Messages

21

General Discussion / Re: North Korea ends truce with South Korea.

« on: March 13, 2013, 01:08:30 pm »

Unless, of course, he's as crazy as he seems.  When you've got a wild card like that, you can never be too sure.  Tinpot dictators don't use the same kind of logic we do.

Not saying, of course, that it isn't just bluster, more that we cannot afford to just dismiss it without doing due diligence.

22

Gaming Discussion / Re: How to beat Castlevania

« on: March 13, 2013, 11:19:31 am »

Definitely not the only one.  He's a wimp in CV4.  Actually, most of the game is pretty easy compared to the NES games, which is probably one of the reasons people like it so much.  It's a much more accessible game, between the difficulty drop and the multi-directional whip.  (And the game looks really, really good.  Hard to believe it was a near-launch game.  Although I guess they had almost a year from the Japanese launch.  Still, really impressive stuff!)

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General Discussion / Re: North Korea ends truce with South Korea.

« on: March 13, 2013, 10:56:26 am »

A rogue nation with nukes is nothing to play with.

That's what I was thinking.  Yes, they've done this before.  Yes, dude is crazy.  But they've got nukes, and there's no way to determine if they're actually serious or not.  We can laugh, but I'll bet you our government and the South Koreans aren't laughing. 

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General Discussion / Re: Steak Preference

« on: March 13, 2013, 10:54:16 am »

I used to be paranoid about this stuff, and insisted on well done.  Now, I've relaxed my constraints a bit.  I'm down to medium, and that's really, really good (and gives you some wiggle room if they don't get it quite right).  That's about as far as I'm willing to push it, though.

And I love steak.  I don't get it very often, though.  Probably three or four times a year, tops.  As a kid, pizza was my favorite food.  As an adult, forget that, give me a good steak.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: How to beat Castlevania

« on: March 12, 2013, 06:07:30 pm »

Something you can do, though, is go up and down the stairs before the fight, and get the candles to respawn.  There's absolutely no need to go in short on ammo.  Don't take too long, though, since there's still a timer.

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General Discussion / Re: After a long wait! I have finally collected Beggar Prince, PS, Wukong, Star Odsy

« on: March 12, 2013, 01:33:01 pm »

Nice.  I have Pier Solar and Star Odyssey, but missed out on the first two.  Did you manage to get a pretty good deal on those, or did you pay through the nose?

Pier Solar is pretty good.  I actually did a writeup on the game not too long ago.  You can find it here.  I also did a writeup on Star Odyssey, also at the same place.  Long story short, Pier Solar is good stuff, Star Odyssey much less so, but interesting as a historical curiosity.

27

Gaming Discussion / Re: Games with just ONE problem that keeps you from enjoying it

« on: March 11, 2013, 08:05:48 pm »

The FM-synth version of the music was way better in Phantasy Star.  Not nearly as much ear bleeding.  The retranslation is available on this very site, with the option to switch between the two soundtracks! 

28

General Discussion / Re: North Korea ends truce with South Korea.

« on: March 11, 2013, 06:37:12 pm »

He's the reason they're doing this if anything

Heh.  Yeah, I suppose that's plausible. 

29

General Discussion / Re: North Korea ends truce with South Korea.

« on: March 11, 2013, 06:13:16 pm »

You know a country's leadership is off their rocker when even China's like, "Uh, guys, maybe you should stop acting so crazy."

I had some small hope that Kim Jong-un would be less nuts than his father.  Apparently not.

Also, I can't believe cultural ambassador Dennis Rodman couldn't head this off!  How could you not take him seriously, North Korea? 

30

Gaming Discussion / Re: Games with just ONE problem that keeps you from enjoying it

« on: March 11, 2013, 05:01:58 pm »

Suikoden III: one game, 50+ hours, less than 10 dungeons, 5 screens each. >_>

Technically, it's two things (bland dungeon design and endless backtracking), but they all stem from the same problem: the world is JUST TOO SMALL for a game this long. If they added like five more areas and didn't force me to go back and forth between them DOZENS of times, it'd probably be the best game in the series. As it is, I won't touch it with a 10-foot pole.

I'm in agreement here.  Between the hideous pacing and the odd battle system, it just didn't go over well with me.  I finished it finally, but it feels like a small amount of content spread far too thin.  I actually enjoyed Suikoden IV a lot more.  It gets a lot of hate, but at least it's paced quickly, and doesn't feel like it overstays its welcome.

Suikoden V is another game that tries to ape Suikoden II, but the pacing there is pretty bad, too.  It shouldn't take 70 hours to finish a Suikoden. 

[Spoiler:]

31

Gaming Discussion / Re: Victoly!

« on: March 11, 2013, 04:58:19 pm »

Yes.  It's a sequel to Lords of Shadow, which is a sort of alternate timeline / history for the series.  Just because it plays with the largely unimportant storyline of Castlevania doesn't automatically make it bad. 

But you'd love some of the ways they've twisted what we'd consider canon.  And by love, I mean you'll either be enraptured or puke your guts out.  I find it fascinating, even if a little far-fetched.

Serious, serious spoilerage below.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

Spoiler:

If you haven't played LoS, then you might not know that Gabriel Belmont, in the end, becomes (through a process not yet revealed) Dracula.  Yep.  On top of that, in this new one, they've managed to compress a ton of well-known Belmonts into three generations.  Gabriel, who happens to be Trevor's father.  And Trevor and Sypha's kid is Simon.  Yep, it's that compressed.

But that's not all!  Trevor tries to take down Gabriel / Dracula, and fails.  Gabriel learns who he is after he's near dead, and scrambles to save him by turning him into a vampire.  Guess who that ends up being in this continuity?  If you guess Alucard, congratulations!  You get a cookie!

32

Gaming Discussion / Re: Victoly!

« on: March 11, 2013, 12:24:23 pm »

Finally finished Jake Hunter: Memories of the Past.  Decent enough, but not much of a game.  Some of the script errors are inexcusable, and shoehorning what is distinctly a Japanese series into an American context just doesn't work at some points.

Anyway, points for trying.  It's not nearly as fun as the Phoenix Wright games, even at their lowest moments.  I'd say...  6.5?  Competent, but that's all.  (The Jake Hunter Unleashed segments are quite fun, however, but terribly short.)

Oh.  Yeah.  Forgot.  Finished Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate.  (That's the last time I'm typing that out!)  Fun game.  I was expecting the worst, but was pleasantly surprised.  I knew it had to have been good when it ended and I wanted more.  That's probably my primary knock on the game, it felt like it resolved too quickly, that it needed to go another three or four hours.  As it is, I ended up finishing the game right at 10 hours, and got 100% at 10:47.  Not a lot to do after it's over, either, other than play a higher difficulty.  Let's go with...  8.25.

33

Gaming Discussion / Re: Rating Systems And You

« on: March 08, 2013, 01:58:55 pm »

Appropriateness certainly does factor in.  I didn't grow up with the really gory and violent stuff, but that's just as well, since I wasn't really attracted to it in the first place.  It's interesting that many of the boundaries that my parents put up (the important ones!) were ones I had no interest in crossing in the first place.  Don't know if that means I was just a good kid, or they just did a great job raising me.  I'll bet on the latter. 

I do play violent games now.  It took me a long time to even allow myself to play a M-rated game.  (That game was Syphon Filter 2, by the way, a gift from a friend of mine.  The first one I actually bought was Metal Gear Solid.)

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Victoly!

« on: March 08, 2013, 01:54:05 pm »

After having my PSP for...  gee, I dunno, six, seven years, I finally beat Daxter.

I remember being very impressed with the way things looked at the time.  It's certainly not a bad looking game even now.  But I have some serious gripes about the game, and most of them revolve around controls.  Now, the PSP isn't great in that regard, but at least I've got a PSP-Slim, so the analog isn't quite as horrid as it could be.  But it goes beyond that.  You routinely tend to barely miss jumps, hang on environmental objects, and just overall suffer from cheap deaths that are of no fault of your own.  The game is very frustrating, and I'm glad to be done with it.  There are things it does very well, but the flaws just get exacerbated as the difficulty ramps up.

Overall?  I'd give it a 6.5.  It starts in 8.0 territory, but ends around a 5.  I did not enjoy those final stages or the end boss, with all the cheapness.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Torment: Tides of Numenera

« on: March 07, 2013, 06:45:50 pm »

The one recommendation I got was that it was one of the better stories. Truthfully I didn't like Baldurs Gate's battle system, despite having no issue with KotOR.

I think that's my primary hangup with the game.  I just don't like mouse-control interfaces in most games.  I'd probably love the game if I were able to use a gamepad. 

36

Gaming Discussion / Re: Torment: Tides of Numenera

« on: March 07, 2013, 05:53:01 pm »

That's what I'd always heard.  In fact, most character builds recommend maxing out Wisdom (and optionally, Intelligence) so you can get all the conversation options.  There are enough stat-boosters in other places plus equippable accessories to make skimping on Strength not a big deal.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Your most recent gaming purchase?

« on: March 07, 2013, 05:51:39 pm »

I gave in and decided to pick up Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate.  (Guys, seriously, next time, shorter name.)  We'll see how it turns out.  I was sitting right on the edge on this one.  At least I get the pre-order bonus with it, even if it doesn't help with my XL.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Torment: Tides of Numenera

« on: March 07, 2013, 04:32:21 pm »

Never really played the original, but I guess it's always nice to see a cult classic get a sequel.

I'm in the same boat.  I've tried a couple of times to get into it, though.

Man, it's quiet around here.  Already missing Dank. 

39

Gaming Discussion / Re: Assassin's Creed 4: PETA labels whale harpooning 'disgraceful'

« on: March 06, 2013, 05:37:39 pm »

It was directed at PETA. They take issue with existence itself, and take up any fight to get attention. They tend to hate anything for the moment because it's "out there," and it works because they get a shitton of attention for it. One would think that a work of fiction would be left alone, but then I forget the issue they had with Tanooki Mario.

Definitely agreed on that.  I honestly think they do more harm to their cause than good.  Assuming their cause really is to help animals.

40

Gaming Discussion / Re: Assassin's Creed 4: PETA labels whale harpooning 'disgraceful'

« on: March 06, 2013, 05:33:07 pm »

I only have fewer posts than all of you because I post like in 10x more forums than any of you.

Probably true.  I don't wander too much into other confines.  That way madness lies.