Mal

Arma 3.5/4 Suddenly not everyone can shoot straight. Assuming the thumb by the tracking ball is controlling movement, moving around would be arkward. Honestly a Wii nunchuck thing could be better.

Note, I haven't played Celceta yet. I feel part of it's low ranking may be due to how they changed it from Adol soloing Celceta to having a party. Also judging how Adol has a VA now, Adol talks much more...? At the face of it these can be seen as improvements but first off this is a remake. I expect it to stick close to the core mechanics like how Oath did with Ys IV. Adol not talking much is more of a tradition. Most of his communications are usually like They're summaries really. Every so often he may mutter a single word. That is it. From the looks of it, Celceta should have improved on the party system that Seven started. I count five playable characters in Celceta to Seven's seven. FLD, since you are not as much of a diehard fan like I am, I think I'll take your appraisal of Celceta as being better than Seven. Seriously, fuck Ys Seven last boss. Do yourself a favor and just play on normal if you haven't gotten to Seven yet. Otherwise enjoy an otherwise great game. Anyways, I enjoy all the games... Oath > Origin > Seven > Ark > Ys III (Celceta) > Ys II > Ys I If only Ys V wasn't only in Japanese. Origin would have gotten highest if Falcom had done something slightly different with the three storylines.

Belated but changing it to Wolfenstein The New Order. It has it's problems but it's a solid game that deserves praise.

I think this is were nuclear weapons (and other WMDs to an extent) come into play. We do still have conflicts but the big players don't want to actively duke it out themselves since it may involve families electing to drive towards mushroom clouds. Though... I personally feel Putin's Russia is using that fear to their advantage. That's another topic though...

Wolfenstein The New Order for 50% off. Add P36EYA-K5JYKT-ABO7X9 for an additional 20% off. The New Order for $24? Hell yeah. It's one of the few games that I would gladly pay the full $60 for.

Beautiful world that we got here in 2014. Ukraine, Israel and Syria/Iraq. There might be some that I'm missing but those three should be the big ones.

After reading a few chapters, I recommend Otoyomegatari (A Bride's Tale). I recommend reading it for the character designs alone. The setting is in the steppes east of the Caspian Sea during the early 19th century and I think the mangaka does it justice because the amount of detail she (and her assistants?) put into the drawings is really nice. As the title suggests, the story is about a bride and her marriage. While it is quite happy, there does have it own share of drama and considering its time and location, some serious drama. Give it a go if you have time and consider this... I usually don't read romance stuff.

Apparently you can get into deep shit by being the poor sap who fails to retain a customer who wants to cancel. That or that sweet retention bonus.

Tackling this and I got to say, it's pretty good. In the 20-30 pages I've read, it had more action some some books. Sure the first battle was odd to say the least (500 versus 50k, 500 won due to commanders duels) but it was against the Yellow Turbans. I also got to say, the impressions I got from the book makes me more appreciative of the changes in DW8. Some of the characters went a bit overboard but it showcased their defining traits in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms much better.

Ni No Kuni Overall, I would class it as a good kid's first JRPG. For adults, it is okay since it doesn't really have much depth to it. Clocking in at about 50 hours, it is one of the longer games that I've played recently so you'll get your money's worth. To stay with a not-so-serious Ghibli for 50 hours can be draining *however. I couldn't help but feel that the story was something like Howl's Moving Castle but Disney-fied. Yes, at certain part I saw the more serious Ghibli tones (Tones of Nausicca, Mononoke) but it was few and far between. For the gameplay, besides my biggest grip, the combat wasn't too deep. Special moves are shared between familiars with some being outright useless. There isn't much spells to use (Why doesn't Oliver have a revival spell?) and the eventual summons are quite boring. Outfitting your characters and familiars was also a mess. Speaking of familiars, you'll be naturally inclined to stick with the few familiars despite capturing tons of different ones. I really desire a better Ghibli backed game... I also should praise the game for keeping somewhat interesting throughout the whole game. It doesn't pile on th whole crew and junk at the start of the game. You slowly build it up. Hell, I got a new character when I was level 50. *Combined with my biggest grip of the game, I was about done with the game towards the last level.

Hopefully it won't bug out next time.

I know a cop who sort of brags of taking things a bit too far (shit like slamming a guy onto the ground harder than needs be) but not far enough to get in trouble. He's only in there for the pension he'll get when he retires decades down the line. With that said, he's not the type you would like interacting with so there is that. My personal interactions are mostly traffic stops; no arrests. I see the stops as just plain old business so those interactions are short and nice enough for these sort of things. Taking a cue from my food service industry experience... I treat assholes like people even if they are the biggest dicks. The goal here is to make non-assholes to remain non-assholes and keep yourself in the clear with the assholes. It's working so far but then again it might be because I'm Asian. Yay "ideal minority"?

I'm finally going to take this out of my backlog but to reiterated... I USED THE PHOENIX FEATHER. I SAW IT IN USE WITH LIGHTS COMING FROM THE HEAVENS AND ALL. But of course a move by an AI that initiate a cut will stop the revival or anything. I can overlook all other flaws in the game but this is such bullshit.

The only game where I went all out on DLC is Sleeping Dogs but that is mainly due to how much I love that game. My purchases of the DLC is a mix between Sleeping Dogs being a open world game and "Shut up and take (more of) my money!". Other than that, my DLC purchases is pretty scarce. I only recall Bioshock Infinite season pass which is something I won't be doing again anytime soon. So for me, the DLC got to be substantial (I kind of fucked up on Bioshock Infinite) or that I really got to like the game.

I tend to think long term and be adaptive (In other words, I can do things that seems conservative or liberal or anything really...) but that flies in the face of most political and economic shenanigans and motivators. So I'm turning out like Ethan and just stopped caring because look at Sacramento and Washington... they're cesspools to say the least. To make it short, think of my take on things like Varys from A Song of Ice and Fire, minus the conspiracy and junk. I believe and do things that can be seen as good and bad (All depending on situation) but I do so because I think it will keep the world chugging along.

Cyclists get rolling coal'd quite frequently... personally I would love it to be considered assault but with motorists be able to get away with at least manslaughter against a cyclist, I won't count on it. The only way I see it happening is if someone rolling coal Bush Jr. Who is a cyclist and mountain bike rider.

Final boss battles where you have to use everyone. This sort of thing kind of irks me in RPGs. Compound it with a four stage boss where you have to repeatedly defeat side enemies to even hit the boss and you got Ys Seven final boss. I swear, all told it can be a 30 minute crawl on a PSP. At this point it is a pain in the ass since you will be sent back to the second stage if you die. I much rather fight Dark Fact than this boss.

Wolfenstein The New Order (Slight spoilers) In short, this game blew me away. Specs Ops The Line wished it had this good gameplay. This might be the Sleeping Dogs of the FPS genre. This game is the prime example of what devs can do if they focus on one part of the game, single player in this case. First off, the levels are made in similar ways to Wolfenstein 3D where there are hidden secrets or passages within the level. So while the game is linear, the gameplay isn't. You totally can start on top of a building, working your way down or you can just start on the ground floor then get to the basement. You can also suddenly become quite powerful if you manage to get to some hidden weapons (Who knew a pistol or knife is so useful?). Overall the levels are designed really well in which it is old school in a good way (Unlike say Doom where you can get totally lost). The levels and the enemies are also quite varied. The enemies will all function the same but they will visually be distinct with their appearance based on the levels they are found in. For example, you will be on the Moon (MOON NAZIS) and you'll reenact Star Wars where the stormtroopers, who fire lasers, can aim and murder you. Gameplay wise, it feels meaty and dense but it doesn't mean that you can go total BJ on some Nazis. So this game allows you to approach the enemies however you want. So your first playthrough you might find yourself playing a cover shooter with a healthy dose of stealth but later on, you might go Rambo even though ideally you may want to be stealthy. Weapon wise, it is nice and concise without being boring. You'll find yourself using most, if not all, of the guns. They all have their place. Surprisingly enough, it has a decent story. Okay, some of the stuff doesn't make sense but then again, this is Wolfenstein where Nazi science experiments meant something. One of my favorite parts isn't even where I shoot people but merely interacted with characters. Since I mentioned Specs Ops The Line, I don't think I need to say more but say that you should just play the game. Like Spec Ops, this game is rated M for good reasons. --- So the problems... there are a few cases of bad level design and/or coding. The most glaring one is one level you'll find yourself without much cover in a level which can spawn in a totally different item set than that you jump into if you die and respawn. You could potentially miss out on a collectable which is needed for unlocking a special mode. Not to mention you respawn in a condition lower than which you checkpointed with. I do not recall any other spots that does all this. Everywhere else, everything respawn as is as do me. The passive AI really suffers from being near sighted, with the dogs being notable. Think MGS1 bad. What am I standing in front of, a Jurassic Park T-rex? Lastly, you would think shooting or tossing munitions up there should change things but no (also I should mention that you have the option walk away certain stuff which is nice, not sure if that changes anything though...). Uncharted 2 won't feel samey coming from Uncharted 1. From 2 to 3, though, now that's another story. Quoting for emphasis. As a whole package, U3 is pretty shitty compared to U2. I love U2.

Gneiss, you'll fit right in. Welcome aboard!

Wolfenstein is awesome. I'll do a mini write up once I'm done.

Totally forgot about The Stick of Truth. Not deep at all but it is pure fun. It is the type where I will be doing a yearly replay.

Just got done with my yearly replay of Ys I and II so... back to killing Nazis with Wolfenstein: The New Order. I absolutely hated the last game (I think it was the one that came out early in the PS3's lifetime) but I've heard good things about this one. Also people I know on Steam seem to like it enough to put in 30 hours. So this should be good. Now come on Mecha Hitler.

Ground Zeros would be but as you've said, its too short. Phantom Pain will steal its year however. With that said, nothing really springs to mind since I haven't really played much games so this year games are quite sparse. I suppose I can shoot in Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition for PC. Only real thing it is missing is online multiplayer. Absolutely shameful that they didn't put that in but besides that, it is indeed the best DW since 3/4.