What Are You Currently Playing? 6.65: Neighbor of the Beast

[gunswordfist]

i started secret of mana early this morning.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, the Telltale Game of Thrones game just released today. I've been watching videos of it on YouTube, and the story seems pretty decent so far, but not quite on the level of quality of the show or the novels. Still, it has me intrigues to keep watching more, and the good thing about point and click adventures is that you can just enjoy them as a story and don't actually need to "play" them, as they are essentially made to be watched, at heart, or at least the Telltale ones are.

[gunswordfist]

mon. night or tues. early morning i finally beat red of chaos. i leveled up enough (97) to be able to take off havel's ring and use the ring of favor or whatever along with the steel protection ring. i believe that's when i got my hp over 1000. i used the sunlight maggot to find the covetous silver ring afterwards. yeah, i could have really used that earlier. i also got that four kings guard to see some light, got thanked by the fire keeper, found the fire keeper soul in anor londo and found someone dead.

[gunswordfist]

i got the chaos fire ember and joined the cat covenant. good to change covenants after giving the stone dragon about 2 dozen dragon scales and still staying at just +1 path of the dragon.

[gunswordfist]

i think i am going to break.

[gunswordfist]

i finally beat scaleless! after i scoured the earth, found 4 different merchants i missed, among other things, i did it!

[gunswordfist]

i beat dark souls, got the to link the fire ending and the first thing i fought, got killed by and killed in lordron was the giant dragon in valley of drakes. awesome.

[Nel_Annette]

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire. Somehow, being on the internet as much as I am, I didn't have the new version of Mauville spoiled for me. It caught me by genuine surprise, and I really like what they've done.

Though I'm guessing now that the Hoenn games' place in the timeline has been retconned? Not that the timeline of Pokemon has ever mattered but I have noticed some references to Kalos and some humorous throwaway lines about things being "different than they were ten years ago".

I also love the trainer portraits when battles start. The basically just recreated the old sprite designs and poses in Sugimori art styles, and I find those portraits fantastic. As for the main characters, gym leaders, and evil teams, I still find a lot of the redesigns a bit over the top and ridiculous compared to the originals.

Though Lisia can be as fabulous as she wants to be. 

[talonmalon333]

I decided to take another stab at Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Huge step up from the original in every conceivable way. It's almost crazy thinking about how much of the Metal Gear gameplay was set into place with this game. It plays exactly like Metal Gear Solid, but in 8-bit and with the 2D restrictions. Whereas Metal Gear has aged badly, Metal Gear 2 is still a shining 8-bit classic.

[gunswordfist]

i need to check that out.

[talonmalon333]

Campbell: Look in the software manual for the tap code instructions.

*Looks into the Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence manual. Sees nothing.*

Nice going with your ports, Konami.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Wow, I forgot how hard Hard Mode was in Zero 1. I'm scraping by with B ranks.

[Nel_Annette]

More Alpha Sapphire. The Eon Flute is the greatest thing ever and something like this should be included in every game here on out. There's a lot to say about the game, both good and bad, but overall, I'm enjoying it. Anyway, I'm playing the Delta episode and Zinnia, annoying bitch that she is, just dropped a bomb that Black and White had already hinted at.

Spoiler

All the games are canon. Each version is canon. They're all in different alternate universes. AS/OR takes place at the same point in time as the originals did (so yeah, the Hoenn games and the Kanto games with Red are still the earliest ones chronologically, then Johto/Sinnoh, then Unova and Kalos), but AS/OR are taking place in a universe where the war 3000 years ago happened and Mega Evolution exists. Generations 1-5 basically take place in universes where the war never happened and Mega Evolution never existed.

There are two versions of Unova, one in which technology thrived and one where old traditional ways prevailed. But people in Black City know about the alternate Unova's White Forest and vice versa.

The differences for AS/OR Hoenn are basically which team had the advantage of Zinnia helping them awaken the primal Pokemon. Otherwise, they're both evil. In the original games, one team is evil while the other is good, and in the Emerald universe, both are evil, but Zinnia has no part in it at all (and Maxie realizes that what both teams are doing is wrong first and it ultimately becomes a race to stop Archie).

In AS/OR, Zinnia stops the Mossdeep Space Center from warping the oncoming meteor into another dimension because it will warp into a R/S/E universe and destroy that Hoenn. She basically says as much.

So little differences, big differences, it's all canon. Red and Leaf are champions, Brendan and May are Norman's kid or Birch's depending on the universe, both Steven and Wallace are the Hoenn champion, and there is a version of Kalos without Mega Evolution or an ancient weapon that inspired Lysandre to create Team Flare in the first place.

My mind is blown. 

[close]

[Foggle]

I decided to take another stab at Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Huge step up from the original in every conceivable way. It's almost crazy thinking about how much of the Metal Gear gameplay was set into place with this game. It plays exactly like Metal Gear Solid, but in 8-bit and with the 2D restrictions. Whereas Metal Gear has aged badly, Metal Gear 2 is still a shining 8-bit classic.

I don't think Metal Gear (MSX) has aged badly at all, but Metal Gear 2 sure is amazing. Probably my second favorite game in the series after MGS3.

Campbell: Look in the software manual for the tap code instructions.

*Looks into the Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence manual. Sees nothing.*

Nice going with your ports, Konami.

I believe the tap codes actually were in the PS2 Subsistence manual, but yeah, Konami removed them from the HD collection's manual for some reason. It's almost as if they don't want to acknowledge the inclusion of Metal Gear 1 & 2 in the collection, considering they aren't mentioned anywhere on the box and you don't get any trophies for playing them.

[talonmalon333]

I don't think Metal Gear (MSX) has aged badly at all, but Metal Gear 2 sure is amazing. Probably my second favorite game in the series after MGS3.

Metal Gear is still a good game, but it feels a bit too primitive now, I think. The gameplay isn't yet developed, and the enemy AI isn't much. It makes the stealth feel very archaic, with little substance beyond "Hide behind this wall". There were also some times where I had to look online to figure out what to do.

Metal Gear 2, on the other hand, could be converted into an 8-bit remake of Metal Gear Solid with some tweaking in the level design.

I believe the tap codes actually were in the PS2 Subsistence manual, but yeah, Konami removed them from the HD collection's manual for some reason. It's almost as if they don't want to acknowledge the inclusion of Metal Gear 1 & 2 in the collection, considering they aren't mentioned anywhere on the box and you don't get any trophies for playing them.

I think the tap codes were included in early Subsistence manuals. I got my copy a few years after its release. I looked all over the manual and couldn't find anything. In fact, it barely talks about the MSX games at all in the manuals. Seems like they lost the desire to acknowledge those games even before the HD collection.

By the way, I got up to that helicopter boss and took a break from the game for a day. I'm not sure if my bullets are even hiding that thing, and its missiles kill me quickly.