GhostofAnakin

Finished Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Pretty good game. The combat was fun, and the story was actually pretty good. I probably would have understood more of it had I played the previous Metal Gear games in the series before.

Stop hating on Flemith.

I still haven't been able to cut off an enemy's left hand (the doktor wants me to for some memory thing) because I can't get a handle on the sword mode. But that probably speaks more to my skill level (lack of) than the combat mechanics.

Playing some Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The combat is pretty fun, but the camera angle can get awkward at times. Especially when you're in sword mode and happen to brush up against the LS, the screen tilts way up or way down, so I end up slashing at the sky, then the ground, then trying to target the enemy again right in front of me.

Where are you getting those numbers from? Are you assuming that all women are as disgusted by big breasted video game characters as the vocal ones who are complaining about it? A few of the female gamers I know (whether it be actual friends or just acquaintances I've met through playing various games online) actually get a kick out of the size of the breasts in game characters. They find it amusing. In fact, a few of them will actually select the big breasted characters (in games where you can choose body size) for the LOLs. Believe it or not, women do have a sense of humor, too. They see the humor in the ridiculous overstating of breasticles in the same way us guys find it funny when all the male characters look like He-man.

I've lost a few of my better soldiers. One mission was quite the catastrophe because I came across those stupid spider-like aliens that poison you when they hit. My squad at the time was still low level, and I wasn't prepared for them, so I lost two of my best soldiers (at the time) to those things. The map variety is also pretty good. Even though the general missions and story remain the same every time you start a play through, the maps you're given for various missions change. So it gives you a chance to try out new tactics and such even though it's the same overall mission as you played previously.

Reading into what, exactly? I'm not ignoring what you said, or your opinion on the topic. I'm talking about the general complaints lobbied that I've read about. It's not a dismissal of your views, because my post (while originally quoting you) wasn't directed at YOUR opinion on the matter. It was on the countless articles and discussion I've seen that are about the outrage over female characters' breast size and the like (ie. body image discussion). Had I been responding to your opinion directly, then yes, I'd have been dismissive. But my point wasn't directed at you or your thoughts on the topic. As for my opinion on the "changes", I couldn't care less either way. Make the female breasts gigantic or make them more "normal" (which, by the way, is kind of dismissive of the fact there are women who actually have huge breasts. You know, variety rather than every female just having tiny boobs). Make the male cod piece ridiculously huge or make it not even noticeable. Either way, I don't care because it's an issue that doesn't change my enjoyment of the game. Which is ultimately my point. It just seems like such a stupid thing for people to get up in arms about. The reason I'm harping on the male equivalents (ie. super huge muscle guys as the image for male gamers to aspire to) is because there does seem to be a double standard. But overall, I just think either complaints are silly because we're talking about fictional characters made to look like an "ideal" person of that gender.

I don't think it's an issue of diversity at all. Maybe to you it is. But the general complaints I read about this stuff never mention more variety of body types. They're just dead set against female video game characters having huge breasts and tiny waists. My issue is this never seems to crop up with male video game characters. You bring up Mario as an example of diversity, but what about the hundreds of other leading men? Even old guys, like Sam Fisher, have the kind of physiques that most middle aged men can't hope to compete with. Yet there's no complaint about the unrealistic expectations these characters are putting on males. And really, when shows like Real Housewives of LA or other reality shows with women who are more "fake" than any video game character are the most watched by women on television, it smacks a bit of hypocrisy.

I'm going on a crusade to make sure all male video game characters have more realistic physiques. That is, pot bellies and can't run for more than 50 feet without huffing and puffing. I mean, apparently big breasted female video game characters give a bad message to girls. So the same should really apply to the risk of boys feeling bad about their bodies because they don't look like those muscle-bound hunks in their video games.

Finished my second play through of XCOM: Enemy Within. My original sniper was horrible, always missing easy shots. But on one of the missions, the reward was recruiting another sniper. Her aim was much better, and subsequently she was money. She also ended up being my gifted recruit who was used to operate the Gollop chamber. XCOM's one of those games where you get the urge to do "just one more mission...". I'd originally given up on my second play through, but got sucked back in after playing another mission when I didn't have any other game to play instead.

That's on my to do list. I got the game of the year edition (or whatever one has all the DLC), but I'm still trucking along with XCOM: Enemy Within.

Went back to my second play through of XCOM. There's simply nothing else at the moment I'm interested in playing.

I'm losing steam with my second XCOM play through. I might put it aside for awhile and try one of the other games I've got in my back log.

My sniper from my first play through of XCOM has spoiled me. Or maybe my snipers in my current play through just suck. Could be a combination of both. The sniper from my original play through hit everything. She went through a bit of a slump when I changed her hair style (women!), but the majority of the time I could count on her. She even saved my bacon on one mission, where two of my guys were about to bleed out, including my only medic, by killing the last three enemies in a row with her "on fire" (or whatever it's called) ability to end the mission. My new snipers hit at around a 50% success rate. Even pretty easy shots they'll miss on occasion. They're certainly not as dependable as ol' "Lockdown" Braun was.

I recommend Resi Revelations. The early Resi games did well in the atmosphere and tension department, but it's kind of hard going back to the horrific controls and camera angles of those games. Newer games in the series (from 4 onward) introduced far better controls and camera, but they also lost the early games' slow pacing and constant tension and became more standard shooters with zombies and monsters. Revelations is a throwback to the style of game of the series' roots, but with modern controls. I personally think Revelations is the best game in the series because it combines the claustrophobic tight passageways, slow paced, tense, **** I'm running out of ammo gameplay of the early Resi games with controls that don't make you want to strangle the game designers. Whatever you do, stay away from Operation Raccoon City, unless you desperately need a co-op shooter with zombies and don't feel like playing (the vastly superior) Left 4 Dead games again. Second this. Revelations is kind of the perfect blend of the "old school" and "new school", so it likely appeals to both. Plus, Jill Valentine.

You're thinking of the "Hidden Potential" option, rather than the "Not Created Equal" option, aren't you? The latter generates random starting stats, while the former has to do with random progression as they level up. I was referring to the former.

Yeah, I always select the randomized option. I find it's more realistic than every rookie having the exact same starting stats. So I was curious in that case, where some rookies have better/worse stats, how the game decides which become what class.

Also, what determines what class a soldier in XCOM becomes after graduating from rookie status? I'd assume that a soldier with a high aim score would become a sniper, but yet in my current (second) play through, after two missions I've only graduated one sniper, and his aim is a pretty pedestrian 55. In my first play through, my sniper (who became my money shot killer) had an aim in the 80s to start off, then improved to the point I believe it reached over 100 when all was said in and done.

Nothing unlocked for me after beating the game on normal (or whatever the default difficulty is).

The final fight in XCOM was anticlimactic. After fighting hordes of tough mechanical beasts, the "boss" battle consisted of me using one of my psionic powers, launching a guided missile, then my sniper finishing him off with a critical head shot all in one round. Minor complaint for the achievement collector in me: you don't seem to get an achievement for finishing the game.

the big bot's damage resistance and cluster bombing is making them annoying opponents. nevertheless, a single alloy cannon wielding assault soldier with both an arc thrower and combat stims can kill those suckers in 2 rounds. arc thrower with drone capture makes easier as the bot will fire on captured drones first. the combat stims halve your received damage and the assault's lightning reflexes negates 1 attack... assuming you have lightning reflexes... and why wouldn't you? if you dont capture a drone, you will still stay alive long enough to kill the big bot thanks to assault class abilities and the stim. alternatively, a tier 3 mec with the electropulse ability makes short work o' any kinda bots. HA! Good Fun! I must be setting up my soldiers badly, because I can never utilize the close range abilities of my MECs. The enemy is usually in overwatch, so if I try to move them during my turn, they get shot to hell.

The only enemy I truly hate in XCOM is that sectoid or whatever one with the huge amount of health/armor and which shoots a massive cannon that does 9+ damage each shot (and has two shots per round). It's the only enemy that I can't dispatch within a couple of rounds.

Yeah, one of the chief flaws of the game is that the late game switches tactical focus from mobility and defensive positioning to simple massing of firepower, which is far less interesting. I've stopped playing several playthroughs in which I was well on the way to winning because it just turned into a chore. That said, heavies are a fine choice but I find Assaults to offer greater versatility late-game. Chiefly this is because Heavies are restricted in mobility - you need to not move in order to use any of the class' defining abilities, and that counteracts the desire to get in close to compensate for the poor aim. Assaults retain full firepower after moving - indeed after dashing - and that is invaluable in situations where somethings absolutely needs to die. Snipers continue to be fantastic throughout the game too, to the extent that I restrict myself to one per mission in order to encourage more mobile and more interesting gameplay. Sure the removal of the ability for Squad Sight shots to crit have weakened the all-seeing Archangel Sniper tactic somewhat (it being the god-king strategy of the base game), but Double Tap remains a "this thing dies now" ability, and there are some fun combo strategies to be had with alternative Sniper builds, such as In The Zone synergies. An underappreciated feature of Snipers which is not readily evident when starting out is that it's often the only 'safe' way to kill awkwardly positioned enemies. By that I don't necessarily mean those hiding in hard-to-reach areas, but rather those where taking conventional shots can often mean activating additional alien packs. This is crucial because on Classic and Impossible difficulties, the hard cap of five active alien combatants at any one time is removed: every alien you activate is out for your blood - not to mention that there's more of them on each map, making contact more likely. To clarify, on Normal/Easy, no matter how many aliens you've activated, only up to five will actually engage you, the rest will run away and wait for some of their buddies to die before joining the fight. If I was powergaming.... I'd go with a heavy duty squad of something like two or three each of colonel-sniper-turned-mechs and Assaults, and a Sniper or two. But that's boring. Perhaps counterintuitively though, I reckon I'd have a lot of fun with a 6x Assault team. More conventionally though, my typical loadout looked like 2xAssault, Heavy, Sniper, SniperMech, plus one whatever - generally some newbie to level up. Probably another Mech if not training. Dropping supports entirely is somewhat controversial, but hardly unprecedented. P.S. That said, I've only ever gotten access to Blaster Launchers once, on my first playthrough at normal/non-ironman difficulty. Never got to assault a Battleship for the requisite fusion core item required to research the launchers in my subsequent games. I'm probably far too far into my current game to make any changes, but what does the original base class of a character do for MECs? For instance, what would a sniper-turned-MEC bring to the table that a heavy-turned-MEC wouldn't?

Nearing the end of my XCOM Enemy Within play through. I have quite a few characters I like using, but only six spots in my squad to use them. I've read otherwise online, but for me the heavy soldiers seem to be the best to bring with me, what with their guided rocket launchers (and each can carry 2, plus 1 shredder). Even the toughest enemies go down in one or two rounds if I have 2 or 3 heavies in my squad. I'm finding my sniper less effective as the enemies get tougher. She rarely misses her shots, but they're never strong enough to one-shot enemies unless they're already low on health. Earlier in the game she was a killing machine because she could knock out an enemy's entire health bar in one shot, even if they had full health.

I decided to give my best sniper some of those genetic implants in XCOM. From a tactical/comb standpoint, they've added a lot to her. But stylistically, she looks kind of silly in her sleeveless outfit instead of her cool looking Titan armor that covered her entire body before.