|
Game Progress Topic. Xi.
TWEETER911 Cleared Metal Gear Solid Four. That game was amazing.
TaroSH
ACC KAIN That ending was fantastic. I wish more game stories were like that. Simple but very effective. I'm a little surprised I was still as affected by it as I was considering I already knew basically how it ends.
INFPGamer
da dick ya know, snake eater kinda reminds me of my ex-unit mascot, the mongoose, who eats snakes. as for link's awakening, i'm not sure i want more games to end with "it was only a dream?" and "did that chick who had a crush on me think i was gay?"
CLOUDBOND007
Flying Omelette da dick wrote: as for link's awakening, i'm not sure i want more games to end with "it was only a dream?" and "did that chick who had a crush on me think i was gay?" That's interpreting Tyler's post too literally. I don't think he literally means he wants more game stories to end with "it was all a dream". He just wants more game stories to be emotionally effective and to the point. I'm not sure what he's comparing it to, exactly, but it's not as though this issue hasn't been addressed here before. http://flyingomelettespalace.yuku.com/topic/8306
IcePhoenix721 I'm working of MGS4, I just got outta the Middle East. Anyways the most signigicant thing I've done lately is getting an S ranking on the final mission of Advance Wars.
CLOUDBOND007
Sweetbee.sweetbee Tweeter, how would you say MGS4 is compared to Snake Eater?
Bomberguy221 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King - Beat it. It was an interesting final battle. You were forced to send all of your adventurers on that one behest, so it was like a Holiday without the morale boost. A meter at the bottom of the screen measured the Dark Lord's health. If you didn't defeat him by the end of the day, the progress you made on him remained. One of my parties took out a huge chunk of his health, and it was that party (headed by my first adventurer) that took out the last quarter of health. Quite rapidly, at that. I've read online that I can do a New Game +. I think I'll hold off on that for a while. This was an interesting game, but it sure was a time consumer.
ACC KAIN Flying Omelette wrote: That's interpreting Tyler's post too literally. I don't think he literally means he wants more game stories to end with "it was all a dream". He just wants more game stories to be emotionally effective and to the point. I'm not sure what he's comparing it to, exactly, but it's not as though this issue hasn't been addressed here before. ^^ What FO said. Also, for a story with an "it was all a dream" ending, it was the best one I've seen. Usually when things end with "It was all a dream" there's no clue ahead of time and it's used as a Deus Ex Machina, but that isn't really true of Link's Awakening as it's foreshadowed by the Owl statues and straight up told to you at the Southern Shrine where you get the Face Key. I think Sethra once said that she likes to interpret the story as the island being real, but only able to exist while the Wind Fish is asleep. That's how I like to think of it, too. I might replay this game to attempt a 000 no Game Over run or I might play something different first. For the curious, I died 14 times.
TaroSH
Crawl and 1OOO I've beaten Link's Awakening maybe about 4 times, but like most games I first played after biological adulthood, I only remember bits and pieces. When my brother was stuck on Eagle's Tower, I was able to help him out, but I had to play the game to jog my memory. So, it's all up here *taps forehead* but buried. On the other hand, if I had to map all of Castlevania 2 right now, with no preparation, by memory, I'd probably do a pretty good job. I wonder how many times, or how many times in a row, I'd have to beat a game for it to practically become a part of me.
TWEETER911 Sweetbee wrote: Tweeter, how would you say MGS4 is compared to Snake Eater? Tough call. I think I like them both equally (I'm very biased towards Snake Eater for several silly reasons like playing as Big Boss though). Buuut...I think on the whole, gameplay wise, MGS4 is a better game, and its mechanics are very solid. Its not without a few problems, but its otherwise fantastic. MGS4 also has a lot of variety in each Act. MGS4 has long cutscenes as people have cried about. Its mostly from an Act's ending sequence to the next Act's start (which means the mission briefing, as well as the first cutscene of the level), but the game has save options at certain points in the cutscenes so you don't have to sit all the way through or miss something either. You can take a break. :/ As for "Already?" beating it, I took over 45 hours and pretty much did nothing over the weekend but play it. ...
Crawl and 1OOO
ACC KAIN Hmm...I think Vampyrus once said that SMB3 isn't really any harder than SMB2. Maybe I'm just not as used to the game's controls but it seems like it gets pretty hard almost right away. There's an auto-scrolling stage not long after the first two, although I think it can be skipped. I'm going to try to complete every world, so I'm banking on 1-Ups in the first world.
Crawl and 1OOO But it is does give huge amounts of lives, so its difficulty might not manifest in game overs.
Captain Ladd Spencer For my most recent level, an air force base, it said my time was 43 minutes, and I don't even know if that counts deaths!
Captain Ladd Spencer It's playable. I just wish Wayne moved and aimed faster. And the VSes (Gundam-like robot walkers) are even more sluggish. I also wish they had toned down all the snow. When I started the first mission I jumped into the Gundam and ran right off a cliff into a freezing river because I couldn't see where I was going. You have this counter in the upper left that's quickly counting down. This is your thermal energy meter. When you take damage you heal up right away (unless your entire life meter gets wiped out, I guess), but it makes the TE meter drain a lot faster while you're doing so. You refil it by collecting this orange glowy goop the enemies leave behind when killed. This first boss was kind of annoying.
Sweetbee.sweetbee TWEETER911 wrote: Tough call. I think I like them both equally (I'm very biased towards Snake Eater for several silly reasons like playing as Big Boss though). Buuut...I think on the whole, gameplay wise, MGS4 is a better game, and its mechanics are very solid. Its not without a few problems, but its otherwise fantastic. MGS4 also has a lot of variety in each Act. MGS4 has long cutscenes as people have cried about. Its mostly from an Act's ending sequence to the next Act's start (which means the mission briefing, as well as the first cutscene of the level), but the game has save options at certain points in the cutscenes so you don't have to sit all the way through or miss something either. You can take a break. :/ As for "Already?" beating it, I took over 45 hours and pretty much did nothing over the weekend but play it. ... Sounds good, it's nice to hear a sane opinion on the game for a change. Everyone else I've seen talking nice about it sounds like they're gonna have to find out a way to get semen off of their PS3 without leaving streaks. I think it'll be interesting to play an MGS designed with an over the shoulder camera in mind. I thought it was nice having it in MGS3 Subsistence, but the level designs were clearly made for the overhead camera and it made some things too easy. As for the cutscenes, I already Youtube'd all of them, so if I actually play the game, I can just skip them if they annoy me.
Bomberguy221 Visually, this is a really impressive game. Controls are a bit... uh, not good. It had a hard time picking up my slashing attack and I still don't have any idea what I'm doing in combat.
CLOUDBOND007 Can't comment on the controls in that case, but I'm sure the basics of combat will come to you soon. I don't remember all the details anymore, but I am a freaking idiot when it comes to figuring things out in games and I still adjusted pretty quickly. The overall difficulty is pretty mild most of the time, too, so you have some room to breathe.
Bomberguy221 But attacks are done by wagging the Wiimote. I can't figure out if there's a stamina meter or not, but every now and then I just stop attacking. And drawing the "horizontal" line is an exercise in patience. Fortunately, it doesn't have any trouble distinguishing circles like some games. That being said, this has a very "Legend of Zelda" feel to it, likely because I've played Twilight Princess and they used the same communication tactics for story and humor. But gameplay reminds me a lot of that, too.
Captain Ladd Spencer
Agisuro
Captain Ladd Spencer Anyway, I cleared out the second mission of Lost Planet. I guess the levels themselves are okay, but the two bosses I've fought so far have sucked! First, they expect you to use those Gundam things that move like C3P0. The first boss is just a really big variation of a common enemy. The second boss is a VS that jumps around like a damn jackrabbit, and I could never tell where the bastard was until it'd already hit me with a missile.
ACC KAIN INFPGamer wrote: If I remember correctly 1 hit with the boomerang with kill the final form. I went back to my file to try this...and I realized I do not have a boomerang! Where do you get a boomerang?
Captain Ladd Spencer Well, it's not empty now.
MaskedSheik SMB2 was the first game I beat (I was four), so I guess the controls had just stuck with me. If you have a good intuitive sense with Princess or Luigi you can avoid a lot of the obstacles that would make the game harder. It also helped that when I was younger I was phobic of losing, so I'd play really cautiously. You can't rush through SMB2 as easily as in SMB1 or 3 for various reasons (can't stomp on enemies, a lot of them are big, more vertical gameplay), but if you play slowly it's almost impossible to game over.
ACC KAIN Agisuro wrote: Super Mario Bros. 3 is MUCH harder than SMB2. The only way I ever finished SMB3 on the NES was to carefully ration enough special items so that I could skip the hardest levels in World 8. If I got a Game Over and ran out of power-ups, I could never get past the airships. When I played this game before (years ago), I would get to the Level 8 map that's all dark and you can only see the spot you're standing on and that's as far as I'd go. I also never beat Worlds 6 and 7. Ice Worlds are killer for me so I warped past them. Not this time, though. This time I'm going to brave it out. Did you by any chance stumble upon an empty room on the beach? Well, it's not empty now. Oh. Really? I guess I'll have to check that out...
Crawl and 1OOO I'm not phobic of game over-ing at all, I do not play games cautiously on my first try, and I still have never gotten a game over on Super Mario Bros. 2.
Forum Jackass
CLOUDBOND007 SMB3 is harder. But again, I've played it so many times that I always finish with dozens of lives. The game, particularly areas in worlds 6, 7, 8 can still be really exciting, though.
Captain Ladd Spencer
Captain Ladd Spencer Level 3 is a huge ice field with a giant worm running swimming around it, creating earthquakes which constantly hault Wayne. When I finally got past the actual level I get to a boss that's some woman in a mech who I finally gave up on, because she's difficult for all the wrong reasons:
da dick
argh. so the werewolf form isn't as tough as the barby. the druid needs summons(and a well-equipped merc) to back it up. i found an ethereal eagle headgear which gave a point in oak sage, which is a summoned spirit who can increase the life of my party by 30%(at level 1). that's useful, but i'm not pumping points in that skill, as it sounds more sexy on a werebear who has much more lifepoints. i wanna work on my strengths not my weaknesses. oh ok.. the wolverine spirit, which comes after the oak, can increase attack rating and damage. that would work well with my werewolf who is more of a speedy scrapper (in contrast to the slow tanking werebear). i just hate wasting a point in oak just to get that. would consider doing that if this version had skill synergies. if this was version 1.10, i think i would put points in werebear just to get to the hunger skill, which drains enemy life and mana w/o killing them. so i'm going with the creeps. the 1st creep is poisonous. fast, poisons enemies quickly and repeatedly, but has the lowest life of all the summons. said to be good for stopping monsters from regen-ing, but i don't have enough mana to continously summon the weakling. later i got carrion creep which eats corpses and restores a small percentage of my life each time it does that. combined with the life-draining rage attack, i'm pretty much invincible, as long as i keep killing things. also great for destroying corpses so enemies can't corpse explode or revive them. i'll pump a few points in that skill to save my life and also prolong the lifespan of the creep. but the creep i'm really going for is the solar creep which will be available at level 24(i'm at 19). it increases mana regen each time it eats a corpse. think i'll need that so i won't ever run short of mana potions. i doubt i can find a good (enough to return 3-5 mana per hit) mana draining weapon or glove before i complete normal difficulty. ...not unless i waste hours pumping up my magic find %, and more hours hunting for the perfect set of rare/unique/set items. of course if i actually play online, i could just go beg for them. not gonna do such a munchkin thing even if i could. the savegame editor feels so much less dirty compared to begging opnline. the grizzly bear looks nice, but i'll probably only have 1 or 2 points in it before i kill baal, unless i continue to nightmare mode. it's more for pure druid summoners, or summoner/casters. even then, it's pathetic compared to amazon's valkyrie(sp?), assy's shadowmaster, or any of the necromonger's golems.
Captain Ladd Spencer Well, I'm not having much luck with the 360. I tried to play Dead Rising, but either I need a bigger TV (my current TV is only a 13") or an HDTV to play this, because the text is illegibly tiny!
CLOUDBOND007
Crawl and 1OOO CLOUDBOND007 wrote: the game's fans (or Xbox fanboys in general) will say you're an idiot for being a modern gamer Well, I don't want to be an idiot...
TWEETER911 Sweetbee wrote: Sounds good, it's nice to hear a sane opinion on the game for a change. Everyone else I've seen talking nice about it sounds like they're gonna have to find out a way to get semen off of their PS3 without leaving streaks. I think it'll be interesting to play an MGS designed with an over the shoulder camera in mind. I thought it was nice having it in MGS3 Subsistence, but the level designs were clearly made for the overhead camera and it made some things too easy. As for the cutscenes, I already Youtube'd all of them, so if I actually play the game, I can just skip them if they annoy me. NO probolem. Done Batdancing, back to EO2.
Bomberguy221 The other thing that was bothering me was that my Legend of Zelda comparison didn't seem adequate enough. Okami reminded me of another game. It had a distinctive art style (which the game used in gameplay extensively), teen-oriented humor, suggestive dressing of female characters without explicity making them revealing (Sakuya), and was made by Capcom. It then hit me that it was a lot like Viewtiful Joe. Everything in it - the menus, the cel-shading, key gameplay elements (over-using your powers, for example) - is like a Japanese-themed Viewtiful Joe without the side-scrolling and linear gameplay. EDIT: There's no nudity, but Capcom finds ways to say something without actually saying it. I was making a comparison to the buttons on Sylvia's blazer and the peaches on Sakuya's kimono.
Captain Ladd Spencer
Psycho Penguin
Captain Ladd Spencer Had they scrapped the giant mechs and focused on the foot combat which was the only thing about the game I'd call decent, there could have been an okay game here. Graphically, it was Shadow of the Colossus with snow instead of dirt.
Captain Ladd Spencer ...and I lost all the cards I had unlocked!! Maybe I can reload my final saves for each level and not have to go ALL the way back through the levels, but shit... EDIT: Okay, I didn't lose the cards. It's just that the save for before the third boss was taken before I went through and got the cards. I have to reload from the Swamp level, which is the level after the final card I unlocked.
da dick GTA4 sounds kinda boring.
Captain Ladd Spencer Combat's kind of frustrating. You're supposed to block the bums' attacks, then get in some of your own. But the bums run at you, wave their weapons around, and you have no idea when they're actually going to hit. And it takes a split-second to get your guard up after you've pushed the button, so you have to already have your guard when they try to hit you. It only lasts a second, and takes another second before you can use it again. I'd often block thinking they were going to attack, then they'd hault their attack, then hit me when my guard went down. I've found it more effective to taser an enemy, run in, disarm them, then whack them around with their own weapon. It's not as scary as I would have expected. It reminds me of what I played of FEAR - you start out with your buddy investigating a brutal murder, go off to investigate yourself, find the killer who slugs you and talks to you like you're not human, the sound is mostly echos and whispering, there's random insanity effects, and the graphics are kind of rubbery. Jason Hall worked on both games, so go figure. There was one really messed up moment towards the end of the second chapter where you go into the central area of a train station, and a bunch of dead crows smash through the big front window and splatter on the ground, then go up in smoke. Speaking of dead crows, you get achievements point for picking them up.
CLOUDBOND007 Anyway, I'm up to Day 14 of 31, and I've got perfect rankings on each so far. Sometimes I had to replay them a few times to manage that. It's getting pretty hectic right now, and I'm not even doing more than 4 tables right now. The gameplay is not unlike other games of this sort that I've seen, but the theme and some authentic voice clips from Gordon make it a little more compelling for someone who likes the show.
Bomberguy221 EDIT: No updates today? Eh. Okami (6/22) - I beat the first real boss. I thought Waka was the closest thing to a boss that I'd have, but then I had to fight something a lot more like a traditional boss. And ended up fighting Waka again later in my session. Oh yeah, and apparently there's only a couple of animals that eat fish. I find that strange and expected a lot more by this point.
ACC KAIN
Captain Ladd Spencer
Bomberguy221
CLOUDBOND007 Inbetween dealing with an eBay fuckwit, worrying myself to death about my retarded but wonderful cat, and failing at employment, I found some time to play more of the Hell's Kitchen game. I'm almost to the end of the third week. It's getting really difficult now.
CLOUDBOND007
Bomberguy221 I ended playing tonight right before the Guardian Canine in the main village whose name escapes me. I ended there because the game froze one second into the battle. Fortunately, I saved JUST prior to that. Is it just me, or do third-party games tend to glitch up more?
Captain Ladd Spencer
da dick === downloaded Warpath 21st Century Beta. actually it's been in beta for maybe 4 years. the indie progger seems to be spending all his time on Well Of Souls MMO. wasted a few hours playing it even though i should be sleep on working on my diablo game. replaying warpath reminded me that i wasted much more time playing the starflights. this game had more weapons and better controls(since it's a windows game) but it's a pretty shallow shooter/strategy game(more suited for multiplayer) compared to the starflights. the starflight games felt more like a space sim. and he guy still didn't improve the graphics. it still looks like a windows 3.1 game which uses only 16 colours. D2:LoD:
Captain Ladd Spencer I made it to the second to last area of Portal, 18 out of 19 I believe. You start out in this room with a bunch of shooter bots, and after taking them out you have to do a "launch" puzzle to get to where there's a weighted cube. Just as I left the room with the cube, MY FUCKING COMPUTER RESTARTED. I never saved while playing, and the game only holds checkpoints for the play session and clears them when you quit, so I have to replay the ENTIRE FUCKING GAME NOW! I know it's only two hours long and will take even less since I know how to all the puzzles up to that point, but FUCK.
Captain Ladd Spencer
CLOUDBOND007
Bomberguy221
Captain Ladd Spencer CLOUDBOND007 wrote: Was it worth playing? And do you plan to try one of the other games next? Unfortunately, in my experience, all Half-Life 2 tends to be good for is putting me to sleep. Well, I haven't finished it yet. I think I'm in the final area, and realized it was late and I was too tired to think clearly. What's good is good... but it's missing something. Like you said in your 2007 completed games topic, it just doesn't feel like a full, complete game yet. I think somebody at Valve even confessed it's mostly just a tech demo. I plan to play Half-Life 2 after Half-Life 1, which I've only completed the training course of. Oddly enough, Half-Life 1 was my first attempt at a PC FPS that I found playable (a longass time ago, I may have tried Dark Forces, but this was long before I played MDK2 and its control scheme which served as a middle ground between me and FPS Territory), so maybe I'll have a weak spot for it.
Captain Ladd Spencer It was good, but as I said before, it's missing something, like the game wasn't just about an experiment, but the was one itself. It's also kind of buggy, like in the final boss I often ran up the guardrail of the stairs leading to the button that opens the incinerator rather than the stairs themselves.
CLOUDBOND007 In Hell's Kitchen, I'm about 5 or 6 stages from the end now. I thought it ended at 31 days but it's more like 35 or 36. It's gotten super hard, but instead of keeping things fresh and interesting by adding new challenges or shaking up normal play, all they really do is keep throwing more and more of the same stuff at you and make you do it faster.
CLOUDBOND007 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/7-Peggle
Bomberguy221
da dick err... tried out more configs of thor and loki just to see which one i like more. 2 very similar clan mechs. both are very fast for heavy mecs, and have 2 big 3-space omni slots on their hands. difference is, thor's missile rack is easier to target, it's also heavier and slower but has jumpjets, which the loki doesn't have. loki's speed is really impressive for a heavy mec. just 2 or 3 engine upgrades and it's as fast as a light mec. tested the configs in "wave" battle against one other(3 lokis VS 3 thors), the davion final mission, and the beach fight with the jade falcons. loki with its BAP(and faster speed) seems better for support roles or hit-and-runs. thor would make a better sniper or brawler with its potentially(sp?) heavier load of weaponry and the jumpjets. their armour and firepower seems to be too weak for the final mission and the deadly beach fight. for heavies(sp?), i would still prefer the thanatos which is more versatile(even w/o omni slots) with more electronic options and more armour. of course, the timberwolf/madcat can't be beat for firepower. the madcats are the only heavies i've managed to complete(w/o using any heavier assault mecs) a final mission with. besides that, i tried using a gladiator w/o pumping it with too much speed like i used to. its firepower can be as great as a direwolf/daishite, but it feels just as sluggish with its directional control as that daishite. most interesting thing about it is it's jumpjets. only 95 tonner with jumpjets. most heavy jump-sniper you get in the game. no wait... there's still the kodiak which is only available in the clan mech pak add-on. the sunders i tested out with the glady also worked much better with more firepower, and less of the speed it does not need. must try the latest long john silver's sickeningly oily breakfast fish sandwich because i can't afford IKEA furni!!!!
Bomberguy221 ...Okay, she's worse than Sakuya. She even has theme music with a woman passionately moaning in the background (which actually seemed more provocative than the comments Issun was making - and he wasn't even being tactful). And I forgot to mention that I got the Demon Fang attack with "Golden" in the title (forgot the name). That also raised an eyebrow, since I didn't even know what Ammy was doing the first time. I shudder to think what "Brown Fury" is going to look like. For a game that stands well enough on its own comedically with dialog, it sure relies on potty humor quite a bit. Not that there's anything wrong with that... On OTHER topics, I finally got to see Issun's face, and I liked how the game approached that whole scenario (where, on his scale, Issun isn't as much of a braggart as he was made out to be throughout the game). I also ran across a Viewtiful Joe reference, so the similarities are not just coincidental.
TaroSH For my own progress, Painkiller - Beat the Castle level. I started Lufia 2 last night, beat the catfish in about three rounds with the Eagle Stone I got from an Eagle, got the crown back, got a key back, and I think that's all the random crap so far. Hope to get back to Condemned. I prefer to play that game at night.
CLOUDBOND007 Mostly what I've done in the last couple days is watch Band of Brothers. There were a couple of misses but it was a solid series overall. I had some trouble keeping track of who everyone was since they focused on so many people. I couldn't believe that I actually liked David Schwimmer in this. I've never been able to stand watching him, even on Friends. I'm hoping to get the new Futurama movie today. Can't wait.
Flying Omelette Some of the puppetry in this season is really elaborate - including a person in a spider costume that gets lowered down onto stage by a wire (probably meant to look like a spiderweb). The person's own arms and legs account for 2 sets of the spider's legs, but the other two sets are operated by being connected to the real arms and legs via strings (cables?) There was also a full-sized, two-person camel that danced with Helen Reddy in a number that looked like it would've been tough to coordinate and pull off. Man, it's really obvious that this show has a much bigger budget than it did in Season 1. Much more elaborate sets and costumes and a greater amount of muppets onstage in some numbers (which indicates they've hired more puppeteers.) Beauregard made his first appearance in this season. He is one of my favorites. I don't think I noticed from his appearances in the movies that he has such an expressive face. My initial worries about Annie Sue seem to have been eased. They haven't used her much outside the first two episodes and she's tolerable in small doses. I just had this feeling there were going to be sketches in every episode where she does something "cute" and Miss Piggy gets jealous of it. (I think Nermal in Garfield was a rage against that sort of thing in older cartoons.) I've come to realize that I don't have a lot of strong memories of specific elements of this show, but occasionally, a scene pops up that I do very clearly remember. This season had an episode where Gonzo was bouncing around stage on a pogo stick, which makes a hole in the floor that he falls through. Moments later, the lights go out, Kermit comes onstage, and after arguing with Fozzie Bear for a few moments, falls into the hole. I remember that scene scared me when I was a little kid. I think what scared me was that you couldn't see the hole since they don't show the floor of the stage (due to the fact that that's where the puppeteers are "hidden" down offscreen). They finally got rid of Crazy Harry in the ending sequence, and about 1/4 of the way into the season, someone must've noticed that Zoot's hat was missing in the final shot, which was inconsistent with the rest of the ending scene, so they replaced that shot with one of him wearing his hat. Sometimes they forget and still air the ending with the hatless scene, though. (They must have somewhere between 4-6 Zoot puppets and I have no idea why that character requires so many. But it's obvious they're different because their colors are all slightly different shades of blue or green, and there are other subtle differences in the face and how much his back is arched over.)
Flying Omelette I was wondering if that's what gave me the idea to have some of my own characters refer to each other that way (particularly Honen). Just moments later Crawl remarks, "Do you like how they refer to each other by their species just like some of your characters?" My reply was, "Yeah, I was just thinking about that. That's probably where I got the idea." I also read on the Muppet Wikia that a running gag involving Beauregard (which hasn't yet shown up in this Season) is that he had superhuman strength and could lift and throw things that were seemingly too heavy with ease (like the anvil in my current avatar). Now that I think about it, I vaguely remember that, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if that's where I got the idea to draw pictures of Samantha throwing heavy objects around .
Crawl and 1OOO They had Harry Belafonte as a guest star. His singing voice is surprisingly, considering that his speaking voice is kind of raspy, toneful. Liberace, on the other hand, doesn't really have a voice for singing.
TaroSH Glass Maker: Here, take this.
da dick
CLOUDBOND007 Me: Wait, what? A rom hacker should actually edit BOF2 cats into games that have confusing dialogue.
Flying Omelette da dick wrote: same script writer as that game with the crazy evil marionette(sp?) chick doll? If you're talking about Arc the Lad 4, that game's dialogue was much more eloquently written than Lufia 2's. I know I make fun of it a lot on my site, but that's because it's goofy in a good way. Not an unintentional one.
TaroSH There was one part that started to get on my nerves. The only light you have for most of the level is your flashlight, so I was walking back and forth through a dark corridor, repeatedly passing this very easy to miss door I needed a sledgehammer to open. But after that the game sucked me in. Occasionally the cat would cry at the door, which didn't startle me, just irritated me because it broke my trance and I had to get up to go shut her up > : ( The most notable "holy shit" was when I passed through a hallway and the colors wash out, I see a flash, and I'm surrounded by mannequins, with a wall of them blocking where I came from. When I swing at them, the sledgehammer went clean through them. As I continue through the corridor, more mannequins appear around me, and after I exit the corridor another wall of them appears at the edge of the hall I just came from. Then later on I got to a part of the basement flooded with brown water. I even hesitated to go in, and once I was in I found a girl floating face down in it (ew), who attacked me when I tasered her.
CLOUDBOND007 There's a sneak peek of the next one, Bender's Game which seems to be a parody of Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy. That should be out by Christmas. Based on the perfect quality preview, I think they're mostly finished with it. When Bender's Big Score came out, the only thing I could find on Beast with a Billion backs were some pretty rough sketches and storyboards. Good times for a Futurama nut.
Flying Omelette Wow. The Andy Kaufman sketch, which I've seen before, was the best part. There were a couple of other amusing segments (like the punchline of the courtroom sketch and the "Show us your guns" bit), but a lot of it wasn't really that good. There was a weird film by Albert Brooks in the middle that wasn't funny at all. Even George Carlin didn't seem to be getting a whole lot of laughs. And this woman comedian came on to do a standup act, and she was so annoying and unfunny, I had to turn away from the TV. But strangest of all was this Muppets segment... I remember hearing a long time ago that SNL had Muppet sketches in the first season, but were done away with because the writers and cast members all hated them and refused to work with them. I had never actually seen any of the Muppet sketches before and as much as I love The Muppet Show, I can kind of imagine them seeming out-of-place on SNL. Well, that Muppet sketch that was in that episode wouldn't even have been funny if it were part of the Muppet Show instead. I have no idea what the point of it was or why it was supposed to be funny. It was definitely a "what were they thinking" moment. So, it seems like it took this show some time to get its footing, like a lot of things...But I have to wonder why that is? Why is it that things almost always start off mediocre or bad and take time to get good? I guess I can see that in my own writing, but I'm not exactly a professional with years experience under my belt. I'd think that if a show got made, it would have to be good to begin with and you'd think that the first episode of anything should be good enough to grab people's attention and leave them wanting more. If I had been around when this episode originally aired and watched it then, I probably would not have been too enthusiastic about seeing more.
James FP Holy shit, Season 3 of the Muppet Show is out already? I might have to choose between that and Get Smart...
Flying Omelette http://snltranscripts.jt.org/75/75a.phtml The Muppets account for one of the strangest periods in SNL history, their appearance on the show a result of Jim Henson trying to shop out his puppets to adult audiences prior to producing "The Muppet Show." They were generally disliked by the cast and writers, often dumped upon Al Franken, Tom Davis and Alan Zwiebel to be written for. When referring to the Muppets, Michael O'Donaghue was often quoted as saying, "I won't write for felt." Boy, that makes it even weirder to me... Why didn't Jim Henson and his people write their own material? How did they even propose that idea? "We have some muppets we want to put on your show, but you'll have to come up with the sketches and dialogue for them"? That probably explains why it was so bad. The people writing those segments really didn't care about them and didn't put their hearts into it.
TaroSH
Flying Omelette
Boy, that makes it even weirder to me... Why didn't Jim Henson and his people write their own material? How did they even propose that idea? "We have some muppets we want to put on your show, but you'll have to come up with the sketches and dialogue for them"? That probably explains why it was so bad. The people writing those segments really didn't care about them and didn't put their hearts into it. Allright, that article was a little misleading. According to some other sources, NBC actually approached Jim Henson about putting the muppets on SNL, not vice versa, but they wouldn't allow any of Henson's people to write for them. http://www.toughpigs.com/anthgorch12.htm
da dick I even hesitated to go in, and once I was in I found a girl floating face down in it (ew), who attacked me when I tasered her. maybe you were suppose to offer it some cake?
CLOUDBOND007 That's an unlikely sentence.
Bomberguy221 If Nintendo censored this at all, they haven't been very obvious about it. Of cousre, I've reached a point in the game where Nao is no longer shaking her money-makers. I'm at Oni Island, and I just opened the door with the electric key.
CLOUDBOND007 I listened to 15 minutes of Ebert's commentary track and it's very interesting. I'll have to play the rest of it tomorrow.
CRAWLand1000 I think I might be missing a square or something. There must be some reason I can't find the remaining dungeons.
CRAWLand1000 http://www.flyingomelette.com/ezboard/pap5/outlandsmap1small.png (Full size version URL below)http://www.flyingomelette.com/ezboard/pap5/outlandsmap1.png So far, I don't see any suspicious gaps. If nothing else, at least having a map might make it easier to make notes.
TaroSH I've got three levels and Lucifer next.
CLOUDBOND007 In addition to increasingly challenging board layouts, you also have a special power that changes every five levels and keeps things feeling fresh. The game is never frustrating but the challenge gets pretty substantial in later levels. And after beating the game, you unlock a challenge mode with some pretty insane objectives. The game is extremely polished and highly recommended if you like this sort of thing. You can tell from a couple of Youtube videos whether it's for you, but there is a free demo available with an hour of play time. Hell's Kitchen is fun for a time, but the novelty wears off and the levels become tedious fairly quickly. After a certain point, the difficulty level peaks and every stage starts to feel the same. And what were once quick and fun levels become these ridiculously long and drawn out events. And the whole thing culminates in a final level that feels identical to everything that's come before it, and a quick congratulations before being booted back to the main menu. You feel you deserve more for your time investment. They also didn't bother to get more than a few short voice clips which seem to have been ripped from the show rather than recorded for the game. The gameplay really doesn't correspond to the show either, except that they both feature cooking. It's weird that a game based on a competitive show involving large teams has you running a restaurant seemingly all by yourself.
TaroSH
Flying Omelette James FP wrote: Season 3 is a lot like a continuation of Season 2 - meaning that it's very good sometimes, but basically more of the same. So if you're in the mood for something radically different, you might want to consider something else.
Crawl and 1OOO In the Outlands ROM: I got the sword and cleared out level 1 as much as I can for now. I also cleared out level 2 as much as I can for now, I believe. I also have mapped literally as much of the overworld as I possibly can for now without more items. Every dead-end now is a "hard" dead end. It turns out I was only able to go one screen in either direction after those ghosts -- One way requires the ladder, the other I think is where you get dumped from taking one-way passages from other directions. So now, IIRC, I need to get the bait from dungeon 3.
CLOUDBOND007 Perhaps I'll try it on PS3 someday. I rented it for 360 a while back but wasn't in the right frame of mind to work on it then.
CLOUDBOND007
Bomberguy221
CRAWLand1000 http://www.flyingomelette.com/ezboard/pap5/outlandsmap2small.png (Full size version URL below)http://www.flyingomelette.com/ezboard/pap5/outlandsmap2.png
TaroSH I was sent to get the Treasure Sword, and thanks to some bug in the text assignment, Selan orders the king, or possibly she has a split personality and was ordering herself, to go with Maxim to retrieve it. I'm not making that up. "I order you to go with Maxim and get the Sword!" was coming from Selan, who promptly responded to herself by jumping and saying "Yes sir!"
ACC KAIN
TaroSH Well, I took out the last two levels in Painkiller. An dock level which was annoying but often kicked in my fear of heights, and an deliciously eerie ruined church. Just got to kill Satan now. I tried to get a couple more cards, but my patience with the tasks ran out before I completed them.
Crawl and 1OOO Time to go after dungeon 4.
Crawl and 1OOO http://www.flyingomelette.com/ezboard/pap/map3small.png (Full size version URL below) http://www.flyingomelette.com/ezboard/pap/map3.png It might look like there are a couple of gaps in the bottom, and one in the middle. But I know what those are. But there's a chance I might map the whole overworld and find nothing new.
TaroSH Hell is actually pretty cool. It's a collection of war-stricken scenes frozen in place (there's explosions and flying bricks floating in midair), but there's no people. There is, however, sounds of the areas you're in. For example, there's a Civil War battlefield, and you can hear gunshots, men dying, and horses neighing. Looming over you the entire time is a big glowing mushroom cloud. The ending is a setup for Painkiller: Battle out of Hell, which was kind of lame.
Crawl and 1OOO
Crawl and 1OOO I neglected to earlier get the bow and arrows, so I didn't beat the blob that came after.
TaroSH
CLOUDBOND007 I have to say that while it was an interesting experience, and better than much of what's out there, it didn't have as much of an emotional effect on me as the first. The Vito flashback storyline sounded like a great idea but I didn't find it that compelling. It seems there's generally some debate as to which of the first two films is the best, but I feel pretty strongly that the original was superior. My original plan was to skip Part III, at least for a while, but I'll consider taking a look at it tomorrow. I want to see more good movies, and I'm trying to decide how to go about choosing. I could start working on the AFI list, or try some of Ebert's "Great Movies". I've also lately had an interest in World War II, so I'm thinking about seeing some of the better films on that subject. I haven't abandoned the idea of finding a game to play, but nothing has really jumped out at me. The only thing upcoming I could say I'm very interested in is FF4 DS and it's just as likely as not to be a disappointment.
Crawl and 1OOO The two movies are quite different in outlooks -- I'd say the first is mostly optimistic (you're supposed to do anything for your family, and vice versa) while the second is pessimistic (he ends up betrayed by his family, and can't keep it together). Of course, the first movie is great. It's also a classic example of a case of the movie being better than the book. (Though the book does clarify a few plot points -- like, when Michael wants the casinos in Vegas, he wants Johnny to sing there ... even though earlier in the movie, Johnny says he can't sing anymore, his voice is too weak! In the book, he had surgery to remove warts from his vocal chords).
Crawl and 1OOO I also see in the north middle of the map a little alcove in the trees that opens to the north. I don't know how to reach that screen from the north side.
ACC KAIN I beat World 6 of Super Mario Bros. 3! Every stage! Some of it was REALLY tough, like the ice fortress with the slippery floors and that level with all the donut lifts that fall out from underneath of you. But I think I'm getting a lot better at this game than I was years ago. I'm about halfway through Level 7, which has been easier so far than World 6 was. I hope to clean out the rest of this world tonight and get through World 8 before I leave with my family on a holiday weekend trip. So, I won't be around much until I return.
Crawl and 1OOO Or does it say that people do stick up for their families, and fucked up things result from it? I don't think it's cut and dried. On the one hand, Michael did get rid of all the other crime families and root out all the traitors in his own, and become powerful and rich and respected. On the other hand, he had to change who he was, and his morals, and his wife is afraid of him. It really depends on what you think are positives and negatives.
TaroSH I have a team of Maxim, Guy, and Dekar, I've already forgotten where I'm supposed to go even though I was just told - the East Tower?
Flying Omelette And that's why I think the flashbacks are so important. It shows how as times change, situations change. Back in the day when his father became the Crime Boss, he only had that one person to eliminate and then he was the most-respected by everyone around. But as more and more people get in on the same racket, it complicates things. So by the time Michael takes over his father's business, it's not really what it was when it started. That's something that's applicable to more than just gangsters. It's something that you can see happen in almost all walks of life.
Crawl and 1OOO http://www.flyingomelette.com/ezboard/pap5/outlandsmap4small.png (Full size version URL below) http://www.flyingomelette.com/ezboard/pap5/outlandsmap4.png So, I got the ladder, then the glove, and that's what let me explore so much more.
CLOUDBOND007 I did watch Part III tonight. I half expected to hate it, but I didn't think it was that bad and I wouldn't say that it ruined the other two movies for me. It didn't feel very necessary, though.
TaroSH
CLOUDBOND007
Bomberguy221 It's like Twilight Princess in the sense that it's a lot of game, as well as a lot of fun. The only issue I've had was with Blockhead Grande. I can't seem to break him. 8 is my memory limit on weak points, apparently.
Flying Omelette
Crawl and 1OOO So, I played some Zelda: Outlands early this morning ... and I completely finished the map! http://www.flyingomelette.com/ezboard/pap5/outlandsmap5small.png (Full size version URL below) http://www.flyingomelette.com/ezboard/pap5/outlandsmap5.png And I even found what I was looking for. In some ways, I don't think this game is as maze-like as the original Zelda. In that game, I think it was possible to simply overlook a few screens (especially dungeon 2). So, I did not simply overlook a square, but there still was one missing. Now that it's mapped, it looks like there's a square in the upper middle of the world with no way in to it. After you get in, that's where dungeon 7 is. I can even go back to playing on the NES now that I know where it is. I'm still missing dungeon 6, though! If it is hidden under a bush, I hope I can at least get the red candle before then. Many of the other dungeons have clues to find the subsequent one. Dungeon 3 had a clue, which I forgot until playing with the ROM, that 12 statues or guardians guard the entrance. FO pointed out that that just referred to the armos knights, and indeed, dungeon 4 is hidden in a screen with 12 of them. Dungeon 4 has a clue about going to the graveyard, and indeed, dungeon 5 is exposed when you push a tombstone in the large graveyard. I already found a clue in dungeon 7 about exploring the frozen wastes or something, but I've already found dungeon 8 there, so it wasn't that helpful. I can't remember finding a clue in dungeon 5, though, which might apply to dungeon 6. There was that '4 bombs for the 4 rightmost blocks clue' that I don't understand.
Crawl and 1OOO Crawl and 1OOO wrote: There was that '4 bombs for the 4 rightmost blocks clue' that I don't understand. Now that I think about it, that's probably a clue for finding level 7. Starting from where you get that clue, there are 4 places you have to bomb to open level 7, and 3 of them are on the right side of the screen (the other looks like it's in the middle to me, but there are no rocks on the far right of that screen). However, as you can probably tell, that's a clue that makes more sense in retrospect than it was helpful ahead of time.
TaroSH Flying Omelette wrote: She's probably talking about the wedding scene and the false ending that goes with it. Yes, and the way Tia just walks off and Maxim suddenly forgets she ever existed. What would everyone have thought when Lufia got taken by the Sinistrals, if the hero responded to it with "Hey Jerin, wanna get horizontal? I mean, it's not like there's ever been any other woman I ever loved," while leaving Lufia to be replaced by Erim, and they go to the Fortress of Doom and kill all four Sinistrals and nobody says anything about Lufia ever again? Yeah, I'm definitely going to take the 360 out of town with me so I can work on Condemned without having to put up with the cats constantly breaking the atmosphere.
Crawl and 1OOO In general, that dungeon had a lot of walls to bomb. Another interesting trick in the dungeon was rooms that could be crossed left to right, or bottom to top, but not (say) bottom to left. This was done by having a checkerboard pattern of land and water that you'd have to cross with the ladder. But the ladder only lets you move in a straight line, so you can't move to a different path. I got the magic book in that dungeon. Still no sign of dungeon 6!
CLOUDBOND007
CLOUDBOND007 I'm currently watching Das Boot, but I don't think I'll be able to finish it tonight. I kept second guessing myself about whether to go with subbed or dubbed, but decided to watch in German. Next on my list are The High and the Mighty, and Lawrence of Arabia.
Crawl and 1OOO
da dick shouldn't be too hard to guess the ending now, unless the author adds even more throwaway characters doomed to die. if the bugger tries to add someone even more powerful than the founder of the fire village(and that taoist eyeball thingy tribe), then his editor really should encourage him to write in some overpowered androids and add on a "V" or "Z II" in the title. my prediction would be that angryboy kills his brother, steals his (eye)balls, and kills swirlymask while team naruto kills all the other baddies. then in the end, angryboy wants to murder all the leaders of every country 'cause he suspects they all got moles of the baddies in 'em. team naruto gets anal about that and fights him. angryboy kills everyone except naruto. naruto kills angryboy. angryboy asks naruto to crush his balls so they would never again be used for TERROR!!!
CLOUDBOND007 During the first half of the movie, I was finding myself not very emotionally connected with the crew. At some point around halfway through, that started to change, and the film was really able to capture my attention and hold it the rest of the way. I think just in terms of my particular interests, it's more fascinating for me to watch the crew trying to repair their hopelessly damaged vessel than watching them deal with normal combat situations. The sequence where the men, thought to have already been rescued, are jumping from the burning enemy tanker was pretty powerful. And the ending really caught me off guard. Maybe I should have seen something like that coming, but I was all ready for the credits to roll on a happy ending, almost ready to pick up the remote to shut the DVD player off when they came on. But it was not to be. Ebert comments on how it's effective in terms of our expectations and other aspects that it's not an American movie about an American crew. --- I read about 150 pages of The Godfather. Aside from the odd obsession with the issues people are having with their genitals, it's very interesting. For scenes I liked in the movie, it's nice to have them in much greater detail.
Bomberguy221 I did buy the last rosary, so I have all the weapons. Now I just need the last bits of gold dust...
Crawl and 1OOO The novel of The Godfather seemed to me like it was a soap opera intended to appeal to both sexes. A weird thing about that book is that it has almost no dialogue ... or at least a lot less than most stories I've read. Most of the story is narration instead.
CLOUDBOND007
Crawl and 1OOO I first beat World 3 in Super Mario Bros. 3, then I played Etrian Odyssey. I tried fighting the first FOE (an enemy whose position is marked on the map, and it moves when you do -- however, it just moves back and forth in a hall, so it's easy to avoid), a stag named Fender. Anyway, everytime it landed a blow on a party member, it killed them instantly, so I couldn't even heal them. I don't think it's even possible yet to buy a potion to revive someone. Other than that, I explored just a little more and earned a couple more levels. You don't earn money from fights in this game; instead, you earn things like pelts or bones or shells or whatever. So, I wasn't sure my adventuring was self-sustaining, but I sold everything and it does turn out you make a decent amount of money. The other funny thing was that I named my characters after people I know IRL, including my brother (using nicknames), and I showed him that.
TaroSH Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge - Not bad. Good challenge, but I'm not sure what I think about bosses that require an expendable and non-replenishable weapon or item. Wario Land - Pretty easy. I got some kind of hollowed out tree trunk at the end. Mega Man II - Just about every aspect of this game offended me, from the pisseasy difficulty to the music to that QuickProtoman on the pogojackhammer. But I must confess, the final level with the Dali's Clock background might be interesting given some color.
ACC KAIN
CRAWLand1000 The novel of The Godfather seemed to me like it was a soap opera intended to appeal to both sexes. To elaborate, the movie already had the stuff that was supposed to appeal to guys. (The violence, for example). The novel added the sex, and even celebrity gossip.
CLOUDBOND007 Almost done with The Godfather book, up to the wedding in Sicily. While I was at the library, I also got The Sicilian, so I might go right to that when I'm done. Depending on how I feel, I may start watching Lawrence of Arabia today.
Crawl and 1OOO Wow, I was gaming tonight like I haven't gamed in a while. I played about 4 hours of Etrian Odyssey. My brother just told me he stayed up till 5 am recently playing Advance Wars. I haven't done that in years (I did do that for Super Mario RPG -- the first time I played the game -- and R-Type II -- when I first made it to the final level), but lately, for me, what I played was a lot! The highlights are that I beat the first FOE, then about half a dozen, got my characters to level 10, mapped a bunch of the second floor (I'm guessing most of it), and found the third floor. The details: The first FOE was not a Fender, but a palette swap. It was really a Ragealope (but sp?). The first one was kind of tough, but since I got stronger each time I fought them, they mostly got easier. (The only downside is that I had to go farther into the maze to fight subsequent ones). I also found a different type of FOE, whose name I can't remember, but it was some sort of bull. It was about as difficult as the Ragealope. I got Inferno for my black mage type guy, but it kind of sucks. Fire costs 5 TP and does about 38~40 damage; Inferno costs 16 TP and does ~48. I finished the quest for the hand axe. And I did the quest involving the soft pelts, but that kind of confused me. For the former quest, I could just sell my items as normal, but it seemed for the latter, I needed to stock up on all the pelts at once and take them somewhere else.
CLOUDBOND007 It was interesting to me that Puzo never wrote a novel where the events of The Godfather II occured. I guess that was all written just for the movie. Some other guy wrote a couple of Godfather books recently, one taking place during the second film, but I think to read those would feel like reading fan fiction, even if they're decent. I'm starting Lawrence of Arabia tonight, about 45 minutes in. I imagine I'll spend at least two nights on it.
Psycho Penguin
Crawl and 1OOO
CLOUDBOND007 I started Dragon Quest Swords but only the very first few minutes. I think it looks nice but most people might not. They still use a lot of the classic sound effects, some dating back to the first Dragon Warrior. It was cute when they were making modern games with NES sound effects for a while but they just do it all the time and it's kind of tired now. The combat tutorial was amusing, letting you practice using the remote like a sword. It's plenty responsive and has a certain novelty to it, but lacks even minimal realism because you aren't allowed to turn it for different kinds of slashes... the side with the buttons always has to face up as you move it, even for a diagonal strike). Voice acting is solid. The worst aspect is movement. You use the d-pad to move forward and back. You have to press left or right to turn, then go back to pressing up to continue moving. It's not at all fluid. I think they wanted to make this remote only and eliminate the nunchuck with it's analog stick. Maybe it backfired a little. To save, you go to the church and select "confession". I thought with a system like the Wii, they might have changed such specific religious references, but I guess those days are long gone.
Psycho Penguin Started Wild ARMs XF and played for a bit. Trying to get more use out of the near worthless PSP.
Bomberguy221 I've fed all animals and collected all types of treasure. I don't think my praise can increase any more (that I know of). I haven't decided if I'll follow through with the beads or just call it good and board the ark.
TaroSH You get the last bead for completing the game. And by the way, when I found out what the reward for collecting all the beads is, I gave that sidequest the finger. If you're determined to get them all, go ahead, but if you're curious, highlight: Invincibility. In a game it's already virtually impossible to die in. I tried to play Dead Rising on a larger TV. I could kind of read the text, and got a kick out of running over zombies with a lawn mower. Then I got some kind of Queen insect, and when trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with it, I accidently read something that souned like a spoiler, and while I'm not entirely sure what it meant it makes me want to pitch this game into the same bucket as Lost Planet anyway. I can still barely read the text on the larger TV anyway. Back to Condemned, finally.
Psycho Penguin Wild ARMs XF is pretty fun so far and not as challenging as I was led to believe, so anything that makes the PSP more than an expensive paperweight is ok in my books.
Magnus CROWE Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest starts off quite similarly to the original game. I did all the same Kokiri Village crap again, cleared the first dungeon, and wandered off through Hyrule Field. I sneaked past the guards to meet the Princess (I wish they could have taken this part out). I did some other sidequesting and got a few heart containers and Gold Skulltullas. Ready to take on Dodongo's Cavern next...
TaroSH I cannot count the times I've died because I was off by one shit-goggling pixel during a jump. If I jump too soon, I don't make the jump and fall into some spikes, or possibly hit my head on the ceiling and fall into the spikes, but if I jump too late, Mega Man runs off the ledge and into the spikes. The level design of Dust Man's stage is shit. I made it to the final boss once, which as far as I could tell, alternate between covering the second 2/3 of the platform, then jumps onto the first 2/3 of the platform, back and forth.
Crawl and 1OOO That started another conversation about game-naming conventions. Does any Game Boy Mega Man other than the first one have a subtitle? FO said that, technically, the first one doesn't even have a subtitle. The title screen doesn't have it. Only the box art calls it Dr. Wily's Revenge. Then I asked why the box art shouldn't be canon. It's still official, right? Then she said something about how no one calls Kid Icarus "Kid Icarus: Angel Land Story" even though that's what the title screen says. (The subtitle is interesting because the sequel is not "Kid Icarus 2", or even "Kid Icarus 2: Of Myths and Monsters"; it is only "Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters". It has a subtitle but no number) The box art says only "Kid Icarus". So, in that case, people ignore the title screen and go by the box art. What it says to me is that people don't have "rules" like they claim but just call games whatever the hell they want.
CLOUDBOND007 Combat requires a lot more focus than what I expected from watching the videos. The enemies come at you pretty quickly, and in waves. You have to watch where their attacks are going to hit so you can bring up the shield in the right position. Some of them have attacks that can poison. Your attacks by default affect the middle of the screen. If enemies are hanging out somewhere else, you have to use the pointer to select the area to focus your attacks on. And then you still have to decide between the several types of sword attacks to use. It's all real time so they keep attacking while you're deciding. The boss was fun to fight. I posted a video of him here once before. For bosses, you get the "So and so draws near" text. If you die, you lose half your gold. You can return to town most of the time and not lose anything at all, and this seems like the logical way to level. I'm cautiously optimistic so far.
TaroSH
CLOUDBOND007
CLOUDBOND007
Bomberguy221 It has an "extra" quest, and I played a bit of that. There was some dialog glitches, where I wasn't allowed to talk to a villager until after helping said villager (it showed dialog from elsewhere in town, which was kinda funny). I also gave the alternate "costume" feature a try. The realistic-looking wolf one is just creepy. The alternate breeds were neat, though. So, I have to complete the bestiary and fish tomes (which I didn't do before), re-feed the animals, get those 4 beads (they kept the other 96, thankfully), re-learn my brush techniques, buy some treasures again, re-locate sun fragments, and go to the dojo for some talents I forgot. Everything else - my character upgrades, certain dojo techniques, my items and (most importantly) my money - are all intact. However, I think I'm going to put this alongside Super Mario Galaxy as a "100% complete later" deal. I feel like playing something else for a while.
Crawl and 1OOO Some people claim that to "really" see it (and probably 2001, for that matter) you need to see a 65 mm print on the big screen. Who knows how a random person would actually get the chance for that anymore. But, anyway, you're not the only person who doesn't like it. As I recall reading on Josh Becker's site, Bruce Campbell is a big fan of Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean's other best director Oscar win) but he said he didn't give a crap about Lawrence of Arabia. I found the page -- he actually said Bridge on the River Kwai was his all-time favorite movie.
CLOUDBOND007 I bought what new equipment I could afford and went through a forest area. The visuals were a little disappointing. The fog was so thick you couldn't really see anything at all. The random encounters got slightly more varied and complicated. There were slime knights, magic drakees, archers, orcs, and others. I didn't have too much trouble with most of them, except that deflecting two arrows at once was difficult for me. The boss was a Golem-type. He attacks with a series of quick punches that you have to block, after which he's vulnerable for a short while. I got nervous when my shield started falling apart from the damage but I don't think I was close to losing. Met the Masked Queen from the game's title. You can replay areas you've already cleared to try to get a higher rank and the better item rewards that go with the rank.
Crawl and 1OOO But I did gain a few levels. And I beat two of the FOEs on level 3 (Stalkers -- the insect things I mentioned earlier). The reason the characters that I mentioned before were blocking the door involved some wolf enemies I'll need to fight on level 5. I don't care for this game's music, so I've been leaving the TV on when I play for background noise.
CLOUDBOND007
Bomberguy221 (Spoilers, even though that's virtually a given in this thread.) Okay, so this game immediately raises a number of questions (most of which I've been "assured" will be answered in upcoming episodes). If I'm doing my math right, Trucy's mother has to be one of two (possibly three) people that I've met in a previous game. The choice that makes the most sense is also one that complicates the previous three games greatly. Phoenix is playing a prominent role in this game and appears to be very chipper. Still no word as to what happened to Maya, Gumshoe, or the rest of 'em (but there have been some hints to Pearl and Maya so far).
Crawl and 1OOO CLOUDBOND007 wrote: Is it reminiscent of Might & Magic or does it have a different feel to it? It's closer to Might and Magic than most other things I can think of. Not much story (Might and Magic probably has more). You can create your own party (Etrian Odyssey might have more customization -- every level up, you can get a skill point that can be used to either buy new skills or level up old ones. Skill levels are prerequisites for buying new skills) Old-school, enter-the-whole-party's-moves-at-the-beginning-of-the-round battle system. Of course, the first person nature and mapping. Mapping on the DS probably does make mapping Etrian Odyssey easier to map. You always see which way you're facing, so you can't get screwed up in that way. When I mapped Might and Magic or Phantasy Star, I'd always have to turn the paper so "up" would be the direction my characters were facing. You can't lose track of where you are in EO. And while you're responsible for filling in walls and details, the game does keep track of what squares you've been on. At this point, based on quality, I'd probably recommend Might and Magic first. It has better graphics (the first three floors so far of the maze all look the same, just a forest); MUCH, MUCH better music. I think there was a lot of level building at the beginning of Might and Magic (you had to be a certain level to be able to leave the first town, maybe level 3), but after that the game accelerates. So, Might and Magic might be faster paced. There's not a lot of story to M&M, but there might be a little more than EO. EO only has the one town (which you don't explore) and the one (maybe two) dungeon. I expect that in M&M, you'll go more places and meet more people. Though some of these judgments might be premature.
da dick d2:LoD played a bit with my assassin for kicks. thought maybe i would spend more skill points on passive skills and skills with a time-duration so i won't have to worry much about mana. but that strategy made my amazon rather weak and dependent on very good equipment in my previous game without the LoD expansion. should be easier to get good equips in LoD. started a barbarian character for later use, if i even want to train a char focused on good magic find %. barbs are suppose to have a built in bonus for magic find, and he has a warcry which digs up extra items from corpses.
da dick |
