Triad Orion

No Mercy's Finale is much more difficult than Death Toll or Dead Air, IMO. I still haven't beaten that yet. Though it should be noted the lowest Difficulty I've attempted it on was Advanced. Could probably be done on Normal.

I'm a big fan of StarFox 64, R-Types of various sorts, and the SNES U.N. Squadron port. I remember Aerofighters Assault or something like that in an arcade back in college and I swear I was the only one who ever touched that cabinet. That game was a blast. The Shump I'm probably best at is StarFox 64, with my best score being over 1700 going along the Corneria > Sector Y > Aquas > Zoness > Macbeth > Area 6 route. I know that's not nearly anything to brag about amongst the best scores out there on the internet, but I'd like to think it's still pretty good. R-Type 3 is probably the R-Type I've played the most, and it still wrecks me every time. A great game, but utterly brutal.

Also, in Dawn there was that nasty fiasco about US Normal Mode being Japanese Hard Mode. That probably had a lot to do with why the difficulty was so uneven. US Easy Mode is Japanese Normal, so the difficulty's far more balanced and generally much more comfortable throughout. That's really the difficulty you're generally supposed to play on, but NoA decided to mistranslate the difficulty levels. Though, the animations in Path of Radiance got a little better when your units started classing up, and the Occult Scrolls helped. Ike activating Aether for the first time remains a defining moment in the battle system, even if the scenes were generally otherwise plain.

All I can say is try playing with friends or some of the OCR players. In my experience, most of us don't play on Expert and don't use cheats. My difficulty of choice is usually Advanced. Left 4 Dead is all about who you play it with, so just seek out players who are out to have a good time. Versus mode is the same way. Play with people you know or who are generally not total jerks. Versus needs some balancing work, but it's still a fun experience.

Ah, I see. This makes a lot of sense. Radiance is much slower off the ground than Blazing Sword. Even in the Lyn Campaign, you're thrust into a succession blood feud immediately after the prologue with a handful of interesting characters already in play. In Eliwood and Hector Mode, you're almost as quickly thrown into the potential of civil war in Lycia, which lead to one thing after another... In Radiance, you're taking odd jobs for the first four or five chapters, then pushed into the story after that, and even then the progression is slow. You know immediately who and what are responsible for what happened, so there's no mystery. It's just a matter of getting back at the bastard who beat the hell out of Crimea. You uncover intrigue and so forth later on, but it's all a part of this invasion you're dealing with, often enough. The highlight of Radiance is its characters, many of whom are rich and deep people who are fun to learn more about. The problem was, Blazing Sword had this too and a more compelling storyline because it was all about figuring out what you were dealing with. And yes, Radiance's use of 3D was disappointing in battle. The battle maps were fine the way they were, but the in-battle sequences were more disappointing because the animations were frequently stiff and lifeless by contrast to the vibrant and over the top sprites on the GBA. Things got better in Radiant Dawn somewhat, but the character models were still too stiff. I would like to see the battle sequences be buffed out more and be more smooth. Dawn took it in the right direction, but it still has a long way to go. That said, I still generally think Path and Dawn are taking the series in a good mechanical direction, but I will agree with Jam that the games need the heart Blazing Sword did.

I remember seeing the news a year ago. I was very shocked. I never knew Reuben Kee personally and had only recently started listening to some of his work. It's a shame I didn't get to meet a great musician and person. Rest well, Reuben. We will all try to keep your legacy alive. *Plays "The Place We Knew"*

Yes. Not Legends though, that game was awesome. But still, Shadow Dragon should be fun, but I really want another new game, with a new Lord and new story. Granted, I liked Ike a lot, but you have nowhere left to go with him after Radiant Dawn. It's unfortunate that he'll be retired if and when the next "new" FE comes out; he's going to be hard to top as a likable character and as a totally freaking badass unit.

Funny, the AI that seems most retarded for me is Francis, of all people. More than once I was playing with Feliks and Francis would run off and do something stupid. He at one point, actually walked up to Feliks while he was being constricted by a Smoker, and utterly ignored the Smoker strangling him to death. Feliks had about 88 HP when he was grabbed, and he ended up going down by the time Francis got his ass back over there. As for why I wasn't helping him? Someone had to keep the zombies away from both of them. Though that was on Advanced, not Expert. Though the big reason I've rarely seen Bill do anything stupid is because I usually play as Bill. I like being the old guy. Feliks usually plays as Louis when he's given the choice.

As soon as you said this, Dragon Warrior came immediately to mind. Yeah, I know this trope/cliche applies to a lot more games than that (Final Fantasy, for example) but Dragon Warrior seems to be the most outright obvious. The King barely gives you enough gold to buy a weapon and armor. You can either buy a club and a set of clothes, or you can buy a bamboo stick and a set of leather armor. THANKS A LOT, KING. XD

I can see what Atmuh's getting at with his post, and he has a reasonable point. Roles are often strictly defined in L4D and there's less room for improvisation and taking on a different play-style each time you play. TF2 is great for this, because you can pick a class and try to *make* an idea work. L4D doesn't really give you that option. I can see why he doesn't like L4D as much in that it's more restrictive. But personally? I like L4D a lot. Though I do agree with Atmuh that there could stand to be a touch more variety, the game is lengthy, challenging, and fun even with roles so tightly defined. That said, I too would like to see some more options. A third first-tier weapon would be nice, and perhaps an alternative to your pistol would help for making the group dynamic a little different. However, even if that's not the case, the finales at the end of the act are enough to keep me coming back, even if I felt the stages were dull. (Which I don't.) There are very few games I've ever felt that kind of rush to play and that desperate.

Well, I think his criticisms did irk him a little bit, but I think on a whole he had more fun with the game than most others. He knows it's not perfect, but he obviously enjoyed it, which is good.

How so, Jam? Really, I thought in almost every way Radiance was an improvement over Sacred Stones. Though the character development was arguably better in Blazing Sword, Path of Radiance had excellent mechanics, a better tooled Normal difficulty with concepts that made *sense.* For example, making penalties for heavy weapons being based on Strength rather than Constitution, adding in more magic, and throwing in Laguz for the heck of it. Yes, you lost the Tower and Ruins portions that you had in Sacred Stones, but those were oddities in a Fire Emblem game, and you got less story for those side maps. Radiance was longer than Blazing Sword/Sacred Stones and arguably had better level design. In addition, most of the characters were usable and there were no obvious benchwarmers. They also reinstituted the Skill system present as far back as Thracia 776, which deepened customization further. The only negative thing they added in Radiance as far as I'm concerned is the arbitrary Biorhythm system which changed your accuracy for no apparent reason. I loathed this feature because I have bad luck with the RNG anyway. Radiant Dawn took a few steps back with some obviously bad or underleveled units (Meg, Fiona respectively), further bolstering of the Biorhythm system, and the absolute *gutting* of Support Conversations, but again, Dawn ended up refining some elements present in Radiance to make a largely better mechanical frame for the series. They added new weapon types, new weapons within those types, new effects, etc. Personally, I've viewed the console Fire Emblems as steps forward for the series in general, though I'd like to hear why you didn't care for them as much? I'd like to know if there was a flaw I've overlooked.

That was a positive blast to play with you guys. We need to do it again real soon. And it was going swimmingly until those two random guys showed up who turned out to be aces at the game and just rocked us over and over. XD But the Infected are fun. Sometimes if you get momentum going the survivors are screwed, so I think the balance needs a little tweaking, but all in all, it's a pretty fine system and it's an absolute *blast.* ...Beware of Boomers, I might add...

Well, that's in part because Radiant Dawn's difficulty settings were... unclear, to say the least. Most people who play through the game set it on Normal, which is in reality the Japanese Hard setting, which makes the game needlessly frustrating and difficult. So really? American Easy mode is actually Japanese Normal mode, the difficulty the game's meant to be played on. Second, I suspect part of the problem comes from target audience. Radiant Dawn and Fire Emblem in general appeal heavily to a different audience than the Wii typically caters to. The GameCube had enough backing to support Path of Radiance, but Radiant Dawn had to deal with being on a system with supply problems and a more expanded market share. It didn't help that it was a sequel to Path and if people knew, they may be less likely to buy it without playing its prequel.

There are a few features in Shadow Dragon that kind of irk me. When Radiant Dawn was released they gutted support conversations and I wasn't pleased with that. The news that those conversations will be absent for Shadow Dragon as well are unfortunate, though more understandable given the original game and its first remake didn't have them to begin with. Second? I'm not keen on the idea of how to unlock the Gaiden (or X) Chapters. Having done a little reading on the game, it sounds like you have to *lose* a certain number of units to unlock them. To me, that seems like a detriment and a completely counterproductive way to play the game. I don't really think it's a good design choice to allow more of the game to be open to those who make poor tactical choices. On the plus side, the Class Change feature sounds exciting and can really serve to make your units more useful based on their statistics. And I am looking forward to seeing Marth's tale play out.

It's kinda funny that they think milking cows is cruel. Considering years of breeding for dairy cows, it's actually much *more* cruel not to milk the cows, because their udders get swollen and it causes them undue pain. Considering the current state of livestock, milking cows is actually quite tame and is generally considered *good* for the animal by most reliable sources...

I've heard Ecclesia is pure Nightmare Fuel when it comes to bosses. Scary to know that's accurate, especially considering I thought the bosses in Portrait of Ruin were just downright mean sometimes. Granted, most of the time the bosses were fairly predictable and it was a lot of pattern recognition, but sometimes they just stupid amounts of damage. It's hard to get the pattern recognition down when you lose a quarter of your life in a single blow. It was especially frustrating given that the regular enemies were for the most part an absolute joke... And am I the only who thought the fight against two The Creatures in the Den of Evil was just retarded? XD

Yeah, a friend of mine and I threw down last night. Feliks, who you might remember from TF2, and I attempted No Mercy on Advanced with 2 AI players and we got as far as the Sewers before being soundly defeated. The Sewers are rather annoying. At first glance, they appear to be very labyrinthine in nature and were pretty confusing. A witch around a blind corner didn't help matters either. But I digress. So far, I've been very impressed with the full package. It seems to me that the enemy Infected are much more aggressive in the full version than in the demo. They seemed to become aware of your presence a bit faster and are quicker to anger in groups. The Boomers also seem smarter in particular. They like to wait around blind corners to vomit on you when you walk past. They didn't do that much in the demo, but it's a favored tactic in the main game. It's all very exciting and I don't regret the purchase.

...that's.... that's a good reason not to buy L4D. XD

I just threw down a few rounds with Chadly, and it was a blast. Can't wait to play the full version with some of you guys. And Bahamut, I completely agree with the others. You have to play the game with friends to really have fun with it. The AI teammates are often so good when you play by yourself, the game's no challenge. But when you get friends, the experience is far different and far more fun.

Hey, hey! Congratulations to both of you! I'm glad that you two share such a remarkable bond. I wish you the best of luck. And a MAGFEST Honeymoon? A great way to celebrate. XD

I swear to god, if I hear anything or see anything resembling "Jump! Jump! Slide! Slide!" in the 8-bit version, someone's going to get hurt. Otherwise, looking forward to it.

Well, it's not entirely that simple. It's avoidable in the United States and most of the West. But in Africa, where it's a huge problem, behavioral modification isn't sufficient to deal with the problem anymore. When a significant portion of the population has the disease, finding a cure ends up being more important because they can't necessarily say for sure who has it and who doesn't. So, in their case, billions of dollars of research could save tens of thousands of lives of current infectees and countless more that may emerge in the future. Are tens of thousands of marrow transplants feasible? Absolutely not, but one day gene therapy may be effective enough for mass use, but the only way to get there is to fund it.

Hmm. Cautious optimism may be appropriate for this. Science knowledge grows exponentially every few years, so they may be on to something. Let's hope they can get the funding they need to find out for sure.

Boomers are about the worst thing ever in Advanced too, even if the swarm is easier to handle. On Normal I found them to be pretty laughable, but Advanced quickly instilled the fear of bile in me. It gets ugly really fast. @_@ That said, Smokers are by far my favorite boss Infected, from a conceptual standpoint. A crowning moment of awesome in the game is one plucked me right from the gun turret at the end of the subway while I was firing at a group of closing Infected. My friends were quick to save me, but it was quite a thrill to be reminded that even with firepower, the cunning and guile used by the Smokers can quickly ruin you. I can't wait to actually use one of these in Versus Mode.