What Video Games Have You Been Playing #11: I should go

[FriendlyFire]

I think that's just the AI. As Germany it took a couple of years to whittle down the 11,000 or so Soviet planes they kept putting in whatever air zone they thought was most important.

Quantity has a quality all of its own.
Well it is Soviet and they did send waves of unarmed men straight into combat

 

[Akka]

It's kinda funny, as when I first played the game, I would've agreed, but nowadays I think she's actually one of the most interesting characters in the game. She's got a lot of backstory in there, both the stuff that comes up in dialgoues and her personal quest (which is one of my favourite of all the companion ones story wise) and her interactions with most of the rest of the cast are great.

Kinda had the opposite happening to me.
First playthrough I found her relatable if a bit too much of a "background character", but the more I've played, the more I've found her boring.

Overall, I really have changed my opinions of the DA:O characters over the course of my...8-10 probably...playthroughs. My first run, I'd put Leliana, Morrigan and Oghren top. These days, I consider the latter two the worst, and even Leliana is well below my current top three of Shale, Wynne and Alastair. Oh, and Barkspawn who is, of course, the best companion.

As for sympathising with Morrigan. Sure, she's had it rough. Doesn't mean I have to find her story interesting or her presence desirable.

Oghren has always and will always be the worst character in DAO. I'd even say he's the worst character Bioware ever made. His crassiness level is well beyond what I can endure, and his voice makes my skin crawl.
Morrigan, I hated the first time, but I've come to appreciate the craftmanship of her writing. She's actually a nice girl brainwashed to be callous, and it's actually done well enough that her reactions make sense in hindsight. The annoying part is that you can't call her BS or use logic against her affirmations.

Alistair is the bro you always bring along because you can rely on him and you can trade joke. Sten is, by far, the best written and most interesting character IMO.

If Morrigan is boring, what can we say about Leliana?

I have a soft spot for Leli. Well, she's French Orlaisian so that's cheating a bit, but she's wonky in a cute way. Sometimes it's a bit cringy, but most of the time it's fun.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I have been trying to stay in Pokemon Ultra Moon but all the controversy about the new Sword & Shield games have really opened my eyes to how lackluster all pokemon games are. They just aren't great, engaging RPG's and almost all of the enjoyment I get out of them is in the collecting aspect and almost nothing with the rest of game play. People like me seem to have pushed that aside but now that Sword & Shield are destroying the collecting aspect of the series, it's forced people to seriously reconsider their value. Who am I kidding though, they're still going to make buku bucks so nothing will change.

 

[Dachs]

Oghren has always and will always be the worst character in DAO. I'd even say he's the worst character Bioware ever made. His crassiness level is well beyond what I can endure, and his voice makes my skin crawl.

That crassness led directly to one of my favorite accidental gaming moments a few years ago.

A friend was playing through the DA games for the first time, and we sort of turned them into social events - everybody would hang out and we'd chat about the game as it was happening, we'd drink some drinks, and a good time would be had by all.

Our buddy was doing a 2H Warrior Dwarf Noble run and had gotten to Awakening, but found that he didn't have any companions that could runecraft. So he re-specced Oghren, because dwarves and runes lol?, in order to get those sweet, sweet grandmaster runes on everybody. This reset Oghren's stats, too, which removed all of his gear because he couldn't meet the Strength requirement for using them.

The friend never really used Oghren much - he was a bit grating, plus there was already one 2H Warrior dwarf in the party - so the next time he saw Oghren was a week later, in the auto-proc conversation upon return to Vigil's Keep. Felsi shows up and Oghren drunkenly leers at her. He asks if this is a conjugal visit.

...while completely naked, because our friend forgot to put Oghren's armor back on.

Hands down, one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. Steve Blum's delivery was spot on.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I have been trying to stay in Pokemon Ultra Moon but all the controversy about the new Sword & Shield games have really opened my eyes to how lackluster all pokemon games are. They just aren't great, engaging RPG's and almost all of the enjoyment I get out of them is in the collecting aspect and almost nothing with the rest of game play. People like me seem to have pushed that aside but now that Sword & Shield are destroying the collecting aspect of the series, it's forced people to seriously reconsider their value. Who am I kidding though, they're still going to make buku bucks so nothing will change.

For me the biggest attraction was always the battle strategy, which means SP is a silly diversion if I were to play one again. PvP battles between actually have a fair amount of complexity, strategy, and predicting what your opponent will do. In SP you can just use your starter or any random pokemon from the starting area that has a self-buff or debuff, maybe some x items, and run the table on the game. Post-game content is a little more challenging because you have to actually make a team at some point and can't just abuse items, but still nothing like playing against someone who knows what they're doing.

~~~

As for HOI 4 the AI does make a lot of planes, and given how significant air superiority is for holding a front, creating pockets, or even doing a massed overrun this is one of the rare areas where it actually operates with vaguely the correct idea.

 

[Lexicus]

PvP battles between actually have a fair amount of complexity, strategy, and predicting what your opponent will do.

PvP pokemon in a competitive setting actually has quite a bit of strategy and depth. It is not even comparable to playing against the computer.

I like playing the old pokemon games on emulators for the nostalgia and to relax.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I have been trying to stay in Pokemon Ultra Moon but all the controversy about the new Sword & Shield games have really opened my eyes to how lackluster all pokemon games are. They just aren't great, engaging RPG's and almost all of the enjoyment I get out of them is in the collecting aspect and almost nothing with the rest of game play. People like me seem to have pushed that aside but now that Sword & Shield are destroying the collecting aspect of the series, it's forced people to seriously reconsider their value. Who am I kidding though, they're still going to make buku bucks so nothing will change.

really depends on how you play em. many fans think D&P were some of the peak pokemon games, for me G&S were the best, R&S were good, the rest was kinda lackluster. sure, the first pokemon games RBY were legendary, but they don't hold up well imo. though I still think they had some of, if not the best designs.

I didn't play USUM, nor will I play S&S since clearly they're for a different target audience while the older pokemon games were a little more neutral, less catering in that regard.

For me the biggest attraction was always the battle strategy, which means SP is a silly diversion if I were to play one again. PvP battles between actually have a fair amount of complexity, strategy, and predicting what your opponent will do. In SP you can just use your starter or any random pokemon from the starting area that has a self-buff or debuff, maybe some x items, and run the table on the game. Post-game content is a little more challenging because you have to actually make a team at some point and can't just abuse items, but still nothing like playing against someone who knows what they're doing.

yeah I'm in the same boat. I never collected Pokémon seriously in any of my games, I was just trying to be the best in both PvP and PvE. competitive mons is fun, so is strategizing, but really the king discipline is teambuilding.

PvP pokemon in a competitive setting actually has quite a bit of strategy and depth. It is not even comparable to playing against the computer.

I like playing the old pokemon games on emulators for the nostalgia and to relax.

same and same

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I have only played two PvP battles in any Pokemon game my entire life. Once when I was 10 and the second time a few weeks ago. It was pretty miserable the second time as the opposing player began every single move by switching his Pokemon. Somehow, no matter which Pokemon he used or which ones I used, he was always given the ability to move first after switching. This meant he was constantly switching in and out to get type advantage or to prevent KO's which turned it into an un-fun game of whack-a-mole. He also ran out the clock on almost every move because he couldn't decide what to do. In spite of all that I won but it was such an un-fun experience that I don't want to repeat it.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Sounds like his pokemon had some impressive speed stats.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I have only played two PvP battles in any Pokemon game my entire life. Once when I was 10 and the second time a few weeks ago. It was pretty miserable the second time as the opposing player began every single move by switching his Pokemon. Somehow, no matter which Pokemon he used or which ones I used, he was always given the ability to move first after switching. This meant he was constantly switching in and out to get type advantage or to prevent KO's which turned it into an un-fun game of whack-a-mole. He also ran out the clock on almost every move because he couldn't decide what to do. In spite of all that I won but it was such an un-fun experience that I don't want to repeat it.

well, that's how pokemon works. you switch. sometimes you recover. sometimes maybe you attack. the fact that he went first just means that your pokemon were very slow if you have correct EVs, Nature and IVs your pokemon should be the exact same speed if it's the same pokemon. it's not really unfair, he just had a knowledge advantage over you

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I have only played two PvP battles in any Pokemon game my entire life. Once when I was 10 and the second time a few weeks ago. It was pretty miserable the second time as the opposing player began every single move by switching his Pokemon. Somehow, no matter which Pokemon he used or which ones I used, he was always given the ability to move first after switching. This meant he was constantly switching in and out to get type advantage or to prevent KO's which turned it into an un-fun game of whack-a-mole. He also ran out the clock on almost every move because he couldn't decide what to do. In spite of all that I won but it was such an un-fun experience that I don't want to repeat it.

Your pokemon get a move on the switch, which the opponent doesn't get. If neither side switches, the faster pokemon will go first (for true speed ties, it's 50/50).

There are also priority moves, which allow a slow pokemon to go first if the enemy does not also use a priority move, some abilities that give priority to certain move types, and a move that flips who goes first for a while (trick room). There are also moves that boost speed until said pokemon is beaten/switches (like dragon dance) and an item that gives you a speed boost but doesn't let you change what moves you make until you switch pokemon (choice scarf).

Some moves even have negative priority and will in most cases go last despite speed.

Which pokemon acts first is actually significant to PvP strategy, and there are some pretty tough/mechanically complex tradeoffs to be made when deciding what pokemon, items, and moves to use when it comes to speed.

Let's give a basic example:

I have a physically-oriented fire type pokemon in. You switch to Gyarados. Since I don't have an electric move and my attack stat just got lowered by your ability, I switch out. On the turn I switch out, you use dragon dance.

If I switch in an electric type that isn't either very fast naturally or choice-scarfed, you can instantly kill it using a water/flying pokemon that takes FOUR times normal damage to electric moves, because your Gyarados will get to move first and use either Earthquake (electric weak to ground) or waterfall (electric doesn't resist and non-tanky electric pokemon will die to a +1 waterfall from a Gyarados). This opens my entire team to getting smashed unless I have an amazing physical wall.

But what if I had a choice scarf? I could then simply tbolt your Gyarados and kill it instantly, since I move first as long as my electric type's base speed is faster. But knowing this, you might switch to a ground pokemon, and since choice-scarf move locks me I literally can't do damage so you can freely choose a non-ground move to hit a predicted switch or just set up again. Unless I predict this and also switch at the same time you switched to the ground type.

Or instead of using dragon dance, you might guess that I am going to bring in an electric pokemon in advance and just immediately use earthquake rather than dragon dance, which can easily kill many electric types w/o the boost. But! I might not switch in an electric type. I might switch in a skarmory to whirlwind you out, or a physically bulky water with haze, or even my own Gyarados (which doesn't have dragon dance and is instead a choice variant or maybe a roar variant). Maybe I got stealth rock up, so your Gyarados already lost 75% of its health and is more vulnerable to priority moves. Maybe I instead bring in a grass type with spore, put it to sleep, and start using everyone's favorite sub-seed setup from there.

~~~

And the above is just a small part of a single battle with specific pokemon, there are lots of interactions. So much to consider that is just never relevant in SP runs.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Wow that is way more complex than I thought and it makes a lot of sense now why that kid was switching out so bloody frequently. I don't think I care enough to learn all the ropes of the game like this so I probably won't ever play PvP again.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The Long Dark: ~55 days into my Stalker game, my one-man village in Mystery Lake is pretty well stocked, so I'm mounting an expedition to Hushed River Valley, because it's there, as Mallory said. I know it's accessible from somewhere in Milton (aka The Howling), that it has almost no man-made structures, and there are extensive caves.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The Long Dark: ~55 days into my Stalker game, my one-man village in Mystery Lake is pretty well stocked, so I'm mounting an expedition to Hushed River Valley, because it's there, as Mallory said. I know it's accessible from somewhere in Milton (aka The Howling), that it has almost no man-made structures, and there are extensive caves.

Departed Mystery Lake last night, got caught in a blizzard while traversing the climbing area, ended the day in the gas station/convenience store. I'd forgotten that Milton/Mountain Town is where this run began, 50-something in-game days ago. With all of the wolves and no weapons, I got out as quickly as I could. I'm glad I decided to bring my prybar, the gas station was locked up tight. In my haste to get out of town, I never found a prybar here, so I'd left the gas station untouched.

Anyway, assuming the arrangement of the regions on the world map roughly coincide with the regions themselves, the entrance to Hushed River Valley is somewhere on the north side of Milton. I'm thinking I'll make the old church my basecamp while I look for the exit. I think there are some deer around there and now that I'm bristling with weapons, I should be able to get through The Howling without getting turned into a werewolf.


p.s. I had to look up the movie's Wikipedia page last night, because I couldn't remember the name of the mountain resort that was the werewolf colony in The Howling, and it says it was just called "The Colony." I also saw that Elisabeth Brooks - the ostentatiously sexy werewolf (whaddaya want from me, I was like 12) - died in 1997, at age 46. So that was a bummer.

 

[Traitorfish]

WWE 2K19. Appallingly un-OT, I know, but I like making the big men lob each other around the place.

 

[PhroX]

I haven't played the WWE games since the days when they had suitably ridiculous subtitles instead of years. They were fun though.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

I haven't played them since they were WWF games.

 

[Phrossack]

WWE 2K19. Appallingly un-OT, I know, but I like making the big men lob each other around the place.

Now, now, we esteemed members of CFC prefer games in which we dispatch opponents with lethal force rather than wrestling moves. We are people of culture.

 

[EgonSpengler]

WWE 2K19. Appallingly un-OT, I know, but I like making the big men lob each other around the place.

I'm a fan of MMA, irl, but I've never tried one of the video games. Pro wrestling is probably better for a game, since realism isn't really the point anyway.

 

[cardgame]

I played Knock Out for the Xbox 360 back in the day, that was a pretty fun boxing game.