Dewar

Ever since I missed the sale late last year, I keep hoping that Tokyo Jungle will show up there. No luck this time, but Hohokum is 1/2 off so I'll probably take the Long Mover for a spin.

There's always going to be some grinding inherent to Monster Hunter, but I was well into the 4 star quests before I really had to worry about it in MH3U. Even then, I only had to fight the same monster 3 or 4 times to get the item I wanted for my next hammer upgrade, and I probably could have made do without the upgrade at all if I really had to. As long as your stopping while on missions to occasionally do some mining/bug catching/fishing/other gathering, you can make it. Also, if we start playing multiplayer around here, you'll probably end up fighting some of the same monsters over again, without it being as grind-y.

I really want to go back and watch some videos from early Giant Bomb before I started watching, but man seeing Ryan still hurts a bit.

I shouldn't have read that spoiler. Oh well, I was thinking about giving that feature a miss anyway, now at least I know it'll be worth seeing. Edit: Meh, Bombcast spoiled it too, so whatever I guess.

Folks, Willy Wonka totally says that the other kids are all right at the end of the movie, so they must be fine.... right?

It's times like this I wish I hadn't seen Farscape, because now that's all I think about when I hear her voice.

I have subsisted without a second analog stick for 3 games now (starting with Monster Hunter 2 on PSP.) I don't use the touch screen D-Pad at all (that wasn't an option on PSP,) I simply use the L1 re-center camera control a lot. This has gotten even more useful with the lock-on finally being worth using this time around.

I hope that doesn't mean she's going to be insufferable for me since Dragon Age: Origins didn't end that way for me.

Yeah, that's pretty much the combat loop, with an option to capture the monster later instead of killing it. For the harder monsters, the most important part is often the "preparation loop" which involves figuring out the monster's weakness and then obtaining the parts to make a weapon/consumable that exploits that weakness. Often it's the things you do before you even start the mission that end up really saving or dooming you. For the start though, just beating the crap out of them and having some mega potions for emergencies will do.

Hmm, I wonder if that was a misunderstanding on my part or if we had conversations play out differently.

Eating before the easy missions is still worth it for the Stamina boost, which means more running, and quicker completions. I disagree on the hammer being straight forward, simply because it can be really tough to get used to the lack of mobility. You've really got to plant in one place for a long time to get a good hammer combo off. I didn't know about the stealth mode actually doing anything. Especially valuable to know that it speeds up gathering. Edit: I would say that once you've downed a couple of bosses (which are available fairly quickly in the single player) you'll have a basic understanding of the combat loop and will be ready to jump in with friends.

Man, I just finished the Orlesian empress mission and it was long, hard, and a general pain in the butt. Not only that, but looking at some of the info about it, I spectacularly botched it. Plus It did not leave me excited to play again.

Apologies if anyone has been trying to connect Comcast has been pitching a fit over here. Should be up and working now.

While you probably need 10 hours to be ready to jump in with randoms, I'm sure you could jump in with any of us earlier than that and we could walk you through bits of it in person. Really, a lot of the early multiplayer quests can be solo'd by a vet who knows what he's doing, so having an extra person along isn't likely to cost the victory or anything. To answer your specific questions: You can always revisit old quests, so you don't necessarily have to worry about collecting a lot of things right off the bat. In general, I stop by gathering spots that are on the way, but I don't grind items until I know exactly what it is I want. Really, you can get pretty far with just Mega Potions and supply items. (Mega Potion = Regular Potion + Honey) The best weapons are generally available through upgrading. The ones you can forge with just cash are usually a bit older than what you're using at the time, but are there so you can buy them and try a different branch of the upgrade tree. There isn't any harm in upgrading the first couple of times, but eventually you will get to the point where you need some fairly rare mats, so upgrading one weapon might mean not upgrading another. Though this is a new mechanic, I'm pretty sure those guys are just assholes. I think the ones you can recruit will be a bit more obvious, or from Street Passing. No, sharpening is a way of life. Edit: Dual Swords, Sword and Shield, and Long Sword are fairly easy to learn weapons, but with a little work you can get used to them all.

Unfortunately, good tutorials are about the last thing to make it into an early access title.

I have respect for Peter continuing through that interview. A lot of people would have just hung up.

Woooo, I bought my Advanced Scanner last night!

Keep in mind that those courier mission timers are real time (timer ticks even when not logged in,) so only grab a mission if you have the time to complete it.

Oh yeah, it was the Prey 2 stuff that I was thinking of. That whole situation seemed like a lot of BS.

It's actually good as it would be really hard to start out a new character without having the earlier quests to get some early cash. Also, it's possible to completely lock yourself out of a quest line, so at least this way you get a second shot at it.

Isn't that basically what he said when he mentioned why he got back into Destiny?

I guess they're just holding Ctrl - Alt - Del instead of turning it off and on again?

I play open all the time, so you never know what you're going to get. Still, I've gotten pretty good at escaping when I need to, but I've only tested my mettle against a couple of real people. I'm actually more scared about accidental collisions with that many players about.

Oh hey, Monster Hunter 4U is out tomorrow. Awesome, I thought it was next week.