Poll of the Day > Pick the game I try to finish next.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Just finished Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS2) -- 7/10 Save file is at 103:19, but it probably took at least 10 hrs more with reloads. Normal difficulty. It said something about me choosing the path of thorns.

I enjoyed it, but there are some things that I could easily see pissing off players, which drags down my score. I would have enjoyed it quite a bit more if not for the boss battles, since they all pretty much ended up playing out the same way, just changing the type of magic to protect against, so they were simply tedious. I liked the devil collecting, leveling, and fusing aspect of the game. I also liked how it was basically a straight up dungeon crawler with very little plot and exposition to get in the way.

The battle system where your, or the enemy, party loses a turn if a character misses had me scratching my head since it doesn't make any logical sense why the other members would be penalized. Same with gaining extra attacks for pulling off criticals or hitting weaknesses. These might make sense in 1-on-1 battles where you could say that you were thrown off by missing, or are staggered by a critical/weakness. The possibility of the devil taking a bunch of money and items when trying to recruit them, only to say something like "Oh, gee, I have an errand to run" and just leaves is stupid and I could see this infuriating people (how many people are actually going to use up one of the limited skill slots for the skill that has a chance of preventing this?). I'm not a fan of having no equipment, and this just ended up making the battles rather boring just watching the hero punch the enemies over and over and over again. For the vast majority of battles, I just put it on Auto Battle. At least the battles go by at a very brisk pace as there aren't any long animations. I also really did not like only having 8 skill slots and permanently losing access to whatever extra skills you learned or could have learned.
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Metal Gear Solid came in 2nd place last poll, so it gets held over.
Super Schwarzschild is in Japanese, so I'll get to have fun playing a strategy game with that language barrier.
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voted mgs 1 but question you played it before? if not thats definitely my answer, as someone who played it way after its initial release i'm always interested in the opinions of others who played it since its become pretty aged, to see how much nostalgia seems to affect those who played it back around its release
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I'd say to try something different so as not to burn yourself out on a particular style of games, so don't play Cosmic Fantasy 2 yet. Assuming you haven't played any of the games in this list, I suggest playing Metal Gear Solid next, and then Cosmic Fantasy 2. After that, go for Crash Bandicoot, and then whatever's next for your Working Designs playthroughs (Exile?).

Even though I preferred Crash Bandicoot over Metal Gear Solid, MGS was still the more popular game (and certainly the more popular series). Beyond that, if Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne didn't have much of a story, then Metal Gear Solid would kind of help to balance that, as the story is one of the driving factors of the game. Crash ends up being much more lighthearted, and the story takes a backseat to the gameplay.

Crash Bandicoot is short. You could knock that off in an afternoon.
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mooreandrew58 posted...

voted mgs 1 but question you played it before?

Beyond testing out my copy for 15 min or so to make sure it worked, I have not played it, or any of them, before.

KLOUDrocks posted...

and then whatever's next for your Working Designs playthroughs (Exile?).

Yes, Exile would be next.
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Mgs1 it is
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Blaqthourne posted...

Beyond testing out my copy for 15 min or so to make sure it worked, I have not played it, or any of them, before.

well if you play and beat it let me know what you think if you remember. its a good game but I swear so many got nostalgia goggles when it comes to that game. not that I can bitch too much lol 3 was my first in the series and its my favorite, but I try to not let that blind me when it comes to shit like polls asking for favorite villain, sniper, gear etc.
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^ I'll post my thoughts in a similar topic if/when I beat it and move to the next game.
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Blaqthourne posted...

^ I'll post my thoughts in a similar topic if/when I beat it and move to the next game.

allright that works. yeah this topic will probably be closed by then now that I think about it. unless you where are a natural and breeze through it. its not a super long game by any means.
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Dude I played MGS1 like 5 yrs ago so no nostalgia besides having the game as a kid and having to sell it back cause my parents didn't realize it had guns and crap when I got it when I was 5 years old. The game was still awesome and one of the most fun gaming experiences I've had.

^ The game has an Mature rating. And if they missed that on the front cover, they must not have looked at the back cover, either.
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Zeven posted...

Dude I played MGS1 like 5 yrs ago so no nostalgia besides having the game as a kid and having to sell it back cause my parents didn't realize it had guns and crap when I got it when I was 5 years old. The game was still awesome and one of the most fun gaming experiences I've had.

oh I still thought it was amazing. just the nostalgia seems strong when I see rex winning best gear polls or which gear would win polls, or hell even whos best sniper cause no way shape in form is it wolf. but yet people still argue she is till their dying breath
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MGS wins.
While I was waiting for a good number of votes, I hooked up my Atari 2600 and did what I'm considering enough to have beaten...
Skiing (2600) -- 7/10 Had clean runs on all 5 slalom courses on both difficulty settings and was happy with my times on the 5 downhill courses on both difficulty settings. I couldn't break the 28.2 second target on mode 3 that the manual says would make you Olympic caliber.

This game is purely about getting better times on the various slopes. There are two types of courses: Slalom, where you have a number of gates to get through; and Downhill, where you just have to avoid trees and moguls, which you can avoid or jump over (the moguls are also on the slalom courses, but you don't have to avoid them there). Having 10 courses and 2 difficulty settings, with modes 5 & 10 being random courses, gives it a nice amount of variety. I like how on the Expert difficulty setting, the course extends beyond the sides of the screen -- this is in addition to having more trees to avoid. With 7 of the 10 modes being rather fast, it does provide a nice challenge on most of the modes.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a crisp picture out of my Atari 2600 on my LCD TV as there was always a band of static across the middle of the screen. What little sound effects there are get the job done, as there is just a shushing sound as you go through gates, a dull thud when you run into a gate/tree/mogul, and a short chirp when you jump.
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