I picked up F2P Team Fortress 2 about a month back. I’m always one for being late on the bandwagon. Hit me up @ SHITSTORM_DELTA
Also still playing League of Legends. SHITSTORM DELTA, same name.
I think you misspelled Skyrim.
I’m also too busy playing. I haven’t really done much of the main quest, but I’m level 23 with 30 hours or so in. This game is massive, it’s got to be the biggest game ever. I’m amazed it’s only like 4 GBs… Oh, and I’m pretty sure enchanting sucks.
No. I’m pretty sure I didn’t, unless there are figure skating sword spirits spouting random probabilities and objectives at you in Skyrim as well.
Anyways, finished Skyward Sword this morning. I’ve got to say, it has to be one of the more challenging games in the entire series; easily on par or even surpassing LttP. I can’t get into too much detail due to spoilers but it has to be the most satisfying Zelda game in [STRIKE]years[/STRIKE] over a decade. It’s not some halfhearted/incomplete affair like the last two console titles (not including FSAdventure) were nor is it limited way too much by the hardware like all the DS and GBA games were. The story is coherent, the villains are alright, the characters mostly avoid any new Tingles (although he is in the game somewhere), there’s plenty of secrets and valuables to find beyond more rupees (though you can hold a fuck ton of rupees by the end), the items are satisfying for the most part (although the Slingshot, upgrade and all, really gets neglected later on (but this is a common fate for most early game Zelda items)), and although the dungeons are fairly short compared to the usual affair they have the benefit of actually looking and feeling like actual buildings rather than an improbably convoluted series of rooms contained in an extradimensional space.
And speaking of, there are unfortunately only six dungeons in this game (seven if you count that last one but it lacks a boss (although one could barely make the case for that one dungeonless boss being the boss given that fighting it is what sets off the quest chain that leads you into the last dungeon) and a dungeon item (well unless you count THAT as a dungeon item in which case the dungeon is horribly underwhelming given what it contains)) but the environments really do go a long way to compensate even if they aren’t as metroidy as I had initially hoped (also there could’ve been more variation of environments as you’ve got a forest, a volcano, and a desert plus a lake, a sandsea (that’s vastly superior to that other sandsea (seriously fuck that sandsea)), and the skyworld which is of itself divided into two (I mean seriously, two fire dungeons, really?)). I should elaborate that the reason why the environments do as well as they do is that shit happens to them that causes them to change dramatically (though they do change back to normal more or less afterwards) and really changes how you go about them.
At the very least it has by far one of the best final boss fights in the series rivaling LttP’s fight with Ganon in terms of ‘You’re probably gonna want to bring potions into this fight, and not because a fireball slipped by and donk’d Zelda in the head or you don’t know the pattern/gimmick yet.’ In fact the whole final battle sequence was refreshingly gimmick free during the entirety of it which I don’t think has happened since either LttP (aside from the Silver/Light Arrows-Fire Rod bit), MM (if you’re not simply curbstomping Majora with the FDM), or WW (it’s kinda gimmicky but not really by enough). Also the setting is fucking awesome but spoilers to really describe.
I probably should get to making a thread for this game since I don’t want to keep clogging this one with spoilers.
I’ve been really focusing on Eien no Aselia lately.
I played it before, but never finished it. Now I decided that I should just sit down and do it.
65 hours later (or at least, 65 hours that the game has logged. I don’t think losing a battle and loading is saved there, so probably closer to 100), I still have half the endings left. I think I shouldn’t have to start from the very beginning anymore, though, and each play through is faster than the last. Most of what takes time now is the strategy parts, but since I only care about seeing the endings now things are still pretty fast.
But GODSDAMN this game takes a lot of time. I’m really happy that I found a button that speeds up the battles. It (along with being allowed to keep max-leveled characters in new game+ without going up a step in difficulty) saved me incredible amounts of time. Second and third play through together took about half as much time as the first one. 
What the fuck is an Eien no Aselia?
Ah, I posted that just before going to bed, so I guess I forgot to mention that minor detail. 
It’s a visual novel/turn based strategy game. The gameplay kind of reminds me of Ogre Battle, you create squads of three people (Attack, Defense and Support) and each character has three skills for each position. Defense is usually just “block, stronger block that only stops one attack and slightly weaker block that can stop several attacks”, while Attack tends to vary on whether or not it has elemental damage, and which enemy it targets. Most of the time the defender will take all the hits until it’s dead, at which point you move on to the next one, but a few attacks can target the attacker or supporter first. Supporters are basically spellcasters. Mostly healing, buffing or AoE damage, but there’s also “counterspells” (usually to stop the enemy AoE) or debuffs and targeted attack spells to bypass the defender.
As I said, though, I’m mostly working on seeing the remaining parts of the plot now. The general premise isn’t that exciting (at the end of the prologue you pass out, and in chapter one you wake up in another world) but the characters are rather well made, there’s a nice balance of seriousness and silly extra scenes, and I really like how they’ve thought about the “wake up in another world” plot more than the average fanfic writer. The idea itself might not be that original, but they’ve done it better than most others.
The most obvious example is that much of the text, and all the spoken voices, in the dialogs in chapter one are pretty much gibberish because the main character does not speak the language and has to spend much of the first chapter receiving language lessons (mostly off screen, though. It’s good that they’ve thought about it, but you wouldn’t want to sit through three months of in-game time slowly learning how to express basic concepts, unless you’re way too hard core.)
It’s not exactly on the level of Tolkien and his elves, but the fact that they’ve thought of it at all is way more than most others. Usually you just have Aliens Speaking English or, at most, A Wizard Did It.
Yeah but like is this an XBLA game ,an iPhone game, a PC-98 game, or what?
Ah, sorry. PC. There’s also a PS2(?) version, but I don’t know if that version is translated.
I pretty much only play PC games now, since I don’t have any consoles (other than an old GameCube, but no TV anyway, and a DS that I never really use anyway).
I’ve started Dragon Age. I’m only in Lothering and going to the world map for the fist time. I’m a mage and I’ve made a beeline for fireball and crushing prison. They’re very pretty and effective, but I need to start pumping some points into willpower because I’m bone drie after like three spells.
Alternating between Starcraft II and League of Legends, while waiting for Diablo III and DOTA 2.
Let’s see…
Still playing Xenoblade. Kinda slacked off for about a week or two, so I haven’t been playing as much. Shit gets crazier.
Recently picked up Kirby: Return to Dreamland, which I’ve been playing Co-Op with my sis.
Pretty good except for some major BS parts where I’ve fallen off of stuff with a Key/Candle or been crushed.
Also been playing a ton of Terraria since it got updated. Hardmode is HARD. Makes that Molten Armor I had seem like cardboard…
But I’m rocking Adamantite Armor now and got the high-tier Magic Tomes and shit, so it’s much better now trying to survive.
the real challenge of dragon age origins is in getting your team to do what you want. i just can’t believe people are playing anything but skyrim :o
Yeah I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to get Skyrim. I think I’ll end up having to wait until Christmas to get a 360 and the game, but I have no fucking idea what to do in the mean time. I don’t have any handhelds or consoles right now, just my beasty computer and beast-like laptop. Thinkin’ 'bout WoW.
Welp. Just got back from having my computer reformatted due to rootkits and other assorted malware. In the week off the internet I’ve completed Suikoden I and started up Suki II where I just made it back to the highland from the intro. Now to check to see what that whole get to point X before a certain amount of time elapses is all about.
Replaying Persona 3 FES. Aiming for 100% social links and 100% quest completion. Then I’m going to do the same for Persona 4.
Skyward Sword. Why is it that water dungeons are either A. unnecessarily hard or B. unnecessarily long?
I mean seriously Ancient Cistern, you’re a wannabe Majora’s Mask Water Temple.
Also on third run of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World.
So I’ve finally got around to DLing Ys 1+2 off the VC since I missed the PSP release (or more accurately the PSP release didn’t really exist to begin with) back on Monday and now I’m currently on the Icy Slopes of Ys in Book II.
Also screwed myself out of all 108 stars in Suki II due to me trying to abuse a bug that did nothing but break my game (i.e. can’t recruit either Futch or Humphrey due to triggering their quest then abandoning them for the plot which was hilarious when having them around while Viktor and Filk are trying to save their fort). But considering that Suki II has you choosing between Valeria and Kasumi along with choosing two out of four potentially recruitable monsters (only three of which count) I’ve decided to roll with it (especially since I was having otherwise good luck aside from hitting the 11 hour mark as I head off towards the Two Rivers region).
I’ve been playing some Ys VI The Ark of Napishtim, but there are quite a lot of bullshit moments (usually around bosses) where the game basically tells you to fuck off and grind until your stats are above a certain threshold.
A the second boss I did maybe 0-6 damage per hit, I think it had 800 health. I went back to town to upgrade my weapon a bit and gained a level or two on the way. Suddenly I’m dealing ~26 damage per hit, more on crits.
One of the bosses I couldn’t even deal damage to until I had grinded half a dozen extra levels and upgraded my weapon another step.
Also, I’ve been working my way through more visual novels. Deus Machina Demonbane is pretty fun, because it takes a lot of things from the Lovecraft mythos, and even gets everything right.
It’s nice to see that they did enough research to know things like that Chtugha lives inside the star Fomalhaut or that Atlach-Nacha is a spider demon and so on. They even included rather obscure things like the Mirror of Nitocris or the Scimitar of Barzai. Now if only Japan could stop with the whole “lol have sex with it!”-thing… >_>
Yeah, Ys Origin is a lot like that as well. If you don’t level up or upgrade your weapon, you can’t do hardly do shit to bosses (or hard enemies for that matter).
I want to do this one of these days. Gotta try and find FES cheap though. GameStop used to have it crazy cheap, but now it’s somewhat higher. 
^All the Ys games are generally like that (save for Seven where the upgrades come at you like in a regular JRPG which doesn’t mind one or two skips). The first three games gives you a bit of leeway with early equipment options but you really ought to be looking for the latter upgrades as soon as you can since they mostly show up in chests and bumping around for chests is in general a good idea.
Finished bumping my way through Ys Books 1 & 2. Very straight forward and has that oldschool difficulty and charm I hardly find these days. Never found where the Golden Vase was or figured out what that Ring of Peaceful Mind did but otherwise it was a fairly good game considering the era it originally came out in. Additionally it was humorous to see Adol get cursed into a blue roper while his red hair remains intact. And while the voice acting was bad it was hilarious to find that the second dark wizard Dallas was voiced by Winnie the Pooh. Also I don’t quite know what ended up happening to the seer Sara in the first game (the first chick you meet who gives you your first quest of getting your weapons ready) since it said she was kidnapped and is never seen again; I’ve heard somewhere that she dies a certain ways into the game but the only on screen female death happens in the second book (and even then she ends up getting better anyways).