Gate Crash pre-release.

Went 3-2 in Two-Headed Giant and won two extra packs.

Got the red/green shock land, which I promptly traded to a friend for $9, (less than it's really worth, but hey I'm a nice guy),
a holo Whispering Madness,
a couple other holo nothings,
a Dimir Keyrune,
a Dimir Charm,
a Simic Charm,
an Orzhov Charm,
Mind Grind,
Biomass Mutation,
a Boros Reckoner,
a Giant Adephage,
and two Consuming Aberrations.

And a couple Thespian's Stages, not that they're of much use to me.

It was a good day.

Started playing Path of Exile now that it's in open beta.

This game is everything that Diablo 3 should have been, and more. Virtually every aspect of the game is different form traditional dungeon crawlers in the way your character grows, the way get loot, and even the way you pay for things. It feels like you need to put serious thought into what you do, even when it comes to selling items you would normally consider vendor trash.

The one thing it could really use is the ability to totally respec your character. Right now, you can get a handful of points to respec a few skills, but the character skill tree is epic, and it can be a little annoying to find out you misspent a point on a route you released you didn't want to go down two levels hence.

I'm still gradually playing Assassin's Creed III. Right now I'm also playing The Unfinished Swan.

Actually I looked at some videos of Landstalker's gameplay and minus the isometric perspective, it is indeed incredibly similar. A girly young elf runs around doing awful platforming, dungeon-crawling and hitting shit with his sword. Mild RPG elements. You should play it, Nick. Allow me to reiterate that it is a measly $5.99 US Dollars on PSN, and perfect for a portable system like the PSP or Vita!

Speaking of Matrix software, I finished out my Final Fantasy collection with FF3 on the DS. People were telling me what a grindfest it was, but I've found it's only that if you're bad at RPGs. Don't get me wrong, it is hard as fuck, but the job system allows for a lot of strategy and if something doesn't work you don't have to go out and gain 5 levels, you just have to change your shit up. Example: if a boss is kicking my ass with strong physical attacks, I can make everyone a mage, stick them in the back row, give them two shields each (yes you can dual-wield shields, it's awesome) and have them all spam whatever element the boss is weak to while he's plinking away at the party for double-digit damage. That's a favorite strategy actually, especially for dungeons where you have to go through the entire thing afflicted with Mini (no physical attack power and shit defense). There are a lot of those. >:

I can't wait to get the Viking class, which is built around turtling like this and has an ability that forces enemies to attack it. It's like Sentinels from FF13, which I actually thought were a cool concept and used a whole bunch.

One thing I hate is that you can't buy goddamn Phoenix Downs, and they're so rare as treasure that if someone in my party gets killed, rather than waste one of my three precious extra lives I'll just reset or go all the way back to the overworld and find a revival fountain, which takes at least 10 minutes after the point when all the dungeons start having a minimum of 8 labyrinthine floors. It's nice that you get fully restored after winning a boss battle, but I'd prefer to just have the resources to end them with everyone alive so the experience is spread evenly. I steadfastly refused to let anyone be a lower or higher level than anyone else in 1 and 5, and that shit ain't changing now because it drives me fucking insane. I'll suck the dick of whatever merchant finally sells me Life.

Not to mention there are no save points, ever; if you die in a dungeon, you have to do the whole fucking thing all over again. What I've started doing is going through the dungeon once, collecting all the treasure and fighting every encounter I get, then when I find the boss room I turn around and go back outside, save and refresh my guys, and go back through it again just running from every encounter so that everyone's on top-form for the boss. Thank fuck Thieves have an auto-escape command. I don't see why Matrix didn't just add save-points to make the game slightly less goddamn psychotic; that's fake difficulty from bad NES-era design and I don't like it.

What I do like are the Anime Kewpie Doll graphics; I thought they were really out of place in a serious (?) dramatic drama like FF4 but they work in a lighthearted NES game like this one and look pretty bitchin'. The re-tooled music is also great as usual, although the new boss theme is definitely worse than the NES version.

Supposedly they're working on a remake of FF5 in the same style, which is probably good since 5 has never really had a perfect release (SNES isn't in English, PSX translation is the stuff of Engrish legends, GBA lags like a bitch and the music quality is a turd on the floor) but I hope instead of doing an unnecessary remake of FF6 next they'll instead do FF2, which is important enough to narrative development in games that it should be played, but actually playing it is beyond fucking horrible and even grindier than Dragon Quest. If any Final Fantasy literally needs a huge full-on revamp, it's that one.

path of exile is also rad as hell in 3D with iz3d drivers

i got a neat 50" projection from freecycle and also bought some more consoles and games



then yesterday I added RCA jacks to my new turbografx because fuck RF switches



so i guess i've been playing HR giger pinball and bonk lately.

Have you played DayZ yet? :D

Ni No Kuni and Dead Space 3.

Ni No Kuni is really a relaxing thing after all that Final Fantasy 13 Bullshit, beautiful game, good characters, not a big fan of the battle system and most of the music though, still very very good.

Dead Space 3...yeah well, we knew what would happen to that franchise, but the game is nowhere as "bad" as a lot of reviewers make it out to be. It´s a great game, you build a shitload of cool guns and shoot up Necromorphs while following a good story. What´s not to like? Sure, some people at Visceral played too many Facebook-games and included optional Microtransactions and timer-based ressource collecting but fuck it, it´s still fun.
Haven´t played Coop yet though.

The ending

What about it?

Fire Emblem Awakening is seriously my favorite strategy RPG. Double Up and Team Up actually drastically change how you play the game and build your troops. And they way classes are handled now is really smart. I wish the battle animations were a little better, but looking at the maps in 3D is very impressive. I love anytime something flies overhead, or when they use particles.

Also, it's probably the first cast since FE7 that I actually liked, which makes pairing them up and marrying them all the more fun. Especially once their kids join you.

The new neverwinter mmo is fun. Its free to play.

If you give $200 though you can play as a drow from menzo.

$200

$200

nah

200 buckeroonies.

started playing dark souls, pretty fun.

Yup, made it into my personal Top 5 of all time somehow. Still playing it, SL1-Run and Some weird kind of Challengerun where I can only use Daggers and nothing else...

Not playing Aliens.

Thankfully.

Colonial Marines must be pretty horrible from all I´m hearing...what was the last good one from that franchise...AVP2?

AvP 2000, but some of the level design was something horrible. Everything is so sparse. The lighting engine was awesome good. Still good, honestly.

The Colonial Marines advertisement has one of the stupidest lines I've ever heard.

"They said in space no one can hear you scream

[pause]

They were wrong!"

You know that's a play off the original tagline for the movie films, right?

Yes, and the clever thing about the original tagline is its allusion to the concept that sound cannot travel through a vacuum. It is literally impossible to hear someone screaming in space.

Does this new Aliens game redefine the laws of the universe?

is it even possible to actually scream in the vacuum?

No, but you'd probably sweat really hard.

Due to various accidents, (because it'd be unethical to test for it), people've found that vacuums aren't instantly lethal, anyway. As I heard it, you could be there alive for many, many seconds.

I read somewhere that the most instant threat is that of a sunburn as you have no atmosphere to shield you.

Plus, it´s super boring. What are you gonna do in the vacuum of space? You can´t breathe, can´t sing or talk to yourself, you can´t look at things, you can´t listen to music...maybe that´s why we don´t go to space anymore, nothing to do there :D

Doesn't matter either way since Aliens: Colonial Marines is tanking hard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z2qVebxlUo
Just look at this crap.

@Chojin:

How 'bout that Sega Genesis, dude? Pretty rad stack you've got goin on there.

Walking Dead is pretty good, it's like what Heavy Rain should have been. Not fucking retarded.

Doesn't matter which one you help in the end. Same crap happens to both.

i'm trying to platinum bayonetta for some weird reason and i'm really close now

yeah if you breathe on it the wrong way you get cartridge tilt, which makes games go haywire. i guess it's to be expected when you're basically playing telephone with copper connectors.

It also brings a whole new level of skill to the table. "How fast can I beat this game before my Genesis explodes?" I like it!

This would have been a pretty dick move if the entire forum didn't have you on ignore.

Yeah, but I didn't post any spoilers. I just told you the same major plot points happen for Doug and Carley. Did you really expect two optional characters to take the stories direction in two wildly different directions in the first place? That's just silly.

Plus the game has been out for over four months now. Stop being a baby.

Excuse me? Fuck you. You can't defend yourself for being a faggot's hemorrhoid by saying "oh you're just being a baby, man up"

Real gangsta-ass niggas don't post spoilers, fool. Chumps do.

someone said a thing that happened in a game a year ago

I'm filled with inconsolable rage.

that exchange between guitar woman and nick sounds oddly familiar

Feels like two twelve year olds arguing.

Except one of them is retardedly defensive about small video game details.

And the other one is just retarded

John Marston dies at the end.

:lol

Been playing Skyrim again recently, apart from that, it´s just me sitting there, reading the Corebook of Eclipse Phase and being terrified at the world it creates in my mind.

I finished that game like a year ago Nick. Feel free to keep being a tremendous faggot though, I'm sure it will only further endear you to everyone here.

There's like ten people here. Maybe you should stop worrying so much about what people think of you on the internet?

Right now I'm playing games on the Capcom Arcade Cabinet.

What games are on that thing?

they will release packages with games right now it has black tiger, 1943 and avenger

Those are some pretty great games to start out with. Especially Black Tiger.

black tiger is free on psn only

Final Fantasy II. The mechanics are a complete mindfuck but once you learn how magic penalties from equipment and weapons work (everything gives magic penalties so it's best to have your casters running around naked for most of the game) it ends up playing like all the other NES Final Fantasies with a lot more customization.

I just wish the game itself actually told you any of the shit you need to know in order to play it, since there's no way to figure out most of its systems without a guide. I still have no fucking idea how to increase Agility or Evasion rate, and when half your team embraces the traditional Celtic battle uniform that shit is kind of important to have.

finished the walking dead game

frustrating at times, but very good

anyone play any good video games lately?

i've been playing sleeping dogs and god of war ascenscion

Been trying the NW beta myself. Nothing particularly noteworthy, but still kinda fun.

Well I just finished Red Dead Redemption again, and I am going to try Metal Gear guns of our patriots, I haven't played it because I was never a fan of the MGS series.

Also picked up Legend of the mystical ninja and brain lord for snes, so pretty pumped about that.

Picked up Age of Empires II and expansion as a two-disc set at Walmart. Loving it like it's 1999 again. Now I need to get my grubby mitts on Command and Conquer: the First Decade.

Brainlord is one of the most challenging and interesting games on the SNES. There was so much depth to the gameplay!

pretty much anything by enix in the snes/sfc era is gold.

Yes, I played a game called Bastion last week and upon completing it I concluded that it had pretty much been everything a video game should fucking be and the best new game I've played in fucking forever.

It's fun and challenging and exiciting to play, it looks fantastic, the soundtrack fucks you in one ear while a running narration by some guy who sounds like a cross between James Earl Jones and that old blues singer from Metalocalypse fucks you in the other, and the game is aware of the fact that there is a sentient human being playing and enjoying it, and as a consequence it strives to make the player feel like they're as important a part of the narrative as any of the characters, locations or plot devices. I personally feel involved in this shit, you dig?

There aren't a lot of games I'd consider to be "perfect" games, not even any of those gay 90's JRPGs I'm always jacking off about. This, though, this is the real shit. Every major element of Bastion just works; I could think of a few things to complain about if I tried, like how melee weapons are basically useless once you get the shotgun or how the dual revolvers are the worst pieces of shit to ever exist, but that's all petty shit that's completely eclipsed by the game's grand design and 100% sexy execution. It's just SO FUCKING GOOD OMG I can't even deal. The last single-player game I can remember doing basically everything right like this was Half Life 2 Episode 2. Bastion is Valve good, I mean, fuck.

The only actual problem with it was that it ended at some point, although I guess there's new game plus and hard mode from Idols. That follow-up they're working on looks like more of the same except with cyberpunk and a USB Buster sword, so I guess I'm all over that shit when it comes out.

I got Bioshock Infinite the other night. I never finished the original because my PC at the time couldn't run it very well, but I was excited to see the setting for Infinite.

There's a lot of detail to shit you don't see too often; it's an alternate reality 1912, so you'll be in a bar and a phonograph will be playing a ragtime "Tainted Love" or a flying Barber Quartet will be singing "God Only Knows", or some organ grinder playing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". There's even an obscured Revenge of the Jedi reference in one scene. It also has a lot of fun with the founding fathers; basically Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson are seen as dieties, while Lincoln is demonized. Racism is a big point of the game too. But now I'm at the point in the game where quantum physics are starting to be introduced, so I'm afraid it's all about to go full retard.

The only thing I don't like is being limited to two guns. That, and Elizabeth is pretty much invisible during gunfights to everyone but you. For all the horse shit about Elizabeth being "real" or whatever, she just runs around during crossfire and no one pays any attention to her. Everything else is pretty badass, though. I wanted to use skylines and grapple points more, because those really change the way you do combat in a lot of scenes.

Megaman Zero collection, Fire Emblem: awakening, Startropics and Dragon Warrior!

I'd rather it be that way than the other way, where your tagalong NPC is a brainless bullet sponge who exists solely to force you to reload.

That seems like the only other option when it comes to programming companion AI these days.

I guess. It's just weird because the whole story the bad guys are all "GRAB THE GIRL", but when it's time for the pew pew, they're all "IGNORE THE GIRL. LET'S ALL 12 OF US FILL THIS ONE FUCKHEAD FULL OF BULLETS AND ROCKETS AND SHIT. YEA LET'S SEND A GIANT ROBOT GEORGE WASHINGTON AFTER HIM TOO."

I know, I know; video game, suspend disbelief, etc. It just takes you out of it. I wouldn't have minded if there were segments where guys strongarmed her and tried to carry her away, and you'd have to pick them off. Or change the story or something. Alyx Vance was invincible but she actually contributed during combat beyond magically refilling your ammo.

In any case, I just beat it. Without spoiling anything, there's a weird tie-in with Bioshock 1, and quantum physics just kinda fucks with everything so the ending's kinda jumbled. There's opportunity to branch out to new self-contained stories, but Infinite's story just comes to a halt and goes "I DUNNO QUANTUM PHYSICS DID IT WHATEVER".

It's a fun game with a cool setting, and the combat has its moments, but I think the game's waaaaaaaay overhyped for what it is.

Uh, they want to capture her, not kill her. And they do carry her away. Also, it kinda sounds like you didn't understand the ending, or something. Maybe just stick to WiiU party games? Ohhh, right, and the inclusion of those modern songs isn't exactly random, alternate universe stuff. If you pick up and listen to the voxophones, things like that are explained. I enjoyed hearing CCR.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it. 1999 mode isn't so bad if you learn to use vigors effectively.

Gosh, didn't mean to kick your precious puppy, mate.

Elizabeth is only captured twice, and at specific points in the story. Any other gunfight, she's either cowering or running in gunfire. Either way, enemies charge right past her in a train and gun Booker down instead of capturing her. Doesn't make sense.

And I get the ending, but there are way too many logical loopholes.


It was an alright game, but the narrative fell waaaaay short of what they were originally aiming for, and the combat is just kind of a retread of exactly what they did in Bioshock. I'd give the game a solid B, but it's definitely not the 12 hours of blowjobs that reviewers are making it out to be.

I'll read those spoilers and address whatever's in there later. For now, I'm just going to say that 1999 mode is a real bitch once you get to the ghost/banshee-thing boss. Holy shit that was annoying.

FFFFFFFFFFuck that ghost. I cruised through the game on hard until that part. She just eats ammo like no other enemy. The first time you encounter the siren dude was obnoxious as shit too, though once you realize how feasible it is to sneak past them, it's not so bad.

It took me at least six attempts to beat the cemetery, and then the bank was nearly as annoying until I found out that going in through a different door (anywhere but the vault door) gave me a free shot at her, so I just used charge a bunch of times and ran like hell when the salts ran out. The final one wasn't so bad because I had a sniper rifle and used return to sender, which is pretty devastating when you've got like seven guys shooting at you. But really, those fights are nearly impossible until you figure out some kind of cheap strategy; there's not even enough fucking ammo in those areas AND THEY NEVER STOP COMING.

For that guy and his little minions, I just loaded up on melee-enhancing gear. They were electrocuted, flying back, and if anyone hit me, flames shot out of my vest. Even on a regular difficulty level, the game's not too hard until near the end, and then it's just ridiculous. I'm really not looking forward to those last two giant airship battles.

Ok, here we go.



Really, this sort of story is always going to have a lot of discussion and plenty of plot holes which could be proven and unproven, but at least we're discussing it, which is kind of fun in and of itself. Like the Terminator movies! I prefer what I consider to be a well-executed story like this than a massive bed-shitting like in Mass Effect 3.

I am sooo tired and a lot of that probably didn't make sense. I seriously just went out for lunch like an hour after waking up, went home, and played pretty much all day. I feel kind of out of it.

Been playing a lot of Revengeance and Strike Suit Zero lately.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on 3DS and Guild Wars 2 quite a bit. Finished Infinite and Tomb Raider a while ago. Decent Games.

I spent 3 hours at Pinball Wizard in Pelham, NH for my birthday with just $20 of tokens. That arcade has just about every machine I could ever want; Revolution X, Donkey Kong, Deal or No Deal, some Sailor Moon beat 'em up, Virtual On, a million fighting games, a Super Nintendo cabinet (?!), and a shitload of Pinball to boot (Adams Family, Monopoly, Terminator, a gigantic Atari Superman pinball cabinet).

Also, I started replaying Mischief Makers, because it might be my favorite platformer next to Mario World. Not counting the dated-as-fuck graphics, I personally think it's perfect.

Bioshock Infinite was a huge let down for me.

Revengence! Finally getting to play this and its a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be. Way more ninja gaden and a lot less metal gear than I was expecting but Im having fun.

Tomb Raider 2! Fuck all y'all's gritty reboots and generic Uncharted clones, I'm going back to when Tomb Raider was cool.

The PSX controls for it are driving me insane, I keep pressing square when I want to shoot and accidentally jumping on top of the tiger that's trying to maul me, and I keep pressing O when I want to pick stuff up and rolling past it. One time there was an item right in front of a death trap and I pressed O to pick it up and rolled right into a pair of fucking Last Crusade sawblades D:

It gives you the option of switching up the controls but you can't actually customize them, and all of the alternatives either don't change the face buttons or are fucking stupid. Other than that it's a real nostalgia trip though, I loved Tomb Raider as a young'un even when it was traumatizing the shit out of me.

Yeah, old school TR was cool. Its been a long time since a game had me slowly creeping around corners looking for tigers or bears that were actually a threat. Man, you make me want to dig up an old copy somewhere. :\

Tomb Raider 2 was always my favorite. Climbing down the ravine in the first level and finding T-rexes was amazing.

Lately I've been playing Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. It's a solid enough games. However, the final boss has been a major pain. I don't wish to deal with unnecessary frustrations like that anymore, so I gave up on trying to beat it.

Last of Us was fucking rad okay

It's like this ultra-bleak mashup of Children of Men, The Walking Dead and The Road by way of some unholy Resident Evil 4 / Manhunt bastard child. It does a thing I really like where it makes small numbers of enemies (like 3 or 4) a serious threat, and with bigger groups of like 10 that you'd thoughtlessly mow down in another game you really have to be stealthy and pick at them because you simply don't have the resources to deal with them all in a straight firefight.

Even when you're going around blowing heads off the firefights are really slow and methodical; the aiming cursor is slow and heavy, guns take a long time to fire and reload, and they hit like trucks both to you and the NPCs so when a motherfucker gets shot it actually feels like it carries some weight, not bullshit like Gears of War or Uncharted where you can absorb like 50 bullets every 5 minutes with no kind of problem. Actually when Joel gets shot he stumbles backwards for a second and blood flies off him towards the screen, which in addition to looking cool makes you feel like "I just got fucking shot, ow"

The physics engine is a bit fucked though and the friendly AI is the kind of goofy thing that people could make fun of for the next decade, but that shit doesn't matter because everything else about the game just feels fucking great; I can't remember the last time just shooting motherfuckers felt this satisfying, it probably was in RE4 now that I think about it. Last of Us also must have cost like a billion dollars because it looks fucking baller and it's super-detailed. It's so good, go get it.

The Last of Us, bitches :worship

The Last Of Us

Shit was currency. A perfect rollercoaster of videogamery.


Journey

Never played this before. It was weird and amazing. I still feel weird. It was like watching someone else's dream and I loved every minute of it. Not much replay value, I guess, but still. Very memorable moment in my gaming history.

I didn't like Last of Us. Graphics were phenomenal and the story was alright, but the combat just felt very shallow, and all you do between fights is highlight items and hammer triangle, or slide ladders around.

Also, the difficulty's backwards. The first few encounters are crazy hard, then it just gets easier and easier until you're massacring everyone in the hotel without breaking a sweat. Then it gets even easier. And the last few fights in the game are a fucking joke. The only time it got hard again was the first half of the Winter chapter because you're back to having almost no items again.

Also, I can't wait until humans invent injections that cure rebar impalements.

Totally.

Borderlands 2, yeah this shit is about a year old already but what the hell. I really wanted to like the first one but just couldn't. This one seams to do what the first one wouldn't for me, for whatever reason.

I have my problems with Borderlands 2. But It has beautiful maps.

Biggest problem with Borderlands is the guns feel inconsequential and disposable even the ones you like, because you will invariably find one that handles and feels exactly the same but with a better stat value. I wish it had a non level based method of balancing usefulness of firearms. So that a crude dumpy revolver you've had since lvl 1 was still able to kill things later on but still is outshined by some absurdity that fires acid flechettes out of a sub machinegun.

I agree with just about everything here. However, I still really liked the game.

The last few encounters are a serious joke. I can deal with no boss battle at the end, lots of games do that. They could have made the last few encounters timed to add some challenge but they didnt. Lots of the encounters is the game have guys you can sneak past but usually its best to take them out before engaging the next group. I think in the final encounters there were very few guys you just had to take out.

Not to mention, I never really felt like I didnt have the supplies I needed. If you just put in a little effort to sneak around and take out a few guys by choking them out, you always had plenty to take out the rest. Any time you actually come close to going empty is after a big fight and you get to loot everyone and get plenty stocked up.



Again, still loved the game though and multiplayer is sweet. I love how stealthy it makes you be. I have yet to see anyone do a good job with doing a run and gun.

Battlefield 4 Beta.

Everytime me and my friend win as China we have a

"China! Fuck yeah! Spreading Communism all the across the land! Yeah!

Playing Beyond Two Souls, better gameplay than I thought it had

Bill... Oh billy boy... is this your idea of trying. You bring shame to your self. I told you, you're gonna have to work for these types of things. Don't be afraid to use some of your "talents".

Messing with this thing.

I recently got an Xbox 360 and a Wii so I'm playing a lot of GTA 4 and Super Paper Mario! And Super Metroid on the Virtual Console.

This newfangled Xbox One and PS4 look great guys I'll be sure to pick one up for myself in 2019

lol yeah I just bought a Ps3, my very first next last gen system!

I played Beyond: Two Souls recently, I like David Cage games but man he is a terrible writer. In any other medium I'd think he was a fucking hack but I do like his games.

Very nice there, Nick! :rock What do you think of it so far?

I only updated and play a bit of Assassin's Creed 4 last night. From what I've seen the menu and home page seems a lot better than PS3's ever was. Assasin's Creed 4 is pretty fun too.

The only problem I've had with it is that the power cord is only 5 feet long, so I ordered a PS3 slim cord to replace it.

Oh god, I've never played a game I hate more than Beyond Two Souls. It's worse than Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy combined. The entire thing is literally just so David Cage could watch his celebrity crush/stalking target play the victim in his creepy white knight rape rescue fantasies, and so he could make two - not one, but two - completely anatomically correct naked 3D models of her for his personal spank-bank. Jesus Christ. Ellen Page fucking better sue over this game, she has every right in the world. Fuck, I only played the goddamn thing and even I feel like filing a fucking lawsuit.

The worst thing about that game though was that at the very end, after all the credits, it shows you a dedication.

Holy. Fuck.