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Re: Linux Users

I've just really started using Linux; I'm mainly using Fedora (although I have used Ubuntu), since Fedora's the closest (except for perhaps CentOS) to Red Hat.

Speaking of Red Hat, they very kindly (if slightly randomly) sent a cake to the office where I work today for a ten year anniversary.
by Ash
Thu Sep 06, 2012 4:14 pm
 
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Ace Attorney 5.

Ace Attorney 5 is basically being developed by the Investigations team. Takumi (the writer for Ace Attorney 1-4) will not have a major role in the development.

It will come out on 3DS.

Already confirmed for a Western release, however there are currently no release dates for any country.

Phoenix will be the main character, but Eshiro (the producer) has a made a point of the fact that Apollo Justice has not been retconned.

Some minor plot points released as publicity:

There will be a new side-kick; Maya is apparently in training in Kurain.

This game will take place one year after Apollo Justice.

The first case will be about a bombing in the Courthouse.

Payne's younger brother is the first prosecutor.

The theme of the story is "dark days for the law"; this is following from Phoenix's comment in case four of Apollo Justice.

The chain on Phoenix's jacket is from the locket that has Trucy's picture in it.

There will be more information released during TGS.
by Ash
Sun Sep 09, 2012 3:26 pm
 
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Re: Random Thoughts! v2.0

Hope you feel better soon, ThyDarkAngel.

Have a good time visiting your home, Sonikku.

Anyone else get irrationally annoyed when people whom are clearly better off financially than you are complain about how poor they are, and how hard it is to make ends meet? I know it's not fair of me to think that, and I shouldn't judge without knowing all the circumstances (I shouldn't judge at all, to be honest), but it still annoys me.
by Ash
Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:56 pm
 
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Crime Scene (DS).

The premise of this game is that you play as a new detective, whom has the authority to carry out forensic investigations. The first case is the apparent murder-suicide of the family of another detective, but as the game goes on, it becomes clear that there's more going on than first appears.

The gameplay is bascially a (small) number of mini-games, as you take blood and saliva samples, dust for finger-prints, and extract evidence. This alone would be enough to deter some gamers, as these mini-games are repeated over and over for all five cases, but there's also the fact that the game is rather glitchy, and, while it is rather lenient in how much tape you cover a print with in some cases, in other cases, it demands almost pixel perfection. This isn't helped by the fact that you have a "life" bar; make too many mistakes while investigating, and the game ends.

On the story side; the game has five cases, which are all tied together by a central storyline. It does all tie together quite well, but the fact that relatively small details from case one are brought up in case five means that this isn't a game that you want to stop playing for a few months and then go back to.

Unfortunately, the game does start going a little downhill come case five. There is a very twisted ethical issue that comes up mid-game, but a late-game revelation turns it from a twisted ethical issue, into a simple horrifying plot point.

End-game spoilers from here:

The central villain doesn't even make an appearance in case five, and the person whom funded the whole operation gets away free. The main character doesn't even care; he's more concerned with how distasteful he finds the planned timing of the central villain's execution.

All in all, people whom enjoy crime stories may enjoy this game; but you will need a lot of patience to be able to play all the way through it.
by Ash
Sun Dec 30, 2012 7:35 pm
 
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

James Noir's Hollywood Crimes. (3DS)

In this game, you play as a contestant in what is supposedly Hollywood's most popular game show - Puzzle Masters. The prize for winning the show is an all expenses paid, one year trip around the world. The main host is a fame-loving presenter, whom, jealous of his own waning popularity, and the fame the contestants receive, latches on to each contestant in the hopes that their popularity will rub off on to him. The show has a female co-host whom is tired of everyone just seeing her as an object, as well as a rather cold Producer. After passing the first round, you are approached by your former boyfriend/former college roommate, whom is now a F.B.I agent - there's a killer on the loose whom is apparently targeting former winners of Puzzle Masters. At the scene of each murder, the killer leaves a puzzle hinting at the location of where the next crime will be.

The gameplay is basically entirely comprised of puzzles; the TV show puzzles, in which you are presented with a choice of twenty puzzles per round, allowing you to pick and solve the puzzles until you reach the target score for that round. You are allowed three hints for a puzzle, and if the puzzle proves too difficult, can exit freely and choose another puzzle. The other puzzles are the "story" puzzles - puzzles that you must solve to move ahead in the story. These puzzles are linear, but if you really get stuck, the hint system allows you to use four hints for story puzzles, with the fourth hint solving the puzzle for you.

Unfortunately, a lot of these puzzles are the same; just with different levels of difficulty. For example, there are six levels of a puzzle where you have to move worms around a maze. There isn't really that much variety.

The game is also on the short side - you can complete it in around six hours.

The story could also have been better. It does have some promise but never reaches full potential. The use of the photograph taken of you (the actual player) works well, the ability to choose between playing as a male or female had some thought put into it, and there are some genuinely tense moments. On the negative, although everyone involved in the TV show is supposedly a suspect, the game all but smashes you over the head with a concrete slab with regards to whom the writers want you to suspect. There's only a few half-hearted hints pointing towards any other character being the killer. The protagonist being almost silent doesn't help the story either, in my opinion.

If you enjoy puzzle games, this game can be fun, especially since it's selling for around £5.
by Ash
Fri Jan 18, 2013 5:27 pm
 
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Hey ash. :) I don't see you around these parts these days. Hope you're doing well.

Hi Sonikku. :D I'm fine, thanks, how are you?

Mickey Mouse - The Power of Illusion (3DS):

Picked this up after hearing that it was based on the old Castle of Illusion. The start of the game does indeed seem to point to that, but unfortunately it goes downhill quite quickly. There are only three worlds, with worlds one and two having four levels each, and the third world having three levels. Each world is based on a Disney film; and all levels within that world are based on that world. It's not like Castle of Illusion where each level had it's own distinct theme.

The lack of levels is compounded by the lack of difficulty. Although the game does ramp up the difficulty for world three, the fact that you can basically generate treasure chest after treasure chest indefinitely to recover energy takes away from the challenge somewhat.

The game does have a number of side quests that are given to you by the Disney characters that you meet during the game. Unfortunately, all these quests boil down to is revisiting the old levels to try locate another character or an item. It really feels more like padding than anything else.

The gameplay itself is quite fun, although the painting may feel a little tiresome at some points.

Overall, it's an flawed, but enjoyable game, but it's one that I would recommend waiting for until it's discounted, rather than paying full price for.
by Ash
Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:39 pm
 
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Re: Happy Birthday Topic

Happy Birthday, Chris.
by Ash
Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:58 pm
 
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Re: Things that pissed you off

Came back from a business trip yesterday with a co-worker....the time between our connecting flights was very tight, and we ended up needing to go running through the airport to get to the gate in time.

Got to security, and my co-worker, whom was in front of me got detained because he was carrying a sealed box of liquids that he'd bought in London airport. So my co-worker and the security man got into a discussion about about the correct procedures of carrying liquids onto a flight (we got through the first airport without any problem). My co-worker opened the box, and started to put the items into his clear bag, but for some reason the security man took offense to that.

At this point, getting really worried about missing our flight, I called to my co-worker by name and handed him my clear bag (which was emptier than his was), my co-worker thanked me by name, stuck the stuff in the bag, and gave it back to me. At this point, the security man allowed my co-worker to pick his stuff up and go through security, but then stopped me and asked "Are you two travelling together?" "No, we were just standing next to each other, and calling each other by our names. I've never actually seen this man up until five minutes ago, and for all I know he may well be travelling to a completely different country to me". I didn't actually say that, but it was starting to feel like the security man was doing his best to hold us up. :mad:
by Ash
Sun Feb 24, 2013 7:07 am
 
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Re: Ace Attorney 5.

Apologies for the double-post.

There are two new English trailers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eCKjmcRtdg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtCyq-TQiaA

Seems like it's going to get a M rating for North America.
by Ash
Thu Jul 18, 2013 12:43 am
 
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Re: Happy Birthday Topic

Happy Birthday, Chris. :king:
by Ash
Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:09 am
 
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Dangan Ronpa.

Dangan Ronpa is a PSP game originally released in Japan in 2010, by one of the teams that worked on 999 and Virtue's Last Reward.

The basic plot is that in the centre of Tokyo, is an infamous school called Hope's Peak Academy. Only students selected by the school are allowed to attend. The two main requirements of being invited to be a student are that the potential student must be of High School age, and that the potential must be outstanding in their respective field.

As the school is so famous and so exclusive, graduating from Hope's Peak more or less guarantees the graduate a successful life. The students are considered to be the "hope" of Japan.

The newest class is comprised of fourteen students, all hand-picked by Hope's Peak Academy. Among these students are the "Ultimate Swimmer, Ultimate Baseball Player, but also Ultimate Heir and Ultimate Biker Gang Leader". There is also a fifteenth student, Makoto Naegi, the playable character, who got into Hope's Peak via a prize draw, and therefore has the title "Ultimate Lucky Student."

Upon Naegi entering Hope's Peak though, he finds himself trapped in the school, under a sadistic monochromatic robotic bear called Monobear, along with the other students. Monobear tells the students that they will have to spend the rest of their lives trapped in the school, unless they kill another student. Upon someone being killed, a trial will be held to find the culprit. If the wrong person is voted for as the culprit in a trial, the killer will be allowed to "graduate" and leave the school. The other students will be executed. However, if the correct person is voted for as the killer, the killer will be executed, and the surviving students will continue to live trapped in the school.

The two main parts of gameplay are the investigation stage, which plays like an Ace Attorney game, with the added element that you can choose to spend time with an individual student and give them gifts. This can lead to additional scenes filling out more information about a student's background.

The trial is the other part of the gameplay. These are basically comprised for several mini-games.

Although only orginally released in Japanese, an English translation of Dangan Ronpa has now been released on the Vita. You can watch the first trial here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R34GK3D9RaI . Please note that this is the full first trial, and therefore has spoilers for the first case.

A sequel, Super Dangan Ronpa 2 was released in 2012, but as yet there are no announced plans to release this in English. However, a voice actor did recently announce that he would be playing a character from Dangan Ronpa 2. This was announcement was removed, and nothing has been said since. There are also theories that Dangan Ronpa 3 may be in development.
by Ash
Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:49 pm
 
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Re: Dangan Ronpa.

Dangan Ronpa - Ultra Despair Girls has been announced for a Western release this Autumn.

This game takes place between Dangan Ronpa 1 and 2, and it is likely that looking at any screenshot will spoil you if you haven't finished Dangan Ronpa 1, since one of the surviving characters from 1 is the secondary main character in this game. As it does take place before Dangan Ronpa 2, you'll probably be okay looking at pre-release material if you haven't finished Dangan Ronpa 2, but I'd personally recommend that you at least still finish the first case.

Unlike Dangan Ronpa 1 and 2, this game is a puzzle-shooter; you have a megaphone that you use to shoot Monokuma's with. The basic plot is that the younger sister of Makoto, Komaru, is forced, by a group of children, known as the Warriors of Hope, to play a game for her survival in a place called Towa City.

Just two things to point out:

Although this game is an interquel, and is a puzzle-shooter, rather than murder-mystery, the story of this game is still very important, and provides some foundation for Dangan Ronpa 3.

This game has considerably more "fan-service" and darker themes than the previous games.
by Ash
Fri Feb 20, 2015 9:15 am
 
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Rune Factory 4:

(This is now out in Europe, though it is Digital only.)

Rune Factory 4, like previous Rune Factory games, combines the farming aspects of Harvest Moon, with action adventure. Where as you are given a rather vague, long-term goal that is rarely mentioned in the Harvest Moon games, in the more story driven Rune Factory you are given more defined goals.

Rune Factory 4 is quite laid-back; you're free to rush through the story, or invest most of your time farming, and progressing the plot at a slower pace. As with most of these games, there are four seasons, each with four days. There are festivals as well, although you will need to unlock some of them first. The Request system also returns, completing certain requests will allow you access to new seeds, forging and cooking recipes.

This game is considerably larger than Rune Factory 3, which had four levels, one for each season. I'm unfortunately not familiar enough with the other Rune Factory games to make a comparison to those. The story of Rune Factory 4 is split into three arcs; arc one has five levels, arc two has four levels, and arc three has one level. While you do need to finish the third arc to see the whole story, the game actually considers the end of the second arc to be the official end of the game.

The cast generally have a lot more dialogue than in recent Harvest Moon games. There are little side-stories, called Town Events, which are both a positive and negative in this game, and there are also little repeatable single day dialogue only events such as everyone talking about the temperature of the baths in the Inn the previous day, only to have the Inn Owner admit that she accidentally added some spicy herbs to the bath water.

Although the cast do have their quirks, on the whole, they are more down to earth than some recent Harvest Moon/Rune Factory characters, you won't find anyone running around yelling "RAINBOW" in Rune Factory 4. Some people appreciate this, others have found the Rune Factory 4 characters boring.

The most frustrating part of this game can easily be the Town Events. These are events that trigger about once a week. The problem with Town Events though, are that they are completely random; you have no choice over which event you'll get each week. This wouldn't be such an issue in itself if Town Events only covered little side stories, but they also cover marriage events, and worse, the final arc in the main story. I have heard of players waiting up to an in-game year to trigger the random Town Event that opens the final story arc, or spending ages soft-resetting, which can lead to game glitches.

Unfortunately, Rune Factory 4's element of randomness is not just confined to the Town Events. If you decide that you want to start dating a marriage candidate ( you can play as either a male or female character this time), you need to get that candidate to at least seven love points, and then confess your love to them - however there is only a small chance that the candidate will accept your confession at seven points. The chances that the candidate will accept your confession rises with their love points go up, but there's always a chance, even when you've raised the candidate to ten love points, that they'll still refuse you. Once you have successfully confessed to a candidate, you need to go on a date with them at least three times before you may marry them - it doesn't happen too often, but sometimes your partner will refuse to go on a date with you for absolutely no apparent reason.

Festivals are another issue. In Rune Factory 4, it will become harder and harder to win festivals each year - you won't be able to keep submitting the same level ten Turnip to win the crop festivals. This is good in a way, it keeps the festivals interesting, as you will need to work to win, but the results of the other villagers vary so widely, that it can feel like winning is more down to luck, than actual skill.

One definite improvement from Rune Factory 3 is the weather system - in Rune Factory 3, typhoons could more or less appear any day, any hour. In Rune Factory 4, you will nearly always get advance warning of typhoons, provided you speak to the three characters that will warn you of a forthcoming typhoon, and you have the ability to buy or make "Wettable Powder", which you can sprinkle onto your crops, which will increase their defence against typhoons.

The game is quite solid through the first two arcs, but unfortunately begins to decline at the end. As mentioned earlier, just unlocking the third arc is completely random, and even once you've unlocked it, the difficulty in the third arc dungeon is quite a leap from the difficulty in arc two. This isn't an issue so much in itself, but to get through arc three, you will need boss drops in order to forge weapons and armour that are strong enough to deal with the enemies encountered in the third arc. The problem with this is that you aren't always guaranteed a boss drop when defeating a boss, and bosses can only be fought once a day - this can quickly become frustrating, especially, whereas in arcs 1 and 2, you can usually use the same weapon for two or three dungeons before you're forced to upgrade, in arc 3, you have to update your weapon every couple of floors. Additionally arc three has a rather lackluster "ending".

Rune Factory 4 can be quite a time drain, especially if you prefer to take your time with the game; many players have put over 100 hours into the game, and really, if you do want to get everything out of the game, you'd probably still be looking at around 30 hours.
by Ash
Fri Mar 06, 2015 4:49 pm
 
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Layton Brothers, Mystery Room.

This is a iOS, later released on Android murder mystery game. Some have compared it to the Ace Attorney series, but I would personally agree that feels closer to a DS game called Unsolved Crimes.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in Layton Brothers is quite simple - the case starts with news of a murder. Using a crime reconstruction machine, you are given five minutes to look around - the crime scenes take the form of a room that can be rotated around, with yellow circles indicating points of interest. Clicking on one of these circles takes you to a zoomed in view, where you can look for evidence. A check mark will appear inside the yellow circle once you have found everything there is to find in that area.

Once the five minutes are up, you are asked to make a guess on whom you believe to be the killer, based on the evidence and testimony's you have so far. After that, the suspected culprit (unfortunately, based on Alfendi's theories, rather than yours) is called into the office for an interview - this comprises of rechecking the crime scene to find items such as the murder weapon, or to look for additional evidence. You will also have to answer questions about the crime.

Following that, there is then a final showdown with the real culprit. This takes place in the station interview room, and main comprises of answering more questions, and presenting evidence to show contradictions in the culprits statements. Unlike Ace Attorney, you will always argue against one single statement at a time, you are not given a testimony comprised of a number of statements, and asked to find the one that contains the contradiction. During the showdown, the culprit appears with a stone mask over a heart, and as they take "damage", the mask will slowly chip away, until finally the heart turns to stone and cracks.

Layton Brothers is a very forgiving game; you are not penalised in any way for picking an incorrect piece of evidence, or answering a question incorrectly, aside from a brief scolding. Some people like this, others don't.

Layton Brothers has no voice acting, but several of the characters do have phonetic accents, including Lucy. I'm just pointing this out since I know that annoys some people, also, some reviews of this game mention that they didn't initially realise that Lucy had an accent, and thought that the game had been terribly translated.

Music:

Not something I usually comment on when I review; but in this case, some of the music was done by Yuzo Koshiro, who also composed some of Shenmue's songs. The soundtrack is okay, it's mainly jazz type songs, which is not my favourite genre of music, but the soundtrack is pleasant enough, and there are a couple of tracks that I did really like.

Story:

You play as Lucy, a new police officer from Northern England. Despite having done quite badly in her exams, she is transferred over to the Mystery Room in Scotland Yard, a place where all the unsolved crimes are sent to, to work as an assistant for the brilliant Inspector, Alfendi Layton. After testing Lucy by asking her to work a murder case, Alfendi offers Lucy a position as his assistant.

At first, Lucy and Alfendi seem to have a number of similarities to Luke and Hershel, Lucy is quite outspoken, and can be quick to jump to conclusions, but is also compassionate, and determined to find the true culprit in any case. Alfendi appears to be much like his father, Hershel, quiet, even-tempered, polite and considerate though without so much of a fixation on puzzles, and gentlemanly behaviour - however, it is made clear right from the outset that there's a little more to Alfendi than meets the eye - under certain circumstances, Alfendi has quite the drastic personality change, from even-tempered and somewhat oblivious, to angry and intense.

There is a main story arc in the game, though it doesn't really start until the middle of the game. The first cases are mostly self-contained with some foreshadowing for the main arc. Although this game is a murder mystery, it's often more about how the killer did the deed, rather than whom the actual killer was.

The writing is quite good, the story isn't quite up to the earlier Ace Attorney games, but it does unfortunately suffer the same occasional issue that Ace Attorney did; where Phoenix, who was generally competent, had a few occasions of overlooking something blindingly obvious, or doing something rather ridiculous in order to move the story along/have Phoenix be dramatically rescued. In Layton Brothers, Lucy is fairly consistent in her detective ability, but Alfendi can be a little erratic as Phoenix could - there is one case, where the culprit proceeds to mention something only the killer would know three times , and every mention apparently flies straight over both Lucy and Meek Alfendi's head - Meek Alfendi ends up going into Angry Alfendi mode, and almost immediately calls the killer out on it. It comes across as both bizarre that Meek Alfendi overlooked such a glaring contradiction, and almost like the writers were struggling to find a way to shove Angry Alfendi into the case.

The ending isn't the most satisfying; it is clear that Level-5 were thinking of a sequel, but rather than going for an ending that more or less ties everything up, with a "To be Continued", or just leaves a minor plot point open for further exploration in further games, there are a number of unanswered questions at the end of this game. It's not on the levels of the protagonists being left in a cave, but still somewhat frustrating; especially since this game seems to have rather mixed reactions, and I'm not sure how well it did sales wise.

I hope the game does have a sequel, the story isn't quite up to Ace Attorney's standards, nor is the gameplay, but there's definite potential; the writing is quite good, and many of the characters are likable. It should also be noted that the decision to place this game in the Layton universe wasn't made until quite late in development, something that wouldn't be an issue for any sequels.

There are nine cases in the game, but all are quite short; I finished the game in around five-six hours. The first couple cases are free (at least on Google Play), with there being two packs that cost around £2.00 each to unlock the remaining cases.
by Ash
Mon Apr 06, 2015 12:47 pm
 
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Re: Monaco Magic 2016

For anyone that may be planning on using AirBnB to book a room/place - please make sure you go to the AirBnB website directly, rather than via a Google Ad; AirBnB have decided to charge hosts a higher amount for bookings that are made by people coming from a Google Ad, as opposed to those people who go straight to the AirBnB site and book. AirBnB have given people the option of not having their properties shown to people that came from Google Ads, so if you do go via an Ad, you may not get to see all the properties that are available.
by Ash
Fri Oct 23, 2015 2:06 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

From Kiwami:

Image
Image
by Ash
Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:45 am
 
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Re: Happy Birthday Topic

Happy Birthday JB. :beerchug:
by Ash
Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:19 am
 
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Re: Do you snore?

I do. It's worse when I'm really drunk apparently. Anyone got a scientific explanation? Don't care enough to google.

Alcohol can relax your throat, mouth and nose muscles, which in turn can cause your airways to narrow more than usual when sleeping. Snoring is caused by soft tissue in these airways vibrating as you breath; if your airways are narrower than usual, then your body is forced to change it's pace of breathing, which increases the possibility/strength with which the soft tissue in the airways vibrate.
by Ash
Tue Nov 08, 2016 3:16 pm
 
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Two reviews in one post.

Final Fantasy XV.

This game is quite divisive, and with it's history, and the conception that the game has been in development for ten years, it's not surprising that people either had very high hopes for this game, or thought it would be abysmal.

I enjoyed the game myself, but I feel that SE should have either delayed the game further, or completely cancelled Versus, and created XV from scratch. There's so much potential in just about everything in XV that isn't realised, it's almost depressing when you consider the game it could have been, had it been allowed more time.

The open map is very scenic in places, but it's also quite sparse, and with a few exceptions, most of the outposts seems to have been somewhat copied and pasted. Lucis is also the only place with an open map; there are other locations that you'll visit later in the game that limit you to a fairly small space. There are invisible walls all over the place, and it can sometimes be frustrating to go exploring the countryside, only to come up against an invisible wall. On exploring; the Regalia (the car) can be irritatingly slow (though you can buy soundtracks containing select tracks from previous Final Fantasies to play whilst driving), and difficult to drive at night due to the "daemons" that come out at that time, and force you to stop driving - there is a sidequest at one point to get some headlights that will stop the daemons from blocking your path, but that quest can only be done when you're over halfway through the game. The Regalia can also only drive on roads. You can hire Chocobos a short way in; they can go off road, are faster than walking, and you can ride them away from enemies, but you currently can't play any music when riding them - you may get annoyed of the infamous Chocobo theme after listening to it non-stop for half an hour.

The story is also rather sparse. The basic premise is that two nations, Lucis and Niflheim have been at war for years. Realising that Lucis cannot win the war, King Regis is forced to accept a peace treaty; relinquish control of all of Lucis, save the capital to Niflheim; and the marriage of Prince Noctis to the former princess Luna. In return, Regis will be left with free reign over Insomnia, the capital of Lucis. Uncertain of Niflheim's sincerity, Regis arranges for the wedding between Noctis and Luna to be held in the city of Altissa, outside of the country of Lucis. Regis sends Noctis off on a road trip to the wedding with three friends that Noctis has known for years, but after leaving Insomnia, but before leaving Lucis, Noctis finds out that Niflheim has betrayed Regis, and all of Lucis, including Insomnia is now in Niflheim's hands. Noctis vows that he will reclaim his throne, and free all of Lucis from Niflheim. Final Fantasy XV probably has one of the shortest stories in the series (around 15-20 hours if you don't do any side quests). It's a shame, because there is a story there, but the presentation of it is lacking. There's a lot left vague, or glossed over. Like Versus (supposedly), Final Fantasy XV has a rather sad, dark story underneath the road trip but the scarceness of the story means a number of the emotional points may not have their intended effect on the player - there's one in particular that's receiving quite a bit of ridicule around the Internet. While there is DLC planned to introduce further cutscenes to the main story, and a scenario for each of the three non-playable party members, I personally have doubts how effective the DLC will be.

Combat - I've seen a lot of recommendations to change the default control type (A) to either B or C; as it makes combat a lot more fun. I did play through using control type A, so I'm not sure if using B or C really does make that much of a difference. Combat is in real time, as opposed to the Active Time Battle previously used in Final Fantasy games. Random encounters are also gone; you'll see enemies on the map as you walk around, and a red bar will appear at the top of the screen to indicate how much notice the enemy is taking of you. When the red bar extends all the way across the screen, the enemy will attack. You only play as Noctis, you can't control the other three members of the team, or set up gambits for their behaviour; although each of the three has various techniques that you can call upon. Each character can only have one technique assigned at a time, but the game does allow you to go into the menu and swap a characters technique during a battle, if needed. Noctis can use all weapons, allowing you to decide whether you prefer greatswords, with slower, but more powerful blows, or daggers, for quicker, less damaging attacks. Noctis can also have four weapons equipped at a time, swapping between them is done with a press of the D-Pad, and eliminates the need to go into the menu to change weapons. Magic must be created from energy Noctis can take from fire, ice and lightening deposits, and stored in a magic flask. Magic is quite strong, but given that it needs to recharge between uses, and that it can also hurt your party, I only used it a few times during the game. You also can't use summons at will in Final Fantasy XV; summons (called Astrals) have their own minds in this game, and will only help Noctis out if certain criteria are met. If this criteria is close to being met in a battle outside, the sky will darken, and different music will start to play. Soon afterwards (Astrals can be summoned indoors as well), a prompt to press L2 (may depend on your control type) will appear, and after holding down L2 (it does have to be held down, not pressed or tapped), an Astral will appear (you can't choose which Astral; they each have their own criteria for summoning) and usually one-shot your opponent. I thought the Astral summonings were impressive, and in keeping with how powerful the Astrals are said to be in the games lore.

Sidequests and Hunts are where most people will spend most of their time in the game. There are a lot of sidequests in Final Fantasy XV. Most are marked on the map, but some you will only come across if you explore. Reaction to the sidequests are mixed, quite a few of them are fetch quests; "go to this location, and run around in a circle shown on the map until you find x item". This didn't really bother me, there was only one sidequest that I found frustrating, but again, opinion is divisive on this. Some sidequests will take you to optional dungeons; I was a little disappointed with the dungeons in that the ones with the more boring and repetitive design were much longer than those that had more interesting and varied designs (in my opinion), but some of the dungeons are atmospheric and fun to explore. One thing to note about taking on sidequests is that unless you wear an accessory to stop gaining EXP, you will end up highly over levelled for the main story if you start doing the sidequests straight away. For an example, I believe the recommended level for the last quest in the main story is somewhere in the 40's - I was in the 50's in chapter three. Hunts was something I wasn't too keen on. To start with, there isn't a centralised location to sign up to a hunt; you have to go to every diner separately to check on the hunts that diner is currently offering, though you are allowed to turn in a completed hunt to any diner. To compound this, diners add more hunts as you gain levels; you might have done all the hunts that a diner offers, but as soon as you level up your hunter rank, you'll need to check that diner again to see if any new hunts have been added. You can also only sign up for one hunt at a time, so you can't just sweep all the diners and sign up for all the hunts currently on offer. Another thing I disliked about the hunts - a lot of the targets just seemed to be minding their own business. The posters say that the targets are causing habitat destruction, but there's no visual evidence of that, and I honestly felt bad killing animals/monsters that didn't seem to be doing anything wrong. It felt odd to me that the four were okay with some of the hunts; given that Noctis and Prompto are both established as being animal lovers, and I think that apparently not having any peaceful species that existed with humanity (with the exception of Chocobos) actually detracted from the world a little.


Root Double: Before Crime.

This is a visual novel game of the reading and occasionally inputting a choice variety. Unlike a lot of other "pure" visual novel games though, which usually present the player with concrete choices which determine the ending or route the novel goes down, Root Double uses the "Senses Sympathy" system, where at certain times, you'll have to input your current feelings on one more more character, using a bar. Depending on how positive or negative your feelings are will dictate the current playable character's thoughts, words and actions. This can have a minor effect, or could lead to major consequences. To help guide players, Senses Sympathy decisions are colour-coded. A blue decision means that it's a minor decision. A yellow decision means that your choice could impact the ending, or have serious consequences. Finally, a red decision is basically a fatal choice. Choosing wrongly here will almost certainly lead to a bad ending.

The premise of the story is that the Nuclear reactor in a facility call LABO has had a meltdown. An elite rescue squad, Sirius, is dispatched to search for survivors, but while Sirius are carrying out their rescue, they find themselves sealed in LABO, along with several survivors, and must find a way to escape.

When you first start Root Double, you have a choice of two routes. The After route, and the Before route. The After route covers events after the meltdown, and comes from the perspective of Watase, the captain of Sirius. The Before route mainly covers events up to the meltdown, and comes from the perspective of Natsuhiko, a student. Despite the names, and Before taking place before After, the almost universal opinion is that After should be played first.

After is somewhat reminiscent of Zero Escape: 999. There are nine main characters in Root Double, and each corresponds to one of the Enneagram personality types (Watase is the Investigator, and Natsuhiko the Enthusiast); Senses Sympathy options are done against an Enneagram, and each character is labelled with their type. The lockdown in LABO is due to be lifted in nine hours, but with radiation levels rising, and very limited quantities of anti-radiation medication, and more and more fires breaking out, simply waiting the nine hours out is not an option. There are even some scientific lectures at points, though these start really taking off in the Before route, rather than the After route.

The After route is also where the Senses Sympathy system comes into its own the most; as an interesting, but somewhat flawed mechanic. With the threat of both fires and radiation, there are a lot of times where Watase, or someone else will find themselves in mortal peril, and you'll use Senses Sympathy to determine Watase's course of action. Since you're deciding how you feel about someone though, rather than deciding to, for example, fight a fire, or run away, sometimes the actions taken as a result of your choice can be the opposite of what you intended when you made the decision. In one scenario, giving Watase a high value in Senses Sympathy may cause Watase to decide against taking a dangerous action and retreating to safety, but in a later scenario, a high value for Watase may make him overconfident, and plunge headfirst into danger. This can be frustrating, but it does seem like the developers may have realised this - most decisions that lead to a bad end in the After route initially appear as a yellow decision, and if you do make a wrong decision, the game will usually allow you to change your mind; this time as a red decision to alert you to an incoming bad ending. Additionally, if you do get a bad ending, the game will give you hints on how to avoid the bad ending; these can be switched off for players that prefer to experiment and find their own way through the story.

As with 999, there's little visual gore in Root Double, but some of the bad ends in After route are somewhat... descriptive. I wouldn't say it gets quite as bad as 999, but it may still make some players feel a bit uncomfortable/squeamish.

Before route is more "slice of life". I'd probably compare it more to Ever 17 than Zero Escape, as Natsuhiko goes to school, and listens to science lectures as a chain of events start that result in him and a few of his friends being trapped in LABO after the nuclear meltdown. Personally, I found Before to drag a little at times, after the After route, though this is by no means a general consensus. I also didn't like the student characters as much as the adult characters; I found Natsuhiko to be quite unlikeable. It's also a lot easier to avoid bad endings in Before than After. I liked the tension of not knowing whether a choice I made would lead to a bad end, and that tension made me think before making a decision, but others may prefer the straight-forwardness of the decisions in Before route, especially if the unpredictability of Senses Sympathy was an annoyance in After route.

Once the first two routes are complete, the final route opens. It doesn't drag the way Before route does, but, despite a few tense moments, doesn't really feel quite as intense as After does either, in my opinion. Once the true ending in the final route is seen, the Xtend episode is unlocked, this a collection of scenes for each of the nine characters that provide further insight, or information into the characters that wouldn't have fitted into the main narrative.

Overall, I enjoyed Root Double, even though the ending left something of a bad taste in my mouth. The story is interesting, and a lot of the cast are likeable, even though most of them have rather limited character development.

A few completion hints; I'll put these under a spoiler, but I've tried to be as vague as possible.
- You need to see the After route good ending to unlock the final route.
- You'll need to play After route three times to get the full epilogue and bad endings.
- You'll need to play Before route twice to get all the bad endings.
- There's a certain yellow decision fairly near the start of the last route. Whatever choice you make there will close off some of the endings. If you'd prefer to leave the true ending until last, you should decide in favour of the person making the decision in your first playthrough.
-Not digging too deeply will also close off some of the endings, but it also leads to unique scenes.
by Ash
Wed Dec 28, 2016 5:27 pm
 
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Re: Random Thoughts

Aimless Gamer wrote: So I had surgery and almost died. I stopped breathing twice and they had to cut into my throat. I'm sore but glad to be alive.


Sorry to hear that. I hope your recovery is going well.
by Ash
Sun Jan 08, 2017 6:21 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

Ya even though I have never finished a Yakuza game to its ending before, 3 is the one I spent the most time with and I loved okinawa.

edit: scratch that I actually finished Yakuza 2 back in the day. But not 1. Or 3 or 4 or Kenzan and Ishin even though ive owned and played all of them.

^^I think they had some of Fukuoka in Yakuza 5 actually, though I'm sure it's only a representation of a tiny little part (probably not the scale you'd be hoping for). I think it was the opening area, actually, where Kazuma is working as a cab driver.

Oh wow really? Now I have to check it out eventually.

Yeah, Yakuza 5 starts in Fukuoka. The area is pretty small, but I personally still liked seeing Fukuoka in the game and comparing it to real life Fukuoka.
by Ash
Thu Jan 26, 2017 3:31 pm
 
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Re: Yakuza series

Image

For people that have played Yakuza 2; yes, it is who you think it is.
by Ash
Tue Jan 31, 2017 4:27 pm
 
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Re: Sonic Forces & Sonic Mania

I played Sonic Mania at EGX Rezzed. The first zone was Green Hill, and aside from some shields from Sonic 3 (Fire, Water and Lightning) being present, and a different boss, I couldn't tell any difference from Sonic 1 Green Hill zone. :???: Studiopolis, the second playable zone seemed a little more unique though.
by Ash
Mon Apr 03, 2017 3:04 pm
 
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Re: Random Thoughts

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
by Ash
Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:46 pm
 
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Re: Random Thoughts

Aimless Gamer wrote: I'm home just really really sore. Man I had a scare when I came home though I thought I was gonna die.


Hope your recovery is speedy.
by Ash
Wed Apr 26, 2017 3:34 pm
 
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Re: Random Gaming Thoughts (Read OP Before Posting)

http://www.screamingvillains.com/
phpBB [video]


Night Trap, the game that is one of the main reasons for the creation of the ESRB is going to be released on the PS4 and XBox One, with a PC version also being hinted at.
by Ash
Wed Apr 26, 2017 3:30 pm
 
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Re: Blizzard has Sonikku committed

I wish I had some words of wisdom to help, Sonikku, but all I can say from the bottom of my heart is that there are many people here including myself that care for and about you, and we will do everything we can to support you.

If you're comfortable with it, have you considered a Gofundme page or something similar to help raise the $1,800 for the medical transcription course?
by Ash
Sun Jun 04, 2017 1:19 pm
 
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Indy game Tokyo Dark comes out on PC 7th September.

Tokyo Dark is a 2D horror point and click game. Police Detective Ayami Ito is searching for her partner, and as her investigation takes her around Tokyo, she ends up fighting to maintain her sanity.

One of the main themes of Tokyo Dark is making decisions and living with the consequences of those decisions. One of the features is the "SPIN" system, Sanity, Professionalism, Investigation, and Neuroticism. Actions and dialogue options taken can affect one or more of these attributes, and this may also have eventual consequences, for example, Ito will start hallucinating, if her sanity gets too low, or people may be less willing to talk to her if her neuroticism becomes too high. Tokyo Dark has a total of eleven endings, with the eleventh, only being available after completing the game once.

Supposedly, there's more than one way to solve every puzzle in Tokyo Dark (an early game example, do you shoot a off a lock, or do you persuade the person in charge of the key to give it up?) and a large amount of dialogue branches.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/114971883/tokyo-dark/description

(The creators are Shenmue fans, and named Shenmue as one of their inspirations.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ_cqdPFtM8
by Ash
Mon Aug 14, 2017 1:39 pm
 
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