The NEW Game Journal

[MeshGearFox]

BTW, real reason why PSX-era games aren't retro: The indie scene isn't intentionally mimicking the art style of that era yet.

[Aeolus]

BTW, real reason why PSX-era games aren't retro: The indie scene isn't intentionally mimicking the art style of that era yet.

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2013/062813b.html

Too late.

(Although granted, this isn't so much of 'mimicking PSX era games' so much as 'blatantly ripping off assets from FFTA while claiming that they're just mimicking PSX era games' but its the thought that counts.)

[MeshGearFox]

No that's pretty much ripping PS2-era art styles. If they were going for PSX it'd look all Virtua Fighter 1.

[Darilon]

I have had the Mass Effect trilogy box set for a while and decided to start it last night. I have only just left the Citadel  but am having a blast. Combat is fun, even if it does remind me of a third-person Time Crisis. Driving is pretty boring and probably my least favourite part of the game.

[Ranadiel]

So finished Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 yesterday. I'm really glad I finally got that game knocked off my backlog so I don't have to dread it anymore. I have two thoughts about the game now though.

1. Dear god the Conquest Ending gives you complete tone whiplash. I....what? I don't understand how that ending was greenlit for this game. It feels so out of place and requires so much grinding so I don't think this is supposed to be the "bad" end. So I just don't get what its purpose is supposed to be.

2. I don't get whether this is supposed to be in the same continuity as the original. There certainly are some parts which seem to indicate it is such as it being mentioned that Arfoire threatened Planetune in the past. But Neptune meeting IF and Compa is completely different.....and the CPU candidates come completely out of nowhere. At least I know that Victory takes place in a different dimension. On a related note, the CPUs are basically already sisters, so what the heck is up with the CPU candidates in the first place? Where did they come from? What makes them "sisters" more than the other CPUs? Arggh I'm wasting too many brain cells trying to make a stupid game make sense. I just need to move on.

I guess next I'll be grinding in Cross Edge to try and get the platinum because I just checked my save from....whenever and I'm close enough that I might as well. Not sure what I'll get to after that.

[Starmongoose]

Akanbe and I learned to fear Annie Bot last night. We know true terror.

[ultra7k]

Phoning around looking for the Last of Us...Geez, it's sold out everywhere!

[Klutz64]

= Fuck the haters, Sakuraba shined with this OST; both of Waltz's battle themes sent tingles to my butt.

This made me want to learn violin.

GAMEZ:

- Finally beat Lavos in Chrono Trigger. I didn't remember him giving me a hard time the first time I played that game. Then I abused the hell out of Ayla's Triple Kick and Robo's Shock while keeping Frog on standby for heals and was reminded that no, he is not that hard.

- Just left Yu Liberte in Graces F and am heading towards my most hated boss fight in the boss fights I made it to the first time I played this game.

- Picked up a new copy of The Last of Us for the amazing price of two games I had no need for and 88 cents. Loving it so far even if it does suffer from Naughty Dog syndrome (Collectibles everywhere that NPCs constantly urge you not to get by just rushing the story forward).

[MeshGearFox]

I like Sakurab's work in SF3 so far Aaaaanyway.

Up to the switching station in SF3. I like how the plot is representing a Balkanian clusterfuck basically :D I wish the game gave you more save opportunities though some of the battles are kind of /lengthy/.

--- edit ---

Up to the Huline Jungle in Lands of Lore 2. I'm... not really enjoying this game very much. The first two dungeons were quite detailed and puzzley. This dungeon has just been a largely non-interactive maze and the first puzzle I couldn't solve because I couldn't even see what I was supposed to shoot at.

>:C

I think I'll... play Vagrant Story instead.

--- edit2 ---

LoL2 mostly just feels like a worse Realms of the Haunting I guess.

Managed to win one fight against someone on SF4 last night. Wish the netplay had a better... matchmaking service for putting you against someone closer to your skill level.

--- edit3 ---

Found Shalla in LoL2. I think I don't like oldschool PC games anymore :<

[Akanbe-]

Akanbe and I learned to fear Annie Bot last night. We know true terror.

"Hey look there's Annie we should probably be caref..."
*dies*

[sandiny0ursh0es]

Finally beat Twilight Princess, only took me 6 years! That makes two games I beat this year... lol

[Darilon]

Restarted Dragon Age Origins. I never really gave the game a fair chance when I first tried it. There was something that put me off but I could not say what it was. Having only done the Mages Origin Story, I decided to try the others. The Dalish felt the weakest as well as the shortest.I would probably place the Mages as my second favourite for the riddle contest if nothing else  but holy shit though, the Dwarf Noble Origin Story was awesome and outclasses all the others for me.

Code:

Bhelen completely outplayed me. I did not start suspecting him until I found Trian's signet ring. It seemed too likely and Trian played the villain too well but then again they did not really try to mask Howe's villainous aura either. Even then I did not suspect he went so far as to place two of his own men as my allies. This is the type of politics I love seeing in a game. It also helps that I left it until last meaning I had the Dwarf Commoner Origin Story already done, filling in some plot points I would have missed otherwise.

I had meant to play as a mage again as I find their combat more fun to play but I think I will stick with the Dwarf Noble and hopefully get into the next area after Lothering this time.

[Aeolus]

Finished chapter 12 in PxZ. Was about to eliminate the horse boss when I suddenly remembered that I now have access to a map attack and both bosses were already almost within mapping range of each other. Ended up burning 2 turns filling up my XP gauge and corralling both bosses towards each other, while making sure to only whittle them down to less than 10k in HP then I had Frank West/Lei-Lei nuke both of them for great justice loot. In addition to the aforementioned teams, I now have Ohgami/Sakura from Sakura Taisen, Dante/Demetri from DmC/Darkstalkers respectfully, Harken/Kaguya from the Endless Frontier games, Yuri/Estelle from ToV, and I'm just about to get Kurt(no.07)/Riela(no.13) from VC3, as well as Heihachi from the Tekken series, Sangar Zonvolt from the SRW OG games (and the Alpha games starting with Gaiden), and soon Valkyrie(no.17) from the Legend of Valkyrie games for the support units.

In a strange turn of events, I've briefly spent some time on Dawn of Mana today. This was entirely for testing garage sale acquisitions (also Tetris Plus but I needed something other than a PSX title (in really bad shape) on a PSlim2 to check memory card functions). For the sake of the argument I went and beat stage 1-1 on Hard mode and made it to the save point in 1-2. And for future reference, the game still sucks out loud.

[Klutz64]

Beat those two Nova Eagle things without anyone dying! Actually, I don't think I've used a single Life Bottle at all yet. Maybe I'm actually starting to understand this game. Plan to keep playing far into the night as I am really eager to beat this game. Not only in time for Xillia, but hopefully with a little time in between to take a short break from JRPGs.

[Jotacon]

Since it was on sale and there was a buy one get one half-off deal I finally picked up two games that I've wanted forever. I got Valkyria Chronicles and Soul Calibur V for $22. Valkyria Chronicles is extremely good, I love the art and gameplay. This game is as good as I thought it would be when it was released, but there was always other stuff in the way. I'm 9 chapters in and it has been tough, but fair. I've only lost one mission (the one with the huge tank with a million guns) and I thought Selvaria as backup was pretty bullshit and unfair, but the rest of it has been great.

Soul Calibur V is fun, but I don't think I'll put a lot of time to learn it. They still haven't made a game better than Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast which is disappointing. At least create-a-soul mode is super fun.