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

[Avaitor]

I did some pawn shop hunting today, and from most to least expensive, I got

Alan Wake
halo Reach
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed
Mass Effect 2

Do you need to play ME 1 to get into 2?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I did some pawn shop hunting today, and from most to least expensive, I got

Alan Wake
halo Reach
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed
Mass Effect 2

Great choices!

Whenever you get around to Reach, I recommend starting on Heroic difficulty, since Normal really doesn't do the game any justice and severely dumbs down the enemy AI.

Do you need to play ME 1 to get into 2?

To be honest, I haven't played anything more than the demo for ME2, though I did play and beat ME1 (which, personally I wasn't a fan of, but I am in the minority on that, so don't take my opinion to heart). That said, I do know for sure that ME2 does expand on the story set-up in the first game, so it'd probably help to have played it in order to follow the plot of the second game. I also know that ME2 allows you to import the character that you created from the first game into its story mode so that you can continue the story with the specific character that you created. To do this you just have to have beat ME1 and have save data of completing the game which the ME2 disc can pick up and read.

Of course, neither of these things are an absolute necessity to play ME2 since it is designed to stand on its own from a gameplay perspective, but I do imagine that it would help better flesh out the experience. I'm sure that Foggle would be able to go into much more detail about this, though.

[Avaitor]

I wanted to get the ME trilogy, but it's like $40 for the set, and you can easily find the games for less than $10 each. I heard that 2 was the best, so I got it first, but I think that I'll try to find the first before I start playing.

And I'll keep that in mind for Reach!

[Foggle]

Mass Effect 2 is definitely better if you play ME1 first, mostly because some of the default decisions the game makes for you are... stupid. Importing a clear file from the original is the best way to experience the game. The story itself is honestly pretty standalone, though. As for the first game, I do quite like it, but it's very dated. The gameplay isn't particularly enthralling and a lot of the cutscenes come across as robotic and overly expository. I see it mostly as necessary buildup to ME2, which is one of my favorite games of all time. Also, if you end up enjoying the game, I highly recommend the Overlord and Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC packs. Mass Effect 3 is pretty good, too, but the ending is notoriously awful, and some of the writing is definitely either rushed or lazy. I still haven't played any of the DLCs for it even though they're supposedly great. Just can't muster up the energy to care sadly.

Oh yeah, the best way to experience Sonic Racing is to get three friends over and play through the campaign in split-screen on the hardest difficulty. If even one of you wins the challenge, it counts, and the hilarious rage it induces makes for an excellent party game.

[Mustang]

Mass Effect 2 is also one of my favorites of all time (but I'm just a fan of the series in general) and as much as a chore ME1 can be I do recommend playing it to import a character.

USF4
Mainly been in training mode as Evil Ryu mainly because I've been talking about it so much as of late lol. 1 of the reasons I like Dudley so much (other than being a gentleman and hitting like a truck) is because he has resets and counterhit setups for days. Well Evil Ryu similar (outside of the gentleman), but I think Evil Ryu's is a bit dirtier because they're harder to see and he's hitting low for the reset but then you can't tell if he's gonna crossup or cross under.

I've also been watching a lot of Ryu gameplay (Sekiganryu and Daigo, mainly. A little bit of Wa Solid as well). Seeing high level Ryu gameplay is a treat because then you get to see some clean Street Fighter.

Edit:

Moving on from Street Fighter for a bit.

Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator
Johnny, nuff said. Nah, I'm having fun learning this guy even though mist canceling takes a bit of time to get down. I'm looking at other top level Johnny players and I'm always impressed with the character because of all the swag. Dudley's the classy king and Johnny's the sway/style king. From the combo's all the way down to his colors, he just oozes swag. I know he just got nerfed and people are still saying he's good, and even if he wasn't I don't think I was gonna switch to another character (although I can probably identify with Sol more) because of how fun Johnny is to play.

Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition
I've had this game for a long time now, but I'm now finally getting around to playing it. If you care at all about rankings then I advise not to use Dark Knight Nero/Dante/Vergil. (I was getting no higher than a C but the board would be something like SAA or AAB) They are too good, and if you're looking for a challenge do not bother playing human. I only started on Human because it's been so long since I've played DMC4 and forgot how to play, but when it all came back to me the stages became a breeze. I also like to feel dominant as well, haha. Not sure how long I'll be playing this though. A lot of games don't hold my interest too long before I move back to playing just fighting games.

[Avaitor]

So I haven't really talked about any of the games I've bought... because I haven't had the chance to play them yet. My controller can not, will not work. I can't tell if it's battery won't charge, it can't connect, or what. But I've even gotten a new controller, and I'm still having the same issue.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So I haven't really talked about any of the games I've bought... because I haven't had the chance to play them yet. My controller can not, will not work. I can't tell if it's battery won't charge, it can't connect, or what. But I've even gotten a new controller, and I'm still having the same issue.

Maybe the port is faulty or has gone bad. That once happened on the original XBOX that I owned (and I mean the first one, not the 360).

[Nel_Annette]

Bravely Default - Still taking it slow. The Final Fantasy curse still plagues me, as I'm losing interest quick.

Xenoblade Chronicles X - Beautiful game. Fun to explore these big areas. Story pales in comparison to the first game, and the music, while good when there's no one singing, doesn't really compare either. Hate the forced multiplayer. I just lost three hours of gameplay because I was disconnected from the server, and instead of just putting me in offline mode like it did the last two times, it rebooted the whole damn thing. Autosave would have been a nice feature. Probably not going to touch this for a few days because of that.

[Kiddington]

Planet Robobot is worth a few hours if you haven't given it a shot yet. It's pretty standard Kirby fare, and was built on the Triple Deluxe engine so it plays almost identically to that -- IMO, not a bad thing. Some nice new copy abilities (Jet Kirby is back!  ), the mech-suits are a fun replacement for the invincibility seed from TD, and the somewhat-darker-than usual storyline is a nice change of pace for these games.

Nothing earth-shattering, but it's fun. Actually, I don't think I've actively found fault in any Kirby game since Amazing Mirror. It's a series built off of such a simplistic formula, but one they really don't have to deviate from to make work.

[Mustang]

Mass Effect 2
Since it was last brought up I've been playing it as of late. It's as good as I once remember, but this time I've died a lot more times this time around. My reaction timing is really off. I think I died about 3 times just on recruiting Garrus alone (mainly when you are shutting/locking the doors). I know it's on my end because I never recalled having a tough time at such an early stage of the game, at least on the 360 version. Not that I'm complaining about it, but it just felt weird having to struggle so early when my struggles usually come around the time you get to Horizon. Speaking of which, recruiting Tali and her loyalty mission. I never felt so scared in Mass Effect until playing through Tali's loyalty mission because of my squad being Garrus (He doesn't have Overload at the moment) and Tali. I knew I screwed up the moment Garrus died in the first fire fight within the first minute. Anyway, I made it through it, but that was a lesson learned lol. I am playing this on the PS3 and while it's good it's very janky. I had to do a hard reset a couple of times because the game freezing.

I plan to get through this series again before the next Mass Effect release.

I'm also playing USF4, 3rd Strike and GG:XrdR. I am getting more and more back to playing USF4 and 3rd Strike heavily again so other games may end up on the back burner yet again. Once I upgrade my internet I'll start playing online again.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I got to play some Overwatch for the first time.

It's easy to see why it's so popular. The game is really tight. My best characters were McCree and Hanzo, which shouldn't surprise anyone who knows how I play these games. Wait for the moment, and strike hard!

[Foggle]

McCree is my boy. I love everything about his character and play-style. I pretty much main him, Tracer, Roadhog, and Zenyatta at this point, with a little Junkrat, D. Va, and Pharah thrown in there for good measure.

Truly a great game. Probably the only multiplayer FPS that's ever held my attention for this long.

[Mustang]

Went back to playing Warriors Orochi 3: Ultimate. Been under a lot of stress as of late (work related) and haven't really found a good means to release some of it. Don't seem to be working as much as I'd like (or used to) but I am having fun with it. Trying to find a 3rd member for my team of Ryu Hayabusa and Zhou Tai, but at the same time I don't want to burn myself out on them 2 either so I switch to Zhao Yun and Xu Shu (I think?) from time to time. I'm also still unlocking characters at the moment as well.

I also have The Witcher 3 coming soon. I've always been curious about the game but never really cared to get into it until now. I figured since there was a GotY release of it why not. Even now I'm kinda regretting it, but at the same time I do want to give it a chance.

[Pharass]

Been dividing my time between two independent adventure-games:Kentucky Route Zero and Dropsy and find both immensely enjoyable (for different reasons). Dropsy in particular, reminds me of one of the classic LucasArts adventures from the genre's golden age.
I just hope the current clown-problem doesn't have a negative impact on the game's sales.

[Mustang]

So I bought Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 last Tuesday, and officially beat the game last night around 10:00. Fun game no doubt. It becomes even better when you got other people involved.

Right off the bat I noticed that you level up extremely fast. When I first started the game trying to get used to everything (not much to get used to since the controls are fairly the same), by the time I called it a night my character was already at level 18. The next day I played my brother-in-law for a bit and by the time we finished playing I was at level 22 and then I called it a night at level 30. Thursday rolls around and I'm eager to get Super Saiyan and by the time I got SSJ I was already at level 50. Long story short, I got to level 80 yesterday (capping point). My character in Xenoverse 1 still haven't reached 80 and I've had that game for a year now I believe and here in XV2 I already topped at 80.

Some people are saying that the control feels better, and believe it or not, I feel like XV1 felt better. To me it feels like XV2 feels a bit too loose to the point where the buttons feel unresponsive while XV1, the controls feels tight.

There are some bugs that need to be weeded out as well. I completed one rift quest but it keeps on repeating. Speaking of bugs, when playing online for some reason some combos that you hit offline tend to drop when you're online. I lost a lot of games because of that too.

A lot of these PQ's (parallel quest) are very easy, on some of these PQ's you get some Time Patrollers that show up and my goodness there's a spike in difficulty when they pop up. PQ#4 is a very easy mission because of who you're fighting (and I believe they are at lvl 10) and then at some point you'd can choose to fight some time patrollers and they are at lvl 80 (WTF!!!!!!). When I found that out, it's like really...? I was already using up my healing items on a very easy quest because of that battle.

Money this time seems to be scarce now. In XV1 I got up to about 2,000,000,000 zeni, while here in XV2 I can barely crack 100,000 zeni. Trying to save up for outfits and halve of these outfits (the stats) are not to my liking. I'm going for a heavy striker and ki blast character but the stats for clothes are still iffy and I'm not liking it. On top of that you still cannot change the color on some outfits (I want to change Vegito's clothes to all black dammit)

Overall the game is fun though. Nothing great, but it's a fun game. I'm not a completionist by at all, but there are somethings I want to see.

I'll be going back to Street Fighter soon enough.