The Gaming Thread

[Eddie The 'Ead]

Just recently beat Twilight Princess, though I didn't get all the poes, heart pieces, and I didn't do all the sidequests. Good thing it lets me go back and do them.

[Geek King]

Tossing in on Rahmota's PC RPG hate discussion. I like computer RPGs, but I've never really thought about why. I play tabletop RPGs as well, just so I can point out that I have the background to comment.

I think I look at console/PC RPGs as more like a book I play. I have a large-ish collection of the Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf books, where the author acts as the GM, but you can slot your own stats and equipment. More limited than a tabletop? Sure, but I don't have to arrange schedules to get everyone together to play it, either. So, I guess I enjoy working through the plots on a console/PC RPG to see how it turns out. A good plot can make a game for me, and that's what I look for in a review, placing it just above playability on my needs criteria.

[RichS]

So, my break has come - what have I been playing?

Actually, a couple of older games - GTA Vice City & The Simpsons - Hit & Run. I'm just biding my time 'till Christmas and the goodness that is The Orange Box.

Oh, and I finished the Call of Duty 4 demo - graphically, it's amazing. Gameplay was about the same as all COD games, which means good. Definitely one for my list. I'm also working on the Crysis demo, which looks great also, but I've only been able to play it once (kids & computer in main living room).

[gunsage]

From what I've seen, Crysis and Orange Box look awesome. Unfortunately, my computer can't handle ANY of that. By the by, I had started playing VC a little while ago too...what's your record for firetruck missions? I got some sort of "fireproof" award when I got to a certain level, but I couldn't remember which one. I also don't know if you can get more than just that. GTA is a series that I'm constantly going back to, but often straying from because I'm not dedicated enough to do the same goddamn'd mission over and over again when I fail.

I got significantly farther in the PSP titles, but even then, I often drifted to...well, anything that WASN'T GTA, essentially. I should also like to present an announcement...while sales are clearly down this and last month, I just sold PaRappa the Rapper on Amazon. w00t. Not surprisingly, Final Fight Streetwise's entry expired. You know, it's not the worst game in the world...it's actually pretty fun. But yes, it's VERY crappy.

So you might be asking "Why would you get that crappy game in the first place?" Glad you asked! (SHUT UP, YOU DID ASK, SO THERE) Actually, since PS2 titles have winded down and everyones' concentrating on the new systems (both developers and users), this is a prime time to try titles that have been "blacklisted" and as a result, put at or below $10 a pop.

As I said, the game was fun, but very crappy. The arcade mode was pretty decent, for a nice nostalgic touch. The plot was terrible, the controls could've been better, the music ranged from generic to terrible...I mean, basically, it's as if Capcom didn't give a rat's ass. And this is unfortunate, because they didn't care much when they made Beatdown: Fists of Vengeance either.

Yes, Capcom, who once upon a time was KING of brawlers, can't seem to make a decent one to save their life. Here's the really ironic part: right around the same time these were coming out, Namco released one (Urban Reign) and so did Rockstar (The Warriors). I was pretty skeptical of Rockstar. I mean, come on...they had no real experience in that genre with the exception of the crappy fighting engines in GTA and State of Emergency. Please note that I'm not including Manhunt here because it didn't have any real fighting engine, just basic strikes, much like GTA...well, okay then, so maybe I should include it.

Ironically, both Namco and Capcom failed. Meanwhile, The Warriors KICKED ASS. And on top of that? Manhunt 2's combat engine was a liiiiiiiittle better and Bully's combat engine was more or less a direct conversion from The Warriors. Thus, OWNAGE. I'd actually like to go on the record here saying that were it not for the immense popularity of the GTA series, Bully should be #1 from Rockstar.

And that's about it for now.

[RichS]

By the by, I had started playing VC a little while ago too...what's your record for firetruck missions?

I'm playing the PC version, I haven't even tried any yet - I'm just going through the missions as far as I can (I don't play it when the kids are around )
I finally got GTA 3 to go on my computer - the same thing that scrambled my picture files messed up an old save file I had in the My Documents folder. Deleting that got the game to finally run, so I'm probably going to play some more of that too.

GTA is a series that I'm constantly going back to, but often straying from because I'm not dedicated enough to do the same goddamn'd mission over and over again when I fail.

I know - I'm on the RC helicopter mission on GTA Vice City. Whoever did the PC port didn't do a good job of controls for the 'copter. It's aggravating to play - I'm tempted to cheat just to get through it.

But, the series is fun too, because of the freedom. Sometimes in GTA 3, I'll steal a bus, get it to top speed, and start ramming vehicles until it explodes, to relieve stress

[gunsage]

This is yet another reason I have a wireless controller VERY similar to that of a PS2 controller for gaming on the PC. True, I had gotten used to mapping keys on the keyboard for arcade games, but unless it's an FPS, there's a good chance I'm going to want to use the 'troller. The RC helicopter is a bitch, anyway, but it's much easier with a controller.

I only ask about the firetruck because I stole one, racked up a HUGE amount of money, and started buying properties VERY early. Personally, I like San Andreas the best because of the stat building and territory stuffs. And yes, as a direct result, that's why I loved Scarface and The Godfather so much as well (no, I haven't beaten those either).

I haven't picked back up Rogue Galaxy, but I am getting much closer to the end on PW3. Further, I picked up Fire Emblem for the GC. I figure if I get bored with it, I can sell it for muchos dolares. I honestly considered picking up more copies, but that would require...uh..."travel." Honestly, out of rare titles, there are only a few others I've been wanting (Ikaruga's the first one that comes to mind).

I really ought to hurry up and beat what MegaTen games I do have because apparently their value has skyrocketted. If I'm not mistaken, Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga 1 alone are both $100 a pop. Granted, it's an excellent series, but I hate it when it's ridiculously hard to find the games as a direct result.

Worse still...it wouldn't bother me so much if we were talking PS1 or before. After all, there's emu for that. No, when it's PS2 and beyond, I'm screwed. That's not to say there aren't emus for that, but I bet it wouldn't work on my PC anyway. On a slightly related note, I made a couple of sales on Amazon recently, so I treated myself to my favorite alcohol...Bacardi 151. Booya.

[gunsage]

Well, I did something over the weekend that was a bit of a change of pace for me...I fired up my emus and various games on the PC. Of significant mention are...

- Persona 2 - PS1.
- Half-Life - PC.
- Legend of Legaia - PS1.

For some reason, my copy of Persona 2 had some sort of "debug" on it. Actually, I didn't catch on that it was a "hidden" part of the game, futz'd with it, and, well...a bunch of stuff happened. For one, and this could be the emu being silly, often there will be code from the game that's visible. Another thing is I have about 999 of each type of tarot card which is...okay...but it also means that conversations with demons are about useless now.

It's been a long time since I've been able to CRANK the graphics on something, but HL managed that in spades. Unfortunately, something was crappy with the swimming and I kinda quit after that because I don't think autosaves were on. As far as LoL...HMMMMM... ANYWAY, as far as Legaia (better), I was more testing the 3D portion because I hadn't used that emu in a while. It, too, is a fun game.

I should also like to point out that for some reason, sales have kicked back up on Amazon. If you guys have stuff to sell, check it out, seriously. Me, personally, I'm going to try to be as financially stable until the new year, then take some capital and try to make a market out of selling older games.

[gunsage]

I'm surprised nobody else posted here before me, but okay. Anyway, got past that uber-annoying Deego vs. Gale fight on Rogue Galaxy. I really haven't touched PW3 lately. Yes, I'm stuck again, but that's besides the point. Mostly, I've been going through and documenting which tracks I enjoy on ocremix.org to add to my RPG Maker XP package and then go about creating RPG prototypes. RAWK.

Anyway, though I'm not STUCK on RG, there's a bit of a problem. Okay, I don't know if I'm the only one here who's played the game or not, but I'm looking for chaos chips in the game. From what I remember, the last time I played it it didn't seem like it was that hard to find them, but now I can't. Why's it so important? For those that have played the game, this will make sense...obviously it won't for those that haven't.

In order to create the Assembler III, I need 3 chaos chips or something. The other ingredients are fairly generic, so no biggie there. The Assembler III allows you to fuse together three items in the factory. This is important for more advanced development. As is, there are already a variety of items I could create if I had the new assembler...but I can't seem to find any chaos chips. And yes, this is even referencing the guide, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Beyond that, I got to D rank in the Insectron Stadium, started working on the three ruins, and I'm making pretty steady progress on revelation development. Finally, I'm at about 36 rank of the hunter list, so that's cool too. And in case you didn't catch my previous mentionings, YES YOU NEED TO PLAY THIS GAME IF YOU NEVER HAVE.

I really haven't played much other than Rogue Galaxy lately...and with my head hurting as much as it is from Network+, that may be all I can handle at the moment. Well, I suppose my head could also be hurting from downing 151, but probably not.

[gunsage]

Okay, so now I have something relevant to add. No, really. Throughout my Christmas shopping today I went and picked up Rune Factory for the DS. I haven't tried it yet but it looks like good fun, especially because I loved Harvest Moon and various other Natsume games. Anyone else like Natsume?

[gunsage]

Okay, so, here we go. Rune Factory is AWESOME. I think the controls could've been worked a little better, but other than that, it's great. I've taken only one call today and it was a blind transfer from tier 2. But hey, one call?



I brought my DS and all my games with me. I also brought a few GC games because one of my coworkers has a miniscreen attachment with his GC here and has been randomly challenging people to Mario Kart late in the shift. Should be a good day.

[Gravekeeper]

Didn't get into Rune Factory.

On a side note, Call of Duty 4.....kinda sucks. The single player was awesome but multiplayer was seriously disappointing. Which really peeves me off because thats what its strength is suppose to be and that's why I bought it. =/

[gunsage]

I've honestly been interested in Call of Duty 4. And really, this is coming from someone who stopped with WW2 games just before and just after Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Actually, that's why, really...it's set in a modern setting. I'm not that much of a multiplayer when it comes to FPSs. Yes, that means I don't like Halo. There. I said it. Anyway, so you didn't like Rune Factory?

Did you enjoy Harvest Moon or Legend of the River King? See, I really enjoyed Harvest Moon, so I already knew I would like Rune Factory. I especially like the way you can level everything up by doing different stuff. I mean, really, that's what I was talking about in concerns to character development for my game idea...although, it was quite a bit more detailed in Contact...but then, that's another review for another day.

For those that don't know what Rune Factory is/haven't heard of it, it's probably easiest to describe as Harvest Moon spliced with an action/RPG. For those of you that haven't played Harvest Moon, well, it's like this. Within minutes of the intro, you get a farm handed to you with a couple of simple tools to plow and plant away. It seems like it's going to be yet another Harvest Moon until you discover that you can enter caves and fight monsters.

Nevermind that, you can fish, farm, decorate, and, uh...stuff. The point is if you liked Harvest Moon or you're looking for a more laidback style RPG, this is probably for you.

[vonkarolinas]

vonkarolinas: Wow what kind of DM did you have? I've always found D&D to be when run by a good DM to be flexible, fun and entertaining. Even if you play it by the rules its still really flexible. It would take a real rules lawyer to make it inflexible to that degree. I've played characters that have done wierd and wild stuff very much similar to Jack Sparrow's antics (only usually not to the same degree of success) or worse. I had a 1/2 orc fighter who wound up owning his own small planet in spelljammer after starting on greyhawk, winding up on torill and a brief stay in ravenloft. He had a pet griffon, an elven wife who had been polymoprhed into an orc and all sorts of other stuff. heck my best character was a human barbarian who wound up with a character sheet that was 7 pages long front and back thanks to the stuff that had happened to him.

I had a terrible GM and someone who took the rules in the books more as unbreakable laws set forth by God himself. I also found it high infuriating as a magic user to take the time to learn a spell only to be able to cast it like once then have to relearn it. how does that even make sense? As for what you were describing about your characters, that is just pure role playing, how a character behaves really is up to the player not the GM, though I had a gm try to tell me "Your character wouldn't do that." Needless to say, I walked out of that game and never looked back.

As for White Wolf, like you said it all depends on the GM. As for compter rpg, have you played the Elder Scrolls series? They have some small amount of flexiblility to them.

[Broomjockey]

. I also found it high infuriating as a magic user to take the time to learn a spell only to be able to cast it like once then have to relearn it. how does that even make sense?

Well, as a sorcerer, it doesn't. You can use any spell you know up to however many times per day you can use that level of spell.

Wizards. Do you want the game mechanics reasoning, or the in-game reasoning? Also, this is going to be based on my interpretation of what you said, as you didn't give a lot of details.

Game Mechanics: A wizard must choose what spells to have for the day so as to limit the otherwise overpowered nature of the class. You could otherwise just randomly have access to dozens of spells, some of which are only situationally useful. So instead they make it so you pick the spells you have for the day, and then that's all you get, and have to restudy it to cast it again.

In-world reasoning: The magic is not innate to the wizard, but only being channeled through. In order to properly channel the magic, the proper forms must be used, which include material components, incantations, and gestures. Any misstep in these and the conduit is not properly formed, negating the spell. However, these forms are not easily grasped by the mortal mind, thus only allowing the pattern to be stored for a short time before clarity fades, thus the "use it or lose it" aspect, and the force of the magic coursing through the mage wipes the incantation from your mind because of the unnatural energies being keyed to that information, and so expending the energy expends the pattern, so the wizard stores the knowledge in permanent form, in a spell book.

Now, if your DM was saying that the spell was being wiped from the spell book too, which is the other option I'm getting from your statement, then that's a case of

[vonkarolinas]

Now, if your DM was saying that the spell was being wiped from the spell book too, which is the other option I'm getting from your statement, then that's a case of

Yeah, pretty much. Got old real fast.