Executor Akamia

Mass Effect

All the time. In fact, game soundtracks make up the majority of my music library.

Well, I'm easily the second best StarCraft II player among my friends, and the only one ahead of me is something of a rival. I don't really play it to boast, per se. That said, I'm out of practice lately, so said rival friend would probably curbstomp me today if we played again, and I probably won't return to competitive play in any capacity until I have built a better computer than the one I have. That, of course, assumes Blizzard and the game survives until that can happen.

Remember when I complained about the fake difficulty of Stellaris? Well, if you play on difficulties higher than Cadet, you really need to know how to become a strong empire fast, because every AI empire has bonuses to pretty much everything in the game. A benefit to this is that if you have allies, the odds of them having unrest rebellions is incredibly low, but when the game is rigged to have mostly hostile empires, that’s a relatively minor benefit, especially since they similarly have low odds of experiencing such rebellions under those conditions. I am not yet particularly good at advancing quickly. I’m working on it, but it’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination. Even without the bump in difficulty, if you advance too slowly, you won’t be strong enough to defeat endgame crises or even midgame crises when/if they happen. That happened to me in my latest playthrough; I was playing a militaristic, fanatical materialist Human empire with mechanist and technocratic civics, and I was pursuing synthetic ascension (turn all my organic pops into sapient androids). Things were going okay for a few centuries, until the resident Holy Guardian Fallen Empire woke up, presumably via an Upstart trigger, and turned me and my tributary into their subordinate. I was making preparations to start a war of independence when an endgame crisis triggered, the Extradimensional Invaders, and spawned within my borders – honestly a first for me, as the crises usually spawn within someone else’s borders. I quickly rushed my fleets to try to shut down the invaders before they spread, but they were too powerful. I abandoned that save at that moment. It’s not even as simple as going back to an earlier save, because I was playing on ironman mode, which limits saves to a single autosave file that overwrites itself every few in-game months.

If I take an option that got me killed for some reason, I tend to avoid that option in later playthroughs. It otherwise depends on what my goals are. In games with a morality system like Fallout or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, I tend toward heroic options, with a pragmatic bias. If I'm feeling like playing a villain for a given playthrough, I'll obviously choose more villainous options, but those moments are rare for me to the point that I've never actually played a bad guy in an RPG of any sort. The only game that was able to bring out my inner supervillain was Stellaris, believe it or not, and that's primarily when playing with AI or as civilizations where heroism isn't an option. (e.g. civs with the Fanatical Purifiers, Determined Exterminators, or Devouring Swarm civics) Why does it come out with AI in particular? Because the game seems rigged to produce empires that hate me for existing no matter who I'm playing as, and simply having the bigger stick isn't always enough to keep them off my back; I have to actually control them in some capacity to get them to leave me alone. Failing that, I just end up having to destroy them outright.

Other than plotline deaths, most follower deaths are entirely preventable from what I can see, and in many cases aren't permanent in any capacity. I do prefer when it's permanent, though. It's not so much that I "let" them die, though, so much that I was unable to save them in that moment. I got Cass killed in Fallout: New Vegas because I was in Hardcore mode and was under-equipped to finish her questline. I turned Hardcore mode on because it raises the realism a smidge, including allowing most, if not all, of the game's companions to die permanently. See, it's not that I'm a heartless bastard who sends his companions on suicide missions, it's that, if the death is permanent, it makes me care about their well-being that much more. If the Arbiter gets taken out in Halo 3, it's no big deal to me; he'll get right back up a little later. If any of my allies in Fallout: New Vegas die, I actually feel that. Immortal allies kind of brings out a certain level of complacency that doesn't happen when your allies can't walk away from attacks that should rightfully atomize them.

Mega Man 4 I admittedly don't like a lot of the Mega Man Classic games, but Mega Man 4 is my favorite among them, and the one I think aged the best of the NES-era titles in that series.

Just thought of another one. Undertale I talked about it in a couple of other threads, but really, it's a turn-based RPG with elements of a bullet hell, both genres I'm not overly fond of. Then I played it, and it became my favorite RPG of all time. Not because of any particular element that stood out among other RPG or bullet hell games, but because it simply defied my expectations with impunity. I play an ARPG like Monster Hunter, Warframe, or any Fallout game starting with Fallout 3 (I know people tend to think of the latter two as shooters, but I'm pretty sure they fit the criteria of an ARPG as well), I kind of know what I'm getting into, and I already like those. If I play a turn-based RPG like most Final Fantasy games or a bullet hell like Enter the Gungeon, I know where things are going more or less, and while I may or may not enjoy the story at any given time, those gameplay genres miss me more often than they hit – though the bullet hell example is actually a bad example because I actually really enjoy Enter the Gungeon – and I just don't want to play anymore. Undertale was different: I knew it was a turn-based RPG, I knew it had bullet hell elements... and I didn't care. It did both in ways that didn't frustrate or bore me to death, and the story, compelling as it was to me, was just the icing on the cake.

I emulate hacked ROMs of Genesis games – usually Sonic hacks – but I otherwise buy my games, including the base Sonic games the aforementioned hacks are made from. The exception is Knuckles' Chaotix, a game that SEGA seems determined to forget exists, because unlike every other classic Sonic game made, spinoff or otherwise, Chaotix pretty much never gets ported to new systems. I'm sure you can find other games in the franchise that got this treatment, but I for one want Chaotix back. I don't care that the Sonic fanbase doesn't seem to like it as much as other Sonic games of the time, I think it's worth bringing to current generations.

Honestly, I'd take any computer chair at this point. The one I currently use is just a regular computer chair, but it's an armless variety, and I broke the backrest off months ago. Don't ask me how; I have absolutely no idea. I guess it couldn't support my weight for very long... the screw broke, you see.

[insert exaggerated expression of disapproval here] In all seriousness, I don't blame you. Hell, that show was the first I'd ever heard of Mega Man. That show was awesome, IMO. Though the first actual Mega Man game I'd ever played was the Xbox LIVE demo of Mega Man 9, many years later, and I hadn't played a full Mega Man game until Mega Man 10. I didn't grow up with consoles, handheld or otherwise; all my gaming was on PC until about 10 years ago. I didn't even know the Battle Network series by that name until after I had really gotten into the franchise again; in my mind, it was NT Warrior all along, and I had no idea there were video games associated with it at the time.

I’d give them a 4 on that scale. They weren’t terribly strict with me, honestly.

The esports I follow, I don't really think about it in terms of teams. StarCraft and its sequel are predominantly played in a 1v1 format at the professional level; 2v2 and larger formats are an extremely rare sight at that level, and the few times they do show up, they are effectively worthless in terms of qualification for higher-tier tournaments. As such, I can't really say I have a favorite team per se, although Team Liquid does maintain a site for resources concerning nearly all forms of play for those games. But considering the esports I follow, it doesn't make much sense for me to think in terms of teams so much as individual players. Many of them do have teams, yes, but considering the format, that doesn't really enter my mind often, if at all.

Exploration, managing my planets and engaging in the simulated politics of various Stellaris playthroughs. Also, exploration in Minecraft. Admittedly, the simulated politics of the former are more enjoyable when done with other human players than with the AI. Human players are less predictable.

"Objection!" – Literally every Ace Attorney protagonist ever. And some antagonists, too. "I have returned" – Dragoon pilot, StarCraft and StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void "Power overwhelming!" – Archon, StarCraft and StarCraft II

My favorite game soundtrack right now is probably Sonic Mania's soundtrack. I loved every single track in that game almost as much as the parts of the game they played on.

I was playing StarCraft II one time on the ranked ladder. This was a few months ago. Protoss VS Protoss. I was up against a Gold League cheeser – that is, a player in Gold League (I was in Silver, by the way) that relies on cheesy, unfair tactics to get easy wins. So. I'm building my base, and the other guy tries to set up a cannon rush. I scout it out and shut it down, but he's not finished; he simply switches the cheese. At some point in all this, I had to go get the door for somebody, so I attempted to pause. The other guy didn't let me, saying I was gonna lose anyway. I didn't say anything else in the chat after that and instead focused on taking him down. As for the door, well, fortunately I wasn't the only one in the house, so I had my brother get the door instead. I fended off all his attempts at trying to close the game out, destroyed his proxy Pylons, and marched on over to his base and eradicated his infrastructure. He surrendered without a GG. I still have that replay, but it was played on an older version of the game, so it probably can't be viewed unless you had played on that version of the game before. I'm not sure.

Rocket League. My friends are trying to drag me into the esports side of it. Not sure if I want to let them or not. Soccer cars isn't really my thing; I barely even play it casually, let alone competitively.

The Monster Hunter series. A friend of mine got me into it starting with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on 3DS, and I wasn't really sold on the premise at first. Then I actually played the game, and I've been hooked ever since, slaying dragons and other huge monstrosities with impunity.

This fluctuates from day to day, honestly, as I don't really have most of their placements nailed down yet. But right now... Stellaris Supreme Commander 2 StarCraft II Mega Man Zero 3 Sonic Mania MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries Undertale Monster Hunter World Sonic the Hedgehog CD Ace Attorney Investigations 2

Undertale, hands-down. I normally don't like turn-based RPGs, and bullet hells are hit or miss with me as well, but this game is both, and it actually managed to keep me engaged throughout. Had this game never been made, I'd probably be answering with Monster Hunter World instead.

What do you think about Manfred von Karma now?

Hahaaaaa... Okay, before I answer this – this being a public forum and all – I need to give everyone else some context in case they're at all familiar with Ace Attorney, otherwise it'll be a "WTF" moment. If it's a "WTF" moment regardless, I'd rather it was for the right reasons. 😛 Alright, so a while before this question was asked, Ule and I were watching an episode of the Ace Attorney anime on Crunchyroll. The episode in question was from the latest season, mostly adapted from the third game, Trials & Tribulations, but this episode in particular is unique to the anime, set during Phoenix Wright's high school years. At least, I think it was high school. Not sure. However, the protagonist of the episode was not Phoenix Wright. It was Miles Edgeworth, three years after he was adopted by Manfred von Karma, who had murdered Miles's father, Gregory Edgeworth. The anime, for better or worse, has a habit of treating certain characters differently from how they were portrayed in the games. For one, Phoenix is far less reliant on Mia Fey from the outset and doesn't even seem to need the Magatama – hell, I don't think he ever received it in the first place – and his past with Miles and Larry is elaborated on during a prequel episode in the first season. Apparently, they were much closer friends in the anime than the games ever implied. That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. There's a lot more changes, some quite overt, others more subtle. And then there's Manfred von Karma. In the anime adaptation of Turnabout Goodbyes, he's portrayed more or less like the card-carrying villain prosecutor he was made out to be in the games. No significant changes there that I noticed. Even the prequel episode made for the first season never implied anything deeper than that; there wasn't much time to, though, he was only there for the last 5 minutes or so if I recall. That all changed when the other prequel episode happened and gave him a lot more screentime. In that episode, we see a bit of what Manfred's home life is like. Still haunted by DL-6 (a given, perhaps, when you still have the bullet in your shoulder), Manfred tries to raise Miles as if he were his own child. In doing this, we see a more human side to his character. I'm not gonna go too far into specifics here, but Manfred suddenly goes from card-carrying evil villain to something resembling an anti-villain at best. It's painted a shade of grey on his character that simply doesn't exist in the games, even in Ace Attorney Investigations or its Japan-only sequel, both of which have him appear in prequel cases as a supporting character and an antagonist, respectively. In the anime, Manfred seemed to have known that one day, Miles Edgeworth would grow up to end him, and after seeing for himself the sense of justice that Edgeworth possesses, Manfred decides to continue raising him anyway. It's as though Manfred does indeed have some sort of sense of justice himself, even if it might be warped considerably. I have no idea what to think. It's honestly hard to think of Manfred von Karma as anything other than a heartless bastard who's only trying to get people a guilty verdict no matter the cost. That was always the point of his character in my mind; Miles Edgeworth, but like 10 times worse (Miles was morally ambiguous at best at the time). So seeing him portrayed sympathetically in any capacity... Honestly, I'm conflicted.

Well you're no fun. 😛 I'm not gonna make you play. That's why this thread was made; to see if I can find anyone else here who actually does like the game. lol

I mean, this isn't StarCraft... 😆 Stellaris has more going on than most RTS games, mostly due to being a 4X game more than an RTS game. It's not a contest to see who can kill everyone else unless you're playing an empire that specifically has that goal, like a Fanatical Purifier, Devouring Swarm, or to a lesser extent, Determined Exterminators and Driven Assimilators. There's exploration and politics too. lol