What are you playing now?

[AGX-17]

Not to derail the chat about how ball-bustingly hard BG2 is, but here's an update on my sorry butt: I gave up on DA:O for now. I got past the Magi quest but I'm burned out already

The mod to skip the fade is a really good coolant, I've found.

[PrimeJunta]

Funny, I thought the Fade was one of the very few halfway tolerable parts in the game. Blessed respite from fanservice companions, for one thing.

[CommentTater]

Er... sorry to ask, but why did you even bother playing the game if it annoyed you so much?

[Keyrock]

I just ran into a roadblock in The Last Remnant.  My first battle where I was hopelessly overmatched.  Got slaughtered 4 times in a row last night and never even came close to winning.  Not only am I outnumbered, but the boss (Fiery Idol) does an area attack that hits all my unions and can insta-kill everyone that's not close to 100%.  The problem is that I can't just concentrate on the boss in hopes of taking him out quick like (which I'm assuming would end the fight right then and there) because I don't have enough firepower to take him out in 1 round and the enemy unions would flank and rear attack the bejesus out of me and tear me up, so I'm forced to deal with the other unions first, and while I'm doing that the boss just ****s my **** up.  So I went back and did a bit of farming for components (turns out Rush having a cheesy starter tabar-zin for that fight might not have been a good idea) and I plan to return and try again today.  I'm still early in the game and can only do a max of 3 people in my party.  Before that I had my party separated into 2 unions: Rush and Oakes in one union and Baulson by himself in another union.  I didn't think I would need to grind or farm yet because all the fights up to that point were pretty easy as long as I initiated combat and didn't do something stupid, but that boss fight changed all that.  I'm going to try putting Rush Baulson and Oakes into a single union.  I'll lose flexibility and with one less union it means I'll get flanked more, but having the characters separated into 2 unions made them way too fragile for that battle.  I fully expect to get my ass handed to me, even with the stronger single union and Rush having a combat tabar-zin, but I should hopefully have a better shot at it.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Keyrock

[melkathi]

That is the first tough fight in the game. Alternatively you could swap out Oakes for a healer if you have one (there is a fairly good Mitra one, McGrady, in the guild you hired Oakes). Though that wont save you from getting one-shot :/

Edited December 20, 2013 by melkathi

[Tale]

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

 

Hit the post-game, grabbed the art of metamorphosis, then made by my Arisen and Pawn blue. Now onto Bitterback Isle!

[Keyrock]

That is the first tough fight in the game. Alternatively you could swap out Oakes for a healer if you have one (there is a fairly good Mitra one, McGrady, in the guild you hired Oakes). Though that wont save you from getting one-shot :/

Yeah, I have McGrady in my reserves.  If things don't go well with my Rush/Oakes/Baulson union I may swap out Oakes and swap in McGrady and see how it goes with him.  When do you get the ability to employ more units at a time?  Is it a function of battle rank? (I'm battle rank 6 right now)

[melkathi]

I think it is story based. I am battle rank 92. I can have 3 Unions (groups) and 15 Units (characters). So I have them split into three groups of 5. Apparently all battle rank  does is dictate the xp/stat gain from fights and what level abilities enemies use.

[Keyrock]

I think it is story based. I am battle rank 92. I can have 3 Unions (groups) and 15 Units (characters). So I have them split into three groups of 5. Apparently all battle rank  does is dictate the xp/stat gain from fights and what level abilities enemies use.

Okay, so grinding to raise my battle rank at this point would be pointless.  In fact, it would probably be counterproductive and it would hinder units I acquire in the future catching up to my current units and acquiring abilities.

 

My hope is that with the union of Rush, Oakes, and Baulson, I'll be able to finish off most enemy unions in a single round.  Many times before I would come really close and leave the enemy unions with a sliver of health, then another enemy union would heal them (while I shook my fist at them ).  Oakes can heal, he's just not as good at it as McGrady, but he's a better offensive unit (physical attacks, anyway).  If I swap McGrady in, then I'll probably use mystic arts more often.  So far I'm not frustrated despite having my ass handed to me 4 times in a row.  It's a fun challenge and I haven't explored all my tactical options yet.

[melkathi]

If Rush and Baulson had their healing abilities as well, then things would be better

Have you got any other formations you could try?

[Gfted1]

With a shameful amount of hours invested, I finally hit Paragon level 100 with my Demon Hunter.

[Keyrock]

If Rush and Baulson had their healing abilities as well, then things would be better

Have you got any other formations you could try?

Just Melee Stance and Arrow of Athlum.  I'm going to go with Arrow of Athlum with Rush as the leader, Baulson in the #2 slot as the "arrowhead", and Oakes in the #3 slot on one flank.  I think the #2 slot gets the most attack bonus, and Baluson is my heaviest hitter.

[Kissamies]

Revisiting Ultima IV. As a kid I never got too far. My grasp of English wasn't good enough and I was afraid to go in the dungeons. Mostly wandered about in the countryside, killing things. I remeber getting a couple of the eighths, though. Probably through sheer preserverance and a gaming magazine hint article I had.

 

Well, I intend to finish it now. Leveled up much faster by finishing quests, at least. I don't remember minding all the combat as much as I do now. Gets a bit tedious.

[AGX-17]

Funny, I thought the Fade was one of the very few halfway tolerable parts in the game. Blessed respite from fanservice companions, for one thing.

"Fanservice companions"? As in, companions should be characters that fans of the game/developer hate and find intolerable? In that case, didn't they succeed by making you find them intolerable? Besides, I don't recall any wildly jiggling, gravity-defying breasts. Did I miss that part?

[Labadal]

The first season of The Walking dead is done. The last episode was great. It actually invoked real feelings compared to other games.

[GhostofAnakin]

Finished XCOM: The Bureau.  I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.

[Darkpriest]

Played Wasteland 2 Beta recently. It crashes a lot for me. I suspect some bad optimization because performance drops with each minute played and the larger the area and the more NPCs on it, the faster it deteriorates to unplayable/crash status...

 

Other than that, it is quite enjoyable. Can;t wait for the full version... It seems it might even be around the same or after PoEternity :D

Edited December 21, 2013 by Darkpriest

[Majek]

Just finished Guacamelee on hard. Grr stupid invincibility frames for AI and no way to cancel attacks for the player, while the AI does it whenever it wants. I love hte game though, easter eggs galore as well.

[Mamoulian War]

Finally get home from longer business trip and Gran Turismo 6 was waiting on me in the post

 

Played little bit, got some first trophies, but it looks much easier than GT6, I did all gold National B license with only three retries. Two of the due to hitting the wall in city course.

 

Anyway if anyone plays GT5/6 as well, feel free to add my PSN ID to friends and maybe we can play some online races. I am not very good driver though

Edited December 21, 2013 by Mamoulian War

[Deraldin]

I've gone back to my punchy Dark Souls character. Spent an hour or so with her this afternoon trying to work through the Smough and Ornstein fight again. It's been pretty slow going. I want to kill Smough first and I'm getting better at avoiding Ornstein while doing so though I still get poked through Smough on a semi-regular basis. I got to super ornstein once, but died horribly when my framerate went to **** and I lost the ability to dodge.

 

I've avoided summoning Solaire for this fight as he almost always goes after Ornstein first which is not what I want to happen. Mostly avoided summoning other people too as it feels rude to whittle away at  Smough 100HP at a time while the other guy has to do his best to avoid getting hit by Ornstein.

[Keyrock]

Got through the Fiery Idol battle on my first try on the return trip.  Having a more durable union was the key, though having a better weapon didn't hurt.  I've since had my Combat Tabar-Zin strengthened to +1 then upgraded it to Warrior's Tabar-Zin +1.

[Majek]

I've gone back to my punchy Dark Souls character. Spent an hour or so with her this afternoon trying to work through the Smough and Ornstein fight again. It's been pretty slow going. I want to kill Smough first and I'm getting better at avoiding Ornstein while doing so though I still get poked through Smough on a semi-regular basis. I got to super ornstein once, but died horribly when my framerate went to **** and I lost the ability to dodge.

 

I've avoided summoning Solaire for this fight as he almost always goes after Ornstein first which is not what I want to happen. Mostly avoided summoning other people too as it feels rude to whittle away at  Smough 100HP at a time while the other guy has to do his best to avoid getting hit by Ornstein.

In coop bossess have more HP, so if you do enough damage fast, summoning solaire is not such a bad idea. Especially if Super Ornstein is more difficult after. :D Best place to do this is NG+ of course where they kill of Solaire quickly and you're left with real monsters.

[Keyrock]

Just killed a Bluejaws in The Last Remnant.  That battle was pretty freakin' awesome.  Rare monster battles are the best.  It took me 4 tries to do it.  Looking back at it, I probably would have been way better off going with 2 unions (4 and 5) rather than 3 unions of 3, oh well, a lesson for next time.

Edited December 21, 2013 by Keyrock

[melkathi]

Just killed a Bluejaws in The Last Remnant.  That battle was pretty freakin' awesome.  Rare monster battles are the best.  It took me 4 tries to do it.  Looking back at it, I probably would have been way better off going with 2 unions (4 and 5) rather than 3 unions of 3, oh well, a lesson for next time.

 

Yeah, Multi-Deadlock can slaughter you if you have multiple small unions. Especially if the enemy has some nasty AoE it can use more often because of the more Unions.

I still haven't encountered Bluejaws Bastard wont spawn in my game. Or he is one of those "spawns only once" enemies and I missed him when he did.

The fight that was truly silly awesome for me was the big rare dragon thingie in the desert.

Edited December 21, 2013 by melkathi

[Deraldin]

 

I've gone back to my punchy Dark Souls character. Spent an hour or so with her this afternoon trying to work through the Smough and Ornstein fight again. It's been pretty slow going. I want to kill Smough first and I'm getting better at avoiding Ornstein while doing so though I still get poked through Smough on a semi-regular basis. I got to super ornstein once, but died horribly when my framerate went to **** and I lost the ability to dodge.

 

I've avoided summoning Solaire for this fight as he almost always goes after Ornstein first which is not what I want to happen. Mostly avoided summoning other people too as it feels rude to whittle away at  Smough 100HP at a time while the other guy has to do his best to avoid getting hit by Ornstein.

In coop bossess have more HP, so if you do enough damage fast, summoning solaire is not such a bad idea. Especially if Super Ornstein is more difficult after. :D Best place to do this is NG+ of course where they kill of Solaire quickly and you're left with real monsters.

 

Yeah, Solaire was pretty helpful when I played this fight with my last character though he was almost too helpful as it was a big race to see who could finish off their target before other. I remember both being down to about 5% health at the same time.

 

Super Ornstein the few times that I've managed to get to him hasn't been too bad actually. Not having to worry about super speed charges from off screen while dodging Smough does wonders for your life expectancy. I've mostly died to Super Ornstein because I messed up with target lock screwing with my dodge rolling when he goes for his electrical butt stomp. His attacks aren't that hard to dodge as long as you stick close to him which I have to do for my punches anyway.

 

The whole fight has been really hit or miss for my so far. Either I do really well, or I do really poorly. When I screw up, I screw up big. Things can be going perfectly, Smough is down to 10% health when I get hit by that damn hammer, get up to dodge and BAM Ornstein comes in with a super speed charge to murder me. Next time around I end up dead before getting more than 3 hits on Smough.