Video Games

[skullman80]

Wonder if the hotel will come back now ...since it literally just closed. Gonna need places to stay for all the people again.

[skullman80]

PGX officially back at the Monroeville Convention Center. Oct 4-6.

[genoscoif]

So this is pretty cool. Dragon's Dogma 2 comes out on the 22nd (super psyched), but Capcom just released a Demo that allows you to create your character and pawn now, then they'll be available right from the start of the game on the 22nd. As someone who spends 2-20 hours creating their character, this is downright awesome! Means that you'll be able to just jump in on the release day with your main and pawn.

It also will entice people to buy the game IMO. A little taste of the investment in the game world.

[the wicked child]

Recently picked up the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster bundle. Played through I and II so far to completion.

The games look great, remixed music in general is pretty good... best feature is probably the extras like being able to boost xp and gold. Also, you can turn random encounters on/off depending on the situation. These combine to make for a largely streamlined experience... and allows you to complete the games much faster than you would otherwise, which is nice since otherwise I probably wouldn't spend the time on most of these now.

Getting the platinum entails not only beating the game, but fighting every enemy type, and opening every chest, among some other random trophies like getting Excalibur, or playing the hidden game on the pirate ship. The bestiary is the cumbersome part, as I will get into when I talk about each game...

FFI has long been one of my favorite games... played the hell out of it back in the day... I own at least 3 different versions now... NES, GBA remake, pixel remaster. I think it took around 8 hours to get the platinum all told... the biggest chunk of this was hunting certain enemies for the beastiary... Warmech was the worst of course, but a few of the normal enemies did not want to cooperate either. Knowing the game so well though, it was pretty simple to fly through the game... turning encounters on/off as necessary to get levels or fill in the beastiary. Had a blast playing it, will probably come back later to do a more chill playthrough with a different party.

FFII is kind of the black sheep of the early games... largely due to its unique method of leveling. If you are unfamiliar, basically everything levels through use in (and sometimes out of) battle. So you have to attack repeatedly with a sword to level up sword ability... each magic skill has to be used repeatedly, etc. This includes at times actually attacking yourself while a weak enemy flails away and then healing and repeating the process... it is dumb, but it is effective.

There are good and bad things about this. I will always prefer the standard leveling process... but what this does offer is the ability to really customize your characters... and completely break the game if you are willing to put some time in up front.

The xp boosts really came in handy here, as it cut the amount of uses required to level stats way down... there is also a setting that raises HPs after a number of battles rather than through taking damage... very nice.

I spent a few hours following a guide and was more or less set for the game from there. Occasionally I had to level a new spell or such, but it was mostly domination. The only deaths were the "guest" members who were significantly weaker by comparison.

All the leveling stuff aside, the game itself is good. I feel like if it had normal leveling this would be remembered more fondly (of course not originally being available in the US didnt help). I didnt really enjoy this game when I played it on the GBA remake, but having the boosts really cut down on the grind here, which made it more favorable... to a point.

The one thing that was just asinine was that there is an enemy more rare than the Warmech in the final dungeon, and I had to spend over an hour walking back and forth on a single row of tiles until it decided to show up. The final boss battle was pretty anti-climatic after all of that.

I think it took somewhere around 20 hours total... a large chunk was spent up front building up specific stats and such to be set up for the game and searching for specific monsters for the beastiary. It was a weird experience tbh. The actual game is solid when you can play it and not have to worry about grinding stupid stats or worrying about finding this one stupid enemy because it wont be available later... basically going for the platinum made it a worse experience... but I wasn't going to abandon ship once I got far enough in.

I would say the story is good, leveling system is a mixed bag, finding all the monsters for the beastiary sucks. Could be a much better game. Likely the final time I will ever play this one. Onto III...

[Kane]

[NAN]

I'm wooping ass on Hades. Regularly escape, completed 42 of the 55 prophecies, and have a bond formed with half the people in the game.

I'm guessing another 2 weeks and I should be in a good spot to move on.

[shafnutz05]

@tifosi77 I saw this van parked at Wegmans today and was intrigued. A blast from your past. Nevada plates.

[tifosi77]

Ha, Konami Gaming is HQ'd on Sunset Rd in Vegas across the street from the airport. I technically wasn't allowed to communicate with them, as there had to be a super strict internal firewall between the gaming/gambling entity and gaming/Solid Snake+Yu-Gi-Oh! entity. I only learned this after I attempted to contact their attorney to say "hey my father-in-law was an investigator with the NGC".

[tifosi77]

(To add: They are probably there to visit a casino and/or service a gaming machine. Not sure if they still do, but at one point KG has the license to make the Wheel Of Fortune slot machines. So every time you're in a casino and you hear the 'new puzzle' chimes........ you're welcome.)

[nocera]

Seems like every release is a **** show these days. Even re-releases aren’t safe.

[genoscoif]

So I've spent about 7 hours in the Dragon's Dogma 2 character creator. It's one of my favorite things to do for RPGs where I'm going to be logging a ton of time in, and I'm addicted. I've created 2 versions of my main character, and 2 versions of my 'pawn'. The game's character creator is pretty robust.

What absolutely floors me is what some people are able to do with these creators. Mine are always 'okay', but nothing super great.
Reddit has a sub that is just character creations for this game, and some of them are crazy. There's a ton where they're recreating other characters or real life people, and the level of detail they get to is insane.

Aragorn and Gandalf
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https% ... c54e5afa3d

Zohan...lol
https://www.reddit.com/r/fashiondogma/c ... the_zohan/

My personal favorite...Calvin and Hobbes
https://www.reddit.com/r/DragonsDogma/c ... in_hobbes/

[dodint]

Has anyone seen a gaming mouse that you can hard mount to a metal plate? Obviously it would need to be trackball style. I could just use Velcro but if such a thing exists it would be nice. Not finding anything through internet searches.

[the wicked child]

Finished up FF III over the weekend. I was surprised by how little I remembered from this game. Granted, I only played it once on the 3DS, but still... And the part I remembered was something I actually thought was in V.

At any rate, it was largely a good time. None of the enemies were as rare as Warmech or the Iron Giant from I and II respectively, so that was refreshing. The most interesting aspect is definitely the job system... Kind of cool to be able to change classes with a few clicks to better prepare for a specific battle.

3 down, 3 to go.

Started on IV yesterday. I have played this a few times, but it's been awhile. Still remember a lot more of this than III. Not super thrilled with the "active" battle system, but trying to get used to it.

[the wicked child]

[Kaiser]

Started on IV yesterday. I have played this a few times, but it's been awhile. Still remember a lot more of this than III. Not super thrilled with the "active" battle system, but trying to get used to it.

suck it up you spoony ****

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

@NTP66 you were not kidding about how bad that starting weapon in Halo ranked is.

[NTP66]

NTP66 you were not kidding about how bad that starting weapon in Halo ranked is.

If I'm being honest, after 2-3 weeks it started to grow on me. Close and mid-range, this thing will melt you quicker than the BR thanks to it having basically no bloom. Long range, though, the BR is still king for that class. You'll get used to it. That said, it doesn't feel nearly as much fun as the BR did, and even seems slow as molasses even though it has a shorter time to kill.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

It's just really clunky. Started to get the hang of it a little. Still prefer the BR and will pick that up anytime I can.

[genoscoif]

Preordered and started Dragon's Dogma 2 yesterday. I'm up to about 6 hours in after my wife went to visit her mom this morning. I'm absolutely in love with this game. Disclaimer...I'm playing on ps5 (PC port evidently has a lot of issues), and I have never cared about frame rate, which is evidently low for a modern game.

If you played and liked the first one, you will need to give this a shot at some point. It's the same feel, but better in pretty much every way. Exploration feels natural with a ton to 'stumble upon'. So far the pawn system is virtually the same, but the interactions are vastly improved. Little comments here and there, high fives after a particularly tough encounter, gathering for you and actually pointing out quests...it just feels right. The world feels alive, and I'm already immersed. There is a day/night cycle, and night is basically terrifying if you're outside a city. Combat feels great, and will be one of those easy to pick up but hard to master...and once mastered you can change vocations to switch up your playstyle.

PC players are basically review bombing the game, which it seems is at least somewhat justified given their performance issues. There are a ton of peeps dodinting about Capcom putting microtransactions in at launch, but they must not actually be playing the game. Every mtx in the store are items that are readily available in game within the first few hours with in game currency. Some of them may be 'nice to have', but I can't imagine ever buying one. There is absolutely no need.

Anywho, I can't wait to jump back in. I've been thirsty for a good, immersive, open world rpg that isn't a brutal souls like, and this is just perfect. You have to manage your inventory, plan for rest, switch up your hired pawns, etc. but they way it's done adds to the immersion instead of feeling tedious. Hopefully that continues as I keep playing, but right now I couldn't be more happy with it. There've already been 4 or 5 moments where I just found myself smiling while playing, and I haven't even scratched the surface.

[NTP66]

It's just really clunky. Started to get the hang of it a little. Still prefer the BR and will pick that up anytime I can.

Yeah, it’s a shift going from the BR. You have to force yourself to fire quicker, too, since you’re probably used to firing the BR slower due to the 3-shot burst.

Ranked is a **** mess right now with smurfs. Doubt 343 will ever address it, either.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

I probably haven't ranked high enough to run into smurf accounts, Silver 4. People move and shoot like bots, I typically drop 15+ per game. Last one was 19-1 with running riot.

[NTP66]

Yeah, it starts getting bad in high Gold. My mid-high Platinum lobbies always seem to have a high Diamond smurf in them.

[the wicked child]

Finished FFIV earlier. I am pretty sure that all of the enhancements helped greatly, but all told it wasn't too bad to get the Pink Tail... I think I had a few enemies that were more of a pain.

It helps that you can target farm them in a specific room by using an item called Siren that immediately starts a a battle with 5 princess flans... then just set up the auto battle and repeat until it shows up.

Overall, an enjoyable experience. Certainly my favorite post the original which none of the other games can compete with nostalgia wise.

Will probably start on V tomorrow. Only played through it once, but I remember enjoying it... so we shall see how it goes.

[Morkle]

I have never been so out of love with video games in my life. Feel like nothing entertains/holds me more than a day or two and I'm bored and move on.

[dodint]

Lately I have been turning on the PS4 and getting bored waiting for updates and never even getting to the games.