Last Game Played

[Justin11]

Motorcycle GP 21, was the last game I played. I am looking up to having a brand new feeling of motorbike racing game, as I am eyeing the release of Motorcycle GP 22 version. 

[Kane99]

I was playing some Madden NFL 21, along with some Fortnite as the new season dropped and of course I'm still slowly playing RDR2. I have everything in my camp crafted aside from Arthurs portion. But have the satchels done. Now I just need to work on the challenges, which I probably should have been doing earlier.

[Heatman]

So, I really hate playing Candy Crush Saga and I'm very sure that it's something I have said here a few times but a lady friend of mine challenged me saying that I suck at the game and it's why I hate playing it. I had to prove her wrong and played it to a great extent just to make a point to her. 

[Akun]

Finally reached the pinnacle of the Mass Effect trilogy, Mass Effect 3. Got me thinking about how 'safe' art is nowadays. The appealing thing about art is that it's provocative and encourages conversations on hard topics. Everyone wants an easy answer nowadays to social issues that our 'art' and entertainment in movies and TV shows become bland and uninspiring, just pandering to the most popular and ideals on Twitter and TikTok instead of bothering to improve and expand our perspective on life and society with controversial questions.

Mass Effect 2 had a few great examples of what I'm talking about, specifically Mordin's loyalty mission. It has aged like fine wine, and it goes to show why everyone considered Mordin's character arc the best-written storyline in the entire trilogy. His dilemma and denial over the genophage, along with his subsequently remorseful realization in Mass Effect 3, brought tears to my eyes. I remember choking up when I was questioning Mordin during his loyalty mission about the ethics of the genophage, and I wasn't just tearing up because of how heavy the topic was, but more so because I could feel Mordin's guilt and sorrow over the dead female Krogans that met their fate as an indirect result of his actions. It was so beautifully tragic, Mordin's dilemma and perspective.

But more relevant to my point is that, Mass Effect gamers also had many heated debates regarding the ethics of the genophage. You would rarely get that kind of interesting exchange over a controversial subject in media today because the big companies want to keep the narrative safe. And it's not just the genophage either, but also the Quarians' enslavement of Geths, which are essentially a machine race in the simplest definition. However, the ethics of the Quarians' actions were anything but simple, so the heated exchange about whom were in the right - the Quarians or the Geths - was just as intriguing as well. I love how a video game of all things would get people discussing about such interesting moral dilemmas, even if they aren't important issues in the context of real life. That's what art should be, provocative.

There were times while I was playing the Mass Effect games that it felt like I was watching an episode of Star Trek, specifically The Next Generation. The older Star Trek shows had always tackled intriguing moral and ethical issues with such subtlety and intelligence that the Mass Effect games' handling of their issues bore great resemblance. And it's not just the big issues like genocide and slavery either, but also the smaller inter-relationship conversations, how the crew members talk to each other like adults instead of using simple, dumbed down dialogue a teenager would use.

The Critical Drinker pointed out a great scene that exemplified such a conversation when calling out how modern movies and TV shows use dumbed down dialogue only children and immature man-children would use:

I just love this exchange so much, and I remember a similar level of depth among my conversations with the Normandy crew as well, albeit not as subtle as the conversation above. For example, it's easy to just dismiss Ashley as only a racist without understanding the nuance of her motivation. I might not have supported Ashley's views on aliens, but even I could see there's nuance between her humanist biasness and Terra Firma's "We hate all aliens" point of view. Complex issues like racism never have an easy answer, especially in our modern times when everything's grey. People tend to miss that.

Edited September 21, 2022 by Akun

[Justin11]

I decided to test my hands via my nephew's favourite game 'DLS22. 

[Heatman]

It's been a while since I played DOOM Eternal. I really took my time playing it last night and it was fun. 

[Justin11]

Asphalt 8: Airborne ( mobile version)

[runswithspatulas]

last night i played splatoon 3 and then return to monkey island

[Akun]

Finally finished Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition again with the Audemus' Happy Ending Mod installed. It was refreshing to see the game with a different ending this time, albeit a modded, fan-made happy ending. This was the first time I played the game with one of these happy ending mods, so it was pretty cool. I might install other similar mods in my next replay to spice things up and make the experience feel even more different.

But now that I finally finished the trilogy once again, it feels kinda tedious to go back to my usual routine of SMT games, especially when Devil Survivor: Overclocked reminds me how much I suck at the game. I think I'm probably gonna give up on the game soon, if not already. I'm stuck at the battle against the Shomonkai Founder and Belberith, and it really sucks how I can't just grind my level up to get better at beating it because the first playthrough has an xp-lock to keep you from being overpowered. I'm literally forced to fight a challenging boss battle with one hand tied behind my back. And sure, maybe that just means I need to "git gud," but I suck at strategy games, so there's nothing I could do about my lack of talent.

I'm using vinheim's walkthrough on GameFAQ, and it still didn't help. These are the stats of my team. Maybe someone else could help me figure out what I'm doing wrong:

Team 1:
Protagonist: Level 64
Laksmi: Level 55
Astaroth: Level 57

Team 2:
Atsuro: Level 60
Laksmi: Level 52
Orochi: Level 61

Team 3:
Yuzu: Level 62
Norn: Level 58
Hecate: Level 52

Team 4:
Mari: Level 61
Laksmi: Level 54
Cerberus: Level 55

I've leveled up my protagonist to 64 already and I gave my team almost the same demons the walkthrough instructed (except Behemoth, which the walkthrough miswritten as level 63 when it's actually level 70 or something, meaning I have to grind my protag to even get it, which is impossible very hard to do during the first playthrough). Maybe I should just get different demons from the ones stated in the walkthrough. Now that my protagonist is level 64, there are actually demons that are higher leveled than the ones suggested in the walkthrough, but I'm not sure if "higher level" equates to "better demons" in the context of SMT, because they might not have skills that are as efficient. But I guess I have nothing to lose by trying that out.

I guess I could also try using the "Ban Element" auto-skills instead of the auto-skills suggested in the walkthrough. One thing that frustrates me is how my teams kept dying because they got one-shot by the enemies before I even got the chance to fight back (and forced to use Samarecarm/Recarm over and over again until my teams ran out of MP), so protecting my demons from attacks they're weak against might help. Another thing that frustrates me is how my MP ran out by the time I finally managed to beat the lackeys and lifted the required platform that I need to use to reach Belberith. It sucks how there's no MP-restoration items in this game.

And of course, the worst part of all this is the skill-cracking part. Things would probably be a lot easier if I just gang up on a single demon at the same time, but that would mean missing out on cracking useful auto-skills because you need to have specific team members delivering the killing blow to get those skills. So I might just give up on cracking those stupid skills altogether if I ever feel like giving this battle another shot.

The more I'm writing about the game though, the more I hate it and how annoying it is. Makes me feel like giving up on all the other SMT games I haven't played too, including SMT IV:A, Soul Hackers 2, and Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker, because this experience just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Leaving the game and coming back to play it after I've finished the whole Mass Effect trilogy clearly didn't help. I kinda wish there are cheats available for the game so I could get this game over with, because it's either forcing myself to lose over and over again or just abandoning the game altogether and wasting all the money I spent buying these 3DS cartridges on Amazon. I'm just so tired. Suddenly abandoning SMT games after I've been playing them for so long feels kinda weird though, especially when I haven't been able to finish them. I haven't even started New Game+ yet for the ones I did finish.

I don't know. Maybe it's a good thing. I placed a lot of good TV shows I was binging on pause just to play SMT games, so this might be a good opportunity to get back to them. Maybe it's a sign from a higher power. lol Maybe I'm just not meant to finish this game, or those other SMT games I haven't touched (which might be a good thing, considering SMT IV:A's reputation).

Edited September 24, 2022 by Akun

[Shagger]

Beek taking advantage of the free Ubisoft+ offer recently and the game I've found myself giving the most time to, to my surprise, has been Far Cry 6. I'm really liking it so far. I love it's looks, it's setting, it's soundtrack and it's got some very cool gameplay mechanics going on. Hopefully I'll get it done before the Ubisoft+ trial expires.

[Family sedan]

Hoyle Yahtzee.

[Ajibusu]

Reading a thread about top 10 games that one can play on the Playstation 2 made me try Tekken 5 once more. It is one of those fighting games that doesn't get old with time.

[Yaramaki]

Playing a bit of rune factory 5 today

[Akun]

I caved in and bought Two Point Campus after feeling bored at night and needed a new game to distract me. I had a history of being engaged by management simulation games because the routine structure of a management game keeps my anxiety in check. But man, just two hours into the game, I'm reminded how tedious management games can be, maintaining these students happiness on a limited budget. I'll probably have more fun playing the sandbox mode where I don't have that kind of stress though, so I guess I'll reserve my judgment for now. But I have a feeling I'll be too busy to spend too much time managing an entire campus for long... I could see it as a nice distraction in late nights when I get bored.

Thankfully, it's not too expensive, costing $51.90 Singapore dollars. After earning a bunch of cash from reselling my old SMT games (along with Digimon Survive), I didn't want to spend too much on games so quickly, so 50 bucks isn't too bad for a game as large as this.

[Kane99]

58 minutes ago, Akun said:

I caved in and bought Two Point Campus after feeling bored at night and needed a new game to distract me. I had a history of being engaged by management simulation games because the routine structure of a management game keeps my anxiety in check. But man, just two hours into the game, I'm reminded how tedious management games can be, maintaining these students happiness on a limited budget. I'll probably have more fun playing the sandbox mode where I don't have that kind of stress though, so I guess I'll reserve my judgment for now. But I have a feeling I'll be too busy to spend too much time managing an entire campus for long... I could see it as a nice distraction in late nights when I get bored.

Thankfully, it's not too expensive, costing $51.90 Singapore dollars. After earning a bunch of cash from reselling my old SMT games (along with Digimon Survive), I didn't want to spend too much on games so quickly, so 50 bucks isn't too bad for a game as large as this.

I played Two Point Hospital and felt the same way. Eventually it just became too tedious to play so I stopped. And at one point I felt like what I was doing wasn't enough, yet I was doing everything right.