What are you playing?

[Jay]

Well, I don't find it fun. I also don't like the more units I have the more I'm fucked because enemies move more than me. So, if I waste a turn with a damaged/unit too far, they get to come in and damage.

Also, I find units with shield useless. Big fucking giants, there as tanks and they walk around him like he's some type of inanimate object and hit my ranged.

This is pretty bad combat man.

 

[Vrii]

Well, I don't find it fun. I also don't like the more units I have the more I'm fucked because enemies move more than me. So, if I waste a turn with a damaged/unit too far, they get to come in and damage.

Also, I find units with shield useless. Big fucking giants, there as tanks and they walk around him like he's some type of inanimate object and hit my ranged.

This is pretty bad combat man.

It's definitely not genre-standard combat, but that was a big part of the appeal to me. You have to play it differently and get your head into its mechanics before it all starts to work, but once you do it's actually a pretty satisfying challenge.

I mean, if you don't like it, that's fine and nothing's stopping you from walking away. That doesn't make it bad combat, though.

 

[Jay]

I understand the appeal, I just don't like it and have since uninstalled it. The game had a good esthetics I could like but ultimately the combat is a huge mess.

It's like playing chess and halfway into the game, while you're winning... the opponent gets a couple free turns before you can have yours. "Oh, your Queen? She's dead now."

It's massively flawed.

 

[Vrii]

Not being the same as every other game doesn't make it flawed. You know how it works, you plan around it, you win. Otherwise you convince yourself that the designers are idiots and uninstall, I guess.

 

[Jay]

Don't get ahead of yourself.

Understanding and accepting a poorly implemented combat mechanism better than someone else does not mean its a good system. It simply pigeon holes your tactics. Furthermore, I'm also very disappointed there's no mechanics/skills for units threatening adjacent spaces. Units can move around and away from hostile units with no penalty. Ridiculous. It's almost like the only reason they have large characters is to compensate for that poor design by making it easy to block them from moving.

I like the armor/strength mechanic. It's intriguing. Maiming them so they barely are combat worthy is nice but having enemies guaranteed to play their turn next until last man standing is really really badly done.

 

[Vrii]

If you get a provoker, you can use them to control enemy movement. Other classes block with their bodies. There are benefits and drawbacks to being giants, most of which are in their interactions with class abilities.

The game isn't perfect. You can not like it for some of the design decisions they made, and that's perfectly valid. The issue I have is that you're not just criticizing those issues, you're calling the whole thing bad.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Maybe you're just too casual for this kind of game.

 

[Telephius]

I really liked(overall) the combat of The Banner Saga. I liked the cripple the enemy until I am ready to finish them off tactic. Though my issue with it was some of the unit types seemed to have nearly useless special abilities. I did not like that Giants had a whirlwind ability as I could barely play it as it was usually on the glass cannon giants and it friendly fired with such a large unit. Some of the line spells also IMO were lackluster because they could friendly fire and you had to have the enemy in a certain formation.

 

[CynicismKills]

Finished Tales of Xillia 2. I haven't had a game emotionally drain me like that in a very long time.

 

[Null]

And now for something completely different:

I bought a car in Gran Turismo 4 that I'm not likely to use very often to compete with, but it's a car that I just think is incredibly cool. It's horrifically expensive and not really a great car, but it's just gorgeous. And it looks sort of like the car from The Wraith (which is the Chrysler/Dodge M4S Concept Car - a shameful omission from the roster of any car sim). It is.... the Jaguar XJ220 '92. Hardly a bargain at over $750,000 in game, but just lovely. I already had the LM Race Version, so this is just for fun and beauty.

So it seems I told a lie before. I did not just get the car for fun & beauty. I thought I had, but then there was an event called "The Supercar Festival" - Production Cars with 493+ hp only. Well, let's just see here. Production car means no concept cars or race cars. So, there's my Ford GT '05 (695 hp), BMW M5 '05 (725 hp), Shelby Cobra 427 '67 (693 hp)...and this little beauty with a stage 4 turbo installed, giving it a meager 900 hp. There's something wonderful about seeing this supercar passing a Mercedes SLR McLaren like it's a Toyota Camry.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I really liked(overall) the combat of The Banner Saga. I liked the cripple the enemy until I am ready to finish them off tactic. Though my issue with it was some of the unit types seemed to have nearly useless special abilities. I did not like that Giants had a whirlwind ability as I could barely play it as it was usually on the glass cannon giants and it friendly fired with such a large unit. Some of the line spells also IMO were lackluster because they could friendly fire and you had to have the enemy in a certain formation.

The whirlwind attack is mainly useful in specific circumstances, but if you can wedge him between small guys, he can wreck them.

That said, certain units are more useful in single-player and others in multi-player, and he's definitely more in the multi-player camp.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Mega Man 5: I almost made it the whole game without using restore, but at the last Wily stage, I just got tired of dodging those stupid walker robots.

The second final boss stage was a lot of bullshit. It wasn't hard bullshit, but it padded out the right. Apparently I was supposed to get all the letters to get some attack that would kick his ass, but I missed two, and once you finish all the stages, there's no going back.

This one was still fun, and I liked it more than 4. Protoman antics are fun.

 

[Enresshou]

I bought the wife Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright yesterday, and she's been playing that for the better part of the morning.

I've recently been playing Link Between Worlds (though my 3DS and first copy of the game was stolen earlier this week, so I had to start all over...), and I picked up Monster Hunter 3 Wii U recently. I've never played a Monster Hunter game so I'm really looking forward to trying it out!

 

[Hailey Knight]

If Shovel Knight was a throwback to excellent side-scrolling platformers of the 8-bit era, Azure Striker Gunvolt is the 16-bit equivalent. Great gameplay, fast and enjoyable. Glad I've been playing Mega Man Zero; they're similar (though AGS is less frustrating).

 

[fade]

Played and beat half life 2. I was a little disappointed by how much easier it was than the first and by how short it was. The awesomeness of the Ravenholm chapter almost makes up for it though.

 

[Zappit]

If Shovel Knight was a throwback to excellent side-scrolling platformers of the 8-bit era, Azure Striker Gunvolt is the 16-bit equivalent. Great gameplay, fast and enjoyable. Glad I've been playing Mega Man Zero; they're similar (though AGS is less frustrating).

I'm liking it too. Combat's interesting since you have to tag enemies with your gun and then pulse out electricity to finish them off. I'm not too crazy about the emphasis on getting through stages quickly, and I have yet to find out exactly what money is for in this game, but it's enjoyable.

The little freebie game that came with it is a nice little 8-bit throwback, too.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I'm liking it too. Combat's interesting since you have to tag enemies with your gun and then pulse out electricity to finish them off. I'm not too crazy about the emphasis on getting through stages quickly, and I have yet to find out exactly what money is for in this game, but it's enjoyable.

The little freebie game that came with it is a nice little 8-bit throwback, too.

There's a shop between missions that I believe you use parts and money to get more accessories. What they do, I have no idea. I haven't used it yet.

I'm not really aiming to finish the stages quickly; I figure I can do that another time since the game isn't that long anyway.

 

[Zappit]

The shop only uses materials for upgrades. Not money.

 

[figmentPez]

Just started playing Brutal Legend, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Haven't gotten to the point where any RTS tactics are required, or even very beneficial, yet. Right now it's just an open-world-ish 3rd person action game, and I'm having a lot of fun with the exploration, the mythos, and the humor.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Bravely Default: I'm in the last portions (I think) of Chapter 3 and if this hasn't been some miserable shit. Fire place, fire town, sea town, Caldisla, back to fire town, back to Caldisla, with the whole beach to run between. I'm grateful you can turn random encounters off, because I might have quit here otherwise.

Why does Square-Enix feel like doing shit that way is a good idea?

 

[Terrik]

Bravely Default: I'm in the last portions (I think) of Chapter 3 and if this hasn't been some miserable shit. Fire place, fire town, sea town, Caldisla, back to fire town, back to Caldisla, with the whole beach to run between. I'm grateful you can turn random encounters off, because I might have quit here otherwise.

Why does Square-Enix feel like doing shit that way is a good idea?

Yeah that chapter bugged me too.


On another note, I just scored 105 points in 1 round of TF2. New record for me.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Through another cutscene ... I'm being Chrono Cross'd, methinks.

 

[CynicismKills]

Just started playing Brutal Legend, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Haven't gotten to the point where any RTS tactics are required, or even very beneficial, yet. Right now it's just an open-world-ish 3rd person action game, and I'm having a lot of fun with the exploration, the mythos, and the humor.

Looking back, the RTS sections really aren't bad. The problem is the game wasn't advertised as an RTS/action, just action. It looked like it was going to be in the vein of Ratchet and Clank/Jak, but then those RTS sections come out of nowhere and turn out to be the main battle system of the game. It's still a great time, though, one of my favorite games of the era.

 

[Dei]

Bravely Default: I'm in the last portions (I think) of Chapter 3 and if this hasn't been some miserable shit. Fire place, fire town, sea town, Caldisla, back to fire town, back to Caldisla, with the whole beach to run between. I'm grateful you can turn random encounters off, because I might have quit here otherwise. Why does Square-Enix feel like doing shit that way is a good idea?

If that bugs you, you are fucked.

 

[Bowielee]

The thing I didn't like about that game was that it took them so ungodly long to figure out WTF was happening to them when anyone with half a brain figured it out the first, maybe second time around.

I'll admit that I turned on auto battle, cranked up the encounter rate and just found mobs that would yield decent experience, but not trounce my part on my set attacks and just wandered around near a town until my characters and/or jobs were leveled where I wanted them.

 

[Hailey Knight]

If that bugs you, you are fucked.

It's going to take me a year to finish this game because of what you are referencing.

 

[Bowielee]

To be fair, you do have an airship by the time the part she's referencing happens.

 

[Hailey Knight]

To be fair, you do have an airship by the time the part she's referencing happens.

Oh, you get to keep the airship? I thought you'd have to start with nothing again.

 

[Bowielee]

Once "the bad part" happens, you permanently keep the airship.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Just started playing Brutal Legend, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Haven't gotten to the point where any RTS tactics are required, or even very beneficial, yet. Right now it's just an open-world-ish 3rd person action game, and I'm having a lot of fun with the exploration, the mythos, and the humor.

I would've greatly enjoyed the game if it had stayed that way, too.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Once "the bad part" happens, you permanently keep the airship.

That's at least some comfort in what's probably going to be a wretched, slogging experience.

 

[Hailey Knight]

This weekend has reminded me why I only play Bravely Default once every couple of weeks--too much and it makes me hate it.

I'm considering just using Ablink from you guys. I want to experiment, I want to be creative with the classes and abilities like I used to do in Final Fantasy Tactics, but it takes so much grinding on some classes just to find out that my combos and theories don't work, or those classes suck, and then I just get frustrated and don't want to play anymore.

I'm really dreading the coming of "that". The thought of going through all this three more times is depressing.

 

[Bowielee]

I would've greatly enjoyed the game if it had stayed that way, too.

I actually loved the RTS elements of the game. However, I was aware of what it was prior to playing it.

 

[fade]

I have brutal legend in my steam library. It was really really fun at first, but then I quickly lost interest in it. I remember the controls feeling really soft, like they were suggestions to the game more than actual controls.

Does anyone here play Star Trek Online? Seems kind of fun for the few minutes I put in.

 

[figmentPez]

I have brutal legend in my steam library. It was really really fun at first, but then I quickly lost interest in it. I remember the controls feeling really soft, like they were suggestions to the game more than actual controls.

I've noticed a little of that, but I assumed it was just due to my poor frame rates. A lot of games end up feeling that way for me.