (arguable I know...). So far it's fun. It's not what I expected. It's a generation earlier than I had thought. I've not gotten very far. Rollin with some flower girl atm trying to get back to my pseudo-girlfriend, I'm lieing to the flowergirl about. The forced speed on the fights is a lil intimidating for me as I had no idea what I was doing or what my characters were capable of, but I'm getting the hang of it and I'm pretty sure I'm still in basicaly "the first 5 minutes" of the story anyway.

Playing FFvii still makes me really wanna continue where I left off on FFii (PSP) but I left myself in some f'n dark deadly cave with tons of doors and I'm soooooooo lost.

Monster Hunter 2 Freedom haven't been playing much.. Silver Rathalos and Gold Rathian put me and my buddy in our places (i.e. beat the holy livin' hell outta us) so I'm slowly just clearing all the Guild Quests before... Kirin (MH unicorn) your prancing lil jack ass self will be wrekt soon.

Finished Fable II's last DLC which was something about the future... meh... pretty bland and boring... maybe I didn't delve deep enough but seriously not much at all.

Want to buy but know I have no time for:

L4D2
Dead Rising 2
BioShock 2
Dragon Age
... must be others... but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.