What are you playing?

[ThatNickGuy]

Welp, I just got banned from a TF2 server. My teammates, at least four of them, were constantly spawn camping. That's one of the cheapest things to do and ruins the enjoyment of playing the game for the other team. Some say it's a strategy, but that's bullshit. It's cheap as fuck.

So, what did I do? I grabbed the intel when I could, ran all the way to our base with it...and then sat on it. Didn't cap. Just sat in the intel room holding the intel.

There were some that were on my side about it, of course, but eventually the ones complaining managed to ban me just now.

Oh well. Maybe they'll actually learn from this. Shyeah right.

 

[ScytheRexx]

Alright, so I finished Saints Row 4. As a full bodied open world experience, The Third is a much better game. As something that was more immediately fun and was fun for a while to fuck around, 4 is better. I probably won't play 4 again. 3 was the meatier game by miles. I should probably play 2.

I just finished the game myself, and I agree. The powers were great, though they did nullify a lot of the need for weapons and cars. I think I only got into a car when the mission required it.

When it comes to the mission setup, The Third felt like it had a lot of story missions with those wacky missions thrown in, while SR4 leaned more on the wacky missions while cutting down the story to just a backdrop. Other then the loyalty missions, all the bonus quests were basically a crew member sending you to do a wacky mission like a race or wave defense. Since I did most of those missions in the first two days I played before even gathering most of my crew, a lot of them turned out being me just talking to the crew member twice and earning my reward for the bonus mission.

Overall I enjoyed it a little less then The Third as a game, but I enjoyed it a lot as a destresser, just running around nuking city blocks with a jump kick was pretty fun.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I had 8 games on my GameFly queue, seven of which I'd have been happy to play this weekend. Remember Me. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. Deadpool. Payday 2.

They sent me the one I wasn't in the mood for from the bottom of the list, Super Mario 3D World. So that's what I'm playing. It's been very little time and I'm halfway through. I'll say it's better than New Super Mario Bros 2, but I have a feeling I've outgrown the main Mario games. I enjoy Kart, Party, and the RPGs, but for platforming, give me Donkey Kong Country.

On a brighter note, I got my wife into Fire Emblem: Awakening and she loves it. I'm wondering how tough the Double Duel will be for us to play together. I'm gonna need to play through it again though ... so many women have died.

 

[ScytheRexx]

You know I think Saints Row 4 would be a good game getting into the psychology of how we connect with games.

I am one of those people that is downright OBSESSIVE about allies in my game. When I played The Third I tried to make sure every single one of my homies survived, and got sad when one didn't, even when they are just the no name generic shrubs. In certain RPGs or even RTS games I get so attached to some of my guys it's downright silly. I am one of those guys that also avoids running over people on the sidewalks unless I have to do it.

Spoiler

I have still not even seen the second ending, because I can't bring myself to have Shandi and Viola killed.

Then I play Saints Row 4, and I just go nuts. A whole group of saints in the way of my black hole fun? Screw them.

I was trying to figure out why and it was because, being in a simulation, none of the things inside it were real. Other then your crew homies, all the other homies and figures were basically simulations of people. They didn't exist.

And then I realized, this is a game. None of them are real anyways! So why am I so careful when the game presents them as real in the game space, but when the game itself puts me in a game, I go ape crazy? It's really odd to think about.

 

[Bowielee]

I have to agree. When playing these types of games, I generally try to avoid killing citizens and outside of the criminal activity I have to do for missions, try to basically keep my nose clean. In SR4, I was mowing down people left and right and didn't really give an F because I can just chase down that gold orb and reset everything. I pretty much behaved the way I imagine most people behave in these types of games.

 

[GasBandit]

In SR2 and 3, I always made sure to take care of/rez my homies, and while I didn't obsess over innocent targets, I didn't seek them out either. I've yet to play SR4. But let me tell you... in Prototype? YOU WILL ALL GET IN MAH BELLY. Don't be sad I ate your parents, your kids, your husbands and wives, brothers and sisters... they're still in here. Their memories, their thoughts, their distinctiveness. ThEy'LL aLL LiVE foReVeRRR aS pARt of MEEEeeEEEeeEEEE HA HA HA HA HA HA.

 

[Bowielee]

From a purely gameplay standpoint, though, in SR3 I took care of my homies because they were actually useful in fights, particularly Oleg when he's not busy knocking over the vehicle I'm trying to get into.

 

[figmentPez]

From a purely gameplay standpoint, though, in SR3 I took care of my homies because they were actually useful in fights, particularly Oleg when he's not busy knocking over the vehicle I'm trying to get into.

I tended not to call Oleg, because I had a bad habit of using explosives too near him, which would piss him off.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Fire Emblem Awakening: This game is pretty hard, but even when I'm getting my ass kicked, I typically don't feel the game is being unfair. It can pit my team against four times as many guys--it's okay. The rules haven't changed; it's just harder.

Except in the manor paralogue. The one where you get Nah. The walls fall apart and then reform at different turns, and there are enemy mages that can hit from 10 spaces away when the rest of the game it's been 1-2 spaces. When the walls reform, your team can get split up or put in really shitty positions. And then we have to recruit a character amidst the chaos.

I haven't had a part of this Fire Emblem game make me want to shut it off before, but this map feels pretty Shadow Dragon for me.

 

[AshburnerX]

Fire Emblem Awakening: This game is pretty hard, but even when I'm getting my ass kicked, I typically don't feel the game is being unfair. It can pit my team against four times as many guys--it's okay. The rules haven't changed; it's just harder.

Except in the manor paralogue. The one where you get Nah. The walls fall apart and then reform at different turns, and there are enemy mages that can hit from 10 spaces away when the rest of the game it's been 1-2 spaces. When the walls reform, your team can get split up or put in really shitty positions. And then we have to recruit a character amidst the chaos.

I haven't had a part of this Fire Emblem game make me want to shut it off before, but this map feels pretty Shadow Dragon for me.

I don't think the spell those Dark Mages use does much damage at all and I actually had it never hit me once. Honestly, I'm not having too much trouble at all... Tharja and Gaius or Donnel can steamroll half the map by themselves and that's before I get Nowi and Nah into the action.

 

[Espy]

Beat The Last of Us tonight.


Easily game of the year for me. This game took all it's competitors and smacked them around then stroked their cheek tenderly while it slipped a knife in their gut then shot them with a machete shooting machine gun.

And now I'm going to go cry myself to sleep from the emotional exhaustion this game caused me.

 

[bhamv3]

More Pokemon Black 2 for me.

I've made my way to Route 3, and can finally breed Pokemon now. This means I've put the actual game on hold while I breed up a kickass team. Natures, abilities, moves, the lot. It's going to be:

Tyranitar: This guy's going to be packing Dragon Dance, which I bred onto Larvitar.
Metagross: One of my all-time favorite Pokemon, starting from its debut in generation 3.
Dragonite: I managed to catch a Marvel Scale Dratini from the Dream World. Pity it's not female, but at least the nature's usable. (Lonely nature, which is +Atk -Def) I might replace this guy with a Salamence though, if I can get a Sheer Force Bagon from the Dream World.
Hydreigon: All purpose special sweeper. This guy's beastly.
Volcarona: To deal with the ice-type weaknesses in my team.
Breloom: To deal with the rock and ground type weaknesses in my team. Plus Spore is such a lovely move.

I'm getting orgasmic just thinking about this team.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I don't think the spell those Dark Mages use does much damage at all and I actually had it never hit me once. Honestly, I'm not having too much trouble at all... Tharja and Gaius or Donnel can steamroll half the map by themselves and that's before I get Nowi and Nah into the action.

It doesn't do much damage, but it puts anyone who is hit in a precarious situation for other attacks, especially when the time comes that four walls drop at once. I have characters who can sweep through it, but that ends up a double-edged sword when Sully gets Astra going on an enemy warrior who's using Counter. I can't survive my own onslaught. I know that's just bad luck, but after several turns and not wanting anyone to die on an optional mission, it gets annoying to start over.

I'm giving up on it tonight and may come back to it tomorrow, or maybe I'll work on some random Risen elsewhere so a couple more characters can hit an advanced class after their latest reclassing.

 

[Dei]

Honestly, some of the kid missions are harder than others and you just need to wait until you gain more levels to do them. I remember having a hard time with it the first time I played through, but my second playthrough I trounced the crap out of it because I didn't pair up Nowi until way later.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Honestly, some of the kid missions are harder than others and you just need to wait until you gain more levels to do them. I remember having a hard time with it the first time I played through, but my second playthrough I trounced the crap out of it because I didn't pair up Nowi until way later.

The kid missions have been a total bitch. Yarne's was probably the easiest solely due to guest fodder. Inigo's didn't go too badly since I clustered everyone inside the fortress. I don't know how I'm going to save Tharja's kid. And then there are bunch of kids I'll never see because Lissa, Maribelle, and Sumia are already gone and my avatar is female, so couldn't marry Anna or Say'ri.

I have a couple more strategies for the Nah mission in mind, but if I can't get it I'm just going to grind.

 

[Dei]

I think the female avatar has one more marriage option right at the end. If you marry someone only the main character can marry, you only get the default main character kid, there aren't special ones with special chars.

 

[GasBandit]

I think the female avatar has one more marriage option right at the end.

I don't know anything about this game series, so this makes it sound like the final big bad boss, immediately before the epic final battle commences, proposes to the female protagonist. "Together, we could rule the world!!"

 

[Dei]

I don't know anything about this game series, so this makes it sound like the final big bad boss, immediately before the epic final battle commences, proposes to the female protagonist. "Together, we could rule the world!!"

What do you think this is, KotOR?!

 

[Hailey Knight]

I think the female avatar has one more marriage option right at the end. If you marry someone only the main character can marry, you only get the default main character kid, there aren't special ones with special chars.

Anna and Say'ri have a silhouette that isn't the main character under their support. It's identical and since only the main character could marry either of them, I assume it's the child of them. It isn't Morgan, unless the female version has a different silhouette (honestly, Morgan looks pretty androgynous).

As for the battle, took me another couple tries, but I got it. I had avatar + Chrom lure enemies toward the holes, while the others hung back and waited for the southern area to break open. I won't deny I got lucky a couple times, but in the end we swept through to the top and Nah's with us now.

... Manakete are kinda useless . I'll have to think of something to reclass her into.

 

[GasBandit]

What do you think this is, KotOR?!

Heh, another one I didn't play, either.

The only things I know about Fire Emblem I learned from reading Awkward Zombie. (Spoilered for length)

Spoiler

 

[Hailey Knight]

Heh, another one I didn't play, either.

The only things I know about Fire Emblem I learned from reading Awkward Zombie. (Spoilered for length)

Spoiler

Those are awesome . (And the first two are pretty accurate for how you can mismanage everyone's lives.)

Also, I'm clearly wrong about Anna and Say'ri; I have no idea who that silhouette is, but it isn't one of the kids since the silhouette doesn't show up in their Support screens.

 

[GasBandit]

Those are awesome . (And the first two are pretty accurate for how you can mismanage everyone's lives.)

I did a google image search to see if Tharja really was some hulking ugly stink-lined abomination, was disappointed/relieved to see that no, it's just another instance of the webcomic author's massive psychological complex she has about sexy game characters.

Spoiler

Author's note:

"The ending of Mass Effect 1 conditioned me to expect one of my teammates to die at the end of Mass Effect 2, and I made as much of an effort as I could to make sure it would be Miranda.

(Miranda is awful) "

Author's note from a previous miranda-bashing comic:

"Miranda Lawson is a likable, well-developed and multi-dimensioned character who is definitely not the worst person I have ever met.

And there is nothing funny about that."

Yyyyyep. Definitely no body issues in the head of THIS author who always seems to draw herself as a snarling, bag-eyed, frazzle-haired grotesque despite being a pretty normal looking gal. Nope. None at all.

Though, the questionable taste in hats is apparently true and accurately rendered.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I did a google image search to see if Tharja really was some hulking ugly stink-lined abomination, was disappointed/relieved to see that no, it's just another instance of the webcomic author's massive psychological complex she has about sexy game characters.

Spoiler

Author's note:

"The ending of Mass Effect 1 conditioned me to expect one of my teammates to die at the end of Mass Effect 2, and I made as much of an effort as I could to make sure it would be Miranda.

(Miranda is awful) "

Author's note from a previous miranda-bashing comic:

"Miranda Lawson is a likable, well-developed and multi-dimensioned character who is definitely not the worst person I have ever met.

And there is nothing funny about that."

Yyyyyep. Definitely no body issues in the head of THIS author who always seems to draw herself as a snarling, bag-eyed, frazzle-haired grotesque despite being a pretty normal looking gal. Nope. None at all.

Though, the questionable taste in hats is apparently true and accurately rendered.

I don't know the author or her issues, but Tharja can be reclassed as a Knight, Great Knight, or General, which would put her in big hulking armor like that. And though it doesn't show in her image, she does have a crazy thing going on, always muttering "Hee hee hee" and stealing locks of allies' hair to put hexes on them.

 

[Dei]

Those are awesome . (And the first two are pretty accurate for how you can mismanage everyone's lives.)

Also, I'm clearly wrong about Anna and Say'ri; I have no idea who that silhouette is, but it isn't one of the kids since the silhouette doesn't show up in their Support screens.

I know who it is. I'm about to finish my 2nd playthrough.

 

[Gilgamesh]

So I finished Saints Row 4: It was loaded with graphical glitches (and not the purpose ones). The animations for all the characters were stiff as hell and kind of unnerving. The fact that there was unfinished animations (when you're taking repeat quests from the characters) and just voice overs with no movement. The missions were very very repetitious. Same kind of missions through the whole game with little variation. Lots of grinding needed to get good upgrades. Not even a quarter into the game you have enough powers to make every single encounter in the game pointless and even in the non-powered scenarios you could sleep through every mission. There was little to no new customization options from SR3 to SR4 as it was basically an ENB modded version of SR3 with new missions and storylines.

Sounds like a shit game? Well we all know that Deep Silver does shitty work as far as gameplay goes right? Yeah. So why would I still recommend EVERYONE play through this game?

The repetitious missions will never bother you because you have so many ways of just blowing away everything in your sight and it's a blast every time

Spoiler

the nuclear drop, while late game is freaking fantastic

.
The storylines fix EVERYTHING wrong with SR3. They explain EVERYTHING that didn't make sense

Spoiler

How Johnny Gat couldn't have possibly been killed off screen, how Shaundi became a vapid stupid bitch, etc

and do it in a meaning ful way. Speaking of meaningful, ALL the Loyalty missions for the characters were actually REALLY well done and had real heart. You really feel for most of these characters in a way that SR 3 never did. I loved the Loyalty missions.

If all that wasn't enough?

Spoiler

Streets of Rage Johnny Gat missions. Even more mind blowing was that no matter what you were wearing and what your hairstyle was, it was perfectly ported into the 2d world.

and

Spoiler

The entire remake of the Keith David/Roddy Piper fight from They're Back then fighting your way through the newstower to the satellite.

Seriously, those two things alone would have sold the game for me.

 

[AshburnerX]

The kid missions have been a total bitch. Yarne's was probably the easiest solely due to guest fodder. Inigo's didn't go too badly since I clustered everyone inside the fortress. I don't know how I'm going to save Tharja's kid. And then there are bunch of kids I'll never see because Lissa, Maribelle, and Sumia are already gone and my avatar is female, so couldn't marry Anna or Say'ri.

I have a couple more strategies for the Nah mission in mind, but if I can't get it I'm just going to grind.

Noire (Tharja's daughter) is actually pretty easy to save. She joins your team automatically on the second turn, at which point you just need to keep her alive. Since she already has a bow, she can kill all the pegasi/wyvrens/griffons that come at her one at a time. I don't think Tharja even needs to talk to her to get her to join up.

Really, it's one of the easiest kid missions, if only because you don't need to worry about the kid getting killed before you can control them.

 

[CynicismKills]

The kid missions have been a total bitch. Yarne's was probably the easiest solely due to guest fodder. Inigo's didn't go too badly since I clustered everyone inside the fortress. I don't know how I'm going to save Tharja's kid. And then there are bunch of kids I'll never see because Lissa, Maribelle, and Sumia are already gone and my avatar is female, so couldn't marry Anna or Say'ri.

I have a couple more strategies for the Nah mission in mind, but if I can't get it I'm just going to grind.

Tharja's kid is a tough one. You get control of her after a round or two, and I used that to move her into the fold with everyone else and tried to play defensively. Moved high defense characters out a bit to lure enemies in, then ripped them in half with my high-damage characters (Avatar, Tharja, Lon'qu). Only reason this was a bitch was all the flying/mounted enemies, and the boss/cronies in the ruins won't move till you're right at the doorway.

 

[Gilgamesh]

@Jay - Sure thing.

 

[Dave]

Got my beta for Elder Scrolls Online. Stress test this Friday night. I'm not playing it now, but I will be!

 

[Bowielee]

Got my beta for Elder Scrolls Online. Stress test this Friday night. I'm not playing it now, but I will be!

My prediction that it will be, at best, mediocre.

 

[Necronic]

I've heard from some people that it doesn't even hit mediocre.

Also, fired up Rome Total War 2 last night. Could barely play it on my computer. Luckily, I have a new computer I will be building this week. So up yours Creative.

 

[Bowielee]

Speaking of mediocre games, I've been playing a lot of Marvel Heroes lately. I have to say that lately they have made some modifications to the game that bump it up from bad to mediocre games. You can now unequivocally grind out new characters rather than having to rely on completely random drops.

Being a Marvel fanboy from way back, it was enough to bring me back into the game. It may be a Diablo clone, but it's still a better Diablo clone than Diablo 3

 

[Jay]

@Dave You fucker.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Noire (Tharja's daughter) is actually pretty easy to save.

Tharja's kid is a tough one.

I see.

 

[Frank]

I've heard from some people that it doesn't even hit mediocre.

It just looks so shitty (visually).

Like muddy 2008 ass.