Video Games

Originally Posted by Brian SD

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My students all love DQ9, but I haven't played it myself.

FF13 is more linear than FFX

Damn. After FFXII i'm surprised they did a complete 180 like that. The one thing i didn't like about ff12 was the fact that it was way too easy to just get a strong weapon and then slash your way to victory. I don't think i ever used non-healing/support magic the entire time since i did a good job of setting my orderlist or whatever it was called. I'll have to play anyways as i feel obligated since i was 5 years old. Still enjoyed 8, 10 and 12 despite them not being that great imo

I like all of the FFs too. I kind of put myself in a childhood mindset, enjoy whatever hours they suck out of my life and look back on it fondly. I'm pretty harsh on them because I think as well-designed games they fail in a lot of ways, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the time spent on them.

Same here. I still would take FF8 over a number of mediocre rpgs out there. The worst final fantasies if they were made by another company and called something different would be amongst the top 5 reviewed games of the year. They still are regardless but they wouldn't get as much backlash. I'm still a dragon quest head. I played Dragon Warrior as a 5 year old before i played final fantasy 1. DQVIII was really fun and probably the perfect old school rpg. Huge sprawling maps and dungeons, simple battle system with a few small twists, cheesy/traditional but fun and entertaining story, well paced, good exploration, linear styorline but with plenty of sidequests and room for you to do some stuff out of order or explore around, solid difficulty for turn based unless you overlevel or xpfarm a bunch, etc... DQ9 looks fun but i worry it won't have the same massive scale being on the DS. I think they're going to ps3 for dq10. Just seems strange that since dq8 did so well that they'd completely change the platform right as they got comfortable. It's still TBA 2010 which scares me because it was also TBA 2008 from what i remember

Originally Posted by j

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Looks like just my kind of thing... if only my laptop could handle it.

I guess I could try my now-ancient desktop but I don't really want to go sit in another room to play games.
Hmm... you could try the benchmark that GSC have created, see how the laptop fares. http://cop.stalker-game.com/?page=news&item=150 Love the game so far. Made it to Pripyat, but much to my dismay I have yet to find the ferris wheel near the gymnasium. Must keep searching.

Originally Posted by chronoaug

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Same here. I still would take FF8 over a number of mediocre rpgs out there. The worst final fantasies if they were made by another company and called something different would be amongst the top 5 reviewed games of the year. They still are regardless but they wouldn't get as much backlash.

I'm still a dragon quest head. I played Dragon Warrior as a 5 year old before i played final fantasy 1. DQVIII was really fun and probably the perfect old school rpg. Huge sprawling maps and dungeons, simple battle system with a few small twists, cheesy/traditional but fun and entertaining story, well paced, good exploration, linear styorline but with plenty of sidequests and room for you to do some stuff out of order or explore around, solid difficulty for turn based unless you overlevel or xpfarm a bunch, etc...

DQ9 looks fun but i worry it won't have the same massive scale being on the DS. I think they're going to ps3 for dq10. Just seems strange that since dq8 did so well that they'd completely change the platform right as they got comfortable. It's still TBA 2010 which scares me because it was also TBA 2008 from what i remember:

I really hope DQ10 goes PS3.

I've never been a huge DQ fan (actually never played any of them except the very first), but Dragon Warrior was my first ever console RPG as well, when I was a 5 or 6 year old (got it for free with an issue of Nintendo Power magazine!).

Gave up replaying ME2 on Hardcore with my vanguard, since I can't pick up another bonus weapon there isn't much point. Started with a female adept to see what else the game has to offer, much more fun at this point.

Originally Posted by Eason

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Gave up replaying ME2 on Hardcore with my vanguard, since I can't pick up another bonus weapon there isn't much point. Started with a female adept to see what else the game has to offer, much more fun at this point.

I tried to do it as my Soldier for the Geth Pulse Rifle, but it's too damn hard even at max level and with all the goodies I carried over from my first playthrough.

I've started Evil Female Shepard in ME1.

Originally Posted by skalogre

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Hmm... you could try the benchmark that GSC have created, see how the laptop fares. http://cop.stalker-game.com/?page=news&item=150

Love the game so far. Made it to Pripyat, but much to my dismay I have yet to find the ferris wheel near the gymnasium. Must keep searching.

Edit:
Finished it a little bit ago. Thankfully there are still missions to accomplish as they added what mods did to the prior two games, that is allow freeplay after completion. And I can see the ferris wheel in the distance but I think it is cordoned off

Originally Posted by Alias

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I tried to do it as my Soldier for the Geth Pulse Rifle, but it's too damn hard even at max level and with all the goodies I carried over from my first playthrough.

I've started Evil Female Shepard in ME1.

Easy fix: play through on Casual or Veteran, before heading to Tali's recruitment mission switch gameplay to Hardcore, blow Geth up, save girl, get Geth Rifle. Works on 360, not sure about PC version.

It's highly overrated however, Vindicator FTW.

I've played through with a Soldier and Vanguard, time for an Infiltrator next...

Originally Posted by Alias

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I tried to do it as my Soldier for the Geth Pulse Rifle, but it's too damn hard even at max level and with all the goodies I carried over from my first playthrough.

I've started Evil Female Shepard in ME1.

Geth Rifle sucks, use revenant and fire in quick bursts. I'm embarrassed to say it, but I turned down the difficulty for one fight in the collector ship with my vanguard Shepard. The part with the flying platforms where you're waiting for EDI to download some stuff and regain control, I almost did it like 20 times and I just got so ******* sick and pissed off of having to do all of it without a save, I turned the difficulty down to casual, killed everyone to get back to where I was, then turned the difficulty back up. Nothing like getting stuck out of cover, getting hit by the collector general, stunned, and killed by a ******* scion after 10 minutes of careful fighting.

Originally Posted by Alias

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Sucks to hear. When you asked about mid-range computer performance I thought you meant something more powerful than what you have now

The good news is that decent gaming laptops should be pretty cheap to come by. Asus makes nice ones. I'm currently using a Gateway P7801-u FX laptop I bought last year.

I saw the Cnet review on that Gateway you have. Looks like a decent gaming machine despite the non HD resolution. I might get something similar soon but not sure. So you were able to run Dragon Age on that with no frame rate or lag problems at all?

Originally Posted by Invicta

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Easy fix: play through on Casual or Veteran, before heading to Tali's recruitment mission switch gameplay to Hardcore, blow Geth up, save girl, get Geth Rifle. Works on 360, not sure about PC version.

It's highly overrated however, Vindicator FTW.

I've played through with a Soldier and Vanguard, time for an Infiltrator next...

Doesn't work on PC, from what I've read. I'm required to play at Hardcore from the start. Really sucks on certain missions like the supply recovery one.

Originally Posted by Eason

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Geth Rifle sucks, use revenant and fire in quick bursts. I'm embarrassed to say it, but I turned down the difficulty for one fight in the collector ship with my vanguard Shepard. The part with the flying platforms where you're waiting for EDI to download some stuff and regain control, I almost did it like 20 times and I just got so ******* sick and pissed off of having to do all of it without a save, I turned the difficulty down to casual, killed everyone to get back to where I was, then turned the difficulty back up.

Nothing like getting stuck out of cover, getting hit by the collector general, stunned, and killed by a ******* scion after 10 minutes of careful fighting.

Scions are the ones that walk around doing the biotic shockwave thing, right? I hated those even on Normal. The Revenant is a kick-ass weapon to be sure. I switch between that and the Collector Beam heavy weapon.

Originally Posted by furo

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I saw the Cnet review on that Gateway you have. Looks like a decent gaming machine despite the non HD resolution. I might get something similar soon but not sure. So you were able to run Dragon Age on that with no frame rate or lag problems at all?

My Gateway has an HD resolution LCD (I think it's at 1900x1200), although it wasn't manufactured very well. It looks perfect head on, but there's a big splotch of mura that's visible from the sides. Very common issue with this laptop. Doesn't bother me much though. DA runs perfectly fine on it.

I'd look into some of the newer Asus models simply because they're running faster. They'll also have Windows 7. Not sure if Gateway or other stores sell mine with that pre-installed. Tiger Direct has a 48-hour laptop sale going on right now, actually.

CIVILIZATION5!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.civilization5.com/

Originally Posted by Alias

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I'd look into some of the newer Asus models simply because they're running faster. They'll also have Windows 7. Not sure if Gateway or other stores sell mine with that pre-installed. Tiger Direct has a 48-hour laptop sale going on right now, actually.

I will give that a shot, although my budget would be for a laptop that can handle Dragon Age for under $1k

Originally Posted by Brian SD

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I really hope DQ10 goes PS3.

I've never been a huge DQ fan (actually never played any of them except the very first), but Dragon Warrior was my first ever console RPG as well, when I was a 5 or 6 year old (got it for free with an issue of Nintendo Power magazine!).

DQ 5,6 and 8 were really good imo and still relevant if you can get over random encounters. Very entertaining games