ItsMeYourFriend

so i let all of my little dudes evolve into their badass, monstrous forms but i probably should've stopped them. Look at this adorable little guy: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dFY0ZWIx9L4/UaQMVOOUvjI/AAAAAAAAE_o/oc6hO_C4poQ/s1600/Bulbasaur+%25281%2529.png he could've been like peter pan but no!!!

from that polygon review: The new Pokemon-Amie mode reinforces that newfound identity, letting you pet, feed and play mini-games with your team to improve their mood. that's all i'm going to be doing. They will all be level 1 but happy as fuck

I'm totally going to pick this up because i'm stupid as hell. I played like 2 hours of either diamond or pearl and a couple of hours of red/blue at a friends place years ago. i don't want my pokemon to fight though, i just want to pet them and take them on nice walks through a forest.

how is the combat

weird, i played saints row 3 and it felt super gross to me. the gameplay and story do mesh but the world it inhabits is fucked up to the point of being really off putting. I know it's trying to be this weird dumb thing and kind of light hearted even as insane, sadistic shit is going on but it ends up feeling like nothing in the world is of any consequence except for these chosen few people. For example all of the citizens of this city are just totally enamored with you and the saints, even as you're going around shooting everything and smashing through crowds of people (either on purpose or as part of a mission) and everybody thinks that it is just great and they are super excited that they could thoughtlessly die at the hands of the saints. The police don't even want to stop you and they think you're really cool too even though in the beginning you kill a ton of them as part of the story. it made me feel like a sociopath and it was unsettling. there is a really great use of music near the beginning though. There's a part where kanye west's 'power' comes on during a short cut scene as they are preparing to assault an opposing gang's hideout and then it transitions into the player controlled sequence as you approach the hideout and the music continues to play. It was really appropriate and that section was great to play.

god, i love it so much when somebody has a ridiculous story about their parents. It's such a great outside view looking in type of thing. i love it!!

also i sort of hope the online play is smoother and less laggy than it was on brawl, but at the same time i don't know if i care that much. so much of the experience of the smash bros games comes from having several people physically in one space.

i think a lot of people had a similar experience and think that the quality of brawl is to blame as opposed to their own lives shifting in the 7-8 years between melee and brawl.

oh whoops i missed the "nauts" bit at the end. I haven't played that one! I tried out LoL and i just saw how many things are at play (the position of your hero, the items that you buy, how to react to what the other enemy heroes are, how to work with your team, when to use abilities, plus a million more) that all mean the difference between winning and losing. Then on top of that there are layers of strategy and team tactics. Then there's probably a ton of things that are important and i'm not even aware of them. it's daunting.

oh hey me too. the amount of shit going on at any time is absurd. how does this ever become manageable ?

I think this aspect of the wii u (same system multiplayer with the wii u tablet) was nintendo trying to replicate the mass appeal of the original wii in a new way (while simultaneously not alienating gamers) . The majority of the population is now intimately familiar with tablets and touch screens. So while you're not interested in same system multiplayer (and you're probably right, most gamers probably aren't) it could've been a cool, accessible thing to get non-gamers to buy another nintendo console, like they did with the wii. Local multiplayer is exactly the situation my non-gamer friends used their wiis. People would come over and we'd play wii bowling or mario party or something along those lines before we'd go out for the night. Nintendo just has no clue how to communicate what the hell the wii u is, so people don't know what it is or how it's used either.

when it came to gear i always found it kind of hard to find stuff that can protect you without you looking like a total douche once you get off the bike. I had a good helmet and jacket, but i never got a good pair of boots or any sort of protective pants. do most of you guys ride around like that too? also do you guys shop online for your gear or did you pick it out locally? Are there any good motorcycle gear sites?

This game sort of reminds me of those old school educational computer games on the old apple 2e or whatever that i used to play in school. There used to be ones where you'd design a rocket or a car and then run it through little tests to see how it would perform etc. anyway i am totally obsessed with this game right now. There's something really fantastic about crafting a plan, building something to execute it, then actually doing it that is sooo satisfying. Even the failures are great in their own way. also space

(also the music is really good and i love the vibrant, lush art design in this game. those things make me like the game that much more)

yeah sno, i don't really quite get the "it's a grind" complaint that i've seen online in several places either. I feel like the entire point of the game is to enjoy the process of discovery and they applied that all over the game (discovering new areas in the overhead map, discovering the layouts of caves/labyrinths, discovering the ways in which enemies fight or how FOEs aggro or react, discovering how new weapons are made, there are more as well!). I think that's even one of the reasons the story has been reduced to something simple and acceptable, so the focus can be more on discovery and exploration of the game and what it's systems allow. If you don't enjoy those aspects then the game isn't a grind, it's just not an experience you enjoy. I know my experience is different than others because i haven't played any of the other etrian odyssey games, but it feels so fresh and well thought out.