All Things Videogame Related: EXTREME VS!!

[Keith]

Figured I'd relaunch our videogame discussion topic with the news that I've finally platinum'd Gundam Extreme Vs. Is anyone else still playing? There's some epic hilarity to be had playing through ranked online.

Also, I'm not sure how much longer it'll be up (may expire at midnight), but Motorstorm RC for the Vita is/was a free full game download today.

Edited May 21, 2013 by azrael

[BeyondTheGrave]

Got a code for halo avatar Master chief armor. Female tho.

[anime52k8]

Got a code for halo avatar Master chief armor. Female tho.

what do you want for it?

[David Hingtgen]

On a related note, I'll mention again that I have a Soul Calibur 5 Dampierre code, for 360.

[renegadeleader1]

On a related note, I'll mention again that I have a Soul Calibur 5 Dampierre code, for 360.

Nobody is interested, because nobody wants the game given the complete pile of crap it is. I haven't even bothered with my code yet

[BeyondTheGrave]

what do you want for it?

nothin. can't use it die to avatar being male

[Keith]

Found some more pictures of the Vita's upcoming Gundam SEED Battle Destiny:

http://gundamguy.blogspot.com/2012/03/psvita-gundam-seed-battle-destiny-new.html

This game is looking "good." Can't wait until it's out!

[reeoyuy]

Ah yes, this thread is more suitable to talk about that game. It's good to see SEED MSV units got some attention. Now I'm curious what kind of PS Vita gimmick ths game will use, touchscreen, back touchpad, or simply twin stick. Huh, this must be the first Gundam Battle series that will use twin analog stick (or maybe not ).

[mikeszekely]

Ah yes, this thread is more suitable to talk about that game. It's good to see SEED MSV units got some attention. Now I'm curious what kind of PS Vita gimmick ths game will use, touchscreen, back touchpad, or simply twin stick. Huh, this must be the first Gundam Battle series that will use twin analog stick (or maybe not ).

Touchscreen selection of subweapons would rock.

[Keith]

Touchscreen selection of subweapons would rock.

It's actually looking like that's what's going on. Notice the upper/mid right side of the screen appears to have a weapons selection scroll in most of the screen shots.

[mikeszekely]

It's actually looking like that's what's going on. Notice the upper/mid right side of the screen appears to have a weapons selection scroll in most of the screen shots.

That works so much better than holding down button combos and toggling through crappier ones (I'm looking at you, Napalm!).

As much as I don't want to spend the money, as much as I really want another UC Gundam with Victory and Unicorn campaigns, as much as SEED is probably my least-favorite Gundam universe... I think I'm going to buy this. It's not like there's a ton of other Vita games I want yet, and the previous Gundam Battle games probably make up 80% of my time on the old PSP by themselves.

[mikeszekely]

Looks like Gundam Seed Battle Destiny has a release date of June 7th.

[Keith]

"excellent."

Here's a promo video from the official site.

Comfirmed touch screen weapons switching, and it definately looks like the "Macross" team worked on this one.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Keith

[Ghost Train]

I grabbed FF7 off the PSN store. This will be my third time playing through it.

First in 1999: Was never really into RPG's so mostly played for the story, my characters sucked. Did not breed gold chocobo, no KOTR, no omnislash, struggled through the game and finished it. Then in 2003: Finished the game gracefully, got the gold bird and LVL4 Limit breaks for everyone, but still left stuff undone, just couldn't beat Emerald + Ruby...

This playthrough I aim to do everything The game doesn't look bad at all after all these years, even on a HD screen. How have I missed the big headed blocky characters all these years.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Ghost Train

[Ghost Train]

The DLC's been out for a while, but it sort of evaded my radar (no pun intended) ... makes me want to play this mediocre game again lol

MOST IMPORTANTLY: DESIGNED BY THE HORRY FROATING HEAD HIMSELF!

Edited March 13, 2012 by Ghost Train

[Archer]

So, anyone else interested in the news regarding ACIII? Looks pretty cool imho, and if what they say is true (that this is a) the last Assassin's Creed game they'll make and b) They've been working on it since the release of brotherhood), then this should really be one of the best in the series, and hopefully, challenge ACII for the best Assassin's Creed game every made.

I like the idea of a half - Native American half - British guy fighting for the U.S. revolutionary army

[anime52k8]

I'm excited for it even though I've never actually played an assassin's creed game other than half of the first one. I think I'll need to pick up ACI, ACII, brotherhood and revelations and marathon them this summer.

[D.D. Ivanov]

The DLC's been out for a while, but it sort of evaded my radar (no pun intended) ... makes me want to play this mediocre game again lol

MOST IMPORTANTLY: DESIGNED BY THE HORRY FROATING HEAD HIMSELF!

Then you'd love the VF-1 skins for the F-14 that they're releasing.

[GU-11]

Just finished FF XIII-2.

The ending was simply, "to be continued..." in actual captions. Can't be sure what they're playing at here, probably going for a FF XIII-3. If that's the case, I'm staying away from direct sequels after I'm done with the FF XIII ones.

There are quite a few other things I wanted to say about the ending initially, but then the rest of the post would look like: "**** this ****! Can't believe those *************! **** ****** *****!"

That said, there's supposed to be a "secret ending" after you collect all the necessary fragments, so maybe that's the actual ending. Only one way to find out.

Edited March 14, 2012 by GU-11

[macross_fan99]

Just finished FF XIII-2.

The ending was simply, "to be continued..." in actual captions. Can't be sure what they're playing at here, probably going for a FF XIII-3. If that's the case, I'm staying away from direct sequels after I'm done with the FF XIII ones.

There are quite a few other things I wanted to say about the ending initially, but then the rest of the post would look like: "**** this ****! Can't believe those *************! **** ****** *****!"

That said, there's supposed to be a "secret ending" after you collect all the necessary fragments, so maybe that's the actual ending. Only one way to find out.

Sorry to break it to you, but the real ending is going to be sold separately as DLC.

[GU-11]

Sorry to break it to you, but the real ending is going to be sold separately as DLC.

Well that's just fcuking peachy.

Hopefully someone's going to post it up at youtube or something. Should have bought something else like Batman: Arkham Asylum or Amalur, or something that doesn't fcuking make you PAY TWICE to see the damn ending of a game you already bought.

If this is the kind of sh!t Squeenix is going to be pulling with their FF franchise, I'm quitting, FF Versus XIII or no.

Sorry for ranting, but this DLC bullsh!t is really getting out of hand. I can live without extra fancy weapons and outfits, but to take the damn ending out of a game?!

Edited March 14, 2012 by GU-11

[Graham]

To be honest, until a Macross game is released on Vita or Android, the only type of gaming I'm into now is smartphone gaming. Really enjoying the back-to-basics pick-up-n-go simplicity.

No interest in bloated PC games at all.

Currently playing: Monster Shooter, DGunners SP, Pew Pew 2, Radiant HD, Air Attack HD & ShadowGun.

Graham

[Chronocidal]

I agree about the DLC getting out of hand for many games in general, but as far as FFXIII-2 goes, I do appreciate the extra episodes, and I don't mind paying a little for more story content, especially when it's about characters you care about that got shoved out of the spotlight. The costumes are just fanservice though.

As for the ending being DLC, I hope that's a joke, but I could see them adding an extension to it.

I'm only to episode 5 at this point, so I'm just getting into the bulk of the crap that happens. However, I'm fully expecting the ending I get at first to be a complete letdown (I may actually have already reached one bummer ending, but I bypassed it), specifically because this is a game based on time travel. If there's anything that previous time travel games have taught me, it's that you're not going to be able to fix everything without playing it a few times, or save scumming to take every possible route... which I am really looking forward to, I must say. I love branching plot paths.

I'm being really careful to avoid reading any spoilers about this one, but I know there are a good number of possible endings, ranging from awesome to heartbreaking. I know there's a supposedly "canon" ending, but I'm not looking at any details until I finish at least one run through.

Given the enormous scope of this game's universe, and the involvement of time travel though.. I wouldn't be at all surprised at a third game that actually winds up revisiting everything from the first two games. In fact, I kind of hope it happens (it's what the Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross universe always needed too, but never got). I mean, the entire storyline has been one messy thing after another that shouldn't have ever happened. And think about it. You're playing a game that makes tons of references to ancient civilizations who could record future history, in a game about time travel. If you don't even bother to go back and visit them, that poor elephant in your living room is going to starve to death.

[GU-11]

Hey there Chronocidal,

Since you haven't finished the game and don't want any spoilers, I'll refrain from discussing any plot related stuff right now.

Regarding the DLC ending thing, I did some Googling, and thankfully it's just a rumor among fans, as there hasn't been any concrete confirmation or denial of either a FF XIII-3 or DLC ending. Personally, I'd prefer to buy a FF XIII-3 game than to paying extra for some dinky 15 minute CG FMV that they should have included in the disc in the first place.

In any case, I'm pretty sure that an actual sequel game is more likely. The way the ending played out, there's doesn't seem to be a way a mere DLC FMV clip will be enough to resolve anything. Well, anything short of a deus ex machina cop out, at least.

And yeah, the paradox endings are actually more satisfying than the actual "canon" one.

While I understand that the whole point of the whole Fabula Nova Crystalis thing is to create one huge universe in which to base multiple games [probably less work than to make up a whole new world for every game like they used to], I expect them to at least give us a complete game with an ending that wraps things up at the end, instead of, "to be continued..."

Atlus did this same thing with Digital Devil Saga aka Avatar Tuner, and the reason it didn't piss me off back then was that we all knew beforehand that a sequel was in the works, and those evil DLC's didn't exist back then. FF XIII-2 just strung you along until the end, and then, "Surprise! Please insert coin for ending." Sure, there were foreshadows as the game progressed, but I--and probably most other players--were expecting a plot twist of some kind instead of this.

Fact of the matter is, if they were shooting for a two-part story, they should have been more honest and told us about it up front.

[David Hingtgen]

Blatantly copy-pasting from Neogaf, but have you seen the music composers list for Kid Icarus: Uprising?

Motoi Sakuraba: Tales of, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Baten Kaitos, Dark Souls, Golden Sun

Yuzo Koshiro: Streets of Rage, ActRaiser, Shinobi, Etrian Odyssey

Masafumi Takada: Killer7, No More Heroes, God Hand

Noriyuki Iwadare: Lunar, Grandia, Radiata Stories

Yasunori Mitsuda: Chrono Trigger/Cross, Xenogears, Shadow Hearts

Mitsuda alone would make it incredible, but adding in the composers of Grandia, ActRaiser, and Valkyrie Profile?

[Chronocidal]

Heck.. I don't even have the system that game will be on.. but I will buy that soundtrack.

As for the ending to FFXIII-2, yeah, given what they're setting up, I don't think there's any way to get a satisfying ending. I'm almost to the end I think, so I can kind of see what's coming, but I'm curious how much of what I haven't done yet is just for the extra endings, because I still see quite a few locked eras I need to get to.

They've built up the civilizations of ancient Pulse up so much in this version, I would almost expect them to go back in time to the war that happened before the first game. I mean, if the scope of what's at stake in 2 is as big as it seems, it almost makes sense to rework things from the beginning, and rig everything to work out better in the end.

Hehe.. funny, the example that comes to mind is the Futurama thing where Fry warned them that the Scooty-puff Jr. they gave him wasn't going to be enough. If they could find some way to tweak things such that the original paradox wouldn't happen, then the timeline should just revert back.. which of course would mean the entire second game (and maybe even the first) never happened, but oh well. Time travel's funny that way.

[shiroikaze]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone signed up for the World of Planes beta and World of Warplanes alpha?

Thought you guys might be interested if you all haven't signed up yet.

Blatantly copy-pasting from Neogaf, but have you seen the music composers list for Kid Icarus: Uprising?

Motoi Sakuraba: Tales of, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Baten Kaitos, Dark Souls, Golden Sun

Yuzo Koshiro: Streets of Rage, ActRaiser, Shinobi, Etrian Odyssey

Masafumi Takada: Killer7, No More Heroes, God Hand

Noriyuki Iwadare: Lunar, Grandia, Radiata Stories

Yasunori Mitsuda: Chrono Trigger/Cross, Xenogears, Shadow Hearts

Mitsuda alone would make it incredible, but adding in the composers of Grandia, ActRaiser, and Valkyrie Profile?

Oh... my...

For those who have a Club Nintendo membership, they're giving away Kid Icarus augmented reality Idol cards.

http://kidicarus.nin...s.html#giveaway

Edited March 15, 2012 by shiroikaze

[GU-11]

Heck.. I don't even have the system that game will be on.. but I will buy that soundtrack.

As for the ending to FFXIII-2, yeah, given what they're setting up, I don't think there's any way to get a satisfying ending. I'm almost to the end I think, so I can kind of see what's coming, but I'm curious how much of what I haven't done yet is just for the extra endings, because I still see quite a few locked eras I need to get to.

Actually, you can only get the paradox endings after finishing the game. Completing the game the first time unlocks the "Paradox Scope" fragment, which allows you to receive what's called a paradox scope fragment skill from Serendipity. Activating it will allow you to change complete certain events in earlier timelines a different way, thereby allowing you to change history.

For example, defeating Atlas without using the control device to weaken him will get you a paradox ending. You have a total of eight paradox endings to unlock, and they're not too tough as long as you're sufficiently leveled up. With all your skills maxed out, a properly leveled chichu, and 140+ fragments to bring up your paradox weapons' stats, you'll cut through most bosses like butter. The long gui and raspatil, on the other hand, are a different story.

They've built up the civilizations of ancient Pulse up so much in this version, I would almost expect them to go back in time to the war that happened before the first game. I mean, if the scope of what's at stake in 2 is as big as it seems, it almost makes sense to rework things from the beginning, and rig everything to work out better in the end.

It would be pretty interesting. I mean, I was hoping to see Vanille and Fang's hometown bustling with people since FF XIII-2 is a time travel themed game.

Hehe.. funny, the example that comes to mind is the Futurama thing where Fry warned them that the Scooty-puff Jr. they gave him wasn't going to be enough. If they could find some way to tweak things such that the original paradox wouldn't happen, then the timeline should just revert back.. which of course would mean the entire second game (and maybe even the first) never happened, but oh well. Time travel's funny that way.

At this point, I wouldn't put anything past Toriyama.

BTW, I just watched the so-called secret ending on youtube [the one you get after collecting all 160 fragments, NOT the rumored DLC ending]...and it wasn't worth the effort. Basically just restating the obvious. Glad I didn't actually try to get all the fragments just to watch that.

Edited March 15, 2012 by GU-11

[Chronocidal]

See what you mean about the ending, just finished last night. Going to work through some other endings this weekend, but don't really care about 100%, and many of them are a pain to get to anyway, especially when they involve re-finishing the game after some specific action. Beating the final boss again just to watch more cutscenes is annoying, and I wish they'd just include a cutscene viewer in games like this, because going back to piece together clues in the plot is nearly impossible.

Unless FFXIII Versus winds up wrapping up the entire plot (I'm thinking it'll more parallel it, or even interact with certain plot elements), I don't think this is going to end until we get a third part. It's making a nice parallel to Star Wars with the endings so far. The scary part of that though is that I can actually imagine an ending where the universe is saved thanks to intervention of the entire Moogle race. It'll probably be a bonus ending if anything, but who knows.

I definitely think there's going to be more to this, but whether it involves more time travel is entirely up for grabs given the consequences of the ending.

[GU-11]

See what you mean about the ending, just finished last night. Going to work through some other endings this weekend, but don't really care about 100%, and many of them are a pain to get to anyway, especially when they involve re-finishing the game after some specific action. Beating the final boss again just to watch more cutscenes is annoying, and I wish they'd just include a cutscene viewer in games like this, because going back to piece together clues in the plot is nearly impossible.

Yeah, the ending was a total WTF moment.

As for the paradox endings, I personally don't think they're not that much of a hassle thanks to the ability to close the gates and simply complete that specific part of the game. You can actually re-use any items you had to collect to proceed in the game the first time, such as the graviton cores. Just talk to Alyssa and she'll automatically accept the cores.

Frankly, these so-called "non-canon" endings give the game more of a closure than the main one, where it might as well have featured a clip of Toriyama flipping the bird at the player and shouting, "Punk'd!".

Unless FFXIII Versus winds up wrapping up the entire plot (I'm thinking it'll more parallel it, or even interact with certain plot elements), I don't think this is going to end until we get a third part. It's making a nice parallel to Star Wars with the endings so far. The scary part of that though is that I can actually imagine an ending where the universe is saved thanks to intervention of the entire Moogle race. It'll probably be a bonus ending if anything, but who knows.

LOL, Moogles to the rescue! What with all the comedic Live Trigger options, it's actually a possibility.

In any case, I see what you mean when you said it's starting to parallel the Star Wars endings, except in A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, they actually wrapped things up with a satisfying resolution. If FFXIII-2 were A New Hope, we'd be left with the scene where Luke fails to fire the missile into the core, and Vader seems to have homed in on him, and the screen fades to black with a caption saying, "to be continued..."

Actually, I'm reminded more of The Matrix Reloaded. It's exactly like how Neo deactivates the "Squids" and the screen cuts to, "to be continued." But even then, the ending wasn't as bad as FFXIII-2, where you just know Noel and Hope have to do something, but the game just cuts you off like that.

As for Versus, I see it as more of a prequel, though. Judging from the trailer they showed, FFXIII Versus seems to be set in a less futuristic world than FFXIII. What I mean is that Versus features ground-based vehicles with rubber tires, contemporary clothing and interior designs we present-day people are more familiar with, whereas FFXIII features skycars, Star Trek replicator style online commerce, and "anti-gravity" airships.

One possibility for a continuation of where FFXIII-2 left off is simply to bury it with its Armageddon style ending and set a new game in a different time or dimension, where the main character proceeds to discover the past events that have unfolded. kind of like how Lightning and gang discover the history of Pulse and Cocoon. Or rather, like how Revenge of the Sith cuts off with the rise of the Empire, and A New Hope picks up with a new character and story.

Or, they'd go the more traditional route and give us FFXIII-3 starring Lightning who somehow reverts back from her crystal form.

I definitely think there's going to be more to this, but whether it involves more time travel is entirely up for grabs given the consequences of the ending.

True, unless they disregard the events of FFXIII-2 where the gates are now permanently closed and they'e no longer able to time travel, and Toriyama invents some convoluted plot twist.

You know, this whole mess could have been avoided if they just didn't force the plot where Cauis must die. I think it'd be much better is they gave us a split ending like Prince of Persia 2. That way, you get an ending that resolves at least most of the problems.

[Beltane70]

Actually, you can only get the paradox endings after finishing the game. Completing the game the first time unlocks the "Paradox Scope" fragment, which allows you to receive what's called a paradox scope fragment skill from Serendipity. Activating it will allow you to change complete certain events in earlier timelines a different way, thereby allowing you to change history.

Not all of them. There were three or four paradox endings that you can get before finishing the game.

[Chronocidal]

Actually, what I'm expecting?

Lightning will become the new goddess, and the world will be reborn.. again. Caius specifically states that the goddess had died before, so I think this goes in a cycle. What I'm half expecting is that Versus will be a different cycle, but reveal Lightning as still being in place of Etro.

That's really not much comfort for people who liked the original characters, but on the bright side... things really can't get much worse, can they?

Also, I really do wonder if they'll just start over, and rewrite things from the War of Transgression onward. Ancient pulse actually wasn't far off from our own level of technology (except for the Farseers), and it only really got advanced under the Fal'Cie, and after their defeat.

What I still don't quite understand is how Etro intervening in the first place caused such a problem. You'd think a divine being would be able to exert influence without the entirety of existence blowing up... or maybe Etro wasn't that powerful to begin with?

Edited March 17, 2012 by Chronocidal

[GU-11]

Actually, what I'm expecting?

Lightning will become the new goddess, and the world will be reborn.. again. Caius specifically states that the goddess had died before, so I think this goes in a cycle. What I'm half expecting is that Versus will be a different cycle, but reveal Lightning as still being in place of Etro.

That's really not much comfort for people who liked the original characters, but on the bright side... things really can't get much worse, can they?

Yeah, that's a very popular theory among FFXIII-2 players, and I'm inclined to agree. Supposedly, even Toriyama sort of confirms it in an interview.

Also, I really do wonder if they'll just start over, and rewrite things from the War of Transgression onward. Ancient pulse actually wasn't far off from our own level of technology (except for the Farseers), and it only really got advanced under the Fal'Cie, and after their defeat.

I wonder about that, too. I mean, the more I look at it, the more it feels like FF XIII-2 was tacked on to buy some time until Versus gets released. It seems like they've painted themselves into a corner with the ending.

What I still don't quite understand is how Etro intervening in the first place caused such a problem. You'd think a divine being would be able to exert influence without the entirety of existence blowing up... or maybe Etro wasn't that powerful to begin with?

IIRC, it's something about the chaos leaking from Valhalla after Etro twisted time space to bring Lightning, Serah and Dazh out of their crystal sleep, and in her weakened state, was unable to maintain the barrier. I could well be wrong, though.

Now the thing that bothers me is that Etro's very existence goes against the mythology that was set up in FFXIII. It's been a while since I played the game, but if memory serves, some divine being created both the Fal`Cie and humans, and then left the planet. Basically, its like a pseudo Abrahamic religion, except God in this case leaves the Earth and puts angels [Fal`Cie] in charge of humanity.

No mention of any other gods were made throughout FFXIII as far as I remember.

Personally, I get the feeling that Etro was "borrowed" from FFXIII Versus and planted into FFXIII-2 to explain a plot hole in FFXIII, where Lightning, Dajh and Serah are returned to their human forms without any explanations. Initially I thought it was because the Fal`Cie had died, but then I realized Fang and Vanille remain as crystals.

The only time I remember hearing any mention of Etro was in the FFXIII Versus trailer.

Not all of them. There were three or four paradox endings that you can get before finishing the game.

You're right. But in Atlas' case, even if it doesn't require the paradox scope, you won't likely be able to take it out the first time around without weakening him since he's really powerful. Same goes for Royal Ripeness. The only paradox endings you might be able to get without the paradox scope or maxed out characters would be AF 4XX Academia with Alyssa and AF 700 New Bodhum with Lightning, since their both just a matter of picking a different answer.

[Beltane70]

I beat Atlas and Royal Ripeness with I think four of the six roles maxed before finishing the game.

[BeyondTheGrave]

DOA 5