All Things Videogame Related: EXTREME VS!!

[Benson13]

That's depressing. I was really hoping for more than just two episodes of burrial at sea.

I completely agree. Though I didn't like BS2, Infinite was fun to play.

[anime52k8]

I feel like I'm one of the few people who actually really enjoyed bioshock 2.

[CrazyDude]

B2 was also a bit of a letdown for me, BI rocked.

[Duke Togo]

Strider is a winner. Highly enjoyable and a great value.

[Vepariga]

I feel like I'm one of the few people who actually really enjoyed bioshock 2.

I loved Bioshock 2 just as much as the first one.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

Street Fighter's Ryu in a Turkish car insurance commercial:

Hit the CC closed captioning button for English subtitles

[Scyla]

That is truly epic and awesome.

[Archer]

Planning on picking up Bravely Default today. That being said, I didn't really like the demo (I literally played for like 10 minutes, got to my first encounter, and entire party was wiped out. Tried this again several times, kept dying).

I'm going off what others have said (i.e. game is much better than the demo, etc.). Anybody have specific thoughts on demo vs full game?

Thanks

[mikeszekely]

Planning on picking up Bravely Default today. That being said, I didn't really like the demo (I literally played for like 10 minutes, got to my first encounter, and entire party was wiped out. Tried this again several times, kept dying).

I'm going off what others have said (i.e. game is much better than the demo, etc.). Anybody have specific thoughts on demo vs full game?

Thanks

I never played the demo.

That said, the game is harder in the beginning. Once you get a handle on the brave/default system, get a few jobs, and get a few special attacks, things start to get easier. For me, the hardest battle was vs the white wizard. Meanwhile, figuring that the boss of the water temple would be water related, I loaded my specials with Lightning, power +40%, and anti-aquatic parts. I knew what I needed for each member to charge their special, went in with each character ready to use their special, and wiped out the boss on the first turn.

On that note, i think it helps that I tend to play in smaller spurts while leaving my 3DS in sleep mode most of the time I'm not playing. I'm just at chapter 3, but my village is almost 100% rebuilt.

[Dangard Ace]

Well UK guys get a 30L drop in the price of the XBOne.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/24/xbox-one-price-cut-to-399-99-with-free-copy-of-titanfall-4316270/

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

Persona 5 is coming to the u.s. on PS3

[renegadeleader1]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-02-25/gundam/side-stories-blue-destiny-ps3-remake-promo-streamed

Looks like Bandai is re-releasing 5 HD remakes of the Gundam side story games to coincide with the new side story game that's coming out. Included are Blue Destiny, Rise From The Ashes, Zeonic Front, Thoroughbred Encounters In Space missions, and Lost War Chronicles. I hope this makes it to the US shores.

[mikeszekely]

Persona 5 is coming to the u.s. on PS3

Yeah. But not until 2015.

Looks like Bandai is re-releasing 5 HD remakes of the Gundam side story games to coincide with the new side story game that's coming out. Included are Blue Destiny, Rise From The Ashes, Zeonic Front, Thoroughbred Encounters In Space missions, and Lost War Chronicles. I hope this makes it to the US shores.

Considering how bad some of those games are, and how mediocre the others are, all I'll say is that I'd prefer a remake of Gundam Battle games. Or a new Gundam Battle game. On seriously any platform.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Strider is a winner. Highly enjoyable and a great value.

This is reassuring. It's been getting fairly good reviews on various sites too.

[one_klump]

Strike Vector is on Steam now.
Fast paced aerial shooter, like Crimson Skies and Quake 3 had a baby.

Edited February 26, 2014 by one_klump

[Archer]

I never played the demo.

That said, the game is harder in the beginning. Once you get a handle on the brave/default system, get a few jobs, and get a few special attacks, things start to get easier. For me, the hardest battle was vs the white wizard. Meanwhile, figuring that the boss of the water temple would be water related, I loaded my specials with Lightning, power +40%, and anti-aquatic parts. I knew what I needed for each member to charge their special, went in with each character ready to use their special, and wiped out the boss on the first turn.

On that note, i think it helps that I tend to play in smaller spurts while leaving my 3DS in sleep mode most of the time I'm not playing. I'm just at chapter 3, but my village is almost 100% rebuilt.

Thanks for the info Mike. I gave the demo another try before purchasing, and I became a little hesitant. Instead of Bravely Default, in a completely impulse buy maneuver, I ended up forking over a lot more cash for Gundam Breaker on the vita. It's my first import game, hopefully lives up to the hype.

I'm waiting to indulge my RPG craving in FFX-HD, a game I had on PS2 but never bothered finishing.

[David Hingtgen]

How far did you get? FFX is one of the few in the series that really gets good/pays off at the end.

[dizman]

Looks like Bandai is re-releasing 5 HD remakes of the Gundam side story games to coincide with the new side story game that's coming out. Included are Blue Destiny, Rise From The Ashes, Zeonic Front, Thoroughbred Encounters In Space missions, and Lost War Chronicles. I hope this makes it to the US shores.

Aw no federation vs zeon remake, that was my favorite one. Been a while since I played zeonic front, could be fun to play it in glorious HD!

[mikeszekely]

I'm waiting to indulge my RPG craving in FFX-HD, a game I had on PS2 but never bothered finishing.

To be frank, then, you're going to indulge your RPG craving on a much worse game. But to each his own. Again, I'm not sure what to tell you about the demo, because I never played it, but Bravely Default (on Normal) stopped being hard after I got my first four jobs, and the hardest fight was the first real boss fight with the monk and the white wizard. If you were really worried about it, the game does have an Easy difficulty. The main cast have their personality, the art is gorgeous, and the game feels most like the DS Final Fantasy III remake (there's even an item you can buy called "Onion Shirt"). The battle system is traditional enough that anyone who's played a JRPG in the NES/SNES/PSX era will instantly familiar with it, but has enough options to allow for strategy on major battles or, on the other end, super fast auto-battling for grinding grunts. In short, Bravely Default is the best "Final Fantasy" since FFVI. As for FFX...

FFX is one of the few in the series that really gets good/pays off at the end.

Not sure I'd agree with that. The best I can say is that FFX is the last numbered FF game I found to be passably playable, but in my mind it was never better than mediocre. Yeah, the end has some M. Night Shymalan crap going on, but that didn't make the story any less nonsense.

in a completely impulse buy maneuver, I ended up forking over a lot more cash for Gundam Breaker on the vita. It's my first import game, hopefully lives up to the hype.

I've heard good things about it, but I think I'll wait for the inevitable "PlayStation the Best" version, if at all. I haven't imported a game since Gundam Assault Survive on the PSP. When I was in college, I'd have seen playing an import as Japanese practice; now I'm just too old/lazy. I didn't even bother with Macross 30 (despite being a huge fan of the Macross something Frontier games).

It doesn't help that it's a Vita game, either. I only own three games for my Vita; WipeOut 2048 (my launch game), Persona 4 Golden (the Vita's sole "must buy"), and Dynasty Warriors Next (came back from Beijing in the mood for a Dynasty Warriors game, go figure). I haven't bought or played anything on it in almost two years, and I'd probably have sold it if it weren't for Persona 4.

[anime52k8]

FFX is the only J-RPG I've ever played to completion.

[bob joe mac]

To be frank, then, you're going to indulge your RPG craving on a much worse game. But to each his own. Again, I'm not sure what to tell you about the demo, because I never played it, but Bravely Default (on Normal) stopped being hard after I got my first four jobs, and the hardest fight was the first real boss fight with the monk and the white wizard. If you were really worried about it, the game does have an Easy difficulty. The main cast have their personality, the art is gorgeous, and the game feels most like the DS Final Fantasy III remake (there's even an item you can buy called "Onion Shirt"). The battle system is traditional enough that anyone who's played a JRPG in the NES/SNES/PSX era will instantly familiar with it, but has enough options to allow for strategy on major battles or, on the other end, super fast auto-battling for grinding grunts. In short, Bravely Default is the best "Final Fantasy" since FFVI. As for FFX...

Not sure I'd agree with that. The best I can say is that FFX is the last numbered FF game I found to be passably playable, but in my mind it was never better than mediocre. Yeah, the end has some M. Night Shymalan crap going on, but that didn't make the story any less nonsense.

Bravely Default is awesome! Although Challenging at times, I am on hard mode so it's to be expected, but death isn't nearly as bad as the NES/SNES/PS1 days where you got booted to the last save point most of the time the game will respawn you in the boss room so you can leave or change your set up to deal with the boss better. I love it so far could be better but good to see a solid RPG come out of Square-Enix... who just crushed my dreams by resurrecting the Mana franchise again... this time to ruin it even further by making a Cell phone micro transaction game...

As for FFX I am looking forward to the remaster I loved the original when it came out 10+ years ago never finished it though got to the final part of the game where I wanted to do all the final weapons and crap then I got bored and never finished it which I do with most RPGs lol.

As for the nonsense story and M. Night Shymalan twists... Isn't that a given with JRPGs and more specifically Final Fantasy games? I mean we got out of no where time travel (Multiple games) Aliens (Multiple games) Clones/robots. I mean FFIV is my favorite but damn that final 1/4 of the game is out of no where crazy same with IX. In fact I think VI was the only one without a insane nonsense twist, a crazy twist happens but didn't blow the lore and world apart like most end game FF twists. Don't even get me started on how many times I've killed (a)God/Spirit of darkness powered by sadness and evil.

Edited February 27, 2014 by bob joe mac

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

I liked FFX because it was the first next gen FF on the PS2 and i loved it. my friend would try and dodge lightning 100 times and missed when his mom walked by, i thought i was going to see a family break up... that was insane. he eventually got it.

though i enjoyed FF10, it was the beginning of the linear travel from point A to B that has plagued FF13. i really felt square went backwards in terms designing exploration and put all their energy into pretty CG cutscenes and battle engines.

I finished 13 bc i really had nothing to do one summer but the non-battle exploration has become so stale was hard for me to to have any joy exploring.

[mikeszekely]

Bravely Default is awesome! Although Challenging at times, I am on hard mode so it's to be expected, but death isn't nearly as bad as the NES/SNES/PS1 days where you got booted to the last save point most of the time the game will respawn you in the boss room so you can leave or change your set up to deal with the boss better. I love it so far could be better but good to see a solid RPG come out of Square-Enix... who just crushed my dreams by resurrecting the Mana franchise again... this time to ruin it even further by making a Cell phone micro transaction game...

I've had the whole party wiped out exactly twice. Contrast that to the fact that I've killed bosses in the first round at least twice, and almost always within three. And that's Normal. And like I said, there's an even easier mode. So yes, you can make the game hard, but the game doesn't have to be hard.

As for the nonsense story and M. Night Shymalan twists... Isn't that a given with JRPGs and more specifically Final Fantasy games? I mean we got out of no where time travel (Multiple games) Aliens (Multiple games) Clones/robots. I mean FFIV is my favorite but damn that final 1/4 of the game is out of no where crazy same with IX. In fact I think VI was the only one without a insane nonsense twist, a crazy twist happens but didn't blow the lore and world apart like most end game FF twists. Don't even get me started on how many times I've killed (a)God/Spirit of darkness powered by sadness and evil.

Nonsense stories? I think that JRPGs are full of tropes and cliches like, the the god/spirit powered by sadness/evil, or the evil empire, sure. The original Final Fantasy's time travel was actually pretty clever, and at the time I thought Final Fantasy IV's trip to the moon was actually pretty fresh. But, tropes aside, those games made sense. When I say nonsense stories, I mean crap like Final Fantasy VII where 15+ years later I have to read a wiki to get any basic understanding of what the flip just happened.

As for the Shymalan plot twists, I mean real twists, and just as crazy. Spoilers for everyone who's waited for the re-release to finish the game!

Auron was dead the whole time

Sin is Tidus' dad

Zanarkand, at least as Tidus knows it, is a dream. Tidus himself may be a dream.

[Beltane70]

I really hate to admit it, but I'm finding Lightning Returns hard enough on normal that I may just quit and start over on easy. Normally, I'd grind in a game like this to over-level myself and power through, but with the game's time-based play, this isn't an option.

[Chronocidal]

I'm playing through it currently as well, and uh.. well, I think it's very easy to screw yourself over. Any difficulty of adjusting to the combat system aside, you can easily bite off more than you can chew, because there's really no indication anywhere as to how strong anything will be.

Even then though, it's entirely possible to do major story quests out of order, which I'm pretty sure I did... I'd been playing on easy mode from the start, and early combat was still difficult. And even if you did have time to grind, you don't gain anything that way except items (which include the skills you can use in combat) and points to recharge some skills. All of the "leveling" is really gained by completing the game's quests, which all give stat boosts.

The thing that tipped me off mostly was that the quests get numbered in the log. I didn't see that at first, and went straight to the wildlands after doing the intro quest in Luxerion. Well.. surprise.. the wildlands one is #3.. and the main boss of that area is essentially a direct port of Caius from the Lightning DLC in 13-2 (he even still uses the old paradigm system, and all the same skills). He was murder.

The only way I beat him was raw chip-away damage by spamming a few higher level magic spells I'd found in the dungeon on the way to meet him, and alternately spamming mediguard, which I only had by then because I'd gotten the Aeris DLC outfit, which comes with that skill auto-equipped.

The weapon I got for beating him though is insanely powerful compared with even the most expensive swords in any town I've been to so far. So yeah.. I think he was meant as a later boss.

Anyway, yeah, very easy to sequence break it seems. You kind of have to go by "Does this enemy look bigger and scarier than anything I've seen so far?" If yes, then you will probably have to retry a few times.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Chronocidal

[BeyondTheGrave]

Batamn Arkham Knight Announcment trailer:

Edited March 4, 2014 by BeyondTheGrave

[bob joe mac]

Picked up a Wii U and a few games, Donkey Kong Country tropical Freeze, Mario 3d world, wonderful 101, Wind Waker HD and it came with New Mario/Luigi U. But holy hell I know games are much more complicated and all but dear god is all the account setup and system updating really necessary I picked up a PS3 2 years ago and it took me over a hour to play a game and looks like the same deal with the Wii U. Well I can't wait to see what the PS4/XB1 updates will be like.

Sorry for the short rant while waiting for the system update to finish.

[mikeszekely]

Picked up a Wii U and a few games, Donkey Kong Country tropical Freeze, Mario 3d world, wonderful 101, Wind Waker HD and it came with New Mario/Luigi U. But holy hell I know games are much more complicated and all but dear god is all the account setup and system updating really necessary I picked up a PS3 2 years ago and it took me over a hour to play a game and looks like the same deal with the Wii U. Well I can't wait to see what the PS4/XB1 updates will be like.

Sorry for the short rant while waiting for the system update to finish.

Out of the box, they both have updates. I don't remember them being as bad as the Wii U's though. And once they're set up, they can download updates while sleeping. Once the update is downloaded, the PS4 has so far been quicker at applying it.

[Beltane70]

I'm rather ashamed to admit it, but I actually ran out of time in the normal mode of Lightning Returns and had to start over.

[Chronocidal]

Not surprising actually.. the uh.. learning curve on that game is more like a cliff.. unless you know exactly what you're doing, you probably won't beat normal mode. And even on easy, there are parts it wants you to do that will have you tearing your hair out because they're simply impossible on the first run. After a few runs through newgame+ though..

Btw.. the ending is probably screwiest thing I've seen in years. It seems like it's going the way you expect it for a bit, but then it takes a left turn into crazyville, and you wind up with a mindscrew ending that really reminds me of Chrono Cross. Not quite Gainax-style, because there isn't enough angst, but close.

Essentially.. take nuBSG, G-Gundam, Gurren Lagann, and Chrono Cross, throw them all in a blender, have Goku chug the mixture, and then hold a match to his backside while he farts the ending into the heavens. Yeah. It's one of those endings.

I can't say it was really bad, but the story really isn't the high point of the game. I do enjoy the combat system though, very reminiscent of some of the .hack games, what with abilities being partially linked to equipment, and having to setup equipment sets that can handle assorted enemy types.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Chronocidal

[anime52k8]

Not surprising actually.. the uh.. learning curve on that game is more like a cliff.. unless you know exactly what you're doing, you probably won't beat normal mode. And even on easy, there are parts it wants you to do that will have you tearing your hair out because they're simply impossible on the first run. After a few runs through newgame+ though..

Btw.. the ending is probably screwiest thing I've seen in years. It seems like it's going the way you expect it for a bit, but then it takes a left turn into crazyville, and you wind up with a mindscrew ending that really reminds me of Chrono Cross. Not quite Gainax-style, because there isn't enough angst, but close.

Essentially.. take nuBSG, G-Gundam, Gurren Lagann, and Chrono Cross, throw them all in a blender, have Goku chug the mixture, and then hold a match to his backside while he farts the ending into the heavens. Yeah. It's one of those endings.

I can't say it was really bad, but the story really isn't the high point of the game. I do enjoy the combat system though, very reminiscent of some of the .hack games, what with abilities being partially linked to equipment, and having to setup equipment sets that can handle assorted enemy types.

Now you have me intrigued, what the hell happened? I've got no intention of actually playing the game, you could just tell me.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

aaah i read too much i need to avoid this. i want to finish it on my own after slaving through the first one farming rare drops

[Chronocidal]

Basically.. the very very short version..

France. The end.

It's more complicated than that, but the ending just borders on complete nonsense given what had happened before it.

Sort of a non-spoiler spoiler.. outlining the ending, but not giving any details about characters or whatnot.

They're fully setup to go the "Lightning takes over for Etro" route, but she changes her mind at the last minute, and they wind up killing the main "god" in a purely G-Gundam-fashioned ultimate attack sort of way (all that was missing was the Burger King).. then all the souls that had died fly off into space to some other planet somewhere to be reborn. It really doesn't explain how the entire timeline suddenly got fixed.

The plot up to the ending seems pretty par for the course with this series, but the ending just goes off the deep end I think.

It does feel good to finish it though, the end boss is a fairly brutal fight the first time through the game. A non-spoiler hint though, I'd recommend skipping the "trials" before you fight it, they're much more difficult than the actual boss.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Chronocidal

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

Jack Tretton is stepping down from Sony:

http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/6/5478778/jack-tretton-steps-down-as-ceo-of-sony-computer-entertainment-america

[azrael]

Titanfall has fallen...

...AND you need to patch it because...

Titanfall (PC) impressions: Frenetically fun robot violence -- when the servers work

After connection glitches at launch, EA issues Titanfall patch overnight

Oh and you'll need at least 35GB of free space...just for uncompressed audio.