I started playing guild wars again. A coworker wanted to give it another try, so I decided to play along with him. Made a new character, an elementalist. She's okay. I've done all the things in prophecies so many times that I usually want to go play my mesmer, so I've been doing that fairly often as well.
I was vanquishing an area earlier today and discovered that its still really exciting when a gold item drops for you. It's just so cool. Now I just need to duplicate the feeling of getting a green drop. There's a staff I sort of want. I have one that shares some attributes, but why not try for the other one?
I was planning on making this post called "Cody-pendent" and have it chock full of links to all the best information on Cody (my new street fighter semi-main). But that would have been boring.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Schfourteen-teen
I've been playing the Final Fantasy 14 Open Beta somewhat. I won't be paying for a subscription for this game. For how big of a name it is, it seems really unpolished. Twenty days for an open beta is not enough time for a game in this state. Getting client updates is a challenge in patience. They like to stick at 94.6%.
There is no direction on what you're supposed to do. When I started the game, at my first fight there was a message printed (eventually) to the screen indicating that I should go into battle mode. That's it. It didn't say how. It's 'F', by the way (though using a skill does it as well). After that, I get to the city and start doing the quest I'm on. Standard quest fare, except for the bit where you are supposed to talk to these children and perform an emote. What emote you say? Ask the internet. Somehow, when a child tells you that you are supposed to greet your dance partner to show respect and joy, the correct response is not the "Joy" emote, nor is it "Bow", nor "Greet". It's "Surprise". Of course. That's logical. If you didn't look it up, the only way to finish that portion of the quest is to perform every emote you have for six different NPCs.
Eventually you finish that quest and you can get a few simple ones and then...? Grind. I guess. That's fun. There is also the option to pick up a trade, or be a miner or something. I haven't tried a crafting profession yet, but I've tried mining. It's weird. You find an ore deposit and then a vertical slider shows up, asking you where you want to aim on the rock face. There's nothing that tells you what this means or how it affects things. I've put it in different places and haven't found any difference. Either way, then you swing at the rock and either hit harder or softer, depending on the messages you get. It's not bad, I just wish I knew what the slider did.
More complaints: poison. It's way too powerful. There doesn't appear to be any antidotes, so if you don't kill your enemy when you still have two hundred or so life and don't put your weapon away instantly after your battle is over, you will probably die.
The client crashes every so often and there are some words in dialog that haven't been translated to English.
The only part of all of this that I don't like is that my super-cute half-cat girl, Perin, will be gone forever. I need me some guild wars 2 and some mesmer love.
There is no direction on what you're supposed to do. When I started the game, at my first fight there was a message printed (eventually) to the screen indicating that I should go into battle mode. That's it. It didn't say how. It's 'F', by the way (though using a skill does it as well). After that, I get to the city and start doing the quest I'm on. Standard quest fare, except for the bit where you are supposed to talk to these children and perform an emote. What emote you say? Ask the internet. Somehow, when a child tells you that you are supposed to greet your dance partner to show respect and joy, the correct response is not the "Joy" emote, nor is it "Bow", nor "Greet". It's "Surprise". Of course. That's logical. If you didn't look it up, the only way to finish that portion of the quest is to perform every emote you have for six different NPCs.
Eventually you finish that quest and you can get a few simple ones and then...? Grind. I guess. That's fun. There is also the option to pick up a trade, or be a miner or something. I haven't tried a crafting profession yet, but I've tried mining. It's weird. You find an ore deposit and then a vertical slider shows up, asking you where you want to aim on the rock face. There's nothing that tells you what this means or how it affects things. I've put it in different places and haven't found any difference. Either way, then you swing at the rock and either hit harder or softer, depending on the messages you get. It's not bad, I just wish I knew what the slider did.
More complaints: poison. It's way too powerful. There doesn't appear to be any antidotes, so if you don't kill your enemy when you still have two hundred or so life and don't put your weapon away instantly after your battle is over, you will probably die.
The client crashes every so often and there are some words in dialog that haven't been translated to English.
The only part of all of this that I don't like is that my super-cute half-cat girl, Perin, will be gone forever. I need me some guild wars 2 and some mesmer love.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Bayonetta
I hate it. The difficulty is inconsistent, the lack of mid-level saves is retarded and while you're supposed to have all these different combos, you just mash randomly and different things come out. I don't understand why there is no good way to regain your health. Sure, you can use an item if you have it, but they aren't particularly common. Regaining some health between fights would make things a lot more palatable. If you die, you get your health back and you can starts at a check point, but a death breaks morale. Why should you be punished in a fight for not being perfect in the previous one? You won, and fights are a lot more exciting if you were one hit away from dying and you pulled it out.
I'm not sure if I'm going to finish it. NHL11, FIFA11 and Civ5 all come out this month, not to mention Fable 3 in October and GT5 in November. It's something that is taking up some time, but I'm not interested in putting that much time into something I find really tedious.
I'm not sure if I'm going to finish it. NHL11, FIFA11 and Civ5 all come out this month, not to mention Fable 3 in October and GT5 in November. It's something that is taking up some time, but I'm not interested in putting that much time into something I find really tedious.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Zelda Reference
I think playing the blazblue challenges has helped my execution a little bit. The best part of them is that the combos start off pretty long and aren't particularly simple. That way there is no point where you can do all these easy things and then be stuck on the harder things. Your only choice is the harder stuff.
Another good part is that you can view the combo being performed. I've found this to be most helpful. I was working on a combo for Ragna and I could do a QCB+B with the QCB+D follow-up just fine, but could never get the next input, B, to hit the dummy. After watching the combo done by the computer a few times, I realized that their dummy was being launched higher by the QCB+D than mine was. This would then allow enough frames for recovery to then be able to do the standing B. Once I realized this, I watched it a few more times to see what I was doing differently than was needed and saw that I needed to not do the QCB+B, QCB+D right away, but to wait just a fraction of a second longer before doing the QCB+D. This wait is hard for me to learn and it took a few tries, but then I started getting it more regularly. Soon after, I did the combo.
Doing that combo helped me in doing a combo with Cammy in SF4 as well. I've known that her BnB combo is cr.LK, cr.LP, cr.LK > QCF+HK. I knew that it was not a cancel between the lp and the lk, but a 2 frame link. Having to learn to wait a little with Ragna helped me figure out the link with Cammy a bit better. Links are tough. The margin for error on them is very small.
Unrelated: I want to code at home. I like doing nothing more though. Oh well.
Another good part is that you can view the combo being performed. I've found this to be most helpful. I was working on a combo for Ragna and I could do a QCB+B with the QCB+D follow-up just fine, but could never get the next input, B, to hit the dummy. After watching the combo done by the computer a few times, I realized that their dummy was being launched higher by the QCB+D than mine was. This would then allow enough frames for recovery to then be able to do the standing B. Once I realized this, I watched it a few more times to see what I was doing differently than was needed and saw that I needed to not do the QCB+B, QCB+D right away, but to wait just a fraction of a second longer before doing the QCB+D. This wait is hard for me to learn and it took a few tries, but then I started getting it more regularly. Soon after, I did the combo.
Doing that combo helped me in doing a combo with Cammy in SF4 as well. I've known that her BnB combo is cr.LK, cr.LP, cr.LK > QCF+HK. I knew that it was not a cancel between the lp and the lk, but a 2 frame link. Having to learn to wait a little with Ragna helped me figure out the link with Cammy a bit better. Links are tough. The margin for error on them is very small.
Unrelated: I want to code at home. I like doing nothing more though. Oh well.
Friday, August 20, 2010
The End of Civilization
I'm not sure if I like Civ4 as much as I thought I did. I find it hard to get enjoyment from a game where for no reason what so ever, I suddenly have six other nations declaring war on me. That's great. And of course they all have the perfect set of treaties and roads that they can move their armies to me in no time at all.
It's a lose-lose. I need to expand for resources and such, but I'm always started in a place where I'm surrounded by other civilizations... so if I try to get rid of them, I can take down one easily enough, but then the other magically can create enough defenses to hold me off forever. It doesn't matter if my units are twice as strong and I have twice as many. Their city defenses seem to count more than mine do. Of course, by starting this war, I've offended every other nation on the planet, who now want to kill me.
It's not like I can try for the non-aggressive route either. I'll get boxed in and then some stupid aggressive leader will declare war on me for no reason. Hooray! That's fun!
It's a lose-lose. I need to expand for resources and such, but I'm always started in a place where I'm surrounded by other civilizations... so if I try to get rid of them, I can take down one easily enough, but then the other magically can create enough defenses to hold me off forever. It doesn't matter if my units are twice as strong and I have twice as many. Their city defenses seem to count more than mine do. Of course, by starting this war, I've offended every other nation on the planet, who now want to kill me.
It's not like I can try for the non-aggressive route either. I'll get boxed in and then some stupid aggressive leader will declare war on me for no reason. Hooray! That's fun!
Friday, August 13, 2010
BBCS
I'm not sure why this has taken me so long to make this post, but here it is.
The new version of Blazblue is pretty good. The tutorials they have put in are pretty good. They explain the characters strengths pretty well and go over some fighting game terms and BB specific mechanics that a new player may not know.
The challenges are also great. I'm always a big fan of a good training mode. I like being able to see what a combo looks like and being told if I'm doing something correctly or not. Sometimes when I'm looking up combos online and I give them a shot, I'm not sure if I'm doing them in the correct way.
Even with the challenges, I'm still very bad at BB. We all know about my issues with execution and Blazblue requires tighter execution than Street Fighter. I think. I can't back that up.
The new version of Blazblue is pretty good. The tutorials they have put in are pretty good. They explain the characters strengths pretty well and go over some fighting game terms and BB specific mechanics that a new player may not know.
The challenges are also great. I'm always a big fan of a good training mode. I like being able to see what a combo looks like and being told if I'm doing something correctly or not. Sometimes when I'm looking up combos online and I give them a shot, I'm not sure if I'm doing them in the correct way.
Even with the challenges, I'm still very bad at BB. We all know about my issues with execution and Blazblue requires tighter execution than Street Fighter. I think. I can't back that up.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Purchases
I bought Starcraft 2 and the fixed version of Blazblue. Starcraft is great. I'm liking it how I liked the first one when it came out so many years ago. I'm certainly as bad as ever, but if you combine enough troops of different types, you can overcome. Like all games I play, I won't be playing multiplayer, but that's for pretty much the same reason why I don't play street fighter online... I am not good enough and confident enough in my abilities to be okay with my performance, regardless if I win or lose.
I know that if I practiced my execution enough with Cammy that I would not have any excuse for sucking. After that point, every loss is another lesson to examine for new tactics and weaknesses. Currently, if I'm getting angry because I can't pull of a simple combo, I'm not going to be open to the other weaknesses in my game. I won't be thinking if it is a good or bad time for that combo if I'm struggling to get it out.
I think I will post about the new blazblue next week because I haven't put much time into it and I'll need a topic.
Last post I mentioned Capcom x Namco. That is incorrect. It is Street Fighter x Tekken. Only characters from those series will show up. Which is good, because nobody cares about Soul Calibur.
I know that if I practiced my execution enough with Cammy that I would not have any excuse for sucking. After that point, every loss is another lesson to examine for new tactics and weaknesses. Currently, if I'm getting angry because I can't pull of a simple combo, I'm not going to be open to the other weaknesses in my game. I won't be thinking if it is a good or bad time for that combo if I'm struggling to get it out.
I think I will post about the new blazblue next week because I haven't put much time into it and I'll need a topic.
Last post I mentioned Capcom x Namco. That is incorrect. It is Street Fighter x Tekken. Only characters from those series will show up. Which is good, because nobody cares about Soul Calibur.
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