What video game are you playing?

[NorthDakota]

Super Tennis is easily my fav, non big four sports game ever

I always liked using Steve because he was easy and that's my dad's name

 

[ACamp1900]

I always liked using Steve because he was easy and that's my dad's name

I forget his name but I always used the Asian dude bc I loved Michael Chang in real life and he reminded me of him....

 

[ulukinatme]

Super Tennis is easily my fav, non big four sports game ever

Wii Tennis ftw.

 

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Two points:

1. Is Overwatch worth buying? Or is to more of an addicting, soul-sucking force of which I'm best to steer clear?

2. I'm traveling for work this week, in the airport now and I actually packed my console and brought Witcher with me.

Expect a minimum of 30+ hours of additional Witcher game play from me, which means I'll be talkin bout my loot.

Overwatch is free to play on all platforms 18th-21st

 

[ulukinatme]

Almost done with my first play through of the original Dark Souls. I've been taking my time, doing a lot of soul/chunk farming as well as collecting missing gear. I'm somewhat of a completionist, I like to have one of everything, so I have perused some Wikis to get a list of what's out there and the zone it can be found in if I missed it.

Along the way I've picked up some of the storyline, and I've read ahead a bit on what I'll probably miss in my first play through (I went down the "New Age of Fire" path before I found out there was no going back). I've got about 98% of the items in the game at this point too, the only ones I'm really missing are Covenant items that are no longer available to me (Can't join Darkwraith).

That said, it definitely is a very different kind of plot/story. With so much left unsaid it does lead to a lot of speculation on the part of the player. I've probably cheated a bit by going to the Wiki, it's given me some information I may not have until a second play through. At the same time though, even with almost all the items in my arsenal and with just Gwyn really left to tackle, I'm curious where people have pulled so much info into Wiki descriptions and story outlines? It certainly seems like a lot of speculation. I did like how the DLC content connected a few dots, like how Alvina said Artorias was a phony, and the connection of the Abyss in both worlds. Some of that made more sense once I got through it. Little Sif ftw.

Screwy, minimalistic story aside, the combat and options have really drawn me into the game. I'm constantly experimenting with new weapons and load outs to min/max my setup and play with my equipment load. I was struggling with some bosses for a long time until I ditched the Furysword and went with a harder hitting Claymore, moving more toward a Strength build. The Furysword works pretty well in standard fights, but it was taking quite awhile to DPS some bosses for some reason, especially bosses like 4 Kings. I picked up the Claymore though, and for some reason it just works for me. I've about given up getting good at Parrying too, I've mostly opted to switch to an Eagle Greatshield or Shield of Artorias. The Stability on those is so high I lose little Stamina at all when blocking, if any. Now I spend most fights circling bosses with my shield up, I deflect, then immediately counter attack with a Claymore strong thrust. If I go two handed, lord have mercy on everything in my path. I've played around with some other weapons too, Great Scythe being one, Demon GreatAxe, Great Club, mostly opting toward more Strength based items. They just seem to work for me. That's what I really enjoy about this game. For Software has always had a knack for impressive weapon choices and loadouts, and that customization never bores me because it means I can constantly tweak things and change things up.

I will say Praise the Sun for the Warp ability. Once you've been through a map a dozen times it gets rather tedious to constantly bum rush through the same enemies once you've learned their strategy and locations. A little less predictability would have been nice. The only frustrating thing I still find with the game is the damn tails...being a completionist it's something I have to do, I've gotta cut them all off to get the weapons. Some bosses, like the Gaping Dragon, weren't a big deal. Kalameet? Shit, he's a big ass dragon and rarely drops his tail for more than half a second! Frustrating as fuck. I finally ended up getting the Obsidian Sword, but only after about 45 minutes of trying different strategies and banging my head against the wall. Once I did finally get it I ended up slaying that fucker no problem, by then his moveset was old hat.

I did get fucked on one big plot point, despite my best efforts to avoid it. My bro, Solaire, ended up getting infected with the Chaos Bug and I had to put him down...but through no fault of my own. We teamed up against the Centipede demon and thrashed it good, and from previously reading Solitaire's bio I had accidentally seen that venturing into Lost Izalith without using the shortcut first and slaying the bugs meant Solaire would be lost for the rest of the game. Well, I farmed Humanities outside the Abyss in the DLC till I had enough to become a Chaos Servant +2. I went to the secret door and opened it...and there was bloody Solaire all crazy and shit despite my efforts! Had to put the dude down, it was sad times...pretty pissed cause I wanted to bring him through till the end. Sunlight Warriors till the end.

I'm about Level 120ish right now, just biding my time and upgrading some weapons and armor sets before taking on Gywn. Not sure if I'm going to go straight to New Game+ or reroll a pure Sorc. Sure seems like Melee is the toughest path given the boss strategies I had to look at when I got stuck. Aside from the Heal Miracle and a couple Pyro abilities, I've been strictly running Melee unless there was a caster/archer at range that I couldn't run to....then it's Longbow time. It's been a fun challenge till now, I've gotten good enough tanking with my Greatshield that few things pose a real threat anymore.

 

[greyhammer90]

Overwatch is free to play on all platforms 18th-21st

Can't wait to play Roadhog in quickplay that weekend.

 

[IrishInFl]

The nes classic edition is sold out everywhere in Tallahassee that is open. It sold out at Target as soon as the place opened.

 

[IrishLion]

Yeah, I stopped at Target on my way to work. Waited outside the doors with like 5 other people, so I was feeling good.

We went in, went to the electronics section, and the dudes told us that Nintendo only sent FOUR of the systems to the store. There were some guys that had lined up at 5am to wait for them, so they went ahead and sold them to those people early, since they knew they only had four.

I forgot to try Amazon at midnight last night, so I've already given up hope of getting one haha.

 

[greyhammer90]

Nintendo again showing massive levels of incompetence despite having every conceivable advantage. Good to know ND isn't alone in that respect.

 

[Meatloaf]

Anyone picking up dishonored 2?

 

[wizards8507]

Can't wait to play Roadhog in quickplay that weekend.

Especially with all the Sombra n00bs running around.

 

[wizards8507]

NES sold out in four minutes on Amazon.

 

[IrishInFl]

http://www.nesmarathon.com

Awesome charity marathon. Check it out!

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

I was able to put in a lot of time last week while I was on a business trip.

I logged a number of hours on Witcher during my business trip last week.

Geralt's stats now:

Lvl 23

DPS - Silver Sword - 1057
DPS - Steel Sword - 593
Armor - 216
Crossbow - 83
Vitality - 6387
Sign Intensity - +73%
Stamina - 100

total play time - 120 hrs, 46 mins

I've logged a great deal of time thanks to reduced sleeping schedules and my work week.

I purchased the Potion of Clearance to reset all of my points but I'm waiting a bit longer before using it. Also spent a ton of time upgrading my oils, decoctions and bombs. Have a few superior items in my arsenal that are so handy.

 

[wizards8507]

total play time - 120 hrs, 46 mins

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

You do know I'm married with 2 kids and a job that requires roughly 45-55 hrs/week. I simply sacrifice sleep when I start enjoying something.

 

[wizards8507]

You do know I'm married with 2 kids and a job that requires roughly 45-55 hrs/week. I simply sacrifice sleep when I start enjoying something.

 

[ACamp1900]

I am looking into getting Ken Griffey baseball (matter of fact, is that a game you have in your stash wiz, guess that's worth asking,..). and I was thinking last night...

"Man, I'm pretty sure that game did not have a sim function and I am a stat guy so I always played full 162 game seasons to get realistic stats (I remember that FOR SURE)... and I remember finishing at least three or four World Series runs in that game... My social life in Jr. High was totally non-existent."

 

[wizards8507]

I am looking into getting Ken Griffey baseball (matter of fact, is that a game you have in your stash wiz, guess that's worth asking,..). and I was thinking last night...

"Man, I'm pretty sure that game did not have a sim function and I am a stat guy so I always played full 162 game seasons to get realistic stats (I remember that FOR SURE)... and I remember finishing at least three or four World Series runs in that game... My social life in Jr. High was totally non-existent."

I'm not sure which I have... either Ken Griffey Jr. Presents: Major League Baseball or Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run. I'll let you know.

 

[IrishLion]

Junior high social life? How about as an adult?

I refuse to sim any games in NCAA14, and I'm currently in the year 2031 on my "Started From The Bottom" file.

18 full seasons does strange things to CPU rosters in a football game that is recruiting-dependent haha.

 

[bkess8]

Junior high social life? How about as an adult?

I refuse to sim any games in NCAA14, and I'm currently in the year 2031 on my "Started From The Bottom" file.

18 full seasons does strange things to CPU rosters in a football game that is recruiting-dependent haha.

What team are you now? How many championships have you won? What offense are you running?

 

[ACamp1900]

Junior high social life? How about as an adult?

I refuse to sim any games in NCAA14, and I'm currently in the year 2031 on my "Started From The Bottom" file.

18 full seasons does strange things to CPU rosters in a football game that is recruiting-dependent haha.

Now I'm married so 'social life' is a term that no longer computes... but there was a time (not really)...

 

[ulukinatme]

Junior high social life? How about as an adult?

I refuse to sim any games in NCAA14, and I'm currently in the year 2031 on my "Started From The Bottom" file.

18 full seasons does strange things to CPU rosters in a football game that is recruiting-dependent haha.

Stranger than the service academies all becoming power houses? I haven't gone 18 full seasons yet, but I have a file collecting dust that went through a dozen seasons...built up Texas State again as a coordinator, couldn't get the HC to move on so I took New Mexico for a 4 year cycle and built them up decently, then got the Texas State job as HC and stayed with them to see how dominate they could be. It was crazy to see Navy and Army in the Top 25 weekly, and seeing top flight coaches move around to strange locations after getting fired. I may have beaten USC and Michigan into the ground a bit though...may have artificially created a second user or two to make sure those teams had losing records every year. I thought it was the right thing to do

 

[ACamp1900]

My experience in NCAA was that over time, unless I edited the CPU rosters to make them better, the cpu teams all just grouped together in mediocrity, the longer you went the less you saw any other program being consistently good year to year.... except for maybe some mid major that completely lapped their conference and went 12-0 every year because they played nobody... but that was really it.... all the P5 conference teams just leveled out.

 

[NorthDakota]

I'm not sure which I have... either Ken Griffey Jr. Presents: Major League Baseball or Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run. I'll let you know.

On n64 I have Major League Baseball: featuring Keen Griffey

"Hi, I'm Ken Griffey Jr., let's play Major League Baseball!"

Rockies are OP AF.

 

[IrishBroker]

My experience in NCAA was that over time, unless I edited the CPU rosters to make them better, the cpu teams all just grouped together in mediocrity, the longer you went the less you saw any other program being consistently good year to year.... except for maybe some mid major that completely lapped their conference and went 12-0 every year because they played nobody... but that was really it.... all the P5 conference teams just leveled out.

Same here...Also the same with Madden. Everyone goes 8-8 and it's like they don't improve their players (I'd search for guys with a 90 or above and it gets tough after about the 15th year in)

 

[IrishBroker]

I was able to put in a lot of time last week while I was on a business trip.

I logged a number of hours on Witcher during my business trip last week.

Geralt's stats now:

Lvl 23

DPS - Silver Sword - 1057
DPS - Steel Sword - 593
Armor - 216
Crossbow - 83
Vitality - 6387
Sign Intensity - +73%
Stamina - 100

total play time - 120 hrs, 46 mins

I've logged a great deal of time thanks to reduced sleeping schedules and my work week.

I purchased the Potion of Clearance to reset all of my points but I'm waiting a bit longer before using it. Also spent a ton of time upgrading my oils, decoctions and bombs. Have a few superior items in my arsenal that are so handy.

Nice work. I just completed Hearts of Stone, now I'm on Blood and Wine. The new map is awesome. New monsters and everything.

 

[IrishLion]

What team are you now? How many championships have you won? What offense are you running?

I actually started with a really cool setup that I found on Operation Sports. The guys over there that do the rosters every year have also created some legit, ultra-realistic teambuilder teams for a few FCS and DII schools. So, I added App State, NDSU, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, and James Madison to the dynasty, and took out some Sun Belt and MAC teams.

There is then a big conference realignment setup that is pretty cool that you do when you start your dynasty. It stays true to the current layout, with some changes to the Big XII and the Group of Five conferences. In order to account for UC and BYU getting added to the Big XII, you have to split that conference into East and West divisions, and then you have to find homes for the imported Teambuilder schools within the Group of Five.

Anywho, I started as an OC at NDSU, and then was OC at UC for two seasons, and then was HC at UK for a while, then I got the big job at ND and was there for a long time (of course), and then that got stale so I took a step down to coach MSU, who I had never used in the game before. I'm there now, so I'll probably move on again after the season I'm currently in.

I've won the natty every season but four I think lol. Missed out on my first two seasons with NDSU, as I couldn't beat Tennessee OOC (they were edited by a homer, I think, as they are a machine), and I also missed out on one at UK where I went 13-0 but somehow got left out of the natty despite winning the SEC and being undefeated. The same thing happened one of my years at ND. I think the CPU gets tired of you winning, so even if you go 12-0 with 12 blowouts against a tough schedule, they'll still leave you out at a random point.

I'm currently using ND's playbook, as it's good for both mobile and pocket-style QB's. MSU didn't have a mobile QB when I took that job, so I used a lot of the under-center, single-back formations to run the ball. However, the shotgun formations are pretty good for running a realistic run-first spread offense, too, so I do that sometimes, regardless of my QB.

I also like to use Oregon's playbook if I get a team that has super-fast WR's, and I'll use a lot of read-option and WR-option run plays. When I got to UK, their roster was already bad, but they had an athlete at QB and two WR's and a RB with 94+ speed, so I ran the option nearly every play.

I'm starting to get bored again, so I might switch to Navy or GT's playbook for a few seasons and see if I can do anything productive with the triple-option lol.

 

[IrishLion]

Now I'm married so 'social life' is a term that no longer computes... but there was a time (not really)...

Haha, my wife and I literally sit around and entertain the baby. If the baby is sleeping, I'm busting out dynasty games while she watches Netflix. The first time I've been out in a while was for the USA game on Friday night.

Stranger than the service academies all becoming power houses? I haven't gone 18 full seasons yet, but I have a file collecting dust that went through a dozen seasons...built up Texas State again as a coordinator, couldn't get the HC to move on so I took New Mexico for a 4 year cycle and built them up decently, then got the Texas State job as HC and stayed with them to see how dominate they could be. It was crazy to see Navy and Army in the Top 25 weekly, and seeing top flight coaches move around to strange locations after getting fired. I may have beaten USC and Michigan into the ground a bit though...may have artificially created a second user or two to make sure those teams had losing records every year. I thought it was the right thing to do

My experience in NCAA was that over time, unless I edited the CPU rosters to make them better, the cpu teams all just grouped together in mediocrity, the longer you went the less you saw any other program being consistently good year to year.... except for maybe some mid major that completely lapped their conference and went 12-0 every year because they played nobody... but that was really it.... all the P5 conference teams just leveled out.

Yeah, Army definitely rides their independent status to crazy recruiting success, and then beats up on weak independent schedules loaded with games against the generic FCS teams. By year 6, they are in the top-25 every year, and will usually reach the top 10 unless you start scheduling them to beat them down. I don't have to worry about that with Navy, as they got put in the AAC at the very beginning.

It's just strange that they didn't program the game to manage the roster at all in terms of CPU Position Changes. I got to UK, and they had 7 ROLB's that were all in the 80's, but only two MLB's, and both were obviously walk-ons in the 40's. The ROLB's made up the initial CPU depth chart that I inherited, but it's crazy that they couldn't put in a limited roster optimization program of some sort that could change some of those ROLB's into MLB's.

Of course there would be problems and limitations. Like, every CB rates wayyyyyyyyyyy better as a FS for some reason, so the program would probably change all CB's to to FS's at some point, but I'm sure they could have come up with some limitations or something.

 

[ulukinatme]

I'm starting to get bored again, so I might switch to Navy or GT's playbook for a few seasons and see if I can do anything productive with the triple-option lol.

I played around with some Flexbone in my created playbook. I got good at running the Triple Option, used to run it all the time in the early Playstation days of NCAA. It's not as efficient as standard Read Option stuff in my opinion. First of all, you don't get the cut blocking that the academies typically use, so you have to hope you have good linemen that do their job. Second, the computer is smarter than your average college defense...they do a far better job sticking to their assignments and busting up plays. I'm not saying you can't be successful running the Triple Option in '14, but you can't run it nearly as often as the service academies do in real life because the computer becomes increasingly better at defending it because of the way the AI works.

I also approve of your conference realignment moves in your dynasty. That was something I always enjoyed doing to keep things realistic, and something I tried to push Dre (RIP) to do in our dynasty. I think it ended up being a lot of work though, and we always moved so fast through off season stuff.

It's just strange that they didn't program the game to manage the roster at all in terms of CPU Position Changes. I got to UK, and they had 7 ROLB's that were all in the 80's, but only two MLB's, and both were obviously walk-ons in the 40's. The ROLB's made up the initial CPU depth chart that I inherited, but it's crazy that they couldn't put in a limited roster optimization program of some sort that could change some of those ROLB's into MLB's.

Of course there would be problems and limitations. Like, every CB rates wayyyyyyyyyyy better as a FS for some reason, so the program would probably change all CB's to to FS's at some point, but I'm sure they could have come up with some limitations or something.

Yeah, that was something I forgot about. They really are lacking roster optimization. Too often you'll take over a team that has 5 LTs and 1-2 RT with the RTs sucking balls and one of those LT's being an easy replacement. Sometimes over the short term that stuff is fixed via the Depth Chart, sometimes it isn't. Or you'll see the CPU completely forget to recruit at an important position for 3 cycles, not even pursuing a 3 star player to fill the void.

Same here...Also the same with Madden. Everyone goes 8-8 and it's like they don't improve their players (I'd search for guys with a 90 or above and it gets tough after about the 15th year in)

Madden...Madden is a whole 'nother problem when it comes to rosters and roster management. I hadn't played a Madden game in some time and ended up getting last year's game after picking up a PS4 and getting the football itch. I played about 4 seasons, but I'm not sure how much more I'm going to do.

For one, the Draft is completely lopsided at times and makes 0 sense. As an example, in year 3 there were more than 5 DTs projected for Round 1 after evaluating them...which normally wouldn't be a completely crazy development (Aside from it limiting your first round choices at other positions)....BUT 5 OF THEM WERE FROM NEBRASKA! I shit you not. What the hell kind of defense was Nebraska running?! 7-2-2? That can really screw with your draft when a majority of the first round talent is centered at one position. Little things like that made me shake my head, and year in and year out some schools are over represented in a BIG way. In those 4 seasons only two ND players even made it to the draft....and I'm not just talking highly drafted players, I'm talking a total of 2 ND players in the entire draft over the span of 4 years. In comparison Appalachian St. has had 4 times as many players drafted. Is that a bit of a ticky tacky thing? Maybe, but for a guy that likes to pickup ND prospects that does kind of suck...and it gets kind of ridiculous when you've got 35+ Ohio State players in a single draft, the immersion is destroyed. Might as well just leave the schools out of the equation because they mean nothing.

I also agree that teams failing to improve their talent is a big issue. It was interesting to see how many times I built a player up, they tried to negotiate a hefty contract I wasn't willing to pay, and then after getting traded they ended up falling off the face of the earth and regressing quickly. Seems to happen mostly with QBs, especially the older ones. I actually traded to have Quinn as my backup QB on the Browns, starter got knocked out early and then took the Browns to the Super Bowl with Quinn and won. Built him up decently over that year, but ended up having to trade him shortly after because he wanted more money based on his high attribute score. He was in the high 80s/low 90s overall when I dumped him, but he quickly dipped in the year after the trade and ended up cut. Got to wonder why the CPU took the trade to begin with.