Mamoulian War

I have continued to play Talse fo Xillia 2, and I have just achieved few moments ago the "Debt" or Hot Spring Ending for a second time . To get this one, you have to pay-off your debt, which you get shortly after the start of the game, and which is astonishing 20,000,000 gald. It's almost impossible to pay off during main story line, so you have to continue playing some postgame content. Especially the EX Hunts can give you some money to spend. As a reward, during paying off your debt, you get some items, which helps you with various tasks in game (new skills, friendship boosters, cat food, etc.) I have reached level 170 right before the Ending, and will need 30 more levels to get Max Level trophy and finish EX Dungeon and after that EX Team Coliseum Challenge, where I will play against the hardest cameo superbosses of this game. Then I will finally have Platinum for this game as well \o/

I am going for a build with a focus on intelligence and strength. I also invest some points in dexterity but my main goal are the magic weapons. I use an ether shield to block attacks, a short-sword for undead enemies and a mace for skeletons and such, I use the Pyro skill on tougher enemies and bosses. True, Demon's Souls was harder but using weapons in this game seems a tad more fun. Weapons have different damages on enemies based on the type of weapon you are holding and the type of enemy you are using it against. Did Demon's Souls have that? Seems sort of new to me since I noticed that the mace crushes the skeletons to the ground but the short sword doesn't. Demon's Souls had some kind of weapon and magic mitigation mechanics as well. I can't compare it to DS1, because it is really long time, when was the last time, when I've played it. If you tried to slash the skeletons in the world number 4 with a sword which had not any magic properties, it could take pretty long time compared to "force" magic spells or maces. I played Mage and used only magic and Crescent Falchion +5 for maximum "force" damage, so when a mob was resistant to the Falchion and Soul Ray, I smashed it with Fireball. I have seen the difference it made on some mobs. Now looking on stats of some mobs, they have Normal, Pierce, Slash, Blunt, Magic and Fire Defenses, so depending on combinations of different defenses, each mob was most vulnerable to different weapons and enchants or magic. But as I said, mage stuff was very powerful against anything except highly Magic/Fire resistant mobs.

What build have you decided to go for with Pyromancer? I have started to play DS1, right after I have finished Demon's Souls, but I had lot of troubles playing with Pyromancer, I just were unable to cope with the 8 "bullets" of fire in my hands, and my physical attributes were not on par with the monsters, so after I got destroyed all the time by Capra Demon, I just had to call it quit :-/ And I would love to start to play it again sooner or later. I have Platinued Demon's Souls in between other games, and IMO, it was harder game than DS1. Just the stupid Capra Demon is still the reason of my anger :-D

Well I would really love to see how it would end up, if Obsidian would ever had a chance to make their own version of fantasy JRPG :-D

Square Enix needed 5million sold copies of FFXV to break even... That means, it cost at least 300 million to get done...

I will respond to you all about 2016 games later this day or tommorow :-P Finally at home and unable to fall asleep :-D Anyway, if you ever wondered, why AAA games cost so much? A nice video sums it up :-P Unfortunatelly, I am somehow unable to share just the link to video only, so I have to share whole Facebook link to the FB post :-/ https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154831370818753&id=19374573752

The studio opened Paypal for pledges/preorders.

DOOM and Titanfall 2, featuring some of the best FPS campaigns I've ever played, both for entirely different reasons. For MP fans there's Overwatch that I'm not too fond of because it's MP, but.. Y'know. Hitman coming back to form with episodic releases of the Hitman games. When it comes to sequels, it wouldn't be me if I forgot to mention Dishonored 2 with generally stellar level design, but especially two levels come to mind that I'm rather unlikely to forget. XCOM 2 also seem to have been accepted rather well with some great improvements to the formula (and, arguably, some things being for worse.) As for indies, Firewatch showed us how to do walking sims right, Starbound showed No Man's Sky how to do No Man's Sky right and Darkest Dungeon was one of the best Lovecraftian games I have ever played, often to detriment of its own gameplay (for which it has my respect). Inside was also rather acclaimed and Oxenfree was ... Well, Oxenfree I guess? Incidentally, speaking of BF1, it actually featured a pretty damn good SP campaign as well. Hmm I thought Doom 4 was older my bad :-D and even though Titanfall 2 is good, I don't believe anyone will remember it soon. Not many people playing online nowadays. Hitman and it's episodic release is now praised as almost everything what is wrong in current industry trends. Overwatch. Ok I give you Mamou's approval of quality on that . It's crazy popular, but still, it is infested with worst kind of Microtransactions. I come back to your list shortly, my flight is just taking off

Can anybody remind me what was 2016 year of? Oh yeah. Battlefield 1... How could I forget that pinnacle of gamesness!!!

Unfortunatelly, lot of our games are lately not very good with mechanics as well. ( I really hope some executives would finally learn, why were iD soft, Epic and Raven shooters always the best of the best FPS games ever created... I really don't understand, how corridor shooters with cinematics, where you have to grind XP to get new gear could ever be prefered to concentration of pure gameplay, like was the last Doom or Wolfenstein *shakes head*

And that is why I am happy, that SONY annomced just before E3, they are planning to bring more Japanese games to the west. And I really hope, they will help them out little bit with the marketing. Because even the best Japanese games which are >>>>> than their western counterparts are selling low numbers. The guys, which video I have linked before, did not even knew what Persona 5 is before it was few weeks out, and their subscribers told them about it, and they right after that made some comparison video and praised all J games they learned about in few days, and were surprised how good they were..

Well, thanks for correcting me then I must have missed the issues of the two beforementioned games, because at least in this case, I have not heard any complaints anywhere in the parts of the internet, which I am frequently visiting, and I have info about Prey only from Obsidian forums, becuase despite it being pretty praised game, it's not my cup of tea. And I have noticed few complaints here, including the progress halting bugs, but for some reason I haven't noticed any complaints about Nier and RE7

I haven't forgotten Prey. Unfortunatelly it was also bugged release at least for PC *shrugs* We can say, it was typical Bethesda release :-P

Ahhhhhhh...Metacritic! The place where 13 year old kids gather around from time to time to p*ss on the single good game that they don't happen to own. What better source to use for a research when it comes to video games, eh?! It's funny because I usually end up reading the reviews that are rated 6 when I check out Metacritic, those tend to be the neutral ones, at least they let you know how the game plays... Also 2001? Seriously!!! What the hell happened to 2007 then?! Just check out ACG, EasyAllies or GiantBomb. Most of these guys have been in the video games industry since forever and based on what they say, I really don't think there will be a video games industry crash...unless Steam and its collection of games become vaporware or something. The article is not about the crash, it's about quality. The game industry is making more money than ever before, at the expense of quality. That's the idea behind the video. The more **** they introduce into gaming (DLCs, Microtransactions, "openworldesness", fetch quests, always online for single player, preorders, day 0 patches) the lower quality the games are... the industry will be making more money as a whole, and the game will became more and more bland... We have for a few years almost all games with copy/paste formula, innovation is nowhere to be found, only once in a while a company is willing to risk. We get all the tame the same ****, be it CoD or AC rehash few times every year... I have spent in 2016/17 more time with games, than last 5 years, despite having same time. But with the exception of Dishonored GOTY, and project Cars GOTY, all games, I've purchased were Japanese or Indies... And the all of them, with very few exceptions are old few years. I even prefer to watch Let's plays and streams of older games compared to new games... 2016 has brought us more than 5000 games, and only 5 or so of them got high review scores... with games released in such a ****ty state as ME andromeda, BF4, Mafia III, Dishonored 2 for PC, Arkham Knight for PC, people are buying less and less new games, and are buying more and more older games and GOTY editions, for cheap. The new cost ****loads of money. Because of that The Distrubutors are getting revenue as never before, but that lowers their profit, and that's why we get more and more **** incorporated in games. Because they are making most money out of microtransactions... I have also bought more games in 2016/17 than in 2010-2015 together, but I have spent less money in total on them. I am happy, because I love Japanese games, and we are experiencing their Renaissance now. Look what we got this year from Japan: Tales of Berseria, Yakuza Zero, Final Fantasy XV, Nioh, Nier: Automata, Atelier: Firis, new Zelda, Persona 5, Resident Evil 7, etc. and we'll be getting few more A-Bombs this year as well, all polished games, wih no need for day zero patch, and no microtransactions... although FFXV should not count, because SE is going games as a service road as well, to stay competitive with west, and it is already being seen on FFXV season pass startegy... And look what we got here in the west in the AAA department: Mass Effect Andromeda (the second worst game I remember if we look purely on technical status of the game, right behind Arkham Knight), For Honor (good game, but no one is playing it anymore, because of ****ty microtransactions), Watchdogs 2 (also not worst game, but it has so many preorder editions, that you needed an excel sheet for it), and what will be having more this year? Another Battlefield, another Call of Duty, another edition of Skyrim... The only really good western game, which I remember released this year, which was polished, did not copy paste all the checklist formulaes from focus testing, and which was not infested with microtransactions, which have brought new formula, and was not affraid to give us female protagonist was Horizon: Zero Dawn... The western games have become sterile checklists to appease as big audience as possible, which completely destroyed any innovation here... /end of rant

I have completely missed this video from January, buuut it is one of the best, I've seen about the current state of gaming. They did some research and they are not talking out of their asses, based on marketing hype, nor nostalgia... This video sums up pretty much everything, what gamers in their 30s and 40s around me thinks what's bad today, and what was better yesterday :-/ 8 minutes in total...

Well some people have different tastes. For one person it's ridiculous, for some a way of self-expression :-P Look here He might look ridiculous to you, but that does not make his "equip" unrealistic ;-)

Comparing Golarion and Earth is the same as comparing Earth and Mars. If humans could travel to Mars, with their current physical statue, they would be able to lift aproximately 3 times heavier load, then their are able to lift on Earth.

I would completely agree with your take on aestethics, if a commoner with STR 8 to 10 would wield such a weapon. Yes you are right, it would be completely ridiculous. But she can use it. Even if she would swing with trunk of a big tree, it still would feel normal for her, because according to game rules, she has the physical qualities to perform such a task. You should not compare her statue to other humans from Golarion, nor Real Life. She should be compared to the Dragon. Yes she does look different, but she is almost as powerful... Would I be able to swing such a sword? Not even in my dreams. Would she be able to swing it? Absolutely. Therefore, according to the rules of PFRPG and the laws of the PF Universe, the sword is fitting her.

According to the sword. Just check her Statblock http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/npcCodex/iconic/amiri.html At level 12, she has STR score of 30 in rage, 24 base stat. Compared to STR of average human in Golarion, which is 10, I do not see the reason, why she would not be able to swing this sword, like average humans are able to swing a wooden stick... According to Carrying Capacity table, STR 24 means to be able carry up to 233lbs and still be light load. Her real carrying capacity is 700lbs. While raging, she can carry with light load stuff up to 532lbs, while her maximum carrying capacity is 1600lbs. That effectively means, she is able to lift off ground 1400lbs, respectivelly 3200lbs while raging, without shedding a single sweat drop... 1000 pounds is 453,9 kg To compare it further, Adult Red Chromatic Dragon has STR score of 31... Now tell me, do you still think, she is unable to swing such a big sword? You should be more familiar with the stuff you critize ;-) Edit. Even with her starting level 1 STR 16-18, she is able to carry around 230-300lbs depending on raging, without feeling any fatigue... that means 8 hours without need of break.

Zlin became Gottwaldov not beacuse of Soviet Union, but becuase of Communistic party of Czechoslovakia in "honor" of the first post-war leader of Communistic party. It wa pure inside job. Chemnitz to Karl-Marx-Stadt also inside job, Gottwald and Karl Marx were not Russians nor Soviets. I know Ukraine and Baltic are completely different case, but I was just showing an example, that even in occupation, there is no need to convert all city names to the empire nomenclature

And they didn't rename them after conquest because...? Well evil Soviet Empire also did not renamed our cities during occupation from 1968-1990 to sound more Russian )

To understand, why Cheliax has such "inconsistency" in general naming, you have to read some fictional history about the region, where is now Cheliax. It's empire in the service of devils, that's the why the name of the empire sounds devilish, too. There was a lot of wars in this region, and lot of towns and settlements did belong to different states/empires in history. If you are interested about history of Golarion, the only places, where to find complete lore is Paizo's Inner Sea World Guide and Inner Sea Gods books. About copycating the DnD, well, it's up to everyone taste. I really do not like where WotC headed with 4th and 5th Editions, so I am really happy, that PFRPG is based on OGL version of DnD 3.5, and feels familiar, with most of the content and makes it better. The only thing, which I do not like in the rules is non-magical crafting :-P And about Numeria, well there are some other regions, completely different to other places, and what makes you quation their decision to put that content, there is also backstory about that, also possible to find in the ISWG, but also in the People of the Stars Player Companion, or Campaign Setting. Aaand also the is the Great Beyond book, which also covers extra-golarionians, or in other words aliens, which have a big conection to Numeria as well...

Well, I played it twice to get the platinum, and second playthrough, I was bored almost whole time, and there is no chance, I would ever start the game for third time. The game is just another Hack and Slash with some RPG Elements and not RPG. Combat is very similar to Crisis Core FFVII on PSP, but IMO more annoying. Some maps are so big that you are just running around, without anything happening. Especially after you exterminate all members of all monster races in specific location. For me the game after a while changed into constantly watching on in-game watch and hitting Chronostasis, just to be able to not miss the quest NPC. And 95% of all quests were just typical MMO-type fetchquests, which started to be boring already on 1st playthrough after 3 hours of playtime :-/ Replayability in games is important, but it is a chore if your game is just another mindnumbing FedEx simulator... Sales numbers on PS3 were much much lower than Bravely Defaults sales on NDS, which was released around same time, and which was proper RPG.

"Lightning Returns was the best Final Fantasy after X." No.

Good luck to you too :D Thankfully, I can resist the luring of sales, but still got two games during last GOG sale Finished 6 games so far this year (but Tales of Xillia is on that list twice, because of Bad Ending and True Ending ), It takes me usually more than a month to finish one game, and then I try to go for Platinum with games, which I love or sometimes hate. I am looking at you!!! Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - I hated to play that game so much, but my stubborness still forced me to Platinum it LOL... I should make me an excel sheet, where I list my priorities what to play for the next few months, as well... Very big priority on the list should be Platinum for Ni No Kuni 1, before the 2nd part comes out in November...