I've already started my draft run. Second to start, by the looks of things. Should be fun, considering the units I've got. Managed to draft the following units, based on chronological availability:
Rush
Sandy
Baulson
Marty
Gabriel (why I'd torture myself with this unit, I'd never know)
Faye
Nora
Perneth
Beatrice
Adventurer Jorgen (Bandanna, Boots, Letter)
Acokus
Liza
Leshau
Ynfry
Paris
Zolean
Yugo
Snievan
I've also hired Neales and Chamberland to help out for the time being. Don't know if I'm going to hire any more soldiers, but I have 2 more slots I can probably fill. Not that it's necessary since the team is pretty much filled to capacity until hitting the second half of the game anyways. Might pick up a Traps soldier and a Potions soldier seeing as how I'm severely lacking in Bards (realized that I locked myself out of Robert and his crew a little while after I declared that I will be going for "At Hatred's End").
For Rush, I'm going for the Fencer class. More specifically, I'll be locking him into Adept Fencer for as long as possible. Maybe even proving that the class isn't terrible and that you don't need Legendary anything to get through the game. But then again, you wouldn't reach Legendary in quite a few classes when you're going for a true Low BR run in the first place~
His equipment will likely be a Shielding Hawkwind/Might Splitter combo. Sacrificing a little bit of a constant damage bonus for potential spike damage since I'm going to be training OH anyways. I'll likely end up upgrading to the Shielding variant all at once to avoid the Speed modifier. Accessories are still undecided, but will likely be using a few Remnants for their growth boosts. May go with dual Black Belts when it comes to the scoring, but we'll see. Not sure if I'll be using the accessory clone trick on anyone... Faye and Ynfry are practically begging for the Black Belts because of using DW.
As for progress, made it up to the Numor Mine events without too much trouble and without upgrading anything! Woo! The beginning segments were still about as easy as I'd remembered them. Floundered around in Gaslin and Robelia trying to get Pagus and Blocter's unions KO'd before the end of the fights to lower BR EXP a little bit. Didn't quite go as planned, but that's fine. There's still plenty of room later on to further optimize, but a good start is always appreciated. Torgal's union didn't go down during Dillmoor, which was a shame. Got careless around Blackdale and had to redo it once because I completely forgot about stocking up on Herbs ingredients. Almost went through the entire stock gathered from Robelia, Gaslin, and Dillmoor. Almost forgot that you could just slip right by one of the Skull Scavengers as it lifts off from the ground. The Fiery Idol took a few tries because I refused to leave the area to upgrade their equipment. I had 3 units, didn't see much reason to do so, nor should I have to.
Then ran towards Elysion, did/skipped all the story stuff, then ended up in the Catacombs. Which I promptly exited to start exploring, much to David's annoyance. Picked up whoever I could pick up (minus Gabriel for now), along with the 2 soldiers mentioned above. Catacombs were easy enough with Perneth and Chamberland taking out the larger unions with their Hexes. Sandy and Baulson still need to get their revive arts. Might take a little while though. Had a little fun running around trying to get them killed. Managed to avoid all the Landworms, something I hadn't done in quite a while. Normally, I'd just kill them and then move on. But since it's a fresh run, thought I'd try to optimize the early game as much as possible. Team wasn't optimal for linking the 4 Albic Qsiti at the end, so it was 2 at a time. It went from frustrating to too easy... Oh well. At least I'm at Numor Mine now. Thinking of grabbing the Simarrionne for Rush since I do need to start working on those OH and DW levels for Fencer. Almost time to recruit Jorgen too, which is good. Getting another healer is always a good thing, and it's right after a party upgrade.
Also noting down some speed-run related things. Playing casually and tweaking a few things, already at Numor Mine after ~3 hours. I can probably get that down to <2 if I didn't screw up some basic movements and without distractions (seriously, I was playing around with the FOV for a bit). I'll have to map it out a little better at a later point, but it does seem possible to beat it in less than probably 12 hours for any%. No way am I going to check out 100%... I don't think there's an efficient route for that one at all unless you go NG+.
I have the best/worst luck ever. First time entering a few areas... and there's a rare monster ready to fight! Too bad I only had Baulson/Rush/Sandy at the time. Can't take on rare monsters like that! I'll be back to kill you all... Just you wait!
16 May 2014
11 May 2014
Been thinking again...
So the idea of doing a speed run of Last Remnant has crossed my mind a few times before, but I don't know if it's possible to do so in a feasible amount of time with cutting down as much of the RNG as possible. The biggest issue is the exponential enemy growth starting from the second half onward. The game doesn't give you enough units to comfortably deal with that sudden level spike once the Six Bases comes into the picture. It's still possible to take it down with what's already available, although it will take some creative approaches (single unit revive unions, for one). A lot of the units are also locked away behind quests, so that's another issue to contend with. Using Mr. Diggs can end up wasting more time than just opening up new areas and looting them. Generic leaders cost money, which will affect funds for using IAs, so resorting to soldiers helps alleviate that... But then comes the issue of soldier stat growth: they're not very strong, and they take a lot longer to get up to par with the leaders. Equipment upgrades are also going to be sparse, so units will have to rely on using requested items. This can profoundly affect the sovani as the only request available to them is the Leraje Princeps from the Ivory Peaks for Torgal... but they can make do with what they start with. At least on Normal mode.
There's also the issue of any% vs. 100% completion. Going for 100% can be incredibly deadly to the team since the HP and stat spike is crazy. There's also when we start the timer. The Four Generals of Athlum actually get some EXP from the very first battle in the game, but it's a scripted fight. Depending on how powerful the rig is, there could also be a lot of slowdown just from the Gae Bolg's firing sequence. If going for 100%, what would be the fastest way to clear out quests? In a way, there isn't much you can do about it since you have to take them on one-by-one based on the client. About the only ones you can do concurrently are "Amnesia", "The Hero" + "The War of a Thousand Years", "Darien", "The Secret Letter", and several others. Those are the only ones off the top of my head...
Of course, there's also the issue of "100%". Probably the best definition of 100% of the game would be completion of all quests, which nets the player the "Dream Edge", which can be displayed from the inventory ("At Hatred's End" optional, but should be indicated whether or not it's been completed). Another definition would be 100% quest completion and 100% guild task completion. That one will definitely take a lot longer due to RNG for spawning rares. Wouldn't do that for a speed run. Ever. And then the absolute worst, which is what I've managed to accomplish, is 100% quests/guild tasks/rare monsters killed/all DLC completed. That too way too long... but I needed the data. Might settle on something soon-ish. But for now, I think we're going to work with draft runs.
In other news... Sunset Overdrive is probably the only X1 game that interests me so far, if only for the absurd colour palette and silly guns they have. Getting a mix of inFAMOUS (parkour and traversal speed aspects), Ratchet and Clank (from the same developers!), Borderlands (the crazy guns) from the trailers I've seen so far. Maybe a bit of Dead Rising and L4D because of the silly zombies and variety of them. I have this feeling that I'll have a PS4 and X1 before the generation is over... Not too sure about the Wii U yet. I'll have to gauge interest and other things. I'll probably end up picking one up for the Fire Emblem X MegaTen crossover. Just because. And I'm still going to make fun of the X1 because of its name. It'll be an interesting system, to say the least. We'll see how DX12 works out for it. If it can handle it.
There's also the issue of any% vs. 100% completion. Going for 100% can be incredibly deadly to the team since the HP and stat spike is crazy. There's also when we start the timer. The Four Generals of Athlum actually get some EXP from the very first battle in the game, but it's a scripted fight. Depending on how powerful the rig is, there could also be a lot of slowdown just from the Gae Bolg's firing sequence. If going for 100%, what would be the fastest way to clear out quests? In a way, there isn't much you can do about it since you have to take them on one-by-one based on the client. About the only ones you can do concurrently are "Amnesia", "The Hero" + "The War of a Thousand Years", "Darien", "The Secret Letter", and several others. Those are the only ones off the top of my head...
Of course, there's also the issue of "100%". Probably the best definition of 100% of the game would be completion of all quests, which nets the player the "Dream Edge", which can be displayed from the inventory ("At Hatred's End" optional, but should be indicated whether or not it's been completed). Another definition would be 100% quest completion and 100% guild task completion. That one will definitely take a lot longer due to RNG for spawning rares. Wouldn't do that for a speed run. Ever. And then the absolute worst, which is what I've managed to accomplish, is 100% quests/guild tasks/rare monsters killed/all DLC completed. That too way too long... but I needed the data. Might settle on something soon-ish. But for now, I think we're going to work with draft runs.
In other news... Sunset Overdrive is probably the only X1 game that interests me so far, if only for the absurd colour palette and silly guns they have. Getting a mix of inFAMOUS (parkour and traversal speed aspects), Ratchet and Clank (from the same developers!), Borderlands (the crazy guns) from the trailers I've seen so far. Maybe a bit of Dead Rising and L4D because of the silly zombies and variety of them. I have this feeling that I'll have a PS4 and X1 before the generation is over... Not too sure about the Wii U yet. I'll have to gauge interest and other things. I'll probably end up picking one up for the Fire Emblem X MegaTen crossover. Just because. And I'm still going to make fun of the X1 because of its name. It'll be an interesting system, to say the least. We'll see how DX12 works out for it. If it can handle it.
17 Apr 2014
I'm maybe a Smoke Conduit
Still thinking about getting that PS4... but I don't know if I want to get a 1st-gen machine. It's still going to be a long while before I get one. Probably at least 2 years. Then again, I got the PS3 in 2009, about 3 years after its launch (and right before they announced the slim model). I think I did about the same with the PS2, nabbing one around 2002-ish. So if the pattern continues, I'll be seeing one in about 2016... And hopefully this time I'll get something after a hardware revision!
When not dealing with classes (or sometimes in them if I'm bored enough) or assignments, been reading a fair amount of game dev stuff. Found a game dev magazine with all the issues online for free + code snippets when I went looking for the original inFAMOUS's postmortem since the one for Second Son was rather fascinating. In fact, I have 2 versions of the postmortem: one with just the slides, and another with a few notes per slide (not a lot, but a few interesting tidbits). Now if only I could get my hands on the presentation about their particle effects system... That one's the most intriguing, and it's only open to GDC Vault subscribers, which is quite expensive.
Post-release support for the game has been rather impressive. Just from watching the streams, you can tell that it's a launch window game with its mission structures and the like (as much as I like the series so far, it really does look more like a playable tech demo). Sure, there are a lot of fine details and the like, but some things just don't seem to gel properly. It almost seems like the game is meant to be played as a hero based on cutscenes and dialogue. Content is somewhat sparse, save for the Paper Trail and potential "Festival of Blood"-sized DLC. Quite a few complaints about the side-missions, and I don't blame them. But adding in things like Photo Mode, a HUD-less option, 30fps cap, etc? Makes me want to play the game even more. It shows that the developer, Sucker Punch, has been listening to criticisms and working to improve their game. It helps having one of their patch notes say that their art director pulled something while scrambling for the spare controller. Amusing, although something like that should have been accounted for since we're now playing with primarily wireless controllers. Well, they're listening, and that's what matters.
For April Fool's? There were a few fun ones, like 16-bit Thief from S-E's JP site. Google and Nintendo teamed up for a Pokémon themed challenge. Managed to catch all of them by the 13th because I had caught 5+ before the first deadline. Took screens of Mew on my tablet (found it in the Amazon). It was relatively painless, although I would've preferred to catch them all on the phone as it's a faster device. Still, happy to have caught 'em all~ Another one that amused me was Sony JP's "travel" campaign... which included a 4 day tour of Seattle courtesy of Delsin. With the D.U.P. still there. That can only end well.
Also finally decided to crack open the actual testing kit. Unfortunately, my screwy sense of smell worked against me this time. If you know me IRL and were present in that bio class, you might remember that I had absolutely no reaction in Gr.11 when it came to the digestion lab with the incubator, mock intestines, and enzymes. In fact, you had to put me really damn close to the incubator in order for me to smell anything. Well, taking a whiff of swatch 3 almost did me in for the night. I still don't know what the hell that was supposed to be and I'm not about to find out. Swatches 1 and 2 reminded me of various cleaning fluids, so it didn't bother me as much. No idea how they're determining the results though. Did sort of notice how they were graphing the answers. Maybe I'll create a dummy account and spam a bunch of answers to see what happens. Plus, I want to save those trippy pics they had for the online-only version. The ink splotches were quite nice though.
The funniest thing about the test? My results didn't change in the least. It was still 92% and Smoke. In a way, I suppose it's accurate considering how much I like fire.
Added a couple of things to my Steam wishlist. Trials Fusion was just too funny to pass up after seeing a trailer for it not too long ago. You see some pretty good gameplay for a bit... then you hear screams. Then you see slo-mo crashes for some time. And they were hilarious. Saw a few livestreams and some beta test footage (or is it demo footage?) for the PS4 version, and it looks really fun. Lots of physics and face-planting.
By the way? Coconut Oolong? Ew. I think it's either the oolong or the lemongrass. Something's rather off-putting about this blend. Had to force myself to finish it. It smelled quite nice though... Shame that it fell on its face like that. The coconut seemed a little bit off as well. Almost too much on the artificial flavouring. And I think I have to watch when I can steep a cup of the Coffee Cake blend. It apparently makes someone nauseous. I guess I can only have it while I'm hanging out in an open area. Like a certain office...
When not dealing with classes (or sometimes in them if I'm bored enough) or assignments, been reading a fair amount of game dev stuff. Found a game dev magazine with all the issues online for free + code snippets when I went looking for the original inFAMOUS's postmortem since the one for Second Son was rather fascinating. In fact, I have 2 versions of the postmortem: one with just the slides, and another with a few notes per slide (not a lot, but a few interesting tidbits). Now if only I could get my hands on the presentation about their particle effects system... That one's the most intriguing, and it's only open to GDC Vault subscribers, which is quite expensive.
Post-release support for the game has been rather impressive. Just from watching the streams, you can tell that it's a launch window game with its mission structures and the like (as much as I like the series so far, it really does look more like a playable tech demo). Sure, there are a lot of fine details and the like, but some things just don't seem to gel properly. It almost seems like the game is meant to be played as a hero based on cutscenes and dialogue. Content is somewhat sparse, save for the Paper Trail and potential "Festival of Blood"-sized DLC. Quite a few complaints about the side-missions, and I don't blame them. But adding in things like Photo Mode, a HUD-less option, 30fps cap, etc? Makes me want to play the game even more. It shows that the developer, Sucker Punch, has been listening to criticisms and working to improve their game. It helps having one of their patch notes say that their art director pulled something while scrambling for the spare controller. Amusing, although something like that should have been accounted for since we're now playing with primarily wireless controllers. Well, they're listening, and that's what matters.
For April Fool's? There were a few fun ones, like 16-bit Thief from S-E's JP site. Google and Nintendo teamed up for a Pokémon themed challenge. Managed to catch all of them by the 13th because I had caught 5+ before the first deadline. Took screens of Mew on my tablet (found it in the Amazon). It was relatively painless, although I would've preferred to catch them all on the phone as it's a faster device. Still, happy to have caught 'em all~ Another one that amused me was Sony JP's "travel" campaign... which included a 4 day tour of Seattle courtesy of Delsin. With the D.U.P. still there. That can only end well.
Also finally decided to crack open the actual testing kit. Unfortunately, my screwy sense of smell worked against me this time. If you know me IRL and were present in that bio class, you might remember that I had absolutely no reaction in Gr.11 when it came to the digestion lab with the incubator, mock intestines, and enzymes. In fact, you had to put me really damn close to the incubator in order for me to smell anything. Well, taking a whiff of swatch 3 almost did me in for the night. I still don't know what the hell that was supposed to be and I'm not about to find out. Swatches 1 and 2 reminded me of various cleaning fluids, so it didn't bother me as much. No idea how they're determining the results though. Did sort of notice how they were graphing the answers. Maybe I'll create a dummy account and spam a bunch of answers to see what happens. Plus, I want to save those trippy pics they had for the online-only version. The ink splotches were quite nice though.
The funniest thing about the test? My results didn't change in the least. It was still 92% and Smoke. In a way, I suppose it's accurate considering how much I like fire.
Added a couple of things to my Steam wishlist. Trials Fusion was just too funny to pass up after seeing a trailer for it not too long ago. You see some pretty good gameplay for a bit... then you hear screams. Then you see slo-mo crashes for some time. And they were hilarious. Saw a few livestreams and some beta test footage (or is it demo footage?) for the PS4 version, and it looks really fun. Lots of physics and face-planting.
By the way? Coconut Oolong? Ew. I think it's either the oolong or the lemongrass. Something's rather off-putting about this blend. Had to force myself to finish it. It smelled quite nice though... Shame that it fell on its face like that. The coconut seemed a little bit off as well. Almost too much on the artificial flavouring. And I think I have to watch when I can steep a cup of the Coffee Cake blend. It apparently makes someone nauseous. I guess I can only have it while I'm hanging out in an open area. Like a certain office...
26 Mar 2014
I has a beanie
So it took only about a month for the physical testing kit to come in for the inFAMOUS Paper Trail ARG. I had already done the online test while the site was slightly broken and had gotten 92% Pressurized Water. It was later corrected to Smoke, but I do have to wonder what all the different powers are. Maybe it's really just the ones that were listed in the other sites linked to Paper Trail. Either way, it might have to wait until the weekend before I take a poke at it. Got lots of things to take care of this week.
Oh, and I picked up the Collector's Edition. The beanie was inside the box~ ...Unfortunately, it was also kinda broken. So, I fixed it. Kinda badly. Have I ever mentioned that I suck at things like sewing? Something must have happened with the knit and stitching, because it was starting to fall apart at one quadrant. It was easy enough to patch up since it was easy to see all the loops. Granted, the glasses had to come off to really get in there, but at least it's wearable without fear of it unravelling on me. Hopefully. It's actually quite comfortable. Come to think of it, it's really the first hat that I've found comfortable and wouldn't mind wearing. Minus the static and hat hair, of course.
Everything else in the box was kinda cute. Not sure if I want to use the buttons. I like having them, never been a fan of displaying my fandoms in public. Which I suppose is somewhat amusing when you see that I have Sigma Harmonics on the phone and an Airu on my bag (with 2 finger slings; it's pretty funny though, I like the Airu/Felynes but dislike playing Monster Hunter). Or maybe not as Sigma Harmonics was never localized and was a pretty weird game, and the Airu is modelled after their PSP spin-off version. So those not familiar with imports wouldn't recognize them. Hell, one of my profs mistook the Airu for a weird pants Pokémon.
For the game itself... Can't even play it~ No PS4 yet. I had already watched a few streams a week before the game was officially out, so that satisfied my curiosity a bit. Kinda disappointed that the game is so short though, and a bit lacking on the karmic missions. Oh well. It was released within a year of the console's first year, so I can kinda forgive that. Hopefully the next one builds even further, although I'm expecting some interesting additions once their planned DLC is out. I've been hearing that the Paper Trail ARG is really well implemented. I'll have to check out this 42 Entertainment company... Now if only the site would stop dying every now and then~
Also checked out the trophy data. Looks like it'll be another easy Platinum. Had absolutely no trouble with 2's, and this looks even easier. And looks like Good is winning over Evil. Again. But from what I've seen from the playthroughs, it doesn't seem quite right to have Delsin go evil anyways... Evil may be more fun, but character-wise, it doesn't seem quite right (the neutral cutscenes are quite guilty of that). Well, I'll have to play for myself because of dropping in and out of livestreams. Gotta love those District Showdown interactions though. Wish there was a little more to it.
By the way? "Scraping the Sky"? Awesome track. And I maintain my opinion of Delsin being adorkable.
Oh, and I picked up the Collector's Edition. The beanie was inside the box~ ...Unfortunately, it was also kinda broken. So, I fixed it. Kinda badly. Have I ever mentioned that I suck at things like sewing? Something must have happened with the knit and stitching, because it was starting to fall apart at one quadrant. It was easy enough to patch up since it was easy to see all the loops. Granted, the glasses had to come off to really get in there, but at least it's wearable without fear of it unravelling on me. Hopefully. It's actually quite comfortable. Come to think of it, it's really the first hat that I've found comfortable and wouldn't mind wearing. Minus the static and hat hair, of course.
Everything else in the box was kinda cute. Not sure if I want to use the buttons. I like having them, never been a fan of displaying my fandoms in public. Which I suppose is somewhat amusing when you see that I have Sigma Harmonics on the phone and an Airu on my bag (with 2 finger slings; it's pretty funny though, I like the Airu/Felynes but dislike playing Monster Hunter). Or maybe not as Sigma Harmonics was never localized and was a pretty weird game, and the Airu is modelled after their PSP spin-off version. So those not familiar with imports wouldn't recognize them. Hell, one of my profs mistook the Airu for a weird pants Pokémon.
For the game itself... Can't even play it~ No PS4 yet. I had already watched a few streams a week before the game was officially out, so that satisfied my curiosity a bit. Kinda disappointed that the game is so short though, and a bit lacking on the karmic missions. Oh well. It was released within a year of the console's first year, so I can kinda forgive that. Hopefully the next one builds even further, although I'm expecting some interesting additions once their planned DLC is out. I've been hearing that the Paper Trail ARG is really well implemented. I'll have to check out this 42 Entertainment company... Now if only the site would stop dying every now and then~
Also checked out the trophy data. Looks like it'll be another easy Platinum. Had absolutely no trouble with 2's, and this looks even easier. And looks like Good is winning over Evil. Again. But from what I've seen from the playthroughs, it doesn't seem quite right to have Delsin go evil anyways... Evil may be more fun, but character-wise, it doesn't seem quite right (the neutral cutscenes are quite guilty of that). Well, I'll have to play for myself because of dropping in and out of livestreams. Gotta love those District Showdown interactions though. Wish there was a little more to it.
By the way? "Scraping the Sky"? Awesome track. And I maintain my opinion of Delsin being adorkable.
23 Mar 2014
This must be Hell
I think I'm going to start counting how many times I've shouted expletives while playing a certain Xavi stage. They've managed to make the gimmick from 3/U worse. Granted, I was going at it with Matabei, who I'm not particularly good at using. He has a somewhat annoying pause when using some of his attacks, which isn't present once you throw away his boomerang. I think he's tied with Tenkai for absolute worst base DEF at 50 (it'll be 60 since you're not likely to get a weapon with 0 DEF). If the JP wiki is right... Kingo has the highest DEF. Wat. There are a few missing from the list, so...
Anyways, the stage. Every hit you suffer results in cutting your money. It's really too bad that they stick both Muneshige and Yoshihiro near the start of the stage to wipe out your funds, unless you happen to be really good at doing no-damage runs. I guess someone like Mitsunari (or even Kenshin) could wreck the stage. At least your partner getting hit doesn't count towards losing money, so I was using Naotora as an attack dog. Attack tiger? Eh, who cares. Playing on the Basara difficulty was kind of my fault since I wanted the trophy. At least I have a relatively easy way of grabbing EXP now. ... And it's not using Katsuie. I somehow ended up with all the EXP-related inscriptions while playing as Kojuurou, so he's been the one helping level the next ones up for story completion. Because HP is really that important./s
You can probably tell by now that I really like Kojuurou. But I should probably get an EXP farming weapon for Katsuie because he can wreck stages faster than Kojuurou when locked at Lv1. Plus, his gimmick lets him practically full-combo a stage, which is pretty awesome.
The other Xavi stage isn't that bad, although I haven't quite figured out how to "pray while the Waltz is in effect" part. It's probably related to the roulette at the top of the screen. That I can't, incidentally, fully read.
Capcom seems to have released challenge vids. It was a nice reminder that Yoshihiro's best movement technique is... dash jumping. He's funny in his own, sluggish, way. Thankfully with the system changes, Yoshihiro doesn't get his massive sword stuck in the ground as much. Because I suck at aiming that rather large chunk of metal. Seriously, it looks more suitable for breaking all the bones rather than cutting you. I think almost half his skills involve smashing you with it.
Oh yeah. Kinda noticed after a bit that you can see after beating a route with a character if they have other notable routes. So the most efficient would actually be clearing their "Creation" routes first, then selecting their "Drama"/"Anime" routes after. Only need to play 2 stages and the game plays all the dialogue leading to them. Which was great when I needed to finish up Hideyoshi's Drama route because I suck at playing grapple characters. Still fun, just wouldn't want to go at it at a higher difficulty.
I'll get an inFAMOUS post up at some point since Second Son is now out.
Anyways, the stage. Every hit you suffer results in cutting your money. It's really too bad that they stick both Muneshige and Yoshihiro near the start of the stage to wipe out your funds, unless you happen to be really good at doing no-damage runs. I guess someone like Mitsunari (or even Kenshin) could wreck the stage. At least your partner getting hit doesn't count towards losing money, so I was using Naotora as an attack dog. Attack tiger? Eh, who cares. Playing on the Basara difficulty was kind of my fault since I wanted the trophy. At least I have a relatively easy way of grabbing EXP now. ... And it's not using Katsuie. I somehow ended up with all the EXP-related inscriptions while playing as Kojuurou, so he's been the one helping level the next ones up for story completion. Because HP is really that important./s
You can probably tell by now that I really like Kojuurou. But I should probably get an EXP farming weapon for Katsuie because he can wreck stages faster than Kojuurou when locked at Lv1. Plus, his gimmick lets him practically full-combo a stage, which is pretty awesome.
The other Xavi stage isn't that bad, although I haven't quite figured out how to "pray while the Waltz is in effect" part. It's probably related to the roulette at the top of the screen. That I can't, incidentally, fully read.
Capcom seems to have released challenge vids. It was a nice reminder that Yoshihiro's best movement technique is... dash jumping. He's funny in his own, sluggish, way. Thankfully with the system changes, Yoshihiro doesn't get his massive sword stuck in the ground as much. Because I suck at aiming that rather large chunk of metal. Seriously, it looks more suitable for breaking all the bones rather than cutting you. I think almost half his skills involve smashing you with it.
Oh yeah. Kinda noticed after a bit that you can see after beating a route with a character if they have other notable routes. So the most efficient would actually be clearing their "Creation" routes first, then selecting their "Drama"/"Anime" routes after. Only need to play 2 stages and the game plays all the dialogue leading to them. Which was great when I needed to finish up Hideyoshi's Drama route because I suck at playing grapple characters. Still fun, just wouldn't want to go at it at a higher difficulty.
I'll get an inFAMOUS post up at some point since Second Son is now out.
5 Mar 2014
DRAGON BOOST
Yep. Got 戦国BASARA4 in about a week ago. Still haven't unlocked everything, which is a bit of a shock, to be honest. Then again, I didn't expect some of the changes to the game that would make it a little bit more difficult. Normally, Hard would be relatively easy for most characters starting from Lv1 (Kenshin is arguably the most broken character in the series, even if he's cherry-tapping all the way). About 12 more stages need to be unlocked, although I think I've gotten most of the weirder stages for now. Don't really care about the Matabei invasion stages since it's really just an extra boss fight on top of what's already in that stage. Unfortunately, I read that there are more than 42 stages involved with the "beat all stages" trophy. So I think I'll need to track down all the "outbreak" stages, which are likely going to be the duels missing. Don't remember which ones I've already done...
It was nice of them to not make Kojuurou an NPC again for the main installment (he's graduated!). Don't really want to wait another year before the expansion inevitably comes out to play as him. And it turns out that "Bontenmaru" line was part of a flashback. The story was actually kinda cute. Little Masamune was such a little brat~ Too bad about only having 1 ending though. Want Yoshiteru playable. He seems pretty interesting, and should be as broken as possible considering the kind of hell he can give you during his fight. Although that might be because of trying to take him on without too many upgrades to my weapons and not really knowing how to use Hideyoshi (lol, I can't do chain grabs to save my life).
Should slowly get through the rest of the characters. It'll be interesting to see who kills who, who doesn't kill certain characters, etc. In other words, waiting on the announcement of the script book because I'm very sure that I won't trigger every possible convo. Some had rather strict conditions before they popped.
By the way, Masamune? Spinning your katana like that doesn't give you flight. You're not flying a jet-horse. And I think that's cheating when you're trying to do a race. Love the fact that Kojuurou just stands there with a straight face when Masamune takes off like that. Then again, he does that a lot.
Another thing I noticed... I didn't see Tsuchibayashi's name for character designer. Maybe I missed it, but pretty sure that it's not there. His personal site doesn't even list 3 Utage, so maybe there's a change to a different designer from now on...?
ETA: Ah, that's why. Since SB4 is considered a parallel universe (amongst all the other parallels), they're going with something new. Kinda also explains why they're a little bit on the scrawny side. Production IG's characters tend to be rather slim. Looks like SB's got some sort of multiverse thing going since there are a few constants here and there, and some variation elsewhere.
It was nice of them to not make Kojuurou an NPC again for the main installment (he's graduated!). Don't really want to wait another year before the expansion inevitably comes out to play as him. And it turns out that "Bontenmaru" line was part of a flashback. The story was actually kinda cute. Little Masamune was such a little brat~ Too bad about only having 1 ending though. Want Yoshiteru playable. He seems pretty interesting, and should be as broken as possible considering the kind of hell he can give you during his fight. Although that might be because of trying to take him on without too many upgrades to my weapons and not really knowing how to use Hideyoshi (lol, I can't do chain grabs to save my life).
Should slowly get through the rest of the characters. It'll be interesting to see who kills who, who doesn't kill certain characters, etc. In other words, waiting on the announcement of the script book because I'm very sure that I won't trigger every possible convo. Some had rather strict conditions before they popped.
By the way, Masamune? Spinning your katana like that doesn't give you flight. You're not flying a jet-horse. And I think that's cheating when you're trying to do a race. Love the fact that Kojuurou just stands there with a straight face when Masamune takes off like that. Then again, he does that a lot.
Another thing I noticed... I didn't see Tsuchibayashi's name for character designer. Maybe I missed it, but pretty sure that it's not there. His personal site doesn't even list 3 Utage, so maybe there's a change to a different designer from now on...?
ETA: Ah, that's why. Since SB4 is considered a parallel universe (amongst all the other parallels), they're going with something new. Kinda also explains why they're a little bit on the scrawny side. Production IG's characters tend to be rather slim. Looks like SB's got some sort of multiverse thing going since there are a few constants here and there, and some variation elsewhere.
2 Mar 2014
SaGa, and other things
Well, the teaser from not too long ago was been revealed to be a Romancing SaGa event of sorts. Learned something new too: there's a prefecture called Saga there, which is the location of a sort of collaboration between the two. Needless to say, no one (that I've seen so far from the English-speaking community) is actually happy about this. I'm intrigued though since the actual 25th anniversary isn't until some time in December. Not sure if the whole anniversary thing is going to focus on the entire series as a whole or if it's going to focus on the Romancing SaGa sub-series. Either way, it'll be interesting to see what happens. Doubt they're going to put out another soundtrack collection (and I don't think I'd buy it since I already have the 20th Anniversary edition).
Been keeping an eye out for inFAMOUS Second Son news every now and then, so I think I'm mostly up-to-date on that front. What I didn't realize was that the SRP is now $10 higher than I anticipated. Kinda makes me wish that I had pre-ordered it on Amazon instead of at a local store, but I'm not sure about getting the pre-order bonuses from them. That, and I normally don't pre-order games that far in advance... Oh well.
One of the things that's starting to concern me is the graphics, funny enough. It's not that it's not a pretty game (it is!), but that there are some very glaring differences between the different builds we've seen so far. And shadows. Delsin doesn't seem to be casting a shadow from all light sources (self-shadowing is present, which is good). It's likely that there was some sort of performance hit somewhere along the line that resulted in some of the changes. Possible that there were just "too many" light sources for it to be feasible. Trade-offs and whatnot. Or maybe the E3 build, which was definitely one of the prettier builds (at least in terms of texturing), is what we're to expect. Or maybe it just won't be that noticeable in the long run because the screens we'll be playing on wouldn't be exposing all those flaws in the first place. I know that I wouldn't be able to pick out some really minor details if I tried with my current setup (and the current pair of glasses I'm wearing, but it's mostly the distance from the screen).
Speaking of different builds... New gameplay vids have come out, although in Russian. Can't understand a single word~ Looking pretty fun, and the reflections are looking great. Getting a bit of rain while looking up is a nice touch. The UI is pretty ugly, although the first games weren't really that notable either. So nothing new in that regard. Feels kinda weird seeing the energy bar on the bottom left though. But damn. The mini-map? I LOVE IT. Not only does it show your location, but also the cityscape based on the camera's direction! It's a really nice touch. For the gameplay, great to see that when using Precision mode with Neon, you can see a red highlight for an execution (headshot) and a blue highlight (leg) for a non-lethal takedown. Shoot that area while using Precision, and you have your result.
Thief reviews have come in. It's interesting to see the split so far. To be honest, the split was pretty much expected.
Been keeping an eye out for inFAMOUS Second Son news every now and then, so I think I'm mostly up-to-date on that front. What I didn't realize was that the SRP is now $10 higher than I anticipated. Kinda makes me wish that I had pre-ordered it on Amazon instead of at a local store, but I'm not sure about getting the pre-order bonuses from them. That, and I normally don't pre-order games that far in advance... Oh well.
One of the things that's starting to concern me is the graphics, funny enough. It's not that it's not a pretty game (it is!), but that there are some very glaring differences between the different builds we've seen so far. And shadows. Delsin doesn't seem to be casting a shadow from all light sources (self-shadowing is present, which is good). It's likely that there was some sort of performance hit somewhere along the line that resulted in some of the changes. Possible that there were just "too many" light sources for it to be feasible. Trade-offs and whatnot. Or maybe the E3 build, which was definitely one of the prettier builds (at least in terms of texturing), is what we're to expect. Or maybe it just won't be that noticeable in the long run because the screens we'll be playing on wouldn't be exposing all those flaws in the first place. I know that I wouldn't be able to pick out some really minor details if I tried with my current setup (and the current pair of glasses I'm wearing, but it's mostly the distance from the screen).
Speaking of different builds... New gameplay vids have come out, although in Russian. Can't understand a single word~ Looking pretty fun, and the reflections are looking great. Getting a bit of rain while looking up is a nice touch. The UI is pretty ugly, although the first games weren't really that notable either. So nothing new in that regard. Feels kinda weird seeing the energy bar on the bottom left though. But damn. The mini-map? I LOVE IT. Not only does it show your location, but also the cityscape based on the camera's direction! It's a really nice touch. For the gameplay, great to see that when using Precision mode with Neon, you can see a red highlight for an execution (headshot) and a blue highlight (leg) for a non-lethal takedown. Shoot that area while using Precision, and you have your result.
Thief reviews have come in. It's interesting to see the split so far. To be honest, the split was pretty much expected.
18 Feb 2014
No more shooting for now
Well. Definitely not going to be shooting for the next while. Just returned a (very nice) set of limbs to a friend since she needed them back. Already got some recommendations for what to get next because of being acquainted with some shopkeepers. Carbon-foam was the suggestion due to the lack of arm length and need for efficient energy transfer. I did like the carbon-wood though, since it was a much smoother draw than your typical starter limbs. The price is definitely going to be a bit on the steeper side though, since it is carbon-foam. The tech used is enough to boost the price tag, unfortunately. Fortunately, SF does have a decent set for less than $300 before factoring in taxes. Might nab those at some point. Seeing those on sale is practically a no-go, although shorts are apparently a harder sell... We'll see.
Speaking of which, I haven't been shooting as much as I would like this term. Still, it's justified to the workload being considerably higher than I had expected. I'll probably have a post up on that on the other blog. It's quite fascinating if you think about it. And I think that 2 should really be -2 since that's what the formula states. Still not sure what that white spot is supposed to be though. Things at the range have been moving along quite nicely. Things are still getting broken, but they're also getting fixed quite quickly. Probably because they don't want me to try killing them from short range (I'm actually quite a weak long-range fighter, which is ironic since I favour sniping rather than CQC in games). Managed to accomplish the one thing that some of wanted to do without much of a fight. I think we managed to chip away at it long enough to get it to happen. The sweep was rather uneventful though; spent my time talking to another on what to order for the club/classes because of pooling some resources. Should be seeing quite the bill on my credit card soon... but since I'm dealing with the finances, I can at least see where the money is going. Which reminds me, I should file those receipts soon since it takes 35 days for the reimbursement if it's over $100, fewer days if less since it goes under "petty voucher".
Already noted on my other blog is the "Twitch Plays Pokémon" thing that's still ongoing. Even though people have started dropping off a bit, if you could call dropping from 80K to 47K dropping off, they might actually get somewhere!
...
Doubt it.
They're still trying to get the Lift Key.
Have a few other thoughts floating around in my head, but I'll leave those till later. Involves some SenBASA and inFAMOUS. By the way, I still think that Delsin is shaping up to be a complete dork.
Speaking of which, I haven't been shooting as much as I would like this term. Still, it's justified to the workload being considerably higher than I had expected. I'll probably have a post up on that on the other blog. It's quite fascinating if you think about it. And I think that 2 should really be -2 since that's what the formula states. Still not sure what that white spot is supposed to be though. Things at the range have been moving along quite nicely. Things are still getting broken, but they're also getting fixed quite quickly. Probably because they don't want me to try killing them from short range (I'm actually quite a weak long-range fighter, which is ironic since I favour sniping rather than CQC in games). Managed to accomplish the one thing that some of wanted to do without much of a fight. I think we managed to chip away at it long enough to get it to happen. The sweep was rather uneventful though; spent my time talking to another on what to order for the club/classes because of pooling some resources. Should be seeing quite the bill on my credit card soon... but since I'm dealing with the finances, I can at least see where the money is going. Which reminds me, I should file those receipts soon since it takes 35 days for the reimbursement if it's over $100, fewer days if less since it goes under "petty voucher".
Already noted on my other blog is the "Twitch Plays Pokémon" thing that's still ongoing. Even though people have started dropping off a bit, if you could call dropping from 80K to 47K dropping off, they might actually get somewhere!
...
Doubt it.
They're still trying to get the Lift Key.
Have a few other thoughts floating around in my head, but I'll leave those till later. Involves some SenBASA and inFAMOUS. By the way, I still think that Delsin is shaping up to be a complete dork.
11 Feb 2014
Pink Golf Carts
Slowly moving through Saints Row The Third with a friend now... Still don't know what else I can do to get it to run a little bit better. It can easily tank at <15fps, which is nigh unplayable once you get swarmed. What's even funnier is that I can't see my partner's avatar, which he eventually told me that they're very similar save for the outfit and weapon choices during our BL2 session.
So. During the little rampage of various story missions, we needed a vehicle (since I still can't drive properly) to get around to the various locations a little bit faster. So my friend runs off to find one since he knows the city a lot better than I do, while I deal with the fighting (something I'm decent at even with crap fps). He asks one really simple question, "pink or purple?" Since I had no idea what he was referring to, I said "pink" for the hell of it. Turns out that he went to get a golf cart, of all things, out of a nearby garage for our use. And thus we continued our rampage in a pink golf cart. Tried to keep laughter to a minimum to not wake everyone else in the house... It was pretty absurd driving around in a tiny golf cart with Pierce and shooting up everything that gets in the way. Now only if it could run better... Maybe the cleaner install will help? It's already helping other things a bit.
Speaking of BL2, started playing as Zero. In a tux. And it's awesome. Well, except for going down all the time while trying to melee everything in the face. Also, he's a little bit taller than Maya, which was a little bit fun trying to adjust to (not as bad as Sal being really short though). Still don't know what to spec into. Started with Sniping at first... but that wasn't really helping since I wasn't the host, so lag killed the sniping. So respecced to Bloodshed, which worked a bit better, save for the fact that I went with Killing Bl0w instead of Ir0n Hand, which was pretty lulzy in itself. Funny enough, it saved me a few times while downed.
So. During the little rampage of various story missions, we needed a vehicle (since I still can't drive properly) to get around to the various locations a little bit faster. So my friend runs off to find one since he knows the city a lot better than I do, while I deal with the fighting (something I'm decent at even with crap fps). He asks one really simple question, "pink or purple?" Since I had no idea what he was referring to, I said "pink" for the hell of it. Turns out that he went to get a golf cart, of all things, out of a nearby garage for our use. And thus we continued our rampage in a pink golf cart. Tried to keep laughter to a minimum to not wake everyone else in the house... It was pretty absurd driving around in a tiny golf cart with Pierce and shooting up everything that gets in the way. Now only if it could run better... Maybe the cleaner install will help? It's already helping other things a bit.
Speaking of BL2, started playing as Zero. In a tux. And it's awesome. Well, except for going down all the time while trying to melee everything in the face. Also, he's a little bit taller than Maya, which was a little bit fun trying to adjust to (not as bad as Sal being really short though). Still don't know what to spec into. Started with Sniping at first... but that wasn't really helping since I wasn't the host, so lag killed the sniping. So respecced to Bloodshed, which worked a bit better, save for the fact that I went with Killing Bl0w instead of Ir0n Hand, which was pretty lulzy in itself. Funny enough, it saved me a few times while downed.
4 Jan 2014
Silent Melody
Well, played through inFAMOUS 2 twice and Platinum'd the game within a week without much effort. Definitely like it a lot more than the first one, although it did have its little charms (grumpy Cole, for one; I don't miss chasing helicopters on foot). The one thing that constantly irked me was the camera though. I really didn't need it swinging back and forth to give me more dynamic angles when I was using finishers. Really, it gets old after the first 20 or so uses. Mostly because there are about 3 animations for a normal finisher and 3 for the ultra finishers, and considering an upgrade you can get for ultra finishers to restore energy after a take down, you'll be seeing those a lot if you go for melee (it tends to be faster to recharge energy this way as long as there's a human-sized enemy, unless you're low on health; Cole can't really eat a rocket to the face on Hard). Another problem with the camera after finishers was that it can be disorienting as the camera will attempt to shift behind Cole, and he's usually not facing the direction you originally had him.
You can see that a lot more effort was put into 2. Didn't really notice any stock animations during key scenes. Somewhat forgivable for the random NPCs since they're not major players. The game was also more my speed. iF1 felt a little bit slow and clunky, iF2 fit more my "let's get this done as efficiently as possible" mentality at times. Plus, with the power variations and being able to swap them out with Left on the D-Pad, more variation in battle! Although it does break up combat while changing things since it does pause the game. Real-time changing probably would've been a bit much in the middle of a massive firefight. Not that I would mind since even Hard Mode was a bit too easy once you got enough upgrades/cheesed your way to either Hero or Infamous ranked powers.
Still prefer the Good powers over the Evil ones. All that extra splash damage is great and all, but nothing really beats freezing your enemies for an instakill and some extra EXP. Not to mention energy regen when you hit human-sized enemies with any Bolt variation. Kinda miss the grenade upgrade that would auto-restrain your enemies if they were taken down by it. Some of the new neutral powers are pretty fun to play with, including the DLC ones. Love the Electrocution Grenade for setting up head shots. The Lightning Tether is also nice for travelling around when I don't feel like climbing things. And then I end up climbing it anyways because I tend to have Kinetic Pulse or Frost Shield equipped to the R2 slot.
Both endings sucked. Kill all humans or kill all Conduits. Either way, someone gets screwed. But then there's Second Son, which leaves me curious as to what really happened with the RFI. Seattle is definitely a lot closer than somewhere across the ocean if we're to take into account diminishing effects based on blast radius... We'll see what happens.
I suppose the next thing I should conquer is the UGC Editor. Looks like a fun little tool to play with. After I watch the tutorial vids. Or maybe I won't get to it because the break's almost over...
Oh yeah. Second Son has been pre-ordered... Problem is, I don't have a PS4. Yet. And the first thing I'm going to do when I get around to playing it? DUNKING DELSIN IN WATER. I should ask a friend who's actually living in Seattle where has the most water... or at least the deepest pool.
You can see that a lot more effort was put into 2. Didn't really notice any stock animations during key scenes. Somewhat forgivable for the random NPCs since they're not major players. The game was also more my speed. iF1 felt a little bit slow and clunky, iF2 fit more my "let's get this done as efficiently as possible" mentality at times. Plus, with the power variations and being able to swap them out with Left on the D-Pad, more variation in battle! Although it does break up combat while changing things since it does pause the game. Real-time changing probably would've been a bit much in the middle of a massive firefight. Not that I would mind since even Hard Mode was a bit too easy once you got enough upgrades/cheesed your way to either Hero or Infamous ranked powers.
Still prefer the Good powers over the Evil ones. All that extra splash damage is great and all, but nothing really beats freezing your enemies for an instakill and some extra EXP. Not to mention energy regen when you hit human-sized enemies with any Bolt variation. Kinda miss the grenade upgrade that would auto-restrain your enemies if they were taken down by it. Some of the new neutral powers are pretty fun to play with, including the DLC ones. Love the Electrocution Grenade for setting up head shots. The Lightning Tether is also nice for travelling around when I don't feel like climbing things. And then I end up climbing it anyways because I tend to have Kinetic Pulse or Frost Shield equipped to the R2 slot.
Both endings sucked. Kill all humans or kill all Conduits. Either way, someone gets screwed. But then there's Second Son, which leaves me curious as to what really happened with the RFI. Seattle is definitely a lot closer than somewhere across the ocean if we're to take into account diminishing effects based on blast radius... We'll see what happens.
I suppose the next thing I should conquer is the UGC Editor. Looks like a fun little tool to play with. After I watch the tutorial vids. Or maybe I won't get to it because the break's almost over...
Oh yeah. Second Son has been pre-ordered... Problem is, I don't have a PS4. Yet. And the first thing I'm going to do when I get around to playing it? DUNKING DELSIN IN WATER. I should ask a friend who's actually living in Seattle where has the most water... or at least the deepest pool.
18 Dec 2013
Bonjour!
Finally did get Monaco at 80% off, which was nice. Played it for about 3 hours, and it's definitely one of the harder games I've played in a while. Or maybe I just suck at navigating the places. Just waiting until I'm finished with everything before getting into co-op sessions with a couple of friends. If I see it on sale again at a pretty low price, I'm supposed to email a friend about it. Looks like he's interested in playing after I got bored from fixing things and trying to finish assignments with everyone standing around.
Picked up the inFAMOUS Collection not too long ago. About 2 weeks ago, actually. Finally turned on my PS3 again. Good thing I still remember all my sign-ins, then decided to change them all to be more uniform. Almost forgot that I used a JP Yahoo account for my main. Really wish I could change the displayed ID to Zephyr135 to be more consistent with all my other stuff. Using an older alias, which was much easier to pin me as a female. Kinda fun, but kinda not at the same time. At least all those Demon's Souls players didn't send stupid messages at the time. I wonder if the servers are still up...?
Anyways, finished the game on Hard and with the Good ending. And I was only on Hard because the game thought I was doing too well in the initial missions. I don't know if I want to go through it again while going fully Evil since I'm currently trying to grind for EXP to do 1 more lousy upgrade to the simple lightning bolt. I still need 7000 EXP. Could do some amazingly annoying things like kick a innocent bystander, then run up to heal them for a quick 3EXP per go. But fighting is usually the way to go. Lots more EXP that way and I can cause some collateral damage along the way to get some healing in. Still need to clean up the rest of the areas as well.
I'm not really sure what to think of the game, really. Gameplay was OK. Nothing that spectacular, although the sneaking around is done better than in AC. Really, you can take cover. That's one of the main complaints I have about the AC stealth segments: you can't take cover behind random objects on the ground. Instead, you have to stay out of sight via corners or using vertical space. The Good-Evil choices were really black and white. Would've liked something with more of a grey area to it, but that might screw with the Karma system they have in place. Controls were decent. Might just be my controller, but sometimes my L1 doesn't register going into Aim Mode that quickly. Minor quibble, really. Aiming with the right analog could be a little more sensitive, and I've already cranked up the sensitivity to max. Including a slider would've been nice instead of 3 discrete settings.
If there's one thing I'm not particularly happy about, it's the sound. BGM is really sparse and takes a while to kick in whenever you're doing something.
And maybe 1 more really tiny thing: Cole doesn't seem to like running up stairs at times.
Picked up the inFAMOUS Collection not too long ago. About 2 weeks ago, actually. Finally turned on my PS3 again. Good thing I still remember all my sign-ins, then decided to change them all to be more uniform. Almost forgot that I used a JP Yahoo account for my main. Really wish I could change the displayed ID to Zephyr135 to be more consistent with all my other stuff. Using an older alias, which was much easier to pin me as a female. Kinda fun, but kinda not at the same time. At least all those Demon's Souls players didn't send stupid messages at the time. I wonder if the servers are still up...?
Anyways, finished the game on Hard and with the Good ending. And I was only on Hard because the game thought I was doing too well in the initial missions. I don't know if I want to go through it again while going fully Evil since I'm currently trying to grind for EXP to do 1 more lousy upgrade to the simple lightning bolt. I still need 7000 EXP. Could do some amazingly annoying things like kick a innocent bystander, then run up to heal them for a quick 3EXP per go. But fighting is usually the way to go. Lots more EXP that way and I can cause some collateral damage along the way to get some healing in. Still need to clean up the rest of the areas as well.
I'm not really sure what to think of the game, really. Gameplay was OK. Nothing that spectacular, although the sneaking around is done better than in AC. Really, you can take cover. That's one of the main complaints I have about the AC stealth segments: you can't take cover behind random objects on the ground. Instead, you have to stay out of sight via corners or using vertical space. The Good-Evil choices were really black and white. Would've liked something with more of a grey area to it, but that might screw with the Karma system they have in place. Controls were decent. Might just be my controller, but sometimes my L1 doesn't register going into Aim Mode that quickly. Minor quibble, really. Aiming with the right analog could be a little more sensitive, and I've already cranked up the sensitivity to max. Including a slider would've been nice instead of 3 discrete settings.
If there's one thing I'm not particularly happy about, it's the sound. BGM is really sparse and takes a while to kick in whenever you're doing something.
And maybe 1 more really tiny thing: Cole doesn't seem to like running up stairs at times.
1 Dec 2013
Watching stuff
So... Been watching livestreams of BL2. Turns out that you can kill certain enemies with the Lv.1 Repeater you get at the beginning of the game with Zer0 and B0re. Namely BNK3R and Hyperius. Also, that Wattle Gobbler DLC. That pretty much broke the ones playing it, and a few that were watching. All that delicious suffering~
And then watching the 24-hour livestream, which was pretty epic once it hit around the 5 hour mark. Nero - Doomsday, from one of the trailers that featured the 96.5% MORE WUB WUB, "Dubstep World" (lots of flashing lights, seizures!), and bullet time. It was leading up to the BNK3R fight, which experienced a few... technical difficulties. Yay. And then Mr. B0rgue just wants to kill the damn thing. "Why is he still living." And Bahroo accidentally "fixed" BNK3R fight by changing the turret hitboxes. No B0re to exploit!
In other news... Almost forgot about the Steam Autumn Sale. Still waiting on Monaco to drop a little further in price. Got Saints Row The Third and Surgeon Simulator 2013 from 2 friends. Amongst other things (2 Batman games, a few indies). Also finally managed to get 1 Prestige on Maya. Then again, I wasn't really aiming for it in the first place.
Still waiting.
And then watching the 24-hour livestream, which was pretty epic once it hit around the 5 hour mark. Nero - Doomsday, from one of the trailers that featured the 96.5% MORE WUB WUB, "Dubstep World" (lots of flashing lights, seizures!), and bullet time. It was leading up to the BNK3R fight, which experienced a few... technical difficulties. Yay. And then Mr. B0rgue just wants to kill the damn thing. "Why is he still living." And Bahroo accidentally "fixed" BNK3R fight by changing the turret hitboxes. No B0re to exploit!
In other news... Almost forgot about the Steam Autumn Sale. Still waiting on Monaco to drop a little further in price. Got Saints Row The Third and Surgeon Simulator 2013 from 2 friends. Amongst other things (2 Batman games, a few indies). Also finally managed to get 1 Prestige on Maya. Then again, I wasn't really aiming for it in the first place.
Still waiting.
27 Oct 2013
Got Bored
So... yeah. As the blog title says, I was kinda bored. So I baked brownies. I said I would a few days ago in the event that there were no leftovers after the batch given to the archery club (and knowing the club, there would never be leftovers!). I happen to like the recipe that my sister found, which is over here. Except that for some reason, the brownies came out kinda wrong Wednesday night (it worked fine the first time I made them, but it was also during a warmer season). Not sure why since I followed the ingredient list and the instructions. Of course, there's also the issue of the house being perpetually cold, except for those stupidly hot summer days. Might have affected the batter negatively because of the melted chocolate mix cooling way too much.
So. Today. It was effectively a speed run brownie making session (I'm a gamer, speed-runs are probably inevitable to some at some point). Also changed a couple of things to reduce the chances of a dry brownie. So, below is what I did (and no, I'm not going to call them anything while wishing there was some wiki mark-up here):
* 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
* 8 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into quarters
* 3 Tbs cocoa powder
* 2 Tbs instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder
* 3 large eggs
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 Tbs Kahlua liqueur (optional)
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugars, vanilla, Kahlua, and salt until well-combined.
3. Add the chopped chocolates and the butter to a medium, microwave-safe bowl, and heat in 30-second intervals, until melted, stirring well after each time. Whisk in the cocoa and espresso powder until smooth. Let it cool slightly.
4. Whisk the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Add in chocolate chips if desired. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, and spread into the corners with a spatula. Level the surface.
5. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours.
So yeah. All I really did was change some of the sugar used and the order I did things. Namely that I changed the 1 1/4 of sugar to 1/2 cup white sugar + 3/4 cup brown sugar (the molasses should add a little extra moisture), and that I did the egg mixture first then melted the chocolate because of the colder environment. This ensured that the chocolate mixture didn't cool so much that the batter was near impossible to fold in the flour and spread in the baking pan. The end result was a somewhat dense brownie and it wasn't as crumbly as Wednesday/Thursday's result. Plus, chocolate chips. Knowing the people that would be eating these, the added chocolate isn't that much of an issue.
The original blog post that I got the recipe from also had frosting. Because I don't have that much of a sweet tooth, no frosting for me. Plus, it was pretty annoying making the frosting in time when I was covering for a certain someone for her potluck.
So. Today. It was effectively a speed run brownie making session (I'm a gamer, speed-runs are probably inevitable to some at some point). Also changed a couple of things to reduce the chances of a dry brownie. So, below is what I did (and no, I'm not going to call them anything while wishing there was some wiki mark-up here):
Ingredients
* 5 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped* 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
* 8 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into quarters
* 3 Tbs cocoa powder
* 2 Tbs instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder
* 3 large eggs
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 Tbs Kahlua liqueur (optional)
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and adjust the rack to the lower-middle position. Line a 9-inch square baking dish with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Use another sheet of foil to line the dish perpendicular to the fist piece, leaving another overhang on two sides. Spritz with cooking spray.2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugars, vanilla, Kahlua, and salt until well-combined.
3. Add the chopped chocolates and the butter to a medium, microwave-safe bowl, and heat in 30-second intervals, until melted, stirring well after each time. Whisk in the cocoa and espresso powder until smooth. Let it cool slightly.
4. Whisk the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Add in chocolate chips if desired. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, and spread into the corners with a spatula. Level the surface.
5. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours.
So yeah. All I really did was change some of the sugar used and the order I did things. Namely that I changed the 1 1/4 of sugar to 1/2 cup white sugar + 3/4 cup brown sugar (the molasses should add a little extra moisture), and that I did the egg mixture first then melted the chocolate because of the colder environment. This ensured that the chocolate mixture didn't cool so much that the batter was near impossible to fold in the flour and spread in the baking pan. The end result was a somewhat dense brownie and it wasn't as crumbly as Wednesday/Thursday's result. Plus, chocolate chips. Knowing the people that would be eating these, the added chocolate isn't that much of an issue.
The original blog post that I got the recipe from also had frosting. Because I don't have that much of a sweet tooth, no frosting for me. Plus, it was pretty annoying making the frosting in time when I was covering for a certain someone for her potluck.
22 Oct 2013
Oji-san really needs to DIAF
Seriously. I think I've attempted the Fiore de Rosa battle at least 5 times within 10 hours while staying in the default classes (they're all around Lv.8~9 in it now). The only reason why the battle is even remotely annoying is because of the Red Mage's job ability: you have a chance of gaining BP whenever you take damage. Hurting him means you're giving him extra actions per turn, and the AI generally doesn't like putting in negative BP. Cura-Thundara(-Attack) is the BP usage. Healing 1500~2000HP per, ~320 damage from Thundara (could be more, but eh)... Unsurprising that it took as long as it did. Don't deal enough damage per hit, and you'll be running around in circles. Not even stealing all his MP helped (Ringabell had enough levels invested in Magic Swordsman to use Aspir Sword).
Oh yeah. It only took about 6 months to start the game! Go me.
...
... I'll go hide in my corner of woe now.
Friend Code for BDFF: 1076-9148-2658
Oh yeah. It only took about 6 months to start the game! Go me.
...
... I'll go hide in my corner of woe now.
Friend Code for BDFF: 1076-9148-2658
1 Oct 2013
30 Sept 2013
I don't get it
Poking at some AC fan art... I don't get it. Why's Altair sometimes a bunny? It's still more common to see him as a cat due to his "inability" to swim, but a rabbit is still up there. I can understand wolf for Connor. Ezio is a little harder to pin, but most common seems to be cat. Seen cat!Edward, but I think that one with him as a shark is the best being a pirate and all. Still haven't touched III, so I don't know if I want to get anywhere near IV.
I do approve of bunny!Altair though. Cute~
Also, note to self: after reinstalling everything and putting back LasRem, uncheck the "Read Only" box for likely both RushEngine.ini and RushKeySetting.ini. It seems that having either or both of them set to "Read Only" crashes upon the initial startup until the files are initialized. No idea why it does that, but at least I don't have to change around my HDs in order to do testing now! Probably didn't catch it because those files were set to Read Only on the SSD and it hasn't crashed before.
I do approve of bunny!Altair though. Cute~
Also, note to self: after reinstalling everything and putting back LasRem, uncheck the "Read Only" box for likely both RushEngine.ini and RushKeySetting.ini. It seems that having either or both of them set to "Read Only" crashes upon the initial startup until the files are initialized. No idea why it does that, but at least I don't have to change around my HDs in order to do testing now! Probably didn't catch it because those files were set to Read Only on the SSD and it hasn't crashed before.
20 Sept 2013
Game On 2.0
So... went to the Ontario Science Centre to check out the "Game On 2.0" exhibit. It was... disappointing to say the least. Honestly, it was just a relatively small room filled with a bunch of games of many genres. It was really nice seeing some of the older machines still functional. We're in Gen 7~8 now, and Gen 1 stuff still looks pretty good, if simplistic. Maybe it's because of how late we went. According to the site, there were a fair number of features that I didn't see. Still, ended up playing Deathsmiles, so I might go ahead with picking that up at some point. Should really add a Cave shooter to my library that isn't something as insane as Mushihime-sama or DoDonPachi.
After wandering around that exhibit for a bit, we went ahead with visiting the other parts of the OSC. Not too much has changed, although a few exhibits were missing. Namely the physiology related exhibits. Kinda hoping that Body Worlds returns at some point since seeing humans stripped down to their muscle groups is always entertaining. Plus, a lot of their more amusing activities were there. Could have checked out some IMAX stuff; that would've costed extra and we didn't really make plans around it.
Yeah, really not much to say about it. Wished there were displays showing the insides and the development process for the systems and games. Maybe a diagram showing the evolution of graphics and whatnot (gameplay is definitely harder, and isn't something as easy to quantify).
Also meant to get this post out a lot earlier, but eh. Got busy with stuff, lazy with the actual typing, distracted by Ezio's/my horrible bomb throwing,etc.
After wandering around that exhibit for a bit, we went ahead with visiting the other parts of the OSC. Not too much has changed, although a few exhibits were missing. Namely the physiology related exhibits. Kinda hoping that Body Worlds returns at some point since seeing humans stripped down to their muscle groups is always entertaining. Plus, a lot of their more amusing activities were there. Could have checked out some IMAX stuff; that would've costed extra and we didn't really make plans around it.
Yeah, really not much to say about it. Wished there were displays showing the insides and the development process for the systems and games. Maybe a diagram showing the evolution of graphics and whatnot (gameplay is definitely harder, and isn't something as easy to quantify).
Also meant to get this post out a lot earlier, but eh. Got busy with stuff, lazy with the actual typing, distracted by Ezio's/my horrible bomb throwing,etc.
11 Aug 2013
Tiny thing
Just finished cleaning my keyboard. Feels almost new~ Don't seem to be sliding around as much anymore since I wiped down the keys with a weak alcohol, which is nice. Should probably do the same to the laptop keyboard at some point, mostly because I don't use the mech. while in class. Too loud, really. Unless I'm in a lab. Then it's mostly OK, if only because the teacher isn't always talking and that we're going to be working on our stuff.
By the way, I'm really not liking the small surge of activity on the Recipes Wikia. Mostly because I have to go in and fix the formatting, removing irrelevant links/photos/vids, etc. A few times, one of the users actually replaced already established pics, so they needed to be reverted then reuploaded with a different file name. Yeesh.
Oh yeah. Finished Assassin's Creed. Now working on Assassin's Creed 2 (restart for feathers). Slight spike in activity on the LasRem boards, which is usually nice. At least I'm not speedrunning a file anymore. Don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon.
By the way, I'm really not liking the small surge of activity on the Recipes Wikia. Mostly because I have to go in and fix the formatting, removing irrelevant links/photos/vids, etc. A few times, one of the users actually replaced already established pics, so they needed to be reverted then reuploaded with a different file name. Yeesh.
Oh yeah. Finished Assassin's Creed. Now working on Assassin's Creed 2 (restart for feathers). Slight spike in activity on the LasRem boards, which is usually nice. At least I'm not speedrunning a file anymore. Don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon.
18 Jul 2013
2014 needs to get here already
戦国BASARA4 trailer just came out. There's a lot more spinning than I thought there would be. Liking the new music... Then the ending. My god, the ending.
梵天丸.
We may see how 小十郎 meets 政宗, since 小十郎 calls him 梵天丸. Should probably do a little research on the Muromachi period since the Sengoku era is only part of the larger period. I guess 足利義輝 is a mirror boss...? Looks like it from the trailer.
梵天丸.
We may see how 小十郎 meets 政宗, since 小十郎 calls him 梵天丸. Should probably do a little research on the Muromachi period since the Sengoku era is only part of the larger period. I guess 足利義輝 is a mirror boss...? Looks like it from the trailer.
9 Jul 2013
Honor for All
Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep was probably the best and most satisfying DLC I've played from both Borderlands games. Just the main campaign was worth it. Still need to go through the rest of the side quests. Should be funny enough, though I'm kinda itching to throw IRL D20s. Story-wise, it was kinda weak at first, but the character interactions were great. I'm not sure how real those kinds of reactions are to someone's death, but it does get somewhat disturbing at points when it's clear that she's in complete denial despite what the other 3 Vault Hunters are telling her.
And started playing a little bit of Dishonored. First game over I get? It wasn't from combat. It was just me, jumping onto a table... then falling onto someone's head. Apparently that's assault (then again, who would want someone to land on their head?), and enough to get me arrested at the very beginning of the game. Whoops. So even the Lord Protector isn't immune to giving someone a slight bop on the head with a boot.
OK, that's a lie. I've finished the game within the week. Wanted to see if I could still play and finish a game in a week, and luckily for me, the game was on sale. Picked it up with Fallout 3 GOTY for $15. Didn't want to try it with an RPG because I knew that would probably take longer.
I really enjoyed playing it. Kinda wished that you could explore Dunwall and maybe the surrounding islands more, especially since there's so much reading you can do, but I guess that's what the DLC is for. Maybe. Went High Chaos for my first playthrough since I figured that would be the easiest route. It kinda was and wasn't at the same time. I didn't bother upgrading and purchasing any new powers and enhancements, but all the various upgrades to equipment was enough to get through the game quite comfortably on Normal.
Then went Low Chaos, with buying whatever powers I would probably need/want. Mana consumption went through the roof, and it's a good thing that Piero's Remedies are just as common as the Sokolov Elixirs. Unfortunately, even though I managed not to alert anyone, I still somehow managed to kill 2 people by accident. The first was a Weeper in the sewers. Didn't realize it until I read on the forums that it counted (whoops). Must have hit his head on the pipes after I hit him with a sleep dart. The other was in the Flooded District. And seriously? There's a ton of water in that level. Might have been when I accidentally dropped an assassin into a shallow pool. After I heard the splash, I immediately picked him up and dumped him somewhere else. He was still breathing, but I think it still counted against me. I check everything I shoot/hopefully render unconscious. There was really no other instance where I could've killed anyone because I choked out all the weepers (didn't have any sleep darts at the time). So now I'm going to have to go through it again for the no-kill achievement (not that I mind), because that was my Low Chaos run's intention in the first place. I just screwed up really early without knowing it, then just kinda got sloppy at the Flooded District (although it was kinda non-indicative...).
Oh yeah. In the credits? Noticed certain names. They're from Looking Glass Studios. No wonder. At least Corvo's controls didn't feel rubbery like Thief 3's Garrett. That was awkward.
At this rate... I might actually be worried about Thief... Although the idea of expanding on Dishonored's world might ease my worries a bit since I probably won't be thinking about it. Maybe... As long as it's Arkane doing all the work without Bethesda interfering! I still want an art book!
And started playing a little bit of Dishonored. First game over I get? It wasn't from combat. It was just me, jumping onto a table... then falling onto someone's head. Apparently that's assault (then again, who would want someone to land on their head?), and enough to get me arrested at the very beginning of the game. Whoops. So even the Lord Protector isn't immune to giving someone a slight bop on the head with a boot.
OK, that's a lie. I've finished the game within the week. Wanted to see if I could still play and finish a game in a week, and luckily for me, the game was on sale. Picked it up with Fallout 3 GOTY for $15. Didn't want to try it with an RPG because I knew that would probably take longer.
I really enjoyed playing it. Kinda wished that you could explore Dunwall and maybe the surrounding islands more, especially since there's so much reading you can do, but I guess that's what the DLC is for. Maybe. Went High Chaos for my first playthrough since I figured that would be the easiest route. It kinda was and wasn't at the same time. I didn't bother upgrading and purchasing any new powers and enhancements, but all the various upgrades to equipment was enough to get through the game quite comfortably on Normal.
Then went Low Chaos, with buying whatever powers I would probably need/want. Mana consumption went through the roof, and it's a good thing that Piero's Remedies are just as common as the Sokolov Elixirs. Unfortunately, even though I managed not to alert anyone, I still somehow managed to kill 2 people by accident. The first was a Weeper in the sewers. Didn't realize it until I read on the forums that it counted (whoops). Must have hit his head on the pipes after I hit him with a sleep dart. The other was in the Flooded District. And seriously? There's a ton of water in that level. Might have been when I accidentally dropped an assassin into a shallow pool. After I heard the splash, I immediately picked him up and dumped him somewhere else. He was still breathing, but I think it still counted against me. I check everything I shoot/hopefully render unconscious. There was really no other instance where I could've killed anyone because I choked out all the weepers (didn't have any sleep darts at the time). So now I'm going to have to go through it again for the no-kill achievement (not that I mind), because that was my Low Chaos run's intention in the first place. I just screwed up really early without knowing it, then just kinda got sloppy at the Flooded District (although it was kinda non-indicative...).
Oh yeah. In the credits? Noticed certain names. They're from Looking Glass Studios. No wonder. At least Corvo's controls didn't feel rubbery like Thief 3's Garrett. That was awkward.
At this rate... I might actually be worried about Thief... Although the idea of expanding on Dishonored's world might ease my worries a bit since I probably won't be thinking about it. Maybe... As long as it's Arkane doing all the work without Bethesda interfering! I still want an art book!
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