Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Fiendlord_Timmay

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 5
1
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 500: Wouldn't It Be an Auditory Rash?
« on: December 07, 2016, 10:00:25 PM »
Hey, thanks for reading my email! Regarding the fact that this was my first podcast, yeah I was still in high school at the time and had just recently gotten my first iPod, so podcasts were a novel thing to me. It's amazing (and a little scary) to think that I've been listening to RFN for over a quarter of my life now.


In fact, this show is partly responsible for my decision to go to grad school for Electrical Engineering (I'm actually writing this while I should be studying for my EM Theory final... oops). Jonny used to talk about his work towards PhD back in the early days of the show, and that was something my young, impressionable high school self didn't even know engineers did. It planted a seed in my mind that has blossomed into a career. As weird as it sounds, I don't think I would be the person I am today without this show. So thanks for keeping this crazy train going, I hope RFN continues to be part of my life for a long time to come.


-Tim


P.S.: Regarding the other stingers you guys mentioned: the "epic" stinger (which has, in the past, been referred to as the "Stinger Odyssey") that Greg alluded to is that of episode 135. And the segment where the whole crew mercilessly roasts Jonny "The Wizard of the Coast" Metts is in the middle of episode 84, beginning at about 52:30. I strongly encourage giving them both a listen.

2
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 438: Spiritual Predecessor
« on: August 03, 2015, 12:26:35 AM »
Damn, as soon as Jonny said "special announcement," I knew what was up. It's gonna be a very different show without hearing Jonny's voice regularly. Even going back to the early days, he was around pretty frequently. As sad as I am to see him go, something tells me he'll need an outlet for all his pent up video game talk, so I'm hoping this isn't as much of a goodbye as it was for Greg. Speaking of which, holy **** Greg's back! If last week's show is any indication, I think the show is gonna be just fine going forward.

Thanks Dr. Metts, for your years of dedication to this show. It was the first podcast I ever listened to and remains my favorite podcast to this day. Without your guidance, the show wouldn't be what it is today. Go enjoy your newfound free time and make your exit with your head held high! You've earned it. *Salutes*

3
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 390: Internal Swords
« on: July 16, 2014, 09:58:37 PM »
Oh wow, I had no idea the Investigations 2 translation was finished. I was discussing with a friend just this week about my trepidation towards a fan translation in a series that lives and dies by its text. I'm really happy to hear how much care has been put into the translation and how faithful it is to the content and the spirit of the series.

As far as denoting laughing strangely, they did that in Ace Attorney 1 as well. In the 4th case, von Karma says "Tsk, tsk, tsk" and Phoenix comments that it's the "same evil laugh that Edgeworth has." So maybe even the odd laugh in Investigations 2 is actually a carefully planted reference as well!

4
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 389: Best Practices
« on: July 11, 2014, 12:45:29 PM »
Quote
I'll give you some topics.


  • Music
  • The progression of color pallets with the increase in console memory
  • N64 strategy games released between October 1, 2000 and October 31, 2000
  • Japanese culture
  • Adventure Games/Visual Novels and the difference between the two
  • Software development
  • French breads
  • 1918 Spring Offensive
  • Impact on the Council of Ephesus on future schismatic moments in the dissolution of a "unified" Christian brotherhood
  • Socio-economic-military relations between East Asian states and their Western allies/nonallies
  • Mario. [/l][/l]
And this is why I love James. XD

Quote
My worry is that companies will actually support this thing outside of Smash 4 and we'll get people playing with GCN controllers and subbing other controllers again.

Why are you worried about this? This is exactly what I'm hoping for. In my opinion, the Gamecube controller is the best controller Nintendo has ever made, and I would like the option of playing games with it. I loved that I was allowed to play so many Wii games with whatever control option I liked best. If new Wii U games start adding Gamecube controller support, why do you care? Use the Pro controller if you want and I'll use the Gamecube controller. That's the great thing about options, you get to choose what works best for you.[/list]

5
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 389: Best Practices
« on: July 10, 2014, 02:39:32 PM »
Holy jeez this thread blew up in the past few days.

Jonny's a great host. He has a very decisive and authoritative personality, which makes him better suited to hosting than any of the other members. However, since he says everything so matter-of-factly, it can rub people the wrong way if he says something they disagree with.

Quote
Jonny even chimed in with (paraphrase) "the Classic Controller Pro is better in nearly every way", without highlighting the obvious benefits that the GCN controller has over the CCP, or any other controller that Nintendo has made since the Gamecube.

Like this. Also, when Jonny's passionate about something, his tone tends to take on a lecturing, perhaps even condescending quality. As a long time listener of this show who has marathoned far too many episodes consecutively, these qualities do tend to grate on me and I find myself getting annoyed with Jonny more than anyone else on the show.

THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT I HATE JONNY, NOR DO I THINK HE SHOULD CHANGE THE WAY HE CONDUCTS HIMSELF ON THE SHOW. I like hearing Jonny's opinions a lot, and we have similar taste in games so I value that perspective on the show. Even (or perhaps especially) if we disagree on a certain topic, I enjoy hearing an opposing view because it forces me to really think critically about my position and either reconsider it or deeply analyze and be able to argue for my belief. I think the fact that his mannerisms get me so riled up is actually kinda awesome. His passion inspires me to be passionate as well.

Gotta disagree regarding Gui as well. I've been relistening to older episodes recently and I think that Gui settled into place in the early 300s and has been contributing meaningfully and regularly to the discussion for nearly 2 years now.

**** the haters. Just keep doin' whatcha doin'. In my opinion, you guys are going strong and are producing episodes that are just as good or better than ever before. If people are getting fatigued of the show, they should take a break. I for one don't want RFN to change any time soon.

6
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 389: Best Practices
« on: July 06, 2014, 11:33:58 PM »
Wow, lots of thoughts to add this week. Let's see...

Mario 3D World - Regarding the faster speed of the game, I think some of my favorite levels are the ones with the boost pads that make you super fast. There's one in the castle world (7 essentially) that's awesome. It's nothing but boost pads throughout the whole level. Two friends and I played multiplayer in that level and it was absolute madness. We decided to take turns bubbling so that one person could take a crack at getting the green stars at a time. It was a lot of fun, probably my favorite level so far.

I've played this entire game multiplayer up to this point (I'm in world 8 ), and I can totally confirm the fact that this game is, as James put it, "custom built to troll the crap out of people." Every level pretty much consists of us trying to pick each other up and throw them off a ledge, blasting really far ahead to troll people who want to explore, popping peoples' bubbles over pits, letting all the others do the work killing enemies and then snagging the reward for yourself, etc. All this is well and good for the most part, but it's kind of annoying because everyone shares lives, unlike in the NSMB series. They must have done that to try and discourage trolling (because if you kill someone else, you're just hurting yourself too) but in reality nobody really thinks that way.

As far as multiplayer camera control in that game, I can't make heads or tails of it. It doesn't have any immediately discernible rhyme or reason. It's certainly not the player with the gamepad, and it doesn't seem to be the person with the crown either. I never paid that much attention, but I seem to recall plenty of times where I had the crown but was off screen. I don't even think it's where the majority of people are going because oftentimes a single person would run off on their own and the camera would follow them for some reason. It's really hard to tell what the camera is going to do, which is probably my biggest complaint with this game. It makes it SO hard to play in multiplayer. But I've resigned myself to not caring about secrets while I play that way, which is fine because I would have to go through the levels twice most of the time anyway to get all the secrets, so the difference in experience with single player vs. multiplayer is a nice way to divide up my two playthroughs of all the levels.

One last note: playing the Plessie levels in multiplayer is pretty fun. Everyone has to work together to make it move in the correct direction, and I believe you jump higher if everyone jumps at the same time. For once in this game, cooperation is really necessary, and it's pretty fun.

Xenoblade - So glad (but not too surprised) that Guillaume is finally enjoying Xenoblade. It's such an awesome game, but I remember not being that wowed by it at first. I don't think it was until after the High Entia Tomb that I really started getting hooked (which I believe was about 30 hours into the game for me). That's a hell of a long time for the game to really get started! That's why I always tell people who are unimpressed with Xenoblade to give it more time. The farther you are into the game, the more complex it gets, with more characters, more systems, a more intriguing plot, more beautiful vistas, etc. It just keeps getting better and better (for the most part).

Honestly I was a little surprised to hear that Guillaume liked the sidequests. I thought that was one of the weakest aspects of the game. I would have preferred very few, but meaty sidequests with really big rewards (Chrono Trigger endgame style), rather than a thousand short quests with piddly little rewards. Also, requiring near maximum affinity with each area to get the extra skill trees, Monado Arts, etc. was not appreciated. SO. MUCH. BUSYWORK. I agree that it does help flesh out the world (aptly raising your affinity with that area), which is nice and one of the greatest appeals of this game, but I thought there were just too many of them. But I'm glad to hear that Guillaume enjoys that part because he's almost assuredly going to enjoy everything else then.

Also the inventory thing was my other complaint with the game. In a game as big and expansive as this, I think having limits on how much stuff you can hold is just unfair. I never knew when a specific collectable would be required for a sidequest, so I always got scared throwing things away. It's really an unnecessary stress that shouldn't be in the game. And as far as having too much equipment... the best stuff pretty much always sorts near the top of the list, so you shouldn't have to scroll through a bunch of pages whenever you're equipping things. And I never like to sell things in RPGs. Either it's too much work or I'm to paranoid to sell it off. I'd rather be safe than sorry. I wish Xenoblade didn't make me sell things off, but at least the equipment you get late game is strictly better than earlier stuff, so it's easy to let go of the old crap you don't need anymore.

Also, I found level I and II gems pretty worthless. Level III gems were moderately useful, but I only really felt level IV and V gems were totally worthwhile. That's more of and endgame and superboss type of thing anyway. I think the story is pretty easy (with the exception of THAT boss near the end of the game.... GRRRR) so gems can be pretty safely ignored if you find them a hassle. But at the same time, if you find yourself stuck, you could try messing with those instead of grinding if you prefer.

Playing as other characters is also one of my favorite aspects of the game. Each one plays very uniquely, and is also pretty balanced (as Gui mentioned, they all have ways to break, topple, daze etc.). I would frequently switch which character I was controlling just for fun, and I rarely, if ever, felt nerfed when doing so. Also, as Jonny briefly mentioned, Seven (name used by the community to avoid spoilers) is my favorite character to play. They became my main for the remainder of the game, and their playstyle is so fresh and fast and new that it gave me an entirely new appreciation for the combat, which had become kind of a ritual by that point (a good 50 hours into the game). The uniqueness of the characters and how well they're all suited to playability is another underappreciated aspect of the game that really made me love it even more.

Regarding the beauteous vistas in the game, I also loved how some of the best vistas in the game are secret areas. It's like a reward for truly exploring the areas. Not only do you get to see some of the most stunning views in the game, but you get a bucketload of experience at the same time. It's a fantastic way to make the moment feel like a special event. There are two in the game that stood out to me the most: one in Makna Forest and the other in The Fallen Arm. The latter in particular is after a long climb and feels like the end of a long journey. It also looks out across the entire area and really feels like you're on top of the world. It really leaves an impression.

Also, nerd note: Valak Mountain (the snow area) is not the head of the Bionis. The Eryth Sea is actually on its head. Valak mountain is the sword arm of the Bionis.

Jeez, I always tell myself I'm not going to write a book, but end up doing it anyway. I really have to learn to be more concise. : /

I was even going to write a spirited defense of the Gamecube controller, but I don't feel like doing that now. Maybe later I will if I can muster the effort.

7
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 387: Exit Plan
« on: June 27, 2014, 01:48:22 AM »
Quote
Except there's no reason for those stats to be tied to individual vehicle parts.

What else would they be tied to?

8
Well hot damn. I just bought my 3-day pass not 15 minutes before reading this. This just sweetens the deal. Looking forward to seeing you guys there!

9
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 387: Exit Plan
« on: June 25, 2014, 12:44:02 AM »
Quote
Question: Why does mario kart even need a stat system.

So that not every vehicle functions identically to one another. Even if it's minor, some variation spices up the game and makes it more flexible to different playstyles and more interesting to play.

10
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 387: Exit Plan
« on: June 23, 2014, 01:19:49 PM »
I'm one of those crazies who enjoys min-maxing Mario Kart, but I gotta say I don't really like having to build my vehicle in this game. It really just slows down the game and makes it take so much longer to get into a race. My friends and I always spend like 5 minutes in the vehicle selection screen agonizing over what we want to pick. It doesn't help that there's no easy way to compare two parts if they're distant from each other on the list.

And believe it or not, even in Mario Kart Wii, there was a "best build" that the community agreed upon. In that game, characters gave ever so slight boosts to different stats, and Funky Kong gave a small boost to speed, so the community generally agreed that he was the best character. But in reality it didn't matter that much. I played King Boo because I liked him more and I would almost always come in first in online races, even against Funky.

It's the same in MK8, where the community has pretty much agreed on a "best build" at this point, but (to a certain point) that doesn't matter that much. The also nerfed bikes, which were strictly superior in MKWii, so it seems that you really can't go wrong with vehicle choice in this game.

Of course, if you're good enough at the game that you are able to drift around every turn and are going top speed the entire time, then a vehicle with higher top speed and less handling will benefit you more. That's really how "best builds" are decided upon: if it has high top speed, it's better (in a nutshell). But Jonny's absolutely right. If you can't take turns correctly, then you'll just fall off or go off-road, and that top speed isn't helping you at all.

There's a hell of a lot more to it than that, but I wouldn't want to bore anyone with the details.

11
Smash Bros. Wii U - Easily my most anticipated game of the year. The character choices so far have been interesting and diverse. They even managed to make Miis look fun to play, which I was very skeptical of. I'm not sure how I feel about them spending the time to make 3 different movesets for Miis though. I'd rather they spend that time on more highly requested characters. Glad they're releasing the Gamecube controller adapter, since that's my favorite way to play, and I can just use all my existing controllers to play with friends. What more is there to say? It's Smash, and I'm SO EXCITE.

Xenoblade Chronicles X - A sequel (sorta?) to my favorite game of last generation? YESYESYESYES. Looks like they're not changing too much of the gameplay from Xenoblade, which is absolutely fine by me. Plus, the returning emphasis on gorgeous vistas and a grand sense of scale is so great to see. Sad to see it pushed into 2015, but I want the game to be as expansive and full-featured as possible, so I'm ok with giving them more time to make the game even more awesome.

Codename S.T.E.A.M - Intelligent systems is one of my favorite developers in the business. The first 2 Paper Mario games and the Fire Emblem series have long been some of my favorite games ever. And Awakening showed that their strategy game chops are nearly unimpeachable. It's fantastic to see a new IP with a unique style and art direction as well. I've always enjoyed the fact that with Fire Emblem, they include iconic and varied characters, and they have expressly stated that that is a focus of this game as well. The gameplay looks to be like Valkyria Chronicles, which I liked, but there seem to be subtleties to the gameplay that will make it even better.

Nintendo really dominated the show this year. I have to say that the only thing that excited me this year was Bloodborne, and that really has nothing to do with what was shown. I just have faith in From Software to make an awesome game. I'm really glad to see that they're not just the Souls game factory now, and that they get to branch out and do something new.

Oh and Metal Gear Solid V, but we've known about that for a while. Still looks pretty great though.

12
Quote
The Nidorans look different though, Silcoon and Cascoon don't.

Hence my citation of their names being the same and not their appearance.

Quote
The Nidorans are only separate Pokemon because gender wasn't in Gen I.  Silcoon and Cascoon both evolve from the same Pokemon, so it makes sense that they look similar.

Also this. And yeah, I understand the reason for the naming, but that doesn't make it any less dumb. I just brought it up as an example of arguably bad or lazy Pokemon design(/naming) to show to genwunners who think that Gen 1 was flawless and brilliant in every way.

14
Quote
The article simply states that, if you're the kind of person who likes all the things that weren't well-received by the majority of Pokemon fans in Ruby and Sapphire, you liked Ruby and Sapphire.

I disagree with the notion that "the majority of Pokemon fans" agree on disliking aspects of this game. I think this is just another case of a vocal minority. For example, there seemed to be a universal hatred for the new DmC game, but when there are anonymous polls, etc. it turns out that an overwhelming majority of people actually think highly of the game, and it's just a few crazies who won't shut up that color the perception of popular opinion.

With Ruby and Sapphire, it's even more split. While I do see plenty of hate for those games, there are just as many people willing to jump to its defense. So I don't think this unanimous agreement that you keep citing actually exists.

Quote
excuse me if I feel something that parrots the popular opinion of a game with an added "but I liked them" is a weak argument, or one that could be expanded upon.

Quote
I also feel that this argument is cheap, which is why I called for more variety in the feature. If kind of just feels like a lazy editorial.

Fair enough. I would have also liked to see a much more in-depth analysis of the games. Especially as a hardcore Pokemon fan, an analysis of the nitty-gritty stuff like the apparent removal of a day-night system or the added elements in the battle system would have interested me.

I'm not quite as critical as you are, and I'm not going to call this "lazy editorializing" or anything of the sort, but it's certainly not the most engaging debate either.

Quote
I just get sick of all the article bashing.

Yeah, just keep in mind that the writers for this site are unpaid volunteers who do this in their free time. Even if they weren't I try to avoid harsh attacks and stick to constructive criticism as much as possible.

It's admittedly difficult to do at times because I'm so passionate and have so many opinions about games, but I always try to keep my cool and be respectful, because god knows the internet needs more of that.

15
Quote
I like how one-sided this article is- one person has a falling out with Pokemon because Ruby and Sapphire sucked and the other enjoys every aspect that made the game insufferable.

How is Justin's argument better? It basically boils down to: "I couldn't transfer my Pokemon from older games and they didn't just put the same old Pokemon in a new region. Therefore Ruby and Sapphire suck. Q.E.D."

Also as for the Silcoon/Cascoon comparison...

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Nidoran%E2%99%82_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Nidoran%E2%99%80_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29

See those two Pokemon above? They're different Pokemon. They couldn't be bothered to come up with different names, so they just put a tacky Male or Female symbol in the name. Truly awful.

I find it interesting how the majority of people who hate Gen 3 so vehemently are the same people who freely admit that they were suffering from Pokemon fatigue at the time. What that says to me is not that the game changed. You did.

It's the typical "Genwunner" argument. "Everything was better back in Red and Blue! They've run out of ideas! etc., etc." This illustrates the irony of that pretty well, albeit with Gen 5 instead: http://i.imgur.com/Zo9QB.jpg

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that people hate new Pokemon games that only let you catch new Pokemon, instead of all the same ones we've seen for the past 20 years over and over. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE NEW POKEMON, WHY ARE YOU BUYING A NEW FUCKING POKEMON GAME?! That's kinda the point, isn't it? That's the biggest feature update of a new generation. That's the main reason a new "Generation" is such a big deal.

Aside from all this, Gen 3 brought a ton of new stuff to the table. Double battles,  Weather effects, Natures, Abilities, a new IV system, etc. The reason your old Pokemon couldn't be transferred is because of the huge overhaul they made to the individual aspects of each Pokemon. I'd much rather have big changes to the system (like Abilities) at the expense of my old Pokemon rather than having the series be EVEN LESS different between iterations just to try and grandfather in all of the old, obsolete, half-baked systems that existed before.

16
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 385: Boogy-Dad, Boogy-Dad
« on: June 04, 2014, 01:53:59 AM »
Quote
I agree. Pokemon is an easy series on its own. When EXP Share gets added in, it becomes baby difficulty. Any challenge-based opportunity that may arise becomes eliminated.

My point was that my underleveled pokemon still managed to beat the Elite Four, so levels and thus experience gained, and thus EXP share had no (or at least very little) effect on the difficulty of the battle.

Quote
How many hours a day (on average) do you spend in class? I was doing 3 - 5 Monday through Thursday most semesters. If you include time to commute from school and time I spent waiting for my ride from the bus stop and time in school I'd say I was "in" high school about 9 hours a day, five days a week. Even with more complicated work to do at home, that's a big gain in hours.


Additionally, I didn't have to get up at 5:30 in order to catch my bus, which meant I didnt have to go to bed NEARLY as early, which freed up more time in the evening to play games.

3-5 hours per day sounds about right for me as well in college. I don't disagree with the statement that you have less hours of class per day in college. The thing is though, those are spread out such that I only have an hour or two between my classes. Sure, that's enough time to play a game if I really wanted to, but I would more likely than not have to leave the game on while I went to class, or even show up late to class if the game wouldn't let me pause for some reason. That's not the way I like to play games. So effectively, my day may start at 10am and end at 5:30pm, even if only 4.5 of those hours were dedicated to in-class time.

My high school experience was pretty weird. My first 2 years I went to a school in a different state. I had an hour commute each way daily, and had to hang out at a friend's house after school until my parents could pick my up and take me home. So I was away from home for 12-13 hours daily. But the homework I had at that school was a joke and I'd usually just finish it in class. So I would get home at about 7pm and be able to play games for a solid 5ish hours until I went to bed, if I so desired.

My last 2 years of high school were more normal. I switched to my local public school and I drove myself to school by that point, so my commute was less than 10 minutes. Then I would spend about 7 hours in class per day. Then maybe I'd have an hour's worth of homework nightly. I just remember binge playing Demon's Souls senior year, playing hours per day for a few weeks straight. Which means I had plenty of gaming time on my hands.

Now in college, despite having less class hours, it's offset by the fact that I do, at a minimum, several hours of homework and studying per night. To be fair, I spend much of my free time socializing with friends, rather than playing games. I could use that time to play games if I wanted, but I enjoy my time spent with friends more. Which is why I repeatedly stated in my post that while you may have less time to game, it may be because you replaced it with other fun things.

Of course, everyone's experience will be different. Maybe Wilson won't have a problem squeezing in an hour's worth of gaming between 2 classes. If so, good on him. I just wanted to offer an opposing viewpoint so that if he DOES find he has less time to game, he won't feel blindsided.

17
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 385: Boogy-Dad, Boogy-Dad
« on: June 02, 2014, 10:25:45 PM »
Sorry for another long post, but I wanted to comment on the college gaming discussion as well, and wanted to separate this diatribe from the other one.

As a rising Junior in college, I have no idea what the crew was talking about when they said they had way more time to game in college. That is NOT my experience AT ALL. Granted, I'm an Engineering major, which is notorious for having lots of work, but I know that at least a few of the RFN crew majored in Engineering or Computer Science, so I don't quite understand why their experience was so different than mine.

I have way more work to do in college than I did in high school, and I was no slouch in high school. The majority of my high school schedule was honors and AP classes, all of which assigned ample work. Freshman year, I felt it was a step up in work, if only slightly. But Sophomore year the **** hit the fan. I had so much work to do this past year.

If a day went by where I didn't do an assignment for one class or another, it meant I forgot about something. And they weren't short assignments either. I remember several Signals and Systems assignments that took 8-12 hours to do. And I once had a Circuits Lab write up that took me 16 hours to do over the course of a week. Granted, those weren't assigned that often, but my Circuits professor used to assign a graded homework every class that would take 2-3 hours to do and sometimes required a PSPICE or MATLAB simulation of one of the problems.

Like Jonny said, there's a lot of self-study in college. But in my classes, I had graded homework assignments on top of that. Usually on a weekly basis, or in some classes, an assignment was due every class. In fact, for my Linear Algebra class last semester, I would often forgo the optional practice problems because I had a graded homework set or a MATLAB assignment to do, or probably a quiz to study for.

That's another big difference I've found is that in high school, I never studied for tests and still got straight As. In college, that's simply impossible. I spend HOURS studying for tests and probably even an hour or two studying for quizzes now. When I don't study enough, it'll be the difference between an A and a C.

Also... how the hell did you manage to have 5 day weekends or finish class by 10 am?! This upcoming semester is the first time in college that I've ever had a day completely off, and that's like a gift sent from heaven. I usually only have one day per week where I have only one or two classes, too. I've had Monday/Thursday schedules that start at 8:30 am and end at 7:00 pm with only a handful of breaks in between.

I definitely take college seriously though. I don't know many people who put more time into academics than I do. And it pays off for me, as I usually get high grades to show for all my hard work. But if I didn't put in all that work, I know my grades would be a lot worse.

This is not to scare Wilson, though. I still played games a lot Freshman year. Less so Sophomore year, but I'd still manage to fit it in occasionally. It was mostly social gaming though. I've played a LOT of Brawl and Mario Party these past few years, and my friends and I even played a bunch of single player games together Freshman year. I haven't really been able to play many new games during the semester though. I usually catch up on those during breaks.

I had the same fears as Wilson going into college, but despite having less time to game, these past 2 years have been the best years of my life. I don't want to leave. I definitely agree with the crew when they said that if you don't enjoy college, you're doing it wrong. Even if you have less time to game, you'll find other ways to have fun, especially if you find a great group of friends like I did. And you can still keep the hobby alive, like I did, it might just be a lesser part of your life.

So in short, if you're reading this Wilson, don't worry about having less gaming time in college. You probably will, but you probably won't really mind. You're still going to love the hell out of college. Good luck, take it seriously, and have the best years of your life.

... God DAMN I write a lot.

18
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 385: Boogy-Dad, Boogy-Dad
« on: June 02, 2014, 09:17:15 PM »
As someone who buys one version of every Pokemon game, including remakes and 3rd versions, and as someone who has dabbled in competitive play and understands crap like EVs, base stat totals, and knows the difference between OU and Ubers, I think I can speak as a "hardcore Pokemon fan."

I'm with Jonny on this one. Pokemon Y has been my favorite Pokemon game to play through in recent years in no small part due to EXP share. I could have a full team of 6 pokemon of relatively equal strength without having to go through the tedious bullshit of switching them out or grinding. It's more fun for me this way because I prefer having a balanced team that covers all of the type bases rather than brute forcing fights where I'm at a type disadvantage, like I did in previous games.

Quote
My HM Slave, who NEVER personally saw the light of combat once during my initial playthrough was level 87 by the time my first run through of the game was finished.

Christ dude. No offense, but that sounds like a you problem. I fought nearly every trainer I could throughout the game and my event Blaziken (that gets faster EXP growth due to technically being "traded"), which I used frequently, barely broke level 70 by the time I beat the game. And that was with EXP share on the entire game.

Quote
does irreversible damage to the immersion and challenge.

Really? You're looking to a Pokemon game for challenge? Without EV training, my Sylveon swept the Elite Four of this game at level 40. The E4 and champion all have pokemon in the mid 60s. All it took was a good moveset and smart tactics. These games are easy as hell regardless of EXP share. If you want real challenge, play against other real people. And EXP share has absolutely no effect on that whatsoever.

I personally don't understand getting immersed in a Pokemon game either, as to me the appeal lies in a chess-like anticipation of the opponent and peeling away the layers of the complex systems of the game as opposed to the world and characters, which I find bland and one-dimensional. But I'm willing to concede that other people may feel differently in that regard.

19
TalkBack / Re: NWR 15th Birthday: The Best Game of the Past 15 Years
« on: March 15, 2014, 02:59:15 PM »
Majora's Mask and Ghost Trick both out after the first round?! God what is wrong with you people?

You hurt me, NWR community. You really do. :(

20
TalkBack / Re: NWR's Top 10 Zelda Games: A Link Between Games
« on: September 28, 2013, 12:04:51 PM »
The Zelda cycle is strong with this thread.

21
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 349: Late Summer Podcast 13 RECCA
« on: September 10, 2013, 03:07:27 PM »
Quote
I actually have a program that allows me to make videos my desktop background so I downloaded a 1080p Xenoblade title screen video for my background.

Haha yeah, dreamscene. I did that a while back too. I had to reinstall windows over the summer though, and I never reapplied the background. I might have to go do that now....

Also, even if you skipped past the title screen (in which case, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgPcl1WJ98Y), I'm surprised that the Prologue music didn't give you an accurate preview of the brilliance of Xenoblade's soundtrack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FkRenJs0N4&list=PLAFE9CD20601795DE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hnpPXJsN3E&list=PLAFE9CD20601795DE

How can anyone not love this?!

The music in that game is so good that my mom, who majored in music in college, remarked on how fantastic it was multiple times while I played it this summer. She even loved the title theme so much that she decided to learn to play it on the piano, and then remarked that it was more technically difficult to play than most classical pieces she had learned.

Here's one more underappreciated song from Xenoblade that I just have to share (last link I promise): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0DE5zyRI6U&list=PLAFE9CD20601795DE

YOKO SHIMOMURA IS A FREAKING GENIUS.

22
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 347: Aggressive Drilling
« on: August 28, 2013, 01:22:08 PM »
Yesterday I wrote up a very long and impassioned response to this episode, but terrible dorm internet caused me to lose it all when I tried to post it. :( So now you'll just be getting the abridged version, because I simply can't muster the will to type that all out again.

- Curtis was great on the show, he fit in really well.

- Glad to hear Jonny's positivity regarding Duck Tales Remastered. I've also had problems with Way Forward's past games, so it's good to hear that the original game is left largely intact.


- I also think it's absolutely ludicrous that reviewers knocked that game for being too hard. First of all, that's the point, considering it's a nostalgia-fest retro revival. Second of all, I beat the Gameboy version of Duck Tales (which is apparently even harder due to the claustrophobic view characteristic of GB games of the time) when I was FIVE YEARS OLD. And that was my first video game ever. Chew on that, reviewers. If you think this game is too hard, then you are worse at video games than a five year old who has never played one before in his life.

- My philosophy on getting kids into games is to gift them a good game to get them interested, and then just play games around them. If they are apt to remain interested in games, then they will likely ask to play with you or ask you to buy them their own copy of the game, etc.

That's how it worked for me. I received a Gameboy Color and Duck Tales for my 5th birthday, and from then on, I would see my friends playing games and ask my parents for them.

- I disagree with Guillaume that you should give a kid the most recent version of a game (i.e. NSMB2 instead of the original SMB). If a kid is completely new to games, they won't think of an NES game as outdated or obsolete. My first 3 games ever were Duck Tales, Tetris, and Super Mario Bros., and I think that really shaped my taste as a gamer. I do agree with Jonny though, that you should let your kid use the Virtual Console versions if possible, simply because that is more convenient and less frustrating to use.

23
TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Unveils New Entry Level Handheld, the 2DS
« on: August 28, 2013, 01:05:19 PM »
*Checks date*

Nowhere near April Fools. So.... this isn't a joke? O_o

Well... ok then I guess. Taking out 3D doesn't surprise me that much, honestly. But why get rid of the clamshell design? Does that add significantly to the cost of the system? The lack of that feature would be a dealbreaker for me.

Personally I absolutely love my XL, but I might have to pick up one of these down the road when they're really cheap just for the WTF factor.

Also, random side note, now we can't call the original DS "2DS" anymore. It's like Xbox One all over again! :P:

24
TalkBack / Re: Hype and 3DS eShop Games: A Fickle Mistress
« on: August 21, 2013, 11:41:05 PM »
@MagicCow - I agree, the reason I think I can enjoy so many of these indie games is because I always buy them on mega sale on steam. A few I've even gotten for free from PS+, which is an even more extreme case.

I think it would be wise of Nintendo to start implementing regular sales a la steam. There are games on the eshop like Mighty Switch Force, Dillon's Rolling Western, Sakura Samurai, etc. that I've heard good things about, but I would never be willing to buy them at the current price. They might be able to scrape a few extra sales out of people like me if they gave them deep discounts at this point.

25
TalkBack / Re: Hype and 3DS eShop Games: A Fickle Mistress
« on: August 21, 2013, 01:29:04 PM »
@Neal - Ok, rereading it now, I can see what you meant. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who interpreted it the wrong way.

Quote
In a way, this is a repeat of my Xbox Live Arcade experience when I owned a 360. I would get excited about these indie games that got pumped in the press, and most of them were stone mediocre.

I've had this problem as well, but every time I started to lose faith in the indie hype, I'd play a game that would change my mind. At this point, I'm willing to try out pretty much anything, because for every Limbo, there's a Super Meat Boy or a VVVVVV. And with steam sales, none of these indie games are much of an investment.

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 5