Faustt

Eh, I thought it was fun at least. I liked being able to change your roles instantly to suit the situation. See a big swing coming that's going to hit your whole party? Pop everyone into sentinel and shrug it off. If you missed your chance you can switch into sentinel/medic/medic party and heal up quickly. I would usually control a ravager and pick my spells according to weaknesses to drive up the enemies break bar quickly (forgot what that thing is called honestly) then switch to commando to launch them into the air and do massive damage while they are stunned. I would execute moves before the ATB bar is full if I know it'll send the enemy over the edge of a break too. I never felt bored with it after all the roles were opened up. That said I'm pretty sure you could always just auto battle and be fine the majority of the time. However the game gives you all the tools to make the fighting fast paced, dynamic, and challenging if you push the system. Just my two cents. Anyway, back on topic. Not a lot of people have mentioned any spin off series. For some reason I liked Mystic Quest. It's terribly easy and fairly short, but has some great tracks in it. I don't think I ever legitimately took down the final boss without cheesing him down with heal.

The battle system is pretty much the only reason I finished this game. It takes around 20 hours until the fighting feels good though.

A friend and I used to have bad movie nights in our early 20s. Order a pizza, have a few drinks and we'd see if we could make it through the whole thing. Saw many horrible pieces of cinema that way. Troll 2, Krull, Ernest movies, The Stuff, Gargoyles (1972), and Uwe Boll movies to name a few. As for things I actually own that are guilty pleasures: Pootie Tang from 2001. It's freaking written and directed by Louis CK! I fact that the lead character speaks in some pseudo-jive language is just awesome. Decent cast too with Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes and Jennifer Coolidge. Sa Da Tay! I'm a rhythm game fan and DJ Hero was awesome, yet really stupid at the same time. For old school games, Bible Adventures, but only for Noah's Ark. Though it is fun to throw baby Moses in the Nile for the hell of it once in awhile.

Like others have pointed out I think it has to do with nostalgia goggles more than anything. Just some quick thoughts on the games I have played with my approximate age. Minor spoilers ahead FF1 - Age ~7. Challenging for a seven year old without the internet. Combat was cool at the time (4 person party that you can choose? Yes please!). Ended on a weird note with time paradoxes that hurt my brain as a seven year old. FFVI - Age ~10-11. Personal favorite of mine. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was shocked to find out that the world of balance is just the first part of the game. That was an awesome twist at the time for me and made the game feel epic in scope. FFVII Age ~14. I never owned a PSX so I ended up with the PC port. This was actually the game that made me get a 3D video card (remember the days where video cards could only handle 2D?). This game was a giant chore to me, but I did finish it to see what all the hype was about. I didn't care for the characters or plot at all. The only saving grace was the music, and since it was the PC port, it was crappy midi. FFVIII Age ~15-16. Didn't care for the overall mechanics of that game. Drawing magic and junctioning GFs were a turnoff as was the story. I think I made it to disc 2. Was also the PC port version. FFIX Age ~17-18. Played on an emulator and really liked it. Felt like an homage to the series and a good way to close out the PSX games. When I moved away from home my HD crashed on me and I lost my save on the last disc. Never got back into it after that. FFX Age ~20-21. Not the greatest game, but better than the PSX ones in my eyes. I liked the sphere grid idea, and the combat was fun. FFXII ~Age 22. Instantly hated it. It felt like playing an MMO with bots. No thank you! FFXIII ~Age 25-26. Took a long time to get into it. Combat was fantastic! Story and characters... Not so much. I did end up finishing it though. It's sequel annoyed me too much to play for more than a few hours. I think the reason I tend to like the earlier games is I was able to suspend my disbelief more when I was younger. Back then you also had to use your imagination to fill in the blanks more, rather than sit through a tutorial spelling things out for you. True, in hindsight they were clunky, badly written, grind fests, but We didn't know any better at the time. It was fun to just get enveloped in saving the world from... whatever. I feel it's more about the flashy animations, jaw dropping cutscenes, and eye candy now. There's also a lot of over sexualization of female characters since the PS2 era with heaving breasts and gratuitous ass shots that do nothing for me as a gay man. The music has also gone way downhill for me with 6 and 7 being the pinnacle of excellence. I've been jonesing for a good RPG lately. Maybe I should pick up 4 or 5, since I never played either of them for more than an hour or so each.

I used to love my pair of Sennheiser PX100s, until I loaned them to a friend and got them back blown out and with some added duct tape... These days I go for convenience over sound quality and use a pair of Motorola HT 820 bluetooth headphones. I've had these things for around 6 years at this point and can still get a full days charge out of them. Plus they very easily go from my computer to phone, and I can even take calls on them. They are a little bulky and ugly as sin, but they get the job done.

The PC version of FF7 was tolerable to me, though that midi soundtrack is pretty terrible after hearing how it's supposed to sound. At the time I was just happy to be able to play it since I was a huge fan on FF6. GTA 4 on the PC was unplayably buggy. Models missing half their body, standing up in vehicles and tons of crashes to desktop. And of course any PC port where they don't change the button labels from the original console controller. "Push X to open door" or whatever does not help me on a keyboard...

Thanks a ton for the invite! Now, I wonder if I can sneak in a quick game (and probably lose horribly!) before I have to get my day started...

Well damn... I actually don't think it's activated on my account. I logged in yesterday to do the survey and sign up for a spot when I noticed it was in my library list already. I downloaded it and tried to play, but it stays stuck on the connecting to dota 2 network screen. I let it sit there for awhile, but it didn't budge. Checking the forums I found this http://steamcommunity.com/app/570/discussions/0/882965239636857387/ Basically everyone with a steam account can download the spectator client, so it shows up in your library to download. I'm guessing that's what I did?

My steam profile page is http://steamcommunity.com/id/faustt001 I was kind of hoping it would have that Valve level of polish. LoL just feels so haphazardly put together at times. Figured the player base would probably be a wash. They're both aimed at the same crowd after all. I'd be happy if the average player doesn't act like a spoiled 12 year old who rage quits over trivial stuff, is that asking too much?

Not sure if this is a faux pas or anything, but does anyone have a beta key they wouldn't mind parting with? A friend got me into the MOBA genre with LoL a few months back and while I like the game, the community of players is... a little lacking . Mainly want to see if the grass is greener, plus Valve has a pretty good track record (for me at least), so I'm interested to see their spin on things.

I'm a really big fan of rhythm games. As I get older and play games less and less, my over gaming muscle isn't what it used to me. I really got into DJ Hero 2 awhile back and decided to try getting a 5 Star rating on every song. I was able to do it for every song except the final mega mix (each tier starts off with a mega mix that is 3-4 songs long). After trying many many times and always coming up short I ended up shelving the idea. A few months later I'm at my buddies place and decide to pop in the disc for the hell of it. I some how 5 star that bastard on my first try after not playing for months and I haven't been able to do it again since. Of course I wasn't on my console or logged into my profile, *sigh*... Maybe it was playing without lag on the older TV or that phenomena when you put something down for awhile and pick it up again and are some how better at it. I don't know, but the few times I've tried it at home I haven't even come close. My turntable has been gathering dust for about a year now. Link to the song if anyone is interested Of course the guy makes it look so easy

Thought I'd throw in a few things I use on a regular basis that you guys might find useful/handy. Click for Play Store page if you're interested. All listed apps are *FREE*. Stock compatible apps: ES File Explorer - File Explorer, I like the flexibility of being able to view remote shares easily from it, as well as many different viewing/sorting options. GO Contacts - Dialer/Contacts replacement. If you're on a generic dialer or AOSP based ROM, the dialer can be a little lacking. I like the themeability of the app, plus smart dialing for all your contacts, hurray! gStrings tuner - Simple tuner, no frills, but handy if you need to quickly tune an instrument or to inform a buddy they're offkey. ShopSavvy - Barcode scanner with a built in price check. Handy if you're curious about buying a product online, or if you can find it locally. Shortyz - Dialy free crosswords if you're into that sort of thing. Stop Watch & Timer - Simple Stop watch and timer app. Handy in a pinch. Trillian - Multiclient Instant Message app. Connects to AIM/YM!/WLM/GTalk and a multitude of other services. XBMC Remote - A remote control for your XBMC box from your phone? Yes please! Eventghost - Used in conjuction with the desktop program, this app gives you control of your eventghost server through wifi/internet. For those of you who don't know, Eventghost is an automation software for Windows. You can remotely do a lot of things on your computer using this, too many to list really. I have mine setup in tandem with XBMC, so I have volume, power and input control over my entertainment system through the phone. I can even turn my AC on from the internet. Talk about lazy! Root Required Apps: AdFree - Blacklists known ad hosts so ads wont be downloaded to your phone, updated frequently. Not perfect as some applications are hard coded for an ad space, but can lessen the annoying ads that pop up all the time. Works on any web browser and many apps. (This is kind of a personal preference thing, your favorite sites and apps run on ads, if you use this you'll be taking cash out of their pockets. If you're like me and despise ads with a passion, it's a good way to go.) DroidWall - A firewall for Android. Really useful if you don't agree with some permissions that apps require to be used. Block their access from ever calling home with your personal data! Samba Filesharing - Personal favorite of mine. Allows you to browse the filesystem on your phone from any computer on your network that supports Samba (Pretty much all modern OS's). It's easy to setup and means no more wires for file transfers ever again!

Patch is interesting so far. The attack speed nerf means my casting animations are a little longer than before, so I get caught by mobs more often mid cast now. I was only using 15% on one piece, so it's not a big adjustment. Glass canon isn't as viable any more since repair costs went up so much. Death actually carries some weight now which is good. The damage nerf in the higher acts means I can actually wear my resist gear and not get one shotted still, so yay for that. I'm down from 42K DPS to 19 now wearing it though. Thankfully I was able to down the Siegebreaker before the patch hit today. No way I'd be able to handle reflect damage AND an enrage timer with my DPS cut in half. I was slowly doing Siegebreaker runs before the patch and dying left and right from surprise ranged attacks. With the changes in drop rates I'll probably be doing Warden/Butcher runs with a 5 stack then hit Whimsyshire. Probably not as good loot wise, but a much safer route until I get my resists/health up some more.

At level 60 this is very true. Keep in mind that Wave of Zombies is a level 33 rune while Zombie Bears is 54. So it's not exactly like the rune is always out classed by another one. There are far more worthless runes for a WD like Spider Queen, Angry Chicken or Toad of Hugeness (has some CC applications, but is out classed by something like Hex or Horrify). As for Inferno testing. I read somewhere awhile ago in an interview that internally the testers couldn't finish it themselves. Which means balancing was never properly done for the end game when launch day hit. I completely understand why they had to do this. They wanted to give the players a real challenge. If the developers, who are developers and not necessarily the hard core gaming type, could complete it, it would be far too easy for a large portion of the player base. It's a lot easier for them balance things by making it impossibly hard and looking at the data and feedback from players. After they seeing how things worked out after going live they could dial things down to intended levels. Like Zircon pointed out, every class has 180 skills, there's no way they could have balanced it all across all difficulties. I think this could have worked if Inferno actually was impossibly difficult. Of course people found a way to finish the game, either through legitimate means or otherwise. Instead of all classes struggling through Inferno, we have a case of the haves and have nots. Yeah, it sucks, but with a game of this scale imbalance is bound to crop up. What does surprise is is how imbalanced it is melee vs ranged. How they didn't see that is beyond me, but it'll get there eventually.

This is true. My stats were a lot worse when I started Act 2. I'm at 30K DPS before soul harvest with ~20% crit chance ~180 crit damage now. Upgrades don't come cheap anymore and that's to be expected. An offensive gold find set would probably be a good investment. As you said, it's hard to sell the low end 60 gear for much anymore which is all you get from Act 1. It would be nice to get a drop that's actually and upgrade without having to hit the AH. The consensus among most Witch Doctors is that a glass cannon build is about the only way to go post Act 1. As a WD you can basically die once every 90 seconds and be saved by Spirit Vessel. That said, it's really hard to only get hit once every 90 seconds, especially by certain elite groups. The way I see it, to progress as a WD you can either have skill and kite like a champ avoiding absolutely all damage, or offset it with better resists/vitality to survive a few hits here and there and sacrifice DPS. Of course gear that's Resist all/Physical resist/Vitality are sought after by all the classes and therefore very expensive. I think I'm just getting older and haven't flexed my gaming muscle as much as I used to. Just need to practice more and learn the meta game and get that fast twitch reaction time back. Maybe I should play Dark Souls again to be reminded how unforgiving one little mistake can be.