Stayed up till midnight to play a round or two of Street Fighter V before I finally crashed and went to bed. It's a good thing the snow and ice down here in DC delayed the government opening by three hours because I would have been beat.
I've always enjoyed SF but have never really gotten into it. Other than the original Bushido Blade though, it's my favorite fighting game. I always want to be good at a Street Fighter game, but never have the patience to really practice. SFIV seemed a bit too complex for me, but at least so far, SFV seems much more approachable. The graphics are gorgeous, much better than the videos I've seen online would have me believe, and the game is FAST! Much faster than I expected and, while I'm no expert, much faster than SFIV.
Once again, I would like to practice and get reasonably good. Not "I'm going to EVO good," just good to actually understand the mechanics of the game. We'll see if that happens.
On a side note, I was pleasantly surprised to read that there's cross-platform play between the PS4 and the PC.
If it is faster I might be more into it. I have a hard time playing slower, more methodical fighters. I think that was one of the reasons I put a decent amount of time into Killer Instinct on Xbox. The most recent one I played was Mortal Kombat but I mostly just played a bit of online then went through the weird story mode thing.
Speaking of which, what is the story mode like in SFV?
The story mode situation in SFV is a bit weird and confusing. Right now, there's a very "light" story mode that's pretty similar to past games, although it's a lot shorter. I played through Ryu's story mode last night. It was only about 3-4 matches and only one round each. Book ending each match were some illustrations with character voice-overs, usually introducing the new fighter pre-match and then another post-match story nugget.
Capcom has announced that they're releasing a "cinematic mode" in June, as free DLC, which is supposed to have a much more robust story, but details on exactly what that means, and how that works, are sketchy right now. I do think it's cool that this addition will be free.
That's really weird. It sounds like it was more work to make that janky story mode than to just make the same classic story mode that always existed. Fight every opponent once, and only show story at the end.
That's really weird. It sounds like it was more work to make that janky story mode than to just make the same classic story mode that always existed. Fight every opponent once, and only show story at the end.
Yeah, I agree Scott, it is weird. It almost seems like they wanted this really ambitious "cinematic mode," whatever that turns out to be, but didn't have enough time to put it in the game at launch, so instead they put in this very abbreviated single player mode since they knew they couldn't release a SF game without at least some kind of single player experience.
That's really weird. It sounds like it was more work to make that janky story mode than to just make the same classic story mode that always existed. Fight every opponent once, and only show story at the end.
Yeah, I agree Scott, it is weird. It almost seems like they wanted this really ambitious "cinematic mode," whatever that turns out to be, but didn't have enough time to put it in the game at launch, so instead they put in this very abbreviated single player mode since they knew they couldn't release a SF game without at least some kind of single player experience.
Why not just make the default single player mode? Put a still CONGRATULATION screen at the end, and good to go until cinematic is ready.
That's really weird. It sounds like it was more work to make that janky story mode than to just make the same classic story mode that always existed. Fight every opponent once, and only show story at the end.
Yeah, I agree Scott, it is weird. It almost seems like they wanted this really ambitious "cinematic mode," whatever that turns out to be, but didn't have enough time to put it in the game at launch, so instead they put in this very abbreviated single player mode since they knew they couldn't release a SF game without at least some kind of single player experience.
Why not just make the default single player mode? Put a still CONGRATULATION screen at the end, and good to go until cinematic is ready.
No idea. Initially, when I started the story mode with Ryu, there were four boxes, each with a different title. I thought that meant there were four stories for him. I could select the first one, but the next three were locked. After beating his story, I went back and saw that the boxes were for each individual match in his story, so if I wanted to skip the first fight, against Rashid, and go straight to Ken, I could.
It's 2016 and fighting games have story modes these days. With lots of cutscenes and stuff. Capcom is just trying to not be the old man of the industry.
Of course this is Street Fighter. The game could be just a paperdolls of Ryu and Ken that you are supposed to smash against each other in simulated fight and it would still sell more than any other 2D fighting game of this generation.
So apparently the Capcom (Street Fighter) pro season begins February 26th, which is why Street Fighter V was released with so few modes other then competitive play. They wanted to get the game out there before the season started.
I've heard Street Fighter V (in it's current) form, compared to a Greenlight game on Steam, which is probably accurate. Obviously, the game isn't fully fleshed out yet. Heck, I'm earning in-game currency for an in-game store that won't even be released until March. That being said, it's still an absolute blast to play. I trust Capcom enough not to screw this up, and when the other features are released, the game is really going to shine.
Bottom line: If you play fighting games mostly for the single player experience, I'd hold off until the cinematic mode is released in June. If you want to just play against your friends, the game is fine as is.
XCOM 2 Got stuck on character creation for a long time and only ended up doing the tutorial / intro which was also great.
The game improves all the bits that Enemy Within needed in ways I didn't really think of. The engine is pretty freaking great too.
I forgot to give Nelson a cigarette. Also the iris colour is spot on with all the photos and videos I sourced, I'm pretty sure they used his profile pic for the haircut too.
Originally had a beard and looked far older however he recently shaved so I made him younger. Not sure if I should leave him as "by the book" or change him to "normal" or "nervous". How would he respond to a post alien invasion earth as a freedom fighter / terrorist?
Those are the right glasses, close to AUSCAM on the Armor pattern, and that pistol IS THE SIZE OF A MAN'S THIGH GODDAMN.
I'm unsure if it would be narcissistic to get news going forward about how the Friday Night Party Squad does in the ongoing fight against the alien menace.
Those are the right glasses, close to AUSCAM on the Armor pattern, and that pistol IS THE SIZE OF A MAN'S THIGH GODDAMN.
I'm unsure if it would be narcissistic to get news going forward about how the Friday Night Party Squad does in the ongoing fight against the alien menace.
I'm replacing my motherboard, ram and cpu today but will post updates as they come. Character imports possible for others with XCOM 2.
After playing some Elite Dangerous, I'm not a lot less warm to it than before. I think it should, at beginning, ask you if you want to explore, haul cargo or shoot stuff and gave you a ship that had some capability in your choice, instead of giving an totally useless pile of junk. Also more options for what missions you get or take early would be nice. Now I have to ether fly hours going from station to station hoping to find a mission I'd like to do, or take what I'm given and spend hours flying from signal source to signal source hoping I find the random thing mission wants before encountering bandits. Right now I'm feeling that I'd rather play Space Rangers 2 instead, at least in it you weren't completely useless at beginning and it had text adventures.
Finished Final Fantasy II and now attacking III. As a brief cleanser I replayed Portal 2 over a couple days with the dev commentary. Being in the game dev world now, I appreciate the technical aspects of that game a lot more than I did the first time around. Though I still prefer the original more in terms of enjoyment.
I played all of SUPERHOT last night. It's a pretty short game, but the challenge and endless modes mean I will probably keep playing this for a while. It's super fun.
I played all of SUPERHOT last night. It's a pretty short game, but the challenge and endless modes mean I will probably keep playing this for a while. It's super fun.
I played all of SUPERHOT last night. It's a pretty short game, but the challenge and endless modes mean I will probably keep playing this for a while. It's super fun.
The price is too damn high.
Yeah I got it through Humble Bundle (I don't remember how, but I have the paypal receipt for proof) for $14. Which is a more reasonable price to me.
I played all of SUPERHOT last night. It's a pretty short game, but the challenge and endless modes mean I will probably keep playing this for a while. It's super fun.
The price is too damn high.
Play Undertale while you're waiting for the spring sale.
About 60% of the way through Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon on 3DS, and I'm really torn. There's a big part of me that is simply done with these long single-player hand-holdy campaigns in games. I think I've moved on. There are some neat things going on there, for sure, but it's being overshadowed. I'd heard that the multiplayer mode was very cool, so I'll have to rope someone into trying that soon.
Also about 90min into Firewatch. It's fucking beautiful, the story is solid so far, and my boy Rich Sommer is nailing it on the voice acting side. Story games like this serve a very specific purpose for me. My wife literally does not watch movies, aside from an occasional comedy. I, on the other hand, am very reluctant to get into TV shows. This means our winding down time is mostly spent doing separate things, but we're both very much down with playing through a story game together.
Goddamn it somehow I started playing Clash Royale. Despite having oppressive microtransactions it's a surprisingly fun competitive game. I never really played Clash of Clans but I'm assuming they're different games despite having the same characters.
Also got Salt and Sanctuary since apparently I had a PlayStation gift card. It's a pretty competent 2D Souls game. I think the SotN comparison is also fairly accurate, but it's got a lot of Souls in it.
I finished Firewatch last night. I definitely had sort of an underwhelmed response to the ending but the more I thought about it I kinda felt like that was part of the experience.
One of the main themes of the game was everyone's paranoia of being out in the middle of nowhere. The more I thought about that ending I felt like it fit that theme pretty well.
I also started playing Salt and Sanctuary and it's definitely just a 2D Souls game in a lot of ways, but also has a lot of Symphony of the Night. And Hyper Light Drifter is out now. I haven't played much of it yet but it has a fantastic look to it. The intro is crazy. And it seems like it's gonna be a pretty tough top down brawler. The music is amazing.
I'm starting to try and get back into Hearthstone. They've added a lot of shit since the last time I've played and my decks are a bit out of date. I'm also remembering that I'm not super great at this game.
I'm starting to try and get back into Hearthstone. They've added a lot of shit since the last time I've played and my decks are a bit out of date. I'm also remembering that I'm not super great at this game.
I also started playing again recently after a couple months of not playing. Things you have to realize about this game:
1) It's very very luck-based. I play Mage with Unstable portal a lot. I often win games solely because the unstable portal gave me a great card. 2) Your rank doesn't represent your actual skill. The ranking system isn't some ELO thing. It's a grind. My brother gets legend every month because he plays so much. I just do my quests every day. If I played for 6 hours a day I would be legend, and so would anybody. 3) If you don't have the fancy card, you are going nowhere. I have the fancy cards. Not from paying money, but from playing since it started. I only paid for the single-player expansion things, which are actually way fun. But yea, if you play against someone with a bunch of legendary shit, and you have the basic deck, you have a chance to win, but the odds are not in your favor 4) It's actually a really easy game without many complicated decisions to make. However, many of the rules are so poorly defined. For example, just yesterday I killed a Sneed's Old Shredder with my Sylvanas Windrunner. I did NOT end up stealing the minion that comes out of the shredder. That's some bullshit right there. They never printed a rulebook. You have to watch YouTube videos to learn that nonsense. 5) Despite all these problems, there isn't a better strategy game available on mobile devices. There isn't an online multiplayer card game with a better user interface. Until there is, Hearthstone is king.
I wanted to play the adventures, but I wasn't sure if it was better to pay for them or just use the in game gold stuff. Apparently someone did the math and said it was better to just buy them with real money then spend all your gold on packs, which makes sense. But that also seems like something that someone who was way more serious about it would do.
But also like you said, a decent amount of games rely on one person having that fancy card that is the ace in the hole. So probably buying more packs is the better option. It also looks like they have some weird crafting interface now that I don't remember being there before. Not really sure what that is about yet.
Apparently someone did the math and said it was better to just buy them with real money then spend all your gold on packs, which makes sense.
This is one of those times where I have no idea if someone means "then" or "than" and they have opposite meanings. Even if it is correct in this case, that so many other people fuck up then/than means the ambiguity is real.
I wanted to play the adventures, but I wasn't sure if it was better to pay for them or just use the in game gold stuff. Apparently someone did the math and said it was better to just buy them with real money then spend all your gold on packs, which makes sense. But that also seems like something that someone who was way more serious about it would do.
But also like you said, a decent amount of games rely on one person having that fancy card that is the ace in the hole. So probably buying more packs is the better option. It also looks like they have some weird crafting interface now that I don't remember being there before. Not really sure what that is about yet.
Even if the Adventures didn't give you any cards (they give you some awesome cards) they are worth paying for. The single player experience they give is a load of fun. For example, there's one adventure where you have to play with a deck of nothing but webspinners (and random beats). It's like tavern brawl agains the AI, but even better.
The crafting has been there since the very beginning of HearthStone. The way it works is pretty simple. Each card is worth dust. Here is a chart.
If you want to make a specific card you need X dust. Let's say you want a legendary card, it will cost you 1600 dust. If you want a common card, it will cost you 40.
Now let's say you get a bunch of cards from packs, and you end up getting extra cards you don't want. Maybe you get yet your 5th copy of something. You obviously only need 2. You can disenchant those cards. There's even a button that lets you automatically disenchant your extra cards. When you disenchant, you don't get the full value. So while a legendary card costs 1600 to make, if you disenchant one, you only get 400. If you get a golden legendary by luck, you can disenchant it for 1600 to get enough dust for any non-golden legendary you want.
It's like a tower defense game really. You can buy anything, but selling gets you less than what you paid for it in the first place.
Comments
Expect a show on it tonight.
I've always enjoyed SF but have never really gotten into it. Other than the original Bushido Blade though, it's my favorite fighting game. I always want to be good at a Street Fighter game, but never have the patience to really practice. SFIV seemed a bit too complex for me, but at least so far, SFV seems much more approachable. The graphics are gorgeous, much better than the videos I've seen online would have me believe, and the game is FAST! Much faster than I expected and, while I'm no expert, much faster than SFIV.
Once again, I would like to practice and get reasonably good. Not "I'm going to EVO good," just good to actually understand the mechanics of the game. We'll see if that happens.
On a side note, I was pleasantly surprised to read that there's cross-platform play between the PS4 and the PC.
Speaking of which, what is the story mode like in SFV?
Capcom has announced that they're releasing a "cinematic mode" in June, as free DLC, which is supposed to have a much more robust story, but details on exactly what that means, and how that works, are sketchy right now. I do think it's cool that this addition will be free.
http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/25/10827314/street-fighter-5-cinematic-story-mode-release-date
It's just weird.
Of course this is Street Fighter. The game could be just a paperdolls of Ryu and Ken that you are supposed to smash against each other in simulated fight and it would still sell more than any other 2D fighting game of this generation.
I've heard Street Fighter V (in it's current) form, compared to a Greenlight game on Steam, which is probably accurate. Obviously, the game isn't fully fleshed out yet. Heck, I'm earning in-game currency for an in-game store that won't even be released until March. That being said, it's still an absolute blast to play. I trust Capcom enough not to screw this up, and when the other features are released, the game is really going to shine.
Bottom line: If you play fighting games mostly for the single player experience, I'd hold off until the cinematic mode is released in June. If you want to just play against your friends, the game is fine as is.
Got stuck on character creation for a long time and only ended up doing the tutorial / intro which was also great.
The game improves all the bits that Enemy Within needed in ways I didn't really think of. The engine is pretty freaking great too.
I forgot to give Nelson a cigarette. Also the iris colour is spot on with all the photos and videos I sourced, I'm pretty sure they used his profile pic for the haircut too.
Originally had a beard and looked far older however he recently shaved so I made him younger. Not sure if I should leave him as "by the book" or change him to "normal" or "nervous". How would he respond to a post alien invasion earth as a freedom fighter / terrorist?
I'm unsure if it would be narcissistic to get news going forward about how the Friday Night Party Squad does in the ongoing fight against the alien menace.
Character imports possible for others with XCOM 2.
The best way I could describe it something like Quake mixed with Geometry Wars.
And it's only $5.
Also about 90min into Firewatch. It's fucking beautiful, the story is solid so far, and my boy Rich Sommer is nailing it on the voice acting side. Story games like this serve a very specific purpose for me. My wife literally does not watch movies, aside from an occasional comedy. I, on the other hand, am very reluctant to get into TV shows. This means our winding down time is mostly spent doing separate things, but we're both very much down with playing through a story game together.
Also got Salt and Sanctuary since apparently I had a PlayStation gift card. It's a pretty competent 2D Souls game. I think the SotN comparison is also fairly accurate, but it's got a lot of Souls in it.
I also started playing Salt and Sanctuary and it's definitely just a 2D Souls game in a lot of ways, but also has a lot of Symphony of the Night. And Hyper Light Drifter is out now. I haven't played much of it yet but it has a fantastic look to it. The intro is crazy. And it seems like it's gonna be a pretty tough top down brawler. The music is amazing.
1) It's very very luck-based. I play Mage with Unstable portal a lot. I often win games solely because the unstable portal gave me a great card.
2) Your rank doesn't represent your actual skill. The ranking system isn't some ELO thing. It's a grind. My brother gets legend every month because he plays so much. I just do my quests every day. If I played for 6 hours a day I would be legend, and so would anybody.
3) If you don't have the fancy card, you are going nowhere. I have the fancy cards. Not from paying money, but from playing since it started. I only paid for the single-player expansion things, which are actually way fun. But yea, if you play against someone with a bunch of legendary shit, and you have the basic deck, you have a chance to win, but the odds are not in your favor
4) It's actually a really easy game without many complicated decisions to make. However, many of the rules are so poorly defined. For example, just yesterday I killed a Sneed's Old Shredder with my Sylvanas Windrunner. I did NOT end up stealing the minion that comes out of the shredder. That's some bullshit right there. They never printed a rulebook. You have to watch YouTube videos to learn that nonsense.
5) Despite all these problems, there isn't a better strategy game available on mobile devices. There isn't an online multiplayer card game with a better user interface. Until there is, Hearthstone is king.
But also like you said, a decent amount of games rely on one person having that fancy card that is the ace in the hole. So probably buying more packs is the better option. It also looks like they have some weird crafting interface now that I don't remember being there before. Not really sure what that is about yet.
The crafting has been there since the very beginning of HearthStone. The way it works is pretty simple. Each card is worth dust. Here is a chart.
http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Crafting#Cost
If you want to make a specific card you need X dust. Let's say you want a legendary card, it will cost you 1600 dust. If you want a common card, it will cost you 40.
Now let's say you get a bunch of cards from packs, and you end up getting extra cards you don't want. Maybe you get yet your 5th copy of something. You obviously only need 2. You can disenchant those cards. There's even a button that lets you automatically disenchant your extra cards. When you disenchant, you don't get the full value. So while a legendary card costs 1600 to make, if you disenchant one, you only get 400. If you get a golden legendary by luck, you can disenchant it for 1600 to get enough dust for any non-golden legendary you want.
It's like a tower defense game really. You can buy anything, but selling gets you less than what you paid for it in the first place.