What are you currently playing?

[Drathnoxis]

Still playing Xcom 2 despite my better judgement. I said to myself I wasn't going to quit, but as I've shown in the past I have trouble walking away from a challenge. It's like the game is designed to be frustrating, though. I decided to restart because just about my whole roster was injured for 20+ days despite only getting 1 or two minor wounds on most missions. Pod activation is still annoying, especially with rangers. So my rangers stay cloaked when the rest of the party is revealed, which is great because they can keep scoping around and finding out where the pods are, the problem is that I have no idea exactly where the rest of my party can stand without accidentally spotting an alien, so I need to either inch everybody up a bit at a time or just reload when I go too far. It sucks, it feels like I'm fighting the game and not the aliens, but it also feels necessary because giving the aliens a free action on my turn is a HUGE disadvantage. And you really can't afford to take ANY damage because how wounds work is completely insane. If your soldiers take a single hit doing 1-2 points, they could easily end up "gravely wounded" and be out of the action for an ENTIRE MONTH, leading to you running out of skilled soldiers and getting caught in a death spiral. This is completely insane.

Another problem with rangers is the Citizen rescue missions. They are really great at running around and rescuing civvies while cloaked. The big problem is the big monsters that are disguised as humans that you have no way of detecting except by running right up to and blowing cover. So now you are standing directly by something that is going to absolutely shred your hitpoints and you can't move far enough to be out of range. So you can't use your rangers to save civvies, but you need to rush because the aliens are killing them on every turn, but you can't rush because you can't get wounded.

Also I've just met an enemy that gets a free turn EVERY TIME I DO ANYTHING! Man, screw you Fireaxis, it's my bloody turn! What am I supposed to do?! They also have a ludicrous amount of hitpoints. It's not fair and it's not fun, as if activating a pod wasn't bad enough, now you have to worry about activating a pod that's playing the game in real time while you are stuck in turn based!

I never played Enemy Within, maybe I'll just get that and scratch my XCOM itch that way rather than deal with this nonsense.

 

[Worgen]

Still playing Xcom 2 despite my better judgement. I said to myself I wasn't going to quit, but as I've shown in the past I have trouble walking away from a challenge. It's like the game is designed to be frustrating, though. I decided to restart because just about my whole roster was injured for 20+ days despite only getting 1 or two minor wounds on most missions. Pod activation is still annoying, especially with rangers. So my rangers stay cloaked when the rest of the party is revealed, which is great because they can keep scoping around and finding out where the pods are, the problem is that I have no idea exactly where the rest of my party can stand without accidentally spotting an alien, so I need to either inch everybody up a bit at a time or just reload when I go too far. It sucks, it feels like I'm fighting the game and not the aliens, but it also feels necessary because giving the aliens a free action on my turn is a HUGE disadvantage. And you really can't afford to take ANY damage because how wounds work is completely insane. If your soldiers take a single hit doing 1-2 points, they could easily end up "gravely wounded" and be out of the action for an ENTIRE MONTH, leading to you running out of skilled soldiers and getting caught in a death spiral. This is completely insane.

Another problem with rangers is the Citizen rescue missions. They are really great at running around and rescuing civvies while cloaked. The big problem is the big monsters that are disguised as humans that you have no way of detecting except by running right up to and blowing cover. So now you are standing directly by something that is going to absolutely shred your hitpoints and you can't move far enough to be out of range. So you can't use your rangers to save civvies, but you need to rush because the aliens are killing them on every turn, but you can't rush because you can't get wounded.

Also I've just met an enemy that gets a free turn EVERY TIME I DO ANYTHING! Man, screw you Fireaxis, it's my bloody turn! What am I supposed to do?! They also have a ludicrous amount of hitpoints. It's not fair and it's not fun, as if activating a pod wasn't bad enough, now you have to worry about activating a pod that's playing the game in real time while you are stuck in turn based!

I never played Enemy Within, maybe I'll just get that and scratch my XCOM itch that way rather than deal with this nonsense.

You really need to have enough solders so that if they are wounded you can still field a team, plus make sure to build a med bay and do healing research, it helps a lot, but early on its really rough. Once your rangers get the ability to attack any enemy that moves into melee then those things become a non issue, but chrysalids will be a problem, especially on the rescue missions since they will make a lot of chrysalids and it can be hard to save the civvies before.

Oh, sounds like you met an alien hunter, yeah, you have to make sure that that dlc is on. They have this weird thing where if you have it turned off then those assholes can just show up, but if its on then you have to do a mission before they will start to spawn. They are dealwith able, but you need to have the special hunter weapons equipped, those weapons do extra damage against them and stun them and such. There is an ice grenade, a fancy looking hand cannon thing, an axe and something else. I ended up restarting instead of dealing with those things.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Finished the Prestigious Bounty Hunter ranks in RDO and picked up a couple fancy new outfits, plus the best camp shelter which maxes out core regeneration. All that’s left is the Naturalist role, but I’ll be taking a break until the next discount, which will likely be no sooner than June.

 

[meiam]

Still playing Xcom 2 despite my better judgement. I said to myself I wasn't going to quit, but as I've shown in the past I have trouble walking away from a challenge. It's like the game is designed to be frustrating, though. I decided to restart because just about my whole roster was injured for 20+ days despite only getting 1 or two minor wounds on most missions. Pod activation is still annoying, especially with rangers. So my rangers stay cloaked when the rest of the party is revealed, which is great because they can keep scoping around and finding out where the pods are, the problem is that I have no idea exactly where the rest of my party can stand without accidentally spotting an alien, so I need to either inch everybody up a bit at a time or just reload when I go too far. It sucks, it feels like I'm fighting the game and not the aliens, but it also feels necessary because giving the aliens a free action on my turn is a HUGE disadvantage. And you really can't afford to take ANY damage because how wounds work is completely insane. If your soldiers take a single hit doing 1-2 points, they could easily end up "gravely wounded" and be out of the action for an ENTIRE MONTH, leading to you running out of skilled soldiers and getting caught in a death spiral. This is completely insane.

Another problem with rangers is the Citizen rescue missions. They are really great at running around and rescuing civvies while cloaked. The big problem is the big monsters that are disguised as humans that you have no way of detecting except by running right up to and blowing cover. So now you are standing directly by something that is going to absolutely shred your hitpoints and you can't move far enough to be out of range. So you can't use your rangers to save civvies, but you need to rush because the aliens are killing them on every turn, but you can't rush because you can't get wounded.

Also I've just met an enemy that gets a free turn EVERY TIME I DO ANYTHING! Man, screw you Fireaxis, it's my bloody turn! What am I supposed to do?! They also have a ludicrous amount of hitpoints. It's not fair and it's not fun, as if activating a pod wasn't bad enough, now you have to worry about activating a pod that's playing the game in real time while you are stuck in turn based!

I never played Enemy Within, maybe I'll just get that and scratch my XCOM itch that way rather than deal with this nonsense.

You could try phoenix point if you've never played it since it does away with pod activation (although it has its own sets of annoying mechanic) or try chimera squad which skip the exploration part so you don't have any chance of triggering pod.

 

[Drathnoxis]

You really need to have enough solders so that if they are wounded you can still field a team, plus make sure to build a med bay and do healing research, it helps a lot, but early on its really rough. Once your rangers get the ability to attack any enemy that moves into melee then those things become a non issue, but chrysalids will be a problem, especially on the rescue missions since they will make a lot of chrysalids and it can be hard to save the civvies before.

Oh, sounds like you met an alien hunter, yeah, you have to make sure that that dlc is on. They have this weird thing where if you have it turned off then those assholes can just show up, but if its on then you have to do a mission before they will start to spawn. They are dealwith able, but you need to have the special hunter weapons equipped, those weapons do extra damage against them and stun them and such. There is an ice grenade, a fancy looking hand cannon thing, an axe and something else. I ended up restarting instead of dealing with those things.

Yeah, I might restart again and ignore all the DLC missions.

You could try phoenix point if you've never played it since it does away with pod activation (although it has its own sets of annoying mechanic) or try chimera squad which skip the exploration part so you don't have any chance of triggering pod.

Is it worth playing? The reviews on Steam seem pretty negative.

 

[Worgen]

Yeah, I might restart again and ignore all the DLC missions.

Is it worth playing? The reviews on Steam seem pretty negative.

I really like the robot you can get so I would say those are worth it, the mech even levels.

Phoenix point is like a soul less xcom, but its got some really good points. Like the shooting and body part targeting feels really good. The game itself is mostly a big bag of "its fine" but the shooting justifies its existence. I would say go for it if your in the mood for an xcom style game.

 

[BrawlMan]

I decided to use the Wii and play some GC games. That HDMI converter I have worked so well and makes all the games work look crisp clean at 1080p. I didn't notice any input lag either.

I popped in Crazy Taxi, and my God, I forgot how hard it is to get A & S anks on arcade. I usually do fine on 5 or 10 minute mode, but standard arcade is tough. I don't know how to drift properly. Still a fun game and I'm glad I got it clean copy.

Viewtiful Joe I played as well, in the last time I played this game was in 2014. I did not realize it had been that long. Game still looks and plays great. With the HD lift I gave it, it looks even prettier. I played on one of my old save files just to get familiar. The game can get tough and it is fun. Something that's missing in a lot of AAA games nowadays. You can punch, kick slide kick, jump kick, dodge up and down, etc. Joe has 3 main powers: slow, Mach speed, and zoom. All are integrated well with the combat, platforming, and puzzles. I love how even though this is a 2.5D game, Joe can interact with the foreground and background depending on the power is he uses. Same applies with certain enemies and hazards. Kamiya and his team really went out on all the stops for this game. Beautiful game that has age like fine wine. I might do a playthrough on one of my save files later.

Later in the evening, I'll pop in Soul Calibur II.

 

[meiam]

Yeah, I might restart again and ignore all the DLC missions.

Is it worth playing? The reviews on Steam seem pretty negative.

Neither chimera squad nor phoenix point are slam dunk but they do throw some interesting idea into the formula.

Phoenix point has some good idea (class system, using multiple team at once, shooting parts which makes boss like encounter much more fun) some iffy one (you have to constantly steal stuff from your ally) some not so great (overworld "time" counter is always going and cannot be stopped so you're always rushing).

Chimera squad feel like test bed for some idea firaxis has for next XCOM, its pretty short and there's not that much variety in mission. The class are fun but they're all very pigeonhole into their role. Mission are much quicker too, no creeping around there.

Both worth trying if you see them for cheap, doubt either of them will really grab you if XCOM doesn't.

Restarting is not a bad idea, these game heavily snowball so doing just a little bit better early will give you a massive advantages even just a few months away. Ignoring DLC mission is also a good idea, they're... not that great and don't really bring much to the experience.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I really like the robot you can get so I would say those are worth it, the mech even levels.

All Spark units can rank up, just that doing Shen's Last Gift gives you a free one. Waiting until you have Bluescreen Protocol and made the ammo and 'nades from it makes the mission a milk run (and adding in a couple of specialists with Haywire Protocol on top of that makes it a cakewalk).

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Yeah, I might restart again and ignore all the DLC missions.

Killing the 'alien rulers' allows you to research and build some nice unique armours with their skins.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Rune Factory 5

 

[Worgen]

All Spark units can rank up, just that doing Shen's Last Gift gives you a free one. Waiting until you have Bluescreen Protocol and made the ammo and 'nades from it makes the mission a milk run (and adding in a couple of specialists with Haywire Protocol on top of that makes it a cakewalk).

I had the dlc on.. or off... which ever one means you have to do the mission before you can make them. Plus, its not too hard even when you are in the early game.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Killing the 'alien rulers' allows you to research and build some nice unique armours with their skins.

Is it really necessary though? I mean the game has to be balanced around not having OP armors to begin with, right? At any rate I won't start the mission until much later, if at all later.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I had the dlc on.. or off... which ever one means you have to do the mission before you can make them. Plus, its not too hard even when you are in the early game.

That'd be DLC on, then...

And playing early makes Lily useful rather than an annoyance, too.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Is it really necessary though?

Not in the slightest.

I mean the game has to be balanced around not having OP armors to begin with, right?

Xcom2 does balance the same way bricks do flight.

At any rate I won't start the mission until much later, if at all later.

The alien rulers scale up with time and the strength of your troops.

 

[Worgen]

That'd be DLC on, then...

And playing early makes Lily useful rather than an annoyance, too.

I mean shes a high level tech with good skills for the mission, even in mid to late game is she just an annoyance?

 

[Specter Von Baren]

IxSHExTell

As you're all aware, VN's are stuck in this weird space where most of them really aren't games at all but closer to choose your own adventure novels but they've kind of ended up where they are now due to not fitting nicely anywhere else. So, because of them being more stories or graphic novels than games, there's not a lot of room for innovation as far as mechanics are concerned, it all comes down to the writing and scenario. However, with this particular VN, it's actually trying some different things with how it does things.

There's a sort of point system where one can attribute points to a heroine if they like something they've done in story and there's a thing called Crossview where sometimes you'll be able to look at what's going on with other characters while something is happening with the protagonist which is the things I find very interesting and unique to this medium and is actually an interesting way to innovate in a way that actually adds to story telling and characterization. I'm actually rather impressed with it.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Well, I restarted Xcom 2 again. I got a couple missions in and then the game became unplayable. I finished a mission and instead of showing the scene where the soldiers walk out of the avenger, it would just show the camera looking underneath the floor or something. I reloaded my save a couple of times with the same result, I closed the game and reopened, same thing. Then I restarted my computer, after which the game stopped recognizing half the buttons on my mouse, making it impossible to move my characters. I'm not even using any mods or anything. So that's it then. Crap game. Do not recommend.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I mean shes a high level tech with good skills for the mission, even in mid to late game is she just an annoyance?

Might depend on play style... I don't use tech specialists much. For me she messes with my preferred squad mix and talks too much.

 

[BrawlMan]

I played more Viewtiful Joe and I forgot how much I hate the water stage. It is not too bad, but I find it annoying. Stage 2 and 3 are done. I did half of stage 4 and stopped for now.

I played the Gamecube version of Soul Calibur II. I am used to the PS2 version, but the control layout works and is easy use. I did an arcade run with my man, Maxi! I forgot this game has a mission mode. I appreciate trying to extend replay value, and is a fun mode, by tying unlockable characters to this mode is dumb. It should have been the standard, beat arcade mode with X character to unlock Y character of the first game and the Tekken series. You start with 15, and can unlock 5 more. I will commend Namco for trying to give all these modes out to get your bang for your buck and keep playing. Something a lot of Japanese fighting game developers are lacking. Including the Namco of today. SC II is still fun after all these years, and is my favorite of the sequels.