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Post by Kevin on Sept 23, 2011 23:56:19 GMT -8
Chris: That's what Youtube is for, you know. Okay... Grand Knight's History: Fun Fun FUn 'til the PSP's battery is dead. It's basically Odin Sphere in turn based RPG format, with character customization. The game has two modes: Growth, in which you take your newly minted squires and level up around the availible parts of the map, completing quests, hunting down tough monsters for either a challenge, or if there's a dollar sign next to them, a bounty, and finding item shops in the middle of nowhere with the best items you've seen thus far, and random 'Cut Scene' style events that take place every so often, al la the Tales series of games. And then there's War mode, in which you import your characters from Growth mode, and proceed to TAKE OVER THE WORLD. The enemy territory you manage to capture in War mode carries over into explorable new lands for your new squires in Growth mode. The two modes share money and inventory, so if you find an uber weapon during a random event in Growth mode (I had one in which the game happily gave me a Bone Bow, which does +90 damage and can only be wielded by a character with 50 technique points [my gunner has 30 atm]), you can go into War mode, and give it to someone who can (hopefully) use it. Sadly, the choice of allegiance at the very start of the game is a permanent one, and can't be undone unless you DELETE YOUR SAVE. So, if you play it, make sure you like working for the person in charge. The three countries are Albion, Union, and Gran-somthing. Albion is run by a busty mage chick, Union has a young King and Queen, and Gran-somthing is run by Kefka from Final Fantasy. I'm not kidding. Your choice to move characters from Growth mode into War mode is also permanent. You can't unsee the horrors of war, I guess. As far as the story goes, I'm sure it's amazing. However, since I'm playing the Japanese Import version, the only words I can make out are the ones I put in English. So far, I gather that I'm talked about fairly often, and my mage seems to have a knack for tripping over random cut scene encounters that involve monsters. In a nutshell: Play this game. Even if you emulate it (there is a PSP emulator or two out there for the PC). -K1 Attachments:
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Post by eli on Sept 25, 2011 11:16:33 GMT -8
I hope it's better than Suikoden 5. I played that to get a feel for the Suikoden games (got high reviews), did not like it
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Post by Chris on Sept 29, 2011 10:35:04 GMT -8
So, Kevin was nice enough to get me Alpha Protocol over Steam while it was on sale a week ago. Taking a break from Suikoden to give it a spin. I'm enjoying it. It's one of those games that makes you think "This is really fun. I can't wait to see it when it's finished."
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Post by eli on Sept 30, 2011 20:23:39 GMT -8
Just started Ninja Gaiden Sigma. So far, quite fun.
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Post by Chris on Sept 30, 2011 22:36:43 GMT -8
Just started Ninja Gaiden Sigma. So far, quite fun. I've always wondered how the sigma games stacked up to the originals. Itagaki didn't actually have a hand in those.
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Post by eli on Oct 1, 2011 0:44:29 GMT -8
From what I've read, it's very similar to Ninja Gaiden Black, like ~70% the same.
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Post by Bob on Oct 9, 2011 16:29:47 GMT -8
So Rage is awesome, been playing that a bit this weekend. I got it up and going on PC with minimal issues, had to update the video drivers so it would sync properly. Kevin of course had issues, so as always don't get ATI cards! He did get it working though, took maybe an hour or 2 or messing with.
Rage has a lot to offer, amazing visuals, fun shooting, racing, card games, etc. Just don't expect much of a story from it.
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Post by Chris on Oct 9, 2011 23:30:07 GMT -8
^Seconded.
I've been playing it on my dad's Xbox this weekend. It's a hell of a lot of fun.
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Post by Bob on Oct 16, 2011 16:33:44 GMT -8
So for X-box 360 games that came out recently.
Gears of War 3 Very fun and pretty much like the other two if they were your thing. Run around and kill stuff until you run into the next cut-scene pretty much describes how it plays out, also looks great. Not much needs to be said here.
Dark Souls Not seeing what the big deal is with this game but I can't stand it. For one it is really hard, like seriously difficult. Now I know the character me and Kevin choose at first was the worst possible choice since it was for advanced players, even after trying the Knight and Warrior which are considered the beginner characters it wasn't much easier.
Visually it's pretty, but pretty for a game that might have come out 6 years ago, honestly it's not quite up to date graphically to some of the more current stuff I have tried.
You know that thing where if you are walking towards a cliff area say.. in Mass Effect for example, that doesn't let you fall off the edge? That doesn't exist in this, and honestly it's pretty easy to fall off a cliff to your doom. I watched Kevin grab and item and then immediately walk forward to fall off a cliff, now I would laugh at that normally, but I didn't even see it coming. I can see having an enemy knock you off, but walking off? That's a bit lame and I wish they did away with that.
Speaking of dying, which did I mention happens a lot? When you come back after death basically all the creatures you did happen to kill respawn, and same thing if you go back and save. Basically creatures come back no matter what, which sucks when you are trying to fight a difficult boss and have to grind through 5+ minutes of creatures to get back to that fight so you can die again. Now I don't mind grinding, but grinding to me is to kill easy stuff to prepare for the hard enemy, even the basic stuff can be difficult at times.
And controls... ugg... they actually are ok I guess.. but having X as potion and right trigger/bumper as attack is really awkward when you are use to X as attack in every other game of this style. I don't know how often me and Kevin would run up to a zombie and then stop to drink a potion while getting pounded. It would take some getting use to and again isn't that bad, but really is annoying to adjust to.
The game isn't bad, just isn't for me so try it out if you get the chance.
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Post by Adam on Oct 17, 2011 11:58:15 GMT -8
As an observer of both games in question, I must concur. Gears 3 sure was a Gears of war game. Lots of cover based shooting and creepy monsters. A few years ago I would have been impressed by the graphics, especially when they went to split screen and the game didn't even bat an eye, the frame rate stayed consistent and smooth. But these days, just being pretty is not enough for a game to catch my attention. Plus, between motion blur, depth of field blur, and dust storm blur, the game is very blurry. I kept wanting to clean my glasses, and after only a few minutes of play i started to get a head ache from my eyes trying to focus. as for Dark Souls, I saw alot of potential. If they had made a simple adjustment of letting you keep your experience when you die, instead of having to go back to your body to pick it up, I think the game would have been really fun. But more often then not, kevin would die just before or just after picking up his experience again, since it nearly always was next to something quite powerful that he died. As a result, the game becomes an exercise in frustration. Watching eric and kevin play both of these games just kept reinforcing one fact for me: I cannot wait for Skyrim.
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Post by Bob on Oct 17, 2011 21:54:56 GMT -8
Yes Skyrim will be good, I already know that and a lot less frustrating. And maybe this next year we might even see Diablo III? Would be awesome.
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Post by Kevin on Oct 18, 2011 21:41:13 GMT -8
SO, yeah... Gotham City is HARD. Even on normal. I guess I should have put it on Easy. Though the open world is kind f irritating.... Batman is always so focused that, when going from point A to point B, having a random side mission pop up is kinda irritating. Although, you CAN listen in to the various goon's chatter, which reveals some interesting things - locations of other Main Villains, possible alternate routes, etc.
Warhammer 40k Space Marine is more fun than I originally was going to give it credit for. I think the Demo put me off with the lack of explanation on how to detonate the Vengeance Launcher rounds and just being tough in general... but the retail game salvaged itself right quick when it gave me the Plasma Pistol. As it's name suggests, it shoots plasma. Hold down the shoot button to charge a Plasma Grenade round. One well placed grenade usually equals one dead enemy. And it has infinite ammo. It's any Ultra Marine's new best friend in the whole, Ork infested world.
As for the PSP:
Grand Knight's History has come to a close. I enjoyed playing with the battle system, which is typical Turn based JRPG fair. I also enjoyed the Character Creation. But War mode puzzles me to no end, and the Growth section of the game is incredibly story based - random events happen all the time, and random people in cities want you to buy stuff / give them stuff so you can get special rewards. And I don't have a clue as to what any of it is, since I have the Japanese version of the game. I will say I'm looking forward to playing it in English.
Macross Ace Frontier - Despite the language barrier, I managed to complete all the missions and beat the game. I Imported my save file into Macross Ultimate Frontier, the next in the series, and found it to be a much more challenging game. Like, Dark Soul challenging. It does include a Shop so you can purchase upgrade points for the individual mecha, so you needn't grind as much as the previous one... but it's hard. Even after maxing a mech out, tricking it to the nines, as it were, the enemy bosses lust laugh at you with their Projectile Laser Teeth of DOOM.
So, I switched back to reading E-books. Yay, Literature!
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Post by J. on Oct 20, 2011 12:48:51 GMT -8
I caved and shelled out for preorders on Arkham City & Saint's Row The Third: both of which I believe come out the same day, so I'll be disappearing for a while around then. I'm actually quite galvanized by various issues people have with the game -- means I'll be playing through over and over and over, well out of sight of anyone else who'd get sick of it. Finished my first play-through of Alpha Protocol! Again, thanks to Kevin for the gift. It's the greatest value for $2 I've ever heard of. A great mash-up of Splinter Cell, Mass Effect, and Burn Notice; I'm genuinely disappointed there won't be another (with the character upholding spy tradition by sleeping with every female he's exchanged more than 5 sentences with). Speaking of Splinter Cell, SC: Conviction, Alpha Protocol, and soon Arkham City will make 3 games I've gotten this year that involve grizzled men talking to voices only they can hear while emerging from shadows to strangle the unwary in the name of public safety. Either I never got over Metal Gear Solid or I'm experiencing an uncomfortable look into the inevitable senility that comes with age. Right now I've finally gotten my PS2 controller to work with my computer, so I'm diving through the Sega Classics collection. The music for most of these games is to me what the soundtrack to Square RPGs are for the people who grew up on them. I've had this tune in my head for the past three weeks: youtu.be/UhLgl4Tlb5M
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Post by Adam on Oct 24, 2011 13:56:35 GMT -8
Very soon, Skyrim is coming out. I have to admit, I have been looking forward to this for a long time, I can't wait! I have been reading every article, pouring over every screen shot, and have watched that 20 minute preview about 10 times. I wish I could just go to sleep and wake up in two weeks!
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Post by Bob on Oct 25, 2011 22:08:57 GMT -8
Finally getting around to posting about Forza Motorsports 4.
This game is actually pretty fun. It's more realistic then most other racing games and has a mind-boggling number of settings to make any car in it fast and fun. Seriously you can adjust a car as much in the game as you could in real life, everything from every aspect of the engine, you even get engine swap options on certain cars, able to change gear ratios, suspension settings etc. It's pretty ridiculous.
As for difficulty, the game is as hard as you want it to be. You can set it up to act like a real world car (not recommended on a 360 controller) or make it easy enough to help on braking, assist with guiding you on turning, and of course making the AI dumber. One interesting feature in the Forza games is the ability to rewind the action. Basically if you F-up real bad, you can rewind to a spot a few seconds before and start over. This is nice because I personally hate playing a game sometimes spending 5+ minutes in a race, only to screw up bad at one point at the end of the race and loose. Also, if you really suck or fell just that lazy you can hire a driver! He of course takes a good chuck of your credits, but sometimes worth it if on a track you don't much care for.
The number of cars in this game is amazing as well, they added a ton a vehicles of all types and everything is in a class system. Best yet you can play what you want on any track. During single player it will actually adjust to the car you pick. I think this is really nice because I hate it when games tell me what I should drive, and of course you can make just about any slow car built up to a speed monster.
The graphics in this game are very impressive. These are some of the best you'll see on the Xbox 360. If you were able to put the car models into a real background featuring real cars and proper lighting it would be hard to tell the real car from the fake ones. They have definitely achieved the peak of what the 360 is capable of in Forza 4.
As for just plain fun, this is where I loose interest a bit in the game, but it's not the games fault. What I mean by this is just driving around a race course to me isn't fun enough to keep playing for hours and hours. In this game if you run into other cars, hardly anything happens. I'm use to games like Burnout and Flatout where part of the fun is crashing into other cars. It's kind of like watching racing to me. Whats the fun of racing? Watching the cars crash. In Forza, the idea is to race and only race. So if you are all about that, then you'll have hours of fun. I however, need to make other cars have a very bad day. Or maybe I just suck and try to hide it by making the other racers loose by brute force... whatever it may be I still highly recommend Forza to any racing game fan.
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