ParanoidDrone

IVs and EVs are completely unnecessary to completing the main story. You only need to think about them if you plan on battling other people, and even then they don't matter much if your opponent doesn't care about them either. They're easy enough to pick up though, if you're into micromanagement. I picked Snivy for my starter, and while he's not winning awards for highest attack power, he's incredibly fast and bulky. It gets Growth to boost both offensive stats anyway, and later on Coil for Atk/Def/Acc boosts. Easily my favorite starter this gen.

Holy shit the postgame is high leveled. Level 50-55 Audinos are love. And then there was this little gem: *Wandering around Giant Chasm* *Sees shaking grass* "Sweet, Audino. Free EXP." "A wild Metagross appeared!" "Cool, I can get a Metagross!" "FUCK, I have to catch a Metagross!" *Thunder Wave->Thunder->Volt Switch->Pokeball->caught in a single toss* *savesavesave*

SQUEE! pl_barnyard blitz is actually old news. Someone found a bunch of beta versions (like, 26 or so) on one of the Valve servers' map list. Looking forward to Meet the Medic for obvious reasons.

koth_aperture_science? I definitely want to try that one out.

I saw Necro, Powerlord, Aeronaut, and you, but Necro was the one bugging me to feature him in a future production, so he got namedropped.

I was going to edit my post, but I see Top Gun has kindly eliminated the possibility of a double post. Anyway, Necro, Imagine my surprise when I recognized your voice.

Oh my god that is amazing.

I know the dev team pretty much rebuilt the experience from the ground up and wanted both veterans and newcomers on equal footing going in. It's the reason for no older Pokemon until postgame, infinite use TMs, the first gym scenario being designed to force knowledge of type matchups, and probably this too.

lolwut Way to go, Valve?

Where is the Amulet Coin? I'm at the E4 and haven't found it yet.

That Garbodor actually looks badass. Ingame it looks like a malformed lump of mush.

The intent was not to cover disguises, but merely to document what weapons do and do not make a feign death obvious. Could I have gone into more detail about other aspects? Yes. Would I have ever finished if I did? Probably not. Edit now that I'm at a proper computer: I originally wanted to do more research, but it took me long enough just to finish documenting effects on kill and how they interact with fake deaths. Unusuals simply didn't occur to me, and neither myself nor my testing partner had one anyway. The extra tidbits listed at the end were merely observations I made by chance, not specific test goals. I'll probably follow up on this later, but who knows when that will be.

Perhaps, but you cannot deny the shadenfreude that comes from a bully getting beat up by the...bulliee? In completely unrelated news, I am now a (sort of) published writer on Top Tier Tactics. (What is it called when you contribute the data and the writeup, but the other guy actually does the formatting and posting?) Only took him around three months to post it, but it's there, and already out of date thanks to the Kunai and Half-Zatoichi. I am still inordinately happy about it.

I've definitely reached the point where I can no longer carry all the Pokemon I want to use at once. I honestly didn't expect to be using this many. Also I'm starting to regret settling for a Timid Snivy at the beginning. Its actual damaging moves are all physical.

Oh yeah, Beta. That thing I have but never really play.

First try catching a Litwick to evolve into Chandelure: Modest, Flash Fire. I think the RNG loves me for once.

... I'm sorry?

The drop system hates me, except when it doesn't, but even then it seems to be a begrudging non-hate. (Got one of the new items, but it was the Scout's fan thing.) Maybe I'll get enough melee items to make a melee token and try to craft the Kunai that way. Just my luck I'll get another YER. tl;dr yes I do EDIT: Concerning the new Announcer, I noticed that the onscreen message is still missing % signs. "No map has received 45 of the vote." This assumes you already changed it, if not nevermind.

Someone's already got a video of the Kunai in action. I'm impressed with how much HP it takes per kill, probably just how much HP the victim had when he died but still. Yet at the same time the HP caps at less than the Spy's basic overheal anyway. I cannot think of anything the Kunai lets you do better than the Knife or YER, except maybe helping you survive a kamikaze stab.

IIRC, the Steak, Crossbow, and Loch N Load. Also a new Degreaser, since I gave mine to Lale. Plus the Rift and Shogun items, but I care decidedly less about those. Except the Kunai. Even though I'm not convinced I'll use it.

So I tried to get Victini on Wednesday, but apparently my DSi isn't configured at all to receive Nintendo WFC. What do? Seriously, I have no idea how to do this.

This. I'm still trying to get some of the Australian Christmas items. IMO they should stop adding new items and start trying to balance what's already there. Razorback, Dalokoh's Bar, Unspellable Claymore, Pyro in general, etc.

The Kunai leaves the Spy with 60 max HP, which lets him be oneshot by a noncrit melee. (Except the Scout's and another Spy.) Apparently the life leech brings him up to 180 overheal, but I'm not convinced it's worth it unless it doesn't decay or something. Although I'll still be looking to get one for obvious reasons. Other weapons are a Soldier Banner (Buffed teammates get life leech on hit), a Scout melee (-90% damage, hit target takes minicrits, limit 1 target at a time), and a Soldier/Demoman melee (Full HP regen on kill, cannot put weapon away until making a kill). And the Medic has a Geisha hairdo. Seriously.

Speaking of which, where's the department store? I'm at the 4th gym town and have yet to find it.

I was all set to grab Victini today, but it's Mardi Gras in the Deep South. You cannot pay me enough money to brave the traffic right now. In other news, I caught a Darmanitan, which completely destroyed Burgh, then a Sigilyph and Yamask which I have yet to inspect. I can't wait to get rid of the damn water monkey.