Dear VG Diary~

What are you playing. Hands out of your pockets!

Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:44 pm

Double Post:
Just played Tales from the Borderlands, and even if I don't agree, I can tell why people think it's the best of Telltale Games. Personally, I'd put it just behind The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead. While those two are mostly the shittiness of life/brutal sadness (respectively), this one's all humor and adventure.

Favorite moment, for those who've played: "Oh my God, why is it bleeding?!"
Security guard: "The pony's not bleeding! You saw nothing!"

Actually, that's a lie. The opening to Episodes 4 and 5 were the best parts. Then this madness:



It did make me want to play Borderlands 2 again.

Tried to start a game of Darkest Dungeon with the new DLC so I could finally finish. Got frustrated when two of my three first parties got wiped because I couldn't find a goddamn Crusader, Man At Arms, Leper, or Hellion for four straight missions. When I did the new content and two of my people died because we missed an attack on a dude 6 times in a row, I remembered why there's so much hate in my love/hate relationship with this game.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby octoberpumpkin » Wed Jun 28, 2017 11:01 pm

I should post in my own thread more

I finished up Tekken 7, was very disappointed, but I do have some outfits to share later in my outfit thread

So I went back to Persona 5 and finished the annoying dungeon. I'm in late September

Current VN is Symphonic Rain. Pretty good but not blowing me away. I'm at the last route. It has a tendency to go in to good writing and then just drag it down after, leaving it pretty average

Final Fantasy VIII progress can be seen in the LP thread~

L.A. Noire, I just did the first homicide case. I'm having a lot of fun with it, there's so much attention to detail in the environment

Thinking of starting up or continuing a game on my Vita
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby Marcuse » Mon Jul 03, 2017 6:15 pm

I downloaded the Stainless Steel mod for Medieval Total War 2. I can't recommend it highly enough. It adds in several new factions to represent as historical a situation as possible (obviously it's not perfect). It changes how characters work, adding in familial heritage, bastardy, combat wounds, illnesses, and local lordships that confer bonuses and penalties. It completely redoes the Golden Horde which is a playable faction with a properly organised army and the need to have an actual economy rather than having free stacks with no consequences. It's really enjoyable.

I'm playing through a real nail-biter right now as the Byzantine Empire on the late era campaign. They start in a bad position anyway, being just Epirus, the Nicean empire and Trebizond. The Latin empire is represented by huge stacks of rebels in Constantinople, Thessalonica, Athens and Corinth and you start at war with Venice and the Turks. It's pretty brutal.

I started by gathering my forces for an attack on one of the Latin Empire cities. You start with nothing good, but the AI has a habit of getting active with rebel stacks on Stainless Steel. They moved almost all the troops out of Athens, and I struck quickly and took it. Then Corinth followed. Now I had some decent cities and a small economy, I grabbed a few more troops and did the same with Constantinople. My faction leader got the "Saviour of Constantinople" perk from that and the Bridle of Constantine relic. Sweet.

Then shit went wrong. Venice attacked Epirus, and the Turks got hyper aggressive too. The Khwarezmian Empire, preoccupied with their war against the Mongols, rebuffed my attempts to deter invaders by an alliance with the powerful. Hungary also ended up at war with me. With rebels marauding my lands, and three powerful factions on the warpath, I took the decision to retire to Trebizond. It's your biggest castle and I'd taken a small city nearby for income. I demolished all the buildings, left a token garrison and cranked up the taxes to eke as much money as I could. One of my fleets got diverted, and took Benghazi in Libya from the Fatimid Caliphate. The others struggled to hold the Trapezunite Empire. But more disaster struck. My Emperor and several generals got the plague, and moving them about caused both settlements to have the plague too. My abandoned cities were rebelling or being captured by other factions, and I was running short on resources.

I moved again, this time to the North-Eastern coast of the Black Sea. I had hoped to take two rebel settlements there, but I was thwarted in this by the armies of Kiev and Novgorod. Turned out their empires encircled me entirely, and the Geonese were too close for comfort, holding Crimea. My single possession in Libya was facing invasion by vengeful Fatimids, so having trained a few indigenous units (because Stainless Steel is awesome like that) I marched my army to Tripoli and took it, angering the Moors in the process.

My Black Sea empire died before it started, and the scattered survivors sailed in the last ships for Africa. Benghazi characteristically rebelled, and I had one province (and one castle on the Hellespont nobody bothered to take off me) to my name. Sicily decided to attack me by blockading my ports. Fatimid ships sank all but one of my escaping fleet, and nearly killed six family members at a stroke. But the flight from their attack sent me closer to their destination.

At this point both the Moors and later the Fatimids offered me a bargain: vassalage. In the main game becoming a vassal ends it, as you're officially ruled by another faction. I accepted both, and gained two large and powerful Muslim empires as my benefactors. It was at this time my old, strong Emperor died and was replaced by his co-Emperor, who was so ill thought of that he gained the "upsets the nobles" trait, which set my generals to civil war due to his unpopularity. I quickly jigged about titles and managed to keep all my generals loyal, but I could have seen my armies, small as they were, split into competing factions themselves.

I struck, with the last remnants of my forces, at Sicily. I took Syracuse from them with little fight, but the fortress at Palermo was a much more difficult threat. By numbers alone I managed to dissuade them from sallying out, and wore them down through long siege. The Pope is super mad at me now. I sneakily grabbed Cagliari from under the noses of the Moors, and now I have a small but economically viable realm from which to expand, betray my former benefactors, and recreate the glory of Rome.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby Marcuse » Tue Jul 04, 2017 8:59 pm

The Roman Empire is reborn!

My war against Sicily was, in truth almost over. Their lone fortress; Bari, was undermanned and fell as soon as my troops landed there. In short order my forces were investing Naples, to end the Sicilian menace once and for all. The Papacy had declared against me, but appeared reticent to actually do anything to stop me. The youngest daughter of the Norman house came to me with terms, ceasefire. The recently anointed Strategos of Bari proposed new terms: vassalage. Intimidated by my newfound might, they relented, and Naples remained under their control and my protection. They immediately declared against the Moors, which caused an awkward situation for me, forced to choose between my overlord and the overlordship I had just arranged. I chose to risk it and back the Sicilians, figuring if they do end up conquering the Moors, it was only to my benefit. As it happened, I managed to keep my peace with them and my rule over Naples.

The next target was obvious: Rome. But how? The Papal armies, swollen as they were from long, aimless recruitment were formidable. My forces were also formidable, but scattered. The solution was to invest Ancona to the North (a Venetian possession), and draw the Papal armies into the field. My navy stood ready to deliver crack troops from Palermo to the Roman shore, and as expected, they denuded their capital of troops in order to pursue me. After some back and forth, I was the new ruler in Rome, and the true heir of the Holy Roman Empire mantle.

Then came long years of siege, by the Papacy (now installed at Pisa) and the HRE whose ire had been piqued by my sacrilegious conquest of the supreme seat of Catholicism. It was a time of constant war, and desperate counter attacks. Bologna was too strongly held for me to storm, so I took the chance to do the same to Pisa as I had Rome. On the second attempt, it worked, and the Papacy, while it still existed, had lost a Supreme Pontiff in battle and become stateless.

At this point, while my trust rating was still at "very untrustworthy", factions began to react to the speed and strength of my conquests. Aragon and Portugal were convinced to lay down their arms against me, and more importantly, Castile sought alliance while the Turks sought peace and trade. This, along with my possession of Rome, turned my economy into a powerhouse. I still remained under the nominal dominion of the Fatimids, but they were distant and fading in power as the East tore itself apart between Seljuk, Mongol and Arab. I had long wrested off the Moorish chains, but their opinion of me fell as I sought alliance among the Catholic powers. My long term plan will bring Africa under my sway before long. My diplomatic envoys discovered surprising details about the fate of Northern Europe: the French crown had been almost entirely subdued, hiding in the single castle at Toulouse. overthrowing them was the HRE, who had also destroyed Denmark entire, and the English. The English crown was in crisis, having lost all but Ireland and the South coast of England to the Scots.

But in the short term, I had eyes only for Venice. The city herself had ceased to be their capital a while ago, with the Doge residing in either Ragusa or Arta. I bypassed HRE Bologna by sea and took the city with speed. The reaction was immediate and fierce. Strong detachments from across Venetian lands were thrown headlong at the city of canals, only to be thwarted by the strong garrison I had included. But my actions were more deliberate than just the capture of a single populous and prosperous city. The Greek possessions had become unruly and were lightly garrisoned. Moving away from the armies tearing their way North, I swiped the fortress at Corinth and the breadbasket city of Athens from them. Neither region was in good condition, with Athens subject to a plague of heretical thought that made me wonder whether it might have been better to leave it. Trapezunite rebels overthrew the outlander Mongols I had sold the castle to in order to better distract the Seljuks and it returned to my rule, though in a perilous position once again.

By the end of my charge, the power of Sicily, the Papacy and the Venetians had suffered damage. My strength had brought me new allies and peace with factions who before had been implacable foes. The march continues.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby Absentia » Wed Jul 05, 2017 5:11 am

"How did Absentia spend his holiday weekend?" you ask. "Maybe he went to some Fourth of July thing, or spent the time with family."

Or maybe he checked out Steam's summer sale and realized that he could buy ports of the Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog games for less than two bucks each and had a four day nostalgiathon. Maybe he played all the way through S3&K twice, because that's the kind of freedom his ancestors fought for.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby IamNotCreepy » Wed Jul 05, 2017 12:44 pm

My birthday is coming up, so my wife bought me Masse Effect: Andromeda.

I've just started playing it, but I haven't been able to get into a groove because I've just been so tired at night. Fortunately, I have a couple of extra days off where I can really dig in and play it.

This might be the thing that finally prompts me to buy Xbox Live Gold again. I played the hell out of the ME3 multiplayer and would have played it a lot longer if my 360 hadn't gotten the Red Ring of Death.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby Marcuse » Wed Jul 05, 2017 9:18 pm

The (Holy Roman) Empire Strikes Back.

Whenever I think I'm doing well on this game, it slaps me back down. I think the AI is a little confused, because if I play for a long time, I can get factions to be reasonably passive. But if I save the game and close and then load the game back up and play, factions that I was previously okay with will suddenly want to kill me.

As soon as I started up again, a series of disasters beset me. Trebizond overthrew my rule, and became simply a rebel province. Without the resources or access to be able to reinforce it, I gave up on it. My rule in Athens and Corinth was contested by the Venetians. Despite successfully taking Ragusa, and attempting to threaten Zagreb, my forces were both outnumbers and in some cases outclassed. Pesante Archers are not to be sniffed at.

The primary foe though gradually became the HRE. Whenever they manage to hang onto Bologna they spam large armies of militia that hang around doing not much. Unfortunately, they started doing something. Precisely they struck out at Venice, and eventually I got to the point where with the forces I had it was an impossibility to defend it. So I lost Venice to the HRE, and the Pope got opportunist and tried to have a go at Pisa and was rebuffed.

Finally, Cagliari was besieged by an Aragonese army that sailed out of nowhere.

More battles still to fight. But I have a good strong economy, some allies, and the means to produce professional and powerful armies. This isn't over yet.

ETA: Venice is a Paper Tiger

Turns out that Venice wasn't all that powerful after all. The HRE was conducive to peace after a long time at war, and with them temporarily placated I could turn all my attention to Venice. The siege of Corinth was brought to issue and my forces wore the besieging army out, with barely 17% losses on their side. After reinforcing, Athens was retaken, with the help of my Fatimid overlords. I really should do something about that someday. I shipped the armies I'd earmarked to fight the HRE to retake my Epirot possessions, and returned Durazzo to the fold after a long absence. Arta was more heavily held, and my army valuable, so I chose to siege it down which is ongoing. I was shocked, when their princess came to beg I halt my attacks, that they only possessed these cities and Zagreb. Venice was close to collapse. The Seljuks appear to have taken Thessalonika, and I'm unsure but it seems Constantinople is in the hands of Hungary.

The Aragonese assault force was powerful, with knights both mounted and on foot, and large amounts of spear militia. However my force was smaller but diverse, with archers, crossbows, javelins as well as some mercenary swordsmen and the local units I dragged across the map a long time ago. Strangely, my captain ended up in a unit of 8 Berber swordsmen, which I would have preferred not to have, but hey ho. After some early losses to charging cavalry, the battle descended into a meat grinder, but Scoutatoi refuse to die. With them as the centerpiece of my force, I was able to hold them off until the battle timer ran out, though given how poor their morale was, I feel I could have routed them myself. It simply wasn't worth the risk, without their fleet the entire army disbanded on the loss. In retaliation I took the Balearic Islands from them.

Now events started to move fast once more. The Moors declared against me, as did Hungary. Without a border with Hungary this seemed like a notional move so I turned my sights to the Moorish coastline. I did say I intended to take Africa for myself. In this I have competition. The hostile power of Portugal was eradicated, I hope by my ally Castile. They declared against Aragon too, so my hopes of Spanish possessions might be premature unless I want to thumb my nose at the only power who wanted to support me. My hope is to take the various cities of the African coastline unawares, at least as far as Algiers if not all the way to Marrakesh. My hope is I can manage this before the HRE gets bored and wants to whack me.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby KleinerKiller » Thu Jul 06, 2017 8:37 am

Just "beat" Nier: Automata. Jumped into what I thought was just another story mission, only to be locked out of all my in-progress sidequests and thrust into a series of incredible battles and twists. Almost numbed my entire right arm mashing buttons in the final battle, then bawled my eyes out in the ending cutscene. All in a good day's work. What a fucking amazing game. (Kind of a little upset about the sidequests, but I saw what I wanted to see and I might be able to finish them in the next go-round.)

I say "beat" in quotation marks because, like the original Nier, Automata has a strange variant on multiple endings and replay value, where the first ending isn't the whole true ending and you have to replay a few times with significant alterations to the story and/or gameplay. If it's anything like the first game, I fully expect my feelings of satisfaction and victory to soon be replaced by meta-narrative mindfucking, crushing despair, and endless mutterings of "GOD I'M SUCH AN ASSHOLE."

Once more unto the breach tomorrow.
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"Your mind is software. Program it. Your body is a shell. Change it. Death is a disease. Cure it." - Eclipse Phase

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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby octoberpumpkin » Thu Jul 06, 2017 9:18 pm

Few updates.

Symphonic Rain: Finished this like a week or so ago. Was pretty good. I liked it but had some issues with the writing

Nurse Love Addiction: Finished yesterday I think. Wasn't great. Starts relatively "normal" and gets suuupperr weird

Steins;Gate: Chapter 1. I'm enjoying the sense of humour

Persona 5: Finafrickinly finished. Stayed up until 4 am. Good game but man does it drag

L.A. Noire: Still in homocide

Battle Princess of Arcadias: Fun, cute gamr

Bastion: just started this one, seems like it'll be fun!
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby iMURDAu » Sun Jul 09, 2017 1:30 am

I'm like a third of the way through Super Metroid. Hoping to finish it by the end of the month.

Going for the anti-speed run world record, I am, yessir.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby Bromo » Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:39 pm

Recently I have started playing Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia on Classic Hard Mode. I restarted the game when I got to the first desert map of Celica's route on Act 3. It had a shitload of archers, and the desert terrain impaired movement, so killing everyone was tedious. I started over so that I could level-grind Celica's units to make the map easier, and hopefully future maps later on. It kind of sucks because I overlevelled all of Alm's units so I could steal the Dracoshield from Desaix at the end of Act 1, which I eventually did. That's a lot of time I'll never get back. But now that I know what will happen, I don't have to grind that much.
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Then I reached for my face and there were they." --Toy, 2016


The Pokémon master formerly known as Kevin Durant.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Sun Jul 30, 2017 3:14 am

Trying to get a super aggressive playthrough on Stellaris going. Also want to play more of Pyre, but after realizing the game has many different endings, I'm waiting until I have more free time.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby iMURDAu » Sun Jul 30, 2017 6:15 pm

iMURDAu wrote:I'm like a third of the way through Super Metroid. Hoping to finish it by the end of the month.

Going for the anti-speed run world record, I am, yessir.


Killing it, murda'ing it even. The anti-speed world record that is. I quit playing to give more time to Smash which I watch more of than playing lately and to do another run at Blaster Master Zero. I'm more than halfway through BM:Z and I started Friday night so that's not too bad.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:21 am

What I've realized I hate about Stellaris is how easily a game becomes gridlocked. I can't count the number of times I finally spin up a navy capable of taking on enemy space stations only to find that the particular enemy I've been eying has suddenly made an alliance with eight other people. Then when Federations come into the picture, a quick war becomes an hours-long nightmare.
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Re: Dear VG Diary~

Postby Absentia » Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:17 pm

Doodle Dee. Snickers wrote:What I've realized I hate about Stellaris is how easily a game becomes gridlocked. I can't count the number of times I finally spin up a navy capable of taking on enemy space stations only to find that the particular enemy I've been eying has suddenly made an alliance with eight other people. Then when Federations come into the picture, a quick war becomes an hours-long nightmare.


It's a shame because Stellaris does so many things right, but then it turns into an ungodly slog in the mid-late game. I'm waiting for another expansion or two to see if they can fix it.


In other news, I've had my eye on Shadow of Mordor for awhile but I've been waiting until I get a computer that can actually run it decently well. After much difficulty my new laptop with a GeForce 940MX has arrived, and I'm one very large download away from murdering some orcs.
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