The Video Games Thread

[Almighty Doer of Stuff]

FF7 and FF9 were quite easy for me, including the final bosses.

I'm wondering if the fight would be easier if I gave Rosa the white mage equipment that boosts her magic power, if there is any. I know she doesn't need the bow and arrows I have equipped to her for the final fight.

I also need to unequip Edge the ninja's weapons. His attack is weak, and he does far more damage throwing weapons than wielding them. Still, that's only good for two rounds. I probably need to buy shurikens. The wiki says I can buy the good shurikens in a particular place, but I haven't figured out how. Maybe now that I'm at the end they'll be available.

I bought fifty battle axes thinking I could throw them for great damage, using up all my funds, only to get to the boss and discover Edge can't throw battle axes. Luckily I had a backup save from before I did that.

I think the key to this battle might be fast reflexes, which I don't have. Why would you design a freaking turn-based RPG's final boss around fast reflexes when there's nothing of the sort anywhere else in the game? Bad design!

[Almighty Doer of Stuff]

So I went back to my old save, equipped Rosa with the Sage Staff that boosts white magic power, and bought a crapload of Fuma Shurikens for Edge. Then I set the battle speed to the slowest setting in the configuration menu. That's what helped immensely. I didn't have to have lightning reflexes in order for everyone (except Rydia, who I killed at the start of battle so she wouldn't slow me down) to have a turn between attacks from the boss, and that's how I won.

I'm not sure if I want to pick up Pokemon again, or start with Blades of Exile scenarios. I'll probably go for Pokemon, and then if I get bored I'll stop again. Pokemon Platinum first, then Pokemon White.

[daftbeaker]

I played CoD:Modern Warfare 3 while it was a free weekend on Steam. My only advice is don't bother. The running style is a hark back to Goldeneye/Perfect Dark where the weapon bobs in a neat figure of 8 in front of you. It looks like someone converted House of the Dead into an FPS and the movement is sluggish and annoying.

One thing that annoys me is matchmaking. PC gamers are used to dedicated servers because if someone loses their connection you don't want everyone to lose the match.

The main thing that made me rage is the complete lack of skill needed in the games I played. The first game I played I tried to be tactical, sneaking round corners and aiming properly. I ended up 3 kills - 10 deaths. The next game I got bored and just ran about spraying bullets everywhere while throwing grenades, no tactics at all, ended up 10 kills - 9 deaths. I think that says something

BF3 is still awesome and Jagged Alliance is wasting a lot of my time

[black bart]

I'm getting bored with Gran Turismo 5...I fell asleep at the wheel of a Formula One race car last night whilst doing 200 mph.

[Clifford]

Anyone played Mirror's Edge? Bought it off Steam for £3(hook, line, sinker) earlier this week. Truely (and almost literally) blown away.

[Almighty Doer of Stuff]

I tried watching Law & Order SVU with Ashley a couple weekends ago, but the fancy HD TV has no DVD player and my computers are slow, so we went to my room to use the PlayStation 2. It asked us for the parental control password which I didn't know, so we couldn't watch it there either. Drag.

Anyway, just now I looked up an article on how to reset the password, and it worked. I discovered, however, that the video signal would jump in and out. For a long time, many years, almost since we first got it, the picture has faded in and out of orangeishness when playing movies, but now it was completely cutting out. I became concerned because I like playing PS1 and PS2 games.

So I stuck in Twisted Metal: Small Brawl. Played fine. Took it out, put in Final Fantasy X. That played fine too, which surprised me, because PS2 games use the DVD format as far as I know.

So lesson is, for some reason, the Playstation 2 uses different audio-visual software thingamabobs for DVDs than it does for video games. Don't ask me why, because I don't know.

I haven't tested it with a CD, but my computers play those fine.

[black bart]

Still haven't managed to get onto Steam.

[Roland Deschain]

Still haven't managed to get onto Steam.

I'm glad to see you fine after your car crash at 200mph in your formula one car. It is odd that Steam's not working on your PS3. I take it technical support are useless?

ADoS, some PS2s are known for DVD playback faults, unfortunately. Mine played fine for ages, and then died. My second one also went a little funny, but by then i'd got a proper DVD player, and was heavily into MMOs and other PC games.

Anyone played Mirror's Edge? Bought it off Steam for £3(hook, line, sinker) earlier this week. Truely (and almost literally) blown away.

Clifford, I have it on PS3, but haven't put it in to play yet. I've also been told by other people that it's really good, but it didn't sell well. It was only £5 when I got it. I really should play more games, but I seem to either not have the inclination these days, or am just too busy.

[Almighty Doer of Stuff]

I decided to put down Pokemon. I'm simply not enjoying it. I play it for ten to fifteen minutes, then I get bored and turn it off. I don't get to use all the Pokemon I like because it would take ages to play through the game. Pokemon Sapphire was much better balanced for playing with many Pokemon than Platinum and White, but alas, my cartridge battery died near the end of the game so I couldn't use time-based features, and I gave up.

But on a related note, Ashley finished making my Bellsprout doll a few weekends ago! His name is Floppy! I love him!



I now have all six of my favorites! Floppy the Bellsprout, Paasifine the Chansey, Archimedes the Poliwhirl, Astor the Koffing, Virgowolsz the Staryu, and Honkerston the Nosepass!

----------

I've now decided to play Blades of Exile scenarios instead. I'm starting with "Pilgrimage To Thrakos", made by a friend of mine, Sylae Corell.

BoE seems to run mostly fine in Wine (on Linux) apart from a few minor graphical glitches. It's been a long time since I played BoE, so I struggled to remember how I designed my party. I lost all my save files when I reinstalled my OSes, so I have to start from scratch.

I've had a lot of fun with BoE over the years, and there's a ton of scenarios I haven't tried yet. Hopefully I'll have a good time.

[black bart]

I finally couldn't resist it (my colleague in work has been going on and on about the game)...I got Skyrim. My name is Bonehederix the Breton and I have killed two dragons, run away from three trolls, been hit up into the air by a giant and had a fight with a woman.

[Clifford]

Anyone played Mirror's Edge? Bought it off Steam for £3(hook, line, sinker) earlier this week. Truely (and almost literally) blown away.

Clifford, I have it on PS3, but haven't put it in to play yet. I've also been told by other people that it's really good, but it didn't sell well. It was only £5 when I got it. I really should play more games, but I seem to either not have the inclination these days, or am just too busy.

A shame! It's quite a short game, and can be played is short bursts (although it has a habit of hooking you). Give it a go whenever you have the time, you won't be dissapoint.

[black bart]

I've got the knack of dragon killing now...hide behind a rock and let your companions do the hard work, then at the last minute run up behind the dragon when he's nearly dead and finish him off with a few sneaky blows from behind.

[Roland Deschain]

^ So you're taking dragons from behind now? Be pleased I didn't comment on "sneaky blows".

^^ I know I should give it a go, as it looks really good, but other things always seem to get in the way.

Talking of games getting in the way, I picked up Little Big Planet again, and started to work towards my platinum trophy. With the aid of three other friends, I have 100% of the prize bubbles now, have been successful in getting all but the Play (play every level without dying), Create (your levels hearted by 50+ people, you hearted by 30+ people), Share (play 150 community levels, tag 50 community levels, heart 10 community levels), and Socialite (play a level with 3 people who aren't on your friends' list) trophies. "Play" needs me to ace one level, which contains an electrified hamster wheel of death that is peeving me off, "Create" I just need the player hearts for (shouldn't take long when I initiate the process), "Share" will take time, but i'm working towards it, and "Socialite" just needs a level that doesn't have some ass leaving before the end.

I also started playing Little Big Planet 2, which has not only better graphics than LBP1, but some really cool game mechanics, such as a grappling hook, and a cream cake gun (more awesome than it sounds, although you can't fire them into your mouth). I've been through the levels that need 2 players to get the prize bubbles with a friend in Germany, but we're currently waiting on a mutual friend in Germany to come online, and his sister, to get the 3 and 4 player stuff.

[Almighty Doer of Stuff]

My PS2 has ceased to function! It no longer reads discs.

I have a PS1 that works. I got it at a yard sale. I can play most of my Final Fantasies, but not Final Fantasy X. I can play the good installments of the Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot series, but not Ratchet & Clank, which I still haven't made any real progress in. I'll never get to complete Silpheed, one of my first PS2 games which is really cool. I haven't beaten the female story of EverGrace either.

My brother has a PlayStation3. He sold his Wii to my sister so he could buy one. It lasted just barely long enough for the two-year warranty to expire, then bit it. Now he has a BrickStation 3.

It's not fair! Electronics should last forever!

[black bart]

^

Actually it's not funny at all...have you tried picking a PS3 up on eBay?

Another dragon bit the dust and I looted his corpse for goodies. Unfortunately dragon bones and scales are heavy and now my character can't run! I think the dragons are going to get their revenge.