Well, put quite simply, I decided I needed a break from all the JRPG nuttiness that I've been tearing my way through for a couple of weeks or so. I started going through the PS3 edition of Tales of Symphonia, but I couldn't build up enough steam to actually go through my usual RamPaGe.
After a bit of dithering, I put in my old, banged up copy of Borderlands 2 again. It's funny; this is the only FPS I've ever really gotten obsessed over, which considering its pretty much FPS: The RPG, says a lot.
There's still plenty of shoot-and-loot awesomeness to be had. The baddies are still full of hilarity and sociopathy, like if they grabbed a pack of deranged forum-goers and dumped them on a planet with a multiple metric craptonnes of guns and ammo and functional immortality. It's one of those games you just have to experience, even without being a fan of any of the contributing genres and themes of the game. You literally can spend hours tearing around shooting Mad Max extras with a gun that shoots acid lasers (!) while they scream about meat bicycles and demanding their hitpoints back at the top of their lungs.
Ever wanted to play a game that has Ork Shoota guns? Welcome to the Torgue family, boys and girls! Want to get angry sharkfaced shotguns that shoot fire? Bandits can give you one! Burst-fire grenade launchers? Dahl has you covered! Elemental weapons that make the Covenant plasma family look like pea-shooters? Welcome to deadly elegance of Maliwan! Guns that get more accurate as you fire? Hyperion, baby! Old-school elephant guns capable of one-shotting the biggest monstrosity? Come on down and get you a Jakobs! Guns that turn into grenades? Tediore has a deal for you! More dakka? Vladof! Vladof! VLADOF!
And this is in the vanilla game. DLC gives you stuff like fighting a giant metal T-Rex on wheels, sniper rifles that rain elemental doom like flowers of death, throwing down with a giant snowman to a metal cover of Carol of The Bells, and guns that fire exploding swords!
Yeah, I'm a fan.
Showing posts with label borderlands 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label borderlands 2. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Space Scurvy
Blarg-a-rant to the spambots that "read" this stuff.
Been tearing about in Borderlands The Pre-Sequel some more. According to their website, legendary drops have been tweaked for this game and for B2, but I'm not seen any real increase in the orange glow. That said, I've only done 1 1/2 playthoughs, and all of it normal difficulty thus far, so I can't expect too much.
That said, the rate I've seen them in vending machines is absolutely epic so far. I've managed to find two Moonlight Sagas, an Oxidizer, a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, a Nasty Surprise, an Avalanche, and a Logan's Gun (I tragically couldn't afford that last one, *sob*), making for a whopping seven legendaries on Normal (and five of those solo). That's a ridiculous amount compared to my long B2 run with at least six playthroughs, including True and Ultimate VH difficulties. All together, two Bitches, a Quasar (!!!), a Sledge's Shotgun, a Fastball, and...I think that's it actually. Five legendary pieces in regular vending machines. (NOTE, this doesn't include the Torgue machines, which have a guaranteed legendary Torgue item)
While the actual drop rate is still somewhat ambiguous right now, the vendors in PS seem to have been tweaked for the better thus far. I really hope it stays that way.
Tell you what, the vehicles in PS are crap, though. I want my damn Truck-a-pult back!
Been tearing about in Borderlands The Pre-Sequel some more. According to their website, legendary drops have been tweaked for this game and for B2, but I'm not seen any real increase in the orange glow. That said, I've only done 1 1/2 playthoughs, and all of it normal difficulty thus far, so I can't expect too much.
That said, the rate I've seen them in vending machines is absolutely epic so far. I've managed to find two Moonlight Sagas, an Oxidizer, a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, a Nasty Surprise, an Avalanche, and a Logan's Gun (I tragically couldn't afford that last one, *sob*), making for a whopping seven legendaries on Normal (and five of those solo). That's a ridiculous amount compared to my long B2 run with at least six playthroughs, including True and Ultimate VH difficulties. All together, two Bitches, a Quasar (!!!), a Sledge's Shotgun, a Fastball, and...I think that's it actually. Five legendary pieces in regular vending machines. (NOTE, this doesn't include the Torgue machines, which have a guaranteed legendary Torgue item)
While the actual drop rate is still somewhat ambiguous right now, the vendors in PS seem to have been tweaked for the better thus far. I really hope it stays that way.
Tell you what, the vehicles in PS are crap, though. I want my damn Truck-a-pult back!
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Beware, I Live!
Gwahaha! You spambots thought you were rid of me! >:D
Been busy with the holiday drama at work. The customers have been decidedly more pleasant this time around, even accounting for the fact that I don't get to play with a chainsaw and slaughter trees in public. There are a few idiots in the bunch. Note to our customers: We are not Amazon, we are not Overstock dot com. There are things on the website that we do not have in physical stores. Spew your petulance at management; that's what they're paid for.
Been avoiding the XBox, mostly since I don't feel like being all social right now between shifts. No offence to my online buddies. You don't deserve work-induced vitriol, and all I really want to do is smash evil and set fire to their fortress. This phase will pass. The clarion call of trundling death has finally breached the miasma of meh I have going right now.
It got me thinking. I've done a good deal more smashing this year, and I want to share my thoughts. I believe that I've played more hours overall in the past two years than most of my post-teen life, as well as the most varied overall games.
Borderlands 2. Get off my plane and everybody gets a bullet. Honestly, shooters have never really enticed me until this came along. My brother loves the first two Medal of Honor games, and I have good memories of Battlefront 2 and Goldeneye from back in the day. But this monster lured me into something I never expected: pouring ridiculous amount of time and energy into lobbing almost enough dakka against advancing hordes of random sociopaths. The loot and leveling systems actually made me look forward to mashing right trigger and pwning bastitches like a boss. WE LOVE YOU MARCUS!
Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Dammit, Square Enix actually did it to me again. I think I an in the tiny minority that actually likes this damn game. The protagonist is the biggest whiny bitch this side of Advent Children Cloud for a good part of the game. The battles are badly unbalanced in one way or another. The soundtrack su-huh-ucks! But it's just plain fun somehow. Welcome to a JRPG where a paladin archetype doesn't suck mechanically. Welcome to a place where you can hang out with the anime cliche/fetish of your choice, and it works. Welcome to Bacchus D-79, a space elf Robocop that can summon killsats, mecha, and frickin BLACK HOLES. No Welcome to Sarah, though. You deserve to be left in ignominy forever, the only escape from which involves a vore furry dressed up like Bubsy.
Skyrim. Holy shit is this awesome. Tearing about being Nordic on my undead horse that is surprisingly nice and well-behaved. Killing random moronsand stripping their corpses bare as a warning to other tards. Going through dank dungeons toight undead viking wizards with Jedi powers! The only fit music for those fights is produced by Manowar, Setting the undead viking ninja wizards on fire with a sun-powered sword of +1138 Undead Ignition known as Dawnbreaker. Punching angry grizzly bears to death like a boss. Smashing dragons is fun, but somebody else did it better. I put this game down for the next two, but I will come back eventually, to snag the the +9001 Bow of Summoning Anti-Undead Killsats and kill a Dracula Wannabe.
World of Tanks. Wow, a freemium game I like and want to play. Tearing about in a WWII tank, making other tanks miserable, and building a stable of vehicles that would make the Top Gear guys go crazy (well, crazier). Showing people that Hetzers gonna Hetz, and that ramming stuff with a Stuart makes for hilarity. I've thrown way too much money at this thing, plus it;s a online game that makes me actually want to play with strangers. CoD can join Sarah.
Diablo 3. I. Don't. CARE. What other people say. This shit's awesomesauce. Another genre entry-drug for me. I've now discovered hack-and-slash RPG goodness, and it is beautiful. Whether it's smashing faces with a barbarian, going ninja crazytown with a monk, or bringing the dakka with a demon hunter, it just doesn't get old in Vanilla. Then frickin Reaper of Souls came, with more mooks to smash, an angel with a frickin Holy Avenger Rocket Launcher with a altfire Keen Vorpal Flamethower, and the Crusader. Holy crap. My build for this guy involves hammers. Lots of hammers. Enough hammers to run a thousand hardware stores. Oh, and the Crusader/Templar bromance is funny as hell and strangely endearing. Let's Smite Something Together.
Well, I need to go, I'm getting incoherent.
Been busy with the holiday drama at work. The customers have been decidedly more pleasant this time around, even accounting for the fact that I don't get to play with a chainsaw and slaughter trees in public. There are a few idiots in the bunch. Note to our customers: We are not Amazon, we are not Overstock dot com. There are things on the website that we do not have in physical stores. Spew your petulance at management; that's what they're paid for.
Been avoiding the XBox, mostly since I don't feel like being all social right now between shifts. No offence to my online buddies. You don't deserve work-induced vitriol, and all I really want to do is smash evil and set fire to their fortress. This phase will pass. The clarion call of trundling death has finally breached the miasma of meh I have going right now.
It got me thinking. I've done a good deal more smashing this year, and I want to share my thoughts. I believe that I've played more hours overall in the past two years than most of my post-teen life, as well as the most varied overall games.
Borderlands 2. Get off my plane and everybody gets a bullet. Honestly, shooters have never really enticed me until this came along. My brother loves the first two Medal of Honor games, and I have good memories of Battlefront 2 and Goldeneye from back in the day. But this monster lured me into something I never expected: pouring ridiculous amount of time and energy into lobbing almost enough dakka against advancing hordes of random sociopaths. The loot and leveling systems actually made me look forward to mashing right trigger and pwning bastitches like a boss. WE LOVE YOU MARCUS!
Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Dammit, Square Enix actually did it to me again. I think I an in the tiny minority that actually likes this damn game. The protagonist is the biggest whiny bitch this side of Advent Children Cloud for a good part of the game. The battles are badly unbalanced in one way or another. The soundtrack su-huh-ucks! But it's just plain fun somehow. Welcome to a JRPG where a paladin archetype doesn't suck mechanically. Welcome to a place where you can hang out with the anime cliche/fetish of your choice, and it works. Welcome to Bacchus D-79, a space elf Robocop that can summon killsats, mecha, and frickin BLACK HOLES. No Welcome to Sarah, though. You deserve to be left in ignominy forever, the only escape from which involves a vore furry dressed up like Bubsy.
Skyrim. Holy shit is this awesome. Tearing about being Nordic on my undead horse that is surprisingly nice and well-behaved. Killing random moronsand stripping their corpses bare as a warning to other tards. Going through dank dungeons toight undead viking wizards with Jedi powers! The only fit music for those fights is produced by Manowar, Setting the undead viking ninja wizards on fire with a sun-powered sword of +1138 Undead Ignition known as Dawnbreaker. Punching angry grizzly bears to death like a boss. Smashing dragons is fun, but somebody else did it better. I put this game down for the next two, but I will come back eventually, to snag the the +9001 Bow of Summoning Anti-Undead Killsats and kill a Dracula Wannabe.
World of Tanks. Wow, a freemium game I like and want to play. Tearing about in a WWII tank, making other tanks miserable, and building a stable of vehicles that would make the Top Gear guys go crazy (well, crazier). Showing people that Hetzers gonna Hetz, and that ramming stuff with a Stuart makes for hilarity. I've thrown way too much money at this thing, plus it;s a online game that makes me actually want to play with strangers. CoD can join Sarah.
Diablo 3. I. Don't. CARE. What other people say. This shit's awesomesauce. Another genre entry-drug for me. I've now discovered hack-and-slash RPG goodness, and it is beautiful. Whether it's smashing faces with a barbarian, going ninja crazytown with a monk, or bringing the dakka with a demon hunter, it just doesn't get old in Vanilla. Then frickin Reaper of Souls came, with more mooks to smash, an angel with a frickin Holy Avenger Rocket Launcher with a altfire Keen Vorpal Flamethower, and the Crusader. Holy crap. My build for this guy involves hammers. Lots of hammers. Enough hammers to run a thousand hardware stores. Oh, and the Crusader/Templar bromance is funny as hell and strangely endearing. Let's Smite Something Together.
Well, I need to go, I'm getting incoherent.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Game Economics
NOTE: This is not a Wreckonomics post.
Been tearing about in Adventure Mode on Diablo 3. They've added randomized dungeons chock-full (chock!) of shiny goodies, especially on the quite lootiful Torment Difficulty. Unlike Best Shooter Ever, they ramped up the difficulty but clearly remembered what this whole solo play concept is, and actually made the legendary drops more frequent but also more meaningful. Gearbox needs to take notes, especially since this is the big daddy of procedurally generated goodness.
Lootiful is my new favorite not-a-word now.
Unfortunately, they added a mechanic that I honesty am quite ambivalent about. There is a new secondary currency called Blood Shards. They're mysterious shiny bits of mystery, and since Scooby Doo isn't around, nobody really knows what the hell they really are. Their only function currently is for this 'gambling' mini-game. Pay X shards, get a loot drop. One might get better goodies doing this on the insano Torment 3-6 settings, but right now it's really just been a roundabout way to turn shards into crafting materials, which already grow off trees at these levels. Literally, tree demons drop this stuff.
It got me into thinking. Games have been trying to do secondary currencies since friggin forever, but they've very rarely done it right. Some examples, both good and bad:
Borderlands 2: Several secondaries, particularly Eridium, Torgue Tokens, and Seraph Crystals. Eridium started as the stuff for extra storage space and therefore useful, plus needed for access to the main bonus boss. Later on, you got more bonus bosses that require Eridium to access, plus whole extra things like chests that enhance results and redonculous gambling machines of goodness, keep the stuff relevant and useful. Tokens were used for specific vendors, mostly granting access to some nasty legendaries with minimum fuss, and were very easy to farm. Crystals...well they were also used for special DLC vendors, but you either burned ridiculous amounts of Eridium to get them, or fought bonus bosses at max difficulty. This requires a party to pull off, so frankly Best Shooter Ever dropped the ball for forced lone wolves like me there.
Final Fantasy VII: One secondary, GP. This stuff is pretty much putt-putt tickets for the Golden Saucer fun dome of terror. Spend cash on the games there, do good, get GP. Chocobo Racing (but not betting in CPU-only races) was very profitable for this stuff, especially for folks going for the Golden Chocobo. The real use for GP was the Battle Arena, which had it own secondary (tertiary?) system called battle points that vanished if you left the lobby (total bullshit). You got Cloud's level 4 limit break plus other nifty toys there. Overall, the whole thing was fairly well done, since it really just amounted to getting goodies from doing random fun stuff, without slurping up your cash supply.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope: One secondary, Fight Tokens. While I do feel this game gets a lot of undeserved hate for not being Final Fantasy (and I smell that not the FF7 remake a lot of RPG nuts want), it has some flaws, some stemming from being a Square B-list title, some just quirks gone wrong. One flaw is Fight Tokens. You get them from fighting in the battle arena, and spend them at one specific vendor for specific goodies, most of which only available from there. The flaw is that to get the stuff unique to this place, you need to either do Disgaea-style uber-grinding so you can afford them when they're useful as upgrades, or wait until the post game, then uber-grind the arena, but with less hassle. In either case, the rewards (from the shop itself) are very underwhelming, and really the stuff you get are only good for crafting, and arguably not much good for that. Glorified putt-putt tickets, given out for really boring grinding. Bleh.
SaGa Frontier 2: One secondary, Chips. I already covered this in the Wreckonomics article for the game. To wit: You turn most of your gear into chips, which you can either convert into Crowns (the primary currency), with better rates for higher amount of chips, or use them (plus crowns) to make nifty high-level gear. What you can make is dependent on your overall chip-stash size and in-game skill levels. You really don't have much choice about getting this stuff, which can be a pain since that means either whaling upon critters until your weapons break for chips or finding the very vendors that convert stuff directly into chips. The whole system really feeling like an attempt to both avoid the usual RPG lol-heug gold inflation problem and give a bit of magic-ey, crafty flavor. Okay overall, but kinda feels half-assed. Still not sure if right cheek or left cheek, though.
One final example, that doesn't really fit in.
Secret of Evermore: Instead of secondaries, we actually have four primary currencies: Claws, Jewels, Gold Coins, and Credits. All four are indigenous to one particular region of the game, and there are merchants that exchange one currency for another (typically in the listed order). Money was earned in the usual manner (i.e. killing stuff). This was actually very workable overall, and helped give some character and contributed to the whole idea of diversity the game was going for. Pretty well done, though I still can't figure out who decided individual jewels are crappier that gold coins in value. Maybe the money jewels are flawed, or really cubic zirconium or something. Other interesting economic features included a (limited time) trading bizzar where you could exchange one commodity for another, in hopes of various stat-bonus goodies, plus a token (spheres of annihilation if I remember correctly) usable in only one instance, in this case a cool undead ferryman doing business in the desert. Technically a secondary, but really just a macguffin.
Anyway, as you can see, secondary currencies in games are not a new thing, but really, it's very rare for a game to do them any better than "Meh." Hopefully Blizzard gets its crap together about it. Maybe use it as an in-game fee to actually trade legendaries between players (dammit Blizzard). Currency is only any good insofar as it actually being used and valued through use.
Been tearing about in Adventure Mode on Diablo 3. They've added randomized dungeons chock-full (chock!) of shiny goodies, especially on the quite lootiful Torment Difficulty. Unlike Best Shooter Ever, they ramped up the difficulty but clearly remembered what this whole solo play concept is, and actually made the legendary drops more frequent but also more meaningful. Gearbox needs to take notes, especially since this is the big daddy of procedurally generated goodness.
Lootiful is my new favorite not-a-word now.
Unfortunately, they added a mechanic that I honesty am quite ambivalent about. There is a new secondary currency called Blood Shards. They're mysterious shiny bits of mystery, and since Scooby Doo isn't around, nobody really knows what the hell they really are. Their only function currently is for this 'gambling' mini-game. Pay X shards, get a loot drop. One might get better goodies doing this on the insano Torment 3-6 settings, but right now it's really just been a roundabout way to turn shards into crafting materials, which already grow off trees at these levels. Literally, tree demons drop this stuff.
It got me into thinking. Games have been trying to do secondary currencies since friggin forever, but they've very rarely done it right. Some examples, both good and bad:
Borderlands 2: Several secondaries, particularly Eridium, Torgue Tokens, and Seraph Crystals. Eridium started as the stuff for extra storage space and therefore useful, plus needed for access to the main bonus boss. Later on, you got more bonus bosses that require Eridium to access, plus whole extra things like chests that enhance results and redonculous gambling machines of goodness, keep the stuff relevant and useful. Tokens were used for specific vendors, mostly granting access to some nasty legendaries with minimum fuss, and were very easy to farm. Crystals...well they were also used for special DLC vendors, but you either burned ridiculous amounts of Eridium to get them, or fought bonus bosses at max difficulty. This requires a party to pull off, so frankly Best Shooter Ever dropped the ball for forced lone wolves like me there.
Final Fantasy VII: One secondary, GP. This stuff is pretty much putt-putt tickets for the Golden Saucer fun dome of terror. Spend cash on the games there, do good, get GP. Chocobo Racing (but not betting in CPU-only races) was very profitable for this stuff, especially for folks going for the Golden Chocobo. The real use for GP was the Battle Arena, which had it own secondary (tertiary?) system called battle points that vanished if you left the lobby (total bullshit). You got Cloud's level 4 limit break plus other nifty toys there. Overall, the whole thing was fairly well done, since it really just amounted to getting goodies from doing random fun stuff, without slurping up your cash supply.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope: One secondary, Fight Tokens. While I do feel this game gets a lot of undeserved hate for not being Final Fantasy (and I smell that not the FF7 remake a lot of RPG nuts want), it has some flaws, some stemming from being a Square B-list title, some just quirks gone wrong. One flaw is Fight Tokens. You get them from fighting in the battle arena, and spend them at one specific vendor for specific goodies, most of which only available from there. The flaw is that to get the stuff unique to this place, you need to either do Disgaea-style uber-grinding so you can afford them when they're useful as upgrades, or wait until the post game, then uber-grind the arena, but with less hassle. In either case, the rewards (from the shop itself) are very underwhelming, and really the stuff you get are only good for crafting, and arguably not much good for that. Glorified putt-putt tickets, given out for really boring grinding. Bleh.
SaGa Frontier 2: One secondary, Chips. I already covered this in the Wreckonomics article for the game. To wit: You turn most of your gear into chips, which you can either convert into Crowns (the primary currency), with better rates for higher amount of chips, or use them (plus crowns) to make nifty high-level gear. What you can make is dependent on your overall chip-stash size and in-game skill levels. You really don't have much choice about getting this stuff, which can be a pain since that means either whaling upon critters until your weapons break for chips or finding the very vendors that convert stuff directly into chips. The whole system really feeling like an attempt to both avoid the usual RPG lol-heug gold inflation problem and give a bit of magic-ey, crafty flavor. Okay overall, but kinda feels half-assed. Still not sure if right cheek or left cheek, though.
One final example, that doesn't really fit in.
Secret of Evermore: Instead of secondaries, we actually have four primary currencies: Claws, Jewels, Gold Coins, and Credits. All four are indigenous to one particular region of the game, and there are merchants that exchange one currency for another (typically in the listed order). Money was earned in the usual manner (i.e. killing stuff). This was actually very workable overall, and helped give some character and contributed to the whole idea of diversity the game was going for. Pretty well done, though I still can't figure out who decided individual jewels are crappier that gold coins in value. Maybe the money jewels are flawed, or really cubic zirconium or something. Other interesting economic features included a (limited time) trading bizzar where you could exchange one commodity for another, in hopes of various stat-bonus goodies, plus a token (spheres of annihilation if I remember correctly) usable in only one instance, in this case a cool undead ferryman doing business in the desert. Technically a secondary, but really just a macguffin.
Anyway, as you can see, secondary currencies in games are not a new thing, but really, it's very rare for a game to do them any better than "Meh." Hopefully Blizzard gets its crap together about it. Maybe use it as an in-game fee to actually trade legendaries between players (dammit Blizzard). Currency is only any good insofar as it actually being used and valued through use.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Call to Agriculture
Hail to the spambots!
Been busy farming for goodies in Borderlands 2. It's a cycle of firearm-based abuse; I shoot various freaks, they drop goodies. Then, I take the goodies and shoot bigger and angrier freaks so they drop better goodies. Finally, I plan to use the goodies on gigantic and furious freaks so I can have the best goodies.
How the hell Pandora isn't completely covered in spent brass is beyond me. You'd have to mine a few solar systems to get the copper, iron, tin, etc. needed to keep the guns supplied, without accounting for propellant, oh and building the guns themselves!
In other news, I've stopped playing Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana again. I've the worst reason ever: I'm bored. I can't say I hate the game. The mechanics are somewhat flawed, but not terrible. The story is a unique setting on a blender filled with anime and RPG tropes. The economics are a bit unusual, but pleasantly so. I'm probably going to do a rant, and almost certainly going to do a Wreckonomics entry about it. The only thing holding me back is the I don't want to until I've beaten the game and ensured I've found the gas pedals.
I plan in trying another RPG soon, most likely something darker like Legend of Dragoon, or perhaps Divinity 2: Ego Draconis. I'm also planning on continuing to play B2 and some more of Diablo III. Loot, loot, loot!
Been busy farming for goodies in Borderlands 2. It's a cycle of firearm-based abuse; I shoot various freaks, they drop goodies. Then, I take the goodies and shoot bigger and angrier freaks so they drop better goodies. Finally, I plan to use the goodies on gigantic and furious freaks so I can have the best goodies.
How the hell Pandora isn't completely covered in spent brass is beyond me. You'd have to mine a few solar systems to get the copper, iron, tin, etc. needed to keep the guns supplied, without accounting for propellant, oh and building the guns themselves!
In other news, I've stopped playing Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana again. I've the worst reason ever: I'm bored. I can't say I hate the game. The mechanics are somewhat flawed, but not terrible. The story is a unique setting on a blender filled with anime and RPG tropes. The economics are a bit unusual, but pleasantly so. I'm probably going to do a rant, and almost certainly going to do a Wreckonomics entry about it. The only thing holding me back is the I don't want to until I've beaten the game and ensured I've found the gas pedals.
I plan in trying another RPG soon, most likely something darker like Legend of Dragoon, or perhaps Divinity 2: Ego Draconis. I'm also planning on continuing to play B2 and some more of Diablo III. Loot, loot, loot!
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Back in Business With Big Guns
Hail the spambots that read this!
It's been a helluva month. Short version, my leaders are craven. Pfah!
Anyway, I've been happily tearing through Atelier Iris, enough that I'm likely to post a Wreckonomics entry about it. It is very plain that this is item crafting fan's game, which is one of the reasons I have trouble putting it down. Bombs, laser cannons, dead fish, booze, meteor strikes? Final Fantasy wishes its consumables were this cool!
I've also been tearing with my mini-clan on Borderlands 2, and I'm happy to report we have started getting our hands on Pearlescent level guns. We're in the middle of training up a couple dudes so they're ready for Ultimate VH raid bosses so we can start getting Seraph level gear too. The Florintine shall be mine!
I admit that I find it very irritating that they locked the Seraph gear to Ultimate. I see why they did it (to prevent farming in True to get Ultimate gear later), but to be honest, they should have kept the gun drops in True while leaving crystal farming to wait until Ultimate. Even Seraph gear loses its power a few levels into Ultimate if you only bring level 50 versions.
But gripes aside, the guns you can get in Ultimate are the kickass! I've wound up with the Butcher and a Tunguska thus far, and damn if they aren't nasty. The Butcher is effectively an AA-12 with all but unlimited ammo and ridiculous fire rate. The Tunguska is the Nukem's angry big brother; very dangerous, but oh so killy. There are better launchers for straight damage (Norfleet, Badaboom, high end purples), but behold as whole rooms of mooks become smoking relics and shiny shiny loots!
Well, I need to go. Must find food...
It's been a helluva month. Short version, my leaders are craven. Pfah!
Anyway, I've been happily tearing through Atelier Iris, enough that I'm likely to post a Wreckonomics entry about it. It is very plain that this is item crafting fan's game, which is one of the reasons I have trouble putting it down. Bombs, laser cannons, dead fish, booze, meteor strikes? Final Fantasy wishes its consumables were this cool!
I've also been tearing with my mini-clan on Borderlands 2, and I'm happy to report we have started getting our hands on Pearlescent level guns. We're in the middle of training up a couple dudes so they're ready for Ultimate VH raid bosses so we can start getting Seraph level gear too. The Florintine shall be mine!
I admit that I find it very irritating that they locked the Seraph gear to Ultimate. I see why they did it (to prevent farming in True to get Ultimate gear later), but to be honest, they should have kept the gun drops in True while leaving crystal farming to wait until Ultimate. Even Seraph gear loses its power a few levels into Ultimate if you only bring level 50 versions.
But gripes aside, the guns you can get in Ultimate are the kickass! I've wound up with the Butcher and a Tunguska thus far, and damn if they aren't nasty. The Butcher is effectively an AA-12 with all but unlimited ammo and ridiculous fire rate. The Tunguska is the Nukem's angry big brother; very dangerous, but oh so killy. There are better launchers for straight damage (Norfleet, Badaboom, high end purples), but behold as whole rooms of mooks become smoking relics and shiny shiny loots!
Well, I need to go. Must find food...
Monday, January 6, 2014
More Inane Babble
It's a new year spambots, deal with it!
I've been busy with work and destroying bandits in Borderlands 2. Ultimate Vault Hunter mode is frickin' awesome, by the way.
More and more kickass guns are finally making it's way into my collection of death, thanks in no small part to my little band of buddies. This game truly comes into its own with friends involved, and the drops increase in awesomeness accordingly. I am also strongly considering doing some work on one of the wikis, adding in solutions for the more obtuse puzzles, plus EVEN MOAR references that are being missed in the wikis. You know you're nerdy when you catch things that are way out of the genre's usual reference pool.
In work news, been lurking in hardware for a while now. Some poor dumb bastard brought in a gun; turned out it was an airsoft rifle that some other idiot had shipped without some retaining screws. What is with this time of year and people becoming total morons? Are some brains cold-blooded and need sunlight to function properly? Are holiday parties an experiment in shorting out synaptic pathways? Are our lives really being controlled by a secret cabal of bronies, and soon marshmallow unicorns will inherit the earth? Who the hell knows?
I've been busy with work and destroying bandits in Borderlands 2. Ultimate Vault Hunter mode is frickin' awesome, by the way.
More and more kickass guns are finally making it's way into my collection of death, thanks in no small part to my little band of buddies. This game truly comes into its own with friends involved, and the drops increase in awesomeness accordingly. I am also strongly considering doing some work on one of the wikis, adding in solutions for the more obtuse puzzles, plus EVEN MOAR references that are being missed in the wikis. You know you're nerdy when you catch things that are way out of the genre's usual reference pool.
In work news, been lurking in hardware for a while now. Some poor dumb bastard brought in a gun; turned out it was an airsoft rifle that some other idiot had shipped without some retaining screws. What is with this time of year and people becoming total morons? Are some brains cold-blooded and need sunlight to function properly? Are holiday parties an experiment in shorting out synaptic pathways? Are our lives really being controlled by a secret cabal of bronies, and soon marshmallow unicorns will inherit the earth? Who the hell knows?
Monday, December 23, 2013
Holiday Greetings to the Spambots!
Things are going back to what passes for normal around here. Currently, I'm tearing through Borderlands 2 and getting my hands on all the nifty loot. So far I've had the good fortune to acquire a third Volcano (it should have been the fourth, but tragedy struck last night, story later this post), three Slayer of Terramorphus mods, a nice Flakker, and--DUN DUN DUN--my first Conference Call!
As should surprise no one, this game is at its best with at least two people. I'm commenting on simply because I was soloing for most of the last eight or so months. It is fun, but not nearly the fun it can be with friends. I'm not sold on the matchmaking system. FPS trolls plus RPG trolls equals Xbox on fire. I prefer my Xbox unburnt, thank you.
Some notes I've made:
Unless you're running a Gunzerker or with a Gunzerker using a Hoarder class mod, friggin run at least four types of guns and get as many SDU ammo upgrades as possible. Almost all of the best guns chew through ammo like crazy.
Torgue shotguns are close to broken, especially the Three Way and Ravager variants. Because of the way explosive rounds work, these guns true damage output is at least 150% the value on the item care, with this number increasing radically when critical hits are scores, and increased again when accounting for any bonuses to gun and grenade damage, and yet again from any bonus to explosive damage.
Be on the lookout for splatguns, the E-tech version of shotguns. These are more of a grab bag that other E-techs, but there is some nasty potential there. The shot acts as a splashy grenade, with higher-level guns typically getting increased range and the ability to have bouncing projectiles. With practice, you can actually wind up with a gun that acts as a mid to long range mortar. This is especially useful against large groups of mooks at standoff range when you're trying to hang on to rockets and grenades for upcoming nasties.
And finally, whoever decided that the bigger robot enemies are immune to DoT effects needs to be slapped. I'm looking at you, Saturn.
Things are going back to what passes for normal around here. Currently, I'm tearing through Borderlands 2 and getting my hands on all the nifty loot. So far I've had the good fortune to acquire a third Volcano (it should have been the fourth, but tragedy struck last night, story later this post), three Slayer of Terramorphus mods, a nice Flakker, and--DUN DUN DUN--my first Conference Call!
As should surprise no one, this game is at its best with at least two people. I'm commenting on simply because I was soloing for most of the last eight or so months. It is fun, but not nearly the fun it can be with friends. I'm not sold on the matchmaking system. FPS trolls plus RPG trolls equals Xbox on fire. I prefer my Xbox unburnt, thank you.
Some notes I've made:
Unless you're running a Gunzerker or with a Gunzerker using a Hoarder class mod, friggin run at least four types of guns and get as many SDU ammo upgrades as possible. Almost all of the best guns chew through ammo like crazy.
Torgue shotguns are close to broken, especially the Three Way and Ravager variants. Because of the way explosive rounds work, these guns true damage output is at least 150% the value on the item care, with this number increasing radically when critical hits are scores, and increased again when accounting for any bonuses to gun and grenade damage, and yet again from any bonus to explosive damage.
Be on the lookout for splatguns, the E-tech version of shotguns. These are more of a grab bag that other E-techs, but there is some nasty potential there. The shot acts as a splashy grenade, with higher-level guns typically getting increased range and the ability to have bouncing projectiles. With practice, you can actually wind up with a gun that acts as a mid to long range mortar. This is especially useful against large groups of mooks at standoff range when you're trying to hang on to rockets and grenades for upcoming nasties.
And finally, whoever decided that the bigger robot enemies are immune to DoT effects needs to be slapped. I'm looking at you, Saturn.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Ghosts 'N' Daimons
Hello The People I Pretend Read This:
Logged many a hour of afterwork vicarious violence on the vidja game front lately. I have come to certain conclusions lately.
After showing a gamer friend the joys of loot farming on Borderlands 2, I realized that somebody at Gearbox is a damn troll. As part of their Loot Hunt contest, they periodically altered certain loot drops from certain bosses, sometimes altering drop rates, sometimes adding a new rare drop. Unfortunately for me and my friend, the drop altered yesterday was the legendary drop for the Warrior. Some humorous soul decided that the guaranteed drop should be a Flakker, a nice--but situational--shotgun. I would be ok with this, if this wasn't the Warrior, the home drop for the Conference Call! This is arguably the best gun in the game, and has extra appeal for me personally since it's a shotgun that shreds things and therefore appeals to my redneck blood (GRARG! *banjo music* BAMBI SAUSAGE TIME!) and does cool tricks to appeal to my nerdy brain (GRARG! *Nightwish song* EPIC GUN TIME!). The Flakker is close but is still no substitute. In practice, this means that you got lots of Flakkers but no other legendaries at all from the Warrior. May whoever came up with this nasty little trick be made to write Gungan-oriented fanfics forevermore!
On the cheerier front, I did some more randomness on Dragon's Dogma, and I still really like the game. I want to babble on about the Dark Arisen expansion they came up with.
First, random comments on Bitterblack Island establish that the world of DD has a moon and pawns know what a moon and moonlight is. This means that the main area of Gransys is either stuck in a perpetual new moon or even all-out lunar eclipse. Whether this is a sign or part of the game's events, I don't know.
Second, somebody at Capcom Europe wants to do a modern Ghosts 'N' Goblins really badly, and came up with Dark Arisen as a DD take on the whole thing. The entire quest is a macabre romp through spooky places with really nasty enemies (especially for low-level characters) that isn't truly finished until you complete the dungeon twice, with the second playthrough being even tougher. There are some little touches here and there that also point to this, with others being nods to other franchises like Dark Souls and Castlevania.
Finally, the hilarity of setting a bigass zombie dragon on fire with a delayed action incendiary RPG never gets old.
Logged many a hour of afterwork vicarious violence on the vidja game front lately. I have come to certain conclusions lately.
After showing a gamer friend the joys of loot farming on Borderlands 2, I realized that somebody at Gearbox is a damn troll. As part of their Loot Hunt contest, they periodically altered certain loot drops from certain bosses, sometimes altering drop rates, sometimes adding a new rare drop. Unfortunately for me and my friend, the drop altered yesterday was the legendary drop for the Warrior. Some humorous soul decided that the guaranteed drop should be a Flakker, a nice--but situational--shotgun. I would be ok with this, if this wasn't the Warrior, the home drop for the Conference Call! This is arguably the best gun in the game, and has extra appeal for me personally since it's a shotgun that shreds things and therefore appeals to my redneck blood (GRARG! *banjo music* BAMBI SAUSAGE TIME!) and does cool tricks to appeal to my nerdy brain (GRARG! *Nightwish song* EPIC GUN TIME!). The Flakker is close but is still no substitute. In practice, this means that you got lots of Flakkers but no other legendaries at all from the Warrior. May whoever came up with this nasty little trick be made to write Gungan-oriented fanfics forevermore!
On the cheerier front, I did some more randomness on Dragon's Dogma, and I still really like the game. I want to babble on about the Dark Arisen expansion they came up with.
First, random comments on Bitterblack Island establish that the world of DD has a moon and pawns know what a moon and moonlight is. This means that the main area of Gransys is either stuck in a perpetual new moon or even all-out lunar eclipse. Whether this is a sign or part of the game's events, I don't know.
Second, somebody at Capcom Europe wants to do a modern Ghosts 'N' Goblins really badly, and came up with Dark Arisen as a DD take on the whole thing. The entire quest is a macabre romp through spooky places with really nasty enemies (especially for low-level characters) that isn't truly finished until you complete the dungeon twice, with the second playthrough being even tougher. There are some little touches here and there that also point to this, with others being nods to other franchises like Dark Souls and Castlevania.
Finally, the hilarity of setting a bigass zombie dragon on fire with a delayed action incendiary RPG never gets old.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Laying Siege To Houses
Hello The Twenty-Five People The Webernets Claim Read This:
(That's 26 more than I expected.)
I've been tearing about in the grim dungeons of Sanctuary and shooting up the denizens of Pandora for a good bit of time now. Whoever came up with procedurally generated loot deserves a statue. A really nerdy statue, made from melted and recast Red Bull cans, holding up a kickass gun and kickass melee weapon and the heads of Wizkids' Mage Knight killers piled up at their feet.
Some random observations I'd like to make about all this:
The legendary drops in Diablo III's console version are much more numerous than Borderlands 2; also typically a lot more useful. Tearing about and farming enough to require finding a agro-combine should result in more than one--ONE--legendary a month, especially when a number of these legendaries are situational or outright inferior to vanilla gear. Yes, they're supposed to be rare and special and make you feel like you accomplished something. But, honestly, I kinda have a job for mindless grinding for cash and maddeningly elusive rewards. I don't really need a game for that. And since I have a job, an honest full-time paying job, I don't have the time and inclination to spend 12 hours or more to get a nice +10/7/7 Submachine Gun of Burninating Morons to drop. So kudos to Blizzard's console team for giving me my fix more often. Maybe the drops in B2 will get a bit tweaked.
We need some more 'happy' RPGs these days. I like grim and gritty stuff too, and dark comedy has a very special and evil place in my li'l nerdy heart. But I miss some of the cheerful stuff that used to be churned out, and the colorful palettes and music. I grew up on things like Secret of Mana (and later Legend of Mana), Chrono Trigger, Star Ocean 2, SaGa Frontier 2, and Mario RP-Original-G. I had darker stuff around (Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, and Tactics, Ogre Battle, Legend of Dragoon) and even the light-hearted games had some deep themes and grim sides. Hell, SaGa Frontier 2 was both quite light and kiddie in graphics and tone, but had some really gritty elements present, and there's always Chrono Cross for the Prettiest Dark Game Ever Award nominations. But these days it seems that games have gotten so damn grim overall that I keep expecting the Emperor's Holy Inquisition to show up and declare my dudes heretics and absolution can only be found in fighting the Flood at Thermopylae while wearing sackcloth made from tortured puppies and eating Pinkie's special cupcakes. Maybe I just picked the wrong damn console after all.
Dragon's Dogma is still frickin' awesome. Go play it.
Anyway, I need to wander off. Expect some more mad babbling in the days to come, plus my first real Wreckonomics post, where I'll be going on about the deepest Item Crafting System you've never used in Legend of Mana,
(That's 26 more than I expected.)
I've been tearing about in the grim dungeons of Sanctuary and shooting up the denizens of Pandora for a good bit of time now. Whoever came up with procedurally generated loot deserves a statue. A really nerdy statue, made from melted and recast Red Bull cans, holding up a kickass gun and kickass melee weapon and the heads of Wizkids' Mage Knight killers piled up at their feet.
Some random observations I'd like to make about all this:
The legendary drops in Diablo III's console version are much more numerous than Borderlands 2; also typically a lot more useful. Tearing about and farming enough to require finding a agro-combine should result in more than one--ONE--legendary a month, especially when a number of these legendaries are situational or outright inferior to vanilla gear. Yes, they're supposed to be rare and special and make you feel like you accomplished something. But, honestly, I kinda have a job for mindless grinding for cash and maddeningly elusive rewards. I don't really need a game for that. And since I have a job, an honest full-time paying job, I don't have the time and inclination to spend 12 hours or more to get a nice +10/7/7 Submachine Gun of Burninating Morons to drop. So kudos to Blizzard's console team for giving me my fix more often. Maybe the drops in B2 will get a bit tweaked.
We need some more 'happy' RPGs these days. I like grim and gritty stuff too, and dark comedy has a very special and evil place in my li'l nerdy heart. But I miss some of the cheerful stuff that used to be churned out, and the colorful palettes and music. I grew up on things like Secret of Mana (and later Legend of Mana), Chrono Trigger, Star Ocean 2, SaGa Frontier 2, and Mario RP-Original-G. I had darker stuff around (Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, and Tactics, Ogre Battle, Legend of Dragoon) and even the light-hearted games had some deep themes and grim sides. Hell, SaGa Frontier 2 was both quite light and kiddie in graphics and tone, but had some really gritty elements present, and there's always Chrono Cross for the Prettiest Dark Game Ever Award nominations. But these days it seems that games have gotten so damn grim overall that I keep expecting the Emperor's Holy Inquisition to show up and declare my dudes heretics and absolution can only be found in fighting the Flood at Thermopylae while wearing sackcloth made from tortured puppies and eating Pinkie's special cupcakes. Maybe I just picked the wrong damn console after all.
Dragon's Dogma is still frickin' awesome. Go play it.
Anyway, I need to wander off. Expect some more mad babbling in the days to come, plus my first real Wreckonomics post, where I'll be going on about the deepest Item Crafting System you've never used in Legend of Mana,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)