Origin of all that is good and mother to us all (Whatcha Playing 10)

[Collectonian]

As the last thread (http://animeondvd.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/24622/) is approaching the 500 post mark, though it might be time for a fresh start :P

So, what are ya playin now?

I'm at the "point of no return" in Okami. Can't decide if I need to go back for anything or not. I missed the Stray Beads in the one place it seems you can't go back to get them, so seems like there is no point getting the rest. I've filled up everything you can use the praise points for, so no reason to go back for any more of that either. Any other reasons to go back? I did all the side quests as they came up.

[Suwako Moriya]

Currently portable wise I'm progressing in Metroid Fusion. Console wise, I also recently finished a replay of Asellus' quest of SaGa Frontier. I'm thinking of taking the party to 2nd Division to face the other final bosses with the current set up. Beyond that I have not finalized what to play next.

[broodwars]

On the console side, I'm close to finishing up Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. I have to say, Radiant Dawn is a much more...satisfying experience than Path of Radiance was. Pity it just can't get a fair shake from most reviewers, and it got buried as expected under the avalanch that was Mario Galaxy.

I'm also close to finishing up Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. I'm currently on one of the last few Wesker missions (I've finished the main storyline), where you have to fight TWO Mr. X's at once. Ouch...I'm going to have to do some grinding to get enough shotgun/magnum ammo to kill those two quickly. That final boss fight (in the main storyline) was pure evil, too. It's hilarious, though, that despite the widespread hatred for the Resident Evil movies, the last chapter of Umbrella Chronicles takes a LOT from them (The Red Queen, the "Hive"-like facility, the laser corridor, etc.).

Due to playing Fire Emblem, I actually loaned my copy of Mario Galaxy out to a co-worker who just got a Wii, but no games with it. He's returning it tommorow, so I'll get a chance to get further in. I only have 40 stars, but the game was starting to bore me, so I had to put it down for a while.

I'm also playing through Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. I'm currently 27% of the way through the game and...I'm still waiting for the "strategy" the RTS label promised. The game has a decent story and good presentation, but the gameplay itself is just boring. I don't know at this time whether I'll bother playing any more, instead just trading it in towards credit on something else (exactly what I don't know...I already own the 5-6 games worth playing on the Wii, and the DS just doesn't have much that interests me anymore).

[Andrew Cunningham]

Plugging away at Mario Galaxy; 112 stars and they're really just not fun any more. The Toy Galaxy Purple Coin Star was just designed to make me want to break things.
Finished Metroid: Zero Mission; slow and crappily, but I liked it a lot. The new areas not as much as the remake part.
Put an hour into Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, but it may not be for me. I keep choosing the longer paths and having to backtrack to get to the side paths where stuff I then don't need is. Lots of stats that don't seem to have any immediate effect, so motivation to explore is low. Maybe too much rpg elements for me.
Also, kind of sucks to hit a boss who apparently takes no damage at all when you hadn't seen a save room in forever. I probably just missed it, but that game over doesn't make me want to go back real quick.

I'm probably breaking down and buying an Xbox 360 and Rock Band this weekend, if I can find it. I don't think there's anything else I want on that system, but Rock Band just might be enough.

I also played through the first two cases in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Quite a bit of fun.

Odds of me getting back to Twilight Princess anytime soon looking pretty dim.

[ADC]

Started playing FE:GOD, got a few chapters in, but I am wondering if my Wii is sick. The disc drive is getting really loud when spinning discs. I'm going to call Nintendo while it's still under warranty and see if it sounds unusual to them. And it's that way whether the Wii's standing or laying down, whether there are GCN parts attached or not. I noticed it when playing SMG, but it's louder now.

Started playing Rogue Galaxy, and it's not really what I expected. It's part RPG, part hack-and-slash, and I don't get off on hack-and-slash. I'm going to give it a few more hours and see if it gets to be more fun.

Started playing Jokémon, and I guess I'm progressing in it. It's kind of fun having a group of Dragon Quest critters doing the work, but to be honest, I'd rather that they got DQ4 and DQ9 ready and put the gaidens on hold.

And … started playing Madden now that the 9ers are well and truly eliminated from playoff contention. It's Madden. For some reason, though, they decided to make fullback runs hyper-effective this year. And here I am, with guard-eligible Moran Norris filling that position.

[broodwars]

I don't think it's just your Wii. My Wii does a LOT of spinning loading Fire Emblem 2D assets (I dare you to try scrolling through your character listings on the base menu...slowdown GALORE!), both for Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. Hell, I've had my fair share of lock-ups hitting the Wii remote "reset" button as well with Radiant Dawn. Nintendo just codes the Fire Emblem games really inefficiently, having the game look link to the 2D assets instead of merging them into one main menu file. Yes, it modularizes the assets, but it makes the game do a lot of searching and loading every time you move from character to character.

[ADC]

Yeah, but does your Wii constantly sound like a truck climbing a hill? That's what I'm experiencing.

[broodwars]

Not always, no. Mainly just when loading. Just out of curiosity, how old is your Wii? And have you been using your Wii in standby mode (Wii Connect 24 ON) all this time? Depending on your answer, there might be a reason why your Wii is doing what it's doing.

[ADC]

It's 353 days old, and I do leave WiiConnect24 on. But how would that affect the disc drive sounding like a meat grinder? I don't see how the WiFi suite would put extra wear on the disc drive, but then, I know fuck-all about the guts of game consoles.

[broodwars]

It's 353 days old, and I do leave WiiConnect24 on. But how would that affect the disc drive sounding like a meat grinder? I don't see how the WiFi suite would put extra wear on the disc drive, but then, I know fuck-all about the guts of game consoles.

Well, I could be on the completely wrong track, but there's a somewhat well-known flaw with the Wii and Wii Connect 24: when your Wii is in standby mode, the Wii's fans are OFF. This has caused problems with Wiis (especially the launch ones) to overheat and fry the graphics processors. My thinking is that this constant spinning, this whirring MIGHT be the lag time of your system trying to compensate for a somewhat-fried graphics processor. Have you noticed any problems with pixels on the screen looking a bit...wierd?

Like I said, I could be off-base here, but it's the only widespread system problem with the Wii I can think of.

[ADC]

No, it doesn't look like the graphics are corrupted in any way. You know how, when you put a disc into your computer's drive that's somehow unbalanced (too much artwork on one half, not enough on the other, for example), it makes a loud noise from the disc rattling in the drive (I think)? That's what it sounds like, but it does that on every disc. That's what kind of scares me. If it were one disc, I'd be like, pffth. Probably nothing. But it's all of them! And it's louder on Wii discs than on GCN discs. I don't know, but the first thing that came to mind when I heard it was, that's not supposed to sound that way. And when I compare it to my whisper-quiet PS2 (slim), it sounds even stranger.

[juliant59]

Plugging away at Mario Galaxy; 112 stars and they're really just not fun any more. The Toy Galaxy Purple Coin Star was just designed to make me want to break things.
Finished Metroid: Zero Mission; slow and crappily, but I liked it a lot. The new areas not as much as the remake part.
Put an hour into Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, but it may not be for me. I keep choosing the longer paths and having to backtrack to get to the side paths where stuff I then don't need is. Lots of stats that don't seem to have any immediate effect, so motivation to explore is low. Maybe too much rpg elements for me.
Also, kind of sucks to hit a boss who apparently takes no damage at all when you hadn't seen a save room in forever. I probably just missed it, but that game over doesn't make me want to go back real quick.

I'm probably breaking down and buying an Xbox 360 and Rock Band this weekend, if I can find it. I don't think there's anything else I want on that system, but Rock Band just might be enough.

I also played through the first two cases in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Quite a bit of fun.

Odds of me getting back to Twilight Princess anytime soon looking pretty dim.


About Rock Band, why only 360 consider if I may ask? It's on PS3 as well lol. I have it and it rocks so much. Can't find anything else besides Rock Band as well on the PS3? Just wondering if I may ask

[broodwars]

Have you noticed this on any other games than Fire Emblem and Mario Galaxy? I'm wondering if it's just how those games are coded. I remember playing Eternal Darkness on my GameCube, and that thing was loudly spinning the entire span of the game. I put in a different game, though, and it's back to being "whisper quiet."

Either way, it can't hurt to call Nintendo and find out what they think. You should still be within your warranty period, anyway.

[ADC]

I've tried a bunch of Wii and GCN games, and it's the same thing every time, just a bit quieter for the smaller GCN discs. I'm going to call the N's tech support and be all, "Does this sound like normal operation to you?" and they'll be like, "Sure, if that's a belt-sander." I was just playing FE:GOD (got whacked in Chapter 1-3; I play on Normal, and maybe I shouldn't — Ilyana, by the way, is a frickin' goddess in this game), and when I went back to the Wii menu, I could hear the drive spin down, spin a little bit, then spin back up. I'm about eight feet away from my Wii, and the sound of it at various drive speeds is very noticeable. I can barely hear the drive's access mechanism underneath the grinding/rattling, so I tend to think this might be the drive spindle or something attached to it.

For a while, I wondered if it might be the internal fan. But they'd have to have put a frickin' ceiling fan in there for it to make a racket like this.

[indigo0086]

I've been playing the snot out of Call of Duty 4 Online. I haven't even touched the single-player yet. The multiplayer is just so fun and beautiful, it's a shame more developers don't have games that run at such a consistent framerate, though I understand there's a lot that contributes to it depending on what kind of tech they implement. But as a Modern warfare FPS it is one of the best I played.

The main thing that sets it apart from Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter as far as gameplay goes is that it's fast and hard hitting. GRAW tended to be really slow and boring, and the viewpoint kind of obscured important details that could land you a hit. This game has not only the nice wide FPS viewpoint but the perks and weapon combinations are spectacular. When I started I was worried that I would be way below the pack, but to level up and get the good stuff isn't difficult if you play and learn the levels, and I was able to level to 16 in about 5-6 hours. Between this and Halo 3 my shooter quota will have been met.

[Andrew Cunningham]

About Rock Band, why only 360 consider if I may ask? It's on PS3 as well lol. I have it and it rocks so much. Can't find anything else besides Rock Band as well on the PS3? Just wondering if I may ask

There was no need to have quoted my entire post for that; you can edit this stuff down, you know.
The simple answer is that all my friends have the game on the 360.

[Jarred]

Been awhile, so I'll add an update!

Mass Effect - Beat it a 2nd time with my same character on Hardcore, only this time I took the Renegade route. Some of the things my character did made me uncomfortable; a total dick!! :D I love the game, especially from Virmire to end game, but will probably put it away for a bit. Got to level 57 with my character, but it's like another 400K exp points to get to 60 for the achievement, and I'm at around 480K. So I'll save the leveling up for insanity difficulty sometime in 2008. I also still want to play through as an Adept and Engineer sometime.

Forza 2 - Got back into this as a co-worker picked up a 360/Forza/MUA bundle recently. Forgot how much I enjoy this racing sim. If anyone is down for some Sunday driving, let me know, I'll be online.

Psychonauts - About 3-4 hours in and having a blast. I'm at the part where I have to go into the Lungfish's head. Right now, I'm enjoying this platformer WAYYY more than Super Mario Galaxy, which has been placed on the burner until I visit the folks during the holidays and play it on their Wii.

Orange Box - My holiday vacation starts this weekend, so I'm opening up the box again and am going to finish off HL2 and get through as much of EP1&2 as I can. I miss this game a bunch, but Mass Effect had to be consumed.

And of course, I'm always playing Rock Band on and off. Gotta check out the punk pack that came out this week.

[alexd00]

Put an hour into Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, but it may not be for me. I keep choosing the longer paths and having to backtrack to get to the side paths where stuff I then don't need is. Lots of stats that don't seem to have any immediate effect, so motivation to explore is low. Maybe too much rpg elements for me.

Also, kind of sucks to hit a boss who apparently takes no damage at all when you hadn't seen a save room in forever. I probably just missed it, but that game over doesn't make me want to go back real quick.
Hmmm... that's the third GBA one, right? I played the GBA ones back when they came out, so I don't know when I picked up on the trend, but I thought there's always a save room near a boss room. Usually you can tell when you've walked into (or are about to walk into) a boss room, so you can hunt around for the save room before you actually trigger the battle.

As for the game itself, if you're trying to play through it at an accelerated pace, I could see how things could get frustrating. I usually play for 100%, and I thought the game flowed pretty well (although that probably doesn't boost your opinion much ;) ).

[Andrew Cunningham]

I think it just suffered from comparison, since I'd played Metroid right before it.
I played around a little more last night, and ended up a bit happier with it; I'd been using some kind of dagger, since it did the most damage, but once I switched to a longer weapon the game became less frustrating.

[WRX]

Still playing Disgaea on the PSP. I've already "finished" the game once and now I'm going around again to unlock more things. Currently I'm experimenting with bribing senators in the Assembly. :evil:

[Mateo_home]

Plowing my way through Mother 3 for the GBA. Was climbing up the tower and out of nowhere Lucas got struck by lightning. However, through that strike he learned PK Flash, which does random status affects to your enemies. Did come in handy for the next boss fight. It wasn't that hard if you know what you're doing. I just couldn't combo him when he was active, I just used Lucas' healing and offend ups to all party members whereas Duster and Boney used guard or offense items. Kumatora let loose with PK Freeze. But when he does deactivate the attack delivers a whooping 130 HP to all party members (ouch!). At that point it's standard combo attacks and Kumatora healed everyone's wounds.

After that I foiled the pig's plans at that point and Yokuba blew up the tower with Lucas and co. on it. He planned to escape via chopper but he slipped off the tower on a banana peel (good riddance, I hope he's dead). The party almost got a safe getaway from hanging from the ladder, but from the chopper the masked man just looked down and watched us fall. Currently now on chapter 7 and my party is separated again. Back to just Lucas and Boney. I want Kumatora back, dammit!

As for what I'm playing on the consoles: nothing. :P

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

So I beat the first boss in Super Mario Galaxy. A interesting boss fight. The later levels are making me nervous though. I don't play platformers that often, so I have a bad habit of falling in some levels. :/ But I'm having fun overall. Hopefully I'll have this done by next Friday.

On a side note, I happened to see Hotel Dusk: Room 216 for sale while I was at GameStop, so I bought it. Probably wont start it till after I finish with Galaxy...looks fun. The adventure genre badly needs to get revived!

[broodwars]

So I beat the first boss in Super Mario Galaxy. A interesting boss fight. The later levels are making me nervous though. I don't play platformers that often, so I have a bad habit of falling in some levels. :/ But I'm having fun overall. Hopefully I'll have this done by next Friday.

On a side note, I happened to see Hotel Dusk: Room 216 for sale while I was at GameStop, so I bought it. Probably wont start it till after I finish with Galaxy...looks fun. The adventure genre badly needs to get revived!

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Wii) and Sam & Max (PC) say Hi!

[BigPants]

I JUST finished with Mario Galaxy (got 85 stars, might try to get a few more) and am looking at finally digging into Metroid Prime 3 or getting a little further on Resident Evil 4.

[Andrew Cunningham]

It's definitely worth getting all the regular stars.
The comet stars? Pretty hit or miss. I'm down to about eight and the two available at the moment are both not fun at all.

I played a little more Aria of Sorrow; definitely digging it more now that I've worked out a bit more how to play. Clocktower boss killed me awfully fast twice, though. How can you not love a game that lets you walk on water before you can swim?

[Johnny]

Playing: Call of Duty 4 online multiplayer (PS3), Ratchet & Clank (PS3), Pro Evo 08 (PS3), Mass Effect (360)

Waiting on arriving: Naruto Shippuuden EX 2 (Wii), Cooking Mama 2 (DS), Contra 4 (DS), Lost Odyssey (360), Shikigami no Shiro III (Wii), NiGHTS (Wii), No More Heroes (Wii), Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3)

25th December's delights: Halo 3 (360), Stranglehold (360), Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles (PSP), The Orange Box (360)

It would be nice if someone bought me: Resi Umbrella Chronicles (Wii), Wipeout Pulse (PSP), Unreal Tournament 4 (PS3), Time Crisis 4 (PS3), Dragon Quest Monsters J (DS)

[BonnKansan]

I'm at the "point of no return" in Okami. Can't decide if I need to go back for anything or not. I missed the Stray Beads in the one place it seems you can't go back to get them, so seems like there is no point getting the rest. I've filled up everything you can use the praise points for, so no reason to go back for any more of that either. Any other reasons to go back? I did all the side quests as they came up.

Sorry, I just noticed the new thread. Did you already continue? Since you've got a ton of save slots, why not just save the game in one slot before getting past the PONR, then try going past it and saving in a new slot right afterward?

The stray beads won't give you any advantage for the remainder of the game itself, it's just a cool level-up for the 'next' time you play after finishing the game. You get a level-up anyway just from finishing, but if you get 100 beads you get something extra too :susel:

I suggest you save at the two spots, so you can go fishing and exploring anywhere in the world if you feel like it, but still get to finish the game since it's pretty cool. Then use the earlier saved game to go find the rest of beads when it seems less annoying, and do the cool ending again from that. That's what I did anyway. What place was the 'one place it seems you can't go back to get' a stray bead, may I ask? I'm pretty sure they didn't put any beads in places like that, just some animals and treasures. You can PM me about it if you prefer. Enjoy!

[Collectonian]

Sorry, I just noticed the new thread. Did you already continue? Since you've got a ton of save slots, why not just save the game in one slot before getting past the PONR, then try going past it and saving in a new slot right afterward?

The stray beads won't give you any advantage for the remainder of the game itself, it's just a cool level-up for the 'next' time you play after finishing the game. You get a level-up anyway just from finishing, but if you get 100 beads you get something extra too :susel:

I suggest you save at the two spots, so you can go fishing and exploring anywhere in the world if you feel like it, but still get to finish the game since it's pretty cool. Then use the earlier saved game to go find the rest of beads when it seems less annoying, and do the cool ending again from that. That's what I did anyway. What place was the 'one place it seems you can't go back to get' a stray bead, may I ask? I'm pretty sure they didn't put any beads in places like that, just some animals and treasures. You can PM me about it if you prefer. Enjoy!

I decided to give it another try and was able to get the beads I thought I couldn't get back to (in the Tsuta Ruins). Just totally kept missing the way back to the 2nd level LOL. So now I'm going ahead and getting the rest of the beads, which ended up being even better because I was able to get the last weapon too and getting enough funds to really prep up for the final showdown(s). :D

[Garasharp K7]

I'm still playing GunBuster on the ps2, and I've finally reached the part of the game I've been looking forward to: The GunBuster's first battle.
This was what I was waiting for; this was why I picked up the game in the first place. I can sum up the whole experience in just two words:

BUSTER BEEEEEAM!!! :grin:

Well, I'll add a few extra ones: Bloody brilliant. I loved wiping out whole swarms of space monsters with a single shot, or flying straight into them and punching 'em out one by one. Hope fully the rest of the game will be as much fun as this level was. Not that the whole game was a chore or anything, but some of the last few levels where Noriko's been moping about dragged on a bit. The training battles made up for it, though.

Next up: The recap episode. Gotta love this game's attention to detail.

Inazuma Kiiiick!! :)

[Nosredna]

I'm up to 50 stars in Super Mario Galaxy! My plan is almost complete :D . And yeah I'm at home playing video games on a Saturday night :sd: , but I blame the weather, at worst we can get 15 inches of snow! Of course I'm only expecting 4 to 5 at the most ;) .

[malazar]

One of my friends just picked up a 360, so I have been playing a lot of Marvel Ultimate Alliance with him. Other than that, I am still playing a decent amount of Rock Band.

[Johnny]

Got No More Heroes this morning and have played the first bit and defeated the first boss.
First impressions are very good. It's been constantly likened to Suda 51's other gem, Killer 7, and when playing it, it really is like an extension of that game.

Controls are simple enough and work well. A is attack, B is grab/throw, Z is lock-on and the d-pad dodges when locked on to someone. 1 recharges your Beam Katana.

There's a lot of customisation options from Travis' clothes and throws and attacks can also be upgraded later in the game.

There's a load of cool features like the dialogue, characters, the fact that Tarvis is an anime obsessive (he hugs a poster of what appears to be his favourite anime early in the game while groaning "Moeeeee" :D ) the way you get messages from Sylvia via Travis' mobile phone and this is played through the remote speaker so you hold it to your ear like a real phone to hear it and so on.

[Chacranajxy]

That's good that NMH seems to be a solid game. Lemme know how it is by the time you finish it though... I'm really hoping it doesn't fall apart or anything like that.

[Johnny]

That's good that NMH seems to be a solid game. Lemme know how it is by the time you finish it though... I'm really hoping it doesn't fall apart or anything like that.

I've beat 3 Assassin's now (4 if you count the first but that's more of a warm-up level). If you hated or didn't like the sound of Assassin's Creed in terms of having to do somewhat repetitive side-missions before being allowed to take on a boss, then you might not get much out of this.

The game flow is kill an Assassin, get told how much money you need in order to pay for the right to open the next level (at the end of which is the next Assassin) then go do either killing missions (kill a certain amount of people in a certain amount fo time etc) or jobs (so far these have included cutting grass and collecting coconuts - a fun diversion) in order to get enough money. In that respect it's a lot like Assassin's Creed but there much more room for customising. After defeating each Assassin, more stuff is unlocked. So far I have the clothes shop (upgrading everything from tshirts to jackets to belts), the training room (like in GTA San Andreas, perform mini games to raise Travis' stats) and the weapons shop where you can buy new, or upgrade your current, Beam Katana.
Just unlocked some new ones but haven't checked them out yet.

Early reports suggest this didn't do too well in its first few weeks in Japan (although nothing really is at the minute - Shikigami no Shiro III only moved 2000 copies in its first week, only 500 of them being the Wii version which I ordered...) but is well worth a look when it comes to the US.

FWIW, despite the storm in a teacup that was censorship of the Japanese (and seemingly Euro) version, it's not all that drastic. Blood spurts are changed from red to black. Doesn't take away from the game at all.

[HitokiriShadow]

I've just obtained the third set of job classes in FF3.

I currently have Refia as a Dark Knight (Lv.10-ish), Luneth as a Dragoon (Lv. 10-ish), Arc as a White Mage (Lv. 54), and Ingus as a Thief (Lv. 86 or so).

Normally, I've had Luneth as a black mage, but since the upcoming boss will apparently reflect magic, I've decided to make him a physical attacker instead. Besides, its been difficult to keep my mages alive since they haven't had any armor upgrades since around the time I first got them.

[ADC]

I will say something that I probably shouldn't, so I'll hide-tag it: BLOOD LANCES. ;)

[HitokiriShadow]

Currently, Refia is enjoying using a Blood sword and its working out pretty well. I was hoping something like blood lances would exist and apparently they do.

[Suwako Moriya]

Ah so in Metroid Fusion I now get to face a really fast Spider. What's worse is for story reasons I can only save in one spot right now. Which means longer trips than usual if the boss kills me. One thing I'll say is there are times I wish Samus had more dialog in the game. Ah well at least she says stuff on occasion unlike say Link...

[ADC]

Link has lots of dialog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4elLuTGg3Yw).

[Chacranajxy]

hrm... well I have been playing a game. Unreal Tournament III.

My thinkings on it: http://www.honestgamers.com/systems/content.php?game_id=30116&console_id=13&review_id=6596

[Suwako Moriya]

Link has lots of dialog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4elLuTGg3Yw).

You just had to link to that one didn't you? Still what's important for me right now will be getting revenge on that darn boss in Metroid Fusion later.

[Nosredna]

Alright! I "beat" Super Mario Galaxy! Okay I only got 61 stars and need 59 more to really finish the game, but I'm still pretty happy to finish. I probably won't get those 59 stars for a while (if ever) as I actually have games to play. I think I'm going to start Growlanser Legends (PS2) soon.

[Suwako Moriya]

Still what's important for me right now will be getting revenge on that darn boss in Metroid Fusion later.

So much for that idea. Ugh this Spider is frustrating. It's speed and size make it almost impossible to dodge. Those flames make it so there is barely any room to dodge. If I stay on the ground I'm screwed. If I jump I'm screwed. The level of damage just makes things worse. The over all jump in power from the previous boss is scary. It's like defeating Milon for the first time in Final Fantasy 4 only to suddenly face all four fiends at once as the next boss...

[ADC]

May I make a suggestion? When you're jumping around, you're a big target. When you're running around, you're a big target. When you're just standing there, you're a big stationary target.

[broodwars]

I devoted a BIG chunk of time to finally beating Mario Galaxy (now that I got it back from the guy I loaned it to). I went from 35 stars yesterday to now 62 stars (naturally, I beat the game)...and once again the game's going back on the shelf for a long time. Galaxy's fun, but it gets tiring and tedious quickly, not to mention headache-enducing with all the camera changes.

Oh well...back to Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn to finish that out as well!

[Suwako Moriya]

May I make a suggestion? When you're jumping around, you're a big target. When you're running around, you're a big target. When you're just standing there, you're a big stationary target.

So are you saying I should just switch to ball form and hop around that way during the battle? Knowing my luck even in that form I'd jump too high...

[ADC]

No, but you're gaining on it.

The Spider X has a pattern. It will move in a specific manner, which only slightly changes based on where you are on the screen. It will shoot its fire in a specific manner, again based on where you are and where it is. You want to study these patterns. When it's moving, you will use what you know of its patterns and move away — preferably, as you've tumbled to, in the Morph Ball. When it's stopped, you will do your real fighting. At least, that's what worked for me.

If it makes you feel better, I know exactly where you are. If you think this guy's tough, just wait for the next one. :> (I'll give you a hint: RUN!!)

[Damo]

Exclusivly playing Ar Tonelico: Melody Of Elemia a few minutes short of 40hrs into it, and just about to head to the observatory in phase 3 having just gained access to the areas above the blastline.

It's only left my PS2 once and that was whiel I tested if the cody of Rule Of Rose I bought, actually worked.

[NickFalzarano]

It's only left my PS2 once and that was whiel I tested if the cody of Rule Of Rose I bought, actually worked.

If it did, I'm so sorry for you.

Anyway, after Final Fantasy III DS, I moved onto Sonic Rush Adventure. Since the original Sonic Rush was a (gasp!) decent Sonic game, you'd think that they'd have learned and replicated the experience a second time. Nope. The special stage mechanic of the first one, using the touch screen in challenging special stages akin to Sonic 2 has been used as a bland (and not challenging) sailing component-- for two of the four boats you get in the "adventure" part.Don't have the last boat, so I dunno how bad the last one will be to control.

The most infuriating part is that you have to keep replaying stages (or chart a course and hope you find an island, which is hit-or-miss) to get more materials to make more boats to progress in the story. Maybe if the stages weren't so crap-tacular it'd be better, but they are what they are. Most of the time, I keep my hand on the left arrow of the d-pad and jump every so often. That's gotten me through 4 or five levels already. Music isn't as horrid as recent games in the series, at least.

On the console side, I finally beat Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (it was a bloodbath! :sigh: --I'll post more in the FE thread) and so I moved on to Assassin's Creed, which I'm liking thus far.

Sure the enemies can be stupid (I'm going to try and attack you through my buddy! Oh no, my buddy died!) but the world is huge, and climbing buildings is fun. The story is entertaining thus far, and so it's about as decent as I expected it to be.

[HitokiriShadow]

Still what's important for me right now will be getting revenge on that darn boss in Metroid Fusion later.

So much for that idea. Ugh this Spider is frustrating. It's speed and size make it almost impossible to dodge. Those flames make it so there is barely any room to dodge. If I stay on the ground I'm screwed. If I jump I'm screwed. The level of damage just makes things worse. The over all jump in power from the previous boss is scary. It's like defeating Milon for the first time in Final Fantasy 4 only to suddenly face all four fiends at once as the next boss...

Ah, yes, that boss was a giant pain in the ass. If not the hardest boss in the game, it was definitely the most frustrating.

[Suwako Moriya]

If it makes you feel better, I know exactly where you are. If you think this guy's tough, just wait for the next one. :> (I'll give you a hint: RUN!!)

Ah great now I'm going to be scared even if I manage to beat the thing. I think it would be easier if my concentration was better. Either way I'm not sure I want to know what the final boss will be like.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

So, after my usual morning grocery shopping with my mom, we went to Best Buy. My mom let me get my early Xmas Present. This is what I'm playing now. :D
PS3 w007 (http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e135/shinjikinomoto/PS3Bitch.jpg)

So yeah. I'm excited. I haven't played it yet...just got it hooked up. Probably going to hit Assassins Creed hard later. But I'll try to keep peace and harmony with a bit of Hotel Dusk and Mario Galaxy mixed up with it. Oh...and I don 't work till Saturday.

So yeah...Thanks mom. :) :notworthy:

[ADC]

Ah great now I'm going to be scared even if I manage to beat the thing. I think it would be easier if my concentration was better. Either way I'm not sure I want to know what the final boss will be like.
Actually, the last boss in Fusion is a cupcake. (The one before that's rather a pain, but that's beside the point.) Rest assured that there are some nightmare bosses still ahead of you. And remember, it's more rewarding when you finish a hard game. :)

[Suwako Moriya]

Actually, the last boss in Fusion is a cupcake. (The one before that's rather a pain, but that's beside the point.)

I'm not sure if I should be happy or depressed hearing that the final boss is apparently pathetic.

And remember, it's more rewarding when you finish a hard game. :)

Assuming one ever does. Nothing like crappy concentration to make a game harder.

[Chacranajxy]

I recently collected my thinkings on Phoenix Wright 3:



Phoenix Wright just can't seem to catch a break. Not even a year after the second game in the fan-favorite lawyer series was released, Wright returns in what is his strongest game yet. The third installment, Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, is a fantastic conclusion to the trilogy that fans of the series will love.

The Phoenix Wright series has always had more in common with interactive novels than actual games. Sure, there's gameplay, but the focus and appeal of the franchise is the storyline. The basic premise is that you are Phoenix Wright: a master defense attorney who protects his clients from a "guilty" verdict even in the face of insurmountable odds. Trials and Tribulations features five lengthy cases that play out in exactly the same fashion as cases from the last two games. What has changed is that most of the cases are interconnected this time around, so characters from one case will often play a significant role in a future case. This makes the whole game feel far more cohesive than before, and the build-up of characters and plot points makes the final case incredibly satisfying and memorable, especially for long-time fans. Phoenix isn't the only playable character this time around, though, as Mia Fey, Phoenix's late mentor, stars for part of the game. Her exploits take place several years in the past and provide quite a bit of character background, which is the one place where past games' narratives have generally been lacking.

The endearing characters are perhaps the game's biggest asset. Literally every person you meet is interesting and genuinely likable. The witty, humorous dialog absolutely sells these characters and gives them a sense of uniqueness. The charming and often hilarious animations in the game bring everyone to life and it's impressive how effectively characters' mannerisms convey their personalities. There's a host of new characters in T&T, and some, like Prosecutor Godot, are among the coolest characters in the entire series. Even with several new people to meet, there's also a fairly large cast of returning characters that series fans will be overjoyed to see again. Unfortunately, this is also something of a double edged sword, as people who haven't played the last two games will be a bit lost concerning the significance of certain characters and events. This installment can still be enjoyed by people in that boat, but the storyline will have a far greater impact on people who are caught up with the last two games.

As in both prior installments, your time as a lawyer is divided between dramatic court battles and investigating crime scenes. What, exactly does a "dramatic court battle" entail? Imagine a civilized court proceeding, but infused with yelling, finger-pointing, and the slamming of hands on desks. The courtroom gameplay consists of cross-examining witnesses and digging out the contradictions in their testimony. When you find a contradiction or something suspicious, you can present evidence to prove that the witness is lying or press the witness for more details. This sounds pretty mundane and ordinarily, it would be. However, the testimonies you'll pick apart are basically logic puzzles designed to test your mettle which makes picking out the contradictions fun and satisfying. If you present irrelevant evidence, the judge will deduct from your "life bar" and eventually hand down a guilty verdict if you're too overzealous. However, if you present evidence at the right time, your witness will panic, dramatic music will begin to play, and a flurry of objections will echo across the courtroom. There's admittedly more watching than playing involved in the court of law, but what's there is enjoyable and oddly addictive.

As you'll quickly learn, evidence is everything in court. To get enough of it, you'll have to scour crime scenes and do some investigation between court sessions. In these scenes, you'll talk to people who are somehow involved with the crime at hand to get information about what happened and examine the scenery to find hard evidence to be used in court. The psyche-lock system returns from the second game and works in exactly the same manner as before. For those unfamiliar with this concept, when you run across somebody who�??s hiding a secret about the case, you'll need to present the appropriate evidence to break the "psyche-locks" protecting their secret. Doing so successfully will make them spill the beans and is necessary to make the story progress. It's more or less the same sort of logic puzzle that you'll find in the court segments, but these bits keep the exploration from feeling overly simplistic. The investigations aren't particularly complicated, but they do provide some much-needed variety for the game.

Being a defense attorney is fun, but Wright's latest outing still has a few shortcomings. The most significant problem is that when you're stuck and unsure of what evidence to present or where to go, the game can become an exercise in frustration. The game is completely linear, so there's only one answer to every puzzle. If your mind is drawing a blank, you'll need to search aimlessly for the action that will make the storyline progress. While these annoying situations seem to pop up less frequently than in past entries, such instances still appear more often than they should for the third installment in a series. It's also quite disappointing that there is simply nothing new here. This is the most polished Phoenix Wright game, but if you've played either of the other two games, you've already seen everything this has to offer. This will be little more than a rehash in some people's eyes, which is a shame because the game does offer the strongest storyline of the series.

Like the gameplay, Phoenix Wright's technical side is minimalist, but effective. The graphics are composed of static 2D backgrounds and sparse animation. At the same time, however, the backgrounds are fairly detailed and the character animations exude more personality than you'd think possible in a portable game, so you won't feel like the visuals are particularly lacking. The audio is surprisingly good, especially in regards to the soundtrack. The music sets the mood well in the story segments and succeeds in making courtroom duels feel epic. The sound effects are adequate and everything from Phoenix shouting "objection" to the strangely satisfying sound of text scrolling simply works.

Trials and Tribulations is a great game and the strongest entry in the Phoenix Wright trilogy, but it's disappointing that so little has changed and that some of the problems that have plagued the series from the start are still around. Even so, if you've stuck with the series and still enjoy it, there's really no reason why you wouldn't love the conclusion.

Rating: 8/10

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

So...I got a good two hours of Assassins Creed in. Just breath taking. This is my first "next-gen" game and I'm truly impressed. It's fun climbing on top of buildings and keeping on eye out on the village. I wish there was more fighting, but it gives it that more realistic feel. Assassinations are pretty cool also. I'm going to enjoy this game over the winter break. :D So happy I can look forward to all the other great PS3 games that will be coming our way!

Btw, stupid question for those who own a PS3. Is it worth to buy BluRay DVDs now, even though I don't have a HDTV (I'm still on S-Video). I'll probably get one after I graduate in the summer, but I'm sticking with what I have till then.

[indigo0086]

how would you watch them on an SDTV.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

how would you watch them on an SDTV.


Edit- N/M. Forgot that AVSForums can be your best friend. They will play, I just wont be able to take advantage of HD quality (which I already knew about the later). I don't want to buy movies twice over, thats all.

[untoldsorrow]

how would you watch them on an SDTV.


Edit- N/M. Forgot that AVSForums can be your best friend. They will play, I just wont be able to take advantage of HD quality (which I already knew about the later). I don't want to buy movies twice over, thats all.


Buy them since its not smart to double dip, and you know that you will eventually upgrade your TV. Just be warn, Blu-ray is expensive but alot of deals now, like BOGO though it does limit your selection.

[indigo0086]

If you're big on renting either format is a winner.

[Mateo_home]

Still on Father...errr...Mother 3. Went into the volcano above the village of the Dosei-san (or by their English name, Mr. Saturn) to pull another needle and got to fight "new" Yokuba. This time he's like a robot with horns coming out of his nose and he sure loves to inflict status on my party. Anyway, sent him packing vowing revenge. The next objective I got to travel under the ocean and what annoyed me is it has the worst air supply system ever. You kiss these Mermaid men and it takes a while to get through the scene (the screen just flashes pink with smooch sounds) and the air doesn't last very long. The positive is that it doesn't result to game over, you just end up back on the beach. So then the crew ended up on a deserted island and I ate the mushrooms to recover health, but that just made them wasted (They were poison) until I got to the magipsy's house to knock them out of it.

BTW, I encountered the "Ultimate Chimera." Simply about to engage in battle results to instant death. Well, that's a first for an RPG.

[ADC]

Passed the 10-hour mark on Jokémon. I've synthesized four monsters, three of whom are awesome and the other … got re-incorporated into a new synth. One of my synths is a she-slime whom I named Heather (after a former co-worker who enjoyed the back-stabbing). It's still pretty fun, but the difficulty is about what you'd expect from a Dragon Quest title. Which is to say, bring plenty of medicinal herbs and hoard jealously your Yggdrasil leaves. You'll need them.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

I've played Assassins Creed for six hours today...and I only got one assassin done this whole time! @_@ Having a lot of fun saving the peasants from the guards then running for cover.

[juliant59]

Currently playing Rock Band, and just got the Warhawk Omega Dawn Booster today. First impressions are is that for a machine that can fit 1 tank and 7 people it's surprising kind of fast and it has a buttload of firepower


Rock Band still rules as usual though I still have not unlocked all the tracks yet :P

[untoldsorrow]

The color is pretty sweet.

Red PSP Slim (http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b335/untoldsorrow/Photo-0020.jpg) Pic 1 (http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b335/untoldsorrow/Photo-0021.jpg) Pic 2 (http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b335/untoldsorrow/Photo-0022.jpg)

The value pack is pretty much the USA Value pack when the PSP first came out here. Disappointed that they couldn't at least include a red wrist scrap.

[Damo]

It's only left my PS2 once and that was whiel I tested if the copy of Rule Of Rose I bought, actually worked.

If it did, I'm so sorry for you.

It did, I kind of wanted it more for the fact it's unreleased (and likely never will be released) in the UK, I like the hunt for rare games, more than I actually want the game once I find it.
That, and I like to think I like horror games, they usualyl scrae me, I panic and fluff up the controls, get killed and never return.

[NickFalzarano]

If it did, I'm so sorry for you.

It did, I kind of wanted it more for the fact it's unreleased (and likely never will be released) in the UK, I like the hunt for rare games, more than I actually want the game once I find it.
That, and I like to think I like horror games, they usualyl scrae me, I panic and fluff up the controls, get killed and never return.

I can understand wanting it simply because of that.

The game is not scary however, the story is dull, and the fact that it got banned is pretty stupid, considering.

[rainking187]

If it did, I'm so sorry for you.

It did, I kind of wanted it more for the fact it's unreleased (and likely never will be released) in the UK, I like the hunt for rare games, more than I actually want the game once I find it.
That, and I like to think I like horror games, they usualyl scrae me, I panic and fluff up the controls, get killed and never return.

I can understand wanting it simply because of that.

The game is not scary however, the story is dull, and the fact that it got banned is pretty stupid, considering.

I didn't think it was that bad, it was a pretty creepy game. It does do some stupid stuff occasionally, like forcing you to find a pair of scissors to cut a rope at the beginning, even though you're already carrying a knife.

[AdyHart]

After having it for over a year I've finally finished Dead Rising and got the "A" ending.
Now to do all the frank zombification items part and then Ill get the other endings. I dont know why it took me so long to finish such a quality game.

Now Im chipping away at one of my other backlog games in Final Fantasy XII.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

So...the freezes in Assassins Creed can get annoying, since they only happen when I'm in the midst of battle or fleeing on my steed. I got the update but it still does it every now and again. I should play some Ninja Gaiden Sigma just to make sure its not the system...but probably a good idea to take a break anyways. Got my second assassination in and saved a lot more peasants. Should get back to one of my twenty unfinished games.

[Suwako Moriya]

In any case I've tried again and again to beat that stupid Spider in Metroid Fusion and the main problem still remains the flames. I've decided it's too frustrating for me. I lack the needed concentration and given how far I have to travel each time I want to face the boss I have trouble memorizing the "patterns". All I know is what ultimately gets me is the huge spike in difficulty. It's like the game was on easy mode for awhile and suddenly it changed to ultra-hard mode. That's probably what's screwing me over the most...

Yeah I know I'll find out everyone else who played it beat the entire game with only one energy, never got hit at all, and beat the whole thing in five minutes...

[HitokiriShadow]

Final Fantasy 3

I've discovered that Geomancers are awesome. I never really used them much in 5 or Tactics, but I'm really liking them here. While their magic is random, it is pretty strong and their physical attacks are strong too. Ingus as a Geomancer can do almost as much with two bells as my lancer can with two spears.

On another note, I defeated Odin, only to later read up that he was a boss that was actually worth stealing from. I had been stealing from bosses but stopped bothering after Goldor because none of the items I got from them where worth the turn I spent to steal them. But it turns out that Odin actually had a really strong weapon. Fortunately, I had made a second save somewhat recently. Unfortunately, its still going to set me back 6-8 hours of gameplay. Godfuckingdammit.

[Suwako Moriya]

I've discovered that Geomancers are awesome.

Yes they definitely are. Random yes, but also strong. Plus unlike the original version of FF3 the skill won't backfire on you.

But it turns out that Odin actually had a really strong weapon. Fortunately, I had made a second save somewhat recently. Unfortunately, its still going to set me back 6-8 hours of gameplay. Godfuckingdammit.

Ok in order to gain a weapon you must give up 6-8 hours of progress that you'll have to do all over again. Can I be honest here? If I were you I'd screw the weapon and just move forward. It may be useful, but really if the game required you to actually steal weapons from specific bosses to have a chance of winning it wouldn't be much of game.

[HitokiriShadow]

Yes, that's true. But this is a damn strong weapon. Based on what I looked up, its the second strongest spear in the game and nearly three times as powerful as the best spears I have access to now. And really, it probably won't take me as long to get it back as a good chunk of it was grinding and farming and I've since discovered that the area Odin is in far, far better than the areas I had been using. So it will likely take far less time than I had originally spent. I can probably get back to the area Odin was in within an hour, maybe a little longer depending on how long it takes me to farm for an extra Wind Spear or two.

Come to think of it, it was probably closer to five hours of lost gameplay. And it was mostly grinding and farming. Plus, since I play at work and I'm frequently setting it down to deal with customers, its hard to really judge how much of it I was actually playing.

[ADC]

Actually, I found 19 of the 20 Energy Tanks, and there were times when I needed every last one of those HP. I escaped the bit you're about to face with around 30 HP, from 899.

:>

I think, on the topic, that Metroid Fusion's difficulty arc is actually pretty fair. There's only one boss who's just that hard, and most of the areas between the boss fights are reasonable as well.

Actually, that's not true. There are two bosses who are that hard. Merry Christmas! :D

…
On a related note, I've reached the C-level island in Jokémon, and I'm starting to get some really interesting monsters. My best is a great sabrecub named Guinan (because her imaginary friend was a Sarkazian razorbeast), and she-slime Heather's still a force. She's like a Priest from DQ3, with excellent offense and healing capabilities as well as some attack magics. Synthing monsters is really the way to go in this game.

[ADC]

I would agree with Bob, HitokiriShadow. Don't go back for the spear you get from Odin. What you do is, you buy those Blood Lances and have at it. Better strategy that way (except against undead enemies).

[broodwars]

In-between knocking back my backlog of animated DVDs to watch I purchased the 2nd season of Sam & Max from telltalegames.com. As only one of the 4 episodes this season has been released, I played (and beat) episode 1: "Ice Station Santa." Well, this episode is certainly the best Telltalegames has done since "Abe Lincoln Must Die!" of the previous season. It's just as funny as ever, the game's actually a decent length (for downloadable content), and the puzzles are quite good. It was great to see so many new locations after all the re-used ones in the first season. Here's hoping they continue this trend for the rest of the season.

Really, folks, if you like Point & Click games, you really should try Ice Station Santa before Christmas.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Bought an Xbox today.
Rock Band will arrive in the mail as soon as Amazon ships it.
Until then? Fuck the pack in games, I'm playing the Burnout Paradise demo.
Keep seeing people complain about there being nothing to do, but wrong; there's tons of exploration to do. Driving slowly around and trying to find all the short cuts and signs you can jump through and figuring out how you can jump through said signs is maybe not what most people think of when they think Burnout, but I'm having a blast with it, having had no preconceived notions.

[Collectonian]

Is it just me, or do all RPGs have some insane optional enemy who makes the final bosses look pathetically easy? :P It took me four tries, but I finally beat the demon gate in Kamui, getting the last of the first 99 stray beads, so I headed to the Ark and have just finished the game (69 hours 46 minutes 16 seconds). It has a nice ending theme.

No idea what I'll play next. I have Onimusha, so may start that. I still have no desire to start Devil May Cry again (stupid save system). I need to get some more games, I think...

~wanders off to start a recommendation thread~

[ADC]

Is it just me, or do all RPGs have some insane optional enemy who makes the final bosses look pathetically easy? :P
The problem is that, for RPGs to gain mainstream acceptance, they had to nerf the final boss (and all of its predecessors) so people wouldn't lose too often and get frustrated. I don't agree with the strategy, but then, I cut my teeth on Dragon Warrior. The only thing reasonable about the Dragonlord was his introduction: "A Dragonlord draws near." It'd be anticlimactic except that it happens at the start of the battle, not the end. But starting with our favorite final boss whipping boy Sephiroth, RPG final bosses have lost their snarl.

I like the idea of including über-bosses in optional quests. Even after needing over an hour to whittle down Angra Mainyu's 1 million HP, I say this.

[Jarred]

I also have really enjoyed the Burnout demo. I think I've sunk around 5-6 hours into it ^^;

I just love how seamless the whole experience plays out, especially the online piece.

[rainking187]

Bought an Xbox today.
Rock Band will arrive in the mail as soon as Amazon ships it.
Until then? Fuck the pack in games, I'm playing the Burnout Paradise demo.
Keep seeing people complain about there being nothing to do, but wrong; there's tons of exploration to do. Driving slowly around and trying to find all the short cuts and signs you can jump through and figuring out how you can jump through said signs is maybe not what most people think of when they think Burnout, but I'm having a blast with it, having had no preconceived notions.

I played the demo on my PS3. I played it for about 20 minutes, then was informed by the game that I could play the demo online. I then played it for another 3 hours. May have to pick this one up, if only so that I no longer crash into the same concrete barricades over and over again because I don't even see them coming until I've already hit them.

[Fencedude]

Picked up a few PS2 games recently:

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence
Disgaea 2

Only played VP2 so far, about 4~5 hours in. I never beat the first (though I did play some of it), but I like this so far. Silmeria's a bit of a bitch though. Alicia's nice however.

[Suwako Moriya]

Is it just me, or do all RPGs have some insane optional enemy who makes the final bosses look pathetically easy? :P

Actually in some cases that uber optional enemy is another version of the final boss. Such as facing the fully powered up version of the final boss in Romancing SaGa. Which by the way drove me insane and I only won because I exploited a hasten time loop to prevent most of his turns. I say most because I saved it for the second form.

Heck come to think of it there's also the final boss in SaGa Frontier 2 and Romancing SaGa 3 except in those cases you have the option of making the final boss weaker as opposed to stronger. You can probably guess I prefer to weaken them because I can.

[Suwako Moriya]

Apparently because I hate myself, I decided to keep trying the Spide Boss in Metroid Fusion. So I manage to (almost) defeat it only to find a second form which I kept losing to. Then I find out that staying still (mostly) and shooting straight up causes me to be damaged less(?). Then I end up running out of missiles during the required final part. Then after finally killing it I have a lot of trouble using the new ability. Finally I come close to dying before the save area, but in the end I saved.

I'm not sure if I should be happy or depressed. I'm glad it's finally dead. However I'm depressed it's another sign of either how bad using a normal GBA is and/or how bad my eyes are. It's really hard to find good lighting. Still I'm not sure what to think of beating a boss after "giving up". I thought you were supposed to say stuff like "I believe in my friends" or whatever in order to have a chance of winning. Ah well at least it's defeated now.

[ADC]

I will tell you, Bob, that I didn't beat Metroid Fusion until I got a modern GBA SP. The backlight helped out a ton, and the old SP's frontlight just doesn't compare. If you're using a phat GBA with no internal light, you're the fool I pity. ;) (Really, brother, dig through your couch, your brother's couch, your neighbor's couch, until you scrounge up $80 plus tax for one of these modern models.)

[untoldsorrow]

Bought an Xbox today.
Rock Band will arrive in the mail as soon as Amazon ships it.
Until then? Fuck the pack in games, I'm playing the Burnout Paradise demo.
Keep seeing people complain about there being nothing to do, but wrong; there's tons of exploration to do. Driving slowly around and trying to find all the short cuts and signs you can jump through and figuring out how you can jump through said signs is maybe not what most people think of when they think Burnout, but I'm having a blast with it, having had no preconceived notions.

I played the demo on my PS3. I played it for about 20 minutes, then was informed by the game that I could play the demo online. I then played it for another 3 hours. May have to pick this one up, if only so that I no longer crash into the same concrete barricades over and over again because I don't even see them coming until I've already hit them.


Burnout demo is awesome. I've been playing it since it came out, driving around is fun. I love that it kept the sense of speed. I have yet to play it online from the demo but will do so after x-mas.

[Suwako Moriya]

I know I should actually get around to getting a better version of the GBA, but I keep putting it off because I decide I have something else to get. Like uh Anime DVDs. Yeah strange thing to talk about here. There is also the problem of how to upgrade if I do.

GBA SP would still allow access to GB and GBC games and after all the GBA SP may be a great help to those type of games as well. However part of me wonders if it would be just better to go for a DS.

As it would not only improve playing GBA games, but give access to DS games without having to borrow a DS. However there then comes the issue of a DS being more expensive and it would add yet another set of things to decide between. As it would feel pointless to have a system with no games.

There's a good excuse to pass on a system. So long as I don't own the system, I won't feel compelled to have to spend money on games for it. Yeah that sounds kind of silly.

It also doesn't help right now I'm thinking of saving up for a pricey order of import anime music CDs as an indirect way of supporting certain series while still clinging to a slim hope that the said shows would get licensed here.

So yeah as you can see I know I should upgrade and yet for various reasons I simply keep hesitating to. Hence forth yeah I'm definitely kind of pathetic here. :sd:

[HitokiriShadow]

GBA SP would still allow access to GB and GBC games and after all the GBA SP may be a great help to those type of games as well. However part of me wonders if it would be just better to go for a DS.

As it would not only improve playing GBA games, but give access to DS games without having to borrow a DS. However there then comes the issue of a DS being more expensive and it would add yet another set of things to decide between. As it would feel pointless to have a system with no games.


Unless you think to are going to have a real need for those pre-GBA games, you are probably better off just getting a DS. That way you'll be able to play the FF4 DS remake when it comes out, among other things.

[HitokiriShadow]

I decided Odin could go screw himself and just continued on without the spear. I just got The Invincible, and I just bought two blood spears (yay!).

My characters are all at level 45, Refia is a level 40ish Lancer, Luneth is a level 78 black mage, Arc has mastered white mage, and Ingus is a level 60ish Geomancer, though I switch him back to Thief when I need to open doors or feel like trying to steal from enemies. At this point, he can switch between the two with no repercussions.

[Suwako Moriya]

Unless you think to are going to have a real need for those pre-GBA games, you are probably better off just getting a DS. That way you'll be able to play the FF4 DS remake when it comes out, among other things.

Hmm good point there. Either way it will be awhile before I upgrade assuming I ever do. That's what I hate about having multiple interests they get in the way of each other sometimes.

[Nosredna]

Got through the first prologue in Growlanser Heritage of War (PS2). Evidently there are three more to go until I get to the main story :sd: . Pretty good story so far, interesting instead of just telling us the back story, you actually play through it.

[AbeChinchilla]

Currently playing BioShock, Prey and Halo 3 (XBOX Live).

[Andrew Cunningham]

I know I've only had an Xbox 360 a couple of days, but is service always this shitty? Couldn't log on most of the afternoon, and now that I am on it refuses to accept my credit card information. Went to the website, but the entire section of the site where you buy points is unavailable.
I actually got desperate enough to play Forza 2 for a few minutes, but man, is that a piece of shit. I knew it wouldn't hold my attention for long after Burnout demos, but I nearly snapped it in half after the first race. I'm assuming the Marvel game they gave me is equally worthless.
I'd like to be downloading Psychonauts or Cloning Clyde, but unless Microsoft decides to turn on their payment systems that won't be happening.

[Suwako Moriya]

In addition to playing Metroid Fusion, I'm playing Romancing SaGa 3. Currently my party is Reimu, Erin, Reisen, Yukari, and Tatyana. Although I would like Marisa to join soon. There's just something about finally getting one of those darn hacks to work so I can do things like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEWcf1atogg) .

Only issues are the following. Still need to learn how to work with more individual character files. Have to accept guessing my way through Japanese. Also it seems this patch did more than just change the eight leads into Touhou girls. Granted with Mikhail changed to Remelia and Monica to Marisa, I can't have both in the same party. Also they just had to make Sara into Erin which is interesting given Sara's story position.

Yeah this gives me a good excuse to play Romancing SaGa 3 again. Granted I'm speaking as if I needed an excuse. Either way I'll probably dump Tatyana (for once) so I can have a full Touhou party. She'll end up being replaced by that jerk that forces his way into the party near the end if you don't have him already...

[Jarred]

Normally the Live service is solid but it looks like they had some issues today. The status was updated on the support page to say they were having problems.

[HitokiriShadow]

Final Fantasy III

I mainly just farmed and grinded today. I was mainly farming, but leveling up was an inevitable side effect.

I also got Leviathan and found Bahamut's Lair. I spent about four hours farming/grinding in the Saronia Catacombs only to discover that the lake was a much better place (aside from the enemies that can stone you) and Bahamut's Lair was even better.

At this point, all my characters are at level 54 and currently all are Dragoons at various job levels with Refia being the highest at 84 and Arc the lowest at 4.

I also made a brief visit to the next area I need to go to and discovered that it basically requires me to use Dark Knights. That would be great since I like Dark Knights except I stopped using Dark Knight a while back because they became nearly useless shortly after you get them because the game simply doesn't give you access to equipment they can use. When you get them, they can use the nice equipment you had from the first area of the game. Several bosses and dungeons later, they still haven't gotten any new armor they can use, so even the mages have armor twice as strong was what the Dark Knights can get. The weapon situation isn't much better, but I have finally gotten a new weapon they can use.

I recall an NPC earlier mentioning something about people researching a Dark Blade or somthing and at the time I thought that referred to the Ancient Ruins in which I had recently nearly gotten my ass handed to me. But now I'm wondering if it was hinting at something related to Dark Knights, possibly someplace with equipment for them. But if that's the case, there are two possibilities: I could have gotten something for them earlier which is now still too weak compared to the equipment the other knight classes can use, or I just recently obtained the means to reach this place and I can finally use them but they didn't have access to anything useful for a good chunk of time. Either way, the game is not providing the player with equipment the Dark Knight can use for a good chunk of time and making it a liablility in battle. Or there is no such place and the game is actually forcing me to go into this new dungeon with the pathetic equipment from much earlier in the game because the Dark Knight is just too cool to use the armor all of the other knight classes can use. Seriously, why the hell can't a Dark Knight just equip Diamond Helmet/Mail like the Lancer and Knight?

More Bitching
The Invincible is the most annoying airship ever. I can't go straight from the ground to the air or vice versa. No, every single time I want to switch, I have to go the fucking cabin. The Invincible is slower than the previous airship, so the only reason to use it is to get over the small mountains. But they had to make that as annoying and clunky as possible. It doesn't go over the mountains automatically, oh no, you have to stop and press the A button then watch it slowly hop over the mountain. Every. Fucking. Time. So, to get to the next dungeon, you have to do this half a dozen times each way. There is no goddamn reason the airship shouldn't be able to automatically, and quickly, go over the mountains. This doesn't add the slightest bit of challenge, just a lot of tedium and annoyance.

Equipment. The only stat the game shows you for weapons is the attack power. This means you can't see any other stat bonuses, like Intelligence and Mind increases, which is what really matters for staffs and rods. It's basically the same for armor. It just gives the defense stat, not anything else. On some occasions, it gives the oh-so-helpful note "Prevents some status effects" without any indication of which status effects. This is pure laziness on the part of the programmers. There is no good reason for not giving the players access to this information.

And I'm clearly nearing the end of the game, but I still can't buy a goddamn Phoenix Down.

[ADC]

When you go to the place where you "need" Dark Knights, you don't really need Dark Knights. What'll happen is, anything you touch will asexually reproduce at its current HP, but only if there are fewer than three enemies in battle at the time. So what you do is, you just keep whacking whatever comes your way. If it divides and you get to fight more, good. More EXP for you. Especially given your characters' levels. You won't run into serious trouble in there.

Absolutely agree on the points regarding the Invincible. It's sloppy game design, and almost certainly an artifact of how the game played on the NES. I think Matrix Soft cut a lot of corners on the port of FF3, though. There's no bestiary, which is part of every other portable FF (main series). As you mentioned, there's no way to know what secondary effects your equipment have without painstaking trial and error. The second screen does fuck-all most of the time. From what I've seen so far, though, every one of these things is getting fixed for FF4.

On the other hand, the wiki says that they're not going to allow you to swap out characters in FF4DS as you did in FF4A, which means we're all stuck with the pantywaist ninja. But it also says that your characters can inherit abilities from departed party members. Maybe Edge can borrow Edward's spine?

[Suwako Moriya]

At this point, all my characters are at level 54 and currently all are Dragoons at various job levels with Refia being the highest at 84 and Arc the lowest at 4.

Not sure how well all Dragoons would work, but my party was in the 50s when I beat it. So make of that what you will. In general I find Attack Class, Attack Class, Defensive Class, and Other works well. Usually the other being defensive as well or support.

I also made a brief visit to the next area I need to go to and discovered that it basically requires me to use Dark Knights.

The only real reason to use Dark Knights is because their "weapons" don't cause the enemy to split into two. However it's still possible to beat the enemy without them. Just takes a bit longer. Also there is always the idea of running away. (Even easier using a thief). Heck speaking of required, I beat a boss that supposedly requires one to use Dragoons without Dragoons.

But now I'm wondering if it was hinting at something related to Dark Knights, possibly someplace with equipment for them.

Let's just say there is indeed a town of Dark Knights. Although it requires using one of the special ships to reach. Sorry that I can't remember how right now, but there are always FAQs to use.

And I'm clearly nearing the end of the game, but I still can't buy a goddamn Phoenix Down.

Heh the funny thing is even after beating the game I still had phoenix downs left over. Either way if you can find the town full of mages, you can buy a variety of spells. Including revival spells I believe.

[Suwako Moriya]

On the other hand, the wiki says that they're not going to allow you to swap out characters in FF4DS as you did in FF4A, which means we're all stuck with the pantywaist ninja. But it also says that your characters can inherit abilities from departed party members. Maybe Edge can borrow Edward's spine?

Okay this sounds interesting especially if they allow us to decide who inherits what. Although perhaps they may for story reasons have it be specific. Maybe if done right it will make Kain less boring to use. Freya makes a much more interesting Dragoon, Dragon Knight, Lancer, or whatever this week.

[HitokiriShadow]

When you go to the place where you "need" Dark Knights, you don't really need Dark Knights. What'll happen is, anything you touch will asexually reproduce at its current HP, but only if there are fewer than three enemies in battle at the time. So what you do is, you just keep whacking whatever comes your way. If it divides and you get to fight more, good. More EXP for you. Especially given your characters' levels. You won't run into serious trouble in there.

Ah, okay, that probably won't be a problem then. I think I'm about 10 levels higher than I need to be, so I can probably kill most enemies in one turn before they get a chance.

From what I've seen so far, though, every one of these things is getting fixed for FF4.

Thank god. Considering all the changes they did make I'm surprised they couldn't have fixed these.

[HitokiriShadow]

Not sure how well all Dragoons would work, but my party was in the 50s when I beat it. So make of that what you will. In general I find Attack Class, Attack Class, Defensive Class, and Other works well. Usually the other being defensive as well or support.

I'm going to see how far I can get in the last dungeon with all Dragoons with double blood lances (and switching to something else when dealing with undead enemies).
Heck speaking of required, I beat a boss that supposedly requires one to use Dragoons without Dragoons.

I assume you mean Garuda. I saw it as a recommendation more than a requirement. And with three dragoons (two with double wind spears and one with double thunder spears) it was the easiest fight in the game.


Let's just say there is indeed a town of Dark Knights. Although it requires using one of the special ships to reach. Sorry that I can't remember how right now, but there are always FAQs to use.

I'll just find it myself. But its nice to know that I'm not searching in vain.


Heh the funny thing is even after beating the game I still had phoenix downs left over. Either way if you can find the town full of mages, you can buy a variety of spells. Including revival spells I believe.

Yes, the revive spell does the job too, but there is the problem of A) your white mage dying and B) what if you don't want to have to use a white mage in your party? So far, I've only used two or three phoenix downs throughout the game but I'd still like to have them in case I need them.

[Suwako Moriya]

Yes, the revive spell does the job too, but there is the problem of A) your white mage dying and B) what if you don't want to have to use a white mage in your party?

Well you could always eventually use a Devout instead of a White Mage. ;) There's also the Sage, but the Sage is kind of slow.... There's also the idea of not dying in the first place if it can be helped.

So far, I've only used two or three phoenix downs throughout the game but I'd still like to have them in case I need them.

Understandable, still often part of the problem with rare items is deciding if the need is now or later. Plus one often becomes so hesitant to use them that by the time one does, they no longer have any real need for the item. Plus the mere fact an item is rare like the game is trying to say you don't really need it. After all if you needed a rare item that badly it would make the game nearly impossible anyway.

[HitokiriShadow]

On another note, what is the point of Fat Chocobo? If item space was limited, I could understand, but there doesn't appear to be a limit to the number of different items you can hold or its so high it doesn't matter. In which case, his existence seems utterly pointless.

[ADC]

There won't be a point to the Fat Chocobo until FF7, when there's a non-zero chance he'll drop out of the heavens to squash your enemies as part of the Choco/Mog summon. In theory, you could leave your unnecessary items behind to make it easier to find the stuff you do need. In practice, it's easier to just sort your items.

[Andrew Cunningham]

It may be more my card, or their connection to Mastercard. Mastercard swears its all good, Xbox won't take it. But they took debit, so I'm good to go.

[Collectonian]

Since the games I'm asking for for Christmas won't be here for a week or two, I decided to go ahead and revisit the old Playstation game Crash Bandicoot. It is one I've yet to complete. So far, I've gotten my first new white gem for the first time in years :P

[Andrew Cunningham]

Psychonauts - pretty much ideal.
I like standing around and listening to long conversations when they're funny and interesting.
I like platforming with plenty of exploration and really, really tight controls.
Definitely could have used a manual, however. Figuring out how to change direction on the pins I was swinging from was a bitch by trial and error.

[Damo]

If it did, I'm so sorry for you.

It did, I kind of wanted it more for the fact it's unreleased (and likely never will be released) in the UK, I like the hunt for rare games, more than I actually want the game once I find it.
That, and I like to think I like horror games, they usualyl scrae me, I panic and fluff up the controls, get killed and never return.

I can understand wanting it simply because of that.

The game is not scary however, the story is dull, and the fact that it got banned is pretty stupid, considering.
The fact it was banned was beyond stupid really, hell the UK's gaming ratings body gave it a 15 certificate. But no all that fuss from italy.

In the end Rule of Rose didn't find its way into my PS2 as GrimGrimoire beat it to the punch, having never played an RTS before ever I'm in uncharted gaming terratory.

[Garasharp K7]

I finished up ACE 3 for the second time the other day. It was more fun than the first go, but the game still runs out of steam near the end - it's still nowhere near as awesomw as ACE 2's finale. Even the credits had some epic-ness to 'em. (you could continue fighting enemies as the credits rolled) So now I'm just unlocking mechs and building up sats and such. Extra missions are great, and the game still has lots of great things going for it.
It's just... well, not as great and awesome as ACE 2 was. I miss my Gekigan Flare. :(

[Suwako Moriya]

In theory, you could leave your unnecessary items behind to make it easier to find the stuff you do need. In practice, it's easier to just sort your items.

Actually just before facing the final boss in Final Fantasy 4, I'd often trim down my list of items to speed things up.

[EmperorBrandon]

I haven't tried much of Romancing Saga 3 yet, though I do need to get to it. I think I always tend to feel a bit confused at first when I play Saga games :sd:

Brought Final Fantasy V Advance with me on my trip, so I'm playing through it some more, since it's the only one of the 16-bit FF remakes for GBA that I haven't played all the way through yet. I was close to the point where Galuf kicks the bucket when I left off, so I'm past that now and have Krile and all her cute costumes. Looking forward to checking out the new jobs when I get to them.

I also brought La Pucelle: Tactics with me, but mainly just playing through the story with Japanese dialogue (Mai Nakahara :beat: ) this time, since I did pretty much everything with my first game. A few things I need to do this time gameplay wise, like beat the optional bosses in the story for those nice items (and got the Forest Lord skill this time).

[Suwako Moriya]

I haven't tried much of Romancing Saga 3 yet, though I do need to get to it. I think I always tend to feel a bit confused at first when I play Saga games :sd:

I'm just hoping my experience with RS3 will allow me to guess my way through it in Japanese. Although it seems the hack changes how magic works by adding new spells to the listing. Which means not only trying to match name to spell, but seeing what the "new" spells added/unlocked do.

[Johnny]

OK, lets see...Finished all the recipes in Cooking Mama 2 earlier so that's probably me done with the game. Really enjoyed it, but after the first game and the Wii release, with not a lot changing I found myself getting bored of it quite quickly. Still very enjoyable though.

Got Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (on BD) couple of days ago and have been playing it quite a lot. Looks absolutely amazing! One of, if not the, best looking game this gen. Plays well too. Same old GT but that's no bad thing. Forza 2 is amazing, PGR4 is amazing, but GT5 is gonna be, for me at least, the premiere racer when it arrives. Pity it's gonna be at least a year :( This could be my most anticipated game for 08 after playing Prologue.

Also been playing a lot more No More Heroes on Wii and it keeps getting better and better. Just killed the 5th Assassin and the story is starting to get pretty interesting. I wonder how this will do when it comes out in the US? As it stands, this is, for my money, the best 3rd party Wii game available right now but I get the feeling that it's gonna be completely overlooked.

Gonna start Lost Odyssey later tonight and possibly Contra 4 as well.

[Suwako Moriya]

Well in any case one thing I wonder is why the hack changes it so Sarah err now Erin has 0 LP. It's like they don't want you to play as her... Then again not like you have to even in her own. Also it seems I can't use the Royal Ring trick to make money. Ah well at least I have the Fire Palace open which is good for leveling up in Romancing SaGa 3 thanks to several enemy icons that contains preset groups. Thus so long as I save the boss for later, I can keep refacing them and gaining the stats I need. In short it's fun time.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Psychonauts - I'm still pretty positive on this game, but obtuse boss battles are going to be the death of it.
Between the aim lock for your psychic bullets locking on the wrong shit all the fucking time (shit you can't even DAMAGE) and the psychic abilities you earn by leveling up being totally useless in boss battles or out of it, there's a certain amount of frustration. I mean, it's just not fun working out that a boss must be defeated by breaking or hiding behind random objects in the room instead of using your actual fucking powers. Only worked it out because the character gave me a hint once I fucking started tapping the Y button repeatedly in desperation. By then it was too late and I ran out of lives. Guess I get to start that whole bit over some other day, but after playing basically all day today, I'm suddenly in no rush to continue.
I liked footling around and exploring the terrain. I love the damn story. And I don't mind if the action is difficult - but frustratingly obtuse is a different matter.

[HitokiriShadow]

There won't be a point to the Fat Chocobo until FF7, when there's a non-zero chance he'll drop out of the heavens to squash your enemies as part of the Choco/Mog summon. In theory, you could leave your unnecessary items behind to make it easier to find the stuff you do need. In practice, it's easier to just sort your items.

That's what I figured, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

Once I started up today, it took me about two minutes to find the NPC with the clue and then find the Dark Knight village. Then I kicked myself for not finding it sooner as I should have noticed it before then.

In any case, I took care of making the Dark Knight, beat Bahamut (who was pathetically easy; I killed him in two hits and he never even got a chance to attack) then proceeded with the story. I've now obtained the last set of job classes and I'm just leveling some of them up in the Maze of the Ancients.

Refia is learning the way of the ninja, Luneth is studying Summoning, and Arc is a sage. I had Ingus as a Black Belt briefly but I decided I didn't really like that class and decided to have him finish mastering Geomancy. Everyone is currently on level 60.

[Suwako Moriya]

I had Ingus as a Black Belt briefly but I decided I didn't really like that class and decided to have him finish mastering Geomancy.

The main issue with the Black Belt is the question of whether or not there is any real benefit to sacrificing a turn for the sake of more damage later. I don't think I ever bothered to study what difference stacking power made or whatever it was called. Same goes for any rules or restrictions it may have.

Oh yes by the way quick advice in regards to the sage. Whether or not they are worth using depends on how varied the character will be in terms of spell use. If you plan to have the said character spend 90% of his time using "White Magic" then you're better off just being a Devout because you would not being use black or summons enough to justify a sage.

[HitokiriShadow]

This is another one of those times where I really wish the game would provide explanations and the differences between the job classes. Yes, he'll mainly be a healer but I figured I could get some attacks out of him here and there as well. I didn't realize they could use summons as well though. I don't really have room or MP to spare for high level black magic (aside from lvl 8 which is currently empty) but the lower level white and black magic is nearly useless at this stage but the summons could still be useful.

[ADC]

I had a Sage when I went to the last stage. Not bad, especially considering the fact you get all your spells refilled after boss battles, but definitely not great. I found myself wishing for more White Magic muscle — and that's even though I already had a Devout in my party. Looking back on it, I'd rather have had a White Mage than a Sage for the added level 5 White Magics — you can never have enough Raise. And if you've been diligent in your Thievery over the course of the game, you'll likely have good enough stock of items to make a Scholar your best friend.

Yeah, if ever I go back and play through FF3 again, I might try out some things. I enjoyed having a Thief and a Scholar, letting the enemies give me the tools of their destruction at no charge. And once I got Luneth up to job level 99 as a Scholar, he was dealing massive punishment from the back row despite the damage reduction factor.

I think, though, that I have too many DS games in the queue to revisit a minor FF anytime soon.

[gnikdrazil]

I just beat Okami under 41 hours. I would have to give it a 7/10. I enjoyed its unique paint brush system, the dungeon exploring, and some fun mini games like the Lemming-esqe treasure hunting game. There were some flaws too like way too much dialog. Characters were long winded, and it got worse when the game wouldn't let you speed up the text during "important" parts. Normal and boss battles got very repetitive. Each time to get to a new area they just repeat the same guys from the previous area, but with a new skin. Heck, you have to fight the same 5 of 7 bosses you defeated throughout the game before facing the big bad boss; he was a lot fun. It was good for a one time play through, but I don't think I'll pick it up again.

I'm finally going to start using my PS3 as one instead of a PS2 and play PS3 Marvel Alliance. I like Diablo and Marvel superheros. Win-Win in my book.

[HitokiriShadow]

I ended up switching Arc to a devout because I needed the white magic more and I just didn't have room or MP to spare for him to attack as well.

I went through the Crystal Tower and got to the World of Darkness but then got killed when I accidentally fought the boss of the game before fighting all the crystal monsters. The game allows you to initiate a fight you don't have a chance in hell of winning and then doesn't let you win. Nice. Also, it amuses me that the Cloud of Darkness is a glowing ball of light.

I kept telling myself I should go back and save and then go through the tower again, but nooooooo I just kept going and even walked right up to something that I should have known not to (right as hit the point of return I thought "Wait a minute, is this.... crap"). I think I saved after I got all the weapons from Eureka. At least I hope I did.

On another note, those yellow dragons are little bastards and are far, far more trouble than they are worth. They seem to have around 50-60k HP and were tougher to defeat than Xande and Cerberus.

More bitching time, too. I noticed it before but it wasn't a big deal, but now its becoming a problem. While the player has to pick the actions at the beginning of the turn and hope something doesn't get screwed up (like the guy you cast Curaga on getting killed and then wasting a turn and MP healing someone who doesn't need it), the enemies don't have this problem. They select their targets (and possibly attacks) when their turn actually comes up. This means they can target that character that was KOed at the beginning of the round that you used a phoenix down/raise on.

[ADC]

That's the one thing I wish they'd change about the Dragon Quest games. I'm really sick of traditional turn-based games with their ultra-random battle order, especially given that the enemies seem to be very accurate and very fast when one of your people is SOS. And I hope they ditch the traditional turn-based system the next time they remake FF1, too. There's a difference between "classic" and "primitive," and this is primitive. Square knew way back in 1991 that they needed to knock it off, but Enix still hasn't received that memo at the end of 2007.

[tuffy]

That's the one thing I wish they'd change about the Dragon Quest games. I'm really sick of traditional turn-based games with their ultra-random battle order
I thought the goal of remakes was to make them suck less. Taking out a perfectly good system and replacing it with Square's "mash the attack button" style is going in the opposite direction. Though if they do go that route, at least I won't feel tempted to buy them like I am now.

[ADC]

That's the one thing I wish they'd change about the Dragon Quest games. I'm really sick of traditional turn-based games with their ultra-random battle order
I thought the goal of remakes was to make them suck less. Taking out a perfectly good system and replacing it with Square's "mash the attack button" style is going in the opposite direction. Though if they do go that route, at least I won't feel tempted to buy them like I am now.
I'd agree with you if Enix's "make choices now that might not be relevant or possible once the guy's turn comes around" system actually was perfectly good. What it is, is perfectly retarded.

[Andrew Cunningham]

The only JRPG with a system I could stand after an hour or two of play was Xenogears. Anything else use a similar system, or was that too good an idea for their target audience to like?

[ADC]

Chrono Cross had some similarities in its battle system, but they somehow found a way to make it suck. I agree, though, that the Xenogears system worked pretty well. If the rest of that game were up to the drill, it would have been awesome. But ugly + incomplete + long-in-the-extreme = Sad ADC, and no amount of Elly-in-the-shower scenes can change that.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Yeah, I have pretty much nothing good to say about the rest of it.
I'd like to like rpgs, but they just keep defeating me. Cannot stand grinding (but will happily blow hours searching corners for stuff to collect in platforming games, which is probably inexplicable.)
Then again, I've pretty much played Xenogears and the Gameboy Final Fantasy Legend and Final Fantasy Adventure. Think I tried a couple of others and didn't get far. But FFL I actually just put the battles on Auto and ignored them after a while. Fucking mindless.
I've been forcibly loaned the GBA Mario and Luigi game, and something called Sigma Star by a friend who thinks I just need to play a good one.
I guess I'll find out. After I beat everything else he loaned me and everything I've managed to accumulate for myself and anything I buy while doing that.
Puzzle Quest was awesome, though.

[HitokiriShadow]

The only JRPG with a system I could stand after an hour or two of play was Xenogears. Anything else use a similar system, or was that too good an idea for their target audience to like?


I loved the Xenogears battle system. The only other games I've heard of with remotely similar system are the Xenosaga games and Legaia. None of them were nearly as good as Xenogears.

But have you tried any of the Tales or Star Ocean games? Their battle systems are vastly different than the typical JRPG as its real-time, except when selecting items or manually picking spells.

[HitokiriShadow]

That's the one thing I wish they'd change about the Dragon Quest games. I'm really sick of traditional turn-based games with their ultra-random battle order, especially given that the enemies seem to be very accurate and very fast when one of your people is SOS. And I hope they ditch the traditional turn-based system the next time they remake FF1, too. There's a difference between "classic" and "primitive," and this is primitive. Square knew way back in 1991 that they needed to knock it off, but Enix still hasn't received that memo at the end of 2007.

The problem with most turn based systems is that you need to pick actions but a whole lot could happen between when you pick the action and when it happens. Even if the turn order isn't variable or completely random, its still stupid. FFX did turnbased right. You pick the action and it happens right then, no "pick an action and an enemy may or may not kill your buddy before you get to heal him and render your action utterly worthless."

[Jarred]

Last year it was I who brought back this crazy white box with magical controllers that brought together grandparent, grandchildren, and everyone in between for some living room bowling. This year everyone has their own Wii and once again it is all about Wii Sports. I turned on my own Wii for maybe 5 hours since April 07 and now I'm playing on the folks' Wii everyday. I'm just amazed when I go to my grandmama's house and see a stack of Wii games to play. Craziness

So I brought my SMG and game save with me and so far I have found 50 stars. I've enjoyed it, but I haven't quite felt the whole GotY vibe with it yet. And I'm not sure I will, as I feel like I just want to get to the end and be able to give it to my bro before I head back home. I think I just might be having Nintendo mascot fatigue, as I also finished Zelda DS with ho-hum results. I had a good time, but I wasn't ever hooked.

Looking forward to getting back to my 360. I need more Orange Box, Psychonauts, and I now have Assasin's Creed to play around with. And I gotta get back into more skate.

[ADC]

FFX did turnbased right. You pick the action and it happens right then, no "pick an action and an enemy may or may not kill your buddy before you get to heal him and render your action utterly worthless."
That was the one area in which I thought FF10 absolutely excelled, was its battle system. It didn't have the frenetic feel of the ATB FFs (particularly X-2), and I mourn that a little bit, but the Conditional Turn-Based system worked really really well. That's what I wish they'd do with the old FFs, and what I wish they'd do with all of the DQs.

On a completely unrelated note, I played the first 45 minutes of Ar tonelico this evening and wondered why. It didn't appeal to me the first time I tried it, and it's not appealing to me this time. I'm going to keep going a bit longer to see if maybe, just maybe, it improves once I get some cuties in the party. And I checked Fedex and found out that my Wii is in City of Industry, CA, and will arrive at NOA's repair shop in Chatsworth on Wednesday.

[Suwako Moriya]

*Plays more Metroid Fusion* All right then I think I see what ADC meant by run. Ah that was fun. After several tries each time I made it further. then I finally made it all the way to a dead end??? Uh yeah as if running away from the SA-X wasn't hard enough...

[Fencedude]

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn: On Geoffrey's Charge in my "Female Units Only" challenge playthrough. But haven't done the mission because I've been distracted by....

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria: In Chapter 3 right now, I've been farting around leveling people mostly. Alicia is level 16, while everyone else is ranging from 9 to 11.

And, since today is Christmas, I got a few new games:

Battalion Wars 2
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

and

Super Mario Galaxy: Still in the Terrace, I have one more star in the Honeyhive Galaxy, then It'll be on to what I presume is the first Bowser level.

Also, while I don't have it yet, Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden should be arriving from Play Asia in a few days.

[Suwako Moriya]

The problem with most turn based systems is that you need to pick actions but a whole lot could happen between when you pick the action and when it happens.


1. Loads up Final Fantasy Legend 32. Starts battling Final Boss3. Selects actions that include cure A and cure B which is like cure on everyone.4. Watches boss go last and cast Flare which knocks out more than half of the party's HP5. Selects actions including cure A and cure B again.6. Watches final boss go first the very next round and murder the party.7. Watch as I grow suspicious.

Yeah that happened to me several times. Although it seems to be more of a luck thing and the higher my speed the less likely it is to happen. Granted with higher speed, my stats in general are also likely to be higher which means the boss would hopefully have less turns to do what it does because I'd be able to kill it sooner. Either way it's a good example of how fun turn based can be sometimes with the randomness of action orders and how the enemy can adjust to almost any situation. You don't want to know the number of times I was like griping "How does it know? How the hell does it know?"

Of course the real fun is when dealing with certain final bosses that get multiple turns. Sheesh just because it's five against one doesn't give the final boss the right to attack more than once. It's like they want to even the playing field a bit...

[HitokiriShadow]

Of course the real fun is when dealing with certain final bosses that get multiple turns. Sheesh just because it's five against one doesn't give the final boss the right to attack more than once. It's like they want to even the playing field a bit...

The problem is that it does more than level the playing field. Having far, far more HP than you could ever hope to have, you're own attacks limited by the damage cap, and attacks that can take off 3/4 of you entire party's HP already "levels the playing field" enough.

[Suwako Moriya]

The problem is that it does more than level the playing field. Having far, far more HP than you could ever hope to have, you're own attacks limited by the damage cap, and attacks that can take off 3/4 of you entire party's HP already "levels the playing field" enough.

True the enemy already has the advantage in power. Also yes giving them more turns just increases the advantage. Still what's really evil is when games make it so "All Member Healing" is either none-existent or rarer, but the final boss can still hit the party easily with all hit-attacks multiple times. Which is something I have to get used to given one of the series I play.

[ADC]

*Plays more Metroid Fusion* All right then I think I see what ADC meant by run. Ah that was fun. After several tries each time I made it further. then I finally made it all the way to a dead end??? Uh yeah as if running away from the SA-X wasn't hard enough...
You forgot the previous lesson. If you can't go left, go right. If you can't go right, go up. If you can't go up, go to GameFAQs and download a damn map already! :> Nah, just playing. Doesn't that bit get your blood pumping? Once I was so nervous and excited going through there that my right index finger was actually locked down on the R button, so I kept firing impotent missiles at the beam-activated gates. I think that might be my favorite game sequence in any of the Metroid games.

[Suwako Moriya]

You forgot the previous lesson. If you can't go left, go right. If you can't go right, go up. If you can't go up, go to GameFAQs and download a damn map already! :> Nah, just playing.

Heh well to be exact the problem comes when I get to the room after the "shutters". So what happens is this. There's a raised platform that only leaves enough space between it and the ceiling for ball form. If I climb that platform and try to go the other side to shoot around and see if there is any opening I get killed. I can blow up the area and hide in the ceiling, but I'm not sure if the enemy will actually leave before the battery dies.

Doesn't that bit get your blood pumping? Once I was so nervous and excited going through there that my right index finger was actually locked down on the R button, so I kept firing impotent missiles at the beam-activated gates. I think that might be my favorite game sequence in any of the Metroid games.

Heh it's certainly a scary moment in a sense and heck there are several times I screwed up and shot the wrong thing at the gates. Which only made it easier for me to die. Heck I'm sure until I finally manage to get past it, I'll continue during some failures fail because I shot missiles by accident.

[ADC]

I will give you a hint. SA-X is very instinctive, but doesn't think things through very well. If she sees you, she'll attack. If she can't see you but can hear you, she'll try to find you. If she can't see you nor hear you … what? Think back to the few times earlier that you encountered SA-X. What did she do when she couldn't find you?

[Andrew Cunningham]

Psychonauts - I'd have been a lot less impressed with Mario Galaxy if I'd done this first. Everything I thought was mind bending and innovative in that game was done here first. Between the black velvet world and the tower of Escher perception fucking, this is easily the most visually spectacular game I've ever played. But man, the exploding rats are a bitch when you're doing the same bit of platforming fifty times trying to figure out the wonky perception.

[Suwako Moriya]

Well I discovered part of my problem was being too slow to hide in terms of the last part, but I did manage to get away from the SA-X. Sadly I managed to beat the next boss before I could gripe about not being able to beat it. Although is it just or did the X parasite that appears after killing its boss form different now? At least I think it looked a bit different. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me.

[ADC]

I recall two types of Core-X parasites. One is the run-of-the-mill Core-X, which just flies around and tries to get fresh with Samus (a laudable goal). The other is a Core-X that shoots beam weapons at Samus while trying to get fresh with her (still laudable, but a bit despicable this time 'round). The latter type is pretty gnarly, but I never found the Cores-X to be all that difficult. The bosses they controlled were the real problem.

Can't wait to get the Wii back. I need to get back into Super Metroid now.

[Suwako Moriya]

Well the Core-X parasites do seem to mainly take advantage of the fact you're already worn down by the boss form. It also doesn't help they can be quick and sometimes I shoot at the wrong spot a lot (I think). Still over time one does grow used to them as they don't vary that much if at all. Thus if not for losing a lot of HP to the boss form, I'd probably never die at one.

[Garasharp K7]

Psychonauts - I'm still pretty positive on this game, but obtuse boss battles are going to be the death of it.
Between the aim lock for your psychic bullets locking on the wrong shit all the fucking time (shit you can't even DAMAGE) and the psychic abilities you earn by leveling up being totally useless in boss battles or out of it, there's a certain amount of frustration. I mean, it's just not fun working out that a boss must be defeated by breaking or hiding behind random objects in the room instead of using your actual fucking powers. Only worked it out because the character gave me a hint once I fucking started tapping the Y button repeatedly in desperation. By then it was too late and I ran out of lives. Guess I get to start that whole bit over some other day, but after playing basically all day today, I'm suddenly in no rush to continue.
I liked footling around and exploring the terrain. I love the damn story. And I don't mind if the action is difficult - but frustratingly obtuse is a different matter.


the psychic abilities are mainly just for getting around the levels. Fighting the bosses is sort of like a big puzzle at times, though some abilities, like the clairvoyance, can come in handy. Especially on the den mother at the girl scouts' place. (spoiler'd in case you or anyone else hasn't reached there yet)
I love the story as well. It's really like a lot of the old Lucas Arts point n' click games at times, which isn't surprising as the game was developed by folks who used to work there.

Now as for what I'm playing, I'm still levelling up my mechs in Another Century's Episode 3 and replaying earlier missions to get those ace ranks. I've unlocked the original RX-78 Gundam now. He's not as fast as the others I've played, but he's tough as nails and his attacks do considerable damage.
Got loads more mecha goodness to get through too - played a few missions of Dynasty Warriors Gundam, which is a blast, and I've got the other ACE games as well. Got plenty to be getting on with over the rest of me hols....

[Fencedude]

So I started Twilight Princess, and I've just gotten through the Forest Temple and have moved onwards.

I'm beginning to understand some of the complaints about Midna. She's not as annoying as a certain fairy was, but damn if she's not a royal bitch.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

So I got Warhawk as my free game for the gamestop sale. Enjoying it even though I am sucking a lot. lol. Need to get a blue tooth head-set. All they had was a $50 mad catz one, and I wasn't going to touch that with a fifty meter poll. Still debating if I want to get it...do people use the chat feature often in this game?

[jecca-neko]

Anyone playing the new NiGHTS? I loved the original Saturn game as a kid (they better put it out for PS2, darn it! I don't care if I have to import it!) and I was wondering if this game has the same magic the original did.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Reviews have been lukewarm, and the fact that failing to defeat a boss means you have to play through all three levels leading up to it again is pretty much the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[NickFalzarano]

Anyone playing the new NiGHTS? I loved the original Saturn game as a kid (they better put it out for PS2, darn it! I don't care if I have to import it!) and I was wondering if this game has the same magic the original did.

They ARE doing a remake of the original Nights for PS2. And yes, you'll probably have to import.

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/841/841535p1.html

[porkchopexpress]

So I got Warhawk as my free game for the gamestop sale. Enjoying it even though I am sucking a lot. lol. Need to get a blue tooth head-set. All they had was a $50 mad catz one, and I wasn't going to touch that with a fifty meter poll. Still debating if I want to get it...do people use the chat feature often in this game?

The people on my teams seemed to talk alot when I had warhawk. I picked up a jabbra bluetooth headset at BestBuy for $20. It's cheap because it runs on a single aaa battery. If all you use it for is the PS3 it should last you a while.

[Mateo_home]

Nothing exciting. Started up Sonic Heroes and it's...your typical 3D Sonic game. Playing as Team Sonic and only up to the Power Plant Zone. Trying to get a good time but I always end up missing the right timing jumps as Tails. Ah well, just have to do better I suppose.

Also nearly done with Mother 3. Just climbing my way up to the top floor of the Empire Porky Building. Looking for the traitor Magypsy, Locklear. Came across his house, but all that was there were bananas, horns, and a desert hat. I think Yokuba is involved in this somehow. I also read a fan translation of the story. Mainly parts that have been bugging me. Such as in the first chapter when Flint was looking for his wife and kids. The kids are alright, but the news of Hinawa doesn't quite go so well. A guy comes in to cheerfully report that he found a powerful item, only to get to the part that it was found shoved in Hinawa's heart. Which caused Flint to go berserk.That is just wrong on so many levels. I also pretty much read the part when you encounter the tall bell tower ringer that appeared in the first chapter. While having my DS in front of me when I got to that scene. And he actually spoke explaining the situation I'm in from the very beginning. Game has a really good story. Too bad I need a translation guide to fully understand it. :sigh:

And I think I have mastered the art of attack combos.

[Johnny]

Anyone playing the new NiGHTS? I loved the original Saturn game as a kid (they better put it out for PS2, darn it! I don't care if I have to import it!) and I was wondering if this game has the same magic the original did.

It's in my stack of yet to play stuff but in general reviews have been above average and the concensus seems to be if you don't go into it expecting anything as amazing as the original then you won't be disappointed.

[Noodle]

Wargh, a week in the mountains with little to do means two things: I had the time to finish Phantom Hourglass ... and I got bored enough to go looking for gamestop.

I had to put Phantom Hourglass down like 2 days after I got it because of work so I was really glad to get back to it. It was super fun, but I got to the end a little quicker than I was expecting and overall was a little on the easy side. (?) I guess I still have a few side things undone, but to be honest after a couple days of doing nothing but playing, I was ready to finish it. I wasn't too concerned about you know, collecting every damned ship part or something anyway. I loved Linebeck, he was a riot. Actually, the reactions in this game made me laugh out loud a few times - it was good.

Anyway, last night I felt like I needed some civilization, so I went out and found a gamestop. (haha?) And of course, they're having a sale. (! I should read my email more often.) So, naturally, because my backlog isn't ugly enough, I walked out with 6 used games.... including Phoenix Wright, which is what I am now playing. :D It's pretty fun, I wasn't sure if I'd like it much but I do so far. Yay!

I kinda wish I'd gone to GS earlier though, 'cos even tho I found 6 games (note to self: shop in remote locales more often), the selection was mighty picked over and there wasn't much to chose from for my DS. Oh well, I'll look when I go home, I guess.

[Jarred]

Once again I rescued That Hussy Named Peach, finishing SMG with the minimum of 61 stars. As always, the level leading up to Bowser was much harder than Bowser himself. Overall I give the game a fun rating; good variety but I did get fatigued at about 40+ stars. I'm not sure if I'll try to get all the stars, but at least I know it is there if I need a Mario fix.

Heading back to the NW tomorrow, where I am looking forward to getting back to my 360 games; especially my new copy of Assasin's Creed. Can't wait to see which side I fall on. :D

[HitokiriShadow]

I finished Final Fantasy III today.

At the end, all of my characters were at level 65 and the classes were as follows:

Refia: Ninja (45)
Luneth: Summoner (44)
Arc: Devout (32)
Ingus: Dragoon (68)

It turns out that you can't leave the World of Darkness so that means that every time you attempt it, you have to go through that that stupid pure souls scene. Even when mashing down the A button to go through all of the text as quick as possible, it takes over four minutes.

Overall, that last area wasn't too hard except the Two-Headed Dragon fight. That one had me worried as each attack was doing over 1k of damage. The final boss was a bit of a challenge but not too tough. I made it harder than it needed by having my physical attackers attacking the tentacle that was immune to magic rather than focusing on getting rid of the one that wasn't or just ignoring the tentacles altogether. But still, I just had to use Arise once, though I came close to losing two members at one point. Refia survived at attack with only 3 HP at one point, and would have died if I hadn't had her use a High Potion instead of attacking. After that, it was smooth sailing.

I really don't feel like messing with any of the side quests, since there is no point and many of them require me to mail actual people. I really hope Squenix doesn't do that crap with the upcoming FFIV remake or any other remakes because its stupid. At any rate, I doubt I'll ever play this game again.

[ADC]

I really don't feel like messing with any of the side quests, since there is no point and many of them require me to mail actual people. I really hope Squenix doesn't do that crap with the upcoming FFIV remake or any other remakes because its stupid. At any rate, I doubt I'll ever play this game again.
Good plan all around. I didn't much care for the requirement of mailing other people to access the best stuff. Far better, if you need to make things unlockable, to make the game self-contained, or (at worst) require one game to talk to another game (say, plug in FF5A to unlock the Onion Knight job class).

I think Square left FF4DS alone as far as WiFi Connection malarkey, but recall that FF4 is far more story-driven than FF3. I mean, there was a story to FF3, but I don't even remember who the final boss was or why it was important to beat him. For comparison, I remember that FF9's final boss is Necron, and there's no point to him being there except to present a final boss fight with a little more starch than we got from Sephiroth.

[HitokiriShadow]

I think Square left FF4DS alone as far as WiFi Connection malarkey, but recall that FF4 is far more story-driven than FF3. I mean, there was a story to FF3, but I don't even remember who the final boss was or why it was important to beat him. For comparison, I remember that FF9's final boss is Necron, and there's no point to him being there except to present a final boss fight with a little more starch than we got from Sephiroth.

I suppose having more story to begin with helps. FF3 had about as much story as FF1 did. Which is to say, technically, it had one, but it was just an excuse to go on an adventure. The attempts at drama were downright painful to watch. The 'characters' had one or two scenes in which they interacted with someone else and were given the barest semblance of a personality. Frankly, I prefer the FF1 approach where they didn't even try to pretend they had actual characters.

For the record, the end boss was the Cloud of Darkness. And visually speaking, it was a she, at least in the DS remake. I believe that in the original it was literally a dark cloud with a vaguely evil grin on it, at least if my recollection of an image I saw a while back is correct.

[Suwako Moriya]

For the record, the end boss was the Cloud of Darkness. And visually speaking, it was a she, at least in the DS remake.

It was also clearly a "she" in the original version. Heck one thing I like to joke about is this. Cloud of Darkness is the mother. Neo Exdeath is the father. Necron is their child. If you remember what all three have in common, the joke makes more sense.

[Andrew Cunningham]

I really liked the rest of the game, but nobody making Psychonauts actually seems to have played the final area (the meat circus.)
Not only is it buggy as shit, but it is so fucking inconceivably badly designed that I can't even figure out how it got in a game so otherwise excellent. The first chunk, where the world's slowest child squeals in the world's most annoying voice constantly while being attacked by monsters on the next highest platform, thereby giving you a timer to get up there, and if at any point you fail you start all the fuck back at the bottom...I thought that was a fucking unforgivable sin.
Then there are a rail riding bit where jumping didn't seem to work suddenly, but I managed to forcibly derail myself and float down to a lower bit, avoiding the bulk of it.
But this bit where Dad is the world's biggest cunt and throws fucking Moltov Cocktails at me while I try to do acrobatics that were clearly never play tested, since they alternate between game killing bugs and simply almost entirely unplayable...I can't get past the spiral of nets on fire. I got to the second one twice, but there are like, fuck knows how many of them.
I just don't give a shit any more. How did anyone think this shit would be fun?

[jecca-neko]

I mean, there was a story to FF3, but I don't even remember who the final boss was or why it was important to beat him.

Does it matter? The final boss wants to Destroy the World (TM) and you must stop them. Same as every RPG. :grin:

[Suwako Moriya]

Does it matter? The final boss wants to Destroy the World (TM) and you must stop them. Same as every RPG. :grin:

Actually some final bosses want to destroy the universe. There are also some that want to rule instead of destroy. Heck there's one final boss who is in fact seems to be trying to get the "lead" to replace him in a sense. At least that's what I can gather from nothing the conversations.

[Isuzu Inugami]

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Ridge Racer 7. In between these, I just sit there and fondle my new Playstation 3. I think there's something unhealthy going on here.

[Isuzu Inugami]

Does it matter? The final boss wants to Destroy the World (TM) and you must stop them. Same as every RPG. :grin:


Just once I want it to be "I was just trying to get a cup of coffee. Why do you people keep getting in my way?!"

[Suwako Moriya]

Just once I want it to be "I was just trying to get a cup of coffee. Why do you people keep getting in my way?!"

Ah no wonder I wanted to beat the crap out of that final boss. It's because I hate his taste in drinks. Yeah that's right, I hate coffee.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

Finally, a game is taken off my backlog! Finished Hotel Dusk tonight. Pretty damn satisfying overall. Just wish I knew about "don't screw up before the end to get the extended" ending a little too late. I might try for it on a second run through when I have less of a backlog...aka probably not any time soon.

Also been playing Warhawk a bit a more. I think I'm ready to buy the expansion pack and get a head-set. I just need to suck less at the controls...the analog is more sensitive then I'd like.

Now...I need to get back to my favorite hobby...roof jumping and assassination! :D So many games, so little time.

[LordGeo]

After finally finishing the original Headhunter on the PS2, I bought Headhunter Redemption, and so far, I'm enjoying it.

Granted, I want to play as Jack more than Leeza X, but it still plays like the original, but with a number of improvements.

[HitokiriShadow]

I started on Final Fantasy V Advance today.

At the moment, I've beaten the first boss and gotten the Canal Key. Since then, I've been slaughtering goblins, bees, and chipmunks. I want to have everyone master White Mage now so I don't have to mess with them later. Currently everyone has gotten to level 5 except Faris who is still a few points short. I'm tiring of the goblin massacre, so I'm going to have everyone get far enough as a monk to get the Bare Hand or whatever ability so they can have decent attack capabilities and then I'll continue on with the main quest and they'll just master white mage somewhere along the way.

[ADC]

I will make suggestions. Master the Mystic Knight class with everybody. Master the Red Mage class with everybody. These might be the two most useful classes in the game. That's saying something, considering FF5's job class system might have been built specifically for the player to succeed. Almost every class is very useful. Monk is most useful for Lenna, by the way, but only because she wears a China dress. :bignosebleed:

[HitokiriShadow]

My plan is to eventually have everyone master everything, but I'll worry about that after I've finished the main game. I want to get white mages out of the way now since it will be easier to do early on and everyone will be able to help with healing. Also, by doing it with these enemies, I won't be horribly overpowered since they give shit for exp.

I'm going to at least have Lenna and Bartz level up Blue Mage enough to get Learn early on so that I can get Blue Magic. I'll probably use it little, if ever, but I want to for completion's sake. I'm going to have Faris learn Steal so I can get rare equipment from bosses. Unlike 3, some of 5's bosses should actually have stuff worth stealing.

To minor complaints on the re-translation:
1) I prefer Rena over Lenna.
2) Chocobos say "Wark" not "Kweh" but FF5A is hardly alone in that, they've been saying "Kweh" since 9 and I've been annoyed at it the whole time.

[ADC]

The awesome thing about FF5 is that you only need one copy of a spell for everybody to access it. The even awesomer thing about FF5 is that this pertains to Blue Magic as well. You need only learn the spell with one of your people. Ah! they did an excellent job making that game! FF5 is one of those games that ages really well, all because they implemented its "hook" features really well. Some of the other FFs, even among the more modern releases, don't hold up like that.

[EmperorBrandon]

I started on Final Fantasy V Advance today.

At the moment, I've beaten the first boss and gotten the Canal Key. Since then, I've been slaughtering goblins, bees, and chipmunks. I want to have everyone master White Mage now so I don't have to mess with them later. Currently everyone has gotten to level 5 except Faris who is still a few points short. I'm tiring of the goblin massacre, so I'm going to have everyone get far enough as a monk to get the Bare Hand or whatever ability so they can have decent attack capabilities and then I'll continue on with the main quest and they'll just master white mage somewhere along the way.

It's going to be a loooong while before you ever get to level 5 spells, so you can just stop there if you want. Well, there's no need at all to go past level 6 on any of the basic mage classes (White, Black, Time). You want to master Summoner to pass on their Magic power and MP to the Freelancer and Mime, and Red Mage's Dualcast is a very good ability to have for someone you are solely using as a magic caster (though it takes a while to get...).

And by all means, do make sure everyone has Barehanded. It gives you the strength of a Monk, lets you attack twice (provided you have nothing in your hands), and it's pretty danged powerful for a while.

[EmperorBrandon]

Monk is most useful for Lenna, by the way, but only because she wears a China dress. :bignosebleed:


Lots of Lenna's classes are too cute not to use. I like her look in armor as a Knight too. She's not really supposed to be used as a physical fighter (going by her base stats), but I tend to do so anyway.


I'm going to at least have Lenna and Bartz level up Blue Mage enough to get Learn early on so that I can get Blue Magic. I'll probably use it little, if ever, but I want to for completion's sake. I'm going to have Faris learn Steal so I can get rare equipment from bosses. Unlike 3, some of 5's bosses should actually have stuff worth stealing.


A lot of Blue Magic is pretty useless, but what's good is good. I've gotten most of them for completion's sake. The ones you want most are any of the Aero spells (gives you attack capabilities close to that of a Black Magic), White Wind (can be a very useful healing spell depending on the situation), and Mighty Guard (love, love, LOVE this spell - shame you won't get it to a good ways into the game). And there are other that are variably useful too, like Aqua Rake (or whatever it is now - I forgot...)

Stealing rare items seems to be a major pain. I haven't bothered with it much. It seems like you will need a lot of patience for it...

[HitokiriShadow]

The awesome thing about FF5 is that you only need one copy of a spell for everybody to access it. The even awesomer thing about FF5 is that this pertains to Blue Magic as well. You need only learn the spell with one of your people.

Yes, but many of them only hit one person, so its easier to learn if two people are capable of learning it. Even easier if its four, of course, but I'll wait and see if want to do that. When trying to learn Goblin Punch, it attacked the two that weren't Blue Mages before finally attacking one of the ones that was. Since I've learned it and switched to a party of White Mages, I still don't think they've used it on the ones that used to be Blue Mages.

Ah! they did an excellent job making that game! FF5 is one of those games that ages really well, all because they implemented its "hook" features really well. Some of the other FFs, even among the more modern releases, don't hold up like that.


Yes, the way they implemented the Job system here is great. I wish they would have one slot for alternate Job commands and another for alternate Job support skills, but that's not a big deal. Thank god they learned from FF3 and kept the Job levels in the single digits and got rid of the penalty for switching classes.

[HitokiriShadow]

It's going to be a loooong while before you ever get to level 5 spells, so you can just stop there if you want.

I know (I played the PS1 version, though I stopped while I was in the final dungeon), but I don't want to have to mess with mastering White Mages later, so I'll just get them out of the way now and make sure everyone has access to all the white magic now.

[ADC]

I do wish they'd made the Blue Mages look something other than fetishists. Galuf with the blue mask and cape and the big beard = :cry:. Could be worse. With his her purple mane, Faris makes everything clash.

[Mateo_home]

Finally, a game is taken off my backlog! Finished Hotel Dusk tonight. Pretty damn satisfying overall. Just wish I knew about "don't screw up before the end to get the extended" ending a little too late. I might try for it on a second run through when I have less of a backlog...aka probably not any time soon.


Was that when you were supposed to talk with every character on your way out the hotel only to find out that not all of them were direct? Such as Iris on the roof or Mila in Rosa's room. I goofed on that too, but I did find the later because it was mentioned in the game.

[Chacranajxy]

I played Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass. I said the following about it: http://www.honestgamers.com/systems/content.php?review_id=6661&platform=DS&abr=DS&gametitle=The+Legend+of+Zelda%3A+Phantom+Hourglass

[juliant59]

Currently been playing Heavenly Sword, Superstar Dust HD, Warhawk and even played some of the Club demo from the PSN Europe store.


Heavenly is just awesome, the graphics on it are sweet, the six-axis controls on the arrows with Kai are pretty tricky to learn at first but I got the hang of it now. Warhawk rocks as always, though I wish you could play a Archipelago Large 32 person map with the dropship. That would rock.
Then SSHD just wow. I love shooters and this just takes me back, awesome stuff.

[HitokiriShadow]

I do wish they'd made the Blue Mages look something other than fetishists. Galuf with the blue mask and cape and the big beard = :cry:. Could be worse. With his her purple mane, Faris makes everything clash.

Yeah, the Blue Mages look really goofy. It's like they were trying to make them look as ridiculous as possible.

In any case, once I got my white mages to level 6 and saw that it would take 300 AP to get to the next level, I decided I really didn't feel like fighting that many battles with no tangible benefit in the near (game) future. So in the amount of time it would take me to get 1/3 of that, all of my characters reached at least level 2 on all of the other initial job classes. Right now, everyone is identical in how their job classes are developed, including exactly how many AP they have for any given class.

By the time I was done doing all of this, I was on level 12, I had ~24,000 gil, and 40 leather hats. The next three bosses all went down in a single round of white mages pummeling them with their fists. I didn't even need to bother healing. It wasn't until the Walse Tower that I needed to actually bother doing anything other than attack. For that battle, I switched everyone to Fetishist Blue Mage so they could have decent armor and decent magic power. They had White magic to heal and cast protect and they attacked with Aero.

Since then, I've gotten Shiva and I'm currently working on leveling up the new job classes. For now, I'm working on Berserker. I figure that having the Berserk ability would make level grinding a bit less tedious. But if I recall correctly, Berserkers only have two job levels and their second takes 999 AP to reach. And the Walse Tower sank, so I don't have any places that have enemy sets that give me 3 AP, at least not without moving on to a new area.

[Andrew Cunningham]

You are the first person I have ever seen who was unable to use the touch screen controls.
I thought they were beyond amazing, and want to see them copied like mad.x

[EmperorBrandon]

In any case, once I got my white mages to level 6 and saw that it would take 300 AP to get to the next level, I decided I really didn't feel like fighting that many battles with no tangible benefit in the near (game) future.

That Lv. 7 ability is MP+10%, which is a waste of an ability slot in my opinion, no matter where you're at in the game. There's really no reason to level White Mage past Lv. 6 because if you want to pass on magic stats to a Freelancer or Mime, Summoner is the best to master.

For now, I'm working on Berserker. I figure that having the Berserk ability would make level grinding a bit less tedious. But if I recall correctly, Berserkers only have two job levels and their second takes 999 AP to reach. And the Walse Tower sank, so I don't have any places that have enemy sets that give me 3 AP, at least not without moving on to a new area.

Looking it up the second ability costs 400 and is Equip Axe (axes are good, but don't know if it would be of much use early in the game). I don't like Berserkers. Turning characters into Umaro doesn't work well. You wouldn't have to control everyone if they are berserk, but I don't know if it would be less tedious, particularly if you are leveling up a job that is weak physically and wouldn't be able to do much damage even when berserked. Barehanded works better.

[HitokiriShadow]

Looking it up the second ability costs 400 and is Equip Axe (axes are good, but don't know if it would be of much use early in the game). I don't like Berserkers. Turning characters into Umaro doesn't work well. You wouldn't have to control everyone if they are berserk, but I don't know if it would be less tedious, particularly if you are leveling up a job that is weak physically and wouldn't be able to do much damage even when berserked. Barehanded works better.

If the first one is Berserk, then I really don't care about the second one. I wasn't sure which was first, so I was hoping Berserk was the first one. But it would okay for me even for physically weak classes because I am leveling them up using the weakest enemies in the game. Even without Barehand, they would kill the enemies in one hit with whatever weapon they have. Berserk will be useless later on, but for leveling up against low level enemies, it will be helpful.

[ADC]

All right, nothing's jumping out at me right now. I'm about to finish a 19-0 season with the 9ers (All-Pro difficulty — helps to have the top-ranked defense in everything), and I need to choose something non-Madden now. So you guys 'n dolls get to help me choose. The selections are:

Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia. I've been playing it for a few game-hours, and I need to know if it gets better or if what I've seen so far is pretty much what it is. Because what it is ain't a whole lot.
Disgaea – Hour of Darkness. This game is still sealed, but its value is diminished by the existence of a PSP port of the game. Thing is, I'm thinking of flipping it anyway, seeing what I get, then picking up said PSP port.
Kingdom Hearts. I'll play it eventually, so maybe eventually is now.
Radiata Stories. I've heard it's pretty much hilarious, but this one, like Disgaea, is still sealed, and I don't know if I want to unwrap it just yet. I don't know if I want hilarious right now or if I want something deeper.
Romancing SaGa. Bob, help me out here. Am I going to be wandering around aimlessly, wondering what the hell I'm supposed to be doing? Will I ever figure out why it's important that I do what I'm supposed to be doing? Does the voice-acting ever improve?
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Started it. It's got a Star Trek feel to it that I wholeheartedly support, especially as I'm watching the STTNG Season 7 boxset right now.
Suikôden Tactics. Got it for $10 in some bargain bin. Haven't played a Suikôden since the first, which I didn't get all worked up over.
Notice that all of these are PS2 games. I don't get the Wii back until next year.

[Johnny]

Ah lotsa replies, must be an RPG discussion going on...
Anywho, up to the final assassin in No More Heroes and I definitely still stand by what I said when I said this was the best non-Nintendo (hell, best non-Mario Galaxy) game on the Wii right now.
The premise is simple enough: perform side quests, earn money, pay to enter level, kill assassin, rinse and repeat. But, whereas the likes of Assassin's Creed was bogged down by repetitiveness in terms of missions (not that I particularly minded, I was seemingly one of the few who adored that game despite its flaws), NMH keeps things fresh and interesting right up until the end.

Examples: First few levels involve killing x amount of goons in order to fight boss. Later levels however completely change this premise and unfortunatly to say too much would be to spoil things, but it keeps you interested. There are some absolutely amazing bits and I really wanna say but it would ruin some of the surprise.

The side quests are one of two things - assassination quests or 'mini-games'. But before you start gouging your eyes out at the mention of mini-games in a Wii game, they're short, to the point and actually quite enjoyable. One has toy punching trees to deliver coconuts for a stall, another has you collecting litter. Nothing too deep, but is a nice distraction from just killing people all the time.

Add to that the video shop where you can buy (on VHS no less!) videos and watch them, the Area 51 shop (a homage to creator Suda51) where you can buy all sorts of ridiculous stuff for Travis to wear ("Love Tits" is one tshirt slogan :grin: ), a weapon shop to buy new/upgrade current weapons, a gym and more and also a healthy dose of tongue in cheek humour and over the top characters and you get a game which is a complete and utter joy to play.

Please, please, give this a chance when it comes to the US. It hasn't done well in Japan where it seems everyone is brainwashed by WiiFit or Mario Part 67 or Brain Training: Become a Rocket Scientist Edition, but a game with this much love and homage to games, anime and otaku which is a joy to play deserves to be recognised!

Aside from that, Shikigami no Shiro III and Pro Evo 08 have been in rotation. Got Stranglehold at Xmas and breezed through that in 3 sittings. Great, mindless fun (especially if, like me, you're a Chow Yun-Fat/John Woo fan) but too short. Got Halo 3 too (and others, plus I have about 8 other unplayed games) and plan on starting into that later.

[broodwars]

Ah lotsa replies, must be an RPG discussion going on...
Anywho, up to the final assassin in No More Heroes and I definitely still stand by what I said when I said this was the best non-Nintendo (hell, best non-Mario Galaxy) game on the Wii right now.
The premise is simple enough: perform side quests, earn money, pay to enter level, kill assassin, rinse and repeat. But, whereas the likes of Assassin's Creed was bogged down by repetitiveness in terms of missions (not that I particularly minded, I was seemingly one of the few who adored that game despite its flaws), NMH keeps things fresh and interesting right up until the end.

Examples: First few levels involve killing x amount of goons in order to fight boss. Later levels however completely change this premise and unfortunatly to say too much would be to spoil things, but it keeps you interested. There are some absolutely amazing bits and I really wanna say but it would ruin some of the surprise.

The side quests are one of two things - assassination quests or 'mini-games'. But before you start gouging your eyes out at the mention of mini-games in a Wii game, they're short, to the point and actually quite enjoyable. One has toy punching trees to deliver coconuts for a stall, another has you collecting litter. Nothing too deep, but is a nice distraction from just killing people all the time.

Add to that the video shop where you can buy (on VHS no less!) videos and watch them, the Area 51 shop (a homage to creator Suda51) where you can buy all sorts of ridiculous stuff for Travis to wear ("Love Tits" is one tshirt slogan :grin: ), a weapon shop to buy new/upgrade current weapons, a gym and more and also a healthy dose of tongue in cheek humour and over the top characters and you get a game which is a complete and utter joy to play.

Please, please, give this a chance when it comes to the US. It hasn't done well in Japan where it seems everyone is brainwashed by WiiFit or Mario Part 67 or Brain Training: Become a Rocket Scientist Edition, but a game with this much love and homage to games, anime and otaku which is a joy to play deserves to be recognised!

Aside from that, Shikigami no Shiro III and Pro Evo 08 have been in rotation. Got Stranglehold at Xmas and breezed through that in 3 sittings. Great, mindless fun (especially if, like me, you're a Chow Yun-Fat/John Woo fan) but too short. Got Halo 3 too (and others, plus I have about 8 other unplayed games) and plan on starting into that later.

I'd love to pick it up, but the US Publisher is INSANE to put this game out alongside Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It's not even a contest which game the vast majority of gamers will buy in an either/or situation. If they want this game to sell, they need to either move it up or push it back, because Brawl WILL bury it.

On a sidenote, there's a surprising amount of discussion here on Final Fantasy 3 (DS). I never found the game to be very good...

In any case, after getting critical-screwed in one of the final levels of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, I've set that game aside for a while. In its place, I'm playing Bioshock on my PC for the first time, and it's an incredible FPS. Frankly, I don't see how Mario Galaxy is even in the same league for Game of the Year honors. Am I the only person who thought that Mario Galaxy was extremely over-hyped and not all that great?

[Suwako Moriya]

Romancing SaGa. Bob, help me out here. Am I going to be wandering around aimlessly, wondering what the hell I'm supposed to be doing? Will I ever figure out why it's important that I do what I'm supposed to be doing? Does the voice-acting ever improve?

Okay here is the basic idea of progress in Romancing SaGa in a nutshell.

1. Talking to people and traveling by say taking fares will open new towns. Which means more areas to work with.

2. You have a thing called "Event Rank" that rises as you battle enemies. As it rises some "events" will become accessible. However at the same time some will end up closing. You can tell the Event Rank is rising because the kid with the badge who calls you a New Adventurer in each town will have more info.

3. If you're worried that you'll miss out on events because of fighting too much. Well it's impossible to do every event in the first play through anyway. Also the best way to handle the event rank is to fight normally. That means accept battles on occasion, but don't do things like repeatedly enter and exist a dungeon to kill monsters again and again.

4. It should be noted the vast majority of each character's quest is optional. If you wanted you could just kill stuff until you reach the point where you can access a pre-final dungeon and then the final dungeon. However that would be akin to suicide because...

5. The best way to get stronger in the game is due to events. It's mainly because doing events is the best way to gain Jewels. Jewels which are needed to level up classes. Having a higher level in a class makes a huge difference. Even more if the class is your active one.

6. So really the game boils down to explore, fight, talk, and eventually you'll find things to do. At least that's how it worked for me and probably several others while playing. Granted since I've played through 10 quests including repeating 2 of them, I can now rely on experience.

7. It should also be noted the variety between the main quests of Romancing SaGa is lacking compared to say SaGa Frontier or Unlimited SaGa. There are still some differences, but they're not as strong as the other two. Hence why I ended up spreading out the quests rather than play all eight in a row.

8. Well if all else fails there are always FAQs to consult at certain places if you so desire.

[Randall Flagg]

I played Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass. I said the following about it: http://www.honestgamers.com/systems/content.php?review_id=6661&platform=DS&abr=DS&gametitle=The+Legend+of+Zelda%3A+Phantom+Hourglass



*wild applause*
Bravo!!

This will probably be the first Zelda game that I don't finish. The controls absolutely blow, and I find myself incredibly bored with it after 20-30 minutes. Other Zelda games I can play for hours and have to force myself to quit playing and give my eyes a rest.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Also working against No More Heroes is their previous game; I only watched a friend play Killer 7 for a few minutes as he tried to show me what he liked about it, but he simply ended up frustrating himself.

[Garasharp K7]

Well, Killer7 is kind of an acquired taste. :grin: I loved the game, and it got a few good reviews back when it came out. (that lot over at NTSC-UK couldn't get enough of it) I thought it was pretty engrossing with its' mindfuck of a storyline, arcade-style shooty bits and eerie atmosphere. Great music too - I used to hang around in some sections just to listen to the tunes. That rave music is a real toe-tapper. :)

So now I'm playing Dynasty Warriors Gundam - I'm playing as Domon and I've reached the third mission in the original mode. It's a great game, but it's a little frustrating having wiped out some 600 foes, including the Red Comet himself, and that darn fool Milliardo goes and gets himself killed. Now I've got to play the mission all over again. And I'd nearly defeated that traitorous Puru too...

[Johnny]

Also working against No More Heroes is their previous game; I only watched a friend play Killer 7 for a few minutes as he tried to show me what he liked about it, but he simply ended up frustrating himself.

True, but to be honest all they share is the same director and art style. K7 is an on-rails FPS whereas NMH is a sandbox type action/adventure. There's a natural progression from each of SUDA51's titles and No More Heroes seems to be the pinnacle of it, taking and blending the best elements of his previous games.

[Johnny]

Well, Killer7 is kind of an acquired taste. :grin: I loved the game, and it got a few good reviews back when it came out. (that lot over at NTSC-UK couldn't get enough of it) I thought it was pretty engrossing with its' mindfuck of a storyline, arcade-style shooty bits and eerie atmosphere. Great music too - I used to hang around in some sections just to listen to the tunes. That rave music is a real toe-tapper. :)


So you're part of the NTSC-UK faithful too then? (I'm johnny on there too, although I don't post as often as I do here).

You reminded me of the excellent Killer7 music btw, may go hunt down the OST now :)

[Jarred]

I'd love to pick it up, but the US Publisher is INSANE to put this game out alongside Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It's not even a contest which game the vast majority of gamers will buy in an either/or situation. If they want this game to sell, they need to either move it up or push it back, because Brawl WILL bury it.

Amazon just bumped up the shipping date to Jan 22nd, so Ubisoft might be trying to get a jump on the Brawl takeover.

[Mateo_home]

I've decided to start up Wild Arms 5. Already up to the abandoned path. The battle system for this game is great. I love the strategy behind it. It's even more unique than it was in the previous game. Boss battles being a good example since the hexes are layered out in a different pattern. The field is a great improvement as well, since you didn't actually travel along the path. Though the random battles can get tiresome out there since I can't quite turn off the encounter out there yet.

At least this time the game doesn't start out with my party being pursued. Though this time everyone has an ARM. It's cool, but now I just have to keep on my toes of when the character needs to reload. At least it conveniently auto reloads when the battle ends.

Out of the characters so far in battle, I like Rebecca. Fast, can occasionally double attack, cool gun twirl animation. But dodging doesn't seem to be her strong point.

[Suwako Moriya]

Nothing exciting. Started up Sonic Heroes and it's...your typical 3D Sonic game.

Thinking back on it, I kind of regret even playing that now. It just didn't feel right for some reason and yet I finished it partially because I was stubborn. Okay I only finished Team Rose. No desire to bother with anyone else.

[Garasharp K7]

I thought your name looked familiar. :) Yep. I'm an NTSC-UKer as well - I'm Ostrog over there - but I don't post as much as I used to. I mainly lurk there from time to time.
That site was invaluable when I first got into importing - I've lost count of the amount of games I've bought thanks to the enthusiastic views on the boards there. I wouldn't have bothered with Killer7 or God Hand or even Okami if not for those first play threads. :) Wouldn't have known about those awesome Chikyuu Boeigun games either.

[Jarred]

Finished up Episode 2 on The Orange Box today while nursing the cold/flu. What a phenomenal ending! My nerves were firing on all cylinders and I had to frequently reload saves to get the job done. And man, what a cliffhanger!! Although I guess I wasn't surprised given the ending to the previous episodes.

I think OB is getting my vote for GotY. The only problem with it is the shoddy performance of TF2 on the console. Supposedly it's a little better now after the patch, but I haven't gone back since getting it. But the single player game from HL2 -> EP2 is just an awesome experience all around. Then throw Portal in there and I just think this package gave me the most entertainment all year. And I'll most likely keep playing TF2 and the Portal for quite a while.

And with that done, I can now crack open Assassin's Creed. I've also been playing the console version of Scene It? LCA, and have been surprisingly enjoying it. I have a good time with trivia games and an unhealthy knowledge of films, so it works for me. I never would have bought it myself, but it makes for a great gift; especially for my partner who doesn't play any video games but likes trivia games as well. It's nice to sit on the couch and play something together for once.

[untoldsorrow]

[li]
Radiata Stories. I've heard it's pretty much hilarious, but this one, like Disgaea, is still sealed, and I don't know if I want to unwrap it just yet. I don't know if I want hilarious right now or if I want something deeper.


I say go for this one. Tons of great support characters to fall in love with plus great simple gameplay . The game is hilarious, its fun kicking stuff.

If you enjoy the battle system, then play Star Ocean 3 after it. THe battle system is the same but more complex and gives you combo possibilities and chains.

[Chacranajxy]

You are the first person I have ever seen who was unable to use the touch screen controls.
I thought they were beyond amazing, and want to see them copied like mad.x

I could use the touch screen controls... they just gave you infinitely less mobility than the D-pad and buttons. If you used the touch screen for just throwing boomerangs and stuff, the controls would be perfect... but that still wouldn't fix the boring as hell dungeons.

[broodwars]

Well, I just beat Bioshock and...that was one extremely unsatisfying ending (the Good Ending) to a very satisfying game. My computer really did appreciate having that special helmet ("They call me MR. BUBBLES!")on during the final portion of the game, as that's a LOT less area to render. I actually had a better framerate during that last portion than most of the rest of the game. I could do without the escort mission, though.

I have to admit, as painfully easy and dull as that last boss was, there was a great deal of satisfaction as to how he finally met his end. ^_^

Overall, though, I think that the game could have probably stood a bit of editing here and there, as the game was starting to get old by the time the major plot twist came.

[ADC]

I'm giving SO3 a bit of time to grow on me, and as Fayt gets some mad skillz and stops getting nearly whacked, it's getting better. I think I'm going to run with it for a little while.

I wonder … I've never sold anything through Amazon Scalperplace, but my copy of Ar tonelico is damn near mint condition (what they'd call Used – Like New) with the box and art book. Could I charge around $100 for it, like the established people are doing? Or would I have to start lower and build up a reputation?

[Andrew Cunningham]

I actually meant it that way. I'd played Minish Cap a month or so before, and it really stood out how much more mobility and control you had with the touch screen controls. The first few hours weren't quite as smooth, especially trying to roll, but after a while I found them to be astonishingly precise. I can't even imagine going back.

Speaking of going back, I tried to play some Twilight Princess today, but after Psychonauts, I just keep wanting that extra analog stick to move the camera around. The Wiimote suddenly feels inadequate.
It doesn't help that I was spending the day finding clever hidden secret places that bafflingly turned out to have fucking rupees in them instead of pieces of heart. Some bullshit design there. Instead of having two of the damn things hidden in plain sight in the dungeon, having one in the pit accessible in wolf form on top of the cliff only accessible with bomb arrows and a grappling hook might have left me feeling a little less cheated.

[Johnny]

I thought your name looked familiar. :) Yep. I'm an NTSC-UKer as well - I'm Ostrog over there - but I don't post as much as I used to. I mainly lurk there from time to time.
That site was invaluable when I first got into importing - I've lost count of the amount of games I've bought thanks to the enthusiastic views on the boards there. I wouldn't have bothered with Killer7 or God Hand or even Okami if not for those first play threads. :) Wouldn't have known about those awesome Chikyuu Boeigun games either.

Yeah that's so true. Can't count the number of times I've told myself I'd wait on a new release to come down in price only to read a first play thread and order the game straight away :laugh:

The sales/trades forum is also a very dangerous place! Too many bargains to be had.

[Isuzu Inugami]

Suikôden Tactics. Got it for $10 in some bargain bin. Haven't played a Suikôden since the first, which I didn't get all worked up over.[/list]

It's really an SRPG, along the lines of Disgaia, rather than the usual Suikouden RPG-ness. Sometimes a bit brutal, but that just puts the emphasis on strategy rather than raw force.

[HitokiriShadow]

So how does it compare to, say, FF Tactics? I picked it up a few months ago as well and I'm curious about it.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

No matter how many hours I pour into Assassins Creed, it seems like I'll never finish. Which is a good thing since I'm having fun with saving the peasants and side missions. Such a massive game! I'm glad I was able to get a PS3 this year to enjoy such a game!

[HitokiriShadow]

Final Fantasy V Advance
I've gotten up to the Ancient Library. Currently, everyone is a Beastmaster. I managed to beat Ifrit that way, but I only managed it because I had two Mythril Dragons captured. Beastmasters are not exactly the ideal fighters and not a good one to make your entire party.

So far, that's how I've been progressing. Because I'm trying to keep everyone's job levels and skill sets identical, I've been going through with everyone as the same class (though not necessarily the same alternate abilities). It certainly makes things challenging. I went through the Fire Ship with a party of Mystic Knights. That worked fine for the regular enemies, but it made the boss fight tough since their white magic didn't heal much. And I couldn't easily exploit the elemental weakness because certain forms of the boss were immune to it.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
I got to the first real battle and remembered how much I hated that chemist. I stopped after one of my characters turned into a crystal. Also, Delita is a dimwit.

After that, I decided to play:

Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles
I'll be honest, I mainly bought this for Symphony of the Night. But I figured I might as well play Dracula X too, and you have to play a few stages to get SotN anyway.

I've gotten a lot farther on this than I did in the Super Famicom version. I never even beat the first level in that one. I still have the fact that Richter can't run, but either the levels are a bit easier or they've made him control a better despite his inability to move quicker than a tortoise, because I can actually get past the first level as him now.

But I much prefer Maria for a number of reasons, such as her mobility. And she fights the undead by tossing doves at them. How awesome is that? I unlocked SotN as well, but I haven't played it yet.

[ADC]

I went through the Fire Ship with a party of Mystic Knights. That worked fine for the regular enemies, but it made the boss fight tough since their white magic didn't heal much. And I couldn't easily exploit the elemental weakness because certain forms of the boss were immune to it.
No Drain Blade yet, huh? If there was ever a game-breaker, that's it. Most if not all of the bosses in FF5 aren't undead, after all.

[HitokiriShadow]

I went through the Fire Ship with a party of Mystic Knights. That worked fine for the regular enemies, but it made the boss fight tough since their white magic didn't heal much. And I couldn't easily exploit the elemental weakness because certain forms of the boss were immune to it.
No Drain Blade yet, huh? If there was ever a game-breaker, that's it. Most if not all of the bosses in FF5 aren't undead, after all.

I think the shop that had it was still locked. Or maybe it was unlocked and I forgot to check again before heading to the Fire Ship after being tossed in the brig. And after that part I switched to Beastmasters so I haven't tried Drain Blade yet.

[Jarred]

No matter how many hours I pour into Assassins Creed, it seems like I'll never finish. Which is a good thing since I'm having fun with saving the peasants and side missions. Such a massive game! I'm glad I was able to get a PS3 this year to enjoy such a game!
Played it today (360 version) for a few hours and it is a massive game. I'm pretty amazed how far I can go in a world that has that much detail. And it's going to take me awhile as well; took 3 hours or so just to do the first assassination! I just had to climb all the viewpoints and rescue everyone. :D

BTW, what else is there to do in the world map (the area outside of the towns where you ride the horse) besides just the viewpoints? And is it me, or are the guards much much harder outside the towns?

[Andrew Cunningham]

After all my bitching, tonight I suddenly had absolutely not problem with the 'impossible' part of Psychonauts. Really sad that simply taking the time to turn the camera so I'm jumping straight away from me was all I needed. Then had a few minutes of death before I realized that it wasn't preventing me from using my powers, they had just somehow ended up not assigned to any buttons.
Ending rather horrifying; Rasputin's hair was some sort of terrifying combination of bacon and a Hitler comb over, and should never have been revealed to the world.

[Suwako Moriya]

In any case Metroid Fusion becomes officially the first game of the year I play and first game portable wise too. Plus it contains the first boss I lose to this year which becomes the first boss I beat. Ie the one you get the Gravity Suit from. Oh yes currently I have to deal with the security robot again, but I have yet to give it a serious try. Undecided on what the first console game of the year will be. Likely I'd just face some random final boss, but in terms of a serious complete play through. Well that's undecided right now.

[ADC]

In my first gaming experience of the new year, I unseated the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLII, leading the 9ers to their first 19-0 season in team history. Then I went out and totally won the draft and signed Dwight Freeney to be my right defensive end in 2008 and beyond. (How much of a Madden geek am I? I put my salary cap figures into a spreadsheet to figure out how much I can spend not just this year, but for the next six years.)

[Suwako Moriya]

Oh sure while I'm dealing with dangerous parasites, you're playing sports. :P

[ADC]

I can't be the tips hotline all the time, brother love. What I will tell you, though, is that the hardest boss is still ahead of you. On a related note, the easiest boss is still ahead of you. So that's two bosses you know about.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

No matter how many hours I pour into Assassins Creed, it seems like I'll never finish. Which is a good thing since I'm having fun with saving the peasants and side missions. Such a massive game! I'm glad I was able to get a PS3 this year to enjoy such a game!
Played it today (360 version) for a few hours and it is a massive game. I'm pretty amazed how far I can go in a world that has that much detail. And it's going to take me awhile as well; took 3 hours or so just to do the first assassination! I just had to climb all the viewpoints and rescue everyone. :D

BTW, what else is there to do in the world map (the area outside of the towns where you ride the horse) besides just the viewpoints? And is it me, or are the guards much much harder outside the towns?

Not sure. You can find additional flags, but beyond that I don't know. This is one game I intend on not touching a faq for. Actually I'm trying to make it a habit not to anymore, since I found thats why I got out of touch with gaming for awhile.

But anyways, the game is kicking ass so far (Assassins Creed). I don't see how people can be disappointed in this game. I guess if you followed the hype like it was going to be some holy grail, then yeah...but I looked forward to a a game where I can assassinate people in a the 1100s, and it delivers nicely. Just could of done without the sci-fi stuff, but it makes your life bar make more sense.

[Suwako Moriya]

I can't be the tips hotline all the time, brother love. What I will tell you, though, is that the hardest boss is still ahead of you. On a related note, the easiest boss is still ahead of you. So that's two bosses you know about.

Speaking of hard and easy. Assuming I can ever actually battle Sa-X, I'm not sure if I should rejoice or cry if the battle turns out to be easy for me. Heh well the last battle I had should be good for a laugh. Oh yes lose several times in a row and only then realize I can destroy the missiles by shooting them. Uh yeah don't even ask why it took me that long. Still the real fun was that one minute part. Especially since it took me only two tries to do it despite my griping of how annoying trying to continous jump can be.

[ADC]

Now, I did the 1-minute continuous jump on the first try with about 30 seconds to spare. You didn't forget that you can keep jumping after getting knocked out of your spin, did you?

On the other hand, now that I've laughed at your difficulties in Metroid Fusion, I'm going to give everybody a chance to laugh at mine. Today I found Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins at Worst Buy for $10.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Dug into a couple of Gameboy Games a friend loaned me.
Sigma Star is a reasonably neat idea coupled with extremely half-assed gameplay and lost me awful quick. Never really gave me a chance to figure out the appeal.
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga is pretty dang neat. Enjoying it a lot so far.

[Johnny]

But anyways, the game is kicking ass so far (Assassins Creed). I don't see how people can be disappointed in this game. I guess if you followed the hype like it was going to be some holy grail, then yeah...


It's mainly due to the repitiveness of it and how it drags out in it's last quarter or so. Don't get me wrong, I'm one of those people who adored the game, but the last few bits do tend to drag on and on. If you like the fighting/counter system though, as I did, then it isn't so bad.

Just don't expect an ending. Something cool is hinted at which I hope they go with for the sequel, but it just kinda...ends.

[Suwako Moriya]

On the other hand, now that I've laughed at your difficulties in Metroid Fusion, I'm going to give everybody a chance to laugh at mine. Today I found Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins at Worst Buy for $10.

Giving what I experienced of at least one version of Ghost 'n Goblins, rather than laugh I'd end up feeling pity for you.

[Caesar]

I'm playing the "High School Musical: Sing It!" for the Wii... god help me. What's even worst is that I scored an A+ for singing "Fabulous". The shame...my god...the shame.

[ADC]

Giving what I experienced of at least one version of Ghost 'n Goblins, rather than laugh I'd end up feeling pity for you.
Once I got through the first level of the old NES GnG without taking a hit. My friends looked upon me as the video games deity whom I am. Then I got to level 2 and got whacked inside of a minute.

[Johnny]

Blazed through Halo 3 in a couple of days and now onto NiGHTS: JoD. It's...alright so far. Wasn't expecting anything like the original and just as well. The traditional stages are good, but the needless cutscenes and 'story' and tacked on mini-game stages (riding the "NiGHTS boat" anyone?) are needless.

Up next will be The Orange Box I reckon. My New Years Resolution for gaming is to buy only triple-A releases on release and wait a bit for the rest. That means (hopefully) only DMC4 this month and wait for Smash Bros US release next month.
Still have Ratchet & Clank ToD, Mass Effect, Shikigami no Shiro III, Trauma Centre 2 and Silent Hill Origins to finish, with Naruto Wii 2 unstarted and Lost Odyssey to get really stuck in to.

[ADC]

All bets are off now. The Wii is back. Will it be FE:GOD? Will it be Super Metroid? MP3? 4RE:We? Or will I stick with SO3? I must think these things over.

[DiGiKerot]

Up next will be The Orange Box I reckon. My New Years Resolution for gaming is to buy only triple-A releases on release and wait a bit for the rest. That means (hopefully) only DMC4 this month and wait for Smash Bros US release next month.

How do you decide what's triple-A though? Particularly for Japanese releases when the review scores from Japanese mags are rarely reliable...

[Mateo_home]

Still playing Wild Arms 5. Which is my first game for '08. Not like it matters since I was still playing it from last year. I just got Greg in my party and well the one downside is that you can only have three characters in your active battle. So I tossed Avril out ( :( ) and added Greg in. Basically so he can learn Dean or Rebecca's Combination Arts whenever that may be. Fortunately, inactive characters still gain EXP, so I don't have to worry about them falling behind. Speaking of which, I'm glad there's no more BEXP from WA4 because it was a pain in the butt to have Yulie always deliver the finishing blow just to keep the team balanced. Oh yeah, earlier running around in the mine dungeon, I shot a barrel and the game froze, and yet the rumble in the controller wouldn't stop. I doubt it was because it's cold outside. It better not happen once I acquire the freeze bullets. :roll:

As for first portable game of '08, it's still undecided. Most likely it will be MOTHER 3 just to wrap it up and shortly followed by Minish Cap to get that one finished up too.

[Chacranajxy]

For a change of pace, I played and reviewed Bible Black...

http://www.honestgamers.com/systems/content.php?game_id=12547&console_id=13&review_id=6672


...yeah.

[AdyHart]

Like a few others Im playing Assassins Creed at the moment and I cant decide if I like it or not. It may just be because I havent really gotten into it yet so Ill just have to play it some more but I like what I've seen and what you can do so I'll probably end up liking it.

Just could of done without the sci-fi stuff, but it makes your life bar make more sense.

From what I've played the sci-fi stuff seems like it could have been completely removed from the game without any problems.
It may be important later on so Ill wait and see what happens with the story but as of now just seems like a pointless side story.

[Collectonian]

Another game that has sat on my self for nearly a decade: Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, is finally done! 99% completion, I is happy. :noodle:

I'll probably start Onimusha tomorrow or later tonight.

[Damo]

Finished GrimGrimiore over Christmas, well the 25 level story mode, and with no unlockables tht I know of otehr than hard mode there doesn't seem alot of point clearign the 25 bonus stages. So started on Atelier Iris 2, only 2 hours in and it's a bit underwhelming.

[Johnny]

Up next will be The Orange Box I reckon. My New Years Resolution for gaming is to buy only triple-A releases on release and wait a bit for the rest. That means (hopefully) only DMC4 this month and wait for Smash Bros US release next month.

How do you decide what's triple-A though? Particularly for Japanese releases when the review scores from Japanese mags are rarely reliable...

I'd consider stuff like DMC4, SSBB etc triple-A as I know they'll be good due to experience with previous games in the series and/or watching vids.

Really though, it's a loose term and helps me justify buying more games if I say "Oh I only bought that because it's a must-have game" :sd:

[Noodle]

Still playing Wild Arms 5. Which is my first game for '08.

Heh, I think this is going to be my next game too.

I finished Phoenix Wright on New Year's Day, after playing it pretty non-stop that weekend. Good stuff. That last case was hella long, but I guess it's good to get your money's worth since there isn't really any replay value here? Anyway, I picked up the next one already, but will probably wait to play for a bit - want something different and anyway now I'm back on a reading & movie kick. I still have Tales of the Abyss (jeeeez) and FFIII itching to be played, though. Decisions, decisions.

[Suwako Moriya]

Still playing Wild Arms 5. Which is my first game for '08.

Heh, I think this is going to be my next game too.

For certain Wild Arms 5th Vanguard is one of the games in my backlog to decide between soon or knowing my indecisiveness later.

[Chacranajxy]

Too lazy to find the dedicated thread, but I updated my collection pics for those interested. Last time, I offered a profanity-less version. Not this time.

http://chacranajxy.livejournal.com/725.html

[Isuzu Inugami]

Too lazy to find the dedicated thread, but I updated my collection pics for those interested. Last time, I offered a profanity-less version. Not this time.

http://chacranajxy.livejournal.com/725.html


LOL. Also, I mock you for being a slave to the alphabet and not shelving Samurai X next to Rurouni Kenshin. :P

[Suwako Moriya]

Once I got through the first level of the old NES GnG without taking a hit. My friends looked upon me as the video games deity whom I am. Then I got to level 2 and got whacked inside of a minute.

In other words short lived glory. In any case it's nice to know a certain boss in Metroid Fusion uses a tune from Super Metroid. Or at least it seems to be. Still yeah if I'm right, I'm finally able to defeat the Sa-X. Which leads to me frustrating questions.

Am I even strong enough or did I screw up? I have like 799 HP, 115+ Missiles, and 20 Powerbombs. Around that amount? Why do I keep shooting in directions I don't want to? Why do I keep shooting early? Why is the charge slow? Will I ever be able to cocentrate for five seconds? You can probably guess what the problem is now. Still I get the feeling I'm almost done with the game.

[Chacranajxy]

Too lazy to find the dedicated thread, but I updated my collection pics for those interested. Last time, I offered a profanity-less version. Not this time.

http://chacranajxy.livejournal.com/725.html


LOL. Also, I mock you for being a slave to the alphabet and not shelving Samurai X next to Rurouni Kenshin. :P

Ay, the Alphabet is a damnable thing. That has always bothered me. I thought about flipping the covers and just being like "oh hey, this is Rurouni Kenshin," but technically, it's still Samurai X. Ah well.

[ADC]

Am I even strong enough or did I screw up? I have like 799 HP, 115+ Missiles, and 20 Powerbombs. Around that amount? Why do I keep shooting in directions I don't want to? Why do I keep shooting early? Why is the charge slow? Will I ever be able to cocentrate for five seconds? You can probably guess what the problem is now. Still I get the feeling I'm almost done with the game.
There are 20 E-Tanks in the game, so you can build all the way up to 2099 HP. I don't remember how many Missiles I had, but it was definitely more than 115. That bit doesn't matter, though, once you get the Plasma Beam. That thing pwns almost everything in the game. And there's still another beam upgrade for you to get …

[untoldsorrow]

Too lazy to find the dedicated thread, but I updated my collection pics for those interested. Last time, I offered a profanity-less version. Not this time.

http://chacranajxy.livejournal.com/725.html

Left a comment and question at lj. Awesome room since you have nice space.

[Suwako Moriya]

There are 20 E-Tanks in the game, so you can build all the way up to 2099 HP.

So in other words I'm at less than half max HP potential. Now I feel like I've been under leveled for awhile. Maybe some exploring would be a good idea for me to do if I can.

That bit doesn't matter, though, once you get the Plasma Beam. That thing pwns almost everything in the game. And there's still another beam upgrade for you to get …

Ah it's interesting how over time the beam becomes more and more useful for boss battles. Which makes it really sad when nervous keeps making me push the R Button and shoot missiles instead. Still I have to wonder at what point the beam starts becoming stronger than the missile in terms of enemies damageable by both.

[Suwako Moriya]

Well it looks like I screwed myself over because I didn't expect areas to be magically blocked off during this event... Well the good news is I have some idea how to win. Shoot it, travel upward to get it to follow me, fall back down, wait, shoot, repeat. Problem is it requires proper use of continous jumping which I suck at. Darn it, I don't want to go through all of Metroid Fusion again this soon.

[ADC]

There are a lot of secret passages between areas of the Biologic Research Lab station. Just as you had to take a back road from the Main Deck to Sector 2 after beating the Spider-X, you can get pretty much wherever you want around the station by taking secret passages from here to there. Usually you'll just need to Screw Attack a wall, though I think there was one which required a Shinespark. (Have you learned how to Shinespark yet? Damn useful manœuvre in some places, but it's a serious pain in the dick to pull it off.)

[Suwako Moriya]

Ah of course "secret passages" and I know simply setting off a power bomb in a room will either damage blocks or reveal what they can be damaged by. No idea what Shinespark is. In any case my plan for the boss almost worked. Got to the second form which is rather simple and can only be dangerous due to bad luck. HP was too low for the third form. Tried again and the batterys decided they need recharging. I guess given how close I came, if I can manage one of these alternate paths then I may be able to get stronger and make victory more certain.

[HitokiriShadow]

Shinespark? Is that the name for the "super jump"? I don't recall that being too tough to pull off, but its been a long time since I played any of the 2D Metroid games. Actually, I don't think the super jump was in Fusion. What is the Shinespark?

[ADC]

Shinespark is what they (they being Intelligent Systems, who developed Metroids 2–4) call it when you run until you activate the Speed Booster, crouch to hold the charge, then jump some insane distance at extreme speed. If that's the super jump, then there you are. If I'm really concentrating, I can do some of the harder Shinespark sequences in Fusion and Zero, but the 1337est ones elude me to this day.

[broodwars]

I never had any real trouble doing the Super Jump. It's doing that trick in Morph Ball form I can't do (which is required for a few upgrades in Zero Mission).

[ADC]

I'll tell you the technique I just can't get the hang of, is the Wall Jump. The etechoons tried their best to teach me, but I'll be damn'd if I can actually do it when it matters. I'd put Shinesparking at about a 3 out of 10 on the difficulty scale, Shinesparking onto a slope for continued Spineshark action at about a 7. Wall Jumping is a 12.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Shinespark is what they (they being Intelligent Systems, who developed Metroids 2–4) call it when you run until you activate the Speed Booster, crouch to hold the charge, then jump some insane distance at extreme speed. If that's the super jump, then there you are. If I'm really concentrating, I can do some of the harder Shinespark sequences in Fusion and Zero, but the 1337est ones elude me to this day.

Oh, the one that doesn't work at all.
I spent the better part of an hour trying to get that fucker to work to no avail. I could get it to work in morph ball form occasionally, entirely at random, but it never once worked standing upright.
I got the wall jump a few times as well, but never consistently enough to be useful.
Although the most frustrating bit was where I realized the stupid spin attack was crushing the frozen bugs I needed to land on to get a missile pack, and there was no way to turn the ability off.

[HitokiriShadow]

Shinespark is what they (they being Intelligent Systems, who developed Metroids 2–4) call it when you run until you activate the Speed Booster, crouch to hold the charge, then jump some insane distance at extreme speed. If that's the super jump, then there you are. If I'm really concentrating, I can do some of the harder Shinespark sequences in Fusion and Zero, but the 1337est ones elude me to this day.

Yep, that's what I was thinking of. I always had a bitch of a time doing it in Super Metroid in the old days but I don't think I had much trouble with it Fusion and Zero Mission. I guess being a decade older helped with that.