The Syndicate

So I just beat Brutal Legend, 9 years after its release.

This game is probably the biggest and boldest challenge I've ever seen to the concept that Gameplay > All. The gameplay is... okay at best. It wants to be an RTS/Action hybrid, with elements of sandbox and car games, and it fails to justify why that combination is even a good idea, ending up with an RTS that is a little too shallow, and at the same time an action game that is a little too simple, and a focus on competitive multiplayer that failed because the multiplayer community apparently died in 2011.

(though from what I've read this is less the fault of the studio and more of EA, who was against the RTS thing from the start and pushed the studio to rush the release since they just wanted a cheap game that capitalized on the heavy metal thing for marketing)

But when you take out the gameplay and look at the aesthetic part... HOLY SHIT. The game is a masterpiece, through and through. Everything is a love letter to heavy metal culture, with attention to detail, and little bits and pieces that make the game feel more alive and more badass, from famous singer dubbing characters that were designed after them, to landmarks in the overworld that remind you of metal album covers, to the names of attacks and enemies, to the very creative plot. There is a great sense of pleasure in just hopping into your monster car, tuning on Black Sabbath, and roaming the field, mowing down emos and glam metal groupies with a machine gun, doing quests to deliver beer or playing a guitar solo to melt the faces of your enemies (literally). Once you get used to the mediocre gameplay, you want to play it just to get to the next section of the story, because the cutscenes and exploring new map make it worth it.

9/10. Give me a sequel plz.

There are another two games from this studio which sound really cool too. There is one called Pyre that got described as "Oregon Trail meets NBA"

I might play it.

Sounds good. It's just that most people don't do it because the game gives you limited exp, so you have so abuse limiters early on to get to a level high enough to get everything.

Sorry I edited this post like 5 times lol.

Epignosis wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2018 3:42 pm

Dragon D. Luffy wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2018 11:15 am

Epignosis wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:57 pm

Dragon D. Luffy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2018 2:25 pm So, Transistor is amazing and I almost regret not having a decent computer 2 years ago so I would have played it already and wanted to sign up to Epi's mafia game of it.

I'm going through the New Game Plus.

I want to do the New Game Plus. So little time though.

It's so short though.

Also trying to nail every achievement before the second playthrough is over. So far so good, but the achivement that forces me to win 5 battles with all 10 limiters is scary.

Edit: never mind, found a broken combo online which let me do it with less than 20 game overs.

Without spoiling anything, are there any story / Easter egg / new content / etc whatever that makes it worth playing through a second time? Is it supposed to be more challenging? Basically, what's the difference?

Not really much story, but it lets you do some things that you usually don't get to finish in the first playthrough. You start the story over with whatever level you had, and keep going up. Also the process starts at the level they were in the end of the game.

Unless you did a fuckload of grinding with limiters the first time around, you probably did not get all functions (i. e. I did not get Cull and I barely got to use Void). So replaying lets you test them. Also read the character logs that come with them.

You most likely didn't do all of those oasis challenges, either.

And there are the limiters. You probably didn't get all of them (and read their logs). Considering the process is already stronger from the start, it gets ridiculous with limiters (20 enemies at once with shields and regenerations dealing 80% of your Hp every time they hit you). So there is challenge there.

So it's not really story, but gameplay.

Epignosis wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:57 pm

Dragon D. Luffy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2018 2:25 pm So, Transistor is amazing and I almost regret not having a decent computer 2 years ago so I would have played it already and wanted to sign up to Epi's mafia game of it.

I'm going through the New Game Plus.

I want to do the New Game Plus. So little time though.

It's so short though.

Also trying to nail every achievement before the second playthrough is over. So far so good, but the achivement that forces me to win 5 battles with all 10 limiters is scary.

Edit: never mind, found a broken combo online which let me do it with less than 20 game overs.

So, Transistor is amazing and I almost regret not having a decent computer 2 years ago so I would have played it already and wanted to sign up to Epi's mafia game of it.

I'm going through the New Game Plus.

Just killed Rundas in Metroid Prime 3. My fingers hurt. All of them.

The bosses of this series have way. too. much. HP.

Just started Metroid prime 3. Pretty good game overall, but the previous two are better. Though I'm only at the start.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

Dragon D. Luffy wrote:Currently addicted to playing random battles on Pokemon Showdown.

Someone send help.

(or come play with me!)

Will a couple hyper potions do?

Don't think you can use those on multiplayer battles.

Currently addicted to playing random battles on Pokemon Showdown.

Someone send help.

(or come play with me!)

Speaking of Transistor, there was a role based on it in a mafia game I played last year (Favorites 4):

Red

[Transistor] : This powerful weapon wielded by Red has a number of Functions derived from Traces:

-[Turn] : By freezing the enemies on screen, Red is able to plan a strategy and queue skills. If used in the night phase, instead of all actions happening simultaneously, Red will receive a list of the actions being made and will be able to decide the order in which they occur(for example, if X is using an action to kill Y but an action by Z to kill X is placed prior to that, then X will not be alive to kill Y and therefore it will not happen). The same applies if used in the day phase, from the moment the ability is activated all incoming actions will be put on hold until Red decides shes ready to queue them up. Three-shot.

-[Crash(active)] : Using this function, Red can expose a targets vulnerability, making other abilities more effective against them(kills become super-kills, RB's last longer, etc.). The effect lasts a phase. This skill is usable every other cycle.

-[Crash(passive)] : Red has a 25% chance to survive regular kills and is immune to debuffs, roleblocks and being made generic.

-[Help] - Usable only in conjunction with [Turn], Red is able to choose the target/s of a random townies action(of those being used and available to be queue'd).

-[Help(passive)] - Red has a 25% chance of becoming a SuperUser upon using [Turn] and gaining the Kill Function, a one-shot ultra-kill.



[Mute] : Red has no voting power.

Nope.

Christmas shopping: Transistor + Valkyria Chronicles + Brutal Legend + Bioshock.

Thanks Steam.

Yeah the puzzles are only good for what they can contribute to the plot. But mechanically, they suck.

I'm not talking about security, I'm talking about the fact my money is soon going to be replaced by a bunch of impossibly cheap games I'm not even sure when I'll be able to play.

- Checks Transistor on Steam.

- Not even sure if I wanna play it but it's so incredibly cheap.

- Realizes everything is incredibly cheap there.

- Realizes my credit card is soon going to be under attack.

So I guess you already went through the revelation that "Ness doesn't actually have PK Fire and PK Thunder despite having them on Smash".

Btw, if you don't intend to play the neutral run anymore, you might want to see this:

http://rawr.ws/undertale/endings.pdf

(contains spoilers about neutral endings)

Well your previous post implied you weren't sure of it.

I didn't play it. Didn't have the balls to do anything bad to Papyrus. I love that skeleton.

I watched it on Youtube instead.

But seeing the plot of the genocide run is 100% worth it, at least.

You should at least watch the genocide one, even if you don't play it

Pretty good game, though the second half gets too easy for my tastes.

Then again, the second half has some pretty awesome stuff.

For example, after you get all the 8 stone things, Fourside is my favorite part, through. SO HARD.

No, but the many negative reviews and the fact it shits on the story of the previous game don't make me want to play it.

I'll go ahead and call CT the Best RPG Ever already.

Well the current pause is probably the last one. After that we are gonna have the Act 6 equivalent of Cascade and then... it's over.

WHEN the current pause ends is a mystery though, but Hussie recently wrote a newspost saying he wants to reveal the date before the year is over.

So if you are looking for a good time to catch up and not have to endure pauses again, the end of this pause might be a good time.

Homestuck had some rough moments after 2011, but in the last year or so it improved quite a lot. The plot finally started moving.

I mean, if you don't mind huge time travel plots so crazy that they challenge the internal consistency of the comic and the rules of storytelling itself. Some people got pretty mad, but I appreciated the escalation.

Btw, in case you don't know, Toby Fox (guy who made Undertale) is one of the main members of the Homestuck music team.

That Metatton avatar is awesome.

I would change to an Undertale thing but I like my Ace Dick avatar.

Posting a song cuz why not.

*Check

*Omelette

Also while you are here, vote for Undertale in the gameFAQs "best game ever" contest. It's currently losing to Pokemon but it's making a pretty epic comeback.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/bge20_vote

*Ask

<Types: "Where in the game are you? (plz use spoiler tags)">

*Ask

Ricochet wrote:Ok, I picked it up after all and started playing...

...

...

...

...

Need more information.

Dude it's not even possible to start with a pacifist playthrough.

Let him play the game normally.

And please stop with the spoilers.

One of the coolest things about Undertale is going into it with no idea how to expect, you are ruining that.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

Dragon D. Luffy wrote:Anybody here played Undertale?

I've been addicted to it lately.

It's an indie RPG which kind of deconstructs the genre. It makes you choose between killing or sparing monsters in the game, and has a number of different endings and paths depending on the choices you make.

It's only 10 dollars on Steam, and there is also a free demo. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and it also has a 10/10 soundtrack:

You didn't TGG, but DDL said this recently.

That's two rave reviews for the same game, and both of you loved the soundtrack. That's saying something.

Stop stalling and go play it.

On another news, FF6 is amazing. Still loses to Chrono Trigger in the classic RPG contest, though.

Please don't give any spoilers about Undertale, this is the kind of game that gets better the less you know about it.

Started playing Final Fantasy 6. First time I ever play a main series FF (I had played Cristal Chronicles and Tactics Advance, but they don't count).

So far it's pretty good. I didn't like it at the start, but around the time Sabin joined the part I started warming up to it. My favorite thing about the game is how each character has an unique battle system.

Just beat Super Mario Bros for the first time in my life. After being stuck in world 8 for weeks.

It was incredibly epic.

I was destricting myself from starting another game because I wanted to fulfill this mission. Now I can finally move on to something else.

Anybody here played Undertale?

I've been addicted to it lately.

It's an indie RPG which kind of deconstructs the genre. It makes you choose between killing or sparing monsters in the game, and has a number of different endings and paths depending on the choices you make.

It's only 10 dollars on Steam, and there is also a free demo. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and it also has a 10/10 soundtrack:

I'm currently alternating between Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, and Undertale.

Two great RPGs. The first one is a light-hearted platform hybrid with some cool touch-screen and/or gyroscope shenanigans. And 50+ hours of gameplay.

The second one is a deconstruction of gaming. An indie RPG that plays with your emotions and makes you question how you view fighting monsters. It's very short, but it's one of those games that can be played multiple times since it has multiple, choice based endings.

I recommend both. They also have great soundtracks.