Vidya Gaems General

Bee

Unfortunately I don't have Crit Draw yet.  Still looking for a good build of it I can afford (and running a Monoblos mix for Atk XL in the meantime).

MadassAlex

I'm pretty sure every iteration of Diablos armour has it, or at least most of the points. You can trade in some parts for low rank Diablos armour, I think fight them directly at high rank, and definitely fight them directly at G rank.

glennmagusharvey

Steam Winter Sale gives out trading cards in a MUCH easier way.

Complete your Discover Queue three times a day to get three trading cards, one for each time.

Apparently you only need to be level 5 to do this.

A welcome relief after the insanity of the summer sale.

Bee

I saw it on Diablos, but it's so low-level compared to what I'm already wearing...

I see it on Brach S too, but it looks like it won't get up to 10 without a lot of gems.

glennmagusharvey

Apparently Freedom Planet 2 will be a thing.

Stormtroper

I tried out X-COM: Apocalypse. It's... messy. The Geoscape (Cityscape?) is huge and full of buildings and things of no obvious importance happening, and you have to take care of multiple branches of research, deploying vehicles (which are much more customizable), and all that stuff about organization reputation doesn't seem much simpler either, etc. The logistics are much more complicated than the original, which was complicated enough.

Beyond that, my second mission was spent checking loads of rooms looking for the last few aliens hoping that they weren't in the no longer reachable rooftop, and the game crashed when I finished, so I'm taking that as a hint that I shouldn't play it anymore.

Zennistrad

Got Final Fantasy V on Steam for the sale this Christmas. The graphics look pretty bleh but I'm glad that I'll be able to play my favorite of the SNES Final Fantasy titles on my PC.

I'm hoping someday that the GBA version will be ported to the Wii U Virtual Console, though.

Bee

The Steam ports look so terrible and washed-out.  I can understand the super-rounded mobile UI, but the sprite work is just fucked to hell.

Stormtroper

Started playing UFO: Alien Invasion (AKA the free, open source X-COM, I've got a crave to feed). I had forgotten how many maps with wide-open areas that make it hard or impossible to go from one part to the other without getting mowed down due to a lack of cover, and how tedious and annoying it is, and I just spent like half an hour on such a mission that I ended up failing anyways. I usually never pay attention to level design, but some of these maps show why it's important.

It's a shame, 'cause the game is otherwise really good. Guess I'll just reload if I see more maps like this.

glennmagusharvey

Bee wrote: »

The Steam ports look so terrible and washed-out.  I can understand the super-rounded mobile UI, but the sprite work is just fucked to hell.

This is why I am not interested in FFV or FFVI on Steam.

I'd buy it if they simply threw an SNES ROM and an emulator onto Steam.

Bee

Oh, and I've played You Have To Win The Game.  Got all of the achievements except the 1-life run, though I can come close (close enough for the 9-life cat run).

A regular completion avoids like 90% of the hard parts, but a couple of the bullet hell screens and a few of the screens leaving the Blue Aura wing are still sketchy.

glennmagusharvey

Is it of reasonable difficulty like VVVVVV?

Stormtroper

Welp, maps aren't randomized. Unless I can get to down an UFO in a different place, I'm stuck doing missions on whatever maps turns out. The second time around I brought sniper rifles, which made it easier but not any less tedious. Next time I'll try using smoke bombs, after all I should be using these even when not dealing with lack of cover.

Besides that, I've been trying the original X-COM: UFO Defense, or rather, some openxcom mod that adds a shitload of items, aliens, maps, interface features and stuff. I find it interesting that you can do so much to a game that wasn't meant to be modded. Anyhows, I've done two runs, both in Superhuman and Ironman Mode (unlike Enemy Within, it means no saving except for leaving the game).

The first time everything was going smoothly, until the aliens attacked my main base exactly at the point I only had two soldiers in it, so of course they destroyed it. I tried to continue using my secondary base but of course it didn't work out.

The second time around, the first UFO I destroyed must've been important, 'cuz the aliens immediately attacked my base afterwards. Everything was going reasonably well, until one of my fantastic units hit the dude immediately in front of her with a grenade, killing three and leaving two unconscious. Next turn the aliens blow up three other units, panic ensues, and I think that's the fastest I've lost this game.

Bee

glennmagusharvey wrote: »

Is it of reasonable difficulty like VVVVVV?

More reasonable.  I can't quite pull off a no-death run, but I can definitely see it as plausible without tool-assist and could probably do it if I dedicated a couple days.

There are some precise jumps, but nothing as ludicrously pixel-perfect as VVVVVV and it's much shorter.  And you don't skid on the ground like you're wearing fucking butterskates either.

glennmagusharvey

Bee wrote: »

glennmagusharvey wrote: »

Is it of reasonable difficulty like VVVVVV?

More reasonable.  I can't quite pull off a no-death run, but I can definitely see it as plausible without tool-assist and could probably do it if I dedicated a couple days.

There are some precise jumps, but nothing as ludicrously pixel-perfect as VVVVVV and it's much shorter.  And you don't skid on the ground like you're wearing fucking butterskates either.

Oh, if it's easier than VVVVVV then I'm fine with it.

Zennistrad

You aren't a real gamer until you can do Veni, Vidi, Vici on the first try.

Bee

VVVVVV is a fine game given the expectation of infinite lives and plentiful checkpoints.  The no-death stuff feels like it was included as a joke though, because the controls really don't lend themselves to precision and hitboxes are wonky.

Bee

Fatalis down.  God that thing has a lot of HP.

Blueeyedrat

So I got my tentacles on Splatoon over the holidays, and I tried out Ranked mode for the first time yesterday. Did pretty well, made it to Rank C... and then today I disconnect, like, seven times in a row, which bumps me back down to C-. Goddammit.

Connection issues aside, anyone interested in joining me for multiplayer shenanigans at some point? (NNID = Blueeyedrat) I'm also down for Smash or Mario Kart, at least, when I have time.

glennmagusharvey

I like this guy's speaking style.  He's calm.  He's not overly excited about or angry at anything.

Lai

Oh, you mean boring? :P

glennmagusharvey

Let's get this copy/pasted before it's gone forever:

Like many of us when we were kids we wanted to be like Luke skywalker
or obi one kinobi, but like all of us, we do not live in a galaxy far
far away. There might be another way though. With all the open world
RPGs out there how is there not a good one for Star Wars? I have decided
to take matters into my own hands and write a story in the star wars
universe that will fit inside a RPG video game. I am currently looking
into talking with Disney if I am able to do this. If not then there
might have to be a compromise on the name or some other parts. I need
your help. I am not a very good programmer, and I'm an even worst
artist. I want to put this project into the hands of professionals, but
in order to do that I need money to hire them. This was my dream as a
kid I hope you can share my same compassion, thank you.

There are
many people out there that have the wrong image when they think about
this game so I will go into deep detail as much as i can to get people
more excited about this. As I know there are other "very good" games
over Star Wars, but within the bounds of good taste, I believe that
these RPG's over Star Wars have not reached their full potential. I do
not feel immersed in these games. I am not talking about a 1995/2005
game that could be created in a month or two. I am talking about a Star
Wars RPG that will completely blow people away; like "Fallout 4", or
"The Witcher 3" did. These RPG's set the benchmark of how the future of
RPG's should look, and they are a good blueprint to go on. I want to
make something that is like this in some respects, but goes even
further. It will have the graphics of "Battlefront" or better with the
feel of "The Witcher 3". 

The game and story will also have a lot
of choice. You will be able to choose which side you would like to be
on. You can be evil and reside on the Darkside and rule the galaxy as
you wish, or you could also bring peace about the galaxy. Both in their
own respects have their perks. Speaking of perks: Like "Fallout 4" there
might or might not be perks in the game. At least not the same as they
are in "Fallout".  I do not want to give away much about the story, but I
will give away that you do not start out as a Jedi, but later become
one. As you progress your skills get better as your ability to use the
force. It is very exciting that I have already gotten backers. I will be
providing updates every couple of days, and answering any questions
that you might have. I am still answering others so please be patient. 

Also no promises, but the backers that give for the $60 reward will get the game a day or two before original release.

Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1793481042/star-wars-open-world-rpg/description

Lai

Oh, I'd totally give him all my money.

This will definitely end well with no hangups whatsoever.

glennmagusharvey

Lai wrote: »

Oh, I'd totally give him all my money.

This will definitely end well with no hangups whatsoever.

Thankfully, pledges are automatically rescinded if a project dies.

Lai

I was joking about giving him my money. I can see this project dying within... I dunno, a month?

glennmagusharvey

I bet you a strongly-worded letter has already been sent from a Disney lawyer to Kickstarter's offices.

Lai

One thing you don't want to do is piss off Disney.

glennmagusharvey

To be fair, though, fucking up Disney's empire could be a desirable end...but either way, this isn't the guy to do it.

glennmagusharvey

So an old friend of mine who is pretty active in keeping up with gaming news alerted me to this issue: the Tales of Zestiria DLC "Additional Chapter: Alisha's Story" isn't available for purchase for PC.  (Which means Steam because that's the only place where it's sold, I think.)

Alisha's Story is, from what I understand, a side-story that follows the character Alisha.  I've heard that this was made partly as a response to fans who really wanted to see more of her but didn't get to see that in the main game.

The DLC was made available on the PlayStation Store and Steam.  However, the PC (Steam) version of the DLC had a save file bug, which resulted in its getting pulled from the store.  (It is still available for purchase on the PlayStation Store.)
Tales of Zestiria: http://store.steampowered.com/app/351970/
Additional Chapter: Alisha's Story: http://store.steampowered.com/app/382470/

A tweet summarizing the situation:

https://twitter.com/Snowlessflake/status/685181261795717120

The bug was apparently fixed on 4 December 2015, but the DLC has not yet been made available for purchase again.  This friend of mine, being a big Tales fan, is...well, getting impatient, and wanted me to help get the word out about this issue.

MadassAlex

My problem with Tales games is that their equipment/skill mechanics are always unnecessarily cluttered, complex, and in flux from game to game. Additionally, the character skits please me much more than the main story, in most cases. Tales games are largely "save the world from this massive source of evil or whatever", but the characterisation usually surpasses the quality of the plot. 

I continue to play them because I like action RPGs and Tales games are pretty good at that, plus I find the characters highly relatable. Even the bland main protagonists aren't that bad for bland main protagonists, but that's probably because the supporting casts bounce off that character so well. I do wish they were less heavy-handed with the frequency of plot events, though, so I could spend more time in the gameplay and finding skits.

But seriously, Tales of Zestiria, asking me to grind so hard for the skill setup I'm aiming for? In game with so many characters? Don't push your luck.