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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-11 17:07:08 (edited 2013-04-11 17:07:36)
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Well, it looks like Tales of Xillia FINALLY gets it's localized release date. It's already been about a year since it was announced without being released, while Tales of Graces f--the bigger project between the two Tales Games--was released within a year. I wonder what took Scamco so long this time. Anyways, release dates are AUGUST 6 & 9, 2013 for North American and Europe respectively. Here, have a trailer. 
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-11 17:22:21 |
@Haseo: I know! I already reserved it! I actually had no idea it had a western release until I looked at the list of games at GameStop. 
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-11 19:28:04 (edited 2013-04-11 20:25:37)
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@Haseo - Got my copy reserved as well. Nice to know the actual release date, thanks. Me and my friend finished playing Dead Space 3 just a little while ago and we'll get started on Awakening hopefully tomorrow when the $10 refund comes back that was advertised through March. DS3 was alright, but I haven't played 1 or 2 so I don't know how it stacks up in comparison. My friend is the one who likes the series, I just played along as Carver for the co-op. I also picked up a 3DS and both Code of Princess and Tales of the Abyss last week. I already got through most of Code of Princess and it wasn't bad, ToA is a little bit of a different beast though. I already know that it's a pretty lazy port of the original, but I really hate how quiet the game is sometimes. Music seems really low in some instances and none of the skit scenes are voiced. As for the characters, it is by far the weakest cast I've run into so far. I don't really need to talk about Luke, since I hear he's pretty much universally hated in Part 1 of the game, but the rest of the characters bug me quite a bit as well. Everyone has this incredibly 'high-horse' attitude towards Luke despite the fact that they are almost equally as bad, Jade especially. This part of my rant might be spoilers, it's hard to tell, so I'll spoiler tag it just to be safe. There are just so many characters I want to slap upside the head in ToA. -_-    |
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-11 20:21:57 |
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@Yuna: I probably won't be able to play it for a while going by its release date. I'll be starting my freshman year of college around the time that it is released, so it will have to wait until I'm accustomed to college life and I'm able to get an ok paying job in order to live the student life. @Jon: I'm surprised you feel that the characters are that weak in ToA. Granted, from your explanation, it doesn't seem like you're that far into the game. If you don't mind, could you explain in a little more detail where you are in the game? ToA has some of the most dynamic characters in the entire series. All of the characters get fleshed out at one point or another, starting with Luke and moving on. I can't think of a character I didn't end up liking, except for Natalia, but consensus doesn't really even like her. Heck, even the God Generals get fleshed out in the later parts of the game, that has to amount to something. I don't think that the port is THAT terrible though, granted, some hiccups while occur when porting from console to handheld. The biggest issue of the original PS2 version, is that framerate was sometimes an issue, and loading screens were so long you could make yourself a microwave meal before a battle starts, come back, and it would still be loading. Those two issues were addressed and made better in the port at least.
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-11 20:36:56 (edited 2013-04-11 20:43:20)
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@Haseo - I understand that the characters will get fleshed out a bit more as the game goes on, but the attitudes displayed so far are just frustrating. Like I said, I've wanted to be able to slap characters around a couple of times now. At the moment I'm heading to St. Binah after rounding up all the characters again. Yes, Luke went through probably the biggest sudden character development I've ever seen and I thought that was a good part of the game. I do like him more now, since he's making an effort to reform himself. My problem with the characters is that I find they pile on Luke way too much. Yeah, he was a jerk in Part 1, but there were reasons for that, and I don't recall much effort being made by anyone except for maybe Tear to try and curb that attitude he had. Everyone else just seems to play along with it and laugh it off which does nothing to help things. Now, if the other characters get knocked down a few pegs throughout the game and get called out on their crap then I'll probably come around and like them a bit more. I know it also probably has to do with the part of the game I'm in. Whenever there's an event like this in a JRPG there's always a part immediately after where everything is really awkward between everyone (which is the part I'm in now). Overall, I have major issues with Asche and Jade. I actually like Natalia quite a bit (although she does have her moments to the contrary). Anise I'm pretty 'eh' about. Guy is pretty cool, but I'm pretty sure that he's supposed to be the default "cool" member of the group. |
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-11 20:55:06 |
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@Jon: All characters in this game have their flaws and dark sides, no one is an exception to that, really. Some commit acts that are worse than others, some are trying to atone for their pasts, but they all have their flaws. Asch remains that way for pretty much the entirety of the game; we'll see how you feel about him when you get to endgame. Whereas Jade's dilemma is much more deep, and if I say anything, that would give a big part of the story away, really, so we'll have to wait for your opinion there. Although I will admit the way the characters act at the point of the game is pretty weak. I forget if this is undisclosed information to them or not, but they completely fail to realize the circumstances and why Luke did what he did. If anything, they should have used Van as an outlet of their anger instead of Luke, even if he was prissy and stuck-up for the first part of the game. On the flip-side however, the group witnessed and almost became of victim of a cataclysm of sorts, and that can probably potentially change the way people act around each other. Although Guy is my favorite character of the game, he's probably the most static of the cast. The way I see things, he's supposed to represent the unconditional love everyone needs in their life. Even though he's mad at Luke at can't believe what he's done, Guy is still willing to remain by his side and give him another chance. If I recall correctly, Guy doesn't really change all that much, but acts as a fulcrum for others to grow. I know you have a lot of complaints for the characters right now, but I assure you that the way they act will change and they will have their own time in the infamy spotlight.
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-11 21:10:13 (edited 2013-04-11 21:10:40)
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@Haseo - Well, like I said, as long as some of the major offenders get knocked down a few pegs before the game ends then I can let that complaint slide. At the moment however, I simply cannot stand the sheer balls of some of the characters to be acting the way they are. Despite all of that however, I can see it taking a lot of work to raise the cast up enough to overcome some of the other Tales games I've played. There's no character so far that I'm really attached to. The only one I might feel anything for (in the event that a perma-death scene is in this game) is Guy, because he's pretty likable to me. Maybe Natalia. Everyone else though, I can't see myself getting hung up if they were to die over the course of the game, at least not yet. |
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-12 13:48:00 |
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Interesting to see your thoughts on ToA, Jon! It's been a few years since I played it, but I remember liking most of the cast, if not all. I've been playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Lego City Undercover on the Wii U recently, and am having a blast with both. I also grabbed Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon and am really loving that too. Unfortunately, I had to put aside Etrian Odyssey IV, but I'm hoping to get back into it when I finish LM2. I've also got my brother's copy of Ni No Kuni, which I'm planning to enjoy eventually. Also, super excited for Tales of Xillia, but sad it's coming out so late in the summer :(  |
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-12 16:52:44 |
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@Haseo: I'm sure you'll adjust pretty well to college life, it's ironic that you're going to class less and yet, you have a lot more work than you did in high school. I hope you'll be able to get Xillia soon after though. @Jon: Like Maiku, it's been a while since I last played the game late 2008 or 2009 I believe. The only characters I did like were Jade and Guy. Luke grew on me pretty quickly during the second part, you can say he became extremely humbled. I couldn't stand Natalia and I wasn't fond of Tear either. In the bad*** department, I would have to say Legretta would be my number one.
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-12 17:58:01 |
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@Yuna - As I said, I like Guy because he's just one of those cool characters. He isn't deadly serious about everything and has his quirks. I just find Jade entertaining because of his sarcastic or snide remarks. As for Tear, I'm kind of iffy on her. She seems like a nice character for the most part, but there isn't really anything I particularly like about her overall. She's just kind of there to spout exposition. I don't really get why everyone seems to dislike Natalia, but then again I almost always end up saying that about characters that everyone else hates (Fllay from Gundam SEED immediately comes to mind). As for Logretta, yeah, she's pretty cool. She hasn't got a lot of screen time so far though. To be honest, there are more members of the God-Generals or whatever that I like as opposed to the main cast. The scythe wielding dude is pretty awesome and Dist is funny in a butt-monkey kind of way. @Maiku - It's only an early impression so far. I'll probably go over my thoughts on the game again once I've finished it, but like I said to Haseo, it's going to take quite a lot of work for the cast to work themselves up to a memorable level at this rate. At the 18 hour mark (or however long I've been playing now, somewhere in that area) they haven't made much of an impression on me. Like I said, I've found them more frustrating than anything else. |
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-04-24 14:28:43 |
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already pre-order Tales of Xillia the collection pack that is $20 down and planning to put $20 per month from GS just to be safe and guarantee plus will also pre-order Last of Us and in speaking of Xillia have ya read the manga of it and from the looks of it i'm already thinking that this will be a great one like on Grace F I also wonder if they're gonna do another arc like they did with Grace with the Future Arc
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-05-01 14:04:24 (edited 2013-05-09 19:09:29)
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@JC - I really liked the Future arc that Graces did, especially the overall themes of it. I would like to see something like that done in Xillia as well. I also got a Collector's Edition pre-ordered now as well. Luckily the pre-orders opened back up for it after getting closed off in a short window of time, so I managed to get one in there. @All Tales of the Abyss fans - I'm now at the 47 hour mark and coming up on what I assume is the end-game (I'm working towards Eldrant right now) and I'm sorry to say that my feelings on the cast and everything from before still stands. So apologies to all you guys out there that really like the cast of Abyss, but I find them easily the weakest of the Tales games I've played. The rampant (undeserved) moral superiority that everyone displays towards Luke, the fact that everyone's (excluding Luke's) flaws are glossed over or treated with sympathy and the fact that most problems in the game are created or made worse by the main characters (usually Jade) withholding useful information for little or no reason just left me extremely frustrated with them. The antagonists were equally as bad. I got a kick at how often the main characters are worried about The Six God-Generals considering none of them pose the slightest threat. I'm not even talking about a purely gameplay perspective (of which they are also not a threat, considering all of them except Sync are really easy to gang to death). They only show up once in a while, usually only succeed at slowing you down for roughly 3 seconds and on some occasions they are easily overpowered by a single person (I can remember at least two occasions where Jade completely shuts down a God-General with no effort). Dist is actually the only one of them that I actually saw as a threat and he's supposed to be the butt monkey character for crying out loud. Arietta is a good example of me not knowing why I'm supposed to give a crap about them on an emotional level due to the fact that I rarely even see them or get to know them. Granted, at the point of the game where I'm at, Largo is getting quite a bit of attention, but the others don't seem to get a lot of focus except in passing mentions during dialog. And of course, as usual, I found myself liking the character that the fans seem to dislike. Why do people not like Natalia exactly? She was pretty much the only character that I didn't really have a problem with. I didn't find her as insufferable as the others tend to be sometimes, she genuinely wants to help people who are suffering and has the attitude that royalty should be there to work for the people, not the other way around. Not to mention she's pretty much the only character that isn't hiding some dark secret which winds up causing most of the problems in the story. I could understand the dislike for her if she spent the entire game in a "Stuck-up Princess" mode, but she barely has that at all. Is it purely because she's the third piece in the minor Love Triangle? Personally, I liked her more than Tear. Now, I should be clear about all that in regards to what I think of the game itself. I still liked Tales of the Abyss. I still thought it was a pretty good game and it still had its share of entertaining moments. In terms of the cast however, I doubt that any of them would be very high on a list of my favorites in the series. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Edit: Alright, since finishing Tales of the Abyss, I picked up and started playing Fire Emblem: Awakening. I have to say that I'm loving it a lot more than I thought I would at first. Now I wasn't expecting it to be a bad game by any means, but at I first started playing I was feeling like it was going to be a lot shorter in terms of game time. Once I saw that each chapter is pretty much just 1 battle, I figured I was going to have the game done in like 2 days or so. While that is still the case to some extent, I'm glad to see that the game made me want to spend the time doing the non-story stuff (mostly the support conversations and grinding for classes). I'm clocking in at 31 hours so far and I'm on Chapter 16, but I'm sure that at least 20 of those hours are made up of me simply replaying some DLC maps and taking on random world map spawns. I get the same feeling from this game as I do in Disgaea, where I just keep grinding levels purely so that I can reclass characters over and over to give them different skills and stuff. Of course, the support conversations between the characters make that grinding a lot more enjoyable since I feel as though I'm still working towards something story related rather than it being entirely for better stats. Finally, I LOVE the Avatar idea in this game so much. I kind of wish there were more customization options, but I like the fact that I can create a representation of me and have him in the game as an important character that others actually rely on. It's what White Knight Chronicles should have done instead of the frustratingly poor way that they decided to handle it. At least in FE:A my Avatar gives me the feeling of being immersed in the world, as opposed to White Knight Chronicles where my Avatar character got mostly treated as non-existent in the first game and only semi-acknowledged in the second game. As it stands, my Avatar (named Jonathon, obviously) is a level 5 Swordmaster (technically level 25 since I already had him in that class earlier on. I just switched out for a few more stat boosts and skills from other classes). He's married to Olivia (who I now have in the Bride class after maxing Dancer and getting to level 15 Dark Flier). His son is Inigo (also Swordmaster class) and Morgan (currently in Dark Knight). What about everyone else who has played or is playing Fire Emblem: Awakening? What did you do with your Avatar character? |
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-05-25 09:08:44 |
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@Jon: Honestly, now that I think about it, Natalia wasn't that bad and if I would play the game again, she would probably be in my party more now that I have a greater love for healers and archers which she is both of if I remember correctly. It was her personality at the beginning that turned me off and how she always corrected and constantly was harsh with Luke as did the others after a certain part of the game. The only character in the entire game that I liked right off the bat was Guy. He's the type that constantly stuck with you with the exception of that part of the game. I still like the game and I would play it again, but it would be with a better perspective. I finally got a hold of Eternal Sonata and Resonance of Fate. Eternal Sonata is a beautiful game, I love the battle system and the environment, but the story is dry? It lacks passion and I believe that I'm at least 30 to 40& done with it, so if something good is going to happen, I hope it happens soon. As for Resonance of Fate, I haven't really touched it. The battle system is fun but I really don't have the words to describe it. It needs work? The story isn't much either yet. I'm looking forward to E3, which I always seem to forget at the last minute. The whole controversy with the Xbox One is amusing to say the least. I don't know much about the PS4 so let's hope it does a slightly better job presentation wise. Here's my list of games for 2013 Tales of Xillia Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns (I know, I know...)
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-05-25 11:00:22 |
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@ Yuna- Regarding the Xbox One, I was actually planning on posting something I found about it on tumblr. It really is a controversy in of itself. Whether any of this (Or some of this) is true or not I don't know, I'm not really into gaming much anymore and I've never been an Xbox fan (I don't think most of the people here are Xbox fans either), but the things that are listed in this tumblr post are kind of shocking nonetheless. Reasons Not to Buy an Xbox One As far as games go the only games I have on my radar are Pokemon X/Y. Like I said before I'm not really into gaming anymore orz  |
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-05-25 11:17:44 (edited 2013-05-25 11:20:13)
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@Yuna - I felt the same way at first with the Resonance of Fate battle system, but by about halfway through I was great at it. I think it just takes quite a bit of time to get the hang of it (namely, being able to use the Hero Action chips without blowing them all and leaving yourself defenseless). Personally, the Xbox One as it currently stands is 100% out of the question for me. From what has been shown off of it so far I can't say there's anything I particularly like about it. The game activation garbage is a major point of contention for me. My friend tends to bum a lot of games off of me and I also do so on occasion. I also don't like the idea of my entire game collection being tied to an online account. Has Microsoft mentioned anything about what they plan to do if a person's account gets hacked/phished and you can't get access to it? There's already people jacking online game accounts because they have unique usernames, so how is that going to play out if it is a known fact that a person's XBL account also contains their entire game collection? I guess my main problem with the Xbox One is the large amount of uncertainty regarding its features. There seem to be a lot of unfortunate implications related to what Microsoft has talked about. Of course, it also has a lot of stuff thrown into it that I personally would never have a use for. I'm not going to use it as a cable box, I already have a Blu-Ray player (my PS3, although dedicated Blu-Ray players are much cheaper these days anyway), I've got no use for Skype or an Internet Browser in my gaming system (that's what my computer is for) and I don't see myself flicking between TV/Movies/Games on a whim. So my choice in next-gen (or current-gen if you want to call it that) systems is not made up yet, but it definitely doesn't include the Xbox One as a possibility. I'm not much for Nintendo's console systems, but I haven't seen enough on the PS4 to commit to that either (price plays a big part in that as well of course). After the PS4 is released then I'll take a look at both it and the Wii U and decide then. My list for 2013 now includes: Project X Zone (3DS) Deadpool (PS3. Maybe. Depends on how the game turns out.) Tales of Xillia CE (PS3) Ys: Foliage Ocean in Celceta (PSV) Killzone: Mercenary (PSV. Again, depends on how the game actually turns out.) Final Fantasy XIV CE (PS3) Pokemon X (3DS) Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS) Ace Attorney 5 (3DS. I'm ticked that it's going to be download only, but I still really want to play it, so I don't have a choice.) Grand Theft Auto V (PS3. Maybe, depends on if they've really brought the fun back to the series. Also probably not actually buying it until after Christmas since there are too many other games to play.) |
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-05-25 12:22:21 (edited 2013-05-25 12:24:54)
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I have a lot of beef with the Xbox One, so I'm going to choose and withhold on that for now and tackle a little more of the lighthearted topics first. @Jon: I am a huge Fire Emblem fan and I absolutely loved Awakening. I still play it today even though I beat it so long ago--this is the same file too by the way. Grinding out supports and your characters to max stats and level, and optimizing skillsets usually isn't my cup of tea when it comes to games, but Fire Emblem makes it work. Fire Emblem has always been that series to do this, and while some installments do it worse than others, it's still there. As for my Avatar, I took the same route you did, actually. I married Olivia as well, she's my dancing waifu. She's currently a Swordsmaster just to get her Astra, then I plan to make her a Dark Flier to pick up Galeforce before I turn her back into a dancer. I made Inigo straight into a Dread Fighter after hero, and he just pretty much stomps on everything. I put Morgan through Swordmaster for Astra, War Cleric for Renewel, and Dark Flier for Galeforce, but she's resting at Grandmaster now. For my Avatar's classes, I ran him through Dark Night and Trickster for sure, I think there was a third, but I don't remember. He's sitting back at Grandmaster as well. I might make Olivia into the Bride Class just to pick up Rally Bonds, but we'll see. If I were to make a second runthrough of the game, I think I would either have my avatar wait and marry either Noire or Cynthia. Those 2 really stick out to me as possible waifus. As for games that I plan to pick up, I haven't been watching the market all that closely, to be honest. But here's a tentative list at those games that interest me. Ace Attorney 5 (3DS, it's Phoenix Wright, c'mon) Pokemon X/Y *MAYBE* (I don't like what small stuff I've seen so far) Tales of Xillia (PS3, it comes out when I start college, so we'll see) Kingdom Hearts 1.5 (PS3, all depends on college) Well, all these games depend on college really. There are other games that already came out that I still want to play, but a lack of money and time prevent me from doing it. I still have to finish Heavy Rain: Director's Cut too.
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-05-25 14:42:17 |
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@Jon: No, I haven't heard anything about what you're supposed to do if you get hacked. If you do, I think you're just screwed. @Toyumi: Those Kinect features sound scary. Always on? Always watching? Nope, nope, nope. I'm not touching the Xbox one with a ten foot pole. From what I read, this system is just an entertainment box. That's it. Paying fees for used games etc, etc, If that's your cup of tea, then by all means go for it, but I think this is just a train wreck.
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-05-25 20:03:21 (edited 2013-05-25 20:09:03)
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@Yuna - And that really bugs me. To me that seems like the same situation as someone walking in to your home and snapping all of your game discs in half. You still have the box and disc, but you can't do anything with them. The Kinect things listed in that article that Toyumi posted are somewhat true as far as I've read so far. The Kinect will technically always be on, but I think it's only the Mic. Microsoft has it in their head that you'll walk into the room and shout "Xbox On" at your console to turn it on, so the Kinect will always be listening for the voice commands. I haven't heard anything about the camera portion always being on, but yes, it is a little unnerving to know that a piece of hardware (constantly) connected to the internet has a Mic that's always listening and a camera that can watch you without you really knowing. These are the kinds of things that Microsoft really should have had answers to, but I keep hearing conflicting reports about pretty much every aspect of the Xbox One. @Haseo - I'm surprised you ended up with your Avatar married to Olivia. That's awesome. From what I was reading on the game after beating it it seemed like almost no-one had their Avatar marry Olivia. Glad I'm not the only one at least. I never put Olivia into the Swordmaster class, mainly because I had planned to make her a purely support unit for my guy (although the Bride class made her into a pretty good Spear/Bow user). Plus, since she was in the Dark Flier class, she would be able to take an enemy out and then use Galeforce to move again and use 'Rally Heart' (so she could take out an enemy and also use support boosts in 1 move). 'Bond' would also kick in at the start of every turn and heal 10hp of damage for everyone nearby as well. At one point though I was considering making the entire "Jonathon" family into Swordmasters. Jonathon and Inigo already were and it wouldn't have taken long to switch Morgan and Olivia over. As for the second gen characters, I had Inigo wind up married to Lucina and Morgan wound up marrying Gerome (which had a freaking awesome S-Rank convo that showed just how awesome Morgan is. *Gerome removes his mask* "Heeeyyyy. Hubba-hubba awooooga!"). Anyway, I might go back to Awakening later on. I had the extra missions that open up just before the final battle (to recruit some of the villains from the story) but never bothered with them at the time because I was starting to feel burnt out on the game and wanted to hit the ending. Speaking of the ending, I took the Chrom option. The Avatar ending it option seemed like it would be really cliche (and looking it up online after, I was right in my opinion). I liked the Chrom option better since your Avatar's family all reassure you of your decision and there's no "Believing hard enough makes everything perfect" tone. |
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-05-26 13:00:20 |
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Sup guys, just gonna jump in the middle of your banter. :D Anyone getting TLOU ? I'll be on my main acc for that, I've been on my BF3 competitive account for a long time which is why ya'll haven't seen me on xakxDA a lot. 
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Re: Gendou Gamers Club 2
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on 2013-05-26 19:47:23 |
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@Jon: Yeah, I had Chrom deal the final blow as well. I didn't want to break up my happy family. I figured I'd go through my pairings: Chrom/Sumia; Avatar/Olivia; Frederick/Lissa; Stahl/Sully; Vaike/Cherche; Virion/Cordelia; Gregor/Nowi; Henry/Tharja; Lon'qu/Maribelle; Ricken/Miriel; Gaius/Panne And for 2nd Gen: Lucina/Owain (I swear, it was an accident); Yarne/Nah; Cynthia/Gerome (If you thought your support was adorable, wait till you see this one); Inigo/Noire; Brady/Kjelle; Severa/Laurent; and then I have Morgan not paired with anyone since she's either paired with Olivia or myself. @DA: Oh jeez, I forgot about The Last of Us! I don't know when I'm going to pick it up but I'm going to for sure! I've been following it since it was revealed. I don't know how much multiplayer I'll be playing on it though.
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