Games you've played today

COD AW: I prestiged today. Unfortunately the new patch didn't help with the lag for me so I can't play it anymore.
Also the spawns are terrible. If they can fix those two things, I might play it again.

You've said that every time a new Call of Duty comes out, word for fucking word. Please see a counselor, domestic gaming abuse is a serious problem.

Finally played/finished Ys Celceta.

Misfortune is the most retarded status ailments ever made in the history of gaming. When inflicted with it, every single time you're hit, your money is dropped to the ground by a certain percentage. I'm pretty sure it's percentage because I went from having 250k gold to 100k++ in mere minutes because everything in the area spews Misfortune nonsense around and hits pitifully but frequently.

Granted, it's my fault for not paying attention to the manual tutorial about status ailments, but who the hell read a manual about status ailments?


Now that that's out of the way, Ys Celceta is amazing of course. Never doubted you for a moment, Falcom bro (the company not the forumer). Really loving the reinforce system, definitely the kind of tempering/equipment upgrade system I envisioned in my ideal game mechanics although it's rather unfortunate that you're only able to reinforce until +72.

I was kinda worried we might just get a Ys7 clone,what's with it using similar engine, but I'm glad there's just a lot of improvement in both exploration and battle mechanics. Speaking about exploration, I reaaally love how they throw us literally into the sea of trees right at the beginning of game that is huge and fun to explore that you kinda lost track and got murdered by double teaming bigass ape that smacks axe around for double your max HP. Nice. Flash Dodge is a really fun mechanics too, but no one cares about it. Flash Block is pro.

And hot damn, the story writing in this is honestly among the best for Ys (which is nothing to boast of, but still...Ys Origin is still the best tho). Really loved the reference to the other Ys such as Galbalan, Ernst/Geis, and Altago. Also, Adol's backstory is pretty adorable and very normal, I liked that they didn't try to make such a pretentious backstory for Adol because Adol is just that, a healthy young male with an overabundant share of curiosity (and probably a twisted fetish of leaving young and ripe girls hot and bothered).

However, I have to say that the OST for this game is rather subpar. The field/dungeon theme is great, but battles were rather boring save for the Black Motherfucking Wings. Lack of The Great Ordeal is disappointing of course, but I got over that already. It's just that, when Gruda is spewing stuff like "survive my ordeal or whatever", I was half-expecting the Malmsteen licks kicking in suddenly.

Also, the boss designs are also lackluster. Almost every single boss have "smash down/jumping stomp attack" and "swing around attack" in their repertoire that I can simply predict the Flash Block timing for some bosses right at the first try. And the fish boss is downright an insult to Ys series, holy shit that was tediously unrewarding. I guess, after the Five Dragons of Altago, I was kinda hoping they would come out with a really great group of bosses that have their own gimmicks but what I get is rather uninspired.


All in all, I sank a lot my precious time this week for the game, and I thoroughly enjoyed it despite the grumbling. Still haven't got around to defeating the green fabulous deer god of purgatorial pink lightning and nigh undodgeable earth spikes though.

Taiyz wrote:

You've said that every time a new Call of Duty comes out, word for fucking word. Please see a counselor, domestic gaming abuse is a serious problem.

Yeah, I shoulda learned after MW3 introduced that awful netcode that has plagued the series since. Next COD, no dedicated servers, no friggin buy.

Advanced Warfare: Rippable Laser Sentry Guns are amazing. Running around, zapping dudes with a big laser gun is pretty fun.

Because Taiyz reminded me that I got this game.

Somebody ordered something from AmiAmi.

I have been playing project diva F today and been doing some of the hard ones before I tackle one of the extremes again.

Taiyz wrote:

Somebody ordered something from AmiAmi.

It was this.

Anybody else getting Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax?

This was from back on launch day, but Senran Kagura: Bon Appetit is pretty great.



(These two are in reverse order because I was not expecting a One Piece reference and I wanted to establish some setup.)


(bonus) https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/Taiyz/Screen%20Caps%20and%20Scans/Senran%20Kagura/2014-11-12-035751_zpsff56b191.jpg

According to a Siliconera interview, XSEED tried to do a really faithful "Just according to keikaku" reference in Akiba's Trip, but it just didn't fit with the mouth flaps or whatever so they went with a version that attempted to parody Death Note's dub, simply saying "Just as planned" with a goofy sinister voice. It makes me wonder if they wanted to do the same here.


In the immortal words of Tamsoft/Marvelous AQL's Bakunyuu Producer, Tits are life, ass is hometown.

I want to get into Tekken Tag Tournament 2, but I'm a masher.

Falcom wrote:

Taiyz wrote:

Somebody ordered something from AmiAmi.

It was this.

Is there a Sora no Kiseki one poster in amiami?!

Hearts R - Best tales game I've played in a while.

AKIBA'S TRIP IS SO GOOD YOU SHOULD BUY 20 COPIES

DylDawg wrote:

Is there a Sora no Kiseki one poster in amiami?!

Nay, Dawg.

Taiyz wrote:

AKIBA'S TRIP IS SO GOOD YOU SHOULD BUY 20 COPIES

How is it? I can borrow a copy from my pal.

It's probably my favourite Japanese IP since the Souls games. It's basically like what Dead Rising 2 should have been in terms of its sense of humour. I will upload a couple clips, the script is utterly amazing and the first time you do a chain-strip is a life-changing experience.

In other news,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJQxfr7Yajc (original)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IiHj-3DttQ

Holy shit Vocaloid V3 makes for such a stark difference. When YouTube isn't compressing the audio Kaito actually sounds like a human singer (and even despite the compression it could fool somebody.)

I swear to god there had better be a Meiko V3 song in here.

Quote :

Who is this Blackbeard character? He’s nothing like that voodoo witch doctor guy from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Also: Massive retarded continuity problems in the “present day” plot, but I guess that’s pretty much the norm in all Assassin’s Creed games. So Generic Employee Guy is called to the Abstergo CEO’s office for a meeting where they plan to use the Edward memories to make a movie. Okay. But then the CEO is in the middle of a conference call when you get there and you’re told to wait outside his office until he’s done. In the meantime, the Assassins call you up again and ask you to dick around with the security cameras and hack the CEO’s computer after riding up a window scaffold. When Tour Guide Shaun and Dominos Deliver Girl Rebecca are done with you, they tell you can go back to your job. Generic Guy responds by apparently going “Duhhhhhrrr” and playing on the Animus some more. It’s kind of hard to tell since they went the “Voiceless First Person Protagonist” route this time. Ubisoft has completely given up the illusion of developing a complex main character with any personality or actual plot agency. Hooray for annoying FPS gimmicks.

But wait. You’re skipping some steps here. The entire reason you were called up to the CEO’s office to begin with was for the movie pitch. Are we just… going to forget about that? Sure, the “real world” stuff is completely moronic and unnecessary (as usual) and I’m glad I got to go back to playing as Edward ASAP, but come on Ubisoft. At least make this shit make sense in its own bullshit context. Does no one in Abstergo notice I randomly disappeared and never returned when I was supposed to be waiting for the meeting? Do they just not care that I’ve just been teleporting willy-nilly around the building?

Guess.

Tried out Akiba... God damn it, why is this combat/stripping system so fun._.
I'm using Secrets & Legends of Romantic Horror since it's JoJo themed.

Also got FF LR for like $20 at Black Friday, apparently I'm stuck at Luxerion with the Wall Numbers. Will work on that after exam week.

So I'm back on the Gamecube kick, mostly with the first DBZ Budokai, Skies of Arcadia, and From Russia with Love. I forget how much the former basically existed for its productions values, the hit detection is garbaje (I do believe I have yet to successfully execute a physical skill) and the voice compression is awful on the Cube version despite Budokai 2's being barely noticeable. I'm about an hour into Skies and already loving it- though it gives me only more fodder to make "Dreamcast is N64 with an actual texture cache" jokes. As for Bond... well it's a fairly simplistic third person shooter, you can only reliably aim without auto-aim within a fairly short space, but when I'm playing as Sean Connery and the game isn't broken I'll take simple fun.

Abicion wrote:

Quote :

Who is this Blackbeard character?  He’s nothing like that voodoo witch doctor guy from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Also: Massive retarded continuity problems in the “present day” plot, but I guess that’s pretty much the norm in all Assassin’s Creed games.  So Generic Employee Guy is called to the Abstergo CEO’s office for a meeting where they plan to use the Edward memories to make a movie.  Okay.  But then the CEO is in the middle of a conference call when you get there and you’re told to wait outside his office until he’s done.  In the meantime, the Assassins call you up again and ask you to dick around with the security cameras and hack the CEO’s computer after riding up a window scaffold.  When Tour Guide Shaun and Dominos Deliver Girl Rebecca are done with you, they tell you can go back to your job.  Generic Guy responds by apparently going “Duhhhhhrrr” and playing on the Animus some more.  It’s kind of hard to tell since they went the “Voiceless First Person Protagonist” route this time.  Ubisoft has completely given up the illusion of developing a complex main character with any personality or actual plot agency.  Hooray for annoying FPS gimmicks.

But wait.  You’re skipping some steps here.  The entire reason you were called up to the CEO’s office to begin with was for the movie pitch.  Are we just… going to forget about that?  Sure, the “real world” stuff is completely moronic and unnecessary (as usual) and I’m glad I got to go back to playing as Edward ASAP, but come on Ubisoft.  At least make this shit make sense in its own bullshit context.  Does no one in Abstergo notice I randomly disappeared and never returned when I was supposed to be waiting for the meeting?  Do they just not care that I’ve just been teleporting willy-nilly around the building?

Guess.

The problem is that they don't want to commit to a new main character. The real world stuff is really interesting and all, and it's a core part of the mythology, but there's no point to it anymore since nothing actually links back to a consistent plot, just anecdotal things, like Abstergo wants to find Sages so, stop them! Unity does a better job with the role-playing stuff because you don't play a nameless character in first-person, you are yourself, and your console is supposed to be your Helix machine, but it's also really fucking corny how you have to jump through Helix Rifts to avoid server scans so Abstergo doesn't learn that you're working with the assassins, and you can rescue other "assassins" in them too, so apparently Helix has netplay? (This is also how they explain co-op.) But what really bothers me is that the game you supposedly purchased is supposed to let you learn the history of a templar but the assassins let you play as Arno instead, so wouldn't that make it super-fucking obvious that you're doing something unauthorized, especially with thousands of Initiates running around? Wouldn't somebody say something to Abstergo, hey funny people are talking to me through my video game? Then again considering that Helix is supposed to let them find dudes with precursor genes and Arno supposedly met one, maybe you ARE supposed to be playing as Arno but it's just never explained why you transition to him because the assassins interrupt your Jaques de Molay game.

None of this is spoilerrific BTW these are literally your first two cutscenes with Shaun and "Bishop" who looks and sounds just like Rebecca. They even give Shaun a codename even though he introduces himself by name in the database.

I mean, I still like Shaun and Rebecca, and ACIV and Unity have better real world plots than the Desmond shit in Revelations that botched two of the series' biggest reveals, but much like Revelations it really seems that Ubisoft has no idea what they're doing with the real world storyline. AC Rogue even ditched it, to my understanding.

Taiyz wrote:

the Desmond shit in Revelations that botched two of the series' biggest reveals

The nonsensical Lucy retcon and ???

I'm guessing the other reveal has something to do with Subject 16 being made out to be this huge deep enigmatic end-all character in II and Brotherhood, but then all of that is shattered when he instantly materializes in the first five minutes of Revelations and he's just some... regular dude.

You got it. They also changed his voice from Cam Clarke for no good reason. There was no big reveal or anything, you figured that he was gonna drop some major plot bomb when you actually meet him but no, he is basically a really insulting Navi.

The Lucy thing wasn't a retcon IMO but what disappointed me is the biggest REVELATION HURR HURR was at the end of some shitty unrelated DLC, and it's basically just an audio log. That was the big twist at the end of Brotherhood and Revelations barely gives it a second thought.


I mean hell, Revelations' plot in general was super inconsequential. It literally could have been anything, the only thing of consequence is that Desmond got the location for the Sanctuary or whatever it's called in ACIII. They even brought back Altair to ruin him by giving him an awful nasally voice and made him really naive and pacifistic, causing him to lose everything even though he's supposed to be the best assassin until Ezio.

Revelations is the worst AC game by far, and the only game that I feel is significantly worse than the others which are at most within 1-2 points apart from one another on a 1-10 scale.

Almost done Watch_Dogs on PS4, and playing Smash for Wii U.

Whoring myself to GTAV PS4 and ToHR.

Playing me some Fire Emblem and Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny

Xenogears right now, love it.