SanaEquiesterer

I don't think the shipping on Amazon.com has the same perks for Canadians, so this sale had better apply to Amazon.ca, too. I'm looking to get Radiant Historia as well. I have some silly expectation that Atlus + time travel = Chrono Trigger parity. Also, this probably belongs here.

Warhammer 40,000: Firewalker was such a forgettable experience, yet it was so bad I can't forget it. I used to like the FPS genre more than I do now, so that combined with playing the Tau in a 40k shooter sounded gold. But the AI was the worst I've ever seen, it was simple to a fault, and there was a timed mission that required climbing a ladder to progress. Unless the ladder was greased or the character too dumb to use them, ladders were impassible. To date it is the only game I stopped playing because it was so terrible.

Day 30: The Phoenix Wright series. They remind me of the old point-n-click adventure titles I grew up with, plus they include some pop culture references that have made me appreciate the efforts of the translation team (though some plot details in the 2nd game were weak).

Like the football hitting the kid so hard he goes sailing over the field?

Day 29: Baldur's Gate II. I had played Diablo when it came out and thought it got boring pretty quickly, but somehow over time I grew to think that it was because of the isometric perspective, so I never played any games that used it. Then a couple years ago I finally gave BGII a try and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I guess it would be Konami now. It's easier to think of developers I favoured up until a certain point, like Square or Lucasarts.

Day 26: Metal Gear Solid Day 27: Playing Chrono Trigger for the first time and getting to the year 12,000 BC, thinking you were outright screwed in a snowstorm, and then finding a portal and seeing the Kingdom of Zeal for the first time.

Nintendo keep things relatively fresh by comparison since they often have a new piece of hardware to experiment with, I think. And their many second and third party developers allow them to release some titles far enough apart that rehashed ideas aren't too obvious (some series excepted). Companies like Square, and especially Bioware, release the same genre every couple of years, too, but I think because a good RPG depends so much on the story is why it has become more obvious that they're rehashing ideas.

I agree, and on a semi-related note, I think Bioware has used the same formula for their stories long enough now. http://gza.gameriot...._1257581825.png It was illegible when embedded. Some of those points are a bit of a stretch, and yes, they fit the hero's journey story archetype, as most fictional works do. But Bioware has deviated from their methods so little that it has become too obvious. Even some of their puzzles and riddles carry over from one game to another with very few changes. EDIT: Thanks Dean, but I was originally trying one from my Photobucket. Lesson learned.

Day 23: Any game by Vanillaware title gets my vote for favourite art style. Day 24: Super Mario World Day 25: Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Shit shit shit, I was saying to myself DON'T get these numbers wrong, but I did. I meant the 5/5 is damaged to a 5/3, so you've confirmed what I was thinking. Thanks for clearing up the strategy I mentioned. Is your explanation based on the old rule set or the new one? Because your explanation is just reusing the remove creature ability on the same card, where the whole point of the strategy was to permanently remove cards. Or was the original wording so misleading that it was really saying what you told me? First Strike was also a confusing thing to truly understand until I played Duels of the Planeswalkers on PS3. The game made it seem as though a 2/2 with first strike deals 2 damage, THEN normal combat begins (I'm not talking literal phases here). So a 2/2 with first strike will make a 4/4 a 4/2, which evens the odds for battle...right? Same with double strike, but it deals pre-combat damage twice. So a 2/2 with double strike would destroy a 4/4 before battle between the two even started.

Day 22: Oblivion. With the Elder Scrolls series, I liked having an RPG that really played by the numbers, even if I was swinging and missing an enemy right in front me. Not only did Oblivion water down the whole RPG structure to make it more acceptable to those not too into or familiar with RPGs, but the setting was very generic compared to Morrowind. I get it, its the Empire, they're very medieval Europe when it comes to appearance. But the appearance of the realm of Oblivion just made it so painfully obvious that they were borrowing a lot of ideas from the Lord of the Rings movies.

So I understand that a card can be countered before being placed on the battlefield and that if it does enter the battlefield, then the ability resolves. But the card doesn't become immune to counter spells once on the battlefield, correct? To counter after the ability resolves would just save you from, say, a 6/7 creature for example? And I don't understand the mana pool concept as you describe it. In your main phase description you say: "MANA POOLS EMPTY AFTER YOU END YOUR MAIN PHASE AS WELL AS YOUR SECOND MAIN PHASE AND DURING YOUR ATTACK PHASE." This leads me to believe that any mana you have left at the end of your turn is gone (or tapped) and you cannot use it. But then in your mana description you say: "Remember though! Counters can come at any time, especially the fucking mana leak. ALWAYS look to see how much mana your opponent has untapped." But I know it isn't as I described it since that would render Instants useless. I've owned some cards for a long time and play at very irregular intervals. I've had a Waking Nightmares deck from the Odyssey set for a long time, yet I've never understood one of its advantages, which involves two cards and an understanding the the stack. Malevolent Awakening has a pretty straightforward description. I'll bring up the advantage once I've shown you this pretty little thing: It also has a very straightforward description. Now, here is the advantage, word for word, from the deck insert: "One combo in 'Waking Nightmares' is very tricky. With some help from the Odyssey set's Malevolent Awakening, your Nightmares can take things away for good. How? When you play a Nightmare, such as Faceless Butcher, its comes-into-play ability goes on the stack. In response, you sacrifice the Butcher to play Malevolent Awakening's ability. Then the Butcher's leaves-play ability triggers and goes on the stack. The leaves-play ability resolves first, but the Butcher hasn't removed a creature from the game yet. The leaves-play effect does nothing. So the comes-into-play effect removes a creature from the game that can never be brought back!" WAT I'm trying to play this out in my mind but I just don't get it. If the player determines the order of the stack, is this more or less letting you say the leaves-play ability activated BEFORE the comes-into-play ability did? In which case, the target creature can't be returned because the now dead Butcher...whaaat? I can't wrap my head around this. Lastly, I think it is worth mentioning multiple blockers in combat and the results. A 5/5 can be blocked by a 1/2 and a 1/1, leaving the attacker at 3/5, right? I've since forgotten, but when does it return to a 5/5? At the end of the player's turn or at the start of their next turn? I didn't realise defence worked like this until I played the Magic game on the PS3.

While there are exceptions, I agree with this. Hideo Kojima also noted that the Japanese audience doesn't mind that some things are left up to your imagination and that some of the small things might go unanswered. The Western audience, however, want things explained and every loose end tied. I suppose my personal favourite story is from a Metal Gear Solid title, but I'm not sure which one. They each have a good mix of being taken seriously and being ridiculous in a good way.

So far my pace has averaged one game a month. I beat Dead Space in January, Dead Space 2 and Mass Effect (for the second time) in February, and I beat Mass Effect 2 two days ago. Since the new year, I've purchased 13 games, one of which are listed above. Sometimes I wish the gaming industry would just take a break for a year.

Day 19: I can't think of many other places where it wouldn't suck to be most other people than the main character, so I'll agree with Pokemon. EDIT: Wait, isn't the basic premise behind the .hack series just a virtual reality MMORPG? Aside from not being able to log out like in the main character's case, that would be a neat place to live, even if it is the real world outside of the game. Day 20: Single-player RPGs, followed by the very broad action-adventure genre.

Thanks. I know of that wiki, I should have checked there after I beat it.

Wow, so I just beat the main story for the first time. But those last few upgrades were expensive. I don't know how many credits I would have saved, but I suppose next time I won't deplete every planet for resources I don't need. I'll fiddle with some character changes, but it just doesn't seem right to go on to the DLC when some of your characters die. EDIT:

Day 17 - SHODAN from System Shock 2. She is always aware of your doings, sends both bots and mutants out to kill you, and enjoys taunting you about your insignificance the entire time. Day 18 - Solid Snake At first I took that as a form of narcissism when I read it. What makes him a favourite? Any personality he has is only shaped by the decisions you make.

Day 15: I can't seem to take screenshots of Mass Effect 2 for some reason, and the Print Screen, alt-tab, paste into Paint option isn't working either. Day 16: Heavenly Sword has very well done cut scenes thanks to the mo-cap tech that was used.

Really? As far as the main plot goes that doesn't make the game very long, does it? I see how essential it is to gain loyalty and upgrades, then. Now I'm wondering if I should cram in the Overlord, Shadow Broker, and Arrival DLC before heading into the Omega 4 relay. Is it true that when the game is completed you can still play?

I agree that Raiden's voice fit, and I never found him whiny either, but more events in MGS come to mind as far as voice acting is concerned.

I've heard several PC-RPG players agree that Planescape: Torment has some of the best voice acting they've heard. I can't vouch for that since I haven't played it though. Persona 4 has some good voice acting, I think. I thought the voice acting was good for the Metal Gear Solid series, too, with the strongest being the first. Some people will disagree with you on Mass Effect. Some characters are better than others, but most people seem to have a beef with male Shephard. I just put his impassiveness down to him being a military man, personally. EDIT: Garrett from the Thief series has always been a favourite of mine, but the voice actor lost a bit of his edge in the third game.

A question for those of you who have beat the game: about how far along in the main plot are you when you get the IFF? I got hugely sidetracked and just recruited every character (including the DLC ones), did all their personal sidequests, and exhausted every planet of minerals. While that earned me a lot of experience, credits, and over a million each of platinum and palladium, it took me around 75 hours. This has really made me think about my pacing for the next time I play this sort of game. I feel so disconnected from the earlier events of the story and with the characters I looked after first. Maybe I shouldn't try for near 100% completion on my first play for ME3.

Day 14: I barely change my wallpaper since I usually spend less than a combined two minutes staring at it while on my computer. The last time I remember having a gaming wallpaper was when I had Naked Snake up, because I was playing MGS3 at the time. So that was about three years ago, I think.