The "Currently Playing..." Topic

2010-02-12 09:53:23 am

Dood Trigger™

I'm definitely getting BioShock 2. I hear it's very similar to the first game, and I think BioShock is more like the "experience" kind of game that I prefer replaying only when it's fresh, so it's good that I haven't played the original since early 2009.

arkarian

Edit history:

arkarian: 2010-02-12 12:39:16 pm

2010-02-12 12:37:10 pm

red chamber dream

i didn't care much for the little sister stuff in the first one (i just skip point prometheus when i play through now), but for some reason it's pretty cool here. i've only saved one so far though.

one of the complaints a lot of people have about being a big daddy is that you don't feel like a big daddy because splicer attacks hurt you about as much in the first game. this is true, but it's not that a big a deal ... otherwise the game would be really easy. besides, it's sort of explained away by the fact that you're the first big daddy, a more experimental model that's apparently not as strong. however, actually killing splicers is way easier when you get close to them - a smash or two with the drill kills any of 'em, and of course actually spinning the drill kicks ass.

i really like how melee attacks have become more prominent - there's no wrench this time, but now you can use any of your guns to bash shit. it works really well in terms of giving you another effective way to play the game. ironically, i actually prefer melee combat to shooting in fpses, so i'm tending to just use plasmids with the drill. it's like the wrench but more fun.

the one really weird thing so far is remembering to use both the gun and plasmids at the same time. it's different from other shooters in the respect, so it's taking some time to get used to.

i didn't care much for the little sister stuff in the first one (i just skip point prometheus when i play through now), but for some reason it's pretty cool here. i've only saved one so far though.

one of the complaints a lot of people have about being a big daddy is that you don't [i]feel[/i] like a big daddy because splicer attacks hurt you about as much in the first game. this is true, but it's not that a big a deal ... otherwise the game would be really easy. besides, it's sort of explained away by the fact that you're the first big daddy, a more experimental model that's apparently not as strong. however, actually killing splicers is way easier when you get close to them - a smash or two with the drill kills any of 'em, and of course actually spinning the drill kicks ass.

i really like how melee attacks have become more prominent - there's no wrench this time, but now you can use any of your guns to bash shit. it works really well in terms of giving you another effective way to play the game. ironically, i actually prefer melee combat to shooting in fpses, so i'm tending to just use plasmids with the drill. it's like the wrench but more fun.

the one really weird thing so far is remembering to use both the gun and plasmids at the same time. it's different from other shooters in the respect, so it's taking some time to get used to.

tomatobob

2010-02-12 05:05:33 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Guys, guys, we're missing the important issue here, what about the EXTREME MORAL CHOICES! such as: Murder small child or Do NOT murder small child? Do these moral conundrums enrich the sequel's gameplay as much as they did the original? Let me tell you, without these groundbreaking conscience bending riddles of moral character I don't see how I could enjoy either game.

Poision Envy

2010-02-12 07:54:41 pm

Club 27 Goals

Well, I canceled my WoW subscription today to take a break. I got pretty lucky with timing it, they were going to renew my subscription in the next three hours, and I'm leaving to go hang out with Andrew in about half an hour.

Anyhow, going to buy MW2 and play that, along with BioShock. BioShock is being a MAJOR pain though, and is constantly crashing. After googleing a lot of people are having the same issue, and its apparently my CPU that is buggy with BioShock. I set it up so it only runs on one core and is fine, but the sound skips a LOT now. Ugh idk I'll try to fix it when I get back.

Opium

2010-02-12 09:10:02 pm

I'm playing Blaster Master: Overdrive on wiiware. So far it seems to be basically a remake of the original, complete with remixed music from the 8 bit game. There are save points and a map screen, thankfully. Enjoying it so far.

Prime Hunter

2010-02-12 09:37:26 pm

Wait, a new Blaster Master game? When did this happen?

If it's as good as you say, this might become my first WiiWare game I purchase.

arkarian

2010-02-12 11:28:17 pm

red chamber dream

Quote from tomatobob:

Guys, guys, we're missing the important issue here, what about the EXTREME MORAL CHOICES! such as: Murder small child or Do NOT murder small child? Do these moral conundrums enrich the sequel's gameplay as much as they did the original? Let me tell you, without these groundbreaking conscience bending riddles of moral character I don't see how I could enjoy either game.

the interesting thing is that that aspect is done much better in b.cock 2. there's much more flexibility to the system - for instance, you can harvest or rescue a little sister right away if you want to keep charging through the game, but you can also adopt one for a while, gathering some adam, and then harvest or rescue her. i get the feeling that, like in the last game, you get rewarded for rescuing x little sisters, so rescuing is probably most profitable in the end (also like in the last game), but it's still a much better thought-out system.

Toozin

2010-02-12 11:46:51 pm

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

Hah, dealing with little sisters wasn't even a choice in the first one, in my eyes. Harvesting them for immediate benifit was, long-term, so incredibly bone-headed that it was simply not an option. I'd rather see an equal, but different, reward for being a dick.

arkarian

2010-02-12 11:53:47 pm

red chamber dream

to be fair, you didn't know at first that you'd get adam rewards for rescuing them.

Toozin

2010-02-12 11:56:19 pm

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

It was pretty obvious to me that less now = more later.

tomatobob

2010-02-13 12:11:22 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

If you've played a video game before you'd immediately know that not killing them was better. Being a dick is far less profitable in games and it makes those kind of gimmicks really stupid.

Anyway, finally wrapped up the game of Heroes 3 that I started a few days ago. Took forever to get to enemy towns as the random map generator found a way to make you take the most roundabout path possible to get anywhere. It was silly. Awesome silly though.

Less awesome was the amazing ability to not get the Town Portal spell in any of the four towns I built up, probably should have taken the hint from my heroes not getting Basic Earth Magic for a year. It is entirely possible that I shouldn't be counting on getting that spell to keep the war machine rolling, but I get it nine times out of ten and my heroes typically get Earth Magic pretty fast, though. Had to wait until near the end when I finally found an enemy town to get it, before that I was having my two good heroes sharing a Town Portal scroll I picked of a dead enemy hero.

The best part though was the relative calm for 90% of the round where mostly it was just running into an enemy scout once in a while and picking the map clean as I tried to figure out where they were coming from. the the last 10% was just an orgy of violence. All the creatures everyone was saving up got thrown at each other in the span of two or three turns and it was fantastic.

If you've played a video game before you'd immediately know that not killing them was better. Being a dick is far less profitable in games and it makes those kind of gimmicks really stupid.

Anyway, finally wrapped up the game of Heroes 3 that I started a few days ago. Took [i]forever[/i] to get to enemy towns as the random map generator found a way to make you take the most roundabout path possible to get anywhere. It was silly. Awesome silly though.

Less awesome was the amazing ability to not get the Town Portal spell in any of the four towns I built up, probably should have taken the hint from my heroes not getting Basic Earth Magic for a year. It is entirely possible that I shouldn't be counting on getting that spell to keep the war machine rolling, but I get it nine times out of ten and my heroes typically get Earth Magic pretty fast, though. Had to wait until near the end when I finally found an enemy town to get it, before that I was having my two good heroes sharing a Town Portal scroll I picked of a dead enemy hero.

The best part though was the relative calm for 90% of the round where mostly it was just running into an enemy scout once in a while and picking the map clean as I tried to figure out where they were coming from. the the last 10% was just an orgy of violence. All the creatures everyone was saving up got thrown at each other in the span of two or three turns and it was fantastic.

arkarian

2010-02-13 12:20:23 am

red chamber dream

ah damn that sucks about town portal. obviously it's my favorite spell; i think it's everyone's favorite spell. close are airwalk and dimension door though. so definitely earth magic and air magic are the best. fuck water; fuck fire even more.

nate

2010-02-13 12:22:30 am

just got the tank decoration so i'm one decoration away from 100% in valkyria chronicles. not sure how many more aces i need to kill to get that one but i'm probably < 2 days away at this point. not bad for a game i started played last summer.

oh, i keep forgetting i still have to play all of selvaria's dlc too. lol. supposedly it's way better than edy's too so looking forward to that.

arkarian

Edit history:

arkarian: 2010-02-13 12:26:20 am

2010-02-13 12:25:38 am

red chamber dream

guess i'll list the standard skills i try to get:

wisdom
earth magic
air magic
logistics
pathfinding (unless on an all-grass map)
intelligence
armorer/offence
luck/learning

the last two slots vary a lot. sometimes i'll go for water magic or something, sometimes not. necromancy's in there if i'm a necromancer of course. also like to put estates on as many secondary heroes as possible.

tomatobob

2010-02-13 01:31:00 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

That's a pretty solid list. I'm not much of a fan of Luck or Learning, but I wouldn't feel bad about taking at least Luck. Learning doesn't make enough of a difference to be worth it, but if it's that or Eagle Eye it's a pretty clear choice :P. I skipped Pathfinding a lot in this recent game actually, I think it came up with Earth magic upgrades a few times and I couldn't remember if it was useful or not. Then I wandered into some swamp terrain and welp.

Water Magic's pretty good if you're playing a town that tends to get Bless/Prayer obviously, but yeah if not fuck it. Also Fire Magic isn't half as bad as you say, Bloodlust is good, Blind is good, Berserk is good, and if your dudes are fire immune lol Armageddon. But then I play Dungeon a lot so I get those spells a lot except Armageddon and tend to have Basic Fire pop up a lot.

Earth and Air really are where it's at though, mass slow and mass haste are pretty much all you need to say. And Town Portal and Resurrect are amazing. Earth Magic is pretty much the entire reason I play Dungeon, they have a really good chance at getting it and I've seen Town Portal pop up more often in Dungeons than most other towns. Also because Gunnar has a specialty in Logistics.

Man, I really need to try a couple rounds as Necropolis, it seems like it fits my slower pace pretty well and I've seen some pretty ridiculous things from it regarding the number of skeletons they can pull out of their ass. Also Vampire Lords. It's hard to really get a feel for it Necropolis since you can't really just take one over and start things up part way into the game, it doesn't work without a necromancer hero and those only seem to show up when you don't want them. If you don't start with it it's only going to be there to generate some extra cash for your primary.

That's a pretty solid list. I'm not much of a fan of Luck or Learning, but I wouldn't feel bad about taking at least Luck. Learning doesn't make enough of a difference to be worth it, but if it's that or Eagle Eye it's a pretty clear choice :P. I skipped Pathfinding a lot in this recent game actually, I think it came up with Earth magic upgrades a few times and I couldn't remember if it was useful or not. Then I wandered into some swamp terrain and welp.

Water Magic's pretty good if you're playing a town that tends to get Bless/Prayer obviously, but yeah if not fuck it. Also Fire Magic isn't half as bad as you say, Bloodlust is good, Blind is good, Berserk is good, and if your dudes are fire immune lol Armageddon. But then I play Dungeon a lot so I get those spells a lot except Armageddon and tend to have Basic Fire pop up a lot.

Earth and Air really are where it's at though, mass slow and mass haste are pretty much all you need to say. And Town Portal and Resurrect are amazing. Earth Magic is pretty much the entire reason I play Dungeon, they have a really good chance at getting it and I've seen Town Portal pop up more often in Dungeons than most other towns. Also because Gunnar has a specialty in Logistics.

Man, I really need to try a couple rounds as Necropolis, it seems like it fits my slower pace pretty well and I've seen some pretty ridiculous things from it regarding the number of skeletons they can pull out of their ass. Also Vampire Lords. It's hard to really get a feel for it Necropolis since you can't really just take one over and start things up part way into the game, it doesn't work without a necromancer hero and those only seem to show up when you don't want them. If you don't start with it it's only going to be there to generate some extra cash for your primary.

arkarian

2010-02-13 01:45:18 am

red chamber dream

yeah pathfinding and logistics are easily my favorite skills. always make sure to grab them. yeah meh, learning's not so great, but it helps if you grab it early. luck is definitely an underrated skill; can't tell you how many times i've gotten a critical hit from it at some key point in a battle.

i like blind, but it's not enough to make fire magic worth having i don't think. not a huge fan of bloodlust either; i'd rather just use disrupting ray or something. bless obviously is a great fucking spell, one of the best in the game, but yeah unless i happen to get it in a town, i won't bother with water magic.

necropolis rules. the town is really all about the vampire lords. one of my favorite units in the game. i wouldn't say you necessarily need a necromancer hero, as necromancy isn't all that useful in many maps, particularly the larger ones. the skeletons tend to die very quickly in the endgame so i tend to abandon necromancy altogether fairly early and just focus on the v.lords and dread knights.
plus necropolis has a shipyard.

generally i enjoy playing conflux, rampart, and necropolis the best. used to be a big dungeon fan (first town i ever played in iii) but i guess i've played it to death. really hate inferno of course (who doesn't?), and stronghold and fortress are meh. stronghold's less magic + might heroes is not my style, while fortress's units are fairly subpar (though not nearly as bad as inferno's ...).
i like castle and tower - they're "once in a while" towns for me.

yeah pathfinding and logistics are easily my favorite skills. always make sure to grab them. yeah meh, learning's not so great, but it helps if you grab it early. luck is definitely an underrated skill; can't tell you how many times i've gotten a critical hit from it at some key point in a battle.

i like blind, but it's not enough to make fire magic worth having i don't think. not a huge fan of bloodlust either; i'd rather just use disrupting ray or something. bless obviously is a great fucking spell, one of the best in the game, but yeah unless i happen to get it in a town, i won't bother with water magic.

necropolis rules. the town is really all about the vampire lords. one of my favorite units in the game. i wouldn't say you necessarily need a necromancer hero, as necromancy isn't all that useful in many maps, particularly the larger ones. the skeletons tend to die very quickly in the endgame so i tend to abandon necromancy altogether fairly early and just focus on the v.lords and dread knights.
plus necropolis has a shipyard.

generally i enjoy playing conflux, rampart, and necropolis the best. used to be a big dungeon fan (first town i ever played in iii) but i guess i've played it to death. really hate inferno of course (who doesn't?), and stronghold and fortress are meh. stronghold's less magic + might heroes is not my style, while fortress's units are fairly subpar (though not nearly as bad as inferno's ...).
i like castle and tower - they're "once in a while" towns for me.

tomatobob

Edit history:

tomatobob: 2010-02-13 02:39:01 am

2010-02-13 02:38:04 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I'd probably take Resistance over Luck, but I find enemy spells rather annoying so I probably enjoy seeing them fail more than most. :P I'm not a real fan of ether though as they only kick in now and then and I prefer skills that are always in effect.

Rampart owns because it seems like every time I play I find a neutral Rampart reasonably close to my main town, it's probably become my second most used for that reason alone. I got a good first impression when I was playing a scenario where I started as Castle, took an enemy Rampart that was right along the path to my main Castle, and then watched as the Hero I hired to hold it lost too many of their Castle troops to maintain it, (The two AIs were throwing themselves at the town constantly, it was absurd.) so I bought up all the troops and spent ingame months just bitchslapping everything that came calling while my main hero explored the map and got to clearing the enemy out with Archangels and such. That Rampart never came close to losing even though I was replacing pretty much all of my Pegasi constantly. Those things are made of tissue paper I swear. Once the AI let up on it that army totally dominated everything between it and the entire lower half of the map. So yeah, Rampart. Cool

Castle is this perfect, well rounded town which is great for beginners since there isn't a whole lot of strategy needed but it gets boring because there's not a whole lot of strategy needed. It's also pretty standard fare: stabby dudes, shooty dudes, sword dudes, dudes on horses, then Monks, Griffin's and Angels outta nowhere. And it is remarkably difficult to lose unless you get smacked around early on. Rampart is kinda like that but it has a much more interesting unit selection Trees, Centaurs, goddamn War Unicorns. So it makes a nice alternative.

Inferno... yeah, that's the only town in the game I can't really find a positive for. It's weird when you consider how well balanced the towns are that one can stick out as just bad, Stronghold is good for rushing opponents, Fortress has Mighty Gorgons and is fairly strong defensively. Neither is great, but they have their place, I don't what Inferno is for. Getting trashed by Stronghold and Fortress?

Tower's another one I haven't played with much, I know it's expensive as hell, gets all kinds of magic, and has Titans but that's about it. Tower and Inferno are the only armies I haven't used with any real success. Most of the time when I find a Tower no one comes near it, it's too late in the game to be of use, or it get's attacked by a large force before I've got enough troops to properly defend it since I'm not creative enough with magic to really make Tower work.

Also I forgot that Fire magic also has Curse. Mass Curse is great and justifies Fire magic as a secondary. But Conflux, Rampart, and Necropolis get better options for sure.

I'd probably take Resistance over Luck, but I find enemy spells rather annoying so I probably enjoy seeing them fail more than most. :P I'm not a real fan of ether though as they only kick in now and then and I prefer skills that are always in effect.

Rampart owns because it seems like every time I play I find a neutral Rampart reasonably close to my main town, it's probably become my second most used for that reason alone. I got a good first impression when I was playing a scenario where I started as Castle, took an enemy Rampart that was right along the path to my main Castle, and then watched as the Hero I hired to hold it lost too many of their Castle troops to maintain it, (The two AIs were throwing themselves at the town constantly, it was absurd.) so I bought up all the troops and spent ingame months just bitchslapping everything that came calling while my main hero explored the map and got to clearing the enemy out with Archangels and such. That Rampart never came close to losing even though I was replacing pretty much all of my Pegasi constantly. Those things are made of tissue paper I swear. Once the AI let up on it that army totally dominated everything between it and the entire lower half of the map. So yeah, Rampart.:cool:

Castle is this perfect, well rounded town which is great for beginners since there isn't a whole lot of strategy needed but it gets boring because there's not a whole lot of strategy needed. It's also pretty standard fare: stabby dudes, shooty dudes, sword dudes, dudes on horses, then Monks, Griffin's and Angels outta nowhere. And it is remarkably difficult to lose unless you get smacked around early on. Rampart is kinda like that but it has a much more interesting unit selection Trees, Centaurs, goddamn [i]War Unicorns[/i]. So it makes a nice alternative.

Inferno... yeah, that's the only town in the game I can't really find a positive for. It's weird when you consider how well balanced the towns are that one can stick out as just [i]bad[/i], Stronghold is good for rushing opponents, Fortress has Mighty Gorgons and is fairly strong defensively. Neither is great, but they have their place, I don't what Inferno is for. Getting trashed by Stronghold and Fortress?

Tower's another one I haven't played with much, I know it's expensive as hell, gets all kinds of magic, and has Titans but that's about it. Tower and Inferno are the only armies I haven't used with any real success. Most of the time when I find a Tower no one comes near it, it's too late in the game to be of use, or it get's attacked by a large force before I've got enough troops to properly defend it since I'm not creative enough with magic to really make Tower work.

Also I forgot that Fire magic also has Curse. Mass Curse is great and justifies Fire magic as a secondary. But Conflux, Rampart, and Necropolis get better options for sure.

arkarian

2010-02-13 02:55:27 am

red chamber dream

tower is probably the "best" town in the game if you're on a map with a high amount of resources. creature for creature, tower cleans up. i don't play it often, but i actually like most of the creatures in the town a lot (fuck gargoyles).

castle is definitely a great town but i don't play it much for the reasons you specified: it's just so boring. few of the creatures have interesting specials, most of the creatures have clones in other towns that are better, etc. it's fun once in a while but only once in a while.

and yeah, inferno ... who the hell thought that one up. i like how upgrading gogs to magogs is actually never a good idea, since the splash damage from their ranged attack hurts your own creatures. magogs would be fucking awesome if not for that, but as they are they're like a lich except sucktastic.

arkarian

2010-02-13 03:32:43 am

red chamber dream

bioshock 2 still rules btw.

ryu

2010-02-13 04:42:24 am

The first boss in DMC is rage.

Pretty much because it's fighting the camera angles.

Toozin

2010-02-13 05:41:26 am

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

It's your own fault for not playing DMC3 instead.

Da Dood

Edit history:

Da Dood: 2010-02-13 07:23:49 am

Da Dood: 2010-02-13 07:23:15 am

2010-02-13 07:22:29 am

Dood Trigger™

Stinger his face, dodge whatever he throws at you, repeat.

For an easier kill, buy Air Raid and spam the lightning bolts. On Normal and Hard this works just fine.

Or you can kill him in about ten seconds doing this. Basically just hit his ass with a jump attack. Some enemies and bosses in Devil May Cry have critical weak spots where you can inflict a ton of damage.

You can also slash Phantom's fireballs back at him, or even better, hit his head the exact moment he releases a fireball for even more damage.

This game always provides a ton of different methods to defeat bosses, just don't give up.

Quietus

2010-02-13 09:56:56 am

Super Secret Area - Dead Ahead!

Quote from tomatobob:

Being a dick is far less profitable in games

Opium

2010-02-13 11:48:13 am

Blaster Master Overdrive is not easy. I keep getting killed by the area 2 boss and I don't even know if I'm hurting him. The game is too new for any sort of guides so I can't find any hints. At least it has save points.

Poision Envy

2010-02-13 01:38:11 pm

Club 27 Goals

MW2 is fun (online).